Page 32 - ELG1810 Oct Issue 461

REVIEWS .

CAREER PATHS: JOURNALISM
Charles Moore, Jenny Dooley
ISBN: 978-1-4175-7633-1
Express Publishing 2018
Student’s book, teachers’ manual,
audio CD (DigiBooks mobile phone
and tablet versions available.)

his coursebook is aimed at
professionals and students in
vocational colleges – native speakers
Tas well as English language learners.
It covers everything from being interviewed
for a journalism school through to online
advertising, radio formats, media ethics and
the challenges facing journalism.
My review copy came with a few audio
tracks and a text file of the teacher’s book.
The student’s book is divided into three
sections, each having 15 units of one spread
each.
There’s also a glossary of at least five pages
of journalistic jargon at the end of each
section. Having three manageable sub-
divisions is necessary, because you couldn’t
reading text. Exercises include true or ‘An excellent
possibly learn all that vocabulary in one go,
Each unit opens with questions to prompt
group discussions before a vocabulary-rich
false comprehension, specialist vocabulary
I was able to test some of Journalism’s introduction’
matching to definitions and fill-in-the-
blanks, followed by brief listening, speaking
and writing activities.

units with a class preparing for MA courses
in Media and Public Relations. These went
down very well.
In an early try-out, a single page of Journalist, Matt Salusbury, tries out a new book
exercises stimulated an in-class discussion on English for journalists with his MA Media students
that took up most of a 45-minute lesson.
Students “got” the format very quickly – in
my next road test, the same class whizzed were some Americanisms like “skyboxes” and form, for example.)
through it in less than half that time and “brites” that I’d not heard of in well over a I would also have liked to have seen more
were eager to start on the next unit. decade of UK journalism. self-study material as part of the course. To
Journalism would be an excellent By contrast, much British English journo- get onto a UK journalism course you need
introduction to media terminology, both for speak, of the sort that would trip up non- Ielts of 7 to 7.5 or equivalent. Many non-
trainees and old hacks who’ve perfected their native speakers working in the UK news native speaker journalists feel they have to
craft in their first language and now need industry, is absent. For example, ‘spiked’ keep quiet at work about the fact that their
to do the same in English. It’s suitable for (when a story doesn’t make it to press), English isn’t perfect. So they’re most likely to
workers from the broader media industry – ‘orphans’ (text that leaves too much space in study English for journalism at home alone,
public relations and media studies students, a line) and ‘screamers’ (exclamation marks) through clandestine study.
for example. were all missing. Journalism is suitably global, But so engaging and accessible is the
though, with Qatar’s Al Jazeera and China’s material that it’s a joy to use, with a
So engaging and Xinhua getting a look in. minimum of preparation for any teachers
Non-specialist teachers will need to familiar with the media industry. I always like
accessible is the material prepare carefully to use the book. General textbooks where the answers are so clear you
that it’s a joy to use English language teachers might have don’t have to look them up or check them in
difficulty explaining what ‘metadata tags’ are the teachers’ manual when you’re preparing. I
This textbook fills a clear gap in the – this came up in one vocabulary exercise, was pleased to find that this was one of them.
market. As an editor who has previously and my students were still slightly baffled Recommended.
mentored entry-level journos with English after my long explanation with examples.
as a second language, I would have liked There should also be a health warning with ■ Matt Salusbury has
to have had Journalism on hand to give my the section on ‘Libel and slander’– use of the worked as an EAP
colleagues an occasional unit to go through word ‘allegedly’ in articles will not protect
with me. I know many other editors who you in a libel case heard before the courts of tutor at Brunel
would agree. England and Wales, as one exercise would University, a freelance
The terminology of journalism is, however, seem to suggest. journalist and is
so dense that it’s hard to cover everything in With the emphasis on vocabulary, there an activist with the
one textbook. Co-author Charles Moore is an is no coverage of the strange grammar so National Union
editor on US regional newspapers, so there specific to news reporting (the ‘is to’ future of Journalists
32 October 2018