Comparison of two Newspaper articles About a Terrorist Bombing Attempt

In this piece of writing I will draw up a comparison of two Newspaper articles about a terrorist bombing attempt from the broadsheet The Times and the tabloid, The Sun. broadsheet newspapers are printed on A2 sized paper and then folded into pages. Broadsheet papers include The Telegraph and The Guardian. Tabloid newspapers include the Daily Mirror and The Sun. Broadsheets are designed to be more factual and intellectual whereas tabloids are designed to be more entertaining than informative. The Times use of headline is less direct than The Sun’s.

The headline is split with another story. “Three Britons killed: 400 saved in Jet” – The Sun

This is probably because there was another important story on the day of printing. It is also a mix of good and bad news. The Time’s headline is plainly stating facts whereas The Sun’s, “WANTED” very much dramatises the story. The Sun is a very anti-establishment paper, always finding more and more things that the government and the police are doing wrong while The Times often praise the authorities.

This is reflected in their sub-headline, Human time bomb attempt foiled by Heathrow Security” – The Times The Sun’s sun-headline makes no mention of the work and achievement the police have made,

“This Arab rat aimed to send his pregnant girlfriend and 400 passengers to their deaths in jumbo Jet blast over London” -The Sun It is obvious with this headline that the Sun’s writers are aiming to grab the attention of passers by.

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Members of the public may see “pregnant girlfriend” and “Jumbo Jet blast” and want to read more. Terrorist incidents involving planes are massive news nowadays after the incidents of September 11th. The writers give the impression of an action film and this atmosphere creates the drama and entertainment the Sun’s target audience wants.

The Time’s use of images for this story is a simple photograph of the accused man. Although this is a small picture, it is the largest on the front page. This is because The Times target audience want more of the factual sides and text of stories and want to know what is going on whereas the Suns target audience want more drama and excitement from a newspaper article. Because of this, the picture of the man takes up half of the page. It is also obvious when looking at pictures from both papers that the image has been darkened slightly and given the impression of an unshaven, unclean man.

His eyes especially have been made much darker with larger eyebrows. The man appears much rougher and scarier. The Times use of typography is very formal and neat. They have used Times New Roman in size eight. The punctuation and wording is very correct. The story also has a quote from Commander George Coleman, head of the Anti-Terrorist branch of Scotland Yard. This again is the kind of sound facts that the Time’s readers want. The Sun’s story is written in Times New Roman sized twelve. Both stories are divided up into small, indented paragraphs.

The Sun’s punctuation is much less formal with some sentences starting with “and”. The first paragraph of The Sun’s story is written in bold type. This paragraph gives a brief overview of the entire story. The layout of the Times Story is neat with clean lines. The text is divided up into three columns and situated in the top right hand corner of the front page. There are also many other stories in The Times given front page coverage. The Sun’s story is situated in the bottom left hand corner of the front page. It is the only story which takes up this area as the text and the picture take up half of the page.

The picture is half the size of the page and is located to the right of the text. The main headline is at the top, above all the other content with the sub-headline just beneath to the left in a neat column. The first thing which the reader sees is the “WANTED” headline and the picture of this dark and sinister man. It has the impression of a old “wild west” style wanted poster. The Times and the Sun use different style vocabulary in this story. The Times uses “Scotland Yard” and “Anti-Terrorist Branch” when describing the police whereas The Sun uses “Detectives” and “Scotland Yard Detectives”.

This is the typical “gung-ho” style speech the sun regularly uses to create the excitement in their stories. The Times text is plain and factual and simply provides the reader with an insight into what is happening. The Times would generally take a political view into their stories regarding such topics like terrorism and conflict whereas The Sun usually opts for the “action movie” style of news reports. The Times refers to the woman involved with this incident as “she” and the “woman”. This is formal and considerate towards the woman and is also just stating facts. The Sun calls her “the sobbing girl” and “pregnant girlfriend”.

This makes the reader fell sorry for the girl and turns them against this man. Calling the woman “the sobbing girl” very much dramatises the story. The writers have written this story as if they were writing the script for a soap opera. The Sun calls the man “Arab rat” and “Arab terrorist” whereas The Times simply calls him “the man” and “Nezar Hindawi” (his name). Nowadays, (this story went to print in 1986), calling the man an “Arab rat” and an “Arab terrorist” would have been considered racist and not “politically correct”. Because of this the story would have been censored and changed.