Table I presents data on determiner deletion for two New Zealand radio
stations. the AAP-Reuter news agency from which they received their
international news, and the NZP A agency which edited AAP for the private
station XA ( cf. Fig. 1 ). In ··national" news originating within New Zealand,
both stations have low determiner deletion. Station YA, the prestigious
.. National Programme". permits no determiner deletion at all. Station XA,
a rock music station. has a level of 14% deletion. However, in international
news the picture is different. AAP, the source of international news
for the other three, has 59. 7% deletion, a much higher level. To shift the
style of the international copy, YA, PA and XA start applying the editing
rule of determiner reinsertion, putting back in the determiners previously
deleted in AAP copy (Fig. 3). YA reinserts almost all the deleted determiners
it receives to reach a level of 4.5% in the international news it
broadcasts. The PA agency brings the AAP level down slightly to 53.5% in
the copy it sends out. That frequency is then the input to station XA, which
reinserts rather more determiners to reduce the level further to 40%.