Newsweek is differs the most from the other reports saying that it took 2 days for Italian police to extract and identify the bodies, that the flight plan had been cleared by Italian authorities, all pilots are well trained and understood their mission, that the jet was four miles off course and flying 3,300 ft below the designated altitude.
The Times and the Mirror both gave similar facts, but Newsweek mentioned things that were completely different and seem to minimise the magnitude of the incident by including less facts about it, and saying little about the main facts in the other reports.
Each reports uses different language to evoke different reactions towards the incident, this is because Newsweek is an American newspaper, and therefore makes the incident seem a small mishap and is very bias and uses language to help persuade people into thinking what they want them to. The Times is not a bias account and tells both sides off the story fairly, by using language to make both sides seem relevant. The Mirror is a very nationalistic report and tells people what they want to hear in great detail, the language it uses often exaggerates things.
The language the Times uses to get their view across is all true, and includes no bias. It is the most factually informative account; it includes few emotive words and seems more objective. A lot of the facts it gives are followed by how the incident could have been a lot worse, which shows that they want to give both sides of the story an even chance. It rarely emphasises things and uses words like ‘cut’ instead of ‘sliced’, which is used in the Mirror, as cut does not seem such an emotive word, and so is less bias.
The Mirror uses language that tells British people what that want to read about. It uses a lot of dramatic and emotive language to put its point across. It is described in detail, and tells all the gruesome details people want to hear, such as ‘The bodies were lying under sheets of metal. Most of them were torn apart.’ And, ‘The huge metal hook weighing several tons, which held it to the cable, smashed down through the roof’ although many of the things said are true, but often exaggerated. The report includes many onomatopoeias, such as ‘crashing’ and ‘screaming’ which gives the reader more of an image and adds to the emotiveness.
Newsweek does not use as much emotive language as either or the other two accounts of the incident. It underplays the seriousness, by using words such as ‘clips’, when the mirror exaggerated this fact by using ‘sliced’, and ‘tumbled’ which makes the matter seem small. They have altered the accounts language to make it seem less guilty. Most of the text used is about the authorities and this lessens the guilt by saying what authorities have said which makes it seem…
In each of the reports they have interviewed certain people. The Mirror interviews a couple from England on their ski holidays, as it is a typical British newspaper, and it also interviews local people and an owner of the hotel, just 100 yards from the cable line. The Times mainly interviews people of authority and also mentions what the locals have said about the incident. Newsweek also interviewed authorities, and also one local, who they made look like a fool.
The Mirror first interviews a young British couple, who say they are glad they were not in the cable car, all through the report they keep quoting them, ‘thank God we missed that car’. They also interview a police chief who describes the incident, ‘The bodies were lying beneath sheets of metal. Most of them were torn apart.’ This is to show some authority so people take the matter more seriously and take note of what is said, as they listen more to someone who has some sort of power over people. This is also true when the US defence secretary is quoted. The regional president is referred to and also the owner of a hotel not to far away from the incident, both of these are people of authority who have something to say against the military aircrafts, one mentions them playing ‘war games’ and the other ‘planes always fly at a low level, too low’.
The first person The Times interviews is an witness who said it appeared to have ‘technical trouble’ and was flying very low. They next interview a police official who says there were no survivors and people were still being identified, this is another person of importance, like in The Mirror, and it is because people take in what a person of power has to say. There were more officials who said how bad the accident could have been, ‘If it had happened in the morning the car would have been packed to and the death toll would have been even higher’ again people listen to what is said because an official has been quoted. The last people The Times interviews is local people to the area, they says they have complained ‘again and again’ about the planes they roar ‘through the sky day after day’ ‘we’ve had enough of these war games’ they have included this in the interview to show how dangerous the aircrafts are, and it isn’t the first time they have flown low around the cable cars.
Newsweek interview the prime minister, who says the crash was ‘an act of tragic recklessness.’ Next they interview another person of authority, the commander at the Aviano base, Brig. Gen. Tim Peppe, who said ‘we fly the routes they lay out’ (meaning the Italian authorities lay out) ‘these guys are good, well trained, they understand their mission’ this time, although he is of some authority people do not pay very much attention, as it later says that the aircraft was flying four miles off course. They later interview a woman who has ‘fought the use of low-level training in the United States for 13 years’ she said that ‘its OK to do over rural people because they’re the expendable population’ it goes on to say ‘low-flying warplanes have caused at least one miscarriage, made horses throw their riders and prompted thousands of complaints to federal authorities’ ‘pick an area, buy everybody out and leave the rest of us alone’ they make her seem a joke, and not to be taken seriously. This is to make their side of the account look as if the people are over-reacting about the incident.
The layout in each report differs, although again The Mirror and The Times are very similar.
The Mirror has small easy-to-read paragraphs. It has a lot of informational pictures, so even if only the pictures are read you have an idea of the account. The main headline is concise, very factual and monosyllabic. There is a small picture next to the headline, it is a picture of a cable car, zoomed in to isolate it, underneath it say ‘DEATH CAR: 300ft plunge’ and underneath the headline there is a picture of the scene after the accident, like before and after pictures. The picture showing the affects of the incident shows a picture of the ruins of the car, just a heap of metal on the snow. In the caption underneath it says many victims were ‘crushed by the huge metal hook which held the doomed cabin to the cable.’ There is a third drawn picture, which shows how the incident happened. It show the aircrafts wing catching the cable wire, and a small map of where in Italy it happened in the middle of the picture, it has small captions of writing across the picture in relevant places, it says that one cable car ‘crashes 300ft to the ground’ ‘a second cable car is left hanging’ and ‘the pilot makes an emergency landing’ it is a clear precise illustration, which tells us who, what, when, why and where. It has a sub-heading, ‘Brits tell of horror in snow’ which refers to the young couple interviewed in the report and has a pull quote ‘It opened up like a cardboard box’ this pulls you into the report making you interested and want to read about it.
The Times has a layout similar to The Mirrors. The main heading reads ’20 die in cable car after jet cuts wire’ this too is monosyllabic. There is a picture above the heading, showing a close up photograph of the scene of the accident, in this you can see clearly what is left of the car, and it shows how damaged it is. This also has short paragraphs. It also has two pictures at the bottom of the article. One is map of where about the incident happened, and the other a photograph of an EA-6B Prowler jet, to show what had caused the accident.
Newsweek has a very different layout to the other to reports. It gives off a boring impression, there are no pictures or pull quotes, just the main heading, which reads ‘Blood on the Snow’ which gives no immediate indication to what the article is about, and a sub-heading reading ‘After a U.S. fighter jet clips a gondola’s cable, killing 20, Europe questions America’s character.’ The rest is all writing, with long paragraphs, unlike the other articles. There are no pictures or a lot of information about the incident in the headings because the Americans do not want to publicise the incident.
I think The Times puts the whole story across most effectively, although The Mirror tells a lot of information it is very one-sided. The Times puts both sides across well, and still suggests the full horror of the incident. It has a good use of similes, which adds successfully to the dreadfulness of the accident. The language used and factual information given also help to make it easier to imagine what happened.
