LO2: Newspaper Analysis

Damning reports emerge of Trump campaign's frequent talks with Russian intelligence Wednesday 15th February 2017

Main points:

Donald Trump's aids have contact with Russians
US Intelligent Officials have no evidence of this
Claims are threatening the Trump administration
Claims contradict Sean Spicer (spokesman) and makes previous claims more likely
Trump's old campaign manager comfirmed to haveing contact with Russians

The purpose of the article is to inform and report the story, and to explore the other recent related incidents. I think this because the article states many of the facts about the story with very little suggestion or evidence bias to entertain (reports that some of Donald Trump’s campaign aides had frequent contact with Russian intelligence) , but the exploration and explanation of other related stories can be seen as exploring (They add circumstantial weight to the reports on the Trump campaign’s Kremlin links). Also, the teacher to pupil mode of address denotes informative rather than entertainment.

The primary tone of the article is serious with no humour - just used to explain the story concisely (The New York Times report cites four current and former US intelligence officials who are unnamed). However, there is a more, almost sensationalist secondary tone (The Russian influence scandal engulfing the White House deepened dramatically) in some parts of the article as well, showing bias against Trump, as it exaggerates the problem by using words thast connote destruction, ie engulf.

Many technique were used in the article, for example:
The use of the word engulfing when describing the current trouble in the White House is both hyperbole and imagery, as it's obvious to the reader that the White House isn't literally covered in problems and can still function to a degree, and it's imagery as it connotes images of fire and destruction - which shows the reader that the White House is struggling to function because of the problems.

In response to this article, I believe that it was very effective in displaying it's point in a non-bias way using language, structure and tone. Although using hyperbole can be seen as making a situation seem more dire than it is, showing bias against the subject (in this case Trump), this language can also be seen as stressing to the audience the past history of the subject if they're not aware, and so isn't bias. As for structure and tone, serious and factual is the prevailing theme with the article - it intends to inform the reader, not educate, and leaves 'reading between the lines' and opinions to the reader.


Berstein

Elaborate Coding - Words are of higher level when it comes to reading ability (Broadsheets - Guardian)

Restricted Coding - Jargon and dialect, easy to understand (Tabloid - Sun)



'Who, What, When, Where, Why, How', Mode of Address (peer to peer, teacher to student, parent to child), Sentence Structure (Simple, Complex)
All used in newspapers to address a certain audience in a certain way.

So this article was about Donald Trump and his talks with Russia, at the time ofo the election, to possible rig the vote or gain an advantage, and his associates talked to them.
It's a teacher to student article, primarily and solely to inform via jargon and statistics, with little pondering or conversation.
It has a complex sentence structure, fitting in a lot of specific information.

In the first paragraph, the Who, What and When were covered - 'Donald Trump', 'Russian influence scandal' and 'Over the course of the last year'. This efectively draws people in to the article, as there's already an established audience for the subject, so only 3 Ws were sufficient.

The second paragraph goes into more detail as the premise of the story is already established. So the paragraphing in the story is effective, as it draws in the audience before giving them the basics of the story. It specifies When (nearly 25 hours), Who (Trump and Pence).

Sentence Structure

Simple Sentence - Page called the reports “complete garbage”. - This clearly states a quote without divulging into opinion and speculation. As the newspaper is a broadsheet, not a tabloid, it tries to show facts with as little bias as possible, which this achieves.

Compound Sentence - Despite the uncertainties, the reports are threatening to the Trump administration on a number of levels. - Explains further the implications of the story, which fits the audience and the type of newspaper.

Complex/ Complex-Compound Sentence - The only Trump associate named in the New York Times report as having participated in the contacts was Paul Manafort, who was the Trump campaign manager for several months last summer. - Explains the background of the story.

These are all effective in the article, as the expansion of points with the latter two structures expand on the detail the audience would want, while the former effectively gives the audience information easily and effectively.