Exploring headlines and pictures in online newspaper articles

Details

Supervisors

De Cock, Sylvie

Faculty

Faculté de philosophie, arts et lettres

Degree label

Master [120] en communication multilingue

Abstract

Abstract Thanks to the rise of the internet, the press has been able to grow online. The press has strengthened its place in the Fourth Estate. The aim of this dissertation is to explore headlines, leads, pictures, topics and political views of online newspapers as well as their influence on the readership. After a brief explanation of the main paper characteristics, the study focuses on an analysis of four selected newspapers with the aim of observing the differences between their features on the basis of three current events. Then, the investigation continues with students’ opinion of the role of headlines, pictures, leads, topics and political affiliations in the press. In order to conduct our study, two research questions were considered as relevant. The first one deals with an analysis of headlines, leads and accompanying visuals through three particular topics, which come from four online chosen papers. The second is about the political views of newspapers and their potential target readership through the three selected topics. In order to answer these two questions, four different newspapers, available online, were under study, The Guardian, The Daily Telegraph, Le Figaro and Le Soir and three articles were analysed, namely the meeting between President Donald Trump and the Supreme Leader of North Korea, the Windrush generation and Uber vs. taxis. Other data such as the political affiliation, the country and the influence on readers were taken into consideration. To examine students’ opinion of paper features, a survey administered via Google Forms was conducted and posted on social networks. Through this exploration of online newspaper articles, it was found out that one topic can be approached in different ways: some articles are purely informative, and others use techniques to try to draw the reader’s attention. It was discovered that some newspapers tended to condemn or praise one party or another, whereas some others prefer to remain neutral in the political sphere. This political orientation is linked to the target readership. One article may attract one specific reader or all readers without distinction. The results of the survey showed that the students in Translation and Multilingual Communication at UCL were in favour of online papers rather than print versions. Besides, they considered that topics and headlines are the two main features that may give them the wish to read an online article. Finally, an overwhelming majority was aware that papers have an impact on their opinions.