Article 1 in ‘The Mail on Sunday’ is the cover story of the paper. The article itself runs through pages 1,2 and 3. Here, page 1 is the most vital, capturing the reader’s interest. The article takes up half of the page, the other half being given over to an advert for a horoscope insert magazine that comes free with the paper and also a Thomas Cook giveaway deal. These are both things that are likely to interest a less educated and less well-off audience, as they will desire ‘freebies’ more than the rest of the population. The article itself is made up almost half and half by headline and photograph. This technique again gives off a certain image and attracts a certain reader.
A theme is created hinting that the paper is good for those who don’t want to take time over reading facts, just want to be given an image outline of the story. On pages 2 and 3 this image is carried on through but to a lesser extent. Approximately one sixth of the pages are taken over by the title. On top of that another third of the two pages is given over to photographs and captions and another quarter by articles of no relevance to the topic such as the weather and how The Mail On Sunday should have been voted the newspaper of the year. The rest of the two pages consists of approximately three full columns of text however these columns have been split up and strung across the pages filling space in-between the photographs.
Out of the entire customer attracting methods, one thing that stands out initially to the buyer is the headline ‘Police Probe Harry And Pub Lock-In’. Alliteration is used for the letter P. This gives emphasis to those words that begin with that letter such as Police and Pub. These are two images that the editor is trying to associate with the 17-year-old prince and the scandal of the topic and the illegal pub lock-in. The front of the title is traditional, easy to read, large and bold. Upper case letters are used throughout to give an even and readable look to the title.
The second thing that attracts the reader is the photograph to the right of the headline. In the picture Prince Harry is holding a tankard, which by the images behind the Prince and the clothes he is wearing has clearly been one at a polo competition or something similar. This image has been cleverly used and placed to cause the reader to associate the tankard with drinking. The caption underneath simply states that the Prince had been drinking at a pub, it doesn’t explain that the picture is nothing to do with this but simply leaves it to the reader’s assumption.
The text is the last thing to catch the eye of the reader. The first eight lines are used to explain in brief the content and scandal of the article. The last four lines begin the main article. There is only a short section of the article on the front page, possibly to leave more space for the headline and the picture to attract the customer but also enough text to entice the reader to read on to the next page and trigger their interest. Over the page the headline again attracts the reader, Trouble at the Rattlebone Inn. This time lower case letters are used and an association is made with the keyword in the title ‘Trouble’ and the image that our eyes are drawn to next of a full length colour image of the Prince on page 3. The photograph shows a smartly dressed adult looking Prince and quickly detracts from the innocent and young image people may have of him. Directly to the left of this picture is another of an alleged lover, Natalie Pinkham. The Prince can be seen as almost looking in her direction from the positioning of the pictures. The picture of the older woman again portrays an image of Harry being older and less innocent. On page 2 there are two black and white photographs that are not as appealing as those on page 3 but are more informative of the situation, showing the pub and actual evidence of Harry drinking. Indeed a good picture of the story can be obtained from simply the headlines, photographs and captions. It is not necessary to read the text for those readers who do not want to.
In deep contrast to this is article 2 from ‘The Observer’. Here the front page is twice as big and the Prince Harry piece is not the only headline news. The article makes up approximately a quarter of the front page but is made the most eye catching by the large colour portrait image of the Prince that takes up half of the allotted article space. The headline for the article is considerably less bold than that of article 1, it takes up only an eighth of the allotted space. The actual text makes up approximately 3/8 of the space; there is approximately 7 times more of it on article 1. The article is carried onto another page, page 5 but still only makes up half of this page.
On the front page, other features consist of ‘fury over UK refugee expulsions and ‘Briton held in US camp as al- Qaeda prisoner’. These are clearly important news bulletins related to world issues and considering that both newspapers were published on the same day, it shows the difference between the two papers. That ‘The Mail on Sunday’ does not feature these editorials as highly as Prince Harry’s article and shows that their readers are interested in novelty news.
The most eye-catching item of the article 2 is Prince Harry’s portrait. It immediately portrays the Prince as the paper wants the reader to think of him, the innocent, vulnerable child. Below is the caption, which reads ‘Prince Harry experimented with cannabis’. This shows that the newspapers have not only taken into consideration Harry’s drinking experience but also considered his drugs experience. It immediately shows a wider picture and indicates a more knowledgeable approach to the feature. The headline reads ‘Prince Harry taken to drink and drugs rehab clinic.’ This is simply an informative title not giving a biased view to the topic or containing any hidden meanings. The typeface is lower case and small compared to that in article 1 giving a less dominate effect. A small amount of amusement is added for the reader. ‘So that’s why Harry called it Highgrove’ is added to the top of the picture. This indicates that possibly the article is not as serious as some of the others that make up he paper. Though on page 5 three pictures make up about half of the expose they all portray Prince Harry as innocent, one especially that of him at his mother’s funeral. They trigger the reader to sympathise with the Prince. The headline on this page is ‘ The Trouble With Harry’. This is a catching title, short and the letters are relatively spaced out. It gives the impression that Harry is simply a young ruffian and also informs us that the article is going to explain the background and the problem that involves the Prince.
I will now look at and compare the text of each article. Article 1 contains averagely sized text, however compared to the to the column width of article 2, the column width of article 1 is much wider, on average, four more words can be fitted onto each line in article 1. Also the average length of these columns is shorter as they are split by captions and images. This indicates that the readers of article 1 are likely to have a shorter concentration span and find it easier to cope with reading smaller chunks of text at a time. In article 2, sentence structure is apparently more complex than that of article 1. So is the complexity of the language used. The language itself is only slightly more complex as it takes an informative role with facts that are made reasonably easy for the reader to take in. However between the facts, the sentence structure does become more complex and demanding compared to the openness and simplicity of article 1. Both articles are written to inform and almost persuade as a slightly biased view is give from both papers but they both have opposite views.
Article 1 gives an impression that Harry has done something disgraceful, that he is the ‘bad egg’ in the royal family whereas the Observer to a certain extent defends the Prince putting his troublesome nature down to his unfulfilled childhood.
Both papers use facts to try and persuade their readers. Article 1 uses more facts about the issue not giving any background information. Facts on other issues such as the Princes alleged lust for Natalie Pinkham are used to indicate that the Prince is not only a rebel in the area of drink and to push the article to be a big a scandal as possible. For some readers, the image of Natalie Pinkham may attract their interest such as a page three girl would. This makes it more shocking and gossip worthy for the reader. In article 2 a lot more facts are used on Harry’s background to try and justify his actions. This reduces the shock element of the article and creates a more sympathetic view for the reader. More quotes from highly regarded people such as Prince Charles himself to make the reader regard it of higher quality.
The Observer has taken the issue of Prince Harry in a lighter tone than The Mail On Sunday. The Mail on Sunday has manipulated the story to create a hard-hitting scandal that would shock readers. This shows the two different styles of the papers and how the issue fits differently into the papers styles. The Observer has a more serious tone dealing with up to date news, contemplating different views and The Mail on Sunday takes the issue at face value and turns it into what can only be described as a scandal, taking the side against the Prince.
I personally admire the Observer more. It is however my biased opinion as I had the view as The Observer before I read the articles. The Observer seems to give a fairer and more detailed account of both sides of the story to leave readers, to a certain extent, to make up their own minds about the issue. I was put off by the way that The Mail on Sunday detracted from the issue as I felt that it had not fully covered his drinking problem. I felt that the article would be something that should be in a magazine not in a newspaper. I admire the more traditional and less commercial approach of the Observer.
