Article analysis

Referring to both texts in detail, discuss how language changes.

The Sun's Black Hole article, written in 1999 shows the modern language features, especially when compared to The Daily Mirror's article, One Touch Of Nature, written in 1912. The difference between structure of format and graphology is the first noticeable difference, as The Daily Mail's text is written as block texts in lengthy paragraphs, whereas The Sun's article uses short sentences and paragraphs, of which are also broken up with the use of headlines. The headlines are in capitals (uppercase), in bold. This creates a quick-read feature, making the article punchy and paced to keep the reader entertained and interested.

Following on from this, the headlines of "WHY" are then followed by rhetorical questions. The rhetorical questions allows the reader to engage emotionally with the article. It makes the audience question the points that are being raised, whereas Daily Mirror's article uses adjectives to engage with the reader to provoke emotion. This is however suitable tot he article's subject, as Daily Mirror's article is aout Titanic, talking about a sensitive subject that many (if not, all) readers will be familiar with, however The Sun's article is about a Black Hole. Readers are aware what a black hole is but they may not be aware of its dangers or consequences. This article uses a field specific lexis to denote danger. Words such as "feared", "fire", "failures, "blazing", "panic" are used to signify warning to influence the reader to feel fear when reading this article. The use of lexis successfully creates a strong tone of voice that is suitable for the typical The Sun newspaper reader. The Sun is a tabloid with a general target audience of CDE2 audience (working class), of both genders, however it is known that the language that is used in The Sun is purposely easy for readers, and content for the newspaper is created so that a 16 year old can understand the articles. This is reflected through the informal, chatty language that is used through a narrative-like tone of voice. Italics are used after a declarative sentence, "That is clearly not true", to enforce a slightly sarcastic tone to the article, giving a personalised feel to interact with the reader directly.

The grammar and punctuation used within The Daily Mirror's Titanic article shows semantic changed from archaic language, such as "Draughtsmen", "mightily" and "nothingless", of which would most likely be unfamiliar to readers if this language was used in The Sun's newspaper. The Daily Mirror's audience is for of a more sophisticated middle class older audience, and even though nowadays The Daily Mirror was more of a broadsheet, it has changed to a tabloid (now The Mirror). Due to this article targeting an educated audience, the audience are expected to follow the article without the need of breaks through headlines or rhetorical questions, creating a more formal approach. The article at the end is signed off as "W.M." at the end, whereas articles have changed typically to a full name at the top of the article underneath the title. The initials at the end are now seen as more of a formal sign off.