1. The and
Madeleine McCann Story
Momina Amjad, Noor AlBulushi and Bashaer AlHajri

2. Objectives
• Learn about Daily Mail‟s coverage of the
Madeleine McCann story.
• Identify and analyze the techniques employed by
The Daily Mail.
• Observe how Daily Mail linked Madeleine
McCann‟s disappearance to other stories.
• Discuss the impact of this story.
• Discuss Daily Mail‟s bias and compare it to other
newspapers.

4. 2007
Initial reporting of
Madeleine McCann
story by the Daily
Mail was sympathetic
towards the parents
while criticizing the
Portuguese police
indirectly.

5. 10 May 2007
• What do you notice about the
headline?
 -Alliteration (figure of speech)
• The article uses a lot of
humanizing and personal
images of the
McCanns, showing sympathy
towards them. Makes stories
human interest.

6. • He said: "We can't describe the
• Lots and lots of quotes from
“
anguish and despair we are
feeling as parents of our beautiful the McCanns but less facts &
daughter Madeleine. evidence to back them. It‟s
• "Please, if you have Madeleine, very personalized for the
let her come home to her mummy,
reader to feel sympathetic
daddy, brother and sister."
towards the McCanns.
• Indirect criticism of the Portuguese police, talking about how “British
experts” think the golden hour opportunity to find Madeleine has been
missed. A discussion of how Madeleine‟s parents were the first ones to issue
the photographs and a public appeal for their daughter.
• This image was used while describing police efforts to find
a suspect. How do you think it‟s going to impact the
readers?
 [later said by people shown it to be featureless and look
"like an egg with hair".]

7. • Article says; “Facing the cameras on Friday night, Madeleine's
father and consultant cardiologist Gerry McCann, his voice cracking
with emotion…”
Watch the clip and decide the amount of truth those words have.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxHuwT__URc
• Celebrity involvement is
mentioned, significantly that of
portuguese footballer Cristiano
Ronaldo, who then played for
Manchester United.

8. Madeleine McCann: Now
hunt reaches UK
20 May 2007
Portuguese police hunting for toddler Madeleine
McCann are to ask British counterparts to help
with searches in England, it has been claimed.
A request will be presented to UK authorities
this week - a necessary step because foreign
police forces cannot operate here without
permission.
It was also revealed that at least one of the
numerous searches in Portugal has involved a
police diver - although there were no details on
where or what he was searching.
Meanwhile, an estimated global TV audience of 450million saw a two-minute
film clip of Maddy, entitled Find Madeleine, which was also played at Wembley
before Chelsea beat Manchester United 1-0 in the FA Cup Final.

9. The 90,000 crowd fell silent as haunting images of the kidnapped toddler, against a
soundtrack of the Simple Minds hit Don't You Forget About Me, filled the two huge
screens at either end of the pitch.
The same film was shown at the Uefa Cup final in Glasgow between Espanyol FC and
Sevilla earlier this week, and is part of the McCann family's determination to keep her in
the public eye in the hope that someone comes forward with information.
More than 75 million people around the world have expressed their support for the
missing youngster by visiting the website www.findmadeleine.com.
The McCanns have produced a diary of one day in their struggle to find their daughter.
They also released touching new photographs of them with their twins.
The diary is another aspect of their quest to retain a semblance of normality for
Madeleine's younger sister Amelie and brother Sean, who are twins. The family have
vowed to stay in the Algarve resort until Maddy is found.
The hunt took a new twist when a Norwegian woman who lives in Spain said she was "99
per cent" certain she saw Maddy while on holiday in Morocco.

10. 28th of may 2007
What do you think
of the picture and
the caption?
This may be the last photograph of
Madeleine ever taken - just hours later the
nightmare of her abduction began

11. Family friend who 'witnessed' Madeleine's
abduction 'wracked with guilt'
• Why is there a use of embedded quotations ?
Grabs readers attention and add mystery
• They are criticizing the Portuguese police and
they there very sympathetic towards the parents.

12. 'Maddy was abducted and we have a
suspect in mind'
• In there headline there is something unusual what is it ?
• The headline doesn‟t leave room for thought. States she was
abducted and that the suspect is known without the actual evidence.
• Do you think using many pictures in an article is a good idea?
• The use of pictures in article draws the readers‟ attention more than
text would because the reader will automatically analyze people‟s
expressions in those pictures, however, this is also a media
manipulation tool.

13. Vanished: Madeleine McCann, three,
was asleep next to her twin brother
and sister
Ray of light: Madeleine
is described as active
and chatty
A family torn apart: Parents
Kate and Gerry McCann with
Madeleine and the twins

14. 2012
5 years later, The
Daily Mail remains
supportive of the
McCanns but the bias
and criticism against
the Portuguese police
increased.

15. • Embedded quote within the
headline
• What does the use of work
“finally” suggest?
• Short and concise bullet points
below the headline make it easier
for the reader to follow
• Article refers to the age
progression pictures as
„poignant‟.
• Mention of some facts; 40 000
pieces of information and
detectives have gone through
only a quarter, taking them 3
more years to sift through it all.
„Our objective is to work with a view
to getting this case reopened. We
believe it‟s the only way to establish
what happened to Madeleine
McCann and ultimately to bring
closure.‟ DCI Andy Redwood

16. • “Detectives reviewing the case said they were pursuing 195 leads amid the
firm belief she was abducted.”
... Yet later in the article it is said, “police also have to consider that she may be
dead, adding: „Our drive on both scenarios is of equal measure.‟”
What do you think of these conflicting statements?
• The language used to describe the police chief of the original investigation is
particularly strong. “Disgraced Portuguese police chief”. He caused
“indescribable devastation and suffering” to their family.
• The entire story is summarized in the short Q & A at the end of article. Very
effective. They seem to be factual at first sight but a bias against the
Portuguese police can be sensed easily.

17. Articles for further discussion
• £2.5m in rewards offered for Madeleine as her tortured parents mark her
birthday
• 'It's not our Maddie': McCanns' hopes dashed after sighting in India

18. History of the
• First published on May 4, 1896 by Lord Rothermere and Lord
Northcliffe.
• Britain's first middle-market newspaper
• The Mail was popular because of its short, simplified news stories,
and pictures
• Originally it was a broadsheet, but on May 3rd 1971, the 75th
anniversary of its founding, it switched to the tabloid format in
which it is published today
• Accused of warmongering before World War I.

19. • Currently it is the United Kingdom's second biggest-selling daily newspaper
after The Sun, with an average daily circulation of about 2 million.
• The Mail considers itself to be the voice of Middle England, speaking up for
the conservative values of the majority of population living there.
• Because the editorial stance is right wing and conservative, The Mail is
typically anti-immigration, anti-European and anti- abortion and is
correspondingly pro-family, pro-tax cuts and pro-monarchy.
• It has been criticized for promoting pseudoscience and for being racist and
homophobic.
• Being a tabloid, the language used is aimed at less educated people of a
lower middle class background.
• The current editor is Paul Darce. He has been the editor since 1992.

20. Who reads the Daily Mail?
60
50
Daily Mail's
0% readership
0% 40
30
Male
47% 20
Femal
e
53% 10
0
Conservative Labour Liberal
Democrat

21. Layout
and
stories

26. Comparison

29. “The media is the most
powerful entity on
earth. They have the
power to make the
innocent guilty and to
make the guilty
innocent, and that's
power. Because they
control the minds of
the masses.”
Malcolm X
Thank you for
listening & taking
part in our lesson!