English Coursework Broadsheet and Tabloid comparison The media is undoubtedly one of the most influential and powerful force within our society today. Its means of mass communication has the ability to report news in a way which often affects and distorts a person's opinion and interpretation of a certain story. Yet its importance in our society is immeasurable, since it's the main way of informing the public of national and international events. The purpose of this essay is to examine and analyse how two contrasting newspapers - a broadsheet and a tabloid - report the news. We often view the broadsheet as having higher status than the tabloid as it is more serious, sophisticated and elaborate. The tabloid in contrast is dominated by sensational stories. I would be scrutinizing The Daily Mirror, a typical tabloid paper and The Independent which is the conventional broadsheet paper. The story in question which both newspapers are narrating concerns the fatal murder of Yetunde Price, sister of the famous tennis players Venus and Serena Williams. Different papers frequently vary the way news is portrayed in order to engage and captivate different audiences, yet their primary purpose is to inform and entertain. The Daily Mirror is likely to entice those who are less well educated and classified as Social class III, IV and V in the Registrar General's Scale - the working class. Therefore the stories that attract them are likely to concern violence, showbiz and sporting events, stories which are glamourised. This is shown by the way how Yetunde Price's death was highlighted by the fact that her sisters were distinguished tennis players and also the article was contextualised to feed the reader's curiosity. The Independent is aimed at the more conservative, middle classes who are categorized as Social class I and II in the Registrar-General's Scale. They are more likely to have had an extensive education and prefer upmarket newspapers. Yet it is much more complicated than this: both articles would have not existed if not for the prominent status of Yetunde's sisters, and so The Independent has defied the stereotypes of a broadsheet by focusing more on her glamourous and famous sisters. It is often thought that the newspaper influences the reader, yet the readers themselves influence the way news is reported as the newspapers have to adapt their stories to the reader's taste in order to attract their attention. The style of The Daily Mirror is one which is explicitly written, containing many graphic, vivid information on the deathly event, undoubtedly in order to sensationalise Yetunde's untimely demise as well as reveal the great dissimilarity between her life and her sisters. The article begins by presenting Venus' and Serena's wealth and prestige: they 'had the fame, the fear and the bodyguards', this use of triplets and alliteration not only emphasis their greatness but is also an attention - grabbing introduction, inveigling the reader to read further. It then goes on to mention the sad story of their 'shy sister' so that the reader may understand the significance of this story. The details then becomes more disturbing and horrific, describing plainly 'the fusillade of shoots', how Yetunde was 'lying in blood' and 'hit in the chest'. Such emotive descriptions may be sickening but the writers' agenda in a tabloid newspaper is to focus on the blood and the gore in order to make it more realistic for the reader. The varied sentence structure also contribute to the glamourised effect. The article from The Independent begins with having short sentence structure which goes straight into the story, capturing the reader's attention, Yet the information given are uncertain and rather vague, using phrases such as: 'perhaps', 'no one yet knows' and 'but for some reason'. This combines the facts with an element of mystery and so it creates suspense and stirs the reader's inquisitiveness.The Independent's style is based on the conventions of a fairytale story genre and it is centred on the Williams sisters' rise to power. Yet, like all fairytales there is the feature of tragedy and sadly in this particular story, the tragedy triumphs. Yetunde is the victim of this tragedy yet the article concentrates more on the 'power pair' sisters and the 'glitz and the glamour of countless tournament trophies, of commercial endorsement, of fashion lines'. The writers' device on using alliteration and anaphora again gives greater impact and excites the reader. It is also part of the fairytale style narrative which prevails throughout the article. The article is also not as harsh and
