Commentary of newspaper articles

The news story I have chosen is about a woman who was presented as someone who 'stole' a basket from Tesco as refused to pay the 5p charge for a plastic bag. The reason why the reader wants to read this story is because its a very laughable and unrealistic story of stealing which doesn't happen very often.

The moment Tesco security guard accused a shopper of STEALING a basket after she used it to carry her groceries to her car to avoid paying for a 5p plastic bag 

Firstly, the heading has the word stealing in capitals to catch the readers attention and encourage them to read the news article, the reason for this is because people are naturally curious who love drama and to be entertained with surprising scenarios. Also the heading gives a whole overview of the title, allowing readers to have a short story of the whole news paper article. I find the title is eye catching as many people have many complaints about the 5p charge and has caused a lot of aggravation.

 Secondly, Daily mail has adverts, other news articles and links that are covered around the page so its a very busy page with a lot of color and bright colored words. To catch the readers eye the Daily mail uses a bold heading, pictures and even a YouTube video of the actual scene to draw the readers attention to ensure the reader is fully interested in the story.
  layout of the article is to allow the reader to understand the article and to catch their eye, after the heading there are a few bullet points to give a few key facts about the article like her age, what happened to the individual, that she filmed the accuser and also what Tesco has said about baskets being taken and what's allowed.

Furthermore I have found that the Daily mail had enlarged miss Smiths quote of the reason why she had took the basket, in the quote the verb humiliated is used to exaggerate the embarrassment miss Smith had said to felt this is the articles way of convincing the reader that it wasn't miss Smiths fault and encouraging the reader to be on the 'poor' shoppers side. Throughout the article direct speech is used to express the shoppers terrible experience 'I hadn't even got to my car when the security guards chased me and then grabbed my basket and wouldn't let go,' she said. The article uses direct speech to allow Miss Smith to explain through her own words the incident that had happened.


The 6 photos in the article allow readers to see who was involved in the incident and what had happened with a caption for each.

The video shot by Miss Smith shows the moment she was confronted by the guards

 

Miss Smith filmed the security guards as one told her that customers were taking the baskets home with them

Miss Smith (picture) walked out of the branch with her shopping in the basket she was confronted by two guards who accused her of stealing

Shopper Khalia Smith, 21, was accosted by supermarket security staff after she used a basket to carry her groceries to her car to avoid paying the new 5p carrier bag charge

The daily mail then at the bottom of the news article explained when a person will be charged for a bag, explaining what the 5p charge was for. The article uses large capitals to catch the readers eye also because everyone likes to no when they can get out of being charged, this relates to the reader massively. Blue box catches the readers eye as the text is black with the white background so the reader is attracted to bright colors.

WHEN A PLASTIC BAG WILL AND WILL NOT COST YOU FIVE PENCE

Under the Government's new rule-book shoppers will not be charged for plastic bags which are used for:

• Uncooked fish;
• Uncooked meat and poultry;
• Takeaways;
• Loose seeds and flowers;
• Unwrapped blades, including axes, knives, and knife and razor blades;
• Prescription medicine;
• Goldfish;

The Government rules also list a series of bags which should not incur a 5p charge, including:

• 'Woven' plastic bags;
• Re-usable 'bags for life'; 
• Those used by dry cleaning or shoe repair shops;

Ministers have also tried to avoid the prospect of canny shoppers trying to avoid paying for their plastic bags. 

Under the new rules 'a bag can contain multiple items from this list and not incur a charge'. But they say: 'If the bag contains other items then you must charge.'