the ISFC39 Proceedings - International Systemic-Functional ...

to boldly proceed ...3.1.1 …but Steen, we heard of courseThe anchor in 2011 presents, in a number of connections, unscripted items, with appropriatepronunciation, sentence constructions, prosody, and interview control elements. For example,in a live interview with journalist Steen Nørskov he interrupts with a …but Steen… andchanges to a more comradely tone. This fails to get Steen Nørskov to surrender the floor toKlaus Bundgård Povlsen so he follows up very quickly with…but Steen, we heard, of course,that he…eh…actually was…eh…in a fairly weak position. Isn’t it a little fraudulent?.... Inanother item he states,….that one day the history books can tell us that on the first ofFebruary a huge crowd was gathered in Tahir Square….And again, a little later …We Danesare very ready to do more voluntary work than we actually believe…. Here he employscontractions that are unacceptable in the written language.The spoken language has free rein, the anchorman moves around the studio with his cuecardsin his hand, allowing facial expressions with raised eyebrows which reveal empathyand activity; he switches between the quite literal language of his cue-cards while introducinghis guests with light comments such as …now we have you again from Cairo, Steffen…. andlater he adds …what I hear you saying is that it could actually happen that he resigns …. Wehave reached the point that modern Copenhagen speech is accepted on the television news aslong as it sticks fairly closely to the habits and norms from the north eastern areas along theNorth Zeeland east coast.4 Genre and register and autopoiesis in the TV news, 1 February2011The internet has made its entry on the television news. The journalist reports directly via a netconnection of reasonable quality and thus we are no longer dependent on a costly satelliteconnection. Now, it is all about getting a correspondent or others on the spot, which, in thiscase, is Cairo. Several individuals from all over the world can be displayed in their separatescreen segments, so that the tenor, mode, and field in the Eggins model field registerconstantly change balance. As much as possible, reporting of events like the uprising inEgypt is live and the development in the coverage follows its own cycle. First we knownothing and items are ended with, ’See the next transmission at … where we will know somemore’ and again reference will be made to the later programme. The viewers are kept on atight rein and only viewing figures matter. A good television news programme means onewith high viewing figures. High figures prove that the news presenter is good; low figures,that he is less good. Correspondingly, individuals appear and disappear from the screen. Ifviewers zap away when a particular individual appears on the screen then that individual isnot invited to appear again. The autopoiesis of television news has acquired an inbuiltcorrectional factor that would have been inconceivable earlier, because the system wouldotherwise break down.4.1 Writing on the screenThere is still, in 2011, a tension between the written and spoken language in DR’s newsprogrammes. For many years, the written language has had a totally dominant position inDR’s television news. There could be many reasons for this and the scope of this analysisdoes not make it possible to present any certain conclusions. However, through DanskSprognævn (Danish Language Committee), Retskrivningsordbogen (official Danishdictionary) and educational institutions, such as the Danish School of Media and Journalism,the written language has been prioritised and promoted as the norm for the media generally.The language in Copenhagen and North Zeeland’s eastern region has thus acquired a156