Plain Style to Unite Audiences

The world of media is a lot more complex than some may realize, navigating billion-dollar acquisitions, company mergers, and network ownership. Knowing who controls the media you consume is important for a wide audience because of the impact ownership can have on content biases, particularly in the news realm.

Journalists must relay this kind of information not only to the general public, but also to other media outlets not involved, stock market enthusiasts, and business moguls. They do this through plain style.

Interestingly, this NPR article about the Disney/Fox merger popped up in their business section, not entertainment, iterating the importance of the financial effects of this deal over the effect on content now that Disney owns iconic, and sometimes raunchy, characters like Homer Simpson and Deadpool. This emphasis on financials is the reason it is more integral to the business world but is also the reason it is written in plain style.

The article utilizes many plain style strategies in order to make this topic accessible to a wider audience, however its readability statistics would tell you otherwise. Where the typical reading level for a standard audience to understand is seventh grade, this article clocks in at almost 13th grade! This could be due to the quotes that are included, increasing the sentence length, as well as the frequent mention of money and numbers from the financial aspect of it.

Coleman Liau index:12.11
Flesch Kincaid Grade level:12.98
ARI (Automated Readability Index):12.96
SMOG:14.77

The most glaring plain style strategy is the use of short and concise paragraphs, each containing one topic. Quotes are used to further explain topics while giving the audience the chance to contextualize what they are reading in the sense of who is being affected by this deal. Creative language is thrown in as occasional descriptors. This is probably to ease the financial heavy language of numbers and networks in order to keep readers more interested in the impact of their media engaged. The author dubs Disney an “entertainment behemoth,” references Disney “flirting with the idea,” and even begins the entire article by referencing two major characters from each empire. The initial sentence that introduces the merger to its audience is perfect:

“Homer Simpson probably won't become the newest member of the Avengers, but anything's possible now that Disney owns 21st Century Fox.”

The image of Homer Simpson on a life-threatening mission with the Avengers is ridiculous, but this descriptive, straight-forward sentence puts the Disney/Fox merger into context for those not as well versed in media acquisition but also exemplifies the impact it will have on content going forward in this new landscape.

Using plain style is further supported in this article when tweets are used to provide credibility instead of convoluted sentences. Tweets from Simpsons writer AI Jean and Ryan Reynolds, aka Deadpool show support and excitement in the simplest way. The additional use of tweets helps break up the places of jargon without taking away the importance of the subject matter or dumbing it down too much.

Plain style in this piece of writing is essential because of the audience it is targeted toward. What makes it credible isn’t the ability to explain the topic in a convoluted way like official style, but the way in which the author can write in a way that is understandable to the masses, despite the higher-grade level.

Noelle H.