Daily Express example essay topic

The two articles I will be comparing are on the subject of the Jamie Carragher coin-throwing incident. The event occurred during the league game between two rival teams, Liverpool and Arsenal, the final score was 1-0 to Arsenal. In the game, Dennis Bergkamp and Martin Keown had already been sent off, thus reducing the Arsenal team to nine men. These actions caused Liverpool to get high hopes.

This 'was' the case until one of the Arsenal fans deliberately threw a coin at Jamie Carragher, it hit him and caused a bad reaction. Without thinking he picked the coin back up off of the ground and, in front of the referee, violently threw it back towards the east stand giving the referee no choice but to send him off. The sources come from two newspapers with very different approaches. They are from the sports sections in, 'The Daily Express Sport' and 'The Times Sports Daily'. The most obvious differences in the articles are the pictures, language, space and also the amount of factual detail.

The 'Times' uses a very factual and detailed approach using only one picture where necessary, but a lot of writing explaining what happened. 'The Daily Express' however has virtually filled the entire page with a picture, with just a small column of writing, therefore not really giving us enough information on the first page. The articles have nearly the same amount of facts, but each has different emphasis on facts and opinion. The journalist for 'The Times Sport Daily' pays great attention to facts and detail. The article includes the events before and after the incident, including Bergkamp and Keown being sent off and the Arsenal goal. The article even talks about what action AXA (league sponsors) and the FA (Football Association) will be taking, and widens our understanding of what happened in the match.

The 'Express' does not tell us about the entire match but just a brief description of what Carragher did. They did not include any of the major details, for instance, what response the FA and AXA will make to the incident, or what happened before and after the affair. Most of the information is shown in a like comic book strip at the top of the page. At the bottom the column it says to turn to page 70 for more, but they have obviously chosen to put their emphasise on the drama of the situation rather than the facts. There are not that many discrepancies, as such, due to the fact they talk about the same subject, but one is shorter than the other. Although, 'The Times' has fewer pictures, to compliment the texts.

They are of relevance to the article and are not too big. 'The Express', in contrast, has far too many pictures and, although they are relevant, they are too big and take up too much space. It appears the text is there to compliment the pictures. 'The Times' manages to fit all the information needed on to one page and covers the story over four half-page columns.

'The Daily Express' does not have a very in-depth report; it includes a large title and a small writing with little information. It also has other articles and adverts of non-related topics on the same page. The language used by 'The Times is more formal and I feel is aimed at the business sector of our society, using longer words and more complicated sentences. 'The Daily Express' has a quick review of what happened and seems to be aimed at the working class as well as younger people. It includes simple, easy to understand words and short sentences to try and get the message across as quickly as possible. 'The Times' language is much more imaginative and figurative, using metaphors like, 'The poisoned passion of English football'.

'The Express' uses very straightforward and easy to understand language so as to cause no confusion. Both of the papers try to give a bigger picture by reporting on the views of others. 'The Daily Express' quotes Phil Thompson, the Liverpool teams acting manager, 'A player could get seriously hurt and lose an eye or even worse'. 'The Times' takes quotes from many different individuals and organisations like the FA who said, 'We want to have a discussion with the referee and the other match officials to find out precisely what happened before we decide what action needs to be taken'.

'The Times' uses quotations that seem to be controlled and balanced, whereas 'The Express ' has chosen to use more dramatic outbursts from people. The mood that 'The Times' has created is a little tense and serious because of the way they build up the story, and the tone of the article is balanced. The journalist is not biased in any way, taking different sides of the story and evaluating them. 'The Daily Express's' tone is very much against Carragher, saying 'THIS MUST STOP' in large lettering. They also call him a 'DISGRACE'. This is more the language that encourages a reader to take sides using emotional language.

Out of the two papers 'The Times' covers the story best. This is because of the two papers it has the most detailed information. It also has a few pictures that show images of what happened and has no other unrelated articles on the page, which may force your eyes to stray away from it. The people who will read this newspaper are either businessmen or businesswomen who like to read in-depth articles.