Analysing a Newspaper Article

How does the article inform and entertain its reader?

 

The headline 'Jeremy Corbyn rejects formal privy council induction by Queen' grabs the readers attention as it is about the current topic of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and his issues with the queen and the royal family. As this is a current topic seeing ‘Jeremy Corbyn’ will make the reader interested and wanting to find out the latest piece of information.  The headline is also short and snappy, so we can read it quickly without having to spend too much time thinking about it. This is especially good for an online article as the writer has little time to try and convince the reader to read their article. The headline also gives us a lot of information on what the article is about, we see immediately that it is about 'Jeremy Corbyn' and his rejection of a 'formal privy council introduction' by the queen. This means that the reader knows exacally what to expect the article to talk about. The headline is in a larger font than the rest of the article and so catches our attention as that is what we see first.

 

The subheading of the article 'Labour leader turns down opportunity to be made a memeber of the council in person by monarch, citing private engagments' gives us slightly more information than the headline, telling the reader in more detail what is going to be talked about in the article. The fount is the same size as the article, but is in a different font and so like the headline stands out from the rest of the article. The term ‘Labour Leader’ is used to inform the reader of who he is and also uses alliteration so that it is rememberable.

 A picture is used to grab our attention. Right under the subheading is a large picture of Jeremy Corbyn so is one of the first things you see. This article is shown online and so needs to grab the reader’s attention in the first 2 seconds or they will lose it, this is why they include large pictures so that the reader’s attention can be grabbed as quickly as possible. The picture they have chosen of him is zoomed in on his face, with a stern and powerful look on his face. As this article is taken from ‘The Guardian,’ which is a generally left wing newspaper, they want Corbyn to appear powerful and like he is a force to be reckoned with as he is the biggest left wing voice in politics. The background of the picture is red which is the colour of the Labour Party; this gives us the impression that the writer is showing support of the party and wanting to get behind Corbyn’s views.

During the article itself many different techniques are used to inform and entertain the reader. For example in several places during the article the writer uses facts such as 'The largely ceremonial body made up of 600 senior figures.' The use of facts makes the reader feel that what the writer is saying is trueful and so can be trusted. Another way that the article informs the reader is through complex sentences. For example 'The decision suggested that the Labour leader, a republican, was unwilling to follow convention.' A complex sentence allows the reader more information then they would gain otherwise, here being 'a republican.' At the end of the article the writer deciribes David Cameron as 'launching a strong attack' on Corbyn. Agin we see the left wing supporting Guardian through the language used. The verb 'attack' is used instead of somthing such as counterargument as it has harsher connotations to it and they want the right wing leader David Cameron to be seen in a bad light.