Subheadings are used to break up text into several shorter paragraphs with the intention of making it easier to read. The article in ‘The Independent’ does not include any subheadings, however ‘The Mail’ has taken advantage of this method of writing and used an emotive word as its subheading, hence influencing the opinion of the reader before they have even read the paragraph that it refers to. The subheading used is “Tomfoolery,” this implies that the paragraphs to follow are about messing about rather than learning. It again gives an overall impression that the camp is not educational.
Pictures can also be chosen to extract emotion from the reader such as anger, sorrow or fear. This technique is more commonly used in tabloid articles. The two articles show very different pictures for very different reasons. The editor of the article in ‘The Daily Mail’ has chosen a picture of five young people. Four of whom are sitting around chatting, and one whom is playing darts. Underneath, it gives no reason for this behavior, and does not state when the picture was taken. This may indicate that it was in break, or at lunchtime. The purpose of this photograph is to not only to compliment the text, but also to influence the readers’ opinion of the camp. It is because of this that I consider it an emotive photograph. This photograph makes the reader angry, as it creates the impression that they are allowing children to have time off school, to go to a holiday camp where, from the picture it appears they do not learn anything. The picture in the broadsheet gives a different impression. It shows a school girl playing on a fruit machine designed to help them learn probabilities. The girl has a very panned face, and looks like she is concentrating hard and learning. This photograph gives a very positive effect. Chosen for a different purpose, and far from being negative, is actually quite positive. It simply compliments the article, and does not try to influence the reader in any way a color or colour neighbour
Both captions are puns. ‘The Mail’ uses the caption as an opportunity to implement yet more emotive words. It’s caption, “Darts and arithmetic…but does it add up” is used only to influence the reader. By including so many puns and jokes in this article, the author indicates that he feels that this is a story not to be taken seriously and to be made a joke of. The Broadsheet approach to the caption is uncharacteristically similar. It is also a pun. “The fruits of learning” is not informative about the picture, it is just a lighthearted pun. However, although it is a pun, it is not emotive, and does not incline the reader to interpret the picture in any way.
Lead Paragraphs are used in all newspaper articles. There purpose is to draw the reader into the story and make them want to read the following article. The tabloid achieves this aim, by means such as word order. In the lead paragraph of ‘The Mail’, three key phrases are mentioned. When stating the motto, it is prefixed with “familiar and factious”. Having read the whole article this implies that the journalist is being slightly sarcastic, and again making fun of the camp. The Lead paragraph states that the holiday camp is in Brighten. This is in fact a factual error, and should not have been included. This tells us that the newspaper article was poorly reserched. The journalist also mentions why the students are there. When doing this, he states GCSE in full. (General Certificate of Secondary Education) The articles were printed in 1987, which was the first year that GCSE’s took place. The fact that he states this in full suggests that his does not expect his readers to be aware of this major education issue. The overall effect of this paragraph, created by the choice of vocabulary etc is emotive, and dramatic.
The Broadsheet’s lead paragraph is much longer. It is written much more factually. The word order is not changed around to emphasise any points. It is written with the idea in mind that the reader is not reading the article because they think it is exciting or dramatic, but be cause they want to be informed. It also mentions the GCSE exam, however it does not write this out in. full, which implies that the journalist thinks that he is writing for an audience who are aware of the current educational news. The overall effect of this lead paragraph is very informative. It does achieve the same aim as the tabloid newspaper of wanting to make you read on however it does it in as very different way. You want to read the broadsheet article, because by presenting so many interesting facts, it makes you genuinely interested in the story and want to know more.
There are also many differences between the other paragraphs of the text. The tabloid has a much more relaxed attitude towards the story. Its vocabulary is of a short and simple style. By glancing at a paragraph from each newspaper, you can also propose that the sentence length is shorter. This indicates that either it is written in a more succinct way, or that less information is included, Because of the amount of emotive words included in the article, we can conclude that it is not written in a more succinct way, and therefore it must include less information. This article does not include any quotations, and therefore is only one persons point of view. The tabloid article forces the journalists personal opinion on the reader. For example, “It goes without saying.” This shows his opinion of being constantly assessed , but not examined. As we are aware that sometimes things that other people dislike or do not enjoy are regarded as very entertaining and useful, this seems like another factor which leads to the conclusion that the article is not a fair account of the camp.
The broadsheet article is written in a very formal way. It does not include abbreviations such as “doesn’t” or “wasn’t”. The broadsheet article shows little emotive language, and no opinion. Once you have read the whole article, you can see that the article is divided up with all the negative points stated first and all the positive points about the camp in the later paragraphs. However this is not shown through the narration of the journalist, but through the different facts and different interviews included. The journalist has included quotations from several sources, each with different opinions. Lots of research has gone into the balanced piece of writing. The change in facts included and the impression this has on the reader is deepened by the fact that the management is commented on in the section showing good points about the camp. The article mentions that it is manages by the educational manager at Butlins, Jeffery Stone where as the tabloid only refers to the entertainment manager. This may be a factual error on either part, or both journalists could have chosen to exclude one of the managers to create a certain effect. The tabloid could be excluding the education manager to give the impression that the camp is run by some one who does not know anything about education, and the broadsheet excluding the entertainment manager to try to create the impression that it is run by a qualified education manger.
In the later paragraphs of the tabloid, that journalist uses another techniques to manipulate the reader’s opinion. He repeats the phrase “supposed to” four times, This emphasises the overall effect that the camp is not really doing what it was hoped it would. The article also uses quotation marks to persuade the reader, By putting speech marks around field courses, it creates the impression that this is not classed as a real field trip as it is not educational. There are also other characteristics which show that this is a tabloid article. The author writes, “No marks …..who waste public funds on such tomfoolery.” This is written to make the reader angry about what the public funds are being spent on.
The layout of the tabloid is designed in such a way as to enable it possible to have four paragraphs in the final column. The first column starts with, “Full Marks”, and talks about how much Butlins have benefited from the scheme. The other paragraphs which follow this all begin with, “No marks.” These then talk about the others involved in the scheme. By repeating, “No marks” so many times, it creates the impression that the whole thing was a bit of a shambles and disorganised. In the final paragraph, the journalist makes a remark which attacks the teacher, parents and local authorities involved with the project. By using the phrase, “No marks” it shows that he not impressed with the people involved with the scheme.
Both of the articles mention “Hi-di-hi”, The tabloid uses it in its headline, and the broadsheet in its final paragraph, however I do not feel that they are after the same effect. When it is read in context in the tabloid article, it is one of the first emotive words used. Word order is a common technique used in tabloid writing, and by placing it first, emphasis is placed on it. The Broadsheet places this as a joke at the end, and I feel that this has no meaning or depth, but is just simply a joke added in as a small light hearted piece of humour.
The newspapers are not written to rival each other. They are both targeted at different audiences. I think it is important to realise that the tabloid article was published several days before the broadsheet one, and therefore the broadsheet article journalist would have had more time to put his story together. I feel that the tabloid has written his article in the way he has and included the facts he has because he knows that he will sell more newspapers – the British public loves a scandal--!
