The homicide of Sylvia King : analysing newspaper’s coverage reporting

Abstract

This, dissertation aims to analyse newspaper reportage regarding the homicide of Sylvia King which took place on the 3rd of April 1993. The objective of the dissertation is to understand how journalists communicate the news to the general public, evaluate the methods used to elicit interest in various readers and to which extent news are delivered to the public. Moreover, the objective is to analyse all the reports conducted and outline which methods are used by journalists to keep readers interested in their writings. The study itself is a qualitative study. The latter has been carried out by using two complimentary methods which are archival research and content analysis. The main findings of the dissertation were that Chibnall’s eight imperatives for writing stories were evidently noticed to be used in the articles analysed. Additionally, moral panic theory had also appeared to be present in some of the articles analysed.