The Guardian but left out of the Mirror Essay Example for Free

The Guardian but left out of the Mirror Essay The Guardian has really included as much information as it can on this story. The content is detailed and more involved than that which is in the Mirror, so that the reader gets a clearer and broader view of what is going on. There is now a debate over whether it [a draft of the weapons report] should be released to the Congress over the next fortnight, as has been widely expected, is an example of a fact which has been included in the Guardian but left out of the Mirror. If all you need to know is that the government have failed to find any weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, then you only need to read the Mirror which outlines all the major aspects of the story in an accessible manner. But if you are very interested or involved with the matter of the war in Iraq, then the Guardian is more informative. Both reports are generally geared towards a disapproving or mocking feeling towards the British and American governments because of the claims that they have made and not been able to back up. The Mirror is less strong about this, but they both imply that Tony Blair has been given a run for his money over the question of whether we went to war with Iraq on false assumptions, which it now appears the government were just using as an excuse to back up their actions. The Guardian uses a quote from David Albright, a former UN weapons inspector Its clear that the US and British governments wildly exaggerated the case for going to war Im not surprised, given how incompetent this search has been. Theyve had bad relations with the [Iraqi] scientists from the start because they treated them all as criminals. Because the article in the Mirror is shorter and contains less information, there are fewer quotes or facts which make the report seem biased. The political opinion of the paper is less obvious in the text. Apart from the WMD-Ometer joke, which is lightly fun-poking rather than politically expressive, the article is only mildly opinionated and generally just gives the reader the necessary facts. It would appear that the reporter was writing for a paper which did not have a very strong political view on the matter and did not want to force an opinion onto its readers either, expect for the inevitable general feeling of disappointment and irony. The Mirror does not expect its readers to formulate political and philosophical arguments and opinions by reading the article. They want to give the reader basic facts and concentrate more on the emotional and funny side of things. Political bias in the Guardian is present but subtle, so that it does not appear to be brainwashing its audience but merely informing them from a certain angle. It is now very easy to see how different newspapers handle their stories differently according to the readership at which they are aiming. While some people want to be able to pick up a cheap, attention grabbing newspaper for an easy read, lots of light human interest stories and minimal heavy news, some people prefer a paper which goes into more detail about the more controversial issues in the news and doesnt bother with gossipy, irrelevant stories. Of course it also depends on your mood, and when and where you are going to be reading the paper. People usually prefer to have broadsheet papers like the Guardian delivered to them or to buy it from a local shop, so that they can sit and read it at home over a meal or when they have nothing else to do. Smaller more accessible newspapers like the Mirror are more suitable for reading on the move or early in the morning on the way to work or school while you are really not in a mood for mind-consuming activities such as reading a difficult and in-depth article. The Metro, a free tabloid paper available every morning from any London Underground station, is a perfect example of this. It is mass produced every day and issued out for free, so it is made sure that the Metro is readable for absolutely anyone who is travelling on the Underground and has nothing else to read. It is also provided as a way to occupy the travellers so that they dont have to look at each other, as social harmony on the Tube is not exactly very comfortable. The Guardian is more expensive so you would only really buy it if you were intending to read all or most of it, whereas with the cheaper tabloid papers you can flick through them as a way of occupying yourself when you have nothing better to do, and you want quick impact for less time, money and concentration. Information in the larger, more expensive papers is more thorough, but slowly assimilated. Tabloids tend to contain more supposition and exaggeration to make the story seem more extreme and therefore more exciting for the reader. Language is fairly simple but expressive verbs are used to make the events seem more real. Usually tabloids focus more on the human element of their stories, in order to draw emotions from the reader and keep them interested. Although the language used and the structure and presentation of broadsheet newspapers seems to be aimed at more intelligent people and vice versa, it probably isnt entirely fair or accurate to say that more intelligent people read the Guardian and stupid, dumb people read the Mirror. Obviously this is true in a lot of cases, but the two papers are written for different purposes and occasions, and not necessarily just for different types of people. You will find that a lot of very intelligent people read tabloids for convenience and enjoyment, and similarly some less intelligent people who do not especially enjoy reading will read a broadsheet if there is an issue going on which they are particularly concerned with and want to follow in more depth. Also, although (we trust that) facts in newspapers are accurate, and quotations and statistics are genuine the ways in which they are dealt with depend very much on the newspapers own viewpoint. Especially with broadsheet papers, each one tends to support a certain political party, and the angles that they take on their stories are biased towards this. Papers cannot be objective, even if they try to be, because all the articles are written and put together by people, who have their own feelings and opinions about whatever they are writing about. People who buy newspapers regularly get into the habit of reading the one whose attitude is most similar to their own. This is why there is sometimes jokey controversy between readers of differently opinionated newspapers, and papers are stereotyped according to which political party they are biased towards. There are many different ways in which the media can convey news and entertainment to the public, and you can see this very clearly in the different types of newspapers and news articles that people write. Just like any other piece of writing, newspapers are not just written to inform; but to persuade, to entertain, to advertise, to advise, and, in varying degrees of subtlety, to instruct. It is very important to be able to consider carefully the type of newspaper you are reading from and be aware of how it is aiming to affect its readers.