Press Reaction To Harold Shipman

One of the many devices used in writing to influence your emotions is alliteration this is an example from The Sun newspaper.

"Harold Shipman betrayed that trust in a cold, calculating, wicked manner."

The two words that use alliteration are cold and calculated they repeat the first two letters in the words this gives a strong Col and then Cal sound, I believe this is intended to try compel the reader to pay excessive attention to the implication of the words and then influence the emotions of the reader to by creating hatred towards Shipman, another example of alliteration which has a similar effect is this extract from the Express newspaper

"Harold Shipman acted with an unparallel degree of cold calculation."

The Sun newspaper used the phrase 'Cold, calculated, wicked manner' this is a perfect example of the linguistic device known as the rule of three, this is where three similar words or phrases are used in quick succession, this had the impact on me to read the passage perhaps two or three times, the device also strains the point made by the words in this case the way in which Shipman murdered and so this is a brilliant way to play on peoples emotions. A similar linguistic device is repetition this is where a word is repeated to stress its implications and is intended to have an effect on your emotions, two examples of this device is in the following extract from the Mirror, the extract also contains a further example of the rule of three.

" For this is a murderer who is so sick, so perverted, so evil that he took took the lives of countless women under the cloak of a doctor's care."

Other forms of linguistic devices, which I recognised, are onomatopoeia, which is where the word sounds like the action it represents in this example from the Express it serves to emphasize the strength of the word by sounding like the short, sharpness in shock which is the reaction desired by the newspaper to give a larger prominence to how shocking the event was.

" It was the shocking absence of any co-ordination of information and the lack of any scrutiny of the work of this GP, which gave Shipman a smoke screen behind which to kill."

Most of the newspapers have similar recommendations/viewpoints as to the events of Harold Shipman and what should follow, they all concur that it was the fault of the organisations who were supposed to be checking up on and the that the GMC should of told his next employers of his background also they all recommend that closer checks on doctor should be made in the future. All the newspapers are influenced by different political agendas and some conflict happens in whether it was the government's fault for not looking in the system properly for loopholes like ones Shipman found.

All of the newspapers have been effective in that they made feel very angry towards Shipman and the atrocities he committed and so the newspapers have affected my emotions and judgment, the way in which they did this was very professional and well presented with the different linguistic devices and very bold layouts. The newspapers made me feel angry because of the ways in which they described Shipman which was why the used so many words to describe him.

All my findings point towards the fact that papers are very well adapted to playing with peoples emotions, this is why so many papers are sold, which in the end is the aim of the paper, to be sold.

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