Running Head: AN ANALYSIS OF MEDIA USING THE TRANSITIVITY MODEL 1

An Analysis of Media News Coverage Using the Transitivity Model Lateshia G. Pearson Norfolk State University

AN ANALYSIS OF MEDIA USING THE TRANSITIVITY MODEL

The media drives our society. We have access to information about anything that is going on in the world because of the media. This access makes information easily attainable and it enables us to not have to be present at an event to know that it happened or to know the details of the event. The downside to having this luxury better known as the media, is that the media is capable of controlling what we know as well as how we know it. What I mean is, the media is able to report information, but the way in which that information is reported can highlight whatever aspect of the event that the media wants to be at the forefront. This technique forms from a model known as the transitivity model. Annabelle Mooney describes Simpsons transitivity analysis in Language, Society and Power 3rd edition. Transitivity usually relates to whether or not a verb needs to take a direct object...Thus, transitivity analysis is concerned with who does what to whom (Mooney, 2011 p. 39). In other words, the transitivity model deals with word order of a sentence also known as the syntagmatic axis as well as the paradigmatic axis meaning all the other words that could have been used instead (Mooney, 2011 p. 38). The first thing that catches a readers eyes when reading the newspaper, or checking online new sites or using any other source of media, is the headline of the article. Whatever the headline of the article says is going to be what sparks the curiosity of the reader and make them want to read more about the event. In 2006, a former Russian spy was poisoned with radioactive polonium while drinking tea in London with other Russian men. His family believes that he was ordered to be killed by the Kremlin (BBC News UK, 2013). Numerous papers covered the story, but no two had the exact same headline for the story. Linguistic diversity, an aspect of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, plays a major

AN ANALYSIS OF MEDIA USING THE TRANSITIVITY MODEL

role in how writers choose to present different stories. Linguistic diversity is given the following description: Because of the arbitrary relationship between signifier and signified, and because signs take their meaning from their relationship to other signs, there is no single way for languages to describe reality (Mooney, 2011). There is more than one way to describe reality and there are numerous words to achieve this. Depending on the background of the person describing the reality, the way in which language is used will be different. Take for instance these three headlines on Alexander Litvinenko: Litvinenko public inquiry blocked by government (BBC News UK, 2013), Alexander Litvinenko public inquiry refused (Coventry Telegraph, 2013), and UK declines to hold public inquiry into Litvinenko death (Wall Street Journal, 2013). Each of these headlines is talking about the same topic about the same man and they even all have the same picture of Litvinenko posted to their articles. The difference between each headline lies in a part of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis known as linguistic relativism. Language influences the way we think. Linguistic relativism explores the habits of thought that language produces. (Mooney, 2011 p. 33) The headlines have used linguistic relativism to influence the direction of the audiences thinking. BBC News UKs headline puts the government at the forefront for not wanting public inquiry of Litvinenkos death while the Coventry telegraph uses agent deletion and just headlines the refusal of Alexander Livinenkos public inquiry and the Wall Street Journal goes right in and states who is doing what to whom. All of these are different angles of telling putting someone as the person to blame in the situation. Depending on the register of the audience, whether or not they have any background knowledge on the situation, each headline will pull in a different person for a different reason.

AN ANALYSIS OF MEDIA USING THE TRANSITIVITY MODEL

What this analysis goes to show is that the media can take the exact same story and have the exact same details, but the way in which the story is presented, being the way language is used, can influence the way that the audience is going to view the situations. If the first impression of the article is that the government has something to hide, then the reader is going to start off reading the article suspecting that the government played a role in a situation that it did not want the public to know any details. Persuasion is not so much the goal in this case, but influencing the direction of thought is what writers are striving to do. There are numerous ways to describe an event and the media uses that to their advantage through transitivity.

AN ANALYSIS OF MEDIA USING THE TRANSITIVITY MODEL References

Mooney, A. (2011). Language thought and representation. Language society and power (pp. 24-45). New York: Routledge Welton, B. (2013, July 12). Alexander Litvinenko public inquiry refused. Coventry Telegraph. Retrieved from http://www.coventrytelegraph.net/news/uk-worldnews/alexander-litvinenko-public-inquiry-refused-5073987 Whalen, J. (2013, July 12). U.K declines to hold public inquiry into Litvinenko death. Wall Street Journal. Retrieved from http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324879504578601351598278228.html Litvinenko public inquiry blocked by government. BBC News UK. (2013, July 12). Retrieved from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-23287072