As you can see from the 8 different articles above, the main photo in all of them include raging, out f control flames in them which are seen by everyone as dangerous. Most of the articles use the same main picture, a young youth walking in front of a car in flames. This image is used in The Guardian, Daily Mail, Daily Express and Daily Star, all of which use serious headlines in most of their main articles to get the point straight across rather than using a pun. This image makes young teens look guilty for what has gone on and have caused the riots, not taking into consideration other people who were involved, this makes it look like the mass media have already come to a conclusion of who is guilty for all the commotion, vandalising and rioting that has gone on. The Guardian uses the headline 'The battle for London'. This gives the impression that London is helpless and in need of help. Using the word 'battle' gives an idea of different communities or sides fighting for what they want, like in a battle or war. Putting this headline with the selected picture makes it look like young people of London have the power over the whole city. The Daily Express, however, includes a slight pun in their headline. 'Flaming Morons' in large font and 'thugs and thieves terrorise Britain's streets' in a smaller text underneath. Using their main headline as a pun and having the serious background to the headline helps relate what the article is about. Using the term 'Flaming Morons' makes youths look stupid for what they are doing and the flaming obviously refers to the photo with the car on fire in the background. The narrator who made this headline has tried to make youths notice that what they are doing is pathetic and if they see the headline they might have second thoughts on how they are acting. However this could go the complete opposite way and agitate them more to cause more havoc.
The Daily Telegraph and The Sun use an image of a local jumping from her apartment away from the flames to try and save her life. This image is powerful as it shows that even those who are innocent are being involved and having their lives put at risk. From what is visible from the image of the women, they are seen as feminine and helpless compared to a male who are seen as bulk and strong, which could possibly link to why there are people reaching out to catch her, if this were to be a man he may not of had much support unless he was a young boy or elderly man. If it was a youth there would be very little help from the people as thats who the public are blaming for the cause of these riots. This gives more fear in the mass media for the innocent people.
The Independent use an image of a youth covering up their face walking past a flaming car and use the caption 'Mob Rule'. The subtext uses phrases such as powerless to describe the position police and politicians are in, with the photo of the person hiding their identity in the image the media makes it look like these are the people leaving London powerless. People who are so ashamed to show their identity they have to cover themselves up, possibly due to fear of being caught out and having a serious sentence or punishment! Considering thoughts like that can make the public who are and are not involved conclude that really the youths have little power after this and are ashamed for what they are doing yet must try to continue what they are doing.
Although this is not an image in any of the above newspaper articles, the photo above still shows how severe the damage has been and what the long-term and short-term actions are. It shows one of the streets in London almost completely devoured from the rioting. This puts the idea across that the youths causing the trouble don't care about the after effects caused.
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