Disaster in the alps Essay Example for Free

Disaster in the alps Essay My coursework is going to be based on a newspaper report called disaster in the alps. The report is taken from 2 different, British, newspapers The Times {a broadsheet} and The Mirror {a tabloid} I am going to be comparing the to news reports. The incident happened on the 3rd February 1998, at 3:25pm in Cavalese, northern Italy, where twenty people plunged to their deaths after an American warplane flew through and cut the wire of a cable car they were travelling in. The two British newspapers can be very different in style. The style of The Times is in the large broadsheet style and has a more formal register whereas The Mirror report is in a tabloid style and has a more informal register. The two reports both have some differences like the layout or arrangement of the two articles and the name and status of the people interviewed are different, but both reports use the same amount of pictures and contain some interesting factual information. Both reports contain factual information, but they both present their information in different ways to give off different but at the same time similar affects. Both reports have collected information that reads: The disaster happened at 3. 25pm, 20 people died, it happened in Cavalese, northern Italy, The incident happened on the 3rd February 1998, the plane in the incident was a Marine Corps EA-6B Prowler Jet and that the cable car fell 300 ft. The two reports both have their own individual factual information. The factual information stated in The Times is: The cable car was bright yellow, there was a steel wire supporting the cable car, the cable car could hold up to 40 people, there was no survivors, and that the plane was about 100 metres from the ground. All this information seems very formal and gives truth and realism of the incident, while the factual information in The Mirror states: The car was ripped apart, the second car was left dangling in the air, the bodies were lying beneath sheets of metal, the victims were 9 women, 10 men and 1 child, at least six were German, two Hungarian and two Polish, and that the people in the incident were killed instantly. This information too gives the truth of the incident and how gruesome it was. The two reports use different language to describe the incident. In both reports the language is very dramatic as both reporters are trying to give the readers a realistic feeling of the incident itself. The language used in the The Times to describe the incident and the plane is very formal as it goes deep into text and pulls out the striking information. In The Times the writer uses powerful words like roaring and Screaming which creates a feel of pain, agony and loud noises, but in The Times it also gives a personification saying screaming through the sky and like a thing in torment which again creates a deep sense of distress and suffering, this would make the reader see the scene at its worst point and become more expressive towards the incident, hence making them want to read on. There are other words the writer uses like Wreckage and Crumbled which also gives an image of how disastrous the incident was. The Mirror creates a similar image to that in The Times in the article it says Warplane Screamed this to makes people see the image of pain and agony also in the article it says It is a terrible scene of carnage which too will give the impression that the incident was very devastating. The Mirror has a pull quote in it that states it opened up like a cardboard box which will make the reader think of violence and devastation so along with the other intense and powerful words in the article it too sets an emotional effect on the reader. The language in The Times is a lot more formal than The Mirror and addresses the reader more directly than the writer in The Mirror does, The Mirror is a lot more gruesome and a lot more intense . The Times gives a much more realistic affect than The Mirror as to how terrible the scene of incident actually was, the writer of the report goes a lot deeper into detail, which gives a more pronounced picture. This report is also biased compared to The Times report, seeing that The Mirror gives a very clear sub-heading stating BRITS TELL OF HORROR IN SNOW subheadings are used in articles to break up the text and make it easier to read so by this sub-heading its giving the impression that the article is biased as the writer seems to emphasize on it, which would show the reader that there were British people at the scene of the incident. This would then catch a British readers attention in particular, as they would stop and think that could have been me so they then want to read on. So the idea of this effect is to catch a British readers attention so they attract more people to the newspaper. Both reports use a range of eye witnesses and interviews to create their own effect and impression on the report, the reporters do this by using different strategies and tactics. The first people to be interviewed in the The Mirror were Neil Harmar and Stacey ODonnell who were British they said Thank God we did referring to missing the cable car just by minutes, the use of this effect was to give a feeling of sympathy to the reader, he creates this influence by using sensitive and sympathetic words like Thank God. These British people were used to help to be bias towards the Americans, so when a British person reads the article they think that any one of their family could have been in that situation, Whereas The Times tends to use a different strategy the article does not try and draw their readers attention by sympathy or by telling the story with a twist and making it seem sad, this article gets straight to the point, they simply base the article on facts and refer to exactly what happen on the day of the incident, But like The Mirror they do try and turn people against the Americans as it says in the article Local residents had complained again and again about the low level of flying by American warplanes showing this was obviously a problem in this part of the country, one angry woman also says Weve had enough of these war games the phrase War games is giving the impression that the Americans are killing the people for fun, so it is also showing us how enraged the people of Cavalese were. The Mirror also makes the Americans seem like they are hiding something from the reporter as it states in the article Base refused to give any details of the incident showing they felt guilty about their actions, so they knew what they had done but REFUSED to give any information on it. The two articles have some major differences and similarities. The style of the two reports differ, for example The Times report has no subheading, for the title of the report it is presented in small font size and lower case letters the article also has a range of diagrams and drawings that show where the incident took place and the type of plane that was involved in the disaster {EA-6B Prowler jet plane}. In the article there is 1 large picture that shows the wreckage of the incident, The Times newspaper also has no pull quote throughout, whereas The Mirrors title consists of; large font size, uppercase letters and bold writing style, The use of captions in the article like Death car and Devastation make it seem a lot more interesting, the article also has a small subheading that is made up of small font size, lower case letters and Bold handwriting style. The Mirror just like the The Times article has a range of pictures and diagrams. There are diagrams showing the incident and how it happened and there are pictures showing blood stains on the snow and the cable car making the scene seem more realistic and directed to the readers, also helping the formality of the report. The Mirror is the most effective article of the two as it has a headline that is very eye catching and attractive, the large font size alone catches the readers attention, but the sub-heading also helps to make the article more informative, by giving the reader that little bit extra information, as it helps to break up the text and make it easier to read. The sub-heading in this article may even be used to attract the reader to the whole article. This sub heading that reads Brits tell of horror in snow which will come across as intriguing to the degree that the reader gives the whole article a chance, the sub-heading is also aimed to appeal directly too British people as it would act like a cliff hanger, so they would see the heading, want too analyse it in order to gain foundation knowledge leading them too read on, whereas in the The Times the headline is a lot more uninteresting and stands out less than The Mirror. The Times also lacks a sub heading which could have given the times a more detailed article, also helping to make it seem a bit more official. The use of no sub-heading in this article means that there is nothing to hook the readers attention to when they first see the article. Therefore the article may come across as informal (colloquial). Out of the two articles I think the one that explains what happened and gives the full effects of how devastating the incident was is The Mirror It achieves its full effectiveness as its a very detailed and progressed article, this article gets it point across, it is very descriptive and lot more attractive. The article also gives off its effectiveness by the presentation of the report, the use of pictures and the language is very realistic and dramatic giving a feel of the incident.