Casa · C1 Advanced · Lesson 18 of 20 · Step 2

Media Ethics

Identify and analyse register shifts across different media contexts
Transform text between formal and informal registers with control and purpose
Discuss media ethics while demonstrating awareness of register appropriacy

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Grammar

Register shifts: formal to informal, written to spoken

Register is the level of formality appropriate to a particular context. Formal features include: passive voice, nominalisation, Latinate vocabulary, complex sentences, impersonal constructions. Informal features include: active voice, phrasal verbs, shorter sentences, contractions, first/second person, colloquialisms. Written register tends to be more dense and explicit; spoken register relies on context, intonation, and shared knowledge. Skilled communicators shift register deliberately: a press release uses formal register; a podcast discussing the same story uses informal register. The ability to transform between registers is a key C1 competency.

Formal: 'The publication of unverified claims constitutes a serious breach of journalistic ethics.' → Informal: 'Putting out stuff you haven't checked is really bad journalism.'

Formal: 'It is incumbent upon media organisations to uphold standards of accuracy.' → Informal: 'News outlets need to make sure they get things right.'

Formal: 'The proliferation of misinformation poses a significant threat to democratic discourse.' → Informal: 'Fake news is a big problem for democracy.'

Formal: 'An investigation was subsequently undertaken.' → Informal: 'They looked into it after that.'

Exercises · type, then check

1. Rewrite each formal sentence in informal register.

1.Formal: 'The dissemination of unverified information is to be avoided.' → Informal:

2.Formal: 'A comprehensive investigation was undertaken.' → Informal:

3.Formal: 'The editor acknowledged that errors had been made.' → Informal:

4.Formal: 'Accountability mechanisms are insufficiently robust.' → Informal:

5.Formal: 'It is essential that sources be corroborated.' → Informal:

2. Match each formal expression with its informal equivalent.

1.The publication subsequently retracted the article.

2.A thorough investigation was conducted.

3.The journalist's objectivity was called into question.

4.It is incumbent upon the editor to verify all claims.

5.The proliferation of clickbait has undermined trust.

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Reading

Who Watches the Watchdogs?

The question of media accountability has never been more pressing. In an era when information — and misinformation — proliferates at unprecedented speed, the traditional mechanisms for holding journalists and media organisations to account appear inadequate. Formal complaints processes, press councils, and defamation law were designed for a world of print newspapers and scheduled broadcasts. They were not designed for a world in which anyone with a smartphone can reach millions of people in seconds. The challenge, put simply, is this: who checks the checkers? Sensationalism and clickbait are not new phenomena, but the economic incentives of the digital age have turbocharged them. Getting clicks pays; getting things right often does not. Some commentators argue that the market will self-correct — that audiences will gravitate towards reliable sources. Others are not so sure. 'Look,' as one media critic put it in a recent podcast, 'people don't share boring headlines. They share the outrageous stuff, even if it's rubbish.' The tension between formal analysis and everyday observation captures the central dilemma: we know what ethical journalism looks like in theory, but the structures that would support it in practice are crumbling. It is high time that this gap was addressed — not with nostalgia for a golden age that may never have existed, but with creative solutions adapted to the reality of the digital landscape.

1. Why does the passage argue that traditional accountability mechanisms are inadequate?

2. How does the passage illustrate the difference between formal and informal register?

Speaking · say it out loud, with a partner or alone

1Take a formal news report and retell the story informally, as if explaining it to a friend. Then reverse the exercise: take an informal anecdote and present it as a formal news bulletin. Discuss the differences.

2Debate: 'Social media companies should be held legally accountable for misinformation on their platforms.' Begin in formal register, then deliberately shift to informal register mid-discussion. Reflect on how the shift affects the persuasiveness of your argument.

Writing

Write two versions of the same paragraph about a media ethics issue: one in formal academic register and one in informal conversational register. Each version should be 4–5 sentences.

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