For my Media Assignment I have chosen to study the way each area of media reported the murder of a woman who died in Victoria Park London on Wednesday 3rd February 2003 at 8.30am.

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Upper 5th Media Assignment

For my Media Assignment I have chosen to study the way each area of media reported the murder of a woman who died in Victoria Park London on Wednesday 3rd February 2003 at 8.30am.

I have gathered information from a broadsheet newspaper, “The Times”, a tabloid newspaper the “Daily Mirror” and a recording from a main news broadcast “BBC, 1 O’clock News”.

 Gathered information from the three different sources covers the same story. An unidentified white woman in her late twenties, dressed in jogging clothes was stabbed to death at approximately 8.30am in Victoria Park London. The Police released all information gathered for public knowledge later the same day. The following day in the tabloid newspaper “Daily Mirror” the story appeared on page fifteen, this suggests the article at this particular moment was not as important as other items of news. It was small and brief taking up less than a quarter of the page. The article was situated at the top right hand corner; therefore it was not the main news item on the page. It was next to a less important story of Tracy Shaw from Coronation Street and situated on top of an advert for “Dial 4 a loan”. In the Daily Mirror the story was of less importance than many of the ‘gossip’ stories.

In the broadsheet newspaper “ The Times” the same story was much more prevalent, as it was situated on page five, taking up a third of the page. Unlike the article in the Daily Mirror, “The Times” article was more detailed and more pictorial, having a photograph of Police at the scene of the crime and a map of where the body was found. The information the Times provided was more useful to the reader as it described clearly the detail of the murder and also gave the reader a visual memory of the event.

In the “One O’clock” news headlines the information about the murder appeared towards the end of the news bulletin. When interviewed by a reporter, Det. Chief Inspector Ron Scott described the murder as a “frenzied attack”. Being towards the end of the bulletin may suggest that there was more important news or that the broadcasters/writers did not have enough information to develop it. Sometimes also the family of the dead person is informed before further information is released.

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The Headline in the Times is more informative,

      “Women jogger is stabbed to death in London”. Were as the headline in the Mirror is more sensational “Jogging Murder”.

The Mirror also has an emotional subheading,

       “ Police plea for stab women’s ID”. The word Plea emphasises the emotion in the subheading.

The Mirror sensationalises parts of the report by reporting there were “chilling screams” heard while The Times reports,

   “ Screams had been heard by dog walkers, cyclists and runners”. In the news broadcast they briefly mention, “ Screams were heard”.

The Times ...

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