Studio Brief 4: Comparing articles

The Telegraph

Reading the article about this story on the Telegraph website, I have found it is much more opinionated than The Times. It goes into more detail about the poem itself and how it is structured and written, for example:

The "Ode to Osama" is absolutely free of humour. Instead there's a sort of alarming naivety to it. That's partly the effect of the childish spelling and punctuation ("Oh sheik Osama no this for true"), as well as the tin ear for rhymes or half-rhymes (my emphasis): "Us we are left to continue what you started. / To see the victory until we are martyred" and "Everything you had you gave for Allah / No surrender will take us all far".

The Times seems to get more to the simple facts and doesn't analyse anything like The Telegraph seems to. It seems like a desperate attempt to squeeze every bit of excitement from this story. It is talking about how it may be "the worst poem ever written", showing it isn't very formal as an article.

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/andrewmcfbrown/100242505/the-white-widows-ode-to-osama-is-this-the-worst-poem-ever-written/

Sky News

The article on the Sky website includes quite a few images, which may suggest it is for a different audience. They are trying to keep the reader's attention with pictures.
The title is ''White Widow' Lewthwaite's Ode To Bin Laden', which does not suggest it is a love poem or letter like other news stations have. Overall it seems quite formal.

The British terror suspect sought by police following the Nairobi shopping mall massacre wrote a poem in praise of Osama bin Laden in which she warned that al Qaeda is "stronger and fiercer" than ever, Sky News can reveal.

Samantha Lewthwaite - known as the "White Widow" - pledged to continue the fight to bring terror to the West and suggested she was prepared to be a martyr for the Islamic cause.

In the 34-line Ode To Osama, which was found by police on a computer in her Kenyan home, Lewthwaite said her love for the mastermind of the September 11 attacks "is like no other".

She lamented his death in 2011 at the hands of American special forces and called on Muslims to follow his example.

http://news.sky.com/story/1157854/white-widow-lewthwaites-ode-to-bin-laden

Mirror

The title of the Mirror article is "White Widow Samantha Lewthwaite's love poem to Osama Bin Laden found on computer during police raid". It's like the writer has tried to cram as many effective facts as possible into one sentence.
There are a number of different pictures of the woman, as if her appearance is more important than the actual story, which is sensationalising the whole thing.

The difference between these two images is clear: In one she is wearing a Islamic headscarf. In the next she isn't, and she is also surrounded by her young children. This introduces the question: is one image meant to show her evil side, and the other her maternal, gentle side to make a strong contrast? This would mean that the headscarf was connotated with terrorism (which it already is in our society), which would imply subtle Islamophobia.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/white-widow-samatha-lewthwaites-love-2479295