A Vision of Hell!

A VISION OF HELL! China Quake in British newspapers

LCC SGDMAGD 2008Piero Zagami

Elective BDesign and Politics

The earthquake in China seen by British newspapers

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54

Section 112 newspapers / 4 days

54

On the 12th of May 2008, a devastating earthquake killed thousands of people in China. The day after, almost every British newspaper was reporting this news. The following analysis is focused on the first four days after the tragedy (from the 13th to the 16th of May), studying how newspapers reported the event, and highlighting differencies of approach by the press to the same story.

54 54

76 76

“Less than at any time does a simple reproduction of reality tell us anything about reality.”

Bertold Brecht

76 76Experiment 01

Section 1/01

News charts

98 9814th May13th May

98 9816th May15th May

1110 1110News story coverage chart

1110 1110Experiment 02

Section 1/02

Front page

1312 1312Front page: 13th May

1312 1312

1514 1514Front page: 14th May

1514 1514

1716 1716Front page: 15th May

1716 1716

1918 1918Front page: 16th May

1918 1918

2120 2120Front page: overview

2120 2120Experiment 03

Section 1/03

Photography

2322 2322Photography: 13th May

2322 2322Photography: 14th May

2524 2524Photography: 15th May

2524 2524Photography: 16th May

2726 2726Photography: overview

2726 2726Experiment 04

Section 1/04

News overlay

2928 2928News overlay: 13th May

2928 2928News overlay: 14th May

3130 3130News overlay: 15th May

3130 3130News overlay: 16th May

Section 212 newspapers / 1 days

3332 3332

To precisely analyze the different styles of communication of British newspapers, I focused my studies on a specific day, the 14th of May. The compared analysis begins with observing how tabloids, newspapers, and the free press have different visual and typographic languages to tell the same story, and this is evident throughout the entirety of the newspaper.

3332 3332

3534 3534Experiment 05

Section 2/01

14th May: news visual dialogue

Newspapers

This category is addressed to those newspapers that preserve the traditional broad sheet structure such as The Guardian, The Independent, The Times and The Daily Telegraph. Here the classic news hierarchy is preserved: world news come for first, followed by the local news and the celebrities gossips. The visual language is usually sober and neutral.

The Daily TelegraphThe GuardianThe IndependentThe TimesDaily ExpressDaily MailEvening StandardLondon LiteMetroThe London PaperDaily MirrorThe Sun

3534 3534Experiment 05

Tabloid newspapers

Free newspapers

Tabloids

A tabloid is a newspaper that emphasizes sensational crime stories, gossip columns repeating scandalous innuendos about the personal lives of celebrities and sports stars, and other so-called “junk food news”. The visual language is usually confused and sensationalistic with pictures invading most of the page and big words.

The majority of free newspapers is published as tabloids. Content of this kind of newspapers reflects the audience: a clear focus on quick news (local, national and international), lifestyle, technology, media, celebrities, and movies information. Examples of this kind of newspaper are: London Lite, Metro, The London Pape.

This kind of newspapers represents a hybrid between the traditional newspaper and the tabloid, for format and content. These newspapers usually give priority to the main news, but do not let forget to stress the attention on the celebrities gossips and the local news. The Daily Mail, Evening Standard and Daily Express are examples of this category.

3736 3736Visual language: The Daily Telegraph

3736 3736Visual language: The Guardian

3938 3938Visual language: The Independent

3938 3938Visual language: The Times

4140 4140Visual language: Daily Express

4140 4140Visual language: Daily Mail

4342 4342Visual language: Evening Standard

4342 4342Visual language: London Lite

4544 4544Visual language: Metro

4544 4544Visual language: The London Paper

4746 4746Visual language: Daily Mirror

4746 4746Visual language: The Sun

4948 494814th May: news visual dialogue: “Earthquake in China” news coverage (alphabetical order)

4948 4948Experiment 06

Section 2/02

Typography

5150 5150

The Times Daily Express Daily MailThe Daily Telegraph

The Guardian The independent

Evening Standard

London Lite Metro The London Paper

Daily Mirror The Sun

Typography: news titles

5150 5150

The Times Daily Express Daily MailThe Daily Telegraph

The Guardian The independent

Evening Standard

London Lite Metro The London Paper

Daily Mirror The Sun

5352 5352Typography

5352 5352Experiment 07

Section 2/03

Page numbering

5554 5554

The Times Daily Express Daily MailThe Daily Telegraph

The Guardian The independent

Evening Standard

London Lite Metro The London Paper

Daily Mirror The Sun

Page Numbering

5554 5554

The Times Daily Express Daily MailThe Daily Telegraph

The Guardian The independent

Evening Standard

London Lite Metro The London Paper

Daily Mirror The Sun

Section 31 newspaper / 17 days

News Decay

Experiment 085756 5756

During the first week after the earthquake in China, the story was found in each one of the twelve newspapers considered. In my analysis I found that The Guardian was the newspaper to give more importance and information to the event than any other. Therefore, I decided to collect this newspaper day by day to observe when The Guardian would stop mentioning the story. After the 31st of May, the newspaper didn’t mention any further news about the situation in China. The following pages show an analysis of the visual language of The Guardian over 19 days (Sundays excluded) until the story was no longer mentioned in the newspaper.

5756 5756

5958 595813th May

5958 5958

6160 616014th May

6160 6160

6362 636215th May

6362 6362

6564 656416th May

6564 6564

6766 676617th May

6766 6766

6968 696819th May

6968 6968

7170 717020th May

7170 7170

7372 737221st May

7372 7372

7574 757422nd May

7574 7574

7776 777623rd May

7776 7776

7978 797824th May

7978 7978

8180 818026th May

8180 8180

8382 838227th May

8382 8382

8584 858428th May

8584 8584

8786 878629th May

8786 8786

8988 898830th May

8988 8988

9190 919031st May

9190 9190

13 14 15 16 17 19 20 21 22 23 24 26 27 28 29 30 31

9392 9392News decay: “The Earthquake in China” disappearing process (over 19 days: 13.5 - 31.5)

13 14 15 16 17 19 20 21 22 23 24 26 27 28 29 30 31

9392 9392

Newspapers (May):Daily Express 13-14-15-16

Daily Mail 13-14-15-16

Daily Mirror 13-14-15-16

Evening Standard 13-14-15-16

London Lite 13-14-15-16

Metro 13-14-15-16

The Daily Telegraph 13-14-15-16

The Guardian 13-14-15-16-17-19-20-21-22-23-24-26-27-28-29-30-31

The Independent 13-14-15-16

The London Paper 13-14-15-16

The Times 13-14-15-16

The Sun 13-14-15-16

Quote at page 6:Jan van Toorn (2008), Critical Practice, Rick Poynor and 010 Publishers, Amsterdam

9594 9594Bibliography

LCC SGDMAGD 2008Piero Zagami Elective BDesign and Politics The earthquakein China seen byBritish newspapers