The Naughtiest School Boy: Chosen News Article

Taken from Daily Mail 

Taken from Daily Star

I've decided to pick the story on Harry Reid nick-named, "the naughtiest school boy'. He was excluded from his local primary school aged only 5 years old, which shocked me as he is so young! What shocked me (when reading into it) was that Harry had Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD) as well as Autism! What upset me was Harry gets frustrated in social situations yet the school had no system in place to deal with him. Another shocking fact was the school has an outstanding rating and having a problem child such as Harry, would not help that (which is what I think is the main reasons why he got excluded) A spokesman for the school said: 'The decision to excluded a child is not taken lightly and is only ever and absolute last resort. A figure I found out was that has been released earlier this year suggests that permanent exclusions from primary schools are on the rise! 

As I had the same news story yet reported in the Daily Mail and Daily Star (both tabloids) I could read both and draw on comparisons in the way they have chosen to report the story. The first thing I immediately noticed was the different choice in photos to go with the article. The Daily Star has gone for a really cheesy informal photograph of Harry Reid looking glum yet quite innocent, whereas The Mail has gone for a formal school portrait. 

The use of language is different also, The Star uses an informal tone-of-voice and also on first name basis calling Harry's mother, 'mum' and 'Debbie' in comparison with The Mail 'Mother' and 'Mrs Reid'. The Daily Star's tone-of-voice connotes a certain loudness and brash language, for example, 'son dubbed Dennis The Menace  to add a shock factor. Also in The Star's headline, 'I'm Britain's naughtiest boy...EVER', is in first person (informal) and 'EVER' is capitalised and in red, which connotes boldness, as well as being eye catching. An ellipsis ( ... ) is used to create suspension. The Daily Mail has a lot more detail concerning Harry and his mother. 

Another difference I noticed was the headline font. The Daily Mail uses a sans-serif Roman font which I guess connotes formal feel. In comparison with The Daily Star which uses a slab- sans serif which portrays a heavy feel, with blunt ends... I suppose from afar your eye would be more drawn to The Daily Star as it is more legible and has a lot less writing. 

The reason why I have chosen this news story is because I am interested in understanding the psychology behind Autism ( something I only touched upon in A level Psychology) I'm also interested in raising awareness of Autism as I feel people don't understand the disorder which affects a lot of individuals. 

Mind-Map Comparing News Articles

I've decided to look up at the news story on Daily Mail online and read through the reader comments to get a different perspective on the article. 

A lot of the comments argued that Harry Reid was a pest and said it was down to bad parenting. However, there were some comments from parents who had children with adhd and autism who sympathised.