Discussion: Tabloids and broadsheet papers
In groups, compare the writing style in three writeups of the Occupy Wall Street protests in the financial district of New York City. Two are from today's New York papers, and the third is from The National Enquirer. Compare things like sentence length, word choice, use of colorful words and plain language in all three. Also look at the reporting: How many people did the Times have on the story? The Daily News? (The Enquirer is in Florida. Did they have anyone at the scene? How do you know?) Which stories are more readable? What makes them that way?
As you survey the stories, make a note of things you can use in your own writing. Be specific. For example, a nice combination of words. A descriptive passage, a good quote. Short paragraphs. Whatever. Discuss with the people on your row and post your observations as comments to this blog post. Be sure to put all your names on the post so everyone gets credit. We'll go through them in class and compare notes.
Link here:
- New York Times. Everybody knows about the Times, a national paper of record, sometimes known as the "gray lady" because its style is as weighty as the great issues of the day.
- New York Daily News. It's in tabloid format so people who ride the subway can fold back the pages and read it while they're hanging from straps in the subway cars.
- National Enquirer. . Not the worst of the supermarket tabs, but clearly not concerned with the weighty issues of the day. Their story on Occupy Wall Street came out at the end of September.
15 comments:
These news stories are very informative and colorful. It shows how much these protestors care for the Zuccotti Park. And by staying in there all night, all day, for two months, they will stop at nothing to make sure nothing is torn down or marred. Police are trying to clear the protestors so that they can rap up the danger that is being placed in the park. Sure it sucks that its being knocked off, but if there are risks in the park, then matters need to be handled.
New York Times...i think that the nyt did a good job of telling the story. they didnt get to many stories from the protestors themselves but they still covered it well. it was very readabale and they had 2 people working on it
New York Daily News...the nydn used a lot more colrful words to describe what was going on. the sentences were much shorter and a lot choppier than the nyt. still they had a bunch of good quotes from the protestors themselves. they really gave you a sense of what the protestors were feeling. they had 4 people contribute to the story and i think that helped them get all the information they needed.
National Enquirer...the national enquirer's article didnt compare well to the other two. it had far less information about what was going on. they only had one person write it and as far as the reader could tell the writer of this piece was not on site.
The one thing that all three of the articles have are good quotes from sources. Whether it be from protestors, politicans, or other news people the quotes are make the protest realistic. Plus, the pictures are well done too. Getting a good picture sometimes speaks out more than the article.
The Enquirer is short, sweet, and to the point, but that tabloid has good quotes from other sources.
I think the Daily News has good pictures of the protest, but the article is to long and I think a reader would lose interest in the article. The New York Times has a good balance of facts and pictures of the protest. The New York Times article has more wide space which makes the article easier to read. Wide space does make a difference in your writting.
NY Times- the mayor is more respected when talked about by having Mr.in front of his name or the use of Mayor Bloomberg. They also use an amount of white space to jump from paragraph to paragraph.
NY Daily- uses the name of their reporter and others that were arrested rather than simply saying 2 dozen were arrested like the times. Daily has more detail but short paragraphs
National Enq- short sweet and to the point. They do not give much detail about the park and lawyers just simply whats going on and who is invovled such as actors and actresses.
It's obvious that the National Enquiror's goal was to incite the emotions of the Ocupy Wall Street non-movement. This is evident with their large photo displaying unkempt, angry, confused hippies. The other photograph seemed to be from the perspective of the protestors and was unflattering to the police. The language of the article also showed a lack of understanding of what is happenening in New York, instantaneaously siding itself with the self-righteous, self-proclaimed "99%".
The Daily News was much more balanced than either of the other two. It seems to take the perspective of a neutral justice system. The headline,
"NYC, Occupy Wall Street wait for judge’s ruling after Zuccotti Park evictions" seems to be very neutral and fair.
The New York Times was much more fair to Bloomberg and his decision to have destructive protestors removed from private property, protestors who seem to destest the mere idea of the private property on which they were generously allowed to loiter for two months, creating a paradox that no anti-capitalist will ever understand.
Also, each story has a different point of view. The first story is based on the police arresting the protestors and trying to get them to clear out of the park. Some of them talked about having their stuff dumped. The second story is based on the court and how they tried the protestors.
The New York Times has a quote from the Mayor saying “New York City is the city where you can come & express yourself.” Then he later states that the protesters were taking over the park. I don’t know that I would have used this quote because I feel like protestors are trying to prove a point in New York City where you can “express “yourself. I don’t know this just did not sit right with me as I read it.
The Daily News had more pictures than the Times which I liked better because I am a visual person. I also liked that there paragraphs were short and to the point. It was easier to read.
The Enquirer had more pictures as well, however is not a reliable source therefore I would not use or even get my news from such a source.
The New York Times uses many quotes from different sources on different sides of the issue, such as “No retreat, no surrender”, from the protesters and “New York City is the city where you can come and express yourself. What was happening in Zuccotti Park was not that,” from the Mayer. Quotes add life to the story. The New York Daily News had employed more spirited phrases such as “baton wielding cops” and “eerily clean and empty.” The National Enquirer was the only won to use a very exciting headline to immediately grab attention Days of Rage! Occupy Wall Street Protests Grow, even adding a exclamation point. The NE was also very short while the NYT was quite long and informative and used much longer sentences, and the NYD was in the middle.
Each of these articles has its own voice to it. They all are talking about the same matter though the protests, which of course is taking the news over right now. All of them are very informative, they are colorful in reading. The police are stopping many of these because they do not want to see people get hurt or possibly killed in protest. They are making sure no one gets hurt or anything else occurs. Each one has a little something different to it though. The enquirer is the one that has less information than any of them, although it had more pictures it didnt have as much information, but it got the point that was needed across to everyone. Many people would preferto read the shorter of the three because they dont want all the other information. They all have a different way of explaining it.
New York Times, i thought was a little less harsh on the situation. They gave Mayor Bloomberg a little more respect but over all a good written article.
The Daily News gets more at the heart of it with the protesters point of view and the one to two sentences paragraphs made for a much easier read.
National Enquirer i thought was awful, sounded like it was rushed and not well thought out. it sounded like the author just grabbed random facts and stuck them together.
New York Times gives both police and protesters perspective. IT also tells a very detailed story and follows a specific path.
New York Daily News focuses more on the court story (must be their turf!) They are proud of their rebellious leader and the lengths he went to in order to get the story... right. The end of this story turns into a very choppy, abrupt recollection of events.
National Enquirer seems to be quite supportive of the protesters in their tone. Their word choice makes me believe that they are proud of these protesters. They also highlight celebrity endorsment, expansion efforts and protest dates for the Occupy movement.
Of course, there are differences in font, sentence length, article length, etc. But the true difference is in the content.
The New York Times is straightforward to a fault. And it seemingly sides with the city of New York. We get a very narrow perspective of a very broad picture.
The Daily News has shorter sentences, and isn't afraid to use some lightly loaded language. Because of this, it is an easier read than the Time's article, but it too is slightly skewed. The protestor's voices are sought far more often than not. The Time's felt for the city. But the protestor's plight plucked the sympathetic heart strings of the Daily.
The National Inquirer’s article is fluff. There isn't really any substance. And, what news it does present, is highly biased. It is the shortest of the three, but that's because it has the least to say.
In general, the three articles say similar things. I like the lede that the National Enquirer used the best. It sounds the most creative, using rhyming and also the sentence sounds the brightest [loudest]. The Daily Enquirer's story is probably the shortest, and I notice that usually each sentence equals one paragraph. This makes reading the story easier.
I like this sentence that the NYDaily News used: "The park was eerily clean and empty."
Can you feel the eeriness by reading this sentence?
By looking at the three different articles, I like the way the National Enquirer article looks. It is simple, and the article is contained to a certain shape, without interruptions from photographs and advertisments. It's a block format.
In the Enquierer, it looks like there are a few people outside of Florida that were helpful in putting this story together. The writer talked to The Spokesman for the Transit Worker's Union 100 and also got information from John Boehner.
Things that are helpful in my own writing: The Spokesman for the Transit Worker's Union said this, “We're getting involved because the crisis was caused by the excesses of Wall Street and the consequences have fallen hardest on workers.” He made a very generic statement, one that sums up the whole situation.
It is important for the writer, and editor, to keep the words lively. Especially in situations as the one being discussed, there has been a huge uproar. The reader should feel this uproar, and feel the tension by reading the articles.
The NYDaily News, in my opinion, had the best use of quotes. Again, quotes, quotes and more quotes is a way to win the prize!
Although all the articles cover close to the same topic they do so in different ways. The New York Times article is a long story going over a page the longest of all the articles. It has larger paragraphs then the other two articles. The national Enquirer has a summary lead and is a much shorter to the point article. It had in my opinion the best opening paragraph and photos. The Daily News seems very broken up often using two sentence paragraphs. It also makes me as a reader thing the cops are the bad guys in the story.
After reading the stories i notice that the stories give good information but they have different points of view. New York times looks more from the polices and protestors stand point, where the Daily News looks more toward the lawyers point of view. Although both articles are good i liked reading The Daily News article more.
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