Layout
The layout of the Times, in this instance is unorthodox. Usually the Times would have half of the page relating to the main story as it is ‘hard’ news and the remaining space would be filled with ‘soft’ news and small adverts. But as the story in the Times is a significant one, the story fills up the whole of the page, which is rare. Most of the story is on the actual crash, but on the right hand side there is a story relating to one of the astronauts.
This story is particuly significant and is extremely interesting. The story relates to an Israeli astronaut on the shuttle, who in the text is portrait as a hero as a hero. In the strory it goes on to say this israli was one of the pilots who ‘ shattered ’ Saddam Hussein’s attempts to build nucleur weapons, being an Isreali made him sound a hero because of the Usa’s link with Israel and the controversy over the war with iraq (In the Feburary 2003 period). It latter goes on to say about his life, how he served as a pilot and hoe he helped launchand offensive against Palestine liberation. It talks about his family as well, statingh that his mother survived the Nazi Auschwitz death Camp. He also took a small pencil drawing froma boy who died at Auschwitz and hea slo dedicted the fight to Istraelis saying , ‘ This represents more than anything the ability of the Jewish people to survive despite everything from horrible periods, black days, to reach periods of hope and belief in the future’.
Thisnstory is extremely intersestina and paortaras the man a a hero to his people. As a martry defending his country even though his family had been thorugh a lot. This story would be significant to americnas with their links to israileand iraq and could ahev been put their to improve the moral, but it is particuly interesting how one man could be conveyed as such a big hero. The text certainly seems to portray that.
The story is presented in columns and there is a picture below the headline and in the centre of the text this is so that the headline can be related with the top picture easily as the picture has the main implication with the story. Instead of having the soft news on the cover there is a small ‘inside’ box which informs the reader of other articles in the paper.
The News Of The Worlds layout is completely different. It is rather simple and there is no coverage of the story at all on the front page, which implies that the story is significant as the picture takes up the whole of the page, it basically contains a huge picture, a big, bright, colourful masthead and two strapline headings. The masthead is big and colourful so attracts the reader, as does the main picture, it’s layout is simple but effective, with no story coverage at all.
Overall the layout of the Times is quite dull. The Times front page does not attract ones attention because of the lack of colour and any significant aspect which stands out, for example, a bold masthead or big headline. The Times focuses more on text and has text which fills over half the page. The vast amount of text may be off putting, while the layout of the News Of The World is much more simpler and very attractive. It is very eye-catching and has no copy at all, which tells us that the story is a big one. Also the stapline at the bottom of the page gives the reader an insight to the amount of text saying ‘ story on pages 2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11. The News Of The World focuses mainly on catching the reader’s eye so that they will immediately look at it and buy it.
Photographs
The Sunday times has two photographs which relate to the story. The first picture is juxtaposed so that it is under the main headline. The picture is bright and relates to the headline well, saying ‘ Astronauts die as shuttle explodes high above earth’. The picture shows an object exploding, with ‘streaks of debris over the sky’. The reader can straight away figure out what has happened using the main picture and heading, it attracts the reader as it shocks them with an ‘explosive’ picture. This is emotive as it shows an explosion and it tells the reader the astronauts could not have survived this because of the nature of the picture and the word ‘ die ’.
The second picture is in the central area, in-between the columns of text; this picture is also very emotive in relation to the headline and to the story. The picture shows the seven astronauts all looking happy before their ‘ill-fated 16-day mission’, which creates sadness because words such as ‘die’ are used and the picture shows the astronauts all happy, when the fact is they are dead.
The News Of The World has two pictures on the front page but one is significantly bigger than the other. The main picture is big so fills the entire page and acts as a background, this attracts the reader and is very unusual as a picture is rarely used as a background. The picture is exactly the same as the Sunday times, the two are similar in using emotive techniques. The News Of The World simply states ‘ NO CHANCE’ and refers to the astronauts having no chance of surviving, the massive explosion shown in the picture. The picture fits in very well with the headline and makes the reader to think first, the sheer brightness and size of the picture creates a vivid impact, which attracts the reader. The second picture is much smaller and is again of the astronauts smiling, this creates emotion as in the Sunday times. it shows the astronaust in normal clothing=, just lik me and you and it almost creates a sense that they are normal people and are helpless, even though they are astronauts.
In respect the two newspapers are similar as they both use emotive techniques. The Times and News Of The World are both the same picture-wise, both are horrific images that shock, scare and have a deep effect on those who see them. The sizes of the pictures though are different, the sheer size of News Of The World’s picture has a better effect as it bright and also links in well with the headline. Both are emotive as they both promote the astronauts fate, the Sunday times is slightly more emotive as the second picture shows the astronauts all happy and excited, when the reality is they are dead.
But it is interesting that The Sunday Times shows the astronauist in big progffcesional gear (as astronauts ), so in some ways saying the astronauts will be alright because the are experienced and proffecianal., Yet the News Of The world shows a smaller picture, the astronauts as normal people, which is saying that they are human beings so are just as helpless and vunerable as us.
Copy, Coverage of the story
The Sunday Times story extends for 5 pages, which is quite lengthy for an article. This is because of the nature and importance of the story. The Sunday times has a lot of copy and is very informative and answers the 4 W’s (what, when, where, who) to great detail, also it extends the story so that it focuses on the lives of the astronauts as well as the disaster. It is packed full of factual information and describes every part of the disaster. It has many fact files such previous disasters and shuttle facts which extend the story further and in turn creates a more detailed account.
The News Of The World’s story extends for 10 pages, much of which are pictures rather than text. The News Of The World has less copy than the Sunday Times and also answers the 4 W’s in less detail. It includes many diagrams and also focuses on the lives and families of the astronauts more, thus making the coverage more emotive.
There is a lot of text in the Sunday Times and the language is more complex than the language used in the News Of The World, for example The Sunday Times uses words such as ‘ poignant ’ and ‘ Jettisoned ’, while the News Of The World uses words such as ‘ Distressing ’, rather than poignant. If we take the opening paragraphs of both papers we can compare the language in more depth.
The opening paragraph of the Sunday Times is, ‘ America was plunged into mourning yesterday after the space shuttle Columbia burst in to flames as it re-entered the atmosphere at the end of a 16-day mission ’.
The opening paragraph of the News Of The World is ‘ The world was in shock and mourning yesterday as the space shuttle Columbia blew up 16 minutes before landing, killing all seven members ’.
As we can see, the Sunday times is more detailed and uses more detailed words such as plunged and burst. The sentence is more complex and slightly longer, it uses 28 words while the News Of The World uses 23. The News Of The World uses much more emotive language and this is typical of a tabloid, it uses emotive words such as ‘shock’ and ‘killing’. It then uses hyperbole to make it further emotive, by saying the ‘world was in shock’ rather than ‘America’ and also by saying it blew up 16 minutes from landing, this is emotional as the reader thinks that they were only 16 minutes away from surviving. The News Of The Word uses 16 minutes raether than 16 days deliberately, to make it more thrilling.
The paragraphs above typically sum up the languages used in the two papers. The broadsheet has more descriptive language with longer sentences. The tabloid’s sentences are shorter and much more emotive.
More evidence can be found throughout the papers. Here is another example below:
News Of The World The Sunday Times
‘The space craft was travelling at ‘It was descending from orbit 18
12,000 mph, 200,000ft above times the speed of sound when
the Earth and with a re-entry it disintegrated 200,000ft above
temperature of 3000 F the Dallas-fort Worth area of
began breaking up’. Texas shortly after 9 am Florida
time (2pm British time)’
Another major contrast are the quotations. In both papers quite a few people are quoted, but different individuals are given power within the articles. In The Times, there are quotes from eyewitnesses who give their accounts of what happened, the reader builds up a picture of the events leading up to the crash. It also has quotes from high status individuals who have power, people feel their opinion is reliable and valued because of their status. On top of that, experts in various fields that relate to the tragedy such as astronomy experts are quoted, such as ‘ Sean O’ Keefe, chief executive of NASA’. In turn the reader gets a rich source of background information.
The News of the world on the other hand has limited quotations. They mainly focus on eye witness accounts such as ‘ John Ferilito, a local’. This makes it more emotive as you get a perspective from the actual people who saw the horrific accident.
The News Of The World also uses more alliteraon suc as , ‘ Destruction, disintergration ’, to make its article further distressing.
Overall the Times has much more copy and is very detailed, the language is more complex and sentences are longer. The News Of The World uses more emotive language in its story. We can gather that the Times is aimed for the person who wants to know more detail about the story and News Of The World is aimed for those who want to scan the news quickly.
Visuals
The Sunday Times has only four pictures in the coverage. It’s pictures are big and bold. The visuals used are so that the reader gets an idea of how the situation arouse and mainly focuses on using words rather than pictures.
The News Of The World however uses more pictures, Four pages are devoted totally to pictures. They show pictures of what happened, how it happened and the consequences. It focuses much more on pictures so that the reader gets to know the story without reading large amounts of text with great detail. The News Of The World has many pictures of the families and friends of the astronaut’s and show them in distress. The phtos concentrate more on the family and uses alliteration such as ‘ destruction and distressing ’ to make it sound more horrific. The pictures are more of anxious, bewil;dered relatives (is rather intrusive) and are much more sensational than the Times. This is another technique used by the tabloid to add emotion.
Overall the News Of The World uses many more visuals than the Times. It uses visuals so that the reader knows what has happened, withought going to extreme detail in the copy. The News Of The World uses sensative pictures of anxious families to add more emotion, while the Times uses more spectacular pictures and puts its detail into the text. From this we can gather that the tabloid may be aimed for some one who wants to know about the story but does not want to read great amounts.
Conclusion
The Sunday Times is very conservative in how it looks and puts great detail in its text. It uses facts, figures and more complex language in its story. The Times’ front page is full of text and attracts the reader in this way. In the article, spectacular pictures are instead of an array of visuals, from this we can gather that the Times is aimed at those who are interested in the story and those who want to know as much about the story as possible. The Times may have a specific audience of more intellectual people.
The News Of The World on the other hand has less copy and detail in its story. It uses bright pictures to attract an audience and it uses many more dramatic, sensational pictures in its story, rather than great detail in the text. It is less complex, more emotive and easier to read. Thus we can gather that it is aimed at an audience who want to scan the news, those who want to know the story but not read great amounts and those who want to see more visuals.
In my opinion, I like the influential, sensational article of the News Of The World because of the many interesting visuals they have. It is visually stunning and very attractive, but prefer the Times as you get a clear sense of the story, you hear from many sources, each with a great deal of significance and it is much more detailed so you can easily form a calculated opinion.