''Family pay tribute to schoolboy Aidan O'Neill
11:49am Thursday 30th September 2010
By Juliette Astrup »
THE devastated family of Aidan O'Neill have paid tribute to their "fun, cheeky, affectionate" son.
The 12-year-old was tragically killed riding his bike across a footbridge on his way to Poole Grammar School yesterday morning.
Aidan fell from his bike after hitting a metal barrier as he cycled across a footbridge over the Dorset Way. Speaking to the Daily Echo, Aidan's father, Steve, 50, said: "He was just such fun, he had a naturally smiley face, a very sunny disposition, he had a great capacity for empathy and always put himself in someone else's position.
"If they wanted a laugh he'd make them laugh, if they needed a cuddle he'd give him a cuddle."
Steve said Aidan loved nature, cycling, swimming and rugby. He used to go birdwatching with his grandfather, Ted Brown.
The former Canford Heath First and Oakdale Middle School pupil also loved dramatic, performing and amateur dramatics and in school plays.''
This will really grab the readers attention as it is very shocking and also tragic, and people are inclined to feel more empathy and sorrow if it is a child who has been the victim of an accident, and the techniques with how this is written really enforces the point that this is really a tragic case, for example 'tragically killed riding his bike ' which immediately makes us feel sorry inside, and also we really want to read on to see what has actually happened. This comment made by an online reader shows how this works effectively:
''I have never met Aiden, but I wept as I read this tragic story. What a beautiful, happy face, & by all accounts, a wonderfully tender, kind & gifted lad! My deepest & sincerest sympathy go to his family & no doubt 'many' friends. I cant even try to imagine how you are all feeling right now! This is saddest story I have read for a very long time!''
This is proof of how the language techniques work to make the reader feel a lot of sadness towards him and his family, and how it can affect us personally even though we may not know the person involved personally, and i think that the fact that he lives locally makes it even more sad, then a boy dying from Manchester for example.
I have researched into my own target audience for my own newspaper, and i have been asking adults only, as i believe that young people (certainly people under the age of 18) will not be reading newspapers at all generally, and if they do, i believe that they are not mature enough to understand the concepts, so this is the reasoning behind not asking younger people. I have asked people around the age of 40-45 (middle-aged), as this is the age group which will consume the most news and understand it best in my opinion. In my questionaire, a lot of my questions were about what stories the audience want to read, and what the content should be like to attract more readers, what they would like. I have found that the majority of my target audience tend to be more attracted to the stories which involve someone who lives in the local area who has been involved in something big, for example, the incident when a young boy from the local area was killed tragically on his way to school. This report/headline proved very popular with the audience, and also, reports that contains a death in it, tend to get more readers, as these stories are much more shocking, and therefore attract more attention.
Students march on Bournemouth in protest
A noisy march brought Bournemouth town centre to a standstill as students vented their anger over the proposed hike in university tuition fees.
Waving banners and chanting, around 500 young people turned out to support a national protest.
They wasted no time in voicing their opinions with a highly vocal march from Meyrick Park to Bournemouth town hall.
A small minority threatened to push down barriers placed at the end of Braidley Road and police brought in reinforcements, bringing their number to around 70.
Officers were forced to temp-orarily close off the town centre to traffic when students staged a sit-in on Commercial Road. But the protest was largely good-humoured and peaceful and ended after two-and-a-half hours.
Inspector Wayne Knock said: “You have to strike a balance between people’s right to protest and keeping order without overreacting and I think we achieved that.”
Here is an example of a second news story that has been reported in a local newspaper. The report is covering students who have been protesting about the latest changes to do with university to be implemented by the government. This story would have been very popular with local readers as this involves the local area heavily and this will also attract a much wider audience as many younger readers will be much more interested to read this article as it could directly affect them in the long term and also it involves young people and once you find out that people your age are involved your interest increases immediately. Also the actions of the people involved are directly against the government, and at the moment people like to be against the government, so this will also increase interest as this backs up the point of view of the reader, and people like to have the government as the enemy, as this makes them feel as though their opinion is correct and backs them up. Also the government are seen as the enemy as the working/lower classes, and the majority of people who will but this newspaper and take a lot of interest in reading it are likely to be working class of lower class in society, and also these sort of people will take more interest, as the news topic will affect them a lot more, as they have less money than the more wealthy people as the more wealthy people will not be as badly affected as they won't have much of a problem paying these extra tuition fees that this topic is about, as the lesser off people will be much more directly affected.
LATEST: Lyndhurst murder victim named
12:00pm Sunday 13th March 2011
A MAN who was stabbed to death in Lyndhurst has been named as Paul Steven Pass.
Mr Pass, who was known as Steve, was 54, unemployed and single with no children, said Hampshire Police. In a statement, his parents Eric and Jean said: “Steve was a very much loved son and losing him in such tragic circumstances is devastating to us.”
A post mortem carried out on Saturday found that Mr Pass died from a single stab wound.
On Saturday, a man appeared in court charged with murder following the discovery Mr Pass at a house near Lyndhurst police station last Thursday evening.
Michael Hanlon, 52, of no fixed address, was remanded in custody by magistrates in Southampton to appear at Winchester Crown Court on Tuesday (March 15).
Police called to the property in Foldsgate Close at 7pm on Thursday found the body of Mr Pass, who had died during an incident on the premises.
