British newspapers Essay Example for Free

British themes probeOn Friday 25th October 2002, all British newspapers reported on the outcome of the trial of Alastair Irvine, the son of the manufacturer Chancellor, Derry Irvine. Alastair Irvine, 25 was sentenced to 16 months in prison after pleading guilty to six stalking, vandalism and grinder charges arsing from his pursuit of a 19-year-old woman. By comparing the coverage of this chronicle in four national newspapers, we potty reach conclusions about their general approach, their choice of content, range of presentation and numerous aspects of life. It is eventful to choose a wide spread of newspapers so that all different viewpoints on the story are represented. The newspapers I ask chosen are The periodic b down, The Daily asterisk, The Independent, The Guardian and The Times. Both The Daily position and The Daily confidential information are rags whilst the rest are all bills. The newspaper that donates the closely coverage to the story was The Daily Mail. The inaugural thing you nonice with the Mail member is the amount of space devoted to it. The single bind takes up a whole page, save a small rather ironic advert entitled crepuscle Delights.The certain column space is a huge fifty-five and a half centimetres, three measure more than most of the separate papers. A nonher main feature of the article is the real blown-up go out of Alastair Irvine, which takes up much of the central part of the page. It is a rattling selectively taken photo, which portrays Alastair Irvine as universe mentally insane. The other picture on the page is one of ecclesiastic Irvine, Alastairs father. This is again a shoot down chosen detailally to influence the reader. The picture is slanted so that shaper Irvines eyes are look directly into his sons.In addition, victor Irvine has a truly am employ expression set on his face, grown the reader the printing process that he is pleased to see his son go to prison. Also, master cop y Irvine is dressed in his judges gown and rough irony that a judges son be put in prison. One important thing to none is the Mails own view on politics. It is commonly known that The Daily Mail is opposed to New Labour and Mails own relationship with the ecclesiastic Chancellor. The Lord Chancellor, being a member of the Labour cabinet is likely to be given bad press.However, he has in like manner had a dispute with the Daily Mails sister paper, The Mail on Sunday. Lord Irvine criticised The Mail on Sunday after it printed a story about his sons drug addiction, amongst other things criticizing Lord Irvines views on the legalization of stoolnabis Lord Irvine took the matter to the press complaints commission. It is obvious that the paper and the Lord Chancellor do not switch a very good relationship and why the Daily Mail is taking such a untroubled opinion on this one particular article. Another thing to note is the power with which the Daily Mail uses the headline.The headl ine draws immediately to the fact that the writers and most probably the readers are more interested in Lord Irvine rather than Alastair. The headline also uses very affective talking to, used to influence the readers views. Amongst many other words used in the article, terrorising and young lovers are used in the headline. The idea that he has terrorised young lovers is a very strong and horrific thought and very strong linguistic communication. This is used to make us experience that he Alastair Irvine is evil, reinforced by the striking photograph of Alastair Irvine. The strap-line also contains emotional words.Alastair Irvine is described as a drug addict and his actions shamed his family. The idea of Alastair shaming his family is supported by the smile of his father, Lord Irvine. It is also important to concentrate on the positive text used in the article. Usually in a newspaper the first paragraph should briefly summarize the story, however, the Daily Mail article conce ntrates on the fact that Alastair Irvine is Lord Irvines son and that he terrorised young lovers. The use of more words that are emotive and the focusing on the fact that he is the Chancellors son shows kind of solvely how the Mail feel about this particular article.The min paragraph also shows the Mails own views on the story Alastair Irvine, 25, pleaded guilty in return for a diffuse sentence. The idea that the sentence given was lenient implies that the paper thought he de serve welld more and that the curse he committed was very serious compared to the punishment given. There are many warnings throughout the Mail article of emotive words and personal feeling. The whole of the next paragraph is used as an example of the writer influencing the readers by the quality of manner of speaking. All emotive words in this paragraph have been specifically placed here for this reason.The stating of the fact that he could have faced up to 18 years in jail. Shows again that the Mail think Alastair deserved more than his lenient sentence. The Mail also states that Alastair showed no sense as he was led away. This again influences us into believing that Alastair was not bad at all. However, many of us would believe that someone who has just pleaded guilty to a crime may feel repentant and somebody who is likely to face six months in jail would feel emotional. The Daily Mail article continues with words such as obsessed and hassle being used throughout the rest of the article.It is clear that the purpose of this article is not, as it should be, to interpret news, but to deter from the facts and promote Alastair Irvine and therefore Lord Irvine as a bad person. It is important to study other aspects of the article. The page number this article is on does not reflect the true amount of importance that the Mail intended to place upon it, it being on a mere page seven. Granted other newspapers have had the article on earlier pages but the miasmic size and effort p ut into the article reflect how much the Mail cares about this specific article.The language used in the article is not as simple as it could be however, it is not very complicated and this probably appeals to the readers of the Daily Mail. Overall, it is clear to see how this article has been written in a certain way to influence the reader and to not report the news but to change to news to serve its own purpose needed. This is a classic example of the media affecting the news in a specific way for a specific purpose. The next paper to be studied is The Daily whizz. The Daily supporter is too a tabloid newspaper.The Daily star article although not as large as the Mail version is still as biased and emotive. The first thing to notice is the Daily Star is the only newspaper present that does not include the words Lord Irvine or anything referring to the Lord in the headline. However, the Daily Star headline is much more vague and strong Stalker son is jug At first glance, this m ay give us the impression that a son of a canary has been imprisoned rather than a stalking son has been jailed. The picture shows Alastair looking remarkably depressed with the situation unlike the Daily Mail article.However, the caption under picture bares a likeness to the Mails. The word caged is used whilst in the Mail article the word Manacled was used, both of these words are strong and give the impression that Alastair Irvine is some sort of trapped animal. The first paragraph, now, does describe who Alastair Irvine is. The words Lord Chancellor naturally arrive. The emotive word used in this paragraph is the use of the word love rival. This gives us the impression of some sort of battle occurring between Alastair and his love rival.This again is quite an unnecessary word which is used to come sympathy to the stalked love rival. The language used in the Star article is a lot simpler, than the language used in the Daily Mail, this again appeals to the readers of The Daily S tar, who are not expected to have a vast vocabulary. The only cross heading used in the article is a very striking one, Threats this gives the reader an impression of the article before they have actually read it and prepares the reader for the clumsiness of the article.However, the content of the article is generally quite good, most of the information quite relevant, save Lord Irvine, a senior member of Government and a close friend of Toney Blair. The article is dotted with the odd emotive word however, nowhere as near as many as the Mail. The column length of the article in the Star is a mere fifteen centimetres, which is far below the average of all the other articles. Overall, isolated from the misleading headline, the occasional unnecessary paragraph and the simple use of language The Daily Star provides an informative yet easily understood version of the story.The next paper is not a tabloid but a broadsheet, meant to report the news rather that influence the readers. The Independent does just that. The simple headline gives all the relevant knowledge needed. It tells us why the story is important, mentioning Lord Irvine, how long Alastair has been imprisoned for, and for what reason. The actual font size of the headline is very small compared to the previously discussed articles. The first paragraph is very informative. It tells us of the nature of his plea and of his crime.The giving of his age, followed by the nine-teen year old girl may be regarded as a ploy to influence the reader, however, I do not regard it as so. The Independents article is the most informative and goes into more detail that reported by any other newspaper. There are very few emotive words included however the occasional one does turn up. The Independent also reports that the sentence received by Irvine was much lower than he deserved however it does not rate it as bluntly as both the Mail and the Star. The Independent talks about his drug chore in detail.It mentions the fa ct that he actually travelled to California to undergo rehabilitation for his crack-cocaine addiction. It also goes into more detail than the other articles about the nature of his attacks and his threats. The independent talks about the psychological state that Alastair was in and also talks about the importance of this story politically, all with great measures taken to be artless and fact providing. The page number of the article shows the relative importance of the article, I personally feel it is a bit too high also the column length of the article at twenty-nine centimetres seams reasonable.The language used in the article is frivolous in places but overall, not too much more complicated that the Star article. This article has one sole purpose alone and that is to report the news and to provide as much information that is possible and relevant. Overall, out of the all the articles The Independent has the most informative article. It is candid and provides a good insight into the news story. The final newspaper to be discussed is the Guardian. The first thing spy of the article is the sheer size. It is only a little smaller than the Daily Mail.Noticeable too, however, is the very large picture of a handcuffed Alastair Irvine looking very depressed. The huge headline is simple and similar to the other broadsheets, referring to Lord Irvine and the crime committed. The strap-line however, is less impartial and divulges more into the thoughts of Lord Irvine who wished not to comment. We also note the photograph of Lord Irvine who is looking rather gleeful and again dressed in his judges gown. The caption also tells us that the Chancellor is happy that the case has been resolved, implying somewhat that he is happy to see his son go to prison.The actual content of The Guardians article is quite impressive also, it divulges into past confrontations between Lord Irvine and The Sunday Mail, and also in Alastairs drug problem. It mentions the charges and also a speech from the lawyer of Alastair Irvine who states the gratefulness of Alastair on getting off so lightly and the fact that he could not be guaranteed a win by his own lawyer. The article also mentions some politics and shows the gratefulness of the deputy district attorney at the lack of psychological disorder by Lord Irvine.This article again has no purpose but to inform the reader of the story with as much impartiality as possible. The story is only on page eight which is quite far back but the grand size of it makes up for its importance. The article is well structured with points join from one to the other and the material covered is excellent with a wide range of points included that were not in other articles. The language is of a reasonable complexity and this also reflects the audience, which it is targeted at.Overall, the article is excellent apart from the few emotive words present, the strap-lines severity and the unnecessary size of the picture. In this essay, the v oid between tabloids and broadsheets has distinctly been identified. From the extreme tabloid, which provides little useful information but much opinion of The Daily Mail to the extremes of broadsheet with a huge picture and lots of valuable information of The Guardian the progressive change of the articles has been highlighted. By personal favourite article is the Independents, being not only informative but also not excessive.Its size is enough for a quick but in-depth guide to the article and does not detract from it with the jot of being a difficult read. However, each article has its own niche market, and I, cannot speak for the variety of deal who belong to the readers of any of the newspapers. That is someway creates a sense of impartiality, however, being me alone it is all I can offer. In summate, if a variety of people from different cultures were to write this essay the result may be different, not in quality but in content.