There are not any residents in the photograph, making the place seem deserted and lonely. This adds eeriness and makes the place seem unsafe. A policeman standing outside the door suggests that the murderer might be coming back and again adds to the danger of the place.
The caption under the main photograph is exactly parallel to the photograph. This makes it very long. It also contains an ellipsis, which is more commonly seen in tabloids. This allows the newspaper to leave out something and/or give more emphasis to the part before the ellipsis.
‘Thoroughly’ relates to the photograph because the police officers have their heads down, as if they are really searching ‘thoroughly’.
The newspaper is trying to make the murder seem worse than it already is. ‘Cold-blooded’ shows this because it is an emotive word. The newspaper does not actually know why they were killed but uses ‘cold-blooded’ to create more sympathy for the girl.
The caption also tries to relate to the readers by using ‘father and daughter’. This then makes the two a family, which creates more sympathy because people with children and families can relate to it. Those people would not want this to happen to them.
The caption underneath the small photograph also uses ellipsis. The ‘murder bedsit’ relates to the photograph as that is what its showing. It shows bias towards her death being her father’s fault because why would he let her live in a ‘murder bedsit’. ‘Horror’ before the ellipsis makes the bedsit seem horrible, and as though something bad is going on there. It is a loaded word as it creates a terrible image in your mind.
The first paragraph of the article is in bold and in a larger font that the rest of the article. ‘Seven’ is even bigger than this, which again emphasises how young she is, and is emotive because it creates sympathy for the girl. A loaded word, ‘assassin’, is also used. This makes the killing seem planned and suggest that the father got into trouble with something. It is biased into making the father seem responsible.
Above this first paragraph is a big sub-heading, which is bigger than the text in the article and is underlined. The first word in the sub-heading is sensationalising ‘murdered’ sounds horrible, compared with killed, that they could have used. It suggests that is was purposeful. ‘Arriving’ is emotive here because it makes it seem as she just arrived. And that she got the chance to experience British life. There is also a subtle irony here, because if Britain is better than Jamaica, how can somebody kill her and her father here and not in Jamaica. ‘New’ is a loaded word in this sub-heading. This is because it suggests that her old life was bad.
The main body of text is social. It is more biased than the headline but stays true to the photographs.
In the fourth paragraph, ‘bleeding badly’ tells us that they had been hurt badly. It is emotive because is suggest a brutal attack and even though ‘officers burst in’ the damage was already done and they were too slow. An extra detail ‘Jamaican; is given. This is the first time we are told that the girl is Jamaican. It tells us through her father being ‘Jamaican’ which suggest that it does not really matter what race the girl is. But is biased against the father because maybe if he was not Jamaican, this would not have happened.
Bias is also used when we are told the two possible motives. ‘-or was shot deliberately makes it seem like the fathers fault. The dash tells us that the newspaper thinks that this the likely option. If it was not for the father, she would not have had to been killed.
We are given more bias against the father. ‘Jail for drugs’ and ‘survived a recent shooting’ are both loaded. Because why would the father let a little girl live with him if he had been shot at. Surely, she was not safe with him. And then serving time ‘for drugs’ makes him out to be a bad man. Someone that should not have children around them. We also learn that the father does not even have a proper name but that ‘Toney’ is what people called him. This again makes him seem like a shifty character and is sensationalising.
Because the girl had died a woman ‘laid flowers’ outside the bedsit. It tells us where the bedsit is ‘Kensal Green, North West London’. This is biased, as it is almost a warning for us to stay away from that place. And is biased towards the farther, as it makes you ask, why would he let her stay there if it was dangerous.
Sensationalism is used when it is told that she was ‘to start primary school today’. ‘Primary’ is the school for young children, which creates sympathy and emphasises her age again. ‘Youngster’ is also loaded here.
Extra information about the girl’s mother is given, that she still lives ‘in Kingston, Jamaica’. We do not need to know this but are told because it means the girls was here without her mother. This then creates the sympathy for the girl, for being without a mother.
We then get told that a Scotland Yard division that ‘tackles crime between black people’ are going to take the case; it tells us that the father might have gotten into some big trouble. It is sensationalising and biased towards the father.
One text-braker is used in the article. This is ‘Limp’. It is told in the part before it that the father was limp and is used here to create a sad mood for the rest of the article.
Quotations are given from neighbours. They vary in size and are put in with the part of the story that fits their purpose. One person does not give their name, suggesting they have something to be afraid of.
This article contains lots of bias. Most bias is against the father, making it seem as though it his fault for the murder. The Sun uses a variety of different techniques to achieve this, such as using loaded and emotive words.
Now I am going to be looking at The Times’ article. The article is not on the front page, but is on page 5 instead. This not to far into the newspaper and therefore does mean that the article is quite important. The article is at the top of the page and is also the biggest on the page. This makes it easily the most dominant article on the page. The other articles on the page are in no way related to this article.
The headline lines are not parallel to each unlike The Suns’ headline. The Times headline does not go all the way across the top of the story whereas The Suns’ does. Two parts of The Times headline are the same as The Sun’s headline. But instead is in the top left hand corner of the article. ‘Girl, 7,’ and ‘shot dead’ are in the headlines of both articles. Therefore, the points that I use for ‘, 7,’ in The Sun headline can also be said for this headline. The headline is formal, and can even be said to be more formal The Sun’s headline because of the use of ‘father’ and not ‘dad’.
Sensationalising is used in the headline. ‘Murder mile’ is used which suggest that the place they lived in was bad. It is inverted commas and tells us that this is a nickname that people have given the place. People know ho bad the place is but a little girl is still allowed to live there. This creates bias against the father, because it makes you ask what kind of father would allow his seven-year-old daughter to live in ‘murder mile’.
Two photographs are used in the article, and they are both in black and white. One is very big and the other is smaller. The big photograph is given the most priority on the page, as it is very eye-catching. No photographs of the actual crime scene are shown. But instead both pictures are of police officers searching for clues. In the big picture the length of the Road relates to ‘mile’ used in the headline.
The caption underneath the small photograph has nothing to do with the picture. But instead just tells a piece of information, told in the article. It as long as the picture. The caption underneath the larger photograph tells what is happening in the photograph, ‘police searching’. But then it just goes on to tell us more information that we are already told in the article. Its size is as long as the photograph.
The first paragraph creates lots of sympathy for the girl. ‘A SEVEN-YEAR-OLD’ is in bold and puts seven back into our faces. The headline has already emphasized how young she is, but telling us again creates even more sympathy for her. A loaded word is also used, ‘recently’. They don’t have to put ‘recently’ in because the ‘only’ before it already tells. It is an extra detail and again creates sympathy for the girl, by emphasising how little time she spent here. This first paragraph also differs from The Suns’ first paragraph because it contains no bias towards the father.
The main body of text is social. It is less biased than the headline unlike The Suns’ article.
Unlike The Suns’ article, the farther is made out not to be such as bad man. If a person ‘laid flowers’ by his flat he cannot have been bad. This is an extra detail given, as it does not tell us anything about the killing. It is also sensationalising. The person who ‘laid flowers’ is said to be the mans ‘friend’. This is a loaded word it again tells us he is not bad, by the fact that he has a friend.
We are also told that the girl does not have mother with her, ‘locate the child’s mother’. This is sensationalising because it makes the girl out to be alone. It creates sympathy because we can either relate to her or cant of life without a mother.
Lots of quotations are used in the article. Mostly they are from neighbours but one is from a police officer. Two neighbours did not want to be named.
One of the quotations says that the girl was ‘very bright and cheerful.’ This again is not biased towards the father, because if he was bad, she would not be so happy. This is done again when she says even though he has been in prison for drugs ‘he has not been in trouble for a very long time.’ This whole quotation is loaded and sensationalising as the father is made to be changed whereas in The Sun he is not.
The police inspector quotation is also loaded. We are yet again reminded of the fact that the girl is ‘a seven-year-old child.’ ‘Child’ is loaded because it emphasises the girl’s age.
Another women says the girl said ‘I have never seen my mother’. This is sensationalising because it emphasises the fact the she does not have a mother again. The women also says that she had ‘seen police in the’ ‘building’. Which then makes it seem like they are biased against the father but the she says she ‘was not sure’ which flat they had been visiting. So the father is not bad over all.
One of the other quotations is from ‘an IT operations manager from Notting Hill’ making him seem respectable and so whatever he says must be right. He calls the place ‘murder mile’, which has been discussed because it is in the headline. He says that the area ‘frequently has police’ and that there is ‘a lot of crime.’ This makes the area seem bad and creates bias for the father. But then he says that it is ‘very unusual for a family to be affected.’ Effectively taking it back and taking the blame of the father. ‘Family’ in the quote is loaded because it makes them a ‘family’ whereas before they are only referred to as ‘father’ and ‘daughter’.
The audience for this article are ‘normal’ people. It is formal but does not contain lots of low frequency words. No text brakers of bullet points are used, which adds to its formality.
Thus it can be seen that The Times’ article is a lot less biased then The Suns’. And also that The Suns use lots more techniques than The Times in these articles. The Times relates less to the reader, by using less emotive. The Sun uses more emotive words, which in turn creates more bias against the father. The Sun starts bias against the father from the very beginning. The Times shows bias, further in the article.
