Ebola Issue Analysis
English Assignment 19/11/14 Reece Pridmore
In this oral presentation I will show how a journalist can position an audience by using language and visual features. To do this I will be comparing two news articles; then comparing the potential social and cultural consequences of the texts and finally answering which article has the most significant impact on Australian audiences. I have chosen two newspaper articles from the Courier Mail and the New York Times which express their very contrasting opinions about the Ebola epidemic currently happening in West Africa, one saying Ebola is out of control about and the other saying Ebola is nothing to worry about.
The first article titled Ebola victims’ bodies left to rot in the street as crisis …show more content…
First he has used emotive language in a positive way to position the reader to agree with the title. He does this by using facts and words like “unlikely to spread”, “let’s worry less” and “vanishingly unlikely to break out”. The journalist has purposely used these words to position the reader to worry less about Ebola and think on the bright side. Another Language feature used in the news article is Sarcasm. In the first line the journalist has written “We’re now witnessing the worst Ebola epidemic ever — and on your list of worries it belongs . . . nowhere.” By using sarcasm the journalist can mock the idea that Ebola is something to worry about. This makes the reader think that the idea of Ebola being out of control is a joke and that it is nothing to worry about. The last language feature used in the news article …show more content…
He has chosen a picture a Doctor who worked in West Africa and contracted the virus and survived. It can be seen in the picture that Dr. Kent Brantly has a stern or angry look on his face. This tells the audience that Ebola is nothing to worry about because if a doctor can contract Ebola and survive then it is not as serious as it has been thought. The doctor’s facial expression also implies that he is angry with the people who believe it is a problem.
So the question is which news article had a more impact on Australian audiences? Both Articles used an effective amount of emotive language and other language features and both journalists used confronting images. The public however will chose to believe Article 1 more than article 2. This is because A. article 1 has used better emotive language to make the audience fear for their own health and safety and B. the images the journalist have used are more confronting than that of article 2 image which further misleads the audiences perspectives on
In this oral presentation I will show how a journalist can position an audience by using language and visual features. To do this I will be comparing two news articles; then comparing the potential social and cultural consequences of the texts and finally answering which article has the most significant impact on Australian audiences. I have chosen two newspaper articles from the Courier Mail and the New York Times which express their very contrasting opinions about the Ebola epidemic currently happening in West Africa, one saying Ebola is out of control about and the other saying Ebola is nothing to worry about.
The first article titled Ebola victims’ bodies left to rot in the street as crisis …show more content…
First he has used emotive language in a positive way to position the reader to agree with the title. He does this by using facts and words like “unlikely to spread”, “let’s worry less” and “vanishingly unlikely to break out”. The journalist has purposely used these words to position the reader to worry less about Ebola and think on the bright side. Another Language feature used in the news article is Sarcasm. In the first line the journalist has written “We’re now witnessing the worst Ebola epidemic ever — and on your list of worries it belongs . . . nowhere.” By using sarcasm the journalist can mock the idea that Ebola is something to worry about. This makes the reader think that the idea of Ebola being out of control is a joke and that it is nothing to worry about. The last language feature used in the news article …show more content…
He has chosen a picture a Doctor who worked in West Africa and contracted the virus and survived. It can be seen in the picture that Dr. Kent Brantly has a stern or angry look on his face. This tells the audience that Ebola is nothing to worry about because if a doctor can contract Ebola and survive then it is not as serious as it has been thought. The doctor’s facial expression also implies that he is angry with the people who believe it is a problem.
So the question is which news article had a more impact on Australian audiences? Both Articles used an effective amount of emotive language and other language features and both journalists used confronting images. The public however will chose to believe Article 1 more than article 2. This is because A. article 1 has used better emotive language to make the audience fear for their own health and safety and B. the images the journalist have used are more confronting than that of article 2 image which further misleads the audiences perspectives on