Comparing news reports Essay Example for Free

Comparing news reports Essay On the day of 3rd February 1998, a Marine Corps EA-6B Prowler jet crashed into a wire, along which a yellow cable car was running along in the Dolomites area of Cavalese, Northern Italy. The car fell, killing 20 people. The victims were nine women, ten men, and one child. At least six of them were German, whereas two of them were Hungarian, and two Polish. The operator of the car, who was Italian, also died. Three newspapers. The Times, The Mirror, and the American Newsweek was very different from the rest. It contained no pictures, and was very much more biased towards the Americans, and was trying to shift the blame from them, to the Italians: pilots flight plan had been cleared by Italian authorities. The Americans treated the tragic accident, as a political affair with Europe attacking America: Europe questions Americas character. The Times contains a great deal more fact than The Mirror which also contains fact, but with some opinion: Regional President Carlo Andreotti should stop these war games The Times and The Mirror contained much more factual information about the incident, than Newsweek did. The Mirror and The Times both commented on how the cars fell 300ft and killed 20 people. They also both say that a second car was left dangling precariously on the wire. The Mirror goes on to describe who the casualties were (men, women, and children), whereas The Times talks about what time the accident occurred at, and that if it were to happen in the morning, that the car would have been packed with around 40 people, as it would have been peek time: If it had happened in the morning, the car would had been packed and the death toll would have been even higher. This is because a lot more tourists would have been going up the hill, in the morning. The Times also gives, what I consider, as useless facts at the end, such as that the mountains have become a popular tourist spot. It also goes on to talk about irrelevant things about the area of the incident: The area The Val di Fassa is renowned for the quality of its wood, from which Strdivarius violins are made. The Newsweek report, does still have some fact, but a lot more of it, is political facts, trying to shift the blame onto the Italians: We fly the routs they lay out Here, the Americans are clearly trying to shift the blame, by saying that the pilots flying the EA-6B prowler, exactly where the Italians had told them to fly. The main differences between the English papers The Times, and The Mirror and the American newsmagazine Newsweek, is that there is no pictures or diagrams, helping to explain the incident in the Newsweek report. These pictures featured in the two newspapers, not only to help to explain what happened in the incident, and where it took place, but they also made a welcome break, from reading large sections of text. The language used in each report also is very different in each report. The Newsweek report has a lot of American language in it: hot dogging clipped tumbling returned safely fighter jet clipped cherry pie These words are not only the type you would expect from a typical American, but they are also a lot softer and less dramatic types of words: fighter jet clipped skiers tumbling returned safely , compared to the harsher, more dramatic words found in The Mirror and The Times: warplane screamed dangling precariously plunged horror smashed open like a cardboard box Sliced screaming collided smashed crumpled bad jolt twisted The tone also differs dramatically between the two British newspapers, and Newsweek. The Newsweek report is very sceptical, and is constantly tying to shift the blame, or to change the subject: Overshadowed by anti-Americanism This time analysts found links violence is as American as cherry pie The English news reports are laid out much better than the Newsweek report. The English newspapers have at lest two pictures, with captions per report. Both article also maps, which describe where the incident occurred. There are no pictures, captions, or maps in the Newsweek report. The extract is determined as an article, due to how it is split up, with three columns. The most predominant point, or main clause, it the last four words, contained within the sub-headline. Europe questions Americas character This is the main point, which the Americans are trying to argue in the report, so it is the point that stays in the back of the readers mind, throughout the report. The article that explains the incident most effectively is the extract from The Times. This is because the report form The Mirror contains a lot of opinion however, this report gets the main points over quicker. The Times contains a great deal of facts, so you could get the most information from this. The Newsweek report is basically a political argument conceived by the Americans about the Europeans. 1