Case Study

Find out two important public figure
(find their story)

Madeleine Mccann
Went missing in May 2007 while on Holiday in Portugal. Still hasn't been found or whether she's dead or alive, remains a mystery, despite a £12 million police investigation.

Shannon Matthews
In 2008 Shannon went missing. Then she was discovered alive under a bed 24 days later, less than a mile from her home. Her mother Karen and Michael Donovan, Karen's boyfriend's uncle, were jailed for her kidnap. Given a new identity after her heartless mother used her in an elaborate kidnap sham to get cash.

Language

Madeleine Mccann	Shannon Matthews
Consultant parents are referenced  'Our children sleep with us now' Interview of Madeleine's parents were presented in the article, that really showed their sympathy  'described how they plan to use some of the £300,000  wealthy family for having a spokesperson  'we fell into the deepest, darkest chasm'	Mother who has seven children to five fathers  'Police get more time to question Shannon Matthews' mother' The mother copied a TV show program proving how stupid she is.  Shannon's family asked for donations from the Mccanns fund set up

                                      


The McCann's were interviewed, and many of their heart breaking responses were in the article. The daily telegraph really showed audiences their sympathy. Comparing the headlines for each article the Matthews article 'police get more time to question Shannon Matthew's mother' is certainly different in terms of the McCanns headline 'our children sleep with us now'. Throughout the Matthews article there is not much Intel about what she says about this case (a lot less response than the McCanns) it has been solved that Shannon's mother copied the kidnapping idea from a channel 4 series 'shameless' telling us how uneducated this woman must be, and how desperate.
Shannon's mother not only set up her own daughters kidnapping but she also demanded fund money from the campaign of the McCann's, the telegraph explicitly mentioned 'Shannon's family asked for donations from the fund set up to find Madeleine McCann' but just before this information the article states 'Miss Matthews, 32, has been accused of knowing her daughter's whereabouts from the start of the £5 million search for her,' the facts used here are not said in the McCann article, about how they asked for donations (it was said they were using the money they gained from Madeleine's fund set up) and is knowing the mother's age significant when mentioning the money for the search (I think not). I'd say the McCanns article is more favourable than the Matthew's, it seems the daily telegraph is definitely being more biased. 

In both articles there is an image of the mothers and their children. The photo size in Shannon Matthews’s article is bigger than the one of Mrs. McCann, even though the Matthew story is less significant than Madeline’s. There are clear distinctive differences in each image. There is a close up shot of Shannon Matthews and her mother merged side by side to create a single photo, Karen looking downwards while Shannon is smiling both shots are kept eye line. As for the image about the McCanns you see the mother playing with her child in the park, looking so caring and keeping watch of her.

Stuart Hall conveys that news coverage can be hierarchical. With each article you can see the presentation of those less powerful in society. Possibly because Madeline has consultant parents, the article was positive attributes about the dilemma and how they planned to use the fund money they gained to help find Madeline and all the sad responses they said about the situation. Even though Madeline hasn’t been found and there is no proof of what exactly happened to her or how the kidnapping happened, for Shannon’s article it is revealed that the mother was behind the whole kidnapping of her daughter, but there is also some irrelevant information in the article. It is reported that Shannon’s mother faked her daughters kidnapping so she could gain money, but to say that ‘Miss Matthews, who has seven children to five fathers’ seems unconnected with the occurrence. With other sources i did find out that the McCanns left their children in their hotel room unsupervised with the doors unlocked, but the daily telegraph doesn't say anything about this poor parenting.

If you were comparing the two articles, the dominant meaning of the daily telegraph would be for audiences to have a preferred reading towards the McCann's. As for Miss Matthews article there is a clear op-positional reading where viewers ideological assumptions are rejected. As for me I would also take these readings and prefer the McCann's as a dominant reading, since the daily telegraph intended to use Hall's reception theory and also create an op positional position for the Matthews case. Reason why is because of the text in the article and how differently said words were in each article. Creating a more negative ideology.