Noun Style and Verb Style in the Newspaper

Verb Style
On the White House
A Real Fairytale Wedding
By Peter Baker
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/03/us/politics/03memo.html

In this article on the widespread speculation among leading newspapers about Chelsea Clinton's impending wedding to her boyfriend, Marc Mezvinsky, Baker uses a verb style which increases the pace of the sentences, reflecting the building fever of gossip he describes. The article opens with, "Here’s a newsflash: Chelsea Clinton did not get married last month in a swank, celebrity-laden wedding on Martha’s Vineyard attended by the president of the United States." The sentence is driven by the verbs, emphasizing the actions and the fact that neither of them occurred. However, Baker interrupts the verbs "get married" and "attended" with a detail enclosed in a prepositional phrase, "in a swank, celebrity-laden wedding on Martha's Vineyard". By doing this, Baker highlights the actual fodder for gossip, which is not what actions occurred, but what wealthy and influential people in a posh location may have been there. Baker's choice to write the sentence with the verbs in the passive emphasizes the lack of control that anyone implicated in the event in discussion seemed to have over its escalation.
Baker's next lengthy sentence issues a torrent of verb clauses, beginning with, "For four months, the Clintons have told anyone who would listen that there was no August wedding in the works," the past perfect verb form again emphasizing the Clinton's lack of control over the spreading misinformation. The rumors take on a life of their own, departing from the opening clause as the sentence continues, "but the rumors raced from Massachusetts to Manhattan to Washington and back again, producing one unsubstantiated headline after another around the world about the nuptials that never were." Baker increases the pace of this line with alliteration, "rumors raced," as well as our sense of space, as the news travels, "from Massachusetts to Manhattan to Washington". These rapidfire clauses of verbs come to a crashing halt with "the nuptials that never were," as Baker formally puts an end to the gossip.

Baker, Peter. "A Real Fairytale Wedding." The New York Times 2 September 2009, On the White House. NYTimes.com. 2 September 2009

Noun Style
Israel and Sweden row: Blog Wars
The Economist

Despite the very action oriented topic of this article, a dispute between Sweden and Israel over political correctness, it is written in a noun style that hesitates to make accusations against either party. After the delightful alliterated and tongue twisting sub-heading of "A Nordic Newspaper's Newsmaking," the article opens with an adverbial phrase, "Barely two months into its six-month presidency of the European Union, Sweden’s government is entangled in a scrap with Israel." While qualifying the relatively short time period in which the dispute occurred, the author delicately phrases the description of the argument and puts the blame on the Swedish government, rather than the Swedes who bought the widely read Aftonbladet. The author continues in the next sentence without defining the "scrap," referring to it only as "it." "Because it pitches Swedes’ cherished free-speech principles against Middle Eastern sensibilities, it is loaded with a wearying sense of déjà vu—and a potential to escalate." Again, the author locates the issue between the two nations in time, this time in their historical relationship, without saying anything specific about the problem. Many of the sentences in the article are front-loaded with explanatory clauses that have a simple conclusion. The writing overuses passive verb forms or weak verbs, causing its tone to be hesitant and speculative.

"Israel and Sweden row: Blog wars." The Economist 27 August 2009. Economist.com. 2 September 2009
Israel and Sweden row: Blog wars | The Economist

I was quite surprised by how difficult it was for me to find an example of noun style in journalistic work. Even in the example I found, there are only a few sentences to which noun style really applies. I think that the goal of objectivity in journalism has something to do with this. If the writer is trying to report exclusively on the facts, on what happened, the clearest and most direct way to do so is with a verb style. I think verb style writing is also much easier for readers to understand, and so appeals to a wider audience. In many cases, consumers of news don't have time to go back and decode convoluted sentences with many prepositional phrases.