ion (current affairs ) as little as 5 per cent, on some channels but its significance is perceived to be far greater than this small figure suggests. The core element in this output is well-defined: the news bulletin, consisting of a series of items of varying size, often divided into sections (eg general, business, sport, weather), sometimes punctuated by advertising. Each of them fits into a format which may be of any length, but often as short as two minutes. Analysis of a typical day's radio or television broadcasting brings to light several varieties of language which are in use elsewhere. Indeed, probably all conceivable spoken varieties will be found at some point or other in the broadcasting media. If a use of language is important enough to develop predictable linguistic features, the situations to which they relate are undoubtedly going to be of regular interests to listeners and viewers. The only constraint is sensitivity to taboo words.
.1.2 Weather reporting
Is one of the best examples, especially on radio where, in its specialized form, it is reduced to its bare essentials, as a restricted language. The names of the Meteorological Office sea areas surrounding the British Isles provide British English with some of the most distinctive weather-forecasting lexicon. Along the well-known areas such as Irish Sea, Plymouth, Portland, Thames , there exist a great deal of new coinages applied to meteorological regions, for example, Viking, Cromarty, Dogger, Forties (in the east), Shannon, Rock all, Bailey (in the west), or even more confusing phrases North Utsire and South Utsire (the western parts of the Scandinavian Peninsula). Most people know at least some of the names by heart, though few could locate more than a handful with any accuracy. Two contrasting styles informal and conversational or formal and formulaic are used on BBC Radio in weather forecasting. A successful weather forecast is a mixture of fluent spontaneity, controlled informality and friendly authority. The fluency is partly a matter of careful preparation, but is largely achieved through the broadcaster is ability to rely on formulaic phrasing ( with light winds and largely clear skies, blue skies and sunshine, widespread frost ) and on standard sequences of locations. The number of likely weather situations is really quite limited in a particular region, and certain combinations of features frequently recur.conversational tone may be achieved through the use of: informal lexicon ( t...
