A Comparison of Two Media Texts

A Comparison of Two Media Texts

I am going to compare two articles about medical testing on animals.

One is a newspaper article written by Polly Toynbee and is called

‘Sorry, but I think dying people are more important than dumb

animals,’ this was published in the Guardian. The other is a leaflet

with the title ‘It’s a crying shame’ which is design for animal aid.

The Guardian news article is for medical testing on animals. The

Animal Aid is against medical testing on animals. Both texts are aimed

at the general public who are old enough to have an educated opinion.

The newspaper article taken from the Guardian is very basic and is set

out like a typical newspaper article would be. The image used does not

have an effect to the argument because it has no relevance to the

topic, it is just a picture of the author Polly Toynbee. However if

pictures of animal testing were used in this article I could make

readers see how terrible it really is. That is why pictures are not

included in this article. On the Animal Rights article the title

clearly reads in bold black writing in Arial font 'It's a crying

shame.' This is rather effective I think because there is a picture of

a canines face on the page and it appears to be very sad and crying,

thus getting the point across to the reader. On the reverse side of

the leaflet there are various different texts but they are not in

boxes so the general look of the leaflet is open and is easier to

read. Each has a different question for a heading which is

highlighted. The text in the top right corner has a headline which is

bold and eye-catching because the black background illuminates the

white h...

... middle of paper ...

... in the Animal Aid

leaflet is effective because they are ironic. The use of irony

powerfully emphasises the cruelty of science experiments on animals.

What is ‘acceptable’ to scientists is unacceptable to animal rights

activists. Quotations used in Toynbee’s article just show that someone

else is speaking. Using quotations like the Animal Aid leaflet would

have been more effective if used in Toynbee’s article.

By reading these articles it has slightly changed my views. The Animal

Aid leaflet has made me more aware of what happens to animals during

the experiments however it has not made me take action (e.g.

donation.) The most persuasive texts is the Animal Aid leaflet because

it informs and persuades using fact and opinion which is made more

effective with emotive language, powerful images and ironic

quotations.