This study seeks to examine the spoken language used during NTA Kaduna
Newsroom Editorial Board Meetings with the aim of describing the nature
of its dialogue, providing an assessment of it, and exposing the
peculiarities therein. It brings to the fore features that have
otherwise not been observed in newsroom dialogue. The usual assumption
by discourse analysts is that language used in institutionalized or
formal settings is structured and follows the tenets of Discourse
Analysis. As a result, there is a disparity in language use in
spontaneous and institutionalized settings. Chapter one focuses on the
background to the study. It also presents a brief insight into the case
study and the profiles of a few of its staff. It also examines the
research problem, aims, scope and delimitation as well as the
significance of the study. Chapter two looks at scholarly works that
help in understanding discourse analysis and the description of a
newsroom, makeup of the editorial board, language use in context,
conversational implicature, conversational structure, theoretical
framework which was founded on Paul H. Grices‟ pragmatic principles and
ethnomethodology. Chapter three is the methodology where data for this
research was gathered by means of tape recordings. The use of recorded
dialogue was to enable the researcher to observe the proceedings within a
newsroom firsthand from an observer‟s point of view. This was done over
a period of two weeks. Chapter four assesses the newsroom dialogue. To
accomplish this task, two research questions were answered. The study
employed the free transcription style in the analysis of its data.
Chapter five takes us to a Pragmatic insight which forms the basis for
arrival at our conclusion. This study observes that language use within
the newsroom is not fashioned in the usual manner of language use in
institutionalized settings. It notes that spontaneity is a key feature
in newsroom discourse. It recommends that language use in other
institutionalized settings should be analysed as well for their
flexibility as it pertains to spontaneity and also of the use of other
theoretical genres of linguistics for the analysis of dialogue as
discourse should be considered.