Language and the Text of Each Paper Essay

In this essay on the Brixton riots I hope to show how varied news themes notify express the aforesaid(prenominal) rudimentary facts in incompatible ports to realise the reader feel a certain way ab let out the event in this case, the Brixton riots. I allow for be looking at the front rascals of two news authorships (which I chitchat papers 1 and 2 in the essay), each of which describe the same event and include correspondent facts. The Brixton riots occurred in 1981 in Brixton, London, and were between the re attitudents of Brixton (predominantly black) and the patrol forces. They came about in the first place because of historical background reasons and kindly reasons.Blacks had a history of low-ranked jobs with low pay. Since the British Empire broke up and the citizens of the Commonwealth countries, just aboutly black, moved to Britain, a lot of them were prep ard to borrow low-ranked jobs so they could stay in the country. This meant that heap in Britain associat ed them with being low-class. at that place were actually some black mass with high-ranked jobs. With people associating black people corresponding this, it led to racism and general abuse. With all this abuse the blacks started to arm up a stereotyped view of washrag people and because few black people had good jobs a stereotyped view of the guard was built up as puff up.This meant that the tension was raised because each side mistrusted the other. The event that started off the Brixton riots occurred in Coldharbour lane in 1981. A military officer was on duty when a young black boy ran one-time(prenominal) him. The practice of lawman, suspicious of the boy, ran after him. As he did so he tripped over the boy, badly injuring him. This aggravated the black community. Before this incident, the police had been given military force to stop and search anyone they felt was suspicious which meant that the atmosphere in Brixton was tense. On the social side, in 1981 the Conse rvative government was in power with Marg atomic number 18t Thatcher as their leader.The less(prenominal) well off were dissatisfied with what the Government were doing. They hadnt rattling done frequently at all to help young blacks. It was presumable that if you were young and black at this period you would be unemployed. This meant that there was a lot of tension around, which helped to spark off the riots. With the riots being a dread event, the press immediately got involved. This led to the events being sensationalised and being used as a money making scheme. When there is big news that is in the newspapers for quite a while, the papers develop a logotype. Logos are used to structure and organise the paper .The readers get used to comprehend a certain logo and they associate the logo with an event. Here it would be the Brixton riots. This helps the readers to find their way around the paper more than easily. These logos see to be giving a number of different impression s of the riots. In the captions to a lower place the logos a lot of the words search to be in the semantic field of contend. Words such(prenominal) as battle and war, which are good examples of this semantic field, give the impression that the riots were truly violent. The logo pictures are mostly of the same policeman with blood running trim down the side of his face.These images give the impression that there were some bad injuries in the riots and that the riots were really violent. However the fact that the logos are mostly refer with the same image suggests that the injury inflicted on this policeman was perhaps the most dramatic injury there was in the riots. Even so, head wounds frequently appear to be much worse than they really are, which suggests that the riots were not so serious as the papers make them out to be and were, in fact, blown out of proportion.This image has been selected to attract the readers attention. If this were on T. V. it would still be easily possible to select and bias bid you can in newspapers. A lot of news programmes choose their stories very carefully to ensure that a certain viewpoint is supported. Another way to manipulate facts is to take a very biased viewpoint . 2 possible viewpoints are political and non-political. Newspaper 1 does seems to have a political viewpoint as it is taking pity on the police and is making them seem like the victims by criticising the rioters. This indicates that this paper takes the side of cheek and law rather than that of the rioters, the neglected residents of Brixton.Headlines such as Police down the stairs Attack Again in New Fury makes the police out to be the victims and the mob to be a reckless, aggressive one. Headlines that demonstrate a particular viewpoint will attract the readers attention as they make the subject more dramatic. Newspaper 2 has a very different viewpoint, seeming to imply that the police were ca development almost as much trouble as the rioters. Eigh t police coaches, each containing forty men, were step on it to the area, further raising the tension suggests that this paper is taking the side of the rioters.It very much puts the blame on both the police and the Government and sympathises with the people of Brixton in its headlines . It is used here main(prenominal)ly to prejudice you even though it is opinion. Police harassment and Arrest sets off more clashes suggest that the main reason that the riots started was because of unnecessary action taken by the police. Other headlines, such as No hope of jobs and Decaying housing, are blaming the Government for agitate the people of Brixton by not providing enough employment or repairing their houses.This could in like manner be biased on T. V. as the editor could put out front only half of the full story ,so biasing the As well as having a very biased viewpoint to attract the readers, the paper can be made more attractive and eye bewildering. The front page of newspaper 1 is very eye- sticking indeed. As soon as you look at it, your attention is drawn to the photograph and BATTLEFRONT in large letters, the battlefront being the front line of the rioting. This banner headline, white lettering on a black background, takes up the whole largeness of the front page and is designed to make it stand out and catch your eye.The picture dominates the page and all the writing is positioned around it, making it the steering of the article. Also the headline, The picture that sums up the horror of damn Brixton, makes you look expectantly at the picture as well as using initial rhyme to draw your attention to it. The use of a capital letter for Bloody gives the riots a historical connotation, as though it is already a well known event. Newspaper 2 has a much simpler front page, with a simple black headline, a subheading and a picture. Unlike on newspaper 1 the headline does not draw your attention to the picture, because it is not specifically related to it.Altho ugh there are some banner headlines crossways the top in bullet point form, displaying points such as No hope of jobs, they are much smaller. I view that this paper is less sensational and a bit more refined than the other, typical tag newspaper. The headlines used in newspapers and the wording in them is another way to catch the readers attention . The headlines in a newspaper are very of import as they often tell the reader what point of view the paper is taking, the nature of the event if referring to one who is involved, where it happened, and other bits of information as well.It is very important for a tabloid newspaper to use exciting and exaggerating style in them as this really helps to catch the readers attention and make them think that something very dramatic has happened. In newspaper 1, this has been done by using words such as battlefront. A word like this is obviously in the semantic field of war, making the events seem more dramatic. Other headlines, such as P olice under attack again in new fury, make it sound as though the police were being physically attacked by the youths, who are described as furious.This sentence is in the passive tense whereas the other paper is written in the active. These headlines seem to be in a similar field of meaning and connotation as they are both associated with force-out and the police being under attack. In newspaper 2, however, the headlines suggest different things. Headlines such as Brixton points the finger and Arrest sets off more clashes seem more thoughtful, as if the newspaper has analysed the events, not just exaggerated the happenings in them. They make it seem like Brixton is pointing the finger at the people who are doing the arresting (the police).