Event that have unfolded around Paul Burrell seem to give a good impression of what may be running through the queens mind at the time that the photograph was taken. Paul Burrell has been the centre of attention as he was claimed to have some items that were in the late Princess Diana’s possession. The trial of Paul Burrell has been going on for a few months now and it was only of late that the queen ‘remembered’ information about the items in question. Paul Burrell said that ‘The queen pulled through for me’. After this event the trial unsurprisingly collapsed. It seemed to be the end of the story for Mr Burrell, but he had other ideas that would keep the people of Britain on the edge of their seats, he sold his story, to The Mirror amid other offers of over 1 million pounds.
The photograph of the queen on that November day does say a lot about the royal family and the way that the people of Britain see them. The way that the people f Britain sees them now is far worse than the way that they saw them this time last year.
The photograph of the queen has been a great focus of the English newspapers. The two that I will be comparing will be ‘The Times’ and ‘The Daily Mail’. These two newspapers are very different and this is shown in the way that they treat the photograph of the queen.
‘The Daily Mail’, being a tabloid paper has a very ‘hands on’ approach to stories that are uncovered, and this story is no exception. The top of the front page is dominated with the red bold letters of ‘PANIC AT THE PALACE’, which immediately draws your attention to the paper if you were a passer by. It seems to be very sensational to put this at the top f the paper, as the palace really is not in a panic. Underneath the bold red font we see ‘Charles’ courtiers in crisis talks’, and ‘MP’s demand enquiry into gay rape allegations’. Both of these phrases are following the titles lead in being sensational. The two words that make it this way are ‘crisis’ and ‘demand’, these words are not really needed but they give the reader something to get excited about when they buy the paper or read it for the first time.
Two things, the photograph and the heading for the photograph dominate the second section of the front page the title of the photograph is in big bold black writing, this is normal for a newspaper and is not sensational, the words are, however. The title is ‘HER TEARS’ which is a very blunt statement to describe the picture that is on the front of the paper. This front page of the Mail does seem to be a newspaper for people who cannot be bothered to read the whole story and just want to know what is going on in brief. This may be good if a passer by notices the paper but not if someone wants to know the whole story. The whole story is, however, told inside the paper.
Beside the picture of the queen is the writing; ‘The queen cries for REAL heroes (and perhaps the news that is engulfing her family)’. This sentence describes, in little detail, what the queen is crying ain the photograph. Again, the sentence is blunt and it does not leave much to the imagination, although it does make you want to buy the paper to read the whole story inside.
The ‘Daily Mail’ is not very sympathetic to the queen as it tends to just give the public the story and not give any impression of what they think about the story, this in itself does not show this paper to be on the queen’s side and giving her sympathy. ‘The Times’, however, does have a sympathetic view towards the queen.
“The Times’” front page is not dominated by the picture of the queen and the story they have to tell, it has many other stories that do not relate to this issue in any way. This kind of arrangement of the paper does not attract people to the paper as much as ‘The Daily Mail’ does, although the eye is somewhat drawn to the photograph in the middle of the paper at the top. Above the photograph is the title for the photograph; ‘the quiet moment when it all became too much to bear’. This sentence seems to sum up what is happening in the photo and a little information that makes you want to read the story that follows the photograph underneath.
The story underneath the photograph is a commentary on the service of remembrance and it gives a detailed account of what the queen went through as she inspected gravestones and laid a cross down to remember those who fell in the wars of the world. Rape allegations are not mentioned in the story until the last paragraph of the story on the front page, and only then is it mentioned in brief just saying that the royal family denied the allegations of male rape.
