With its use of ‘WAR ON THE WORLD’, featuring Osama Bin Laden and George W. Bush on either side of the banner, ‘The Mirror’ has illustrated the significance of these attacks by disclosing the fact that it will affect the whole world . Also, by placing this alliterative catch-phrase on either side of a picture of these two men it shows who, in reality, this war will be between even though the catch-phrase may specify otherwise. In contrast ‘The Times’ has used a different approach to spread the most important information to readers in its use of bullet points. Bullet points are used as a way of representing factual evidence and information and added to ‘Thousands die’ and ‘Bush vows to defend freedom from cowards’ ‘The Times’ would have subsequently managed to render the scale of the matter to its readers. A sub-heading is used which again refers to pearl harbour: ‘Again from the sky swooped Kamikaze Killers’. Harsh sibilance and alliteration has been used here to epitomize the violence of the acts and its evident referral to the attacks on pearl harbour in ‘Kamikaze Killers’.
Both ‘The Times’ and ‘The Mirror’ have utilized the same shocking pictures and even though they depict different people, have the same effect on any reader. The pictures imply the desperation these people were in and how bad the situation must have been for them to give up all hopes of living. It appals a reader and this is the exact effect both newspapers are aiming for in their use of these graphic pictures. ‘The Mirror’ has used a second, smaller picture directly below the capitalised tower shaped headline to further qualify it since the picture portrays desperate workers clamouring at their office windows for help. Indeed, this picture put together with the headline represents the second tower given that the first tower is seen in the vast picture in parallel to the headline. In ‘The Times’ the picture is huge and very clear and judging by the fact that the headline is relatively small compared to the picture, it is most probably the first element of the article a reader would see. The caption used immediately underneath the picture employs ‘leaping’ as its main verb which is used instead of ‘jumped’ because it is associated with somebody intentionally, desperately and aggressively jumping with possible intent for suicide and is a much more thrilling use of language than ‘jumped’. ‘The Mirror’ has used more or less the same technique by means of ‘plunge’ as its main verb use which, again, is a much stronger word than ‘fall’. Once more, ‘The Mirror’ has used an alliterative catch-phrase by describing the couple who jumped hand in hand as being ‘TOGETHER IN TRAGEDY’ somewhat giving the disaster a poetic sentiment.
‘The Mirror’ has intended to evoke its readers’ emotions by employing many personalised stories throughout the entire article which portray the suffering the individuals described sustained. These uses of personal human stories in a random disparate order reflect the vast range of individuals in the tower, most of whom died. An example of this is ‘Sports store boss Robert James, 43, saw at least five bodies fall. He said: “They looked like rag dolls”’. Thus, one can infer that content wise ‘The Mirror’s’ report is a lot more emotive and has based most of its factual evidence on what numerous individuals at the scene had to say therefore enticing one’s own feelings and emotions towards those who suffered and died. Moreover, this gives the article a heightened realism seeing that all the people quoted most probably have similar jobs and lives to those reading the account. On the contrary, ‘The Times’ report has a much more formal, factual and political slant to the way it describes the events and there is little individualisation. In ‘The Times’ the reaction of numerous world leaders and their governments gives a much broader picture and the credibility of quote is increased since they come from official sources such as ‘“Terrorism against our nation will not stand,” President Bush declared…’. Citations like these can be trusted for evident reasons since the broadsheet would be liable if they were untrue, especially if quoting world leaders. Furthermore, it endows a more detailed overview, inclusive of supplementary statistics which were not discussed in ‘The Mirror’ such as the attack on the Pentagon and what ‘was believed to have an intended strike on Camp David, the presidential retreat’. In addition concrete evidence of those who died is specified such as ‘American Airlines said that its two hijacked aircraft had been carrying a total of 156 people’. ‘The Mirror’ has chosen to quote civilians giving their own rough estimates therefore causing a lot of the evidence to be unsubstantiated.
The Media TV coverage of September 11th 2001 makes use of simplistic yet formally interesting and descriptive language, abetted through the sounds we hear, which unfolds the events as they happened. The transcript includes a report from a BBC correspondent which is evocative and emotive to a viewer since he has to start running in the middle of his account to escape the collapsing towers. Sirens, evacuation alarms and shrieks of panic all point towards signs of a disaster. The rumble as the towers collapse would, without the visuals, initially appear to be an earthquake and the final word to the preliminary signs of the catastrophe. The distress calls of ‘help!’ as the towers were about to fall illustrate to the viewers the desperation these people were in to get out whereas the presenter of the live CNN news programme needed clarification from his correspondent that the towers were collapsing indicative of the state of disbelief most were in. All these sound effects aid and amplify a viewer’s state of disbelief, shock and horror while many of the noises such as the evacuation alarm remain in our thoughts for a long time after the television report has ended.
Many of the panoramic shots used almost seem unrealistic because of the fact that they do not appear to be coming from someone’s own eyes compared to the closer shots. An example of this is the effect of the reporter’s hand held camera when the correspondent is escaping the ash and dust cloud approaching him and others. It gives the viewer a sense of the petrified state the reporter and those around him were mainly because the handheld camera appears to be recording images from one’s very own eyes- therefore slightly personalising the scene. Many of the angles and shots used during the report especially the low angle camera shots of the towers are effective because they depict how huge the centre of America’s financial sector was just before it came down. Numerous close up shots which then zoom out are very effective too for the reason that they slowly reveal more of the destruction which surrounds the tower and the city. A wide array of colours is seen in the report and one of the most outstanding is the final scene, a panoramic view of the city, seen from a helicopter, which slowly zooms out to reveal a devastated city behind it. A sepia wash of smog contrasting against a bright blue sky, hanging above a desolate gap of emptiness leaving the viewer with a doubtlessly almost surreal and shocked impression. Another example of a highly effective scene is when the tower collapses and sends a billowing ball of dust ash and smoke towards the camera which may well be interpreted by many as the city being engulfed with evil. But truly, one of the colours that really stand out in most of the scenes is the flashing red sirens contrasting against the blue sky and yellow sun as well as the dark grey of the towers- red has always been a colour which signifies danger. By the piece being edited in a way that it produces a mixture of report (passive) and live footage (active) from the CNN, definitely leaves an intense notion of revulsion on a viewer. In this way, the editing is long and smooth therefore permitting it to retell the story in a simplistic yet highly emotional manner.
All three media reports have aimed to describe the affect of the attacks and the collapse of the twin towers on the rest of New York. Both newspapers used the fact of ‘dust’ and ‘pieces of paper’ drenching Manhattan, while ‘The Mirror’ expanded on its reports on the people of New York by describing that call boxes and all ‘cell phones in the city crashed’. The Television report uses the surreal panoramic view as its ending point to illustrate the devastation New York had gone through added to the desolate gap the attacks had left behind with the voice over adding solemn words to match the sombre images it describes: ‘And then the World Trade Centre, proud symbol that it was, of the wealthiest city in the world, was no more.” This visibly highlights the importance of the towers and in turn, the significance of the events, proving to be an effective ending to the report.
The three media reports have achieved their aims but in different ways. ‘The Mirror’ article has plainly been able to achieve its aim of horrifying, evoking and emoting its readership with informal, colloquial and expletive language in addition to plenty of personal quote use. Paragraphs and sentences are short in order to prolong readers’ attention. ‘The Times’, although non-colloquial and restrained, has still managed to sustain its readership’s interest through its varied sentence structures and informative tone as well as ample facts and concrete evidence from a variety of official sources to back them up. Finally, the BBC televised news report has also managed its aim of horrifying and shocking its viewers with the visual experiences provided and the informative, descriptive, factual yet reserved background voiceover. Thus, for the above reasons, it can be concluded that all three have reached their targets and aims for their readerships or viewers although in many different ways of conducting their approach.
By Mohsen Khairaldin-Garcia, 10Y