Comparative Textual Analysis of Two Articles
The key to being able to differentiate one newspaper from another is often, if not always, the way the latter presents its news, both aesthetically and stylistically. These aspects have gradually divided newspapers into two distinct categories: broadsheets and tabloids. The former being a more neutral and respected type and the latter a newspaper for more or less entertainment purposes only. This can be well observed in two specific articles that both report on political campaigns.
The first one, an extract from The New Vision, a pro-government Ugandan publication, recounts presidential candidate Paddy Bitama’s arrival to the official nomination as an election candidate. The article vaguely follows Bitama („of Amarula Family“ – an interesting detail mostly seen in non-European newspapers) as he heads off from Chez Johnson, gets a suit, forgets campaign posters, spontaneously grabs a bite to eat from a man having lunch by the roadside, and finally climbs into a bodaboda whilst assuring the driver of the latter he would give him fuel after he was elected president. After further analysis of the article, one thing stands out. Namely, the journalist seems to focus on the events that took place in a rather superficial and informal manner, adding a slightly biased tone to his/her article. For, firstly, the short paragraphs use a lot of emotive language such as, „Bitama grabbed an Irish potato“, „the man was forced to take off his shirt“ and „no one bothered“. Secondly, a few euphemisms can be spotted: „people’s president“ along with some vague language that is mostly common in tabloid articles („about 100 posters“, „met a man“). The full assemblage of the latter is presumably used to create a certain feeling of ridicule of Paddy Bitama’s „dust of light moments“. A specific aspect that increases this feeling is the fact that Bitama is a comedian, as mentioned in the first lines of the article, hence the additional feeling of bias against him as a less serious
The first one, an extract from The New Vision, a pro-government Ugandan publication, recounts presidential candidate Paddy Bitama’s arrival to the official nomination as an election candidate. The article vaguely follows Bitama („of Amarula Family“ – an interesting detail mostly seen in non-European newspapers) as he heads off from Chez Johnson, gets a suit, forgets campaign posters, spontaneously grabs a bite to eat from a man having lunch by the roadside, and finally climbs into a bodaboda whilst assuring the driver of the latter he would give him fuel after he was elected president. After further analysis of the article, one thing stands out. Namely, the journalist seems to focus on the events that took place in a rather superficial and informal manner, adding a slightly biased tone to his/her article. For, firstly, the short paragraphs use a lot of emotive language such as, „Bitama grabbed an Irish potato“, „the man was forced to take off his shirt“ and „no one bothered“. Secondly, a few euphemisms can be spotted: „people’s president“ along with some vague language that is mostly common in tabloid articles („about 100 posters“, „met a man“). The full assemblage of the latter is presumably used to create a certain feeling of ridicule of Paddy Bitama’s „dust of light moments“. A specific aspect that increases this feeling is the fact that Bitama is a comedian, as mentioned in the first lines of the article, hence the additional feeling of bias against him as a less serious