In The Times the layout is very different, the headline is in smaller print and they don’t capitalise which is less dramatic but it means they can fit more writing on the page because the readers of The Times generally read more than the readers of tabloids such as The Sun. Also on the front page is a large picture of Damilola’s grave that is very depressing and makes the readers feel sorrow for Damilola, unlike The Sun’s front-page picture, which makes the readers feel anger towards the boys. On the second page is a timeline of events leading up to the trial, which is unusual for a broadsheet, these usually appear in tabloids because it helps readers understand a sequence of events and broadsheet readers would most likely already know. A depressing picture of the stairs where Damilola was murdered is used to create sympathy like the front-page picture. Articles on the investigation take up the rest of the page, in which The Times criticises the police and the whole investigation itself. The poor handling of the case by the police is the main focus of The Times in this story, whereas The Sun mainly focuses on the two suspects and regularly compares them to The Krays. The last page has pictures and information on the murder weapons, similar to The Sun’s last page but with a lot more writing and smaller pictures.
All the headlines are written in the active voice and are directed towards the two boys in a negative way. They either compare the boys to the Krays or negatively describe them. On the second page the main headline:
“Rulers of the ghetto”
Gives the impression that the boys live a crime-based lifestyle, this is implied by the word ghetto, which is normally associated with gangs and crime. Also on this page there are some smaller headlines, which are single nouns/adjectives that describe the boys:
“Bullies”, “Troublemakers”, “Menace” and “Violent”.
These clearly show the opinion of The Sun towards the boys and state how awful they are, so if a reader were to quickly ‘scan’ the page they would see these smaller headlines and get the impression that the boys were evil without seeing any possible good points about them. There are not as many headlines on the last page, but one that stands out is:
“Evil pair led sex attack on my girl, says mum”
A lot of the previous headlines gave impressions that the boys were evil, whereas this actually says ‘Evil pair’ and so no sympathy is felt for them in any way, and readers are led to believe that it was definitely they even though they were proven not guilty.
The Times’ headlines have less to with the boys but more to do with the case itself, such as the headline on the second page:
“The model inquiry that became a £2.8m fiasco police dared not drop”
The use of ‘fiasco’ shows that The Times thinks that the police handled the case poorly and they blame the outcome of the trial on them. The rest of the headlines in The Times are of a similar style. In The Sun the headlines are short phrases whereas in the Times they are proper sentences.
The nouns used in The Sun are mainly concrete with the occasional abstract, this makes the paper slightly easier to read but can make the story less interesting as abstract nouns such as ‘fear’ and ‘terror’ can make the readers emotions stronger and have greater interest of the story. The Sun uses negative nouns such as ‘thugs’ and ‘bullies’ to highlight their view of the two boys. They also regularly refer to them as ‘The New Krays’, which gives a good comparison for those who may not have heard much of the case. It also helps readers understand how violent and evil the two suspects are. The verbs used by The Sun are aimed at the two boys’ bad behaviour and there are quite a few which are to do with the murder itself such as ‘stabbed’ and ‘attacked’, these are used quite frequently and help create more anger towards the two boys and sorrow towards Damilola. This is also the same with its adjectives, which are even stronger especially on the evidence page where adjectives like ‘jagged’, ‘hideous’, ‘gruesome’ and ‘grim’ are used. Together with the pictures these adjectives are very strong and emotive.
The Times has very few, if any, negative nouns similar to the ones The Sun uses. The Times uses more dignified nouns such as ‘tragedy’, ‘fiasco’ and ‘farce’. These nouns refer to the whole case, which The Times believes was handled very poorly by the police. The Times uses lighter verbs and adjectives than The Sun and again focuses them on the investigation and the case instead of the two suspects like The Sun.
It is clear to see that The Suns attitude towards the trial is that the boys are ‘evil’ criminals and should not have got away with it. They do comment on how the whole case was handled poorly but not in great detail. However The Times has completely the opposite attitude on the case, as they focus their articles on criticising the way the police handled the case. This is probably because they did not want to be too biased like The Sun.
