JOURNALESE.

 A general, usually non-technical term for the way in which journalists write (and
speak), or are thought to write (and speak). It is used both neutrally (referring to newspaperSTYLE at
large) and more often pejoratively (implying that such a style is stereotyped, vulgar, and inclined to
debase the language). The Random House Dictionary (1987) defines journalese as: ‘(1) a manner of
writing or speaking characterized by CLICHÉS, occasional NEOLOGISM, archness, sensationalizing
adjectives, unusual or faulty syntax, etc., used by some journalists, esp. certain columnists, and regarded
as typical journalistic style; (2) writing or expression in this manner: Get that journalese out of your
copy! … That word's not English—it's journalese.’

The characteristics of journalese arise from the nature of newspapers: ephemeral sheets of paper printed
and published to strict deadlines, kept resolutely up-to-the-minute, and designed to attract and stimulate
readers whose attention spans, for various reasons, are likely to be short. The profession and the public
share a certain cynicism about how this is done:
The late Nicholas Tomalin, one of the Sunday Times's top reporters, named the three prime qualities for
success some years ago. They were, he said, a ratlike cunning, a certain plausibility and a little literary
ability. That's still true. I studied English and Drama at university. The drama techniques have probably
been of far greater use(

Liz Gill

, ‘Journalese: The Inside Story’, English Today 11, July 1987).

Technique
Working to a deadline and rendering complex issues into reports of the right length and style produce
their own structures, shortcuts, and standards of excellence. When a story is too long for the space
available, it is cut, usually from the bottom up. Because of this and the need to get the main points quickly
to the browsing reader, reporters pack these points into the first paragraphs. If there is a picture, then the
story may be little more than a caption to that picture; when the story is unaccompanied, it stands or falls
by its opening statement: the introduction or intro. The first sentence is often the most difficult to write.
There is a technique known as thedropped intro, in which the key statement is delayed for several
paragraphs and comes as a punch line, but the danger of delay is that many readers will not persevere far
enough to enjoy it. More time can be spent on the intro than on any other part of the article.

Stock expressions
Stories also use colour: striking words or graphic details that attract interest, such as White-haired granny
Mrs X was yesterday found savagely beaten … Such a style may be praised for its terseness or deplored
because it is cliché-ridden and inelegant. It is, however, as deliberate in its own way and for its own
purposes as Homer's use of phrases like grey-eyed Athene or cloud-gathering Zeus. It provides ways in
which people can be recognized and pigeon-holed. The list ofSTOCK phrases includes: bored
housewife, devout Catholic, distinguished surgeon, grieving widow. Comparably, especially in articles
that strive for HUMOUR, words are used that relate to the characters or the occupations of the people
concerned: when they face problems, teachers getcaned, cooks are browned off, doctors might
be sickened, butchers might be beefing about something, or giving it the chop.

Clichés
Many clichés and hackneyed expressions derive from or are favoured in newspaper writing, especially in
relation to groups that can be stereotyped: the ivory tower (for the academic world: often concrete and
plate glass), the rat race (competitive business), the party faithful (for loyal workers and voters for a
political party), mecca (for any location attracting a particular group, other than for religious purposes, as
in fabulous, surfing mecca).

Events and actions can be dressed with emotive and romantic words that add colour and are easily slotted
into a report: such nouns as burden, disaster, dream, fantasy, glamour, horror,nightmare, terror; such
adjectives as amazing, bizarre, cataclysmic, devastating, heart-stopping,heart-
warming, horrendous, moving, outrageous, scandalous, shattering, staggering. Close to such stock words
are EUPHEMISMS like confirmed bachelor (a homosexual man), constant companion (a lover), fun-
loving (of a woman: sexually free-and-easy), good-time girl, party girl (a prostitute). Certain syntactic
forms also occur so regularly as to be clichés: amid mounting (Amid mounting calls for his resignation, X
has decided to tough it out), appositional many (mothers, many with children in their arms), that was
once (standing in the ruin that was once central Beirut).

Special uses of words

Because they must be concise and make an immediate impact, journalists often use words in novel ways:
(1) CONVERSIONS. Nouns are often put to use as verbs. Many of the first recorded instances of such
changes have occurred in newspapers, especially in the US: to interview,engineer, boom, boost, surge.
(2) ATTRIBUTIVES. The use of nouns to qualify other nouns: death as in death car, death ride, death
ship; top as in top politician, top referee, top team; rescue as in rescue worker, rescue party, rescue team.
(3) REDUPLICATIONS. Such coinages often rhyme, lodge easily in the memory, and sometimes
become catch-phrases: the jet set (the leisured class which travels frequently); the brain drain (exodus of
academics), culture vulture (someone who indiscriminately ‘consumes’ culture). (4) ARCHAISMS.
Because they are short or perceived as popular, certain archaic words survive in newspaper
usage: agog, foe, hustings, scribe, slay. (5)NEOLOGISMS. Journalists employ a variety of nonce and
stunt forms, some of which are accepted in the language at large: new-look, see-
through, lookalike, lensman, weatherman, vocalist. (6) Kinds of MODIFICATION. Word combination
often leads to strings of adjectives and attributive nouns, a style that began in Time magazine in the
1920s, with the aim of providing impact and ‘colour’. They may be relatively short (London-born disc
jockey Ray Golding …) or long enough to become self-parodies, either pre-modifying a name (silver-
haired, paunchy lothario, Francesco Tebaldi …) or post-modifying it (Zsa Zsa Gabor, seventyish, eight-
times-married,Hungarian-born celebrity …).

Immediacy of style
(1) Short VERNACULAR words. Because of the need for conciseness and impact, journalists favour
monosyllables and disyllables: poll for ‘election’; blast for ‘explosion’; jobless for
‘unemployed’; homeless for ‘destitute’. (2) Emotive and inflated expressions. The urge to promote
excitement leads, especially in headlines, to such emotive and often inflated usage as:fever for
‘excitement’ (World Cup fever grips Barcelona); rage or fury for ‘anger’ (Fury over Poll
Tax);stricken or crippled for ‘disabled’ (stricken tanker adrift in Med); glory for any sporting
achievement (glory day for Tottenham); storm and row for ‘controversy’ (storm over price-hikes; Cabinet
row over inflation). (3) Quasi-illiterate usages. For effect, some writers and publications, especially
inBritain, favour eye dialect that suggests solidarity among
philistines: gonna, loadsamoney,showbiz, whodunnit, dontcha, wanna, wotalotigot. (4) Innuendo.
Especially in the tabloids, hints that are more or less explicitly muscular or sexual innuendo are often
employed, especially as metaphors: firm, harden, spurt, spill over, selling climax. (5) Allusive punning.
There appears to be a general increase in the use of a kind of punning allusion traditionally acceptable in
US journalism but avoided in Britain: ‘TV or Not TV’ (The Times, 16 Oct. 1989); ‘Know Your Rites’,
‘Heirs and Graces’ (The Listener, 16 June 1988); ‘Drapes of things to come’, ‘A test of skull on the
Thames’ (The Times, 26 July 1988).