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Compare the way a current affairs issue is reported in a tabloid and a broadsheet. The articles explore events surrounding two teenagers who have been stabbed.

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Compare the way a current affairs issue is reported in a tabloid and a broadsheet In this assignment I will be exploring the many contrasts between a tabloid article and a broadsheet article. The articles explore events surrounding two teenagers who have been stabbed. The tabloid article is about a 16 year boy old called Shakilus Townesend, who was lured into a honey trap and attacked in broad day light in Deptford. The broadsheet article is similar as it is about an 18 year old called Fredrick Moody who was stabbed yards away from his home in Central London and died in St Thomas's hospital. These articles are very different from each other although they are both British. I think that the tabloid article is much more powerful because the layout, the text and pictures make the article more appealing to the typical British reader and these are the areas I will be looking at in this assignment. The facts in both articles are very different; the facts in the tabloid seem to be stretched which appeals to our need for salacious detail; he "bled to death", whereas the facts in the broadsheet are more precise for example he was a student in "Kingston College" "he died in "St Thomas's Hospital". ...read more.


The tabloid article has more emotive language and is more melodramatic than the broadsheet with "chilling gang secret" "horrific death" and "pleading". Language like this makes the reader go deeper into the article and think about how fragile the situation is; it also evokes sympathy for the victim. The sensational language in the tabloid is very powerful and streetwise for example, "you set up Shak bitch". This brutal language would have a strong impact on readers because the words are more sensational. The different styles of language have different effects on the reader depending on how shocking the language is. If the language is more complex it will have a greater, more powerful effect on the reader because it is more interesting. This use of street slang suggests again that Townsend was a member of a gang. Most of the time I prefer to read tabloid newspapers because don't like to go in to the full story. When I read tabloid newspapers I can keep interest in the article whereas if I was to read a broadsheet article I find it more difficult to concentrate and keep interest. ...read more.


To conclude, I have come to a final decision that the tabloid article shows the full horror of the tragedy because the information in the tabloid gets right to the point about what's happened. The information about the tragedy is a lot clearer in the tabloid because it is much more graphic and is also easier to understand. The powerful headings, subheadings and words make the articles very effective. The most powerful parts of the tabloid is where it talks about how brutal the murder of Shakilus Townsend was, also in the tabloid it tells you about facts and figures which tell you about what's happening with knife and how bad the situation is getting in London, this makes the article more powerful. Whereas the in-depth information in the broadsheet article will make people lose interest quickly because most typical British readers don't want to go deep into the story. So on balance I think that the tabloid article is the best and most powerful article because I think it is much easier to read and much easier to keep interest in. 1,214 words ?? ?? ?? ?? Clinton Woollams 04/02/2009 1 ...read more.

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