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 Semiotics and
STUDIES IN DISCOURSE

Verbal Texts
POSTDISCIPLINARY

How the News Media

Construct a Crisis

Jane Gravells
Postdisciplinary Studies in Discourse

Series Editors

Johannes Angermuller
University of Warwick
Coventry, United Kingdom

Judith Baxter
Aston University
Birmingham, UK
Aim of the series
Postdisciplinary Studies in Discourse engages in the exchange between
discourse theory and analysis while putting emphasis on the intellectual
challenges in discourse research. Moving beyond disciplinary divisions in
today's social sciences, the contributions deal with critical issues at the
intersections between language and society.

More information about this series at

http://www.springer.com/series/14534
 Jane Gravells

Semiotics and Verbal

Texts
How the News Media Construct a Crisis
Jane Gravells
Aston University
Birmingham, United Kingdom

ISBN 978-1-137-58748-0    ISBN 978-1-137-58750-3 (eBook)

DOI 10.1057/978-1-137-58750-3

Library of Congress Control Number: 2016959556

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2017

The author(s) has/have asserted their right(s) to be identified as the author(s) of this work in accordance
with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether
the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of
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The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication
does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant
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The registered company address is The Campus, 4 Crinan Street, London, N1 9XW, United Kingdom
To Molly Schroder
 Foreword

I undertook the research for this book to satisfy an interest in the ways
in which language and business interconnect, and in particular to con-
sider the language surrounding companies in crisis. Many books have
been written from a business perspective on crisis communication, but
my concern was about how the “lay” person came to understand crisis
events. It seemed to me that major news events such as disasters and
crises came and went, and that our perception of them changed over
time—not just that we, or the media on our behalf, tired of them and
moved on to the next big thing, although this may be true. But also that
we understood them in a different way with the passage of time, that they
came to represent something other than an agglomeration of events. I
became interested in the BP Deepwater Horizon explosion of 2010 for
its wide-reaching effects including business, environmental, financial and
human outcomes. One of the things the book is “about” is certainly the
Deepwater Horizon explosion and crisis. However, this is not a hand-
book about the language of crisis communication. It explores how we
know what we think we know about crises such as the BP events. So
another thing the book is about is news media representation—how is
a story such as Deepwater Horizon mediated by different publications,
and over time?
Exploring a phenomenon as broad and disjointed as the media repre-
sentation of a crisis called for an ambitious research approach, and so the
vii
viii Foreword

main thing the book is about is considering ways in which we can inves-
tigate a linguistic representation and understand its way of making mean-
ing. This book is importantly about methodology—how, practically, can
we investigate such a fragmented, diverse and unbounded phenomenon
as the media coverage of a crisis? In particular, I was interested in ways of
looking at written coverage. Many tools and approaches were available for
me to do this, and I discuss some of these in Part I, but none were fully
suited to the flexible, emergent and holistic research process I had in mind.
I saw this as an area where an alternative and systematic research option
can be useful, and from the study of semiotics I sought to reclaim some of
the concepts and terminology which have most recently (and effectively)
been more the province of the study of visual and other signs. Barthes’
view that communication makes meaning at different levels—the sign,
the code, mythic meaning and ideology—provided a framework within
which to situate a flexible analysis, and I set out such a framework in Part
II. This section can be read as a “how to” guide to conducting research
within a broad semiotic perspective. Using a wide range of examples from
written news media texts about the BP Deepwater Horizon events, it dem-
onstrates how to conduct a written analysis of those discursive features
which are most relevant to the researcher’s own particular data set. I drew,
secondly, on Peirce’s view that signs can be understood as having iconic,
indexical and/or symbolic form, as an explanatory concept to describe and
interpret the analysis findings, and this is explored in Part III.
These several strands of semiotic theory, media social practice, real-­
world illustration and direct linguistic application relate closely to the
concerns of this book series, which takes a postdisciplinary perspective on
the study of language. The work in this book relates to topics of interest
in the study of applied linguistics, media studies and business commu-
nication. It sets out a relationship between theory and practice, moving
from the understanding of a theoretical framework to its practical appli-
cation, to the explication of results through another theoretical approach.
This book would not have been written without Judith Baxter’s invalu-
able input and guidance and I thank her and Johannes Angermuller for
the opportunity to write for this series. Thanks to Chloe Fitzsimmons at
Palgrave Macmillan for her support in bringing the book to print and
to Jonathan Gravells for his reading of the first drafts and his constant
 Foreword ix

e­ ncouragement. Any remaining failings in the book are my own. I am

very grateful to the Spectator for allowing the use of the Bernie cartoon,
which I found to my delight very early in the research process. I began
my work on the BP crisis with a set of four interviews—two in London
and two in New Orleans—with people who had been very close to the
BP events in different ways. My informants generously shared their time
and their insights about the events in the Gulf, allowing me to see the
crisis from perspectives other than those of the media texts I was working
with.
I would like to add a final word about the BP crisis. Over the six years
I have been involved with studying the media language of this crisis, it
could have become too easy to treat it as an abstract, though fascinating,
case study: an example of the multifarious ways in which we use language
to fulfil a social need. Indeed, my contention is that our understanding
of the crisis is, in one sense, a construction of language. Yet the explo-
sion had tragic material consequences—11 people lost their lives and
17 were injured. The spill caused significant damage to wildlife as well
as to the jobs and welfare of countless working people, particularly in
the industries of fishing and tourism. As part of my research I visited a
senior academic in marine environmental sciences at the University of
New Orleans, and a journalist who had covered the story from the first
day for a New Orleans newspaper, and I was left in no doubt about the
human and environmental cost of the events of April 2010. I hope I treat
these stories with respect in this book.

Alrewas
2016 Jane Gravells
xi
 Contents

Part I Written language and semiotics1

1 Researching the Representation of a Crisis3

2 Semiotic Discourse Analysis27

Part II A Barthesian conceptualisation of written language43

3 Theoretical Foundations 45

4 Data Collection and Research Principles 75

5 A Barthesian Analysis of the BP Data in Four Stages 83

6 Stage 1: Contextualisation of the BP Texts 89

7 Stage 2: Preliminary Analysis of the BP Texts101

xiii
xiv Contents

8 Stage 3: A Depth Analysis at the Level of the Sign 111

9 Stage 3: A Depth Analysis at the Level of the Code127

10 Stage 3: A Depth Analysis at the Level of Mythic Meanings167

11 Stage 3: A Depth Analysis at the Level of Ideology  179

12 Stage 4: A Holistic Analysis of a Single Text191

Part III A Peircean conceptualisation of written language199

13 Theoretical Foundations 201

14 A Peircean Interpretation of the BP Data213

Part IV Concluding thoughts241

15 Other Events, Other Contexts243

References249

Index265
 List of Figures

Fig. 2.1 Perspectives and tools of written text analysis 28

Fig. 3.1 A semiotic heuristic for considering written language 48
Fig. 3.2 Barthes’ and Fairclough’s views of language in context 72
Fig. 6.1 A genre categorisation of news texts 93
Fig. 7.1 Nine linguistic features for analysis 109
Fig. 9.1 Notional progression of text types in BP data 141
Fig. 9.2 Texts embedded intertextually “In Too Deep:
BP and the Drilling Race that Took it Down”
(M2 PressWIRE, 27.4.2011) 152
Fig. 13.1 Distance of sign forms from the object 208
Fig. 14.1 A linear view of iconic, indexical and symbolic phases 236

xv
 List of Tables

Table 4.1 Sample of BP-related texts from Nexis UK database  79

Table 5.1 Four stages of data analysis 87
Table 6.1 Geographical source of items mentioning BP events 2010–12 90
Table 6.2 BP oil spill texts by genre 2010–12 93
Table 6.3 Proportion of media text dealing directly with
BP oil spill 2010–12 98
Table 8.1 Analysis of naming terms for the BP
Deepwater Horizon events 113
Table 8.2 Social actors in 2010–12 BP texts  116
Table 9.1 Instances of modality in the 2010–12 texts 155
Table 9.2 Summary of findings—modality and appraisal 165
Table 10.1 The occurrence of metonyms in the 2010–12 BP texts 168
Table 10.2 The occurrence of metaphors in the 2010–12 BP texts 174
Table 14.1 Summary of findings from depth analysis  214
Table 15.1 A comparative study by political party  245
Table 15.2 A comparative study of a political issue over time  246
Table 15.3 A comparative study by mediums 246

xvii
 Part I
Written Language and Semiotics
 1
Researching the Representation
of a Crisis

A Semiotic Account of a News Story

In this book, I make a broad claim about news media representation. I
suggest that whole sets of texts, whole representations of events, have lin-
guistic commonalities which can be investigated. In this view, the linguis-
tic picture constructed by the media immediately after an event is quite
different from the picture we get some years later, even taking account of
important variations by news genre, channel, publication style and so on.
It is these large flows of social meaning that I propose we can investigate
systematically using semiotic concepts. Consider these two examples of
news coverage concerning the BP Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion
of 2010.

1. The oil is now about 20 miles (32 kilometres) off the coast of Venice,
Louisiana, the closest it’s been to land. But it’s still not expected to
reach the coast before Friday, if at all.
BP, which was leasing the Deepwater Horizon, said it will begin drill-
ing by Thursday as part of a $100 million effort to take the ­pressure

© The Author(s) 2017 3

J. Gravells, Semiotics and Verbal Texts, Postdisciplinary Studies
in Discourse, DOI 10.1057/978-1-137-58750-3_1
4 Semiotics and Verbal Texts

off the well, which is spewing 42,000 gallons (159,000 litres) of crude
oil a day. (Carleton Place (Canada), 27.4.2010)
2. The ditty by the two singers included the lines: “When I hear that BP
story, Green and yellow melancholy, Deepwater despair.” (Coventry
Evening Telegraph, 27.4.2012)

Example 1 is drawn from a Canadian newspaper (Carleton Place) one week

after the explosion, and deals with the ongoing attempt to cap the leaking
oil well. It is packed with information of a certain kind—times, places,
amounts of money and volumes of oil, as well as the reported voice of
BP. The second example appeared in the Coventry Evening Telegraph (UK)
on the same date two years later. It is still of the genre “news report”,
but this time its topic is a protest about BP’s environmental record. This
extract also draws on reported voices, but in this case the commentary
on the BP crisis is expressed through an artistic genre—the protest song.
The phrase “green and yellow melancholy”, alluding here to the BP logo
colours, is taken from Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night” (Act II, Scene iv).
These two news pieces make meaning of the crisis in very different ways,
and in this book I will explore what these changes in meaning-making
are, how and when they occur, and how we can examine the shape of
media representations through systematic language analysis.
The book explores a number of connected themes. Its primary focus
is the semiotic analysis of written verbal text. I will explore whether con-
cepts common in the study of semiotics, and more usually applied to
non-verbal sign systems, can be deployed as frameworks for investigating
stretches of text (discourse) and shed light on how they make mean-
ing. In this conceptualisation, collections of texts such as news media
representations of a story can be regarded as signs with their own sets of
characteristics. In other words, I will consider whether text 1 above has
anything in common with other texts written at the same time on the
same topic, and if so, what that tells us about how the press made sense
of the BP events at that time. I propose that text 2 seems to me to be
different in kind from text 1. What evidence can I marshal to support
that instinct? How are the texts (demonstrably, analysably) different, and
what does that tell us about how the view of the crisis has changed? In
suggesting that semiotic frameworks have something to offer in the study
 1 Researching the Representation of a Crisis 5

of written texts, I will be considering semiotic concepts as epistemologi-

cal foundations for a practical methodology.
I take it that written text is a sign—a privileged sign no doubt—but
still one type of sign system amongst many. Writing sits alongside speech,
still image, film, gesture, music and so on as a resource for making mean-
ing, and it has been the enterprise of semiotics to explore the ways by
which such resources are exploited, managed, combined and systema-
tised by their users for myriad communicative purposes in an infinite
variety of contexts. Following Barthes’ (1972) insights that diverse cul-
tural phenomena can be understood as a sign or representation, scholars
of multimodality have investigated the regularities (the “grammar”) of a
range of semiotic modes including visual images (Kress & van Leeuwen,
2006), typography (van Leeuwen, 2006), music (e.g. Monelle, 1999),
film (e.g. Machin & Jaworski, 2006), as well as the interaction of these
modes (e.g. Iedema, 2003).
It is perhaps surprising, however, that the scholar sitting down to
engage with written texts from a semiotic perspective—in other words,
asking how does this text make social meaning?—may find that her
options for analysis are constrained. In considering written text as one
mode amongst many she may find that text in multimodal artefacts, such
as advertising or websites, is analysed as much for its visual properties, for
example, font, position and layout, as for the contribution to meaning
inherent in its lexico-grammar. I call this approach the “text-as-graphic”
approach, and touch on this again in the next chapter. Alternatively,
Systemic Functional Grammar (Halliday & Matthiessen, 2004) provides
a comprehensive analysis framework within which analysts can give an
account not only of verbal language but also of other modes, in par-
ticular still and moving image (Kress & van Leeuwen, 2006). Systemic
Functional Grammar provides an account of verbal language within the
clause and sentence and, and inter-sentential connections through the
study of cohesion (Halliday & Hasan, 1976). However, the concerns of
a semiotic account of text representations may also be broader, for exam-
ple, an investigation of the role of metaphor, or intertextuality, or how
writers have chosen to name events.
I argue in this book for an approach which offers an alternative to
these ways of studying written text. I suggest that there are a number of
6 Semiotics and Verbal Texts

concepts in the field of semiotics which are useful as explanatory frame-

works. Suppose our scholar of the preceding paragraph has a broad inves-
tigative agenda. Her need is for an account which is:

• Emergent. She does not wish to approach the text with a presupposi-
tion of what she might find, but rather to let the data “speak for
themselves”.
• Comprehensive. Her analysis should give a picture of the text at all its
levels, from close text analysis to social meaning-making.
• Critical without an agenda for emancipation.
• Flexible in terms of analysis tools.
• Multimodal in that written text can be analysed within the same epis-
temological framework as other semiotic modes.

Using news data related to the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster spanning

a two-year period, I will illustrate how a number of theoretical concepts
drawn from semiotics can be useful as starting frameworks to build a
comprehensive, critical, situated description of written texts. I will move
from a micro-analysis of word choice to a macro-analysis of whole sets
of texts, arguing that these can be construed as signs in themselves, with
shared characteristics of ideological significance. I started this chapter
with two quotations from the news coverage of the BP crisis. In order
to show the interplay between semiotic theory and practical discourse
analysis, I will apply the semiotic principles I will describe to this real-life
example of a business crisis constructed through the news media.
The text extracts at the beginning of this chapter are drawn from a very
particular linguistic context—news media coverage—and this is another
key theme. This book is partly a story about a story: how it starts, grows,
develops and changes. The lives of stories in the news media are tightly
bound to the conventions and practices of news writing, and the lan-
guage usages I discuss here will be very different from the discursive con-
struction of the BP story, say, at the pub. The analysis of the story needs
to be grounded in an understanding of how news media construct news.
The principles in which I ground my analysis practices are, nevertheless,
transferable to other contexts, genres and registers. They could equally
be used to examine our pub conversation about the BP crisis, as long as
 1 Researching the Representation of a Crisis 7

they take account of the conventions and practices of pub conversation.

And while the news media are still highly influential in shaping how we
understand events in the world around us, their influence is increasingly
fragmented by both the proliferation of professional news outlets and
the increase in “lay” interpretations of the news, particularly through the
Internet. In proposing that the news media make identifiable “pictures”
of news stories at given times, I also acknowledge that these pictures are
multifaceted and shifting mosaics made up of different media profes-
sional and individual voices.
The next section of this chapter sets out some general observations
about the characteristics of news media stories, practices and genres. My
specific illustration is the explosion on the BP-leased Deepwater Horizon
oil-drilling platform on 27 April 2010, and its business aftermath, and
this introductory chapter concludes with a brief account of how the news
story developed over the two subsequent years.

Researching News Stories

The scholarship on news stories is extensive. Recent work takes it as read
that far from being a representation of an external reality, news writing
is highly culturally-situated and dependent on conventional journalistic
practice. Stories are mediated at every level, through selection and choice
of emphasis, through journalistic practices and constraints, through their
structure, format and co-text, and in terms of their language. The ways
stories are presented vary considerably by type of publication (tabloid,
quality/broadsheet, online), channel (print, online, TV, radio) and genre
of news writing (“hard news” article, feature, editorial, financial report
and so on), as well as displaying idiosyncratic features of individual writ-
ers. There is no version of a news story which can be taken as definitive,
and choices made by writers about representation of a story are always
ideologically grounded, in that they are a product of culturally-specific
convention and are subject to influence by those groups and individuals
with access to “voice” (Blommaert, 2005).
A brief review of the four areas I mention above—story selection; jour-
nalistic practice; structure/format and language—as well as overarching
8 Semiotics and Verbal Texts

conventions of genre – places the approach I discuss here into context.

The semiotic approach I propose is not intended to replace but to com-
plement this work into the language of news representation. A semiotic
account of a news story only makes sense when we understand what news
stories “look like” and why.

Story Selection

Given that news outlets need to select what is included in publications

(they cannot cover everything), then certain characteristics make some
stories far more likely to be considered newsworthy than others. Galtung
and Ruge (1973) found that stories with certain criteria dominated news
publications. Based on these criteria, the BP story was an obvious can-
didate for being reported, being of significant size and intensity, unex-
pected, unambiguously catastrophic and involving elite nations. The
larger point is that what is considered news is not naturally predeter-
mined, but selected and prioritised according to journalistic codes. These
codes are culture-specific, and reflect the ideologies of politics, power
and social agreement that are at play within large institutions like media
organisations. While story-selection procedures are broadly shared by the
media (a story such as the BP events would be likely to appear in most
national news publications) they also vary by publication—tabloids and
quality newspapers regularly choose different lead stories, or select differ-
ent aspects of the stories they report on (Bignell, 2002).
Apart from the topic of the stories selected, certain individuals and
organisations have a strong influence over which stories are prioritised.
Fowler (1991) and others give accounts of the many stakeholders involved
in producing news articles, from the news outlet proprietors, editors,
journalists and other staff, to those routinely consulted about affairs in
the public eye (politicians, business representatives, non-­ commercial
organisations, community representatives, the police and so on) and
those only consulted expediently (e.g. eyewitnesses and victims of crime).
Of these, some will have greater and more regular access to representa-
tion than others, and it follows that these will have a greater influence on
which stories are chosen and how they are eventually presented for public
consumption. Van Dijk (1996: 86) summarises:
 1 Researching the Representation of a Crisis 9

Most obvious and consequential are the patterns of access to the mass
media: who has preferential access to journalists, who will be interviewed,
quoted and described in news reports, and whose opinions will thus be able
to influence the public? That is, through access to the mass media, domi-
nant groups also may have access to, and hence partial control over, the
public at large. (Emphasis in original)

Accounts of influence outside and inside publications focus on money or

political interest or both. Proprietors and editors of newspapers may have an
overt political stance that is made more or less clear to their reading public,
and is relevant to story selection and emphasis. Also less obvious is the influ-
ence of advertisers, usually a major source of income for mass-­media publica-
tions. Advertisers buy space in publications whose readership and stated values
already fit their own, but researchers have argued that there is evidence that
their money buys a degree of influence over content (Roberts & McCombs,
1994), and it is certainly the case that the perceived behaviour of publica-
tions affects advertising spend, as the demise of the News of the World in
the UK after phone-hacking scandals shows. Touching on economic factors
and the priority given to advertising, Cotter (2010: 193) writes of the “news
hole”—namely, “what is open to editorial content—news stories—after the
advertising has been positioned”. Other influence on content and language
use has been shown to come from pressure groups, PR agencies and corporate
communications departments, all of whom have close relationships with the
media as part of their function (e.g. Burt, 2012). Examining another dimen-
sion of influence, Scollon (1998) contends that journalists largely orient their
writing towards other journalists. In recent years the public has gained a voice
in story selection, as “what’s trending” on the Internet becomes an early indi-
cator of likely stories of interest, and Twitter provides reaction and feedback
to stories from known and unknown voices, shaping the future direction of
representation.

Journalistic Practice

The language of news media texts cannot be separated from the context
in which they are produced, and this study of how a particular story
comes to be constructed needs to take account of the writing and editing
10 Semiotics and Verbal Texts

practices that constrain news writing, from the collection and selection
of information, to the organisation of stories to meet the particular news
cycles and space constraints of the publication. Such time and space con-
siderations might range from the daily cycle of a print newspaper with its
relatively regular number of pages, to a 24-hour TV channel, to a news
website with regularly updated content and space considerations that are
only limited by writing resources.
Far from compiling information for news stories from scratch, news
organisations have at their disposal a complex, ongoing network of infor-
mation sources. These include press releases from corporations and insti-
tutions, and news agencies such as Reuters and Agence France Presse
which are positioned as neutral and unaffiliated in their standpoint.
Agencies distribute news stories via newswires to other news organisa-
tions, mainly newspapers, television and radio. The customer publica-
tion may use the output in full or in part, so repeated forms of words in
different publications are common. A large number of the BP stories in
the data set derived from news agencies, and repetition, in particular of
reported speech, is a notable feature of the data. Other sources include
the publication’s own reporters “on the ground” in various locations at
home and abroad, who often initiate the coverage of breaking news, as
well as contacts in business, Parliament, the police, pressure groups, uni-
versities and other groups and institutions. Bignell (2002: 88) calls these:

“accessed voices” to whom the media have access and who expect access to
the media. The discourses of these groups therefore become the raw mate-
rial for the language of news stories, since news language is parasitic on
their discursive codes and ideological assumptions.

As these relationships develop, some of the contacts develop considerable

journalistic skills themselves, with business communications departments
writing press releases in such a way that they can be used almost unaltered
(Jacobs, 1999), universities developing a sense of what lies within a theoret-
ical piece of research that makes it an item of general interest (Baxter, 2014)
and the police finding ways of using media access to the public that can
contribute to the effectiveness of their own work.
 1 Researching the Representation of a Crisis 11

Some of the most interesting work in writing and editing practices

has taken an ethnographic approach to tracking the life cycle of articles,
and looking at what selections, deletions and other changes are made in
the process and why. Cotter (2010: 88) gives a comprehensive account,
including in particular the role of the story meeting in “[d]eciding what’s
fit to print”. She argues that these meetings are a less visible, but poten-
tially more revealing reflection of a publication’s priorities and values
than the editorial pages. Van Hout and Macgilchrist (2010) follow a
story from press release to publication, and find that framing decisions,
that is, the selection and emphasis of certain information elements at the
expense of others, can be due as much to technical and space constraints
as to ideological considerations.

Structure and Format

News writing is a highly recognisable “genre colony” (Bhatia, 1993), not

least because of its repeated structures. For the hard news report, one typi-
cal structure is the “inverted pyramid”. The use of a section at the start that
summarises all key points results in a story that is not chronological, but
rather has temporal shifts, and journalists learn to present information in a
conventional hierarchy, through which narrative sequences are necessarily
reordered. The inverted pyramid structure appears to facilitate a brief but
accurate assimilation of “the facts”; however, the headline and lead do not
summarise the story, but rather point to the issues of maximum societal
disruption (White, 1997). Bird and Dardenne (1988: 77) point out that
this structure can encourage a partial, and highly directed, reading.
Feature articles are more likely to follow a conventional narrative struc-
ture, with events often related in chronological order, which entails certain
other linguistic regularities, such as a high presence of deictics and con-
necting words (Fulton, Huisman, Murphet, & Dunn, 2005). The typical
narrative structure means that the “point of closure” (i.e. the outcome) of a
feature tends to be near the end, rather than at the beginning, as it is in the
hard news story. Another key news genre, the editorial, tends to be struc-
tured quite differently again, using patterns of rhetoric and argumentation
such as Problem–Solution or Problem–Denial–Correction (Winter, 1994).
12 Semiotics and Verbal Texts

The language of news is organised not only by structuring strategies

within the text, but graphically upon the page, and issues of medium and
formatting can be relevant to how a story is construed. The traditional
print medium is characterised by columnar formatting and clear framing
of text items. Online news, on the other hand, generally exhibits a much
looser layout and is less constrained by space, as well as having additional
affordances such as hyperlinks to related stories within and outside the
news website, multimodal options including still images, video clips and
sound files, and opportunities for interaction between news writers and
readers. The effects of these looser graphic formats on the verbal language
of news include longer stories, greater access to voice by non-professional
writers and deictic expressions to guide the reader to alternative informa-
tion options.

News Media Language

Language choices in the news media concern how information is com-

municated once selected. The canonical descriptive work on the register
of newspaper language is that of Biber, Johansson, Leech, Conrad and
Finegan (1999). Biber et al. were able to isolate through corpus analysis a
number of features which were characteristic of news texts, for example,
a high use of nouns and prepositional phrases, a low use of pronouns
and a high proportion of complex phrases compared with other text
types. They found the present tense to be used more than the past tense,
because, although news items tend to describe past events, they make
use of historic present tense commentary, as well as direct quotation.
However, Biber et al.’s work does not take account of the differences
between newspaper types (tabloid and quality) or types of news item
such as the hard news report, feature, soft news, editorial, all of which are
distinctive in their language characteristics. Even within one newspaper
type, the stories that are presented as “hard news” will have a different set
of linguistic conventions from “soft news” stories. Because language usage
by newspaper type (e.g. tabloid and quality) and by media sub-genre
(e.g. hard and soft news) can be so varied, Biber et al.’s concept of a
newspaper language has been challenged (e.g. Landert, 2014) for being
so broad as to be unhelpful as an explanatory category.
 1 Researching the Representation of a Crisis 13

Studies of the collection, writing and editing practices discussed above

overlap with research into specific language usages within media and news
writing. Most research into this topic adopts a broadly critical perspective
on the language studied, and writers who work within the field of Critical
Discourse Analysis have found media texts to be a particularly productive
data source for the study of the exercise and maintenance of power. Key
works on the language of the media from this critical perspective include
Fairclough (1995b, 2000), van Dijk (1985, 1988) and Fowler (1991). A
recent challenge to the assumption of manipulative intent in the press
has been made by Martin (2004) and Macgilchrist (2007), who argue
that some media pieces challenge and reframe dominant ideologies in a
way that runs counter to expectation. They call this enterprise “Positive
Discourse Analysis”. Similarly, the ethnographic work mentioned above
emphasises the role of writing practices as much as ideological choices in
motivating the language of news stories.
Media language is usually the product of many voices. These will
almost certainly be those of the journalist and sub-editor, but can, as
discussed above, include interviewees, directly or indirectly quoted, and
other voices that are partly or wholly unattributed, drawn from general
debates, background research, and written input from interested parties.
This form of intertextuality in the news media is explored in work such
as Bednarek (2006), Oliveira (2004) and Macgilchrist (2007). Studies of
intertextuality in news articles also indicate the extent to which journal-
ists can converge around ways of presenting information (e.g. naming
practices) partly because so many of their sources are shared, and much of
their writing is drawn from others’ previous work on the same news item.
Ready access to global accounts both in print and on television increases
the resources that are available for journalists to draw on as source texts
to be either endorsed or challenged. Other work on intertexts considers
the extent to which writers variously align themselves with, or distance
themselves from, others’ texts and voices using speech presentation strate-
gies, modality resources (Roberts, Zuell, Landmann, & Wang, 2008) and
the Appraisal System (Martin & White, 2005; White, 1997).
Despite this frequent use of shared resources, the lexis used by tabloid
and broadsheet newspapers has been found to be specific not only to each
format (Conboy, 2007) but also to individual publications, through the
Exploring the Variety of Random
Documents with Different Content
 PHOTOMICROGRAPHY 187 the problems of equipment,
exposure, and materials in detail, and Ballerini and Scandone have
described their 16-mm equipment. Photomicrographs for
reconstructions or models should be made with the objective of
highest numerical aperture appropriate to the specimen in order to
obtain optical sections ha^'ing minimal depth of field. When thicker
sections are to be photographed an objective with the lowest
numerical aperture capable of giving the recjuired resolution should
be combined with higher power oculars to achieve the necessary
magnification. A magnification of 1000 times the numerical aperture
of the objective is often satisfactory. However, greater magnifications
may be needed with the phase microscope to bring out the
increased contrast and detail revealed. The ordinary classical Abbe
theory of resolution is not adequate as a guide in photomicrography,
and it is rarely applicable in practical microscopy in which extended
objects are commonly observed rather than the separation of two
adjacent geometrical image points. For example, the distance
between the divided bacterial cells in Fig. V.IP and V.IQ is much less
than the limit of resolution based on the Abbe formula (X/2 N.A.),
yet the edges are sharp and the greater resolution of the electron
microscope confirms the record. One of the main ad^'antages of
phase microscopy is that the sharp edges of the specimens are free
from indefinite diffraction patterns. Measurements become possible,
and this is important with living microorganisms and colloidal
materials, wherein staining methods would so alter the size that the
measurements could not be interpreted. However, such
measurement is not often possible visually because of the motion of
the specimen, and ordinary photomicrographic procedures do not
permit exposures fast enough to avoid blurring from movement. This
problem was solved in 1945 when Richards, Foster, and Wennemark
took phase photomicrographs with an Edgerton type of electronic
flash. The newer General Electric FT-230 flash tube has proved even
more satisfactory (Richards, 19476, Laporte, 1950). A lens system
(Fig. IV. 5) magnifies and images the electrodes of the tube on
either side of the opening in the microscope condenser. Discharging
an electrical condenser through the tube provides a rapid flash
uniform enough to fill the aperture of the microscope and short
enough to effectively stop Brownian and other motions of the
specimen. It is necessary to add a source of continuous light for
focusing the microscope. This is accomplished by focusing the aerial
image of the filament of a small microscope illuminator between the
electrodes of the FT-230 tube. This image is automatically focused in
the microscope aperture and turned off before the high-speed flash
exposure. The light is adequate for
 188 THE TECHNICS OF PHASE MICROSCOPY good
negatives on the high-speed black and white emulsions.
Photomicrographs have been made at 1800 X with all contrasts of
the Spencer oil immersion phase objectives with loadings of 2 to 2.5
kv and 75 to 120 /if (150 to 250 watt-seconds). The exposure
duration was estimated to be about 1/35,000 second by Mr. Frank
Carlson (General Electric Co.), to whom Richards is grateful for
assistance and equipment. The flash tubes and power packs are
available commercially, and lens systems can be combined to
illuminate the microscope. By adding a timing circuit to the timelapse
motion picture equipment an electronic flash could be used
although, as Carlson points out, the resulting (-n Fig. IV.5. Diagram
for electronic flash illumination for photomicrography. A, focusing
light. B, FT-230 flash tube. C, condensing system. D, microscope. E,
image of focusing lamp filament and flash tube electrodes on
underside of the microscope condenser. pictures may be so sharp as
to appear jerky on projection. (Figures V.IP, V.IQ, MAF, YAH, VIA,
and VI. 6 were made by electronic flash.) Film for the phase
microscope is chosen according to the criteria established for any
other kind of photography. A process or positive type of emulsion is
suitable when the specimen is uncolored and there is enough light.
Richards favors a fine-grained type B panchromatic film for general
use such as Panatomic X or its equivalent, and develops in DK-50 by
time and temperature. Others will get eciually good results with
other materials and procedures. When color is important the
emulsion suitable must be sensitive enough to record the color
directly or to give a correct rendering in black and white. Cole (1949)
reports increased contrast with a Polaroid filter. With Spencer phase
equipment, Richards (19476) found that the IB— 0.25X diffraction
plate did not require increased exposure. The 0.2A±0.25X low-
contrast diffraction plates usually took about the same exposure as
required by brightfield microscopy with the condenser closed enough
to give best contrast on the ground glass. The higher
 PHOTOMICROGRAPHY 189 Fig. IV.6. Phase
stereophotomicrographs. A, red-stained wheat chromosomes, 550 X
. B, 3-naphthol crystals, 120 X . C, epithelial cells from dorsum of an
Axolotl tadpole, 400 X.
 190 THE TECHNICS OF PHASE MICROSCOPY contrast
0.14A±0.25X and 0.07A±0.25X plates often require two to four
times the equivalent exposure required by brightfield. Other makes
of phase equipment with narrower conjugate areas rerjuire
correspondingly longer exposures. These figures are suggestive only
and are given to assist the microscopist in determining the proper
exposure. More exact exposures can be obtained with exposure
meters appropriate for photomicrography (Maurer, 1944). With
colored light and color filters the exposures are increased
accordingly by the usual factors. Even with the best eciuipment
some experience is necessary, and trialand-error methods may be
required for exposure determination. Stereophotomicrographs are
helpful in showing the third dimension of a specimen and may be
made by several methods. With low powers the specimen may be
tilted about 7° and one picture made, then tilted the same amount
in the opposite direction and the second picture of the stereopair
photographed. With higher magnifications there is not enough depth
of field for this procedure, and the half-aperture method is
satisfactory provided that the loss of half of the resolution is of no
consequence. A piece of black Scotch tape is placed to cover one-
half of the annulus, and the first picture made. The annulus is
rotated 180°, or the tape is removed and placed on the opposite half
of the annulus, and the second exposure is made. The simple
condenser is more convenient for this than is the turret condenser.
The two exposures of the pair should be processed together and
mounted so that corresponding points are about 2.5 inches apart
and so that horizontal lines in each are in line to avoid tilt. The
mounted pair may be viewed with a stereoscope for study of the
third dimension (Fig. IV. 6) or, after some practice, fused on direct
observation. The picture should be held so that by looking over it
one may see some distant object. When the eyes are quickly
dropped to the pictures, the pictures will fuse into one, with
tridimensional depth. One should look through rather than at the
pictures so that the accommodation will be relaxed. The. important
precaution in phase photomicrography is to make sure by checking
with the telescope that the image of the annular diaphragm is
concentric with and superimposed on the diffraction plate. Any light
leakage will markedly decrease the contrast in the photograph. Light
leakage around the conjugate area will spoil the definition of the
photomicrograph more than leakage around the outside of the
objective, although both should be avoided. Glare from light leakage
is additive in photography because the camera cannot focus and
adapt like the eye. Proper alignment should not be neglected for
efficient visual microscopy. For adequate photomicrography the
condenser must be centerable and the annuli for the various
apertures also must have individual centering
 PHOTOMICROGRAPHY 191 screws for correct alignment.
Unless the equipment can be permanentlyaligned, it should be
aligned immediately before taking a picture. Especial care must be
taken with long-focus condensers (see Section 3.1 of Chapter IV).
Otherwise photomicrography with the phase microscope is the same
as with other equipment, and the standard books on photography
should be consulted (Jackson, 1948; Anon., 19*4-4; Shillaber, 19-
44).
 CHAPTER V PHASE MICROSCOPY IN BIOLOGY AND
MEDICINE 1. ORIENTATION The phase microscope is particularly
suited to the examination of cells, tissues, and organisms too
transparent in their normal state to be seen with other methods of
microscopy. With the proper choice of diffraction plates details may
be seen with an optical equivalent of differential staining. Sharp
boundaries are provided for measurement, adequate contrast for
counting, with no loss of time for staining procedures (often
important in clinical diagnosis) and with no question as to how much
the preparation has altered the specimen. Slight absorption from
small amounts of natural pigment, from failure to obtain adequate
staining, and in faded preparations from old collections may be
made visible with the phase microscope. Color contrast may be
combined with phase contrast when desirable. The changes due to
killing and fixing fluids or the effects of other chemical and physical
agents may be seen, watched, and assessed. Digestive processes,
sol-gel transformations, and other variations in concentration of
materials also can be seen and evaluated with the aid of the phase
microscope. Because of these advantages for the biologist, the
earlier articles on the phase microscope were illustrated mainly with
biological specimens. Kohler and Loos (1941) demonstrated that
phase microscopy provides greater and more useful visibility for
urine sediments, blood cells, epithelial cells, trypanosomes, and an
unstained kidney section. Pictures of living staphylococci, diphtheria
bacteria, connective tissue, fibroblasts, mouse tumor, fungus, and
yeast were shown by Loos (1941a, h). Michel (1941) examined the
cells in the testis of Oedipoda germinatica and salivary gland
chromosomes and made an unusual motion picture film showing
sperm formation in the grasshopper. Spirochetes and epithelial cells
were examined by Burch and Stock (1942) with a slit type rather
than the annular form of diffraction plate. Photomicrographs of
unstained, living lactic acid bacteria, yeast, Sarcina, mycelium,
epithelial cells, chromosomes of Chiroriomus, trypanosomes, and
brain-tissue sections in dark contrast were made by Bosshard
(1944). Richards (1944) published pictures in bright and dark
contrast of epithelial cells from the frog nictitating membrane and
pointed out the advantage of choosing the diffraction plate giving
the 192
 ORIENTATION 193 optimal \4sibility from a series of
diffraction plates of different contrasts and kinds, and the
possibilities of phase microscopy with tissue cultures,
microorganisms, fibers, surfaces, emulsions, homogenization of milk,
and foods. The use of the phase microscope in bacteriology was
discussed by Knoll (1944) including the saving to be gained from the
elimination of staining procedures. In 1945 a bacteriophage was
seen and studied with the phase microscope by Hofer and Richards.
Albertini (1945) discussed the importance of phase microscopy with
fresh material, exudates, and frozen sections, and its applications in
tumor diagnosis. Vital staining is aided with phase (Frauchiger,
1946), and Harrison et al. (1946) reported phase helpful in the study
of serological reactions with protozoa and documented their results
with a motion picture. Surface patterns of epithelial cells were seen
by Albertini (1946a) and independently discovered by Ralph (1947).
These patterns resembled the ridges of fingerprints. The use of the
Spencer phase microscope for some sixty specimens, its use with
replicas for the study of surfaces, the combination of color and
phase contrast, and the advantages of an optical equivalent of
differential staining achieved by means of several different contrasts
with the same specimen were described by Bennett et al. (1946).
The clear detail revealed in emulsions and in living organisms was
blurred by Brownian movement and movements of the specimen
until Richards, in 1945, with an electronic flash produced
photomicrographs sharp enough for measurement. A long-focus
condenser was devised so that such studies could be made of
cultures in Petri dishes, Carrel flasks, and other containers thicker
than the microscope slide (Richards, 1946a, 1947a). General articles
by Taylor (1946), Martin (1947), Barer (1947, 19485), and Magliozzi
(1948) added applications with microfilaria, diatoms, urine
sediments, Chaoborus, Botryllus, Purkinje, and muscle cells, seen
with Cooke, Troughton and Simms and with Bausch and Lomb phase
microscopes (dark A— contrast). Richards (1947c) reviewed
biological phase microscopy. Most of the British and European
contributions were made with dark-contrast (A — ) eciuipment by
Cooke, Troughton and Simms and by Zeiss, whereas the greater
number in America have used Spencer equipment with all contrasts.
The possibilities of phase microscopy in biology and medicine were
by then reasonably clear, and the publications were becoming
concerned more with the phase microscope as a means of solving
problems. These contributions will be included in a systematic
examination of the various fields of microscopy in the rest of this
chapter.
 194 PHASE MICROSCOPY IN BIOLOGY AND MEDICINE 2.
TECHNIC The ability of the phase microscope to reveal detail in
unstained, living cells has placed emphasis on preparation methods
which do not alter or damage the cells and tissues. Many of the
technics described in the previous chapter are appropriate and will
not be repeated here. Some cells and organisms will remain from a
few hours to several days in a sealed mount with no apparent
change, whereas others require an effectively constant environment
for survival. The latter may be put in mounts through which
nutrients may be flowed and excretion products washed out (Tinsley,
1938). Moment (1944) recommends polyvinyl alcohol for quieting
protozoa and other small organisms. Tal.le V.l A. Biological materials
Ut Bacteria 1.33-1.54 Bacteria spores >1.55 Trypanosoma halhiani
flagella 1.56 Mucor protoplasm 1.38 Phycomyces sporangiophore
1.38 Yeast protoplasm 1.38 Amoeba verrucosa 1.42-1.44
Amoebocyte, Lumbricus 1.400 Amoebocyte, Lumbricus hyaloplasm
1.364 Amoebocyte, Asterias' 1.446 Amoebocyte, Aslerias hyaloplasm
1.385 Stentor cilia 1.51 Sea urchin egg 1.39 Animal protein hbers
1.5-1.6 Blood protein, 1.73(3% 1.339 Blood protein, 10.48% 1.354
Blood, cell ghosts 1.504 Blood, lipids 1.490 Blood, hemaglobin 1.544
Blood, hemaglol)in from disks 1.525 Serum 1.3466 Serum 1.3495
Serum 1.34726 Bone, fresh 1.4S1 Bone marrow 1.3738 Bone,
human, dried 1.549-1.564 Cell, fixed, cleared, strained 1.54 Eye,
aqueous and vitreous 1.337 Eye, cornea 1.377 °C Reference 15
Porter (1947) . . Porter (1947) Calkins and Summers (1941) . .
Heilbrunn (1937) . . Heilbrunn (1937) . . Heilbrunn (1937) . .
Frederikse (1933a, b) Calkins and Summers (1941) Calkins and
Summers (1941) Calkins and Summers (1941) Calkins and Summers
(1941) Calkins and Summers (1941) . . Heilbrunn (1937) . . Schmitt
(1944) . . Schmitt (1944) 18 Schmitt (1944) . . Waugh and Schmitt
(1940) . . Waugh and Schmitt (1940) . . Waugh and Schmitt (1944) .
. Waugh and Schmitt (1944) . . Thorell (1947) 17 0.0013/°C, du
Noiiy (1929) 37 Thorell (1947) Antonio (1949) Pantin (1946)
American Optical Co. Chart American Optical Co. Chart
 TECHNIC 19f Table V.l — Continued [ Eye, lens 1.42
American Optical Co. Chart Eye, retina, cow, dark adapted 1.3610 ±
0.0008 Ajo (1947) Eye, retina, new-born calf 1.3(321 ± 0.0012 Ajo
(1947) Eye, retina, pig 1.35733 ± 0.00167 . . Ajo (1947) Muscle,
deep back, of rat 1.537 ± 0.001 Groat (1941) Histological sections
1.536± Crossmon (1949) Tooth enamel 1.627, 1.623 Crossmon
(1949) Tooth tlentine 1.577 ± 0.003 Crossmon (1949) Tooth
cementum 1.560-1.570 Crossmon (1949) Some industrial and
reference materials from various sources nD Celluloid 1.53 ±
Cellulose 1.53 and 1.59 Cotton 1.56 Flax 1.56 Gelatin, dry 1.54
Hemp 1.56 Nylon 1.55 Ramie 1.56 Shellac 1.54 Silica, fused 1.46013
Silica, crystal 1.544 and 1.553 Silk 1.54 and 1.59 Silk, acetate 1.48
and 1.475 Silk, viscose 1525 and 1.55 Sisal 1.53 Starch 1.53 Wool
1.54+ and 1.55 + NH4CI 1.490 NH4I 1.703 KCl 1.490 NaCl 1.544
Thinner preparations usually reveal more detail than thicker ones,
which justifies the small amount of practice reciuired to obtain good
mounts \vith living materials. With many tissues, cells may be
obtained by tapping the cut surface into a drop of fluid on a slide.
Ciliated epithelial cells from the lung of a mouse are readily isolated
in this way, providing a good teaching preparation as the beat of the
cilia continues for some time in mammalian Ringer's or Locke's
solution. Smooth muscle fibers isolated in 5% citric acid were
examined by Magliozzi (1948). Some investigators force tumor or
other tissues through a fine screen to break up the tissue and
examine the resulting brie for isolated cells or cell groups. The
classical experiment of disrupting a sponge and watching the
reorganization might be repeated to advantage with the phase
microscope. Microorganisms may be shaken apart for
 196 PHASE MICROSCOPY IN BIOLOGY AND MEDICINE Fig.
V.l
 BACTERIA, PHAGE, AND VIRUS 197 examination. Many
body fluids contain cells or organisms and may be examined without
further treatment. Serous fluids are useful mounting materials either
as liquids or after clotting. When the optical path difference is not
optimal for good visibility the refractive index of the mounting
medium may be changed (Section 3.2 of Chapter IV) or other
contrasts and types of diffraction plates tried. Table V.l gives
refractive indices of some specimens (see also Table IV.l). Mounts of
living organisms and wet mounts in general should be sealed with
petroleum jelly, paraffin, or other suitable material to reduce
movements from convection currents, to prevent evaporation and
the consequent necessity of periodically adding water, and to hold
the cover glass in place. When the aqueous preparation covers only
the center three-fourths of the area, paraffin oil may be run imder
the cover to seal evaporation. Some immersion oils are sufficiently
non-toxic and are preferable to paraffin oil as the index and
dispersion are corrected for microscopy. Oxygen will dissolve and be
carried through such a thin paraffin layer in adequate amounts for
some microorganisms. Various types of mounts, cells, and
compressors have been described in the earlier popular books on
microscopy. These might well be revived for use with phase
microscopy (Beale, 1870; Carpenter, 1901; Hogg, 1886; Quekett,
1852; or other editions). 3. MICROORGANISMS 3.1. Bacteria, phage,
and virus Bacteria should be examined in wet mounts (Fig. V.l). Heat
fixation should be avoided whenever possible, because it shrinks and
distorts the cells. The larger bacteria may be studied with the
0.2A±0.25X diffraction plates, although the 0.14A — 0.25X may be
found more useful than the 0.2A — 0.25X plate. The smallest
organisms require greater contrast, as do the internal details of the
cell, and the 0.07A±0.25X plates are preferable. Bright contrast is
usually chosen for locating and counting organisms, and dark
contrast for measurement. The smaller structural details are more
easily seen with bright contrast although the dark contrast resembles
the appearance of Fig. V.l. Bacteria. A-D, Bacillus mycoides, 1500 X:
A, brightfield. B, darkcontrast (B — ) phase. C, dark-contrast (A — )
phase. D, bright -contrast phase. E-J, Mycobacterium lephrae, 4000
X: E, brightfield. F, dark-contrast phase. G-J, bright-contrast phase.
K, giant .spirochete, 1600 X. Bright-contrast phase. Lr-0,
pneumococci showing capsules, 3000 X: M, brightfield. .V, dark-
contrast phase. L, 0, bright-contrast phase. P, Q, Bacillus cereus,
2500 X : P, dark-contrast phase. Q, bright-contrast phase.
 198 PHASE MICROSCOPY IX BIOLOGY AND MEDICINE
stained preparations with the brightfield microscope. The B —
diffraction plates are useful with stained organisms and often
provide better contrast for fine detail with unstained organisms than
the harsher A— type for dark contrast (Fig. \.1B). With the long-
focus condenser equipment it is possible to examine bacteria
growing on agar in Petri dish cultures when the agar is not too thick,
even with the oil immersion lens. A cover glass should be placed on
the agar to prevent moisture from the preparation fogging the
objective. The phase microscope shows more detail within organisms
than the darkfield microscope, which reveals outlines or large
inclusions. However, in the examination of exudates from sores the
phase microscope makes the pus cells and other material likewise
more visible, and the darkfield microscope is preferable for most
observations of this type, e.g., finding spirochetes in smear
preparations from syphilitic sores. Sputum smears with considerable
amounts of mucus should be examined by fluorescence or staining
methods rather than with the phase microscope, because the
enhanced visibility of the mucus obscures any bacteria present.
When the surrounding medium is not too full of extraneous material
the phase microscope is useful for locating bacteria. Perry (1948)
illustrated a spirochete in a tissue culture. When the shape and
optical path of a bacterium and material near it are the same, it may
not be possible to tell them apart by phase microscopy. A single
coccus often cannot be distinguished from a similar-sized fat globule
in milk without other methods, but bacteria of other forms may be
found and in some cases identified from their shape. Some
organisms are too small to be seen, as unstained Leptospira in
kidney tissue sections. The special stains add enough material (e.g.,
silver) to the organism to make it of size to be visible, and with
these stains B— diffraction plates give still better contrast. For these
the further development of phase microscopy may show that the
0.07A-I-0X or 0.07A+0.4-0.5X diffraction plates are appropriate.
Although one of the advantages of phase microscopy is the saving of
time and materials involved in staining procedures, the use of the
phase microscope with stained materials is often advantageous,
Table V.2 (see also Section 3.5 of Chapter IV). Eisenstark and
McMahon (1949) have combined nigrosin negative staining with
phase for study of the capsules of Azotobader. Phase and electronic
flash have been used by Richards (19486) to make very sharp
pictures for accurate measurement of the size of bacteria (Fig. V.l, P
and Q). A pure strain of B. megatherium had an average width of
1.0 M (o" = 0.06 ju). For B. cercus an average width of 1.10 n was
obtained with bright-contrast phase and 1.05 /x with dark-contrast
 BACTERIA, PHAGE, AND VIRUS 199 Table V.2 Diffraction
plates reconi mended for stained specimens Stain Specimen Plate t
Reference Acetoformol-toluidin liluc Yeast chromosomes 2.5B-0.25X
Lindegren (1947) Biolschowsky Nervous tissue ABarer (19486)
Fuelgen Chromatin lB-0.25\ * Light green Chromosomes 0.14A-
0.25X Schultz* Machiavelli Rickettsiae 1B-0.25X * Orcein
Chromosomes 0.14A-0.25X * Paschen's carbol-fuchsine Fowl pox
0.07A+0.25X * with red filter Polychrome methylene blue Blood
(supnivital) 1B-0.25X * Soudan black Mitochondria 2.5B-0.25X Jones
(1947) Toluidin blue Cartilage 1B-0.25X * Warthin-Starry method
Leptospira 1B-0.25X * * Richards, unpublished observations. t
Commercial designations: IB— 0.25X = low B— contrast. 2.5B—
0.25X = medium B— contrast. Of the A+ and the A— plates 0.07 is
high contrast, 0.14 is medium contrast, and 0.2 is low contrast. The
A— gives dark and the \+ bright contrast for specimens with greater
optical path than that of their suiround. phase (a = 0.07 and 0.05
/x). The results agree with theory in that the same value was
obtained with both contrasts within the error of measurement. The
relation of these values to those in the literature are discussed in the
original paper, although direct comparison was not possible since
other methods (even negative staining) alter the size of the
bacterium and bright field microscopy does not provide an image
sharp enough for measurement. The use of phase microscopy and
motion picture recording should clarify some problems of growing
bacteria and disputed life histories (Section 3.6 of Chapter IV).
Unstained bacteria show considerable detail (Fig. V.l). The outside
wall does not show in most living, unstained organisms. With
stained, mordanted B. cereus the 0.14A— 0.25X diffraction plate
shows both wall and detail (Fig. Y.2E). Unmordanted stained cells
(Fig. V.2F) show nuclear detail as dark areas with a 0.15A+0.25X
plate. We are indebted to Dr. Robinow for the preparations from
which Figures Y.2E and Y.2F were made. Increased contrast from
reversal to bright contrast by means of a 0.07A-|-X/4 plate and red
light from a Wratten A filter may be obtained with Ziehl-Neelsen
stained bacteria (Fig. V.2, A-D). The limitations of this procedure
were discussed in Section 3.5 of Chapter IV. Septa were observed at
each full turn of the spiral in a giant spirochete by Dyar (1947) (Fig.
V.l/v). Leprosy bacteria have been studied with phase by Hichards
and Wade (1949). Haselmann
 Fig. V.2. Bright contrast with red filter for Ziehl-Neelsen
stained bacteria. A, B, leprosy; C, D, tuberculosis, 1000 X. A, C,
brightfield; B, D, high bright-contrast phase. E, F, Bacillus cereus,
1850 X: E, stained without tannic acid. F, stained with tannic acid.
200
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