Anna Pladevall

15/01/2018
HOW TO KEEP WRITING IN MEDIA WORLD:

I have started this degree with the expectation of developing my writing skills and becoming a
journalist. I always liked to write. Maybe, I should have studied philology, but I was attracted
also by the mysteries of media world. It was about how communication works in society.
Nowadays, we can appreciate the importance of new gadgets and Internet nets. If you cannot
upload information and renovate your material constantly, you will have a lot of complications
in this job. You need to be informed in order to inform. A wave of giving and getting that
sometimes gets a little bit rough. Such as MDIF (2014:2) said: “People want their voices to be
heard and they want institutions that are transparent, responsive, capable, and accountable."
Media development is the present and the future of our world. A world, where having access
to information is deeply related with having freedom. Whether is not a good time for
newspaper journalists, soon it will appear new different types of now unknown jobs.

When I started Media Studies, I did not think I could make it at all because I have never known
too much of photography or videos and a lot of people were more wised than me. When I
realized audio-visual knowledge was not optional in this degree, it did not really shock me.
Technology is necessary everywhere, also in our day-by-day lives. It was obvious journalism
needed to be fed with technology. In spite of refusing my aim of coursing these studies, I chose
it anyway. I thought there were a lot of things to discover that I could take advantage of and
use in a future to create my career.

The decision of exploring one area of such a versatile degree was not easy. There were too
many options and I did not know about neither of them. Just knowing how to write with my
own words, made me realize if I truly knew enough about language to write. This essay helped
me to extend my vocabulary and improve it in order to learn about Media Studies. I focused
into the area of journalism, because I was going to be able to interview and contact more
people, in order to get my speech richer.

The journalism is an area formed by multiple specialities. These are different but similar at the
same time. All of them have things in common and come from the same start. New
technologies have changed journalism and made it a multi-faced space. I could not choose just
one, so this essay is about three of them. People who I have interviewed are professionals of
newspaper articles, bloggers and video reporters of news. I have contacted with journalist of
El Segre, Anna Sàez. She told me about all kind of technical words they use to prepare the
publication of newspapers. I also could talk with Esther Riba, teacher and blogger of Athelier
de l’Obi, which she has made on her own. The same word, “blog”, is English, because Internet
is full of Anglicism. Moreover, when I went to Mollina (Málaga) I met the professional who was
covering the new. He added some words to the list, more from camera and audio-visual films.

Such as Anna Sàez (2018) told me, every newspaper has its own argot, but they always share
some words. These expressions have no translation to English because they are too informal
and I cannot access to that English level or maybe they do not even exist. For instance, in El
Segre a highlighted sentence in a text is a “xapa” and in other places is a “toxana”. It mostly
depended of the editor each house used. Segre and 9 from Vic edited with the same program
in the 90s: Edicomp. Thay share a lot of argot because of how they named it based on the
programming terms. For example, they had to press F1 and F10, the first of them to write the
 Anna Pladevall
15/01/2018
date and number of page and the last one to print it in the paper. Because of that, they named
it “capfoli”.

In Blogger’s world things are a little bit different. At the beginning, Internet was full of English,
and all words we use come from this language. They have been introduced so deeply in our
society that some dictionaries have accepted and introduced a lot of them in our language.
Sometimes we think one of them is from Catalan or Spanish but we are not sure of it. The
reason is globalisation. When continents are together, limits of each country get mixed, and
with borderlines, also traditions and languages. Words from all kind of lands are all over the
world. Riba (2018) confessed me that although it is not a rewarded work for her, it was a
hobby where she felt free to share her opinions and show her interests to other people that
may like it. It was a way of communication between people from different places.

The journalism media area is also different. Just parts of the camera or movements they can
make with them have a lot of slang, but there is also edit and publishing argot. It is an
extended area that I could not afford as deeply as I would have liked. It is an amazing job
where the most important is to get experience, but jargon is also indispensable to
communicate with others specialists. It is the newest Media area of this essay.

I will try to understand and translate the expressions with all the accuracy possible. Sometimes
as I have already said, it is not possible an exactly translation and I have tried to define them. I
have selected basic words to introduce the area and also specific and characteristic words that
I have never heard before. I started from general and I finished learning something new.

17 EXPRESSIONS FROM NEWSPAPERS:

 NEWSPAPER / Diari / Diario

 JOURNALIST / Periodista
 MASS MEDIA / Mitjans de comunicación de massa
 LEAD / Entradeta del text, entrada / Encabezada, encabezamiento
 FRAME / Captura d’ un video / Fotograma
 FRONT PAGE / Portada / “Va a primera”
 BACK PAGE / Contraportada o Contra/ “Va a última”
 HEADLINE/ Titular / El que destaquem d’ una noticia amb un cos i estil de lletra
diferent al text.
 MINOR NEW/ Noticia secundaria / Faldó
 COLUMN (newspaper) /Columna / Breu (noticies de la columna)
 CUT / TALL: (per tall de veu) és el moment exacte d’una gravació en què l’entrevistat
diu allò que vols destacar. És a dir, d’una gravació de deu minuts pots treure dos talls
que serien com els dos titulars de la notícia.

 PAPUS / Entrevistes anònimes breus en el marc de un reportatge més llarg / Relleno

 SOURCE / Fuente de información / Font d’informació (de premsa o confidencial)
 SCOOP / Exclusiva / Tot i que a les revistes del cor, exclusiva es diu a aquells
reportatges que paguen als protagonistes, una exclusiva periodística és una notícia
que només saps tu i que ets el primer a donar-la. Quantes més exclusives, més gran
serà el teu prestigi i el del mitjà per al qual treballes.
 Anna Pladevall
15/01/2018

 TELETIP / “Teleconsell” /Informació facilitada per una agència de premsa que

contracta el teu mitjà.
 OFF THE RECORD: / Una informació que no pots utilitzar. La persona a la qual
entrevistes t’avisa que allò no ho assumirà, que t’ho explica només perquè en tinguis
constància o coneguis un context. Respectar-ho serà molt important a l’hora de tenir
fonts, perquè voldrà dir que se’n poden refiar de tu com a periodista. / Información
fuera de registro.
 SCHEDULE / Planillo / Esquema de les pàgines que tindrà el diari l’endemà, on es recull
la publicitat, les seccions.

11 EXPRESSIONS FROM BLOGS:

 BLOG / Bitacora / Diari

 BLOGGER / Persona que té un blog
 POST / Entrada, publicació o article d’un blog
 SPAM / Correu no desitjat / correo basura
 TAG / Etiqueta
 TEMPLATE / Plantilla
 URL: Direcció del blog
 VLOG / Video blog
 404 / Error / Pàgina no trobada
 ALEXA RANK / Rànquing d’Alexa / Ranquing que tiene en cuenta la popularidad del
blog según las visites.
 BANNER / Publicidad en Internet / Anunci publicitari amb moviment en una pàgina
web

12 EXPRESSIONS OF JOURNALISM IN MEDIA:

 REPORT / Reportatge / Narració fotogràfica

 PHOTOJOURNALISM / Fotoperiodisme
 DOCUMENTARY / Documental
 REMOVE RED EYES / Quitar ojos rojos
 CROP ·/ Retallar / Ajustar
 LENS / Objectiu / Lente
 SHADOW / Ombra / Sombra
 WHITE BALANCE / Balanç de blancs
 DIAFRAGM / Diafragma
 DEPTH OF FIELD / Profunditat de camp
 FOCAL LENGHT / Distància focal
 VOICE OVER / Vídeo que es projecta a l’informatiu de televisió mentre el presentador
explica la notícia ‘a sobre’ / Plató punxat

After looking for this information, I was really surprised. Not for founding English words but
because of discovering their traditional translation in Catalan. You can see a clear example
with the word a “breu” or how I knew better what a minor new was than a “faldó”. That
should not be normal. It should be more common to know mother-tongue words than
 Anna Pladevall
15/01/2018
foreigner ones. Anyway, nowadays it is easier to know about New York news than local ones.
We know better about a city that is 6000 km far away, than about Pardinyes. That is kind of
sad because we are who underestimate our own culture. We should try to conserve our roots
and transfer them to future generations in order to preserve our language.

I am sure that my expectations about this degree and my future will change a lot next years. It
won’t be easy but slowly I will find my path. This investigation has helped me to understand
better how my job could be in paper, Internet and TV. Learning the Catalan newspaper
expressions and understanding technical web words from blogs is what I have liked the most.
In conclusion, writing is my thing. No matter the source nor the field. I want to write. But I also
want to represent ethic, not to be forced to write about something that I do not considerate
fair. I know sometimes is difficult to choose, but if I will be doing something, I would bet
anything that it won’t go against my ideologies like has happened with journalist of all the
times. If I cannot achieve my goal or I cannot write in my work, maybe I will open a blog. ¿Who
knows?
 Anna Pladevall
15/01/2018
REFERENCES:

BlogsPopuli (2011, October 3) Vocabulario básico que tendrías que conocer si tienes un blog.
Available online: http://blogspopuli.com/2011/10/vocabulario-basic-que-tendrias-que-
conocer-si-tienes-un-blog/ (Retrieved 14/01/2018)

EduCaixa (2012) Vocabulario Periodístico. Available online: https://www.educaixa.com/-

/vocabulario-periodistico (Retrieved 14/01/2018)

Media Development Investment Fund (2014, August) Media Development’s Role in Social,
Economic and Political Progress, MDIF
Available online: https://www.mdif.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Media-Developments-
Role-in-Social-Economic-and-Political-Progress-Literature-Review.pdf (Retrieved 14/01/2018)

Riba, E. (2018, January 10) Personal Interview.

Sàez, A. (2018, January 2) E-mail Interview.