Soft news:
Hard
news:
All my articles were found online as it is much easier to find specific
articles online rather than in a newspaper as you can simply type in and search
for what you want using a web browser (e.g. Google Chrome) or on the
newspapers’ website. Articles 1,3 and 4 were all found on the homepage of their
respective websites as they were all large stories at the time in their own
right. Article 1 was popular due to Roberto Firmino’s good performances at the
time, whereas 3 and 4 were both important world news that the newspapers felt
needed to be seen. This is why they were put on the homepage as it’s the
initial content readers see when they go on the website. Article 2 was found on
the side bar on the page which displayed another article due to its lack of
importance and global appeal. For example, the Kardashians made it onto the
homepage because of their popularity, which is significantly larger in volume
compared to the two presenters that featured in my chosen article.
Article 1 has a simple headline that effectively draws in readers by being
straight to the point and telling them exactly what they’re going to get
without spoiling the answer to what the writer hopes the reader is now asking
themselves (why is Firmino so crucial to Liverpool?). Article 2 has a long
winded title to intrigue readers into reading it all (just because of the shear
length of it). Even though it’s long, it’s almost as if they don’t expect the
reader to read it all so try to pull the reader in with the first few words:
“Best day ever!”. An exclamation mark is used to emphasise how good of a day
they’re suggesting it to be. Article 3 name drops Donald Trump and then uses
the word “claims” directly afterwards. This suggests that he might be lying but
does not give away for sure if he is or not, here they use Trumps shaky
relationship and reputation with/within the media to make people think he is
lying (therefore making them want to click on the article to find out if he is
or not). Article 4 is another simple and straight to the point title but does
not play any kind of tricks to persuade you to click on the article. This is
largely due to the newspaper having respect for the people involved in the
accident and to the terrible press the newspaper would receive in return to
exploiting an accident such as this one.
Sensationalist language is language used to excite the reader, sometimes in
a vulgar manner. Article 1 has none of this due to the content only really
including statistics and quotes, so not many sensationalist descriptions are required.
However, the article does provide imagery by reading “opens up
the space for Salah to make that penetrating diagonal run in behind that space
between the full-back and the centre-back”. This description can make you
almost recreate the situation inside your head, which is exactly the aim of
imagery. Mentioning the positions of the players can help the target audience
(those who are interested in football) to really visualise it even more clearly
as they can recall from when they’ve seen it happen before. In article 2 there
isn’t any sensationalist language either, with no need for it as the article
itself is about a very light hearted topic. No imagery is required either as
pictures are used frequently throughout to show the reader exactly what happened.
After a few moments of being on the article, a video even plays in the corner
of the users’ screen that plays the part of the TV program they’re talking
about. This means the reader does not need language in order to visualise the
event as it is being shown to them. Article 3 has sensationalist language in
but does not come from the writer, with quotes making up a lot of the article,
some have examples of sensationalist language that can cause excitement and
release a reaction from the reader. One of these is when they mention expletive language that Trump
used, saying that Russians are “laughing their a--es off” to Americas
allegations of Russia meddling with the election. The language quoted could be
regarded as inappropriate by many and adds a shock factor to the article (in the
sense of people being shocked that Trump would say that). Imagery was not
plentiful within this article as it was mostly a series of quotes. However, it
did provide imagery in the sense of it helped readers understand the situation
better, by showcasing some of the most important things people involved have
said why they said them. Article 4 does not include any sensationalist language
due to the sensitive topic at hand, any language like this may cause problems
as it could come off as disrespectful towards the victims and their families
(as their tragedy is being exploited). The same attitude was shown concerning
imagery with the bare minimum being said about the location and the
circumstances due to the writer not wanting to glorify the situation in any way.
As expected, article 2 is extremely informal and the use of colloquial language in the headline shows this. The word "neck" has been used as an adjective to describe the way in which the presenters drank the whisky and implies that they consumed the alcohol in a quick, almost unnecessary way. This is expected from this article as the Daily Mail is a tabloid so is bound to use sensationalist language to attract readers to their celebrity/gossip news. In general, the article uses quite restricted language to cater for their mostly C2DE audience. For example, the article mentions how they sipped on "booze", which is popular slang for alcohol used by many people throughout Britain, popularised within areas that the C2DE groups dominate. The main body of the article also consists of plenty of quotes. This is because the article has been published by a tabloid, which often report more gossip than actual news. Due to the nature of gossiping, people just want to know what happened, where and when. Heat realise this and cater for their audiences needs by simply telling them what happened, not bothering with analysis and in-depth explanations which could take away from the escapism that stories such as this can provide for people.
Language techniques were also used in article 1, the first being statistics, which is very common in an article of this genre. They provide the reader with useful information that as fans of the sport or the player in question would want to hear. If at the end of the article the reader feels that they have learnt something, especially things they can share with family and friends, they will keep coming to this source (Sky Sports) in order to gain more knowledge. An example of statistics that they've used is "Firmino also averages 76 sprints per 90 minutes". The article also shows a positive bias towards Firmino throughout the whole article, explaining all the good things about him and how he plays. For example, near the end of the article it suggests that Firmino is crucial by stating they're not sure "whether Liverpool would be able to cope without Firmino". Jamie Carragher is also interviewed who as a previous Liverpool player, is expected to show a bias towards the player. Sky did this so they can get quotes that can provide the article with an excited tone, as he is happy that such a good player is playing for his club. He shows a bias by not saying anything negative about the player but stating things such as "for them to replace Firmino, they will have to do an awful lot".
Paragraphing can really affect the ease of reading and
the aesthetic of the article so is important to get right (depending on the
articles’ target audience). Article 1 has kept each paragraph to 5 lines each
so the reader is only getting short bursts on information at a time. As this is
a very statistic based article, it is important for it to be set out this way
so said statistics can be retained more efficiently. Sentence structure doesn’t
vary too much, with medium to long sentences being used time and time again to
provide comfortable and familiar reading (as it doesn’t want to be too
challenging due to the nature of the topic). The tone manages to fit perfectly
in clever grey area between formal and informal which makes for an interesting
read. Quotes are used frequently with former players such as Jamie Carragher giving
opinions on the player in question. Within the quotes, explanations of points
are made, therefore making the article almost write itself (showing minimal
effort may have been required other than sourcing the interviews/quotes,
implying it is not intended to be a challenging read). Article 2 had extremely
small paragraphs often consisting of only 2-3 lines of text. More focus was on
the images and video, with the images having short captions just to explain
what was going on in them. With very little content, the topic showed to
inspire a bit of a throw away article, with sentences not being able to vary in
structure due to a lack of them. The article was informal throughout as the topic
was extremely light hearted and didn’t warrant any serious language. Article 3 was
mostly made up of quotes so paragraph length was largely based off of the size
of the quote. Structure was mostly long due to the mannerisms in which the
people being quoted possess, such as not knowing when to pause and continuing
with the sentence as it is an easy thing to do when you’re not writing it down
and instead just speaking it. The tone was mostly formal because of the serious
topic at hand, but some quotes did offer some informal and expletive language
such as the Trump quote I mentioned in the previous paragraph. Article 4 kept
to short paragraphs consisting of at most three lines of text. The tone was
formal and didn’t try anything out of the ordinary to make sure respect was
given to those affected by the accident.
