The News Presenter and the Television Audience: a Comparative Perspective of the Use of we and you.

This chapter specifically focuses on news broadcasters from CBS, BBC, RAI Uno, and TG5 and how language and culture determine their relationship with their audiences. This quantitative and qualitative analysis concentrates on the use of the subject forms we and you by news presenters in an attempt to create a professional persona their audiences can identify with. The data from the four subcorpora were presented and discussed. The occurrence of the forms we and you were then counted, categorized and identified, primarily focusing on their use when addressing the audience. Then these forms were subdivided according to whether they could be viewed as inclusive, potentially inclusive, or exclusive of the audience. Moreover, the verbs near the we/you forms were analyzed keeping in mind the categories expounded by Biber (D. Biber et al. 1999, Longman Grammar of Spoken and Written Language, London, Pearson Education Limited) who examined activity, mental and communication verbs. Through this analysis, the different traditions, styles of journalism, and socio-cultural contexts became evident. For example, at CBS the anchor tries to present himself as an objective and detached persona, thus avoiding a close identification with the audience. In contrast, during BBC broadcasts, the television audience identifies with the anchor, as a sort of ‘ratified observer’ (E. Goffman, 1981, Forms of Talk, Philadephia, University of Pennsylvania Press) because most of the pronouns are addressed to a reporter in a live exchange. Interestingly, in the two Italian subcorpora, is quite evident a greater use of the forms we and you to involve the audience, albeit in a different way. On RAI Uno, in particular, the role of the news presenter is that of a coordinator, totally in charge of the program, and the relationship that emerges between the news presenter and his/her audience takes on a didactic stance resembling a teacher-student relationship. TG5 news presenters adopt a didactic approach as well; however, it displays a greater degree of audience involvement via comments and assessments of what was being reported. These different television news styles are a reflection of the broader social and professional contexts to which they belong, as they each reflect a distinct model of journalism related to different cultures.