Newspaper

This is a front cover for the Daily Mirror, a tabloid newspaper. The cover features a Jeremy Clarkson controversy. Other articles include the arrest of someone for a murder committed in 1972. The other article, titled "Bye Bye, Bob", is a tribute article to a deceased actor. This newspapers preferred reading is for the consumer to identify with all of the articles. Personally, I think this is a relatively "safe" newspaper cover, as there is nothing that will produce negative publicity to the newspaper. It is the equivalent to a softball cover. A tribute article will produce sympathy and make the paper itself look better in relation to the average reader, as they will associate with the death of this actor, and see the newspaper in a better or more generous light. On a similar note, the newspaper engages with the outrage on the other two articles, showing the outrage over the Gerry Adams case (though the consumer will need to have previous knowledge of the case to share the dominant reading, which is not always the case as the murder itself happened in 1972). This is why the Gerry Adams article is a lot smaller than the Jeremy Clarkson article. Everybody has seen Top Gear or at least Clarkson at some point, therefore it is a lot easier to engage with the reader if they know more about the article, which I think is why the Clarkson article is a lot larger, a headliner. A considered oppositional reading of the newspaper would be from the perspective of someone who does not have previous knowledge of Gerry Adams or Bob Hoskins. They may have a "Who cares?" approach to these articles, and considering these articles cover half of the front cover, they may avoid buying the paper completely, as they may consider that the other articles are not worth reading if that's the best articles featured on the front page. Furthermore, the Jeremy Clarkson article's oppositional reading may seen by Top Gear mega-fans, who will overlook anything Clarkson does, as its "In his personality". Another audience who may not be bothered by the headline are people who simply do not care that someone said "The N-Word", as the word may have less of an effect on them due to not seeing the stigma behind it. The lexis overall on this cover relies on wordplay or puns to draw readers in to buying the newspaper. A pertinent example of this is on the Clarkson article, he is referred to as a "Motormouth" which is a pun / word play because he is mostly known for being a host on the popular car show, Top Gear. I think that this works as some people may see the humor, and be interested in seeing more of that style. Another example of this in the same article is the alliteration in "racist rhyme". The word "rhyme" is used to criminalise Clarkson in a way, considering to rhyme well you need a good vernacular understanding, it makes it seem like Clarkson is used to this rhyme, he has memorised it and uses it as will. Newspapers run articles as these like "smear pieces" in order to generate buzz and get more people reading and outraged, as it can all be linked back to the newspaper, this in turn gives them a chance to write more articles, possibly even Clarkson's response to the allegations. Alliteration is also used in the Bob Hoskins article, the title reads "Bye Bye, Bob". Personally, I am not fond of this article name - it has an oppositional reading on me. I feel this way as it appears The Mirror is taking away grief from Hoskins' death - To me, it seems that they are using his death as a segue to write a headline about him, making jokes at the expense of his demise to generate profit.