Literature and Journalism Essay

Ameri backside Heritage Dictionary of English linguistic communication Fourth Edition. New York Houghton 2009. American Heritage New Dictionary of heathen Literacy Third edition New York Houghton Mifflin Co. 2006 Glencoe publications The Readers Choice Columbus Glencoe/McGraw-Hill 2003 Hudson,W. H An Introduction to the Study of Literature. Harrap 1963 Ousby, I. Cambridge Guide to Literature in English Cambridge Cambridge University commove 1996. Hornsby, A. S. Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary of Current English. OUP 2005 MASE noneUNIVERSITY FACULTY ARTS AND SOCIAL SCIENCES.surgical incision LINGUISTICS, LANGUAGES AND LITERATURE UNIT CODE ALI 805 UNIT TITLE LITERATURE AND news media TASK Difference mingled with Literature and Journalism PRESENTED BY JULIE E. OGONYA REG. NO. PG/MA/063/2009 PRESENTED TO DR, KITCHE MAGAK DATE NOVEMBER, 2009. MASENO INTRODUCTION Literature and news media argon 2 genres that ar interrelated and intertwined because writings borrows heavily from news media and news media borrows heavily from belles-lettres as well. Some epochs it gets problematic distinguishing lit from journalism, more so with the emergence of narrative journalism.According to Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary, literature refers to pieces of theme that argon valued as work of art, especi eithery novels, plays and poems (in contrast to technical books and newscompositions, magazines, and so on ). The same dictionary defines journalism as the work of collecting and writing news stories for newspapers, magazines, radio or boob tube. In this paper, an attempt is going to be made to show the disagreements between literature and journalism. Differences between Literature and Journalism.The difference between literature and journalism can be seen from the definitions of the twain genres where literature is defined as pieces of writing that are valued as works of art. Art refers to the use of imagination to express ideas or feelings (Hornby, 2005) . The separate word is imagination. This means that in literature, language is utilise creatively with a lot of imagination in expressing ideas. Literature has been described as a mirror of the society and it reflects the happenings in that society. The reflections more often than non count on the type of the mirror, whether concave or convex.Consequently, literature can gloss truthfulness. Journalism, the work of collecting and writing news stories for newspapers, magazines, radio or television, on the some different hand, is a picture of the society. What we see is what we get since journalism is reportage. Mikkel Hivid has provided some guide parentages on the difference between journalism and literature. In this paper most of the differences used provide be from a paper he presented entitled illustration, Facts and Storytelling and Roy Peter Clarkes essay Between Fact and illustration Navigating Treacherorous Waters.First, Hvid says that the difference between literat ure and journalism is characterized by more than rightful(prenominal) the difference between situation and fabrication. The two genres bed sinfulness antithetical expressions, different criteria for the truth and relevance and different priorities. Journalism must be unfeigned exactly writers of fiction are allowed to lie. In literature, the diction is characterized by the use of literary techniques like imagery, personification, irony, juxtaposition, sarcasm, similes and so on. These are used to sop up the message being communicated to be brought out more effectively.The language or expressions used will depend on the writers place towards the subject with which he will attempt to influence the lector if he hates the subject, he will be sarcastic and the words he uses will be sarcastic or derogatory. This unflattering choice of words is likely to influence the lector to develop a negative attitude towards a subject to a fault. For example, in Achebes book The Trouble with Nigeria, he is strongly convinced that the main problem with the country is poor leadership. He uses really emotive words. He says The trouble with Nigeria is simply and squarely a visitation of leadership.There is cypher basically wrong with the Nigerian character. There is nothing wrong with the Nigerian land or climate or urine or air or anything else. He uses literary techniques like alliteration (simply and squarely), and repetition of the word wrong to create emphasis. Clarke says that literature and journalism have different criteria for the truth. The ethics of journalism indicate that the main distinction between literature and journalism is based on the contents. Journalists must present facts- whether they are using the genre of narrative journalism or any other journalistic genre.Journalists are required to research their stories (Hvid, 2000). Journalism must be on-key whereas writers of literature are allowed to lie. What the journalist writes must be true in the sense that it can be documented by bring up to a named source or actual circumstances. For instance what Barrack Obama wrote in Dreams from My Father is true and can be documented. It is a story approximately(predicate)(predicate) his life the places and even people mentioned in the book are real. Fiction writers invent and make up stories. Literature does not have to be true to any outside reality, Hvid adds.In literature, the setting, characters, events and action are all in the writers imagination in as such(prenominal) as they may reflect reality. Sometimes the setting and characters can be out of this world, for example in stories of fantasy that involves the mention of the supernatural as well as in science fiction. Journalists must research their stories. Writers of fiction are allowed to add, invent and construct their own worlds. In his essay, Roy Peter Clarke lists a range of ethical demands on the narrative journalist. You cannot add anything to your story which was not present in reality.This is because only the truth should be told in journalism. He adds that you cannot write different scenes into one, and you are not allowed to merge a fleck of real characters into one. You must respect the timing of real events. This is in line with the 5ws of journalism of who, what, where, why, when and how. All these must come out distinctly because journalism is fact and not fiction. In fiction, a character or a thing can be an archetype. There can only be one scene of an incident and hence cannot be written into one.He says that finally there is the ethical demand which is perhaps the most primal even if it sounds mainly as a kind of request you must strive to provide as honest and correct an account of the reality of the reality you describe as possible. Literary textual matters can be see in a number of different ways. This is because when different readers read a text, their understanding is not the same and sometimes the writers use may b e missed. For instance, in Jonathan Swifts essay A Modest Proposal, the writer, did not intend his proposal of rearing babies for food to be taken literally.Some of his readers were very outraged at the idea of infanticide and cannibalism. Literature as a form consists of three main components (literary memorial) 1) A body of knowledge 2) A system of investigation 3) A collection of skills and techniques. It likewise consists of four main aspects 1) Creativity 2) Practical criticism 3) Literary history 4) Literary theory. There are different theories used to interpret literature. These components and theories are used by literary analysts to interpret literary texts. In journalism, the text does not necessarily require such effort in interpretation.A message in journalism quite often appears in the low paragraph of the text where the journalist makes the logical conclusion. The message is direct with no room for interpretation. Literature and journalism have different ideas abou t their readers about their readers and what you can demand from them. Journalism presents readers with a complete package they can immediately relate to. For instance, a newspaper headlines simply stating Jealous populace Murders Wife and Loer in Drunken Rage. This does not require any knowledge of literary criticism andtheory to understand that drunken jealous men can easily impinge on their wives.Literature readers, on the other hand, have to interpret and analyse the text to find what it means for them. This is sometimes a next to impossible task as some literary texts abound in symbolism and very abstract ideas that are too difficult to decipher. In journalism it is unacceptable to present readers with such a dilemma as readers have a right to demand a clear message. Relevance of the text is another area of difference in literature and journalism as there are different criteria used to determine relevance in the two genres.We read literature to endure other worlds, lives an d people. For example, David Yallops book In Gods anatomy is an eye opener into the intrigues of the Catholic Church and how a pope was hit because he was a threat to some bishops who were perpetrators of a lot of evil in the church. The relevance of that text comes in when we examine it we find that the murder of Pope really concerned the people at that charactericular time in history and even to date. We read literature to fellowship other worlds, lives, and people. We mirror our own lives in those of the characters we meet in literature.Plato said that literature is a moral force and so the characters in literature with which we liken our own experiences help in building our character since as we equality our own experiences to theirs we gain greater insights into our own lives through what we call experience by. We love the character who is our hero and when that character suffers, we suffer with him and when he triumphs over evil, we celebrate his victory. Every character or happening helps us demand about our own lives. The text is true when it is true and meaningful to us. accuracy and relevance are decided in the meeting between the reader and the text In journalism, we do not read texts in stray to mirror our lives with those we read about. The characters do not necessarily help us learn about our own lives. Sometimes there are no main character with which we identify with. Truth is a condition of journalism and the article must be relevant. Its relevance is seen when it teaches the readers something new and important about the world they live in. When we read a literary text, we become part of the story we take sides, laud or condemn a accompaniment character.In other words, we read literature for experience. As Aristotle recommended, literature provides the reader with a cathartic effect. After experiencing literature, there is purgation of dangerous emotions. On the other hand, we read journalism to take something out of it. This is why jo urnalistic articles are news. We get information from journalism. In literature, stories comprise of two main elements background and action. There is use of description of background that is spiced up with action. In journalism, storytelling is told with three strands.These are background, action and facts as a required component. The journalist may add anecdotes to make his story interesting but the most important ingredient is fact. Lastly, there is the use of what has been referred to as the frame and the content. Creative techniques are used on the frame of the story or in the introduction that leads into the main story whilst the story itself is presented as compendious or direct quotes. Barrack Obamas Dreams from my Father is a typic example of a work where this is used. This is sometimes referred to as the inverted profit .ConclusionIn this paper, the differences between Literature and Journalism have been discussed. It has been know that the differences between literat ure and journalism arise because of many factors like fact or fiction, reality and probability, the relationship between the reader and the text, the roles of journalism and literature and so on. Whereas the two genres are infact different, the reality is that there is a disaster of te two complimenting and supplementing each other since literature borrows from journalism and journalism borrows from literature and this results in a rich mix.