I am comparing the use of language between these two news
outlets reporting the same story, I will be comparing them for their Restricted
and Elaborated codes, and this is a language theory created by Bernstein’s.
Restricted language is when the writer assumes you know certain details and
leaves them out whilst Elaborated language is when the writer includes every
single detail to ensure that anyone uneducated on the topic can understand the
story, Restricted language is usually associated with tabloids as people tend
to buy tabloid newspapers to read about topics they are interested in such as
celebrities, for this reason they may leave out some details such as not using
a celebrities full name assuming the reader knows who they are talking about.
Elaborated language is usually associated with broadsheets as it simply wants
to inform the reader on every detail on the subject of the article.
Sources
The
BBC article begins with the headline “Toys R Us UK goes into administration”.
This is very straight to the point and tells the reader the basic idea of what
they are about to read whilst leaving out enough information to make the reader
actually want to read on. However the Daily Mirror article is titled “Bloodbath
on the high street: Three major chains announce 6,000 jobs cuts in one morning”
This is much more detailed as it includes a statistic, whilst neither of these
are using restrictive language, the Mirror article uses sensationalism with the
word “Bloodbath” to grab the reader’s attention which is a common convention of
a tabloid article.
In these headlines there is no doubt that the Mirror is more descriptive compared to the BBC article as the BBC article is fairly vague whilst the Mirror gives us some information straight away. Another comparison point is the description of Toys R Us, The Mirror article opens a paragraph with “Troubled toy retailers Toys R Us” which tells the reader what Toys R Us actually are as a company, however the BBC article fails to mention what Toys R Us actually is as they are relying on their audience to already know this company. So in this example the Mirror article is using elaborative language and the BBC article is using restrictive language.
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