Unit 3 - True Enough

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Unit 3 - True Enough

Cover to cover

After Life is the most watched British comedy in the world. It was created, written, produced and directed by Ricky Gervais, who plays lead character Tony. Set in the fictional town of Tambury, After Life follows Tony, whose life is turned upside down after his wife dies from breast cancer. He works as the head of feature stories* at the Tambury Gazette.

A feature story is a factual story that is not hard news but is instead a more personal report about a person or event.

What exactly does Tony Johnson do as head of feature stories?

What is the first extract about? Answer in a full sentence.

What is the second extract about? Answer in a full sentence.

What is the third extract about? Answer in a full sentence.

What type of newspaper, do you think is the Tambury Gazette?

1. a high-level newspaper like the Times
2. a nationwide tabloid like the Sun
3. a local newspaper
4. an online newspaper

What is most important to make a story newsworthy in your opinion?

a tsunami in India

your neighbour’s cat that was hit by a car

a politician who is caught for drunk driving

the opening of a new restaurant

the price of petrol going up

What is most important to make a story newsworthy in your opinion?

If it is relevant to the audience's interests

Recent or unfolding events

Stories with elements of conflict, controversy

A story that affects or has the potential to impact individuals

How do you inform yourself about what is going on in your region, the world?

Do you read a newspaper from time to time (both online or on paper, even partially)

yes, quite often

yes, but very rarely

no, never

start 5OBE 19/1

Pair work (p.93)

Study the nine covers of well-known British newspapers.

• Compare the size of the headlines.

• Compare the amount of text on the covers.

• Compare the content suggested by the headlines and the photos.

Write down some key differences. E.g. compare Daily Mail to the Daily Telegraph or the SUN to the Financial Times. 

Report to class about the differences.

start APDA/BEO

Key differences (ex. 1.1 p.93)

1. On the front pages of The Daily Mail, The Sun, The Daily Mirror and The Sunday Mirror large headlines and the photographs take up most of the space. The front pages of the other newspapers contain more articles with actual text.
2. The Daily Mail, The Sun, The Daily Mirror and The Sunday Mirror focus on celebrities, human interest and sensational stories, whilst the other five newspapers focus on political or economical news.

In your own words, what's the difference between both types of newspapers?

Reading exercise 3 (p.94)

Complete the text with the following words:

broadsheet – compact – edition – front page – gutter press – political – popular press - quality press – scandal – tabloid

Traditionally, UK newspapers can be split into more seriousminded newspapers, usually referred to as broadsheets (1) due to their large size pages and known collectively as the quality press (2), and less serious newspapers, generally known as tabloids (3), smaller in size, and easier to handle while travelling by Tube. People also call them the popular press(4). Broadsheets offer more in-depth coverage of stories as well as articles about business, political(5) matters or overseas news. Some of the broadsheets have changed in recent years to a more compact (6) size, but despite these format changes, they are still called broadsheets.

Tabloids tend to focus more on celebrity news, including all kinds of scandals (7) and human-interest stories. The front page (8) of these newspapers is usually covered with large photographs and eye-catching headlines. Tabloids are also known as the gutter press (9) by people who wish to qualify them in a negative manner. Many daily newspapers also have Sunday editions (10), usually with a related name.

Exercise 4 (p.95)

Make a schematic about the differences between broadsheets and tabloids. Base your schematic on the information in ex 3 and on the different newspapers from ex 1.

Correction

The different features of a newspaper (p.95)

a headline

1

a byline

2

a photograph

3

a caption

4

a graph

5

a map

6

a table

7

a quote

8

a paragraph

9

OBE - START 1/2

Exercise 7 (p.96)

Read the text about The Independent, a well-known British newspaper, and translate the words in brackets. All words were used in the previous exercises.

The Independent began as a... (krant in groot formaat) (1), but changed to a … (compacter) (2) format in 2003. That doesn’t mean it features the same topics as the … (kranten in kleiner formaat) (3) or … (de populaire pers) (4). The Independent stays away from news about … (schandalen) (5) or celebrities. The last printed paper was published in 2016, leaving only the online … (uitgave) (6). And although it is a member of … (de kwaliteitspers) (7), The Independent has become known for its unorthodox … (voorpagina’s) (8), which frequently rely on

… (foto’s) (9), … (grafieken) (10), … (tabellen) (11) or … (kaarten) (12), rather than traditional … (krantenkoppen) (13) and written news content.

At the moment some journalists are writing a lead article about the role … (de rioolpers) (14) and their social media accounts play in spreading … (politieke) (15) conspiracy theories. The article needs to contain between 850 and 880 words, excluding the titles and … (naamsvermelding) (16). There must be six … (alinea’s) (17) and four pictures with … (onderschriften) (18). To finish it off, some eye-catching … (citaten) (19) will be placed strategically on the page.

The Independent began as a broadsheet (krant in groot formaat) (1), but changed to a more compact (compacter) (2) format in 2003. That doesn’t mean it features the same topics as the tabloids (kranten in kleiner formaat) (3) or popular press (de populaire pers) (4). The Independent stays away from news about scandals (schandalen) (5) or celebrities. The last printed paper was published in 2016, leaving only the online  edition(uitgave) (6). And although it is a member of the quality press (de kwaliteitspers) (7), The Independent has become known for its unorthodox front pages (voorpagina’s) (8), which frequently rely on

photographs (foto’s) (9), graphs (grafieken) (10), tables (tabellen) (11) or maps (kaarten) (12), rather than traditional headlines (krantenkoppen) (13) and written news content. At the moment some journalists are writing a lead article about the role the gutter press (de rioolpers) (14) and their social media accounts play in spreading political (politieke) (15) conspiracy theories. The article needs to contain between 850 and 880 words, excluding the titles and byline (naamsvermelding) (16). There must be six paragraphs (alinea’s) (17) and four pictures with bylines (onderschriften) (18). To finish it off, some eye-catching quotes (19) will be placed strategically on the page.

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Bookwidget vocabulary: cover to cover

Watching exercise - pair work

Watch, listen and answer the questions...

00:43

He talked about British newspapers in a sarcastic way. But what exactly is sarcasm?

1. intentional exaggeration, not intended to be taken literally
2. speech or writing which actually means the opposite of what it seems to say
3. a figure of speech in which two unrelated things are compared

00:46

Listen to the rest of the song

Listen to the rest of the song while reading the lyrics on p. 98. Afterwards answer the questions

04:45

Have another look at the lyrics on p.98.

Highlight some examples of sarcasm in the lyrics.

04:45

Is the singer a fan of the Sunday papers? Why (not)?

00:43

What did he do with it? Answer in a full sentence.

00:43

What kind of newspaper did Joe Jackson bring on stage?

1. a broadsheet
2. a tabloid

Read an extract from the novel Russell Wiley is Out to Lunch by Richard Hine. (p.99-100)

Richard Hine is an American novelist, short story writer, ghostwriter and five-time finalist (two-time winner) in the New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest. "Russell Wiley is Out to Lunch" (2010) is his debut novel.

The story is told in the first person by Russell Wiley, working as the sales development director on the Daily Business Chronicle, a New York-based publication, which has recently been incorporated by the Ghosh — “pronounced ‘gauche’, never ‘gosh’” — Corporation. Russell’s role involves helping the paper’s salespeople sell more advertising pages.

The novel is a behind-the-scenes look at a newspaper firm. The main character shows us how a small newspaper has trouble competing with news sites and different types of new (digital) media.

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BW: Questions on the novel

Unit 3 - True Enough

True or false?

start APDABEO 2/2

Class

2.2 Paul is dead (p.105)

Who is ‘Paul’? And who are the ‘Fab Four’?

‘Paul’ is Paul McCartney, one of the four band members of The Beatles, also called ‘the Fab Four’.

What is obviously wrong here?

Paul McCartney is still alive and even performing (at the time of writing).

1967 ed. of The SUN

2023 ed. of The Guardian

Do you know any similar stories which are told about pop stars?

Similar stories are that Avril Lavigne was replaced by a doppelganger called Melissa and that Eminem was replaced by a clone. Other conspiracy theories claim that Tupac Shakur, Michael Jackson and Elvis Presley faked their own death and are still alive.

P.I.D.

‘Paul is dead’ is a story that has been told since 1966.

You are curious about the origins of this story. Watch the video (2x)

and answer the questions in the BW.

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P.I.D. (group work)

After watching the video again, each group has to explain which clues fans found on one of the following album covers.

What do the three main comments have in common?

Do you consider their arguments convincing? Why (not)?

Yes, I find them totally convincing.

I'm not quite convinced, but they could be truthful

No, I don't believe a word

Their arguments sound convincing, but still I don't believe them

Evaluation time

L.C. 'I used to believe in conspiracy theories'

Smartschool/English test file/5DF-U3-LC1

to do APDA/BEO/OBE after holiday (BZW)