W 009 F

Introduction:

I was born on 3rd August 1978. But this is just one of the things that happened on that day. Other, more important events occurred, and you can get information about them from newspapers.

Every newspaper should give us the same information, but the vocabulary can be altered. In this research paper I will demonstrate this through a military report appeared on 3rd August 1978. I was eager to find the differences and similarities of the chosen articles.

Method:

I selected three military reports about the war in Lebanon from three daily papers: Dunántúli Napló, Népszava and Népszabadság.

I analysed the vocabulary of them. I was searching for the similarities and differences of the word stock. I compared and contrasted the texts from one paragraph to the other. I was looking for synonyms of words; I wondered whether the order of information, the names, the details are the same or not.

I also compared the titles and subtitles with each other, and defined the key words in them.

Results and Discussion:
Népszava was the paper of the Hungarian Trade-Unions, Népszabadság and Dunántúli Napló were the papers of the party, HSWP. Dunántúli Napló (henceforth abbreviated as DN) was a local paper, the two others were national papers.

The articles I chose are about the Lebanese circumstances. There were clashes in Lebanon: the Israeli attacked the Lebanese government troops; And right-winded milicists opened fire on the corps of the UNO-forces. The UNO delegate of Lebanon travelled to New York to negotiate about the worsening events, and may ask help from the Security Council.

The title should carry the content or the main point of the text, and it should be eye-opener. In these articles two of the three titles put emphasis on the flared up fights saying: ” súlyos harcok” (Népszava) and ”fegyveres összecsapások” (Népszadadság). DN lays stress on the possible negotiations with the Security Council: ”Libanon a Biztonsági Tanácshoz fordul?”
The subtitles inform us the subtopics of the article. In DN it mentions the fights: ”Harcok...” , while Népszava gives us information about the negotiations, saying ”Sûrgõs tárgyalások az ENSZ fõtitkárával”. The subtitle of Népszabadság-article refers to the opinion of the UNO’s secretary-general: ”Kurt Waldheim személyes üzenete”­­­­ – that is expounded later in the article.
The first paragraphs of the articles are literally the same in Népszava and DN. Comparing them with Népszabadság there are only two word-differences. Népszabadság says: ”Hadicselekményekrõl számolnak be” instead of ”Hadijelentések érkeznek” ; and uses ”megújuló harcok” when in the other papers there is no attribute in front of the word ”harcok” . The differences are negligible, they are just synonyms or differences of emphasis.

From the point of view of data -that is important- they are the same: ”Bejrút keresztény lakta kerületében... 11 halottja és mintegy 60 sebesültje van a legújabb lövöldözésnek”.
In what follows the issues are the same, but the articles of Népszava and Népszabadság are more detailed.

The issue in DN is the shortest out of the three chosen articles. It can be understood as it is a local paper, it deals in details with the local events. The article is only three-paragraph-long. The first is the same as in Népszava. The second paragraph goes into the departure of the UNO delegate. This paragraph is made up of three long sentences: they can be found in literally the same form in Népszabadság. But the second paragraph of the article in Népszabadság gives us more details. Between the first and second sentence of DN there more information is about the leaving of Hassan Tueni, the UNO delegate. It presents his interview given to journalists in reported speech: ”Elutazása elõtt újságírók kérésére válaszolva kijelentette, hogy...” , ”Nem zárta ki azt a lehetõséget, hogy...” . These details can be found in the Népszava article too, but there his words are cited: ” ... úgy nyilatkozott, hogy „a jelen pillanatban nincs mondanivalónk a Biztonsági Tanács számára”...”. I tried to find the differences of these paragraphs in Népszava and Népszabadság, and put them together in Table 1.:

In the third paragraph Népszava and Népszabadság write about the war-events, bombings. In some places Népszabadság is more detailed: “Szerdán... este 6 órától kezdve folyamatosan lõtte az izraeli tüzérség.” In Népszava it is mentioned as: “... az izraeli tüzérség... 1 órán át lõtte az egységeit” –but the concrete date is not given.

The fact that the Israeli military spokesman denied this appeared only in one out of the three newspapers, in Népszava: “... tagadta, hogy izraeli területrõl tüzet nyitottak volna a libanoni hadsereg egységeire.”

The third paragraph (and the last) in DN is still discussing the leaving of the UNO delegate. It is one long sentence, which appears in the second section of Népszava’s article word for word.
The last two sections of the article in Népszava and Népszabadság are almost the same if you compare them. The differences appear as synonyms:

The names of important politicians appear at the same points of the articles, in the same contexts. Except for Kurt Waldheim, the secretary-general of UNO:

In DN it is in the last paragraph, because here this closing section is talking about the future-discussions. In Népszava that name is mentioned in the second paragraph in the next context: the UNO delegate went to negotiate with Kurt Waldheim. –It is alike than in DN. In Népszabadság the name of the secretary-general appears in the third section. Kurt Waldheim sent a message to the Israeli prime minister, and considered the case in South-Lebanon really serious.

Conclusion:
As it presents itself, the articles were from the same source. They were reported by the Hungarian News Agency. Only Népszabadság mentions this, but the literally same or almost same sentences and even paragraphs show this fact. I showed you in my research paper those points where the texts differ.

It is noticeable that the titles and subtitles accurately define the topics and the subtopics they want to discuss.

The facts are the same in the articles. Just some vocabulary-differences can be seen when a word is substituted for its synonym.

All the same that one paper was a non-party paper and the others were party-papers there are no differences in the facts.