Taunted to Death and Bullied Girl Kills Herself †Compare and sontrast Essay

The two articles, ‘Taunted to Death’ and ‘Bullied Girl Kills Herself’, both report the same incident, which happened on Sunday 28th September 1997. The incident involved a young girl called Kelly Yeoman who killed herself. ‘Taunted to Death’ is the report from a tabloid newspaper, ‘The Daily Star’, and ‘Bullied Girl Kills Herself’ is from a broadsheet newspaper, ‘The Guardian’. Despite both articles reporting the same story, there are numerous important differences in layout, content and style. There is an enormous difference in the presentational features of the articles. The headline of the tabloid newspaper is bold and large. Compared to the article, the headline is twice the size. It is written in a white font on a black background to draw the reader’s attention to the paper; the effect of this is that they are reversed out, whereas the Guardian headline is small in comparison to the article although it is still in bold type. The headlines reflect the styles of the newspapers; they both have bold, plain lettering to create a greater impact on the reader. The difference between the two headlines is that the Daily Star headline ‘Taunted to Death’ is placing the blame on someone and the Guardian headline ‘Bullied Girl Kills Herself’ is mutual. The Daily Star has a greater impact because tabloid newspapers are approached differently in order to sensationalise the story, here ‘Taunted to Death’ is ‘headline grabbing’. The first two paragraphs of these articles summarise the contents of the article. The Daily Star tabloid ‘Taunted to Death’ uses an ample amount of emotive words to make the reader read on, ‘hate campaign’, whereas the Guardian is straight forward, telling the reader facts. Such as, Kelly was bullied about her weight, her parents were unemployed and she had reported to the school that she was being bullied. Such facts aren’t in the Daily Star. They are designed to evoke sympathy. The Guardian article is more factual but does use some emotive language, ‘terrorised’. The word ‘terrorised’ suggests that Kelly was being intimidated through violence. You can learn from the Guardian the gender and the age of the victim, ’13 year-old girl’, how she killed herself, ‘found dead yesterday in her bedroom after taking an overdose’, a possible reason why she took this course of action, ‘bullied at school and terrorised at home’ and the probable offenders responsible for the bullying, ‘a mob of youths’. Also, the Guardian shows the bigger picture as they raise social issues. The newspapers contain photographs of both Kelly and her mother, Julie. In the Daily Star, one of the photographs of Kelly is in juxtaposition with the headline; it is in a block and is as large as the text. This has causes great effect and impact because she looks like a vulnerable victim and it shows who the article is about which induces empathy from the reader. The two photographs of Kelly, one in each newspaper, are visibly presenting her at different ages. In the Daily Star Kelly looks younger, she is also wearing her Salvation Army uniform, this is to illustrate that she was an innocent young girl who looks very vulnerable. The Daily Star used this photograph because it is more personal. Also, Julie, Kelly’s mother, looks distraught in both articles; this demonstrates the impact of her daughter’s premature death. In the Guardian there is a picture of Kelly’s mother, Julie, standing outside their home, it is much larger than the one in the Daily Star and is larger than the text. This photograph is used to illustrate their family home and show that they were just an average family. Julie looks distressed in this photograph but not as much as the one in the Daily Star. They live in a council house and people associate council houses with rough neighbourhoods. In the Guardian the photo of Kelly’s mother is less dramatic than the one in the Daily Star. This is because the Daily Star is a sensational newspaper, they would have had a range of photographs to choose from and they decided to choose these specific ones to match the style of the paper. The Guardian takes a less emotive approach because it is impersonal and wants to remain neutral. The captions are longer in the Guardian whereas in the Daily Star they are shorter and the word ‘tearful’ is used to emphasise her mother’s intense grief. The fonts are different in both articles, the Guardian is written in the same font throughout, with no sub-headings, whereas the Daily Star has one sub-heading, ‘Hounded’, which is written in bold and in a different font to make it stand out and separate the quotations. The word ‘Hounded’ implies a chase and is metaphorical in the respect that it shows that she was bullied. Only two conversations are in bold and italic in the Daily Star. These two quotes’ are in bold because they are the most dramatic this is due to the fact that the newspaper wanted to highlight these quotations because they were from Kelly’s family, so they are focusing on the family’s emotions in order to create a sensational approach to the story. The Daily Star mainly consists of quotations and conversations to be evidence for the reader to how people are feeling to gain their sympathy. The quotations in the Daily Star are heart felt. â€Å"My daughter has been hounded to death. I don’t know why they did such things†. By using the word ‘hounded’, Kelly’s father is implying that his daughter was pursued and harassed. The article is comprised of mainly quotations from family members, so the reader can see how they have had to cope with the loss of their daughter, and so they are sympathetic. The quotes are melodramatic. â€Å"I’ve had enough of this. I’m going to take an overdose†. Kelly said this to her mother. The Daily Star concentrates on the attack and the suicide and has used these quotations from family members to create a sensational account. The Guardian only has a few quotes of family members and a great deal from outside agencies. Also, they are not as sympathetic but more forthright. â€Å"This is unacceptable. They should make sure children are safe-how many more must we lose as a result [of bullying]? † This is a quotation from Pauline Hasler, director of the Anti-Bullying Campaign. This is included in the article because the Guardian is impersonal as it just wants to remain mutual. Although in the Guardian, one quotation from Kelly’s father Ivan, shows strong emotion. â€Å"She was a bubbly, charming little angel who would do anything for anybody and I have lost her†. This serves to remind the reader that she was only a little girl whose life was curtailed. The Guardian has included this quotation to show the seriousness of this issue and they have done so by using an emotive quotation. The Guardian tends to concentrate on the broader issues such as why Kelly was being bullied and what was being done by various agencies to resolve it leading up to her death. This is because the Guardian is unprejudiced and more formal. Derby City Council was due to meet the family and the police had been called out on several occasions. â€Å"We were made aware of one incident that occurred on Friday and were intending to go round and see members of the family today†. The Daily Star revolves more around the issue that she was ‘driven to kill herself’, and not what was going on in Kelly’s life before she ended it. In this case the journalist of the Daily Star focuses on the attack of the house and the suicide, which are both dramatic events. The Daily Star concentrates more on the opinions of the family, which is shown in the use of quotations. The quotations are used to have an impact on the reader. The Guardian takes a more factual approach, telling the reader the events of Kelly’s life which may help to understand why she may have killed herself and raising issues for debate concerning the circumstances of her suicide such as whether or not she really was driven to kill herself and whether that can be classed as murder. The language used in both papers differs extremely. In the Guardian the sentences are longer and the language is complicated. Some emotive words, such as, ‘terrorised and ‘taunted’ are used to gain sympathy from the reader, as it shows how she was separated out and that it was persistent. â€Å"In the latest incident eggs, flour and butter were hurled at the house and abuse shouted at Kelly as she watched from an upstairs window†. The emotive word in this sentence is ‘hurled’. It emphasises the malicious intention behind the attack and is more effective than using the word ‘throwing’. It suggests it was thrown with force and purpose. The preposition in this quote ‘at’ stresses violence as opposed to being gentle. They also interview Kelly’s head teacher and the re-housing council in the Guardian. Their words speak of Kelly as a person and her ability. The Daily Star is full of emotive words; this is because it is an opinionative article. â€Å"Her distraught dad found the tragic 13 year-old dead in her bedroom when he went to wake her for school at 7. 50am†. ‘Distraught’ shows the father’s pain and suffering; ‘tragic’ conveys a terrible image and has a severe impact on the reader. These are just a few examples but the Daily Star has plenty more. The sentence structure in the Guardian is complex. â€Å"Pauline Hasler, director of the Anti-Bullying Campaign, which was formed in 1985, said many schools did not take a hard enough line against bullying†. This is classified as a complex sentence. The subject throughout this sentence is Anti-Bullying; there are two objects, Pauline Hasler and schools in general. Punctuation joins three short statements together to form this complex sentence, whereas, the Daily Star tends to rely on simple sentences. â€Å"My daughter has been hounded to death. † It is simple but striking. It is simple because it contains a subject a verb and an object. Another example of a simple sentence is â€Å"Manslaughter charges could be brought if it is believed she was driven to kill herself†. The Guardian appeals to the more educated person with a better command of the English language, as it is a broadsheet newspaper. The vocabulary and style of language is more complex than a tabloid newspaper. The two newspapers are to suit different audiences and that is shown in the amount of fact and opinion in each article. The Daily Star is based on opinion whereas the Guardian takes a more factual approach. Although, they both try to grab the attention and sympathy from the reader. The Daily Star does this more successfully than the Guardian, the qualities of which lie in it’s broader range of facts and interviews with outside agencies which raise important issues beyond the immediate story of the suicide. Overall there is an element of class distinction which is related to the reader and their intellectual capability.