News: The Language of Copy

The Daily Mail

Here is an article on the Daily Mail website covering the topic of storm Brian, firstly, we notice the bold headline 'Brain Batters Britain' as a use of alliteration, reinforcing the informal tone used consistently by the Daily Mail as well as the word 'batters' to emphasise the how violent the storm is through more informal language. The tone created is a mixture of shock and negativity as it is nature that is creating the problems, so there is not much we can do about it, creating the Daily Mail's emphasis on the stopping of flights in Heathrow and of ferries in Kent, creating anger for those who need to travel. This provokes a shocked reaction of readers of the UK as they are unfamiliar with extreme weather in Britain. The agenda is shown to be biased against the storm as it is doing harm but doesn't suggest actions to take as it is nature's creation that we cannot stop ourselves. This article is written informally through the tone and language used in more of a conversational chatty tone to keep the audience intrigued. The responsibility of this story is shown to be reasonably truthful with the basic information and facts needed to know about the storm.

The Guardian 

However, the Guardian website covers the same topic in a more detailed analysis of what the storm is currently creating to parts of the UK. It even includes a video showing the damage caused by the storm, creating more content for readers to view. It uses a formal tone throughout informing the readers on the events of the storm through facts and figures as well as evidence of ferry departures closing due to the storm. The title is formal and shows fact with information on the storm heading to Britain after flooding parts of Ireland. They use other sources of information interlinked with its own such as the video footage, UK Met Office announcements and the tweet from P&O Ferries, showing the current update of the situation so that all readers are updated and recently informed. I can see that from the copy no bias is shown so that the Gaurdian remains unbiased to every situation as it is just stating current facts and figures without using vicious vocabulary to describe any destruction caused. This story is indeed trustworthy as other reliable sources are interlinked and the content is shown with facts and detailed unbiased information.