Analysis of an Article Written About Steven Parr

Analysis of an Article Written About Steven Parr

I am going to be, analysing an article written by Ben Taylor about

Steven Parr who was involved in a fight, with what he called a “thug.”

I will be looking at why he uses a picture with Stevens’s injuries,

the headline and what types of things Ben Taylor uses to shape the

article. The article has been written for the Daily Mail Wednesday 29th

December 1999 edition, the Daily Mail is a tabloid which tends to

exaggerate the story. Tabloids have a bolder layout; they print more

‘human’ interest stories. Tabloids have “downmarket” approach at

social groups C2, D and E. A high proportion of shorter articles,

covered in less depth. Whereas with broadsheets more covering more

detail political news, a higher proportion of longer articles,

broadsheet newspapers have a more ‘up market’ social flavour aimed at

social groups A, B and C1. They print more ’serious’ articles, with a

greater focus on financial matters and international news. So what we

are told in this article may not be exactly what happened.

The headline is used to catch the reader’s attention. The headline in

this article is quite long for a tabloid, but it uses simple language,

I think what catches the reader’s eye with this headline is that that

Ben Taylor used ellipses “Instead he intervened…at a terrible price”

the “at a terrible price” tends to capture the reader’s attention more

because, we want to find out what it was that happened. The headline

mainly tells the reader what the article is about. The use of

descriptive words means that Steven Parr had a choice to walk away or

not this leaves the reader in suspense.

The picture is VERY effective, especially the fact that it shows

Steven Parr’s injuries which makes the readers feel sympathy for him.

Basically pictures are worth a thousand words which in this case it is

true: if someone didn’t find the headline interesting seeing the

picture would change their mind as it shows the terrible suffering he