News: analysing the language of newspapers

The Guardian

The Daily Mail

Both stories here are covering the tragic events regarding the Las Vegas shooting and the gun control opinions that followed. In the first story from The Guardian the language is more factual and statistical to begin with. It lacks in emotion yet portrays the professionalism that the newspaper values. The headline creates an evil and terrifying tone with 'Monsters out there everyday', here the noun 'Monsters' conveys the negative attitude to the diabolical people who commit the atrocity however the phrase itself appears to be shedding light on the Las Vegas shooting as it is almost reasoning with the tragedy saying that it is not a rare thing to happen, which shows the lack of emotion from the NRA whose quote is the headline. However as it was said by the NRA we may infer that they are simply standing for their beliefs as the National Rifle Association is obviously not going to be against gun use. As the article continues it states that the National Rifle Association chief executive, Wayne LaPierre 'blamed Hollywood, criminal justice reform and the mental health system for the increasing carnage of America’s gun violence epidemic' in an 'unusually defensive interview'. This statement relates to the use of guns as opposed to the tragedy. The use of the adjective 'defensive' in the article portrays a negative view on LaPierre as it conveys a reluctant tone from the NRA executive. The article then goes on to statistical facts, 'Fifty-eight people were killed and nearly 500 injured when gunman Stephen Paddock opened fire on a country music festival from a room on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay hotel', which shows the mass of the tragedy but is not heartfelt and lacks remorse for the victims and families. This may be because the Guardian does not show emotion regardless of the story as it values facts so the emotion may go against their codes and convections. This therefore may make the story more reliable as it is assessing the story based on true facts and statistics. Bias is only present in the quotes from people such as NRA chief executive LaPierre and president Donald Trump in the article. Overall this article shows the values of the Guardian as it is professional and unemotional to the tragic story.


For the article from the Daily mail the tone is more emotive, as you would expect from the Daily Mail as it is one of their convections. The article describes President Donald Trumps reaction to the events. The headline states 'Donald Trump open to talking about gun laws after Las Vegas massacre', here the use of the noun 'massacre' is quite emotional and horrific. The article states that Donald Trump commented that the shooter was a '“very, very sick individual” and suggested he was ready to discuss gun laws “as time goes by”', here the repetition of 'very' shows a remorseful tone along with the phrase 'as time goes by' which conveys that the president believes that time is best for the situation. As the article continues it states that 'Mr Trump stressed the shooting was a tragedy', here the verb 'stressed' connotes urgency and gives again an emotive tone. The agenda is obviously the presidents view on the shooting, which could be bias as it is only Trump's opinion and judgement on the situation. The article is formal to some extent however it is not elaborated to a full extent, most of the coverage is through the video report and points are factual and short. This is all conventional of the Daily Mail as they value informality and emotion over facts and professionalism contrasting with the Guardian. The two different takes on the similar stories highlight the newspapers differences.