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What's a press release
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Read the following carefully Embargoed - For release 3:35 p.m. EST Wednesday 11/4
Detroit - General Motors today reported a volume-related production schedule adjustment at its Chevrolet-Pontiac-Canada (CPC) Group Framingham (Mass.) assembly plant.
Effective 30 November, the Framingham plant will suspend production of the Chevrolet Celebrity and Oldsmobile Cutlas passenger cars.
Currently the plant employs approximately 3,700 persons on two shifts. Questions: - What could be a "volume-related production schedule adjustment"?
- What does it mean to "suspend production"?
- What do you think will happen to the 3,700 employees?
Now rewrite the text in plain, everyday English Additional questions: - Who, do you think, does the text come from, who is it meant for and - ultimately - what kind of text is this?
- What is its function?
- How do you know that it is not, say, a newspaper report?
- What is an embargo?
It is now possible to speculate why the text was written in this almost unintelligible language. Compare with the far more direct newspaper headlines about the same event. GM SHUT DOWN FRAMINGHAM PLANT 3,700 TO GO AT GENERAL MOTORS MORE BAD NEWS FROM THE CAR INDUSTRY SOCIAL DISASTER IN MASSACHUSSETS On the basis of what you have just learnt, try to define - in your own words - possible definitions for the following concepts and give concrete examples. - news managers
- newsmakers
- news consumers
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