PERSUASIVE
LANGUAGE
in Media Texts
Iris Breuer & Melanie Napthine
with Rosemary O’Shea
© Insight Publications
Copyright © Insight Publications
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National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication data:
Author:
Breuer, Iris.
Title:
Persuasive language in media texts /
Iris Breuer, Melanie Napthine, Rosemary O’Shea.
ISBN:
9781921088766
Notes:
Includes index.
Target Audience: For secondary school age.
Subjects:
English language–Textbooks.
Mass media and language.
Persuasion (Rhetoric).
Other Authors/Contributors:
Napthine, Melanie.
O’Shea, Rosemary.
Dewey Number: 808.042
Internal design & DTP: Bec Yule @ Red Chilli Design
Cover design concept: Saren Milner
Editing: Robert Beardwood, Iris Breuer
Printed in Australia by Hyde Park Press
© Insight Publications
Contents
1 Using language to persuade
1
Introducing the key terms
How ads persuade
Analysing persuasive language
1
2
4
2 Newspapers: print & online
6
What’s in the news?
Keeping up circulation
Tabloids and broadsheets
Moral panic
Newspaper sections
Producing the news
Getting the news
Bias in the news
Constructing newspaper articles
Studying language use: words of war
Newspaper text types
3 Reading newspaper texts
Front-page stories
Headlines
News reports
Feature articles
Opinion articles
Letters to the editor
Editorials
Photographs
Charts, graphs & tables
Cartoons
Summary: newspaper text types
4 Television, radio & internet
Television news
Television current affairs
Talkback radio
Issues on the internet
5 Studying an issue
What is an issue?
Sample issue: GM food
Research your own issue
Sample issue: P-plate driver
restrictions
7
8
9
9
10
11
11
12
13
14
16
17
17
23
25
27
30
33
35
38
40
43
45
6 Analysing persuasive
language
How to analyse persuasive language
Overview of persuasive devices
Persuasive techniques in detail
7 Writing language analysis
70
70
74
78
97
Language analysis: a 4-step process 97
Model for writing language analysis
99
Sample student analysis
101
Language analysis of a cartoon
102
Model for writing on three media texts104
Sample analysis of three media texts 108
Vocabulary for language analysis
110
Activities to practise language analysis112
8 Presenting a point of view
115
Persuasive writing and speaking
Speeches
Sample student answers
115
119
122
9 Language analysis exam
practice
132
English exam guidelines
Sample English exam task
English sample answers
ESL exam guidelines
Sample ESL exam task
ESL sample answers
Practice exam scenarios
132
133
135
138
138
139
142
46
About the writers
146
46
52
54
55
Acknowledgements
146
Index
147
59
59
62
62
64
© Insight Publications
In this chapter
l
l
l
l
1
using language
to persuade
Key terms
How ads persuade using
AIDA
Analyse persuasive
language: a 3-step
approach
What does ‘position the
reader’ mean?
Introducing the key terms
Can you think of a time when you have tried to convince someone of your point of view?
Perhaps you have argued with your parents about attending a party, or debated the merits of
a particular pop star with a friend. Whether or not you realised it, you would have been using
persuasive techniques to make your case. You would also have been taking into account two
important elements of any persuasive language – audience and purpose.
Whenever a writer or speaker in the media – in a newspaper, on the radio or television, on the
internet – presents a point of view, they too use a range of techniques to convince readers or
listeners to agree with them. There are four main factors that the writer or speaker has to take
into account: audience, purpose, form and language (including images).
Language
Audience
How do words and
images influence me?
e.g. by using a forceful tone?
colourful language? striking
images?
Who are they writing for?
e.g. a wide audience? specialist
readers? people affected by
the issue?
Writer or speaker
persuading
someone
Form
Purpose
Why are they writing?
e.g. to make me agree?
take action? think more
carefully?
What is the media form
and text type?
e.g. newspaper editorial, television
news story, online discussion?
What are its special features?
using language to persuade
© Insight Publications
1
How ads persuade
To understand the role of purpose, audience and form in the art of using language persuasively,
let’s take a look at a very obvious form of persuasion at work, an advertisement. The purpose of
most advertisements is to get you, the consumer, to buy something. Advertisements target specific
demographics or audiences. Their use of persuasive language – both words and images – has to be
matched to their purpose and audience, otherwise the ad will lack impact and effectiveness.
Copywriters use a formula, summarised in the acronym AIDA, to construct their ads:
A – Attention. The first job of any advertisement is to gain your attention. This might be achieved
by the use of bold colours, an arresting image or an intriguing phrase.
I – Interest. The ad needs to hold your interest long enough to tell you about its product or service.
This might be done, for example, through the visual appeal of the ad, through asking questions or
through creating suspense. Humour or surprise can also grab and hold the reader’s interest.
D – Desire. Positive associations of words and images make the product seem attractive – but
the reader also needs to be convinced that owning the product will improve or enhance their life.
Emotional appeals are commonly used to provoke desire, as in an ad for insurance that urges you to
‘secure your family’s future’, which is an appeal to the desire to ensure the security of those closest
to you.
A – Action. The advertisement must prompt the audience to take action and buy the product. Often
this is done by creating a sense of urgency by the use of phrases such as ‘Pick up the phone today!’
and ‘Free gift for the first 100 callers’.
See the example opposite showing how the elements of the AIDA formula can be identified. Also see
the full-colour version C1 in the colour insert pages. How much does colour contribute to the impact
and effectiveness of the advertisement?
Activity 1
Analyse an advertisement
The Garnier ‘Surf Spray’ ad opposite (C1 in the colour pages) is directed at girls and young women.
Now take a look at another Garnier ad, C2 in the colour insert, for ‘Hard Gel’, a product aimed at
young men.
1. Compare the ways in which the girl and the boy are represented in the advertisements. What
differences do you notice? Why do you think they are represented differently?
2. What differences do you notice in the types of appeals made to young women and men? Think
about such features as the use of colour and images, and the associations of key words.
3. How does the ad opposite initially capture your attention (‘A’ for attention)?
4. How does it keep your interest (‘I’ for interest)?
5. What desire is it endeavouring to stimulate (‘D’ for desire)? What emotion or emotions is the
ad trying to provoke?
6. How does it persuade the reader to take action (‘A’ for action)? How effective is it in
achieving its purpose?
2
Insight persuasive language in media texts
© Insight Publications
Attention is captured by:
• image of attractive young woman
with surfboard
• alliteration (‘surf spray’) and rhyme
(‘spray’ and ‘day’)
• strong heading and bold colours
Interest is held by:
• capital letters and the pink
background and angled appearance
of ‘unleash your style!’ draw the
reader into the description of the
product
• direct address to the reader (‘Want a
beach style look?’)
Desire is aroused by:
• description ‘with fruit
micro-wax technology’ appeals to
the viewer’s desire for a product
that is both natural and scientifically
researched
• invitation to ‘unleash your style’
promises transformation and
personal freedom
• image of the young woman whose
attractiveness the (female) viewer is
encouraged to want to imitate
Action is prompted by:
• instructions for achieving ‘beach
style’ hair
• Garnier slogan ‘Take care’
Activity 2
Create your own advertisement
Design your own advertisement, using the acronym AIDA.
1. Explain what techniques you use for each of the four principles. Remember to keep your
specific audience in mind; an ad for a new iPod would have a different target market from that
for a cleaning product, for instance. This will affect your decisions about what sort of language
to use (formal or informal), what emotion you would like to invoke (for example, envy, hope or
fear) and what image or images you use.
2. Share your ads with the class. Which ones were particularly effective? Why?
using language to persuade
© Insight Publications
3
Analysing persuasive language
Advertisements are an example of a form in which persuasive language is usually quite obvious.
There is nothing understated about an instruction to ‘Buy now!’ for example. But language can be
used persuasively in all media forms, often in much more subtle ways. So how do we recognise
persuasive language at work? This section outlines the basic knowledge and skills you need to
understand how language is used to persuade.
Three-step approach
There are three basic steps to understanding how persuasive language works.
Step 1: Identify the main point (the main contention).
Look for the central message or viewpoint on the issue – this is what the writer is
persuading you to accept.
State the main contention in your own words in a single sentence.
(See ‘Main contention’, p.71.)
Step 2: Focus on the language.
Take an overview of the language – is it formal? Sophisticated? Is it informal or colloquial
– like everyday speech? (See ‘Style’, p.73.)
Look for emotive words – words that trigger your feelings. How do they make you feel?
Next, see if you can work out how you are ‘set up’ to respond in certain ways. For
example, are you made to feel sympathetic to a person or group? Or to feel opposed to
an idea? This is called positioning the reader and is discussed in detail below.
What is the tone of the piece? That is, how would it sound if you read it aloud? Would
it be said in a disgusted way? A light-hearted, jocular way? Sarcastically or ironically?
Calmly? In a controlled and reasoned way? (See ‘Tone’, p.71.)
Step 3: Analyse how the language positions you.
Find as many examples as you can of words or phrases that influence you to accept the
writer’s viewpoint. (See ‘Overview of persuasive devices’, pp.74–8.)
‘Analyse’ means ‘work out how’ the writer has used a situation, words or images to
make you respond in a particular way.
What does ‘position the reader’ mean?
Writers aiming to persuade you to accept their viewpoint have to deliberately get you to
‘come on side’. This can be done heavy-handedly or subtly or in myriad ways in between. Writers
have to position you to agree with them – to share their point of view. This means that they use
language, stories, evidence and arguments to manipulate your responses.
The aim is to create a particular effect on you, which means that your emotions are targeted as
well as your use of logic and reason. For example, a personal anecdote might cause you to feel
sympathetic towards the writer, and therefore to be more inclined to agree with their point of view.
Or the writer might use strong language to attack opponents, positioning you to share the writer’s
rejection of alternative viewpoints.
If you can see how readers are being positioned, then you will be well on your way to understanding
how language is used to persuade.
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Insight persuasive language in media texts
© Insight Publications
Vocabulary for ‘position’
It is important to develop a good vocabulary for discussing language use. Here are some words that
you can use when you examine how writers are positioning readers. The varied vocabulary shows
you the kinds of ways in which persuasive writing can operate – and this is not a complete list by
any means!
Sentence
Alternative words for ‘position’ and ‘see’
This (give example) positions …
sets up / prepares / predisposes / influences / sways /
inclines / persuades / convinces / compels / manipulates /
coerces / pressures …
the reader to see …
consider / agree / accept / think / respond / believe /
understand / like / feel sympathy for / realise / disagree /
reject / fear / dislike / distrust / lose sympathy for /
lose patience with …
Activity 3
Key words and positioning the reader
Graffiti vandals are a plague on the inner
city, skulking in alleyways, armed with spray
cans, destroying some of our most treasured
landmarks with their unsightly scribbles. Their
flagrant disregard for both public and private
property sees them scrawl all over buildings,
trains, houses and streets. Clearly, existing
laws are no deterrent since these delinquents
return like pests to a picnic. It’s time we
started taking seriously the millions of dollars
worth of damage they wreak each year. Forcing them to clean up their own messes would
be a good start, but for incorrigible offenders,
jail time is the only way to show that we as a
society will no longer tolerate their wanton
destruction of our city.
Bold and original, they are the unsung
artists of the city, enlivening our alleys and
decorating our tunnels with their inventive
designs. They are graffiti artists, who neither
demand nor receive money or fame for their
contributions to the brightening of our urban
landscape. The proposal to imprison anyone
caught adding colour and originality to our
concrete jungle would be laughable, were it
not so sad. Far from punishing, we ought to
be thanking these anonymous contributors
to our city’s uniquely vibrant character. If
they were offered places they could paint
legally, I’ve no doubt any problems with the
occasional foray onto private property would
vanish.
Les Hooper, Sale
Frida Carroll, North Melbourne
1. Find all the words that refer to graffiti or graffiti artists. Make two columns, one for positive
references and one for negative.
2. How would the words in the first column position the reader to respond to graffitists? What
about the words in the second column? Discuss some examples in detail.
3. What emotions are evoked by the words in the first column? What about those in the second
column?
4. How does Les Hooper’s letter position the reader to reject graffiti artists?
5. How does Frida Carroll’s letter position the reader to sympathise with graffiti artists?
using language to persuade
© Insight Publications
5
newspapers
print & online
2
In this chapter
l
Print and online versions
l
Keeping up circulation
l
Tabloids and broadsheets
l
Newspaper sections &
text types
l
Producing the news
l
Getting the news
l
Bias in the news
l
l
Constructing newspaper
articles
Studying language use –
words of war
Traditional newspapers remain a primary source of information about news and current events.
They are still sold daily, and once printed do not change. However, most major newspapers are now
also on the internet. Online versions of newspapers differ from their paper counterparts in several
important ways that affect how news is presented and how it is received by readers.
Print
Online
Content is fixed after it is printed.
Content changes throughout the day.
May use attention-grabbing illustrations and
photographs.
In addition to still images, may have video news
stories and slideshows.
Have several supplementary sections which
vary according to the day of the week, e.g.
television guides, lifestyle magazines, cooking
lift-outs, car magazines.
Do not usually have the supplementary sections of the
paper available.
Articles usually appear in full directly under
their headlines, although some stories are
concluded on a later page of the paper.
Articles are indicated on the homepage by their
headlines which readers must click on to see the full
article.
Often provide alternative extra content, e.g. blogs
from regular writers; forums for readers to discuss
issues; a search function for finding articles on a
specific subject.
Articles online are sometimes shortened versions of
their paper equivalents.
6
Insight persuasive language in media texts
© Insight Publications
Activity 1
Print versus online newspapers
1. Select a newspaper which has an online version and compare its front page (print) with its
homepage (online). What differences can you see? Consider such things as the layout of the
page or screen, the major stories that appear in each version and the way in which you read
them. Were you drawn to different content in each version? If so, why?
2. Find two articles which appear in both the print and the online versions of the paper. Are they
identical? If not, discuss the differences between the two versions, and why they might not be
the same.
3. Make a list of some of the advantages and disadvantages of each form of news delivery.
4. Do you think the audiences are the same for print and online newspapers? Give reasons for
your answer.
What’s in the news?
Despite their differences, both print and online newspapers share the same purpose: to deliver the
news of the day to as many people as possible. Millions of events are happening every day all over
the world. Have you ever wondered how newspapers select their news stories each day? What kinds
of questions are used to decide what gets in the paper and what gets left out? Here are some:
Is it outrageous?
Is it unexpected?
Is it scary?
Can it be photographed?
Would the readers find it interesting?
Might it have an impact on the readers’ lives?
Sources of newspaper income
Would it make the readers cry?
Would it give the readers a laugh?
Would it SELL the paper?
The reality is NEWSPAPERS ARE BIG BUSINESS. This means that
the aim of newspaper companies is to maximise profit by selling as
many newspapers as possible or, in the case of online newspapers,
by getting as many hits to their website as possible. Readership, in
the case of print newspapers, is referred to as ‘circulation’. The reason that circulation is so important
is because the larger the number of readers, the higher the price the newspaper can charge for daily
advertising space in the paper.
You might be surprised to learn that, for print newspapers, only one-third of the income generated
comes from sales – the other two-thirds comes from advertising. What does this mean? Basically,
that newspapers are at least as interested in pleasing their advertising clients as they are in providing
information to their readers.
newspapers print and online
© Insight Publications
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