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 clearly describes in more detail what the women was wearing the fact she had a bunch of keys on her body was a detail which wasn’t added in The Mirror or broadcast, Also not added in the detail was the colour of footwear and race of the women. The news broadcast was of less detail than both newspapers,
“ She was wearing jogging clothes” was all the information given on the women’s clothing.
The tone of the Times newspaper is informative it mentions the work of Pathologists, this suggests there has been an in depth inquiry on their behalf about the murder case. The vocabulary is also more sophisticated than the Mirror’s.
In the Broadcast the report is brief telling the story of the murder with little details but still getting in all the important actions that have been taken to find who murdered the women.
The length and layout of each news piece suggests the following: Firstly the Times news piece is more informative and more detailed. Secondly the report is given a higher profile in the newspaper than the report in the Mirror and the news Broadcast.
Thirdly there were more reporters on the Times and the news Broadcast article (Three) compared to the Mirror who had two reporters.
The language in the Mirror is much simpler than the language used in the Times newspaper and the BBC Broadcast. At the beginning of the Mirror the piece is in bold and simple drawing the reader in.
A clear example of the differences of language used by the two newspapers and the broadcast occurs at the beginning of each piece. The Mirror gives minimum detail of the Murder initially. This makes the reader read more to discover the whole story. Where as the Times report develops much quicker giving the reader the details in the first two paragraphs.
The Mirror also sensationalises the news piece more than the Times and the Broadcast describing “ chilling screams” were heard whereas the Times,
“ Screams had been heard by dogwalkers…” mentioning the screams this way is desationalises as it involves ‘sane’ people, i.e. dogwalkers. Were as the Broadcast it keeps the information simple, keeping detail brief, “Screams were heard”. This was the only detail the Broadcast felt was essential which was the fact the women screamed not who heard etc.
Parts of the Times help the reader by offering suggestions for example,
“ This women had either gone jogging or was walking to the local shops”. The Mirror and the Broadcast gives the bare minimum story and does not go into detail. The Times quotes from “Police sources” where as the “Police were last night trying…” was written by the Mirror and with the broadcast “ The police say….”. Also the Times and the Broadcast gives information of who where when and how, much quicker in the article than the Mirror. The article was better researched by the Times for example the papers refers to “interviewing local residents” who spoke of there shock while the Mirror interviewed a pensioner who saw a “dirty maroon car driving past” his window, this was also the last part of the report while the Times final quote was,
“It’s a terribly frightening incident. I wont be going there alone until they have caught whoever is responsible for this.” The news Broadcast ended slightly different informing women to try and avoid the park alone.
“ With no one yet in custody Police have warned women to avoid the park if possible. They are examining whether the murder is linked to a knife attack in London fields last Thursday where a women was stabbed and sexually assaulted.”
The Times article has one large picture and a small map diagram. The Map is of the area of which Victoria Park is situated in. The map is marked were the body was found. The map is situated centralised directly under the heading of the article with paragraphs about the murder surrounding it. I feel the map gets the point of seriousness across to the reader and the reality of every day people getting murdered.
Next to the title and the paragraph is situated a large photograph of a welcoming sign to Victoria Park. The photograph also has police at work but not in focus. I feel this shows that the police are doing there best to find the killer. I think the photograph shows a sense of seriousness to the case and the police are doing there best to find anything, which will point them in the correct direction in solving the case.
The Mirror is very different the article is small with a large bold heading. The report has no pictures in it. The only variety in the text is the change in fonts, boldness and size of the text giving contrast and making certain sentences appeal to the reader.
The broadcast has a lot of visual impact on the viewer with change in reporters and voice-overs. The broadcast starts of with a reporter informing the viewer in what’s happened. The main reporter then transfers to George Kykyn who was a voice over a video of police at Victoria Park searching through the lake and parkland for any evidence to solving the case. The over view has a strong impact on the viewer it shows how serious cases like these are and how much effort is involved in them. After some information on how the police were solving the case and video footage, the screen then changed to the reporter George Kykyn. After some more information on the murder the screen then changes to an interview with Det. Chief inspector Ron Scott from the Metropolitan police, I feel the interview with the inspector shows the viewer the realism of what can happen to innocent people and that no one is safe, be careful. After the interview the broadcast then went back to the main reporter in the studio, were the story came to an end. I think the reason why the verbal reports were so brief because the footage of the police searching through the lakes and parkland adds to the detail not spoken.
The factual content of the Times, Mirror and the Broadcast are pretty much very similar. It’s more of who’s done the most research into the story, for example the Broadcast says the women,
“ Suffered multiple stab wounds” were as the Times says the women had a
“Wound to her neck”, the Mirror says the body was “bloodstained”. This shows the two papers have very little information on the body’s state when found.
The information on what the body had on her/carried at the time is very brief in some places, for example the Broadcast tells the viewer,
“ She was wearing jogging clothes” it’s kept brief and very simple. The Mirror describes what the women was wearing,
“She was wearing a green fleece and black leggings”. The Times tells the reader in greater detail what the women had on,
“ Black leggings a green fleece top and grey trainers and was carrying a set of house keys” the fact she had a set of house keys on her, I feel is an important detail missed out by the Mirror and the Broadcast.
The tone of the times and the BBC Broadcast is informative. The information that is presented by the newspaper and the Broadcast is very sophisticated, whereas with the Mirror the tone is sensationalised, with simple vocabulary.
I think the Times give the most sufficient information out of the three sources of information on the story. The Times gives details on the case its self and how the case is being solved and any evidence that has been gathered so far. Were as the mirror and the broadcast are brief and easier to under stand. I think the broadcast if more entertaining and easy to follow with lots of visual pictorial footage going on all the time. Keeping the viewer occupied constantly. I would say the Mirror is sufficient if the reader just wants to know the brief outline of the story, keeping it simple and short and quick to read.