L 205 F

On the 19th of April, 1995, a bomb blew the federal office building in Oklahoma City apart. The event was covered by several newspapers, among which there are Newsweek and Time. Both of the international newsmagazines released special issues on the bombing and both issues date the 1st of May, 1995. After reading both articles, one discovers that there are many similarities and differences between the length, the pictures, the structure and the style of the two articles. In this essay, the articles will be compared from the above aspects.

The first difference that comes to the reader`s eyes when looking at the newspapers is the difference between the front-cover pictures. The front-cover of Time brings a picture of the suspect of the bombing, Tim McVeigh, while Newsweek shows two victimes from the scene of the bombing. The two pictures already indicate the differece between the focus of the two articles: Time focuses mainly on the suspect, while Newsweek has its main focus on the victims and the scene of the tragedy. However, the word-choice of the cover-titles coincide: the word "terror" is present in both of them, which might indicate the international view of the blast: it was a terror.

Since both of the articles are cover-stories, they are both quite long: Newsweek has 19 and Time 31 pages on the blast. The "longerness" of the time article is due not only to the written text, but also to the high number of pictures in the article: there are 34 pictures in the Time article (and only 22 in the Newsweek coverage). There are three pictures that are present in both newspapers: that of the federal building, of Tim McVeigh and a third "image that came to symbolize the tragedy"(Newsweek): a fireman holding a one year-old baby. As for the other pictures, the ones in Time are more personal (and are therefore more shocking): a mother and a child in hospital, five children with their missing mother`s picture, relatives hugging. Th pictures of Newsweek are of a more objective kind: firefighters at work, terrorists breaking into the Nichols` house. In both magazines there are a map of Oklahoma and a sketch of the federal building and its surroundings.

The surface-structure of the two articles are quite similar: both of them consist of three main articles and there are several short ones attached to them. However, the ordering of the themes covered in the stories differ.

As mentionned earlier, Time focuses on the suspects, and therefore its first article is entitled "Who Are They?" and it is about Tim McVeigh and the Nichols. The article gives details of the suspects` activities on the day of the crime, presents their history ad explains how McVeigh was caught. It is only after the detailed presentation of the suspects that in "The Blood of Innocent" part the reader learns about the victims and gets a description of the site. Finally, the last part of the cover-story, "How Safe Is Safe?", raises the question of public safety.

In contrast with this, in its first article "The Rescue", Newsweek starts by victim-stories, gives a description of the site of the bombing and describes how people helped each other after the blast. It is only in the second part of the cover-story, "The Manhunt", that McVeigh is introduced and the police-hunt is presented. The third part, "The Patriots", deals with the militia group. The ordering of the articles certainly shows how the focus differs in the two magazines.

The comparison of the information covered in Newsweek and Time is also important. The main facts of the bombing are covered in both magazines, however, Time provides a more detailed presentation of the event. There is, for example, an (in my opinion) important fact that is not mentionned in Newsweek, only in Time: "For those sad, waiting parents, the terror was not over. Children’s Hospital received a bomb threat. They faced an awful decision: evacuate, or hope it was the cruelest of huaxes." (pg. 40.) On the other hand, there are stories that are stated in both articles, for example, the case of Dana Bradley, 20, or that of a man: "One man tottered down the sidewalk, blood on his face, declaring that he was heading home -only he didn’t know where that might be and couldn’t remember his name." (Time) Besides covering more information, Time also uses a more personal style. It gives names of firefighters, lots of victimes and also states the name of the federal building ( Alfred p. Murrah), which Newsweek does not do. On the top of some pages, Time brings quotations which also add to the personal nature of the article. The personal style can be best felt in the lines: "Colton called joyfully to his mother and ran to give her a big hug. `I love you Mommy.` That was the last time she spoke to his son." (pg.38)

While reading articles, especially ones as shocking as the Oklahoma Bombing story was, the reader does not pay special attention to the ordering, the structure, the style of the article, and what is more, one is not likely to read the same story twice in different magazines. The aim of this essay, therefore, was to call the readers` attention to the similarities and differences of two coverages of one event.

L 153 M

All newspapers have their own characteristics and peculiarities which they stick to in order to easily find the way to their readers and, later on, keep them. The part of a newspaper that can best represent these features and, therefore, is the most influential is the front page. I have reviewed the front pages of 20 numbers each of The Times and Magyar Hirlap to find similarities and dissimilarities in their selection policies, and analyze the rates of different types of news. Both papers are daily and quality papers with similar content and readership; therefore, comparing the two can provide valid results. Editors of The Times and Magyar Hirlap place different amounts of emphasis on the various types of news items appearing on the front page and it is reflected by the different rates and amounts of certain news types. In my analysis I have used three different kinds of statistics. In the first, I have only examined the number of articles appearing on the first page; in the second, I have measured the rates of national and international related news; while in the third, I have turned my attention to the rates of news items dealing with economy, politics, or other topics.

The first focus of the examination was the number of articles on the front page The average number of articles on the first page is 6.8 in The Times, and 5.0 in Magyar Hirlap. This 36 percent difference may seem to be much, but two facts have to be noted here: (1) The Times is larger in size and (2) the length of the articles was not measured. Therefore, it would be an invalid conclusion to simply state that The Times has more news on its first page, since the difference between the average number of articles is proportionate with the sizes of the newspapers. On the other hand, there can be no doubt that The Times offers greater variety of news on the front page than Magyar Hirlap does .

The number and rate of national and international news items on the front page was also measured. The results show that while The Times front page contains 3.5 times more national related news (106) than international related ones (30), the same rate of Magyar Hirlap is only 2.3 (70 and 30). It can indicate that British editors are moreconcerned with national news than Hungarian journalists are.

Another important aspect of the front page matter analysis is the various types of news elements and their rates to one another. Three basic types of news items were distinguished at this point: news related to (1) economy, (2) politics, or (3) other topics. The results, again, show differences, but this time the differences were more profound than in the first part. On its front page, The Times covers an average of .75 economy, 2.05 politics related news, and 4.05 of other topics, which mostly include national or international trial reports (e.g. Englishman's execution in Indiana State, U.S.A., etc.), disasters, terrorist attacks (e.g. the Oklahoma blast), and others. Averages of Magyar Hirlap are similar as far as the first two figures go: an average of 1.4 economy, and 2.0 politics related news. But the third rate is much lower: only 1.6 articles deal with topics other than economy and politics. Even more startling is the fact that the rate of these averages show great dissimilarity. While in The Times the total percentage of political and economical news items is 40.9%, in Magyar Hirlap this rate is 68%. Magyar Hirlap devotes more than two third of its front page to political and economical news, which may indicate the greater public attention payed to these kinds of news.

On the whole, it seems that the editorial staffs of the two newspapers really differ in some minor and major ways as far as front page matter goes. On the one hand, The Times can be said more nationally oriented, while Magyar Hirlap is less so, as the rates of national and international news shows. On the other hand, Magyar Hirlap is more concerned with politics and economy than The Times is, since the latter one devotes more than half of the first page articles to topics other than politics and economy, while the former's same rate is only one third. The amount of emphasis placed on the various news items by the editors is diverse, which is a natural phenomenon that may well reflect a country's national identity and international importance.