The role of digital video media in second language listening ...

the visual elements in an effort to be careful about their interpretations and 2) thedigitisation of the videotext allows it to be manipulated with precision. With anopportunity to closely inspect a particular section or, conversely, to move quicklyover a videotext to detect overall patterns in structure, the processing characteristicsthat distinguish digital formats from analogue version may be of key importance tolisteners.News broadcastsTelevision news broadcasts often break normal rules of film and video production(Wetzel et al., 1994). Created under time pressures, producers of television newsoften break the conventions of ‘film grammar’ within a single brief production(Green, 1969; Yorke, 1987). As Henningham (1988) explains “such methods canbe distracting, as they present the viewer simultaneously with two sets ofinformation, one verbal and the other visual—it may be difficult to take in the verbalinformation if the pictures are attractive” (p. 47). Second language researchers arealso aware of difficulties in understanding news broadcasts, particularly becausevisual elements may not contribute to the overall narrative (Rubin, 1995b). Meinhof(1990), for example, warned that visual elements “do not necessarily furtherlinguistic understanding” (p. 251) of particular news broadcasts. In a study ofnative speaker perceptions of violence in television news, Paridaen (1991) reachedthe conclusion that “narrative alone is perceived to be dramatic, and pictures bythemselves carried no significant meaning” (p. 11).As a visual element, written text serves a distinct purpose in newscasts. Headlines,like their newspaper counterparts, summarise the main point of a story and work asan advance organiser of information (Bell, 1994; van Dijk, 1988, 1991). In a typicalproduction, headlines or captions are likely to appear within the first few seconds(Green, 1969). Captions are used in the broadcasts to highlight specific points,including the names of people, on-site locations or objects that are deemed relevant17