Bachelor Thesis F

MASARYK UNIVERSITY
FACULTY OF EDUCATION
Department of English Language and Literature
The Active vs. the Passive Voice in Crime News in the British Press
Bachelor work
Brno 2014
Supervisor: Written by:

Mgr. Renata Jančaříková, Ph.D. Ondřej Macholda
I declare that I worked on the following theses solely on my own and that all the sources of
information I used are listed in the bibliography.
I would like to express my gratitude to Mgr. Renata Jančaříková, Ph.D. for her useful
comments on my work as well as for her patience.
Table of contents
Introduction ................................................................................................................. 1
I. THEORETICAL PART
1 Passive and active voice ....................................................................................... 2
1.1 Active voice ................................................................................................... 2
1.2 Passive voice ................................................................................................. 3
1.2.1 Reasons for using the passive voice.......................................................... 4
2 Concept of passive voice in newspapers.............................................................. 5
2.1 Inverted pyramid .......................................................................................... 5
2.2 Other concepts.............................................................................................. 7
3 British newspapers ............................................................................................... 8
3.1 General situation........................................................................................... 8
3.2 Broadsheets vs. tabloids ............................................................................... 9
3.3 Audience ..................................................................................................... 11
3.3.1 Social classes ........................................................................................... 12
3.3.2 Political preferences ............................................................................... 14
4 Crime news ......................................................................................................... 16
4.1 News production ......................................................................................... 16
4.2 News values ................................................................................................ 18
II. PRACTICAL PART
5 Introduction........................................................................................................ 22
6 Newspapers for the analysis .............................................................................. 24
6.1 Event ........................................................................................................... 24
6.2 Corpus ......................................................................................................... 25
7 Analysis ............................................................................................................... 26
7.1 Headline ...................................................................................................... 26
7.1.1 The Guardian ........................................................................................... 27
7.1.2 The Telegraph ......................................................................................... 27
7.1.3 The Mirror ............................................................................................... 27
7.1.4 The Star ................................................................................................... 28
7.1.5 Comparison of headlines ........................................................................ 28
7.2 Lead ............................................................................................................. 30
7.2.1 The Guardian ........................................................................................... 30
7.2.2 The Telegraph ......................................................................................... 31
7.2.3 The Mirror ............................................................................................... 31
7.2.4 The Star ................................................................................................... 32
7.2.5 Comparison of leads ............................................................................... 32
7.3 Body ............................................................................................................ 34
7.4 Overall occurrences of the passive voice.................................................... 40
8 Conclusion .......................................................................................................... 41
Bibliography
Appendix
Introduction
This thesis is focused on the use of the passive voice in crime news in the British
press, precisely the difference in the use between the quality papers – broadsheets and the
popular ones – tabloids.
Although many changes have happened owing to the introduction of the new digital
media, the press is still considered to be one of the most important sources of current
information while specifically in Britain, “newspapers have always played an important role
in the lives of British people” (Williams 2010: 1). Moreover, as the former editor of The Daily
Herald F. Williams points out, “newspapers are unique barometers of their age. They
indicate more plainly than anything else the climate of the societies to which they belong”
(in Williams 2010: 1).
Since there are lots of different newspapers of different quality, it is essential to
understand the meaning of the news, to be well informed and to be able to critically
examine different points of view on the same event. To an attentive reader, the use of the
passive voice structures in the news instead of the active ones can reveal a lot about the
political, social or other leanings of the particular newspaper as well as its point of view on a
particular event.
The thesis is divided into two parts. The theoretical part deals with the differences
between the active and passive voice structures as well as the general and newspaper-
specific reasons for using the passive voice. Furthermore, it outlines the situation of the
British press including the differences between broadsheets and tabloids and the specifics of
the readership in Britain. Finally, it focuses on crime news and the news values used in the
news-production environment.
The aim of the practical part is the comparison of online British newspapers,
particularly broadsheets vs. tabloids, in terms of the use of the passive voice in crime news.
The assumption that the proportion will be different is based on the quote by Crystal and
Davy (1969: 187) that “the tendency in the popular press is to use the active voice rather
than the passive”. Therefore, the practical part examines the use of the passive voice from
two different perspectives. The first perspective is the number of occurrences of the passive
voice structures in the article while the second is the reason for which the passive voice
structure is used instead of the active one.
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I. Theoretical part
1 Passive and active voice

Considering the use of the active or passive voice, it must be taken for granted that
only transitive verbs, and not all of them, can be used in the passive. Mills (1995: 143-144 in
Richardson 2007: 54) specifies that “The study of transitivity is concerned with how actions
are represented; what kind of actions appear in a text, who does them and to whom they
are done” - in short, the “who (or what) does what to whom (or what)”. In grammatical
terminology the who represents the subject, the what represents the verb and the whom
represents the object. Consequently, only active sentences with the basic SVO (-,O,C,A)
pattern can be transformed into the passive voice.
1.1 Active voice
The structure of an active voice clause, as can be seen in Fig.1, comprises the
subject represented by the active agent of the action, the person or thing that does the
action (e.g. John or train). Unlike in the case of passive voice, the active agent is overt and
cannot be omitted. The verb is represented by the main verb in appropriate tense (e.g.
kicked as in John kicked the ball or kills as in Train kills two children) preceded by one or
more auxiliary verbs if needed. Considering the transitive verb construction, the object of
the action, the affected participant (e.g. the ball or two children), must also be present and
comes at the object position after the verb.
Figure 1. Transformation of active sentence into passive
Source: Richardson (2007: 55)
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Active voice is the unmarked variant and is significantly more frequent in common
utterances and written texts than passive voice. This statement is supported by Greenbaum
and Quirk who claim that: “In sentences where there is a choice between active and passive,
the active is the norm” (1990: 45). Another piece of evidence can be found in Biber,
Johansson, Leech, Conrad, Finegan (1999: 476) in the diagram in Fig.2 which illustrates the
proportional frequency of finite active and passive verbs per one million words. It seems
distinct, at least within the LSWE corpus, that active voice is more preferred than passive
voice in all of the considered registers. Nevertheless, while in conversation and fiction
registers the passive voice is represented only marginally, an important distribution can be
seen in academic prose (c. 25%) and in news (c. 15%), which is a significant marker for this
thesis.
Figure 2. Frequency of finite passive v. non-passive verbs across registers
Source: Biber, Johansson, Leech, Conrad, Finegan (1999: 476)
1.2 Passive voice
Compared with the active voice, the passive voice follows the SVA pattern and
consists of the affected participant at the position of subject, the passive verb construction
which is formed with the auxiliary be in appropriate tense followed by the –ed participle of
the main verb, and the adverbial represented by the agent participant. Biber, Johansson,
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Leech, Conrad, Finegan (1999: 154) describe passive voice as “a systematic means of
choosing a participant other than the agent as the starting point for a message, without
departing from the normal subject-initial word order”.
As indicated above, the transformation from the active to the passive voice is quite
complex. Greenbaum and Quirk (1990: 44-45) claim that “The difference between the active
voice and passive voice involves both the verb phrase and the clause as a whole”. It means
that, as can be seen in Fig.1 above, the active object from the corresponding active sentence
becomes the passive subject in the passive sentence (e.g. the ball as in The ball was kicked
by John or two children as in Two children are killed by train), while the former active subject
(e.g. John or train) is shifted to the position of an optional agent as a part of a prepositional
by- phrase. Since the agent is optional, in most of the passive voice structures it is omitted.
1.2.1 Reasons for using the passive voice
In general, there are a number of cases when the use of passive voice is more
effective or welcome than active voice. Basically, the decision whether to use passive or
active voice can be affected both by speakers’ or writers’ intentions in terms of what to say
and what to conceal or what to emphasize and what not as well as the grammatical
structure of the proposed sentence.
Chalker (1992: 19) primarily differentiates according to the presence or absence of
the agent participant in the sentence, therefore “When it is used without mentioning the
agent this may be because the agent is unknown or unimportant, or because the agent
wants to avoid responsibility; or may be to emphasize the action of the verb by having that
near the end of the sentence. When the agent is mentioned with a by- phrase after the verb
this puts the agent in the important position at the end.”
Moreover, Greenbaum and Quirk (1990: 45-46) add a comprehensive set of seven
reasons why speakers or writers usually prefer the passive voice:
1. They do not know the identity of the agent of the action.

2. They want to avoid identifying the agent because they do not want to
assign or accept responsibility.
3. They feel that there is no reason for mention of the agent because the
identification is unimportant or obvious from the context.
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4. In scientific and technical writing, writers often use the passive to avoid
the constant repetition of the subject I or we and to put the emphasis
on processes and experimental procedures. This use of the passive helps
to give the writing the objective tone that the writers wish to convey.
5. To put emphasis on the agent of action.
6. To avoid what would otherwise be a long active subject.
7. To retain the same subject in later parts of the sentence.
It is evident that in some cases more than one reason can apply to the same passive
voice structure.
2 Concept of passive voice in newspapers

Since newspaper environment has its specifics, the motivation for using the passive
constructions and the subsequent outcome can be also seen as specific. This chapter tries to
discuss the reasons for using the passive voice emerging regularly throughout the creation of
most of the newspaper articles. Before proceeding further, a few words must be given on
the structure of the news stories.
2.1 Inverted pyramid
The most important and by far the most common concept of creating news stories
in newspapers in the western world is the concept of ‘inverted pyramid’, also called by
Richardson (2007: 71) ‘climax-first’ structure. It refers to the idea that Bell (1991: 169)
describes as “gathering all the main points at the beginning and progressing through
decreasingly important information”.
There are three parts that every western world news story consists of: the headline,
the lead and the body, as specified in Fig.3 below.
The headline is a typical place for using passive voice structures to benefit from
their advantages. Fowler (1991: 78) quotes that “Passive is a common structure in headlines.
It saves space, as well as immediately establishing the topic. Agency may be immaterial, or
predictable from context, or unknown, and anyway if it is known and is important, it can be
specified straight away in the opening of the report”.
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Figure 3. Inverted pyramid scheme
Source: http://www.studentsforbhopal.org/node/247
The lead includes the most important information. As Franklin et al. (2005: 122 in
Richardson 2007: 71) put it, the inverted pyramid is the “standardised format for writing a
hard news story which places the most important information at the head of the story and
uses the lead paragraph to answer the five ‘W questions’: Who? What? Why? Where? and
When?” Considering the place of the most important information, Bell (1991: 152) adds that
“News stories… are seldom if ever told in chronological order”.
Figure 4. The practical example of inverted pyramid
Source: http://aladata.co.uk/how-incite-fear-hatred-data/
The body is the least important part of the news story providing detailed
information about the circumstances of the main theme of the story. Proceeding to the end
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of the body, the summit of the inverted pyramid, the information is even less important than
at the beginning of the body. The example can be seen in the news story in Fig.4 above.
2.2 Other concepts
Another quite common concept of using passive voice in newspapers depends on

the relationship between the newspapers and the agent involved in the news. Van Dijk
(1988b: 177) claims that “syntactic structures may also express underlying ideological
positions, for instance by using passive constructions and deleting agents from typical
subject positions to dissimulate the negative actions of elite or powerful groups”.
As an example, Van Dijk (1988a: 11) provides three different headlines of the same
event. The first, ‘Police kills demonstrator’, is straightforward and puts the police to the
place of subject, overtly identifying them as the agent of the event. In the second,
‘Demonstrator killed by police’, the police are also the agent of the action, but are assigned a
less prominent role than in the first case. Finally, in ‘Demonstrator was killed’, the police are
completely omitted. Similarly, Fowler et al. (1979 in van Dijk 1988b: 81) according to their
findings documents, that “If authorities, such as the police, are agents of negative acts, they
tend to occur less in agent position. They may then be made less conspicuous in a
prepositional phrase of a passive sentence (‘by the police’) or remain implicit in an agentless
sentence structure”.
Furthermore, the lack of hard evidence can be also the reason for using passive
voice in newspapers since the agent is not always known and even the plot can happen to be
unclear. Van Dijk (1988a: 107) provides an example in a chunk of a sentence “thought to be
killed by . . .” which he comments as something “what we might call a cognitive passive,
which is the routine journalistic strategy of taking distance from serious allegations when
there is no hard evidence” (ibid.).
Finally, there is the concept of audience which represents the people who are
intended to be the readers of the newspaper. Every newspaper has its own target audience
and writes specifically for them. Richardson (2007: 90) claims that “the consideration of the
audience affects not just the choice of story but also the tone and style of its presentation”.
Moreover, considering the style, precisely the use of the passive voice, Crystal and Davy
(1969: 187) point out that “the tendency in the popular press is to use the active voice rather
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than the passive”. The reason might be seen in the nature of the tabloid press which is
usually more direct and less complex than the broadsheet press and is also oriented on
lower-educated audience.
3 British newspapers
The British press environment has been an object of many changes since the second
half of the 20th century and some of them are discussed in the following sub-section to
clarify the contemporary situation. Besides, as this analysis is focused solely on the British
national dailies, the other kinds of newspapers are mentioned only marginally or not
mentioned at all as well as the other kinds of news media.
3.1 General situation
Reading of newspapers is broadly spread throughout the British society, more than
in most other parts of the world. As Jeremy Tunstall (in Williams 2010: 6) notes, “newspaper
reading in comparable countries is more narrowly drawn, confined primarily to the middle
class”. So the readers’ demand for printed press in The United Kingdom is still on a
considerably high level, although the numbers of readers of printed newspapers are
gradually falling down owing to the constantly growing invasion of new technologies and on-
line sources of information.
Another significant element related to British newspapers is the geographical
division of British press. Most people in Britain live in large urban areas, the biggest of which
is London, the capital city and also the centre of political, economic and cultural power. The
political system is highly centralised. As a consequence of this state, the character of the
press in Britain is quite different from other European countries or the USA, where the
prominent part is played by local press. In The United Kingdom, on the contrary, the crucial
role is played by the London-based British national press, which consist of ten major national
daily newspapers (see Fig. 5 below) and a number of Sunday journals that are, unlike in
other parts of Western Europe, separate from the daily press (Williams 2010: 6-7).
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3.2 Broadsheets vs. tabloids
British newspapers are historically divided into two main categories – broadsheet
newspapers and tabloid newspapers. The original meaning of these two terms used to refer
to the size of the printed newspapers as well as to their contents.
Broadsheets, also called ‘up-market’ newspapers, were until recently all printed on
large pages and are still regarded to be ‘quality papers’, serious in tone. They cover topics
like politics, business, and economy, foreign policy or national security. They include
editorials with comments on important issues that reflect the political views of the paper’s
editor. Some of the other items included are sport news, obituaries, articles, TV and radio
schedules, theatre and cinema shows, crosswords, comic strips, advertisements and weather
forecast (Hornby, Cowie & Lewis 1974). In Britain, broadsheet dailies are represented by The
Daily Telegraph, The Times, The Guardian, The Independent and Financial Times.
On the other hand, tabloids are printed on about half size format than broadsheets
and are referred to as ‘low-quality papers’ or ‘popular papers’. They are less serious or not
serious at all, and report news in less depth. Their content mainly concentrates on human-
interest stories, celebrity coverage, gossips, scandals etc. (Hornby, Cowie & Lewis 1974).
Apart from the general division into broadsheets and tabloids, the latter category is
more thoroughly subdivided into another two subcategories – ‘middle-market’ tabloids and
‘red-top’ tabloids. The above specification of tabloids is mostly valid for the red-top tabloids
that are called the ‘red-tops’ for their distinctive red-background title logos and are the least
serious of the British international daily papers. Into this category belong The Sun, The Daily
Mirror and The Daily Star (British Newspapers).
On the other hand, middle market or ‘middle-brow’ (Williams 2010: 9) tabloids stay
somewhere in between broadsheets and red-tops and serve mainly the middle and lower-
middle classes. “They combine news and comment, information and entertainment, text and
pictures in a way which satisfies their kind of readers” (ibid.). The representatives of middle
market newspapers are The Daily Express and The Daily Mail.
Nevertheless, recently there was a strong shift of some respectable quality papers
from the original broadsheet size to smaller compact sizes including the tabloid-like size. The
concerned newspapers are The Independent and The Times in 2003, The Guardian in 2005
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and The Observer in 2006 (Cridland 2010). Therefore nowadays the terms ‘broadsheets’ and
‘tabloids’ seem to refer more to the content of the newspapers than to their size.
Regarding the circulation, the most successful daily paper is the red-top The Sun
with a circulation of 2,108,387 sold copies every workday during August 2014, followed by
the middle-market tabloid The Daily Mail with 1,678,729 copies. Broadsheets reach
significantly lower numbers of sales – The Daily Telegraph at the top with 511,857 copies
(see Fig. 5 below).
Figure 5. The summary of British national dailies with details
August 2014 Circulation Owner Website Political Leanings

per Day
The Broadsheets
The Daily 511,857 David and Frederick www.telegra Centre-Right, Pro-
Telegraph Barclay ph.co.uk Conservative
The Times 396,671 Rupert Murdoch’s www.timeso Centre-Right, Moderately
News International Ltd. nline.co.uk Conservative
The Guardian 177,827 Guardian Media Group www.guardi Centre-Left, Liberal
an.co.uk
The 62,568 Independent Print www.indepe Centre-Left, Liberal
Independent Limited ndent.co.uk
The Financial 210,182 Pearson plc. www.ft.com Economic Liberalism
Times
The Middle-market Papers
The Daily 479,017 Richard Desmond, www.expres Right-Wing, Pro-
Express Northern & Shell Media s.co.uk Conservative, Eurosceptic
The Daily 1,678,729 Associated Newspapers www.dailym Right-Wing, Pro-
Mail ail.co.uk Conservative, Eurosceptic
The Red-Tops
The Sun 2,108,387 Rupert Murdoch’s www.thesun Right-Wing, Populist
News International Ltd.
.co.uk
The Daily 960,964 Trinity Mirror plc.
www.mirror. Left-Wing, Pro-Labour
Mirror co.uk
The Daily Star 471,629 Richard Desmond, www.dailyst Right-Wing, Pro-
Northern & Shell Media ar.co.uk Conservative
Source: http://www.theguardian.com/media/table/2014/sep/05/abcs-national-newspapers
Source: http://www.thepaperboy.com/uk/uk-newspaper-guide.cfm
As a result of the growing influence of new technologies all the newspapers

mentioned above had to offer to their audience more convenient and richer sources of
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information on their web pages (see Fig. 5 above). The contents usually copies the printed
issue and provides supplementary information, multimedia content, hyperlinks to other
linked articles and also archives, where it is possible to search in full text throughout earlier
issues. Some of the newspapers offer the latter service free of charge (e.g. The Daily
Telegraph or The Daily Mirror), while some others have put up a paywall to their archives as
an additional source of income (e.g. The Times or The Sun).
3.3 Audience
In the field of press the term audience refers to the readership of particular
newspaper. It has its specifics according to the age, gender, social class, ethnicity, education
or other group characteristics and it can be viewed from different angles as discussed
further.
As Richardson declares, “It is impossible to select and compose news without a
conception of the target or intended audience…” (2007: 1). Applied on the newspaper
production, every single newspaper tries to address their intended audience and provide
them with what they think is for them understandable and appealing. They constitute a
close relationship with their readers “based on the fulfilment of audience expectations and
the validation of past trust relationships, which in turn are dependent on legitimised and
institutionalised routines of information presentation evolved over time” (Blumer and
Gurevitch 1995: 13 in Richardson 2007: 90). Given that, there is necessarily a difference in
the choice of the news stories and features of language between the broadsheet and tabloid
papers, which is called the ‘audience design’ (Bell 1991: 104) of news production or as
Jewkes (2004: 37) puts it “the (second) factor that shapes news production concerns the
assumptions media professionals make about their audience”.
The view on the audience is varied. As most of the news producers run their
business to make profit and sales are its vital part, news can be seen as a product that must
be made attractive and appealing to its ‘consumers’ - the audience (Richardson 2007: 77).
On the other hand, as selling copies is not the only income of the newspaper
market, newspapers also sell advertising space which generates significant amount of extra
money for further promotion and attracting of new readers (Richardson 2007: 79). In this
perspective newspapers deliver readers to advertisers in exchange for money (Hartley 1982:
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130) and news are the instrument to get new readers which results in even more money
from advertisement (ibid.: 131). Even more is this approach visible since “free sheets –
delivered to peoples’ homes – changed the relationship between the newspaper and the
reader. Readers are no longer purchasers of the newspaper; they are the ‘product’ which is
‘for sale’ to advertisers. It is the advertisers who have become the primary audience for the
newspaper” (Williams 2010: 218).
As a result of the two different angles of view and consequently funding strategies
and advertisers’ interest, “the balance between sales and advertising revenue differs in each
segment of the market, with broadsheets relying more on the latter source of revenue and
tabloids on the former, which has a considerable impact on the presentation and content of
newspapers” (Williams 2010: 9).
From the above stated seems to be clear that the audience play a vital role in the
newspaper market as well as in news production itself.
3.3.1 Social classes
Owing to the wide offer on media market and thus higher fragmentation of
audience as well as the advertisers’ eager for richer consumers, the readership in Britain is
highly segmented. The most significant segmentation of newspaper readers as Richardson
(2007: 79) derives is always related to their buying power, i.e. to their social class.
The concept of British social classes is based on historical traditions; it reaches back
to medieval era before the Industrial Revolution. Although there have been significant
changes throughout the 20th century, even nowadays in the 21st century the concept
remains present though having significant modifications. The social status is still influenced
by the social class (Social structure of the United Kingdom).
One of the most influential systems for demographic classification is the one
derived from the British National Readership Survey (NRS). It is well-known and widely used,
including the grading of families according to the occupation of the Chief Income Earner
(Ipsos MediaCT 2009). The scale starts with an A level and unfolds up to E level as can be
seen in Fig.6. It is also possible to transfer the grades to traditional social classes. It is
common that middle class as the whole is referred to as the ABC1 class while the lower class
of the society is evidently called C2DE.
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Figure 6. Social grades and social classes
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NRS_social_grade
Although the current social class system is NS-SEC (Ipsos MediaCT 2009), it is much
different from the NRS. For the purpose of this part of the thesis, clarification of the
relationship between the newspapers and their readership (Figure 7), the NRS scale seems
to be more appropriate.
As Williams puts it: “There is a strong correlation between newspaper reading and
social classes in Britain” (Williams 2010: 9). In other words, it is more or less possible to
identify a person’s social class or affiliation to a political party according to which newspaper
he or she reads. More educated people with higher income and social status tend to read
up-market newspapers while those at the opposite end of the scale prefer tabloids (Williams
2010: 9).
The trend can be seen in Figure 7 which depicts the distribution of readership
among the most prominent British dailies, including broadsheets and also middle-market
and red-top tabloids.
Richardson (2007: 80) also notes the misbalance between the high number of
different dailies offered to the wealthier part of the population that constitutes about 20%
of total inhabitants on one hand, and the low number of dailies offered to the low income
part of the population that constitutes about 60% of the population on the other. Put
together with the circulation of newspapers in Figure 5 above, it seems to supports the
above stated fact about the different ways of income of broadsheets and tabloids, when
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broadsheets with notably lower circulation focus at the wealthier audience and get
significant income from the advertisement revenues while tabloids with much higher
circulation aim at the opposite end of the audience scale and get most of their income from
mass sale. Or, as stated by Hartley (1982: 132), “commercial newspapers need a few readers
with a lot of money or a lot of readers with a little money”. It is an issue of quality vs.
uniformity; both are markets for the advertisers (ibid. 132).
Figure 7. Social class of British Newspaper Readership
Source: John E. Richardson 2007: 81
3.3.2 Political preferences
The current political preferences of the ten newspapers are shown in Figure 5
above, ranging from the right wing to the left wing. Nevertheless, most of the press scene
supports conservative concept in terms of the number of different newspapers counted
together as well as the number of readers they serve.
The political consistency of the selected dailies during the electoral debate
throughout the years is shown in Figure 8. Some of them, e.g. The Daily Mirror or The Daily
Telegraph, express permanent support to their affiliated political parties while others, e.g.
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The Sun or The Times, show significant irregularities. However generally, there can be seen
prevailing stability in political stances of the papers.
The importance of the relationship among main elements influencing news
creation, including government, politics or state apparatus, puts Fowler (1991: 222 in
Richardson 2007: 222) in his quote: “News is not a natural phenomenon emerging
straightforward from ‘reality’, but a product. It is produced by an industry, shaped by the
bureaucratic and economic structure of that industry, by the relations between the media
and other industries and […] by relations with government and with other political
organizations”.
Figure 8. British newspaper support for political parties
Source: http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2010/may/04/general-election-newspaper-support
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It seems to be noticeable that the journalists in the news-production process are
influenced by their assumptions about the social class, and thus may be the education, and
possible political leanings of their target audience which determines the style and tone they
use in their news stories and consequently affects the use of the passive voice. Therefore the
broadsheets being more complex and more reserved usually prefer the passive voice more
often than the more direct and straightforward tabloids. Although this concept is important
for understanding of the news, it is not treated in the analysis since the focus of the analysis
is rather different.
4 Crime news
Crime news indisputably occupies a significant place among other newspaper
content. It has been an object of interest for newspaper readership and an evergreen for
newspaper companies. As Katz (1987: 70) explains, “crime is in today’s newspapers, not
because it contradicts the beliefs readers had yesterday, but because readers seek
opportunities to shape-up moral attitudes they will have to use today”.
In England, the direct printed predecessors of crime news in newspapers, shortly
before the foundation of a mass Sunday newspaper in the 1830s, was crime news circulated
on broadsheets (Katz 1987: 70). It included the detailed behaviour of the condemned people
just before and during the execution which was put on public consciousness. “The best
sellers were the literature of the gallows. These were the last dying confession of murderers
and an account of their execution” (Huges 1940: 140 in Katz 1987:70).
4.1 News production
Every event that happens in the world can be seen as potential news. Nevertheless,
not every event gets reported, becomes news and appears on the pages of the newspapers
(or on television or radio). Either there is not enough space or the event is not seen as of
enough importance. As Reah (2002: 4) implies, the most suitable definition for news should
be that it is “information about recent events that are of interest to a sufficiently large
group, or that may affect the lives of a sufficiently large group”.
Though the above definition seems to be appropriate, it says nothing about the
process in which, out of the plenty of events that happen all over the world every day, one
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event is chosen and accepted as interesting and becomes news and the other is discarded.
The selection process involves active participation of journalists who, as stated above,
according to their assumptions of the identified audience of their newspapers, “sift and
select news items, prioritize some stories over others, edit words, choose the tone that will
be adopted (some stories will be treated seriously, others might get a humorous or ironic
treatment) and decide on the visual images that will accompany the story” (Jewkes 2004:
37). Through this process of ‘agenda-setting’, they measure the events according to their
‘newsworthiness’ using the ‘news values’ which are described in detail in section 4.3 below
(ibid. 37).
At the same time, since the process is subjective and conforming to the situation
and audience of different newspapers, they do not produce the exact mirror description of
the reality, but rather the adapted image. Galtung & Ruge describe this as ‘selection and
distortion’, that happen at every step in the chain of news communication (Fig. 9 – first part
of the chain) from event to reader. The extent of the adaptation surely depends on how
many steps – journalists, correspondents or other middle-men – there are in the chain
(1965: 71), because – the higher mass circulation the newspapers want to reach the more –
“all steps in the news chain will probably anticipate the reaction of the next step in the chain
and accentuate the selection and distortion effects in order to make the material more
compatible with their image of what the readers want” (Galtung & Ruge 1965: 68).
Figure 9. The chain of news communication
Source: Galtung & Ruge 1965: 65
Concerning crime news, the distortion can be seen in the systematic over-
representation of violent crimes. As Williams and Dickinson point out, “according to
research, the British press devote an average of 65 per cent of their crime reporting to
stories involving interpersonal violence, although police statistics indicate that only around 6
per cent of recorded crime involves interpersonal violence” (1993 in Jewkes 2004: 54).
17
Sherizen went even deeper and computed that in four Chicago newspapers in 1975
out of the total number of crimes known to the police: “70 percent of homicide cases were
reported, five per cent of the rapes, one percent of larceny/thefts” (1978: 2015 in Katz 1987:
58).
4.2 News values
As Richardson (2007: 91) points out, “news values are meant to be the distillation of
what an identified audience is interested in reading or watching, or the ‘ground rules’ for
deciding what is merely an ‘event’ and what is ‘news’”. Or, simply, as van Dijk puts it, news
values “embody the professional beliefs and attitudes of newsmakers about the
newsworthiness of events” (1988a: 27).
News values were firstly used by Galtung and Ruge in 1965 and broadly accepted by
the professional audience. Since then, this concept was used, revised and also adapted by
many journalists in their publications – Chibnall, 1977; Hall et al., 1978; Katz, 1987; Ericson et
al., 1989; Schlesinger and Tumber, 1994; Greer, 2003; Jewkes, 2004 (Greer 2007: 26).
The concept of news values is based on a set of 12 criteria that events have to meet
to become newsworthy and enter the news agenda. They naturally do not have to meet all
of them. Nevertheless, the more criteria they meet, the higher on the newsworthiness scale
they score and therefore the more likely it is that they become news.
Since Greer points out that “as media and society change, so too can the criteria
that influence the selection and production of events as news” (2007: 28), the original set of
news values by Galtung and Ruge is provided in the following table (Fig. 10 below) for
comparison with the revised set by Jewkes that is focused particularly on crime news and
responds to the changed situation at the beginning of the 21 st century.
As a comment on her choice of news values, Yewkes (2004: 40) specifies, that the
value of novelty or newness (unexpectedness) is always incorporated, because it is the
fundamental part of the news itself as well as the value of negativity is an essential part of
crime news, since crime is always present. So there is no need to mention it separately.
18
Figure 10. Two sets of news values – Galtung and Ruge, Jewkes
Galtung and Ruge (1965) Jewkes (2004)

Threshold (importance) Threshold (importance)
Unexpectedness (novelty, scarcity) -
Negativity Violence
Unambiguity (clear and definite) Simplification (removing shades of grey)
Frequency (timescale, fit within news cycle) -
Elite-centricity (powerful or famous people Celebrity or high-status (notable individuals)
or nations)
Composition (balance, fit with other news) -
Personification (individual focus or causality) Individualism (individual focus or causality)
Continuity (sustainability) -
Meaningfulness (spacial and cultural Proximity (spatial and cultural relevance)
relevance)
Consonance (fit with existing knowledge and Predictability (expectedness)
expectations)
- Children
- Spectacle or graphic imagery
- Risk (lasting danger)
- Sex
- Conservative ideology or political diversion
(deterrence, distraction from wides
problems)
Source: Adapted from News Media, Victims and Crime by Chris Greer, 2007: 27
Further the comments on the other news values are provided. The first news value
mentioned by both Galtung & Ruge and Jewkes as well is ‘threshold’ which is understood as
some level of intensity, which must be reached by the event to even be recorded at all. As
Galtung & Ruge puts it, “the more violent the murder the bigger the headlines it will make”
(1965: 66).
19
As Galtung & Ruge mention only ‘negativity’ as the news value because negative
news easily comply with more other values (frequency, unambiguity, consonance etc.), Hall
et al., examining the influence of ‘violence’, adds, “one special point about crime as news is
the special status of violence as a news value. Any crime can be lifted into news visibility if
violence becomes associated with it” (Hall et al. 1978: 68 in Greer 2007: 26).
While Galtung & Ruge specify that “an event with a clear interpretation, free from
ambiguities in its meaning, is preferred…” (1965: 66), Jewkes with reference to
‘simplification’ argues that “events do not have to be simple […], but they must be reducible
to a minimum number of parts or themes” (2004: 43).
Concerning ‘individualism’, according to Jewkes (2004: 45), “Individual definitions
of crime, and realizations which highlight individual responses to crime, are preferred to
more complex cultural and political explanations” which resonates with Galtung & Ruge’s
assumption that “persons can serve more easily as objects of positive and negative
identification…” (1965: 69).
‘Celebrity or high-status persons’ are the perpetual interest of news media. As
Galtung & Ruge explain the reason, “elite people are available to serve as objects of general
identification” (1965: 68). Jewkes adds that the news is more likely to reach the threshold of
importance when some celebrity is concerned, no matter if they are victims or perpetrators
(Jewkes 2004: 49).
While Galtung & Ruge (1965: 67) put simply that the attention will be paid “to the
familiar, to the culturally similar, and the culturally distant will be passed by more easily and
not be noticed”, Jewkes in the terms of ‘proximity’ differentiates between spatial and
cultural proximity (2004: 51). “Spatial proximity refers to the geographical ‘nearness’ of an
event, while cultural proximity refers to the ‘relevance’ of an event to an audience” (ibid.
51).
The last of the news values common, at least in terms of meaning, to Galtung &
Ruge and Jewkes is ‘predictability’. Galtung & Ruge explain it as ‘consonance’ with
predictability being a part of it. According to them people predict or want something to
happen and if the news is “too far from the expectations it will not be registered” (1965: 67).
The news values newly incorporated by Jewkes include ‘children’ as the victims of
crime, especially while abused by an ‘evil stranger’, which is significantly less common but
20
more often presented in newspapers than the much common abuse within the families. But
it as well includes children as offenders since the Bulger case in 1993 – the murder of two-
year-old by two ten-year-olds (2004: 57), “which was the first case for at least a generation
in which the media constructed pre-teenage children as ‘demons’ rather than ‘innocents’”
(Muncie 1999a: 3 in Jewkes 2004: 57).
Another news value is ‘spectacle and graphic imagery’ which means that most
attention is given to ‘spectacular crimes’ such as joyriding, rioting, arson etc. that “have a
strong visual impact that can be graphically presented” (Jewkes 2004: 55).
Next news value is ‘risk’ characterizing the contemporary society and being
supported by the picture provided by media. Although “the vast majority of serious offences
[…] are committed by people known to the victim” (Jewkes 2004: 47), „the media persist in
presenting a picture of serious crime as random, meaningless, unpredictable and ready to
strike anyone at any time” (Chermak 1994: 125 in Jewkes 2004: 47), leaving the population
to feel that every person is a permanent potential victim.
The subsequent contemporary news value is ‘sex’ as the obsession of mostly tabloid
press but also other media. “Ditton and Duffy (1983) found that when reporting assault
against women, the press frequently relate sex and violence, so that the two become
virtually indistinguishable” (in Jewkes 2004: 48). Consequently, the highest score on the
scale of newsworthiness will reach a story with “the figure of the compulsive male lone
hunter, driven by a sexual desire which finds its outlet in the murder of ‘innocent’ victims”
(Cameron and Frazer 1987 in Jewkes 2004: 48).
The last of the added values is ‘conservative ideology or political diversion’ which
represents (Jewkes 2004: 58) the adherence of the most of the British press to the mostly
right-wing based and therefore conservative principles (‘British way of life’) and
condemnation of everything which goes against.
21
II. Practical part
5 Introduction
The aim of this analysis is the comparison of online British newspapers, particularly
broadsheets vs. tabloids, in terms of the use of the passive voice in crime news. The
assumption that the proportion will be different is based on the quote by Crystal and Davy
(1969: 187), already stated above, that “the tendency in the popular press is to use the
active voice rather than the passive”. So the analysis is going to validate this thesis in terms
of crime news particularly, focusing at the number of occurrences and the reasons for using
and not using the passive voice instead of the active voice.
Two assumptions were made:
1) The proportion of the passive voice incidence will be significantly higher in the quality
press.
2) There will be significant differences in the reasons for using passive voice structures
between broadsheets and tabloids.
The analysis follows the structure of western news, the concept of ‘inverted
pyramid’ (Richardson 2007: 71 or Bell 1991: 169) presented above, and treats the three
parts of the newspaper report – the headline, the lead and the body – of the articles in the
corpus separately.
As for the assumption number one, the analysis is devoted to a general quantitative
analysis; the occurrence of passive voice structures compared with the occurrence of active
voice structures. The figures of occurrences are provided in tables with comments. As
delineated above, significantly higher proportions of passive voice structures are expected in
the broadsheet articles while lower in the tabloid ones.
Considering assumption two, the analysis tries to examine the reasons for using
passive voice structures. The reasons are discussed and examples depicted.
For the purpose of the analysis a set of seven reasons why speakers or writers
usually prefer the passive voice (Greenbaum and Quirk 1990: 45-46) (see section 1.2.1) was
adopted as can be seen in Fig.11. The reasons are for better understanding divided into two
groups according to the presence or absence of the agent. Since the corpus consists of crime
22
news articles, the reason ‘scientific and technical writing’ was excluded as no occurrences of
passive voice structures for this reason are expected.
Figure 11. Set of reasons used for the analysis
Agent absent
1. Unknown identity of the agent of the action.
2. Not to assign or accept responsibility.
3. Agent is unimportant or obvious from the context.
Agent present
4. Emphasis on the agent of action.
5. To avoid a long active subject.
6. To retain the same subject in later parts of the sentence.
Newspaper concepts
7. To dissimulate negative actions of the elite.
8. ‘cognitive passive’ – lack of hard evidence
The above stated six reasons serve as the basic sorting categories. Since one passive
voice structure can possibly fall into more than one category at the same time, the meaning
of some of the reasons was significantly narrowed so that one passive voice structure can
fall to only one category most relevant to the understanding of the event. It is explained in
more detail in section 7.3 below.
Since the focus of the thesis is the use of the passive voice specifically in crime
news, two news-specific reasons were added to the above stated six as additional categories
(Fig.11) – the concept of dissimulating negative actions of elite or powerful groups (Van Dijk
1988b: 177) and the concept of taking distance due to the use of ‘cognitive passive’ (Van Dijk
1988a: 107) (see section 2.2 above). Being actually sub-categories to the basic category ‘Not
to assign or accept responsibility’, the occurrences are counted towards both – the basic
category and one of the sub-categories. In more detail it is explained in section 7.3 below.
23
6 Newspapers for the analysis
There are ten major newspapers with more or less national coverage in Britain. For
the purpose of this analysis four of them have been chosen to contribute to the corpus.
Since the aim of the analysis is the comparison between the broadsheets and the tabloids,
two newspapers – The Guardian and The Telegraph – were chosen to represent the
broadsheets and another two newspapers – The Mirror and The Star – were chosen to
represent the red-top tabloids as the sharp counterpart to the broadsheets.
These four chosen newspapers sell together more than two million copies a day,
resp. 688,000 copies for the broadsheets and 1,431,000 copies for the tabloids. Out of the
total number of copies sold a day by all broadsheet newspapers (1.35 mil.) and all red-top
tabloids (3.54 mil.) the number of copies seems to be high enough to qualify them as the
significant representatives of their categories (see Fig.5 above).
It must be also mentioned that two newspapers – the broadsheet The Times and
the red-top tabloid The Sun – were excluded despite the fact that The Times sells more
copies a day than the other chosen broadsheet representative The Guardian and the tabloid
The Sun sells even more copies a day than both chosen red-top tabloids The Mirror and The
Star together. The reason is that the two excluded newspapers have applied paywalls to
their internet archives of articles so that only regular subscribers can use them. And since
the articles used in this analysis were taken from the internet mirrors of the newspapers, the
paywalls disqualified them from taking a part in this analysis.
6.1 Event
For the purpose of the analysis a high profile case was chosen so that a mutual
comparison of the newspapers was possible. The incident happened in September 2014
when two British nationals, David Miller, 24 and Hannah Witheridge, 23 were bestially
murdered in a holiday resort in the Gulf of Thailand, a tourist area popular with many
Britons.
The pair attended a night party at the paradise island of Koh Tao and the next
morning, 15th September, was found half-naked not far from one another on the beach. At
the beginning of the case the perpetrator was not known. During the case a few different
24
suspects were searched for including one Briton, a friend of the couple, and a few Burmese
seasonal workers, but with no clear outcome so far.
The event was considered newsworthy and was put into the newspaper agenda as
high-profile news owing to its set of attributes that can be identified with the set of crime
news values presented by e.g. Jewkes (2004). The most important values reached are the
‘threshold’ of bestiality, when it came out, that the two were battered to death with a
garden hoe which was found blood-stained nearby, ‘sex’ because Witheridge “was found
wearing just her bikini top, and Thai media say she had been raped” (The Mirror), surely
‘violence’ since it is a brutal and extraordinary murder, and also ‘spatial proximity’ since
Thailand, as mentioned above, is considered an important tourist region for many Britons.
The supportive influence can also be seen in the victims themselves and spectacular
nature of the story; two young white Britons, male and female, beautiful and talented, who
met by coincidence just before their death. These attributes make it a typical representative
of human stories which are gladly accepted by tabloids and even by broadsheets.
From the other values it also meets the value of ‘spectacle or graphic imagery’ due
to the number of pictures and even videos on the internet sketching in the case. Of course,
there is also included the value of ‘risk’ that is underpinned by e.g. The Mirror’s information
about others “vicious, unprovoked attacks by gangs” and other violent attacks and kills in
the area resulting in the feeling that “we are all potential victims” (Jewkes 2004: 28) as well
as the value of ‘predictability’ and ‘simplification’ to some extent.
6.2 Corpus
The newspaper articles used for this analysis were taken from the web sites of the
above introduced four main newspapers. All of them are also the opening articles on this
case which means that the core of the information presented in them should be the same as
they must provide all the basic information to their readers to be able to elaborate on them
in the follow up articles. Three of the articles were issued at the same day, 15th September
2014; only the Star article was issued one day later.
Considering the similarities and differences in the treatment of the event, it must be
said that all four newspapers nearly fully provided the basic facts and also added their own
angle. Quite surprising is the absence of the names of the victims in the Mirror article,
25
although it seems that the identity must have been known to the journalists according to the
other details provided further in the article. Also the absence of any further details about the
British suspect mentioned so vividly in the headline is peculiar. Surprisingly again, the
Guardian article says nothing about the sexually motivated attack on Witheridge, which is
cautiously mentioned not only in the broadsheet The Telegraph, but also in the red-top
tabloid The Star, while in The Mirror it is explicitly called as rape.
But there is a thing that connects all four articles together and supports the
bestiality threshold of the murder – the ‘blood-stained hoe’ found nearby. Moreover, in
most of the articles the wounds that the victims had received are described in detail and the
attack is cited as being ‘gruesome’.
Another fact common to all four articles is that they mention the statement of the
Foreign Office, three of them using precisely the same citations, which happens a few times
again. It seems to be evident then, that although being written by different journalists, the
articles are based on the same report issued by the same news agency.
Considering the human-oriented attitude, while The Guardian keeps the distant
view, The Star provides quite extensive personal information about the victims and their
families. Nevertheless, the same information of more or less the same extent is also
provided by The Telegraph, which is not very common for broadsheets. The Mirror uses
another strategy and devotes nearly half of the article to statistics of murders in that region
stressing the ‘risk’ value of the story.
7 Analysis
7.1 Headline
Although the headlines are quite short and simple as they should be and the
number of both active or passive voice structures included in them is small, they represent
the first place where the eye of the reader rests on and are also potentially the first place
where the newspapers can show their unique house style of writing. They must give the first
information about the news story in the way that attracts the readers to further reading. The
headlines of the corpus articles are provided below while figures can be seen in Figure 12
followed with comments.
26
7.1.1 The Guardian
British tourists murdered in Thailand

The Guardian article possesses the shortest headline of all four articles, stating only
laconic information about the case. As the culprit is still unknown, only what happened,
where it happened and who the object of the action was is mentioned, which reflects the
strictly objective approach of the broadsheet press.
Owing to the use of the passive voice, the structure of the headline “saves space, as
well as immediately establishing the topic” (Fowler 1991: 78) while the most important
information is provided at the front. The only verb is in passive voice where the auxiliary TO
BE is omitted because it is needless for understanding of the utterance.
7.1.2 The Telegraph
British backpackers murdered in Thailand named as Hannah Witheridge and David Miller
The Telegraph headline is about twice as long as the Guardian one and its first part
seems to be similar to the Guardian headline, possibly because they are based on the same
report from the news agency, while the second part provides excessive information about
the names of the victims. In its nature it is more familiar and less neutral, calling the British
tourists as ‘backpackers’, which is also used by The Guardian in later parts of the article, and
also by The Star though not by The Mirror.
There are two passives in the headline, though again, due to the space saving
tendency, the verb TO BE is omitted including the ‘who’ in the defining relative clause. The
original full sentence then would be ‘British backpackers who were murdered in Thailand
were named as…’.
7.1.3 The Mirror
Thailand beach murders: Police 'hunting British tourist' after UK pair battered to death
The headline starts with a modified noun describing the place and even the core of
the case shifting them this way to the front, providing a setting for the rest of the intended
message. The headline continues with potentially scandalous citation about Thailand police,
27
which fits into the tabloid rhetoric, and even elaborates on itself, specifying the
circumstances of the murder.
One active verb is used since the doer of the action, the police, is known and
probably the newspapers want to assign the responsibility to the police for hunting precisely
British tourists, while on the contrary passive voice is used since the culprit is not known.
Both verb structures miss auxiliary TO BE as it is expandable.
7.1.4 The Star
Thai police 'quizzing three men' as search continues for pal of murdered backpackers
As The Star is with the event one day behind the other newspapers, it is also
reflected in the headline. So in this case it is a mix of the initial information with other pieces
of information from the on-going case. The headline is focused almost fully at the hunt for
possible culprits.
Both verbs are active, which underpins the urgent tone of the events in progress,
the first one without auxiliary TO BE due to saving space. Concerning the second clause, the
post modifier to the noun ‘search’ is shifted after the verb as a tool for putting the more
important to the front, so the neutral clause could be ‘as search for pal of murdered
backpackers continues’.
7.1.5 Comparison of headlines
The different proportion of occurrences of the passive vs. the active voice in the
headlines including the percentage can be seen in Fig. 12 as well as the figures of the length.
It seems that the distribution of passive voice structures in the headlines quite
conforms to the above stated characteristic of broadsheets which means that they are
considered as being objective, balanced and writing for more demanding readership so they
can presume to use more complicated features of language which the passive voice surely is.
While on the other hand, tabloids being more straightforward and writing for less educated
audience human-oriented stories have more reasons for using the active voice rather than
the passive. Nevertheless, still it must be taken to consideration that the occurrence of
passive voice structures is also influence by the event itself and the information provided in
the headline.
28
So in the first column can be seen the number of words used in the headlines,
starting with The Guardian with the lowest number in this sample and growing significantly
up to the tabloids that both hold the same numbers. There can also be observed an inverse
proportion of the distribution of passives towards actives, except for The Guardian where
there was not enough text to use more verbs. Still, in the last column it is evident that while
The Guardian and The Telegraph used the passives on all occasions, The Mirror used passives
in a half of occasions while The Star used solely active verbs.
Moreover, in all of the headlines the tendency to shorten verbs by omitting the
auxiliary TO BE is observed for both active and passive voice structures. Owing to this
process of condensation even the longer headlines providing more facts about the event are
still of tolerable length.
Figure 12. Occurrences of the passive voice in the headline

Words Passive voice Active voice Use of passive in percent
Broadsheets - - - -
The Guardian 5 1 0 100%
The Telegraph 12 2 0 100%
Tabloids - - - -
The Mirror 13 1 1 50%
The Star 13 0 2 0%
The reasons for using passive voice structures in the headline can be seen in Fig.13.
It is obvious that the two broadsheets used passives in their headlines for shifting and
keeping the important facts about the story in the initial part of the headline, conforming to
the characteristic of the usage of passive structures in headlines provided by Fowler (1991:
78) and formerly mentioned in the text. Considering The Mirror, other tools than passive
voice were used for promoting the most important facts to the front while passive was used
simply to provide the information about the nature of the murder. In case of The Star, no
passive structures were used at all.
29
Figure 13. Reasons for using the passive voice in the headline
Guard. Teleg. Mirror Star
Number of passives used 1 2 1 0
Agent absent - - - -
1. Unknown identity of the agent of the action. 1 1 1 -
2. Not to assign or accept responsibility. - - - -
3. Agent is unimportant or obvious from the context. - 1 - -
Agent present - - - -
4. Emphasis on the agent of action. - - - -
5. To avoid a long active subject. - - - -
6. To retain the same subject in later parts of the st. - - - -
Newspaper concepts - - - -
7. To dissimulate negative actions of the elite. - - - -
8. ‘cognitive passive’ – lack of hard evidence - - - -
7.2 Lead
Since the lead, the second constituent of western-oriented news in the row, should
include the answers for ‘W questions’ Who? What? Why? Where? and When? mentioned by
Franklin et al. (2005: 122 in Richardson 2007: 71), it is the place where most of the crucial
hard facts of the story are mentioned and possible headline unclearness is treated including
the agency of the event.
7.2.1 The Guardian
David Miller, 24, from Jersey, and Hannah Witheridge, 23, from Great Yarmouth, found
dead on island of Koh Tao
The Guardian strictly follows the laconic tone of the headline stating only the most
important facts in the lead. Compared to The Telegraph, the range of information in the
Guardian lead corresponds to the range of information in The Telegraph headline.
30
There is only one passive verb in the lead enabling the most important information
to go first. Auxiliary TO BE is omitted. Since the agent is unknown, active voice structure in
this case seems to be improbable.
7.2.2 The Telegraph
Hannah Witheridge from Norfolk and David Miller from Jersey are thought to have been
murdered while walking home from a beach party on the Thai island of Koh Tao
The lead repeats some facts from the headline (e.g. names of the victims) and
elaborates on them (e.g. home towns of the victims) while stating more details (e.g. on
which circumstances they were murdered).
It possesses two passive verbs with different agents. While ‘are thought’ here
probably means by the police or the involved officials, ‘to have been murdered’ refers to the
unknown culprit. Since the construction is rather difficult, both are used in their full forms,
although the former could be shortened omitting auxiliary TO BE. On the other hand, the
verb in passive voice lost its auxiliary. Hypothetically, the lead could start with active verb
e.g. “Local officials think that…” but this variant is not probable since the lead focuses on the
much more important victims. The one active verb here is the constituent of present
participle clause and cannot be transformed to passive.
7.2.3 The Mirror
The man and woman were found on a beach on the island of Koh Tao in the early hours of
this morning
As stated in the comments to the articles, neither the headline nor the lead or body
of the Mirror article includes one of the most important facts, the names of the victims.
Since only the Telegraph and the Mirror articles include time stamps, the possible reasons
for not stating the information cannot be verified, at least in the terms of the possibly earlier
issue of the Mirror article.
There is only one verb in the lead and it is passive. Since the founder of the bodies is
not important in this case, the lead cannot be transformed into active without stating them
which would be wasting of time and space for the journalists. Therefore the focus is put fully
on the recipients of the action.
31
7.2.4 The Star
THREE Burmese migrants are being questioned by police in Thailand linked to the brutal
murders of two British backpackers.
Since the Star article was issued one day later than the other articles, the
information included in the Star lead is a bit different, incorporating also the information
from the second day of the on-going investigation thus backing the headline, providing
details rather about the three Burmese suspects who are already arrested than the ‘pal of
murdered backpackers’ who is on the run, or even the murdered British tourists the rest of
the article is genuinely about.
Two passive verbs can be found here while ‘are being questioned’ is followed by the
agent ‘police in Thailand’, which is the only occurrence in the lead set. The clause could be
transformed into active since the agent is known but as the ‘three Burmese migrants’ are
significantly more important than the police, it must be left as it is.
Since it is unclear but more probable that the ‘three Burmese migrants’ and not
‘Tailand’ or ‘police in Tailand’ is linked to the murders, the shift in the sentence structure, as
observed sooner in the headline, is present moving the defining relative clause, which starts
with the second passive structure ‘linked’, to the end of the lead to provide more space for
more important information in the front but resulting in quite awkward meaning. The
neutral lead should be ‘Three Burmese migrants (who are) linked to the brutal murders of
two British backpackers are being questioned by police in Thailand’.
7.2.5 Comparison of leads
The figures of the leads are provided in Fig. 14. They are surprisingly very similar for
broadsheet The Guardian and both tabloids The Mirror and The Star in the terms of the
length as well as the percentage of the use of the passive voice structures. The only
exception is the Star article where two verbs are used instead of only one in the lead of the
comparable length.
The exception in all indicators is the Telegraph lead which is half longer than the
other three and includes one active verb resulting in the lower percentage of the use of
passive voice. Nevertheless, since the verb cannot be transformed into the passive and thus
32
the author of the article probably did not have other possibility to state the same
information, this is not a significant anomaly.
Figure 14. Occurrences of the passive voice in the lead

Broadsheets - - - -
The Guardian 19 1 0 100%
The Telegraph 29 2 1 66%
Tabloids - - - -
The Mirror 22 1 0 100%
The Star 19 2 0 100%
The reasons for using passive voice structures in the lead are provided in Fig. 15
below. The numbers are influenced by the choice made by the authors about what to
present or by the use of other tools than passive or active voice structures. For example,
while both of the broadsheets present that the victims ‘have been murdered’ (The
Telegraph) or at least ‘found dead’ (The Guardian), The Star uses a different strategy stating
the information in through the modified noun ‘brutal murders’ whilst The Mirror does not
mention the information about their murders in the lead at all.
Both broadsheets and tabloids profit from the advantageous usage of passive forms
in their leads shifting the new and important details of the story to the front while
elaborating on the headline.
A significant phenomenon can be seen in the last ‘cognitive passive’ category with
one occurrence in The Telegraph lead (are thought). Since broadsheet press is described as
more responsible and preferring more verified facts than tabloids, here it seems that the
passive construction ‘are thought to have been murdered (while walking home from a beach
party)’ means that the author is not sure and presents the fact as being not verified yet. The
tendency to use these so called ‘cognitive passives’ is more obvious in the body analysis
further in the text where it is also more precisely explained (see section 5 below).
33
Figure 15. Reasons for using the passive voice in the lead
1. Unknown identity of the agent of the action. - 1 1 -
2. Not to assign or accept responsibility. - 1 - -
3. Agent is unimportant or obvious from the context. 1 - - 1
4. Emphasis on the agent of action. - - - 1
5. To avoid a long active subject. - - - -
8. ‘cognitive passive’ – lack of hard evidence - 1 - -
7.3 Body
The body is the most extensive part of the news with still rather important
information at the beginning but with declining tendency in terms of their importance
towards the end. It includes not only the text produced by the journalists themselves, but
also plenty of comments by witnesses, concerned officials, family, friends etc. Although their
statements are frequently presented as direct quotes closed in quotation marks and thus
cannot be adapted, it is still up to the journalists to paraphrase it or to use other tools to
state the same information in another way if needed. So the direct speech is also taken into
consideration.
The body of all four articles is comparably long (see Fig.16) ranging from 562 to 686
words with more or less equal proportion of verb structures (active as well as passive) to the
total number of words. While the proportion of passive voice to active voice structures is
quite similar concerning the broadsheets, the tabloids show significant differences.
34
Figure 16. Occurrences of the passive voice in the body
Broadsheets - - - -
The Guardian 579 15 59 20.3%
The Telegraph 601 19 62 23.5%
Tabloids - - - -
The Mirror 686 22 56 28.2%
The Star 562 14 61 18.7%
While The Star as tabloid proves the lowest usage of passive voice structures in the
body, although the difference is not so evident especially towards the broadsheet The
Guardian, the Mirror body shows a significant deviation from the assumptions. It possesses
the highest number of passives on the whole and, more important, also reaches the highest
ratio leaving far behind both broadsheet papers.
Figure 17. Reasons for using the passive voice in the body
1. Unknown identity of the agent of the action. 3 3 5 (+3) 3
2. Not to assign or accept responsibility. 3 5 1 2
3. Agent is unimportant or obvious from the context. 7; 2 3; 6 8; 6 6; 2
4. Emphasis on the agent of action. - 1 2 1
5. To avoid a long active subject. - 1 - -
8. ‘cognitive passive’ – lack of hard evidence 3 5 1 2
35
Legend:
- In the Mirror column ‘(+3)’ refers to the passive voice structures used for reference to
crime acts other than the main one where the culprit is also unknown but the information
is totally unimportant for understanding of the main story (see section 1) below).
- Two figures (e.g. 7; 2) in the category 3 line refer to two sub-categories identified within
this category (see section 3) below).
Further are provided some, but not all, examples of passive voice structures for
each of the categories and from each of the texts if available. For better orientation, the
number in brackets refers to the sentences in the article (see the Appendix).
1) Unknown identity of the agent of the action.

Since the boundaries between this category of ‘unknown identity’ and the number 3
category of ‘agent unimportant or obvious from the context’ seem to be quite unclear and
sometimes porous as the intentions and the knowledge of the writer are not known, for the
purpose of this analysis the meaning has been narrowed only to the type of information that
is not known although it would be vital for understanding of the story and cannot be
obtained.
Understood this way, in the terms of the corpus this category only applies to the
actions done by the culprit, which means the murder, since the culprit is unknown and there
is no way to uncover his or her identity.
The Guardian: have been murdered (4), had been murdered (11), used (20)
The Telegraph: were hacked (6), were attacked (9), were murdered (14)
The Mirror: murdered (5), had been raped (12), was chopped (14)
The Star: were targeted (23), was chopped (28), was chopped (29)
On the contrary, there is the kind of information (e.g. the identities of the founders
of the bodies) that possibly can be obtained (e.g from the local officials) but remains
unknown since it is totally unimportant for understanding of the story and nobody has made
any effort to reveal it. This kind of information is treated in number 3 category below as
‘unimportant’.
36
Moderately out of this above depicted narrowed meaning but still partly belonging
to this category are three occurrences in the Mirror article referring to other criminal acts
committed by other culprits. Since for understanding of the main story only the fact that
something happened, but not the culprit, is important, they are really counted in category 3.
Nevertheless, it can be also assumed that the culprits are still unknown which is represented
by the number in brackets (+3) in this category (see Fig. 17 above).
The Mirror: was killed (33), was stabbed (41), (was) injured (41)
2) Not to assign or accept responsibility;

8) ‘cognitive passive’ – lack of hard evidence
These two categories closely cooperate therefore they are described together with
necessary comments.
Category 2 refers in general to the situation when somebody does not want to
accept the responsibility for some act or does not want to assign the responsibility to
someone else due to different reasons which can be expected as fear or consideration for
others in the latter case. Category 8 is in simple terms narrowing of this definition to the
environment of the newspapers. Since the information provided to the journalists is not
always clear and unambiguous, the newspapers, probably mostly the broadsheets, being
more responsible and sensitive about verified facts, refuse to take responsibility and adopt
the strategy of “taking distance” (Van Dijk 1988a: 107) represented by using the “cognitive
passive” (ibid.) which was explained in section 2.2 of the theoretical part of the thesis. This
strategy can be seen in the examples provided. Since category 8 is an additional category,
the occurrences are regularly counted in both categories 2 and 8.
Considering the corpus, only the cases of not accepted responsibility are present
while the first set of examples refers to the decision of the particular newspapers.
The Guardian: is believed (29), is thought (29)
The Telegraph: is understood (17), is thought (28), is understood (48)
The Mirror: ‘s thought (18))
The Star: is thought (23), is believed (39)
37
Surprisingly, the same strategy was possibly also adopted by local officials, in all
cases policemen, who issued the statements for the press. Since their statements are not
put as direct quotations in quotation marks, it is also possible that they were adapted by the
newspapers. Nevertheless, the possibility that the policemen were trained for giving
statements is still present.
The Guardian: were believed (22)
The Telegraph: was believed (35), was thought (36)
3) Agent is unimportant or obvious from the context.

This category comprises all the cases when it is unnecessary to state the agent of
the action since everybody understands who they are or they are unimportant.
Although the boundaries between ‘unimportant’ and ‘obvious’ are again unclear
and porous since a number of the uses can acquire both, for the purpose of this analysis they
are treated as two sub-categories. In the terms of this corpus it is defined as what is
important for understanding of the story and can be acquired from the text or from the
general knowledge of the reader is ‘obvious’ and what is unimportant for understanding and
possibly also not known since no efforts to find out have been made is ‘unimportant’.
Most of the occurrences of the ‘unimportance’ refer to the person or persons who
found the dead bodies of the victims.
The Guardian: were found (6), found (12), were found (21)
The Telegraph: were found (15), were last seen (19), was being comforted (41)
The Mirror: have been found (5), were discovered (6), was found (9)
The Star: was discovered (5), was found (7), were spotted (11)
The other occurrences sorted as ‘obvious’ have either the agent stated or
understandable from the context (the police, detectives, the army) or the agent is to some
extent of probability retrievable from the general knowledge (taken to the hospital = by the
ambulance).
The Guardian: has been battered (48), was lifted (51)
The Telegraph: was brought in (29), was found (37), was released (39)
The Mirror: has been closed (17), are warned (38), being taken (53)
38
The Star: has been circulated (16), was seen (37)
4) Emphasis on the agent of action.

In the perspective of semantics sometimes it is necessary to put emphasis on the
agent of the action. Considering the passive voice it is done by transforming the otherwise
active sentence to passive while shifting the doer of the action to the exclusive place at the
end of the passive voice sentence.
In the corpus there were found a few occurrences of this feature most of them
reduced only to the past participle plus the agent. One full example is provided with possible
transformation to the active voice (only a part of the original sentence is provided).
Passive: …but may have been stopped by bad weather. (The Star - 13)
Active: …but bad weather may have stopped him.
The Telegraph: accompanied by the police (48)
The Mirror: attended by around 50 people (20), made by Britons (48)
The Star: have been stopped by bad weather (13)
5) To avoid a long active subject.

This rather grammatical category is reserved for passive voice structures that are
used in situations when the active sentence would have too long subject and therefore the
whole sentence would be clumsy and ambiguous. Shifting the unimportant part of the
sentence to the end behind the agent provide for better understanding of the fundament of
the sentence.
Only one occurrence was found in the corpus in the Telegraph article and is shown
below (front clause was cut away since it is unimportant). Possible structure of the sentence
in active voice is also provided.
Passive: Their bodies were found at 6.20am by a group of Burmese workers who
were cleaning the beach after the party. (The Telegraph - 20)
Active: A group of Burmese workers who were cleaning the beach after the party
found their bodies at 6.20am.
39
6) To retain the same subject in later parts of the sentence.
No occurrences of this reason for using passive voice structures were found in the
corpus. It is assumed that it is because of the nature of the crime story.
7) To dissimulate negative actions of the elite.

The only negative action of elite or powerful groups recorded in the corpus was the
political crisis in Thailand followed by a coup organized by the army and resulting into a
curfew and martial law which had a devastating influence upon the tourism industry of
Thailand. This information was provided in both broadsheets and also in The Mirror.
Although some passive voice structures on this topic are used in the articles, in all
occurrences the agent of the action (the army) is not dissimulated since it is obvious from
the context which might be caused by the fact that there is no reason for the British press to
favour or to be afraid of the Thailand’s army. Therefore these occurrences of passive voice
structures, although connected to the locally powerful group, are not the object of this
category.
7.4 Overall occurrences of the passive voice
For the purpose of the conclusion overall occurrences of the passive voice are
provided in Fig.18. Since the body possesses a significantly higher number of occurrences
than the headline or the lead, the results in the body table are not very different. Still, they
differ a bit.
Figure 18. Overall occurrences of the passive voice
Broadsheets - - - -
The Guardian 603 17 59 22.4%
The Telegraph 642 23 63 26.7%
Tabloids - - - -
The Mirror 721 24 57 29.6%
The Star 594 16 63 20.3%
40
8 Conclusion
The aim of the analysis was the comparison of online British newspapers, precisely
broadsheets and tabloids in terms of the use of the passive voice in crime news. For the
purpose of the analysis comparable articles about the same crime event issued by four
national dailies were chosen, two broadsheets – The Guardian and The Telegraph and two
red-top tabloids – The Mirror and The Star. The articles were compared in two areas;
occurrence of passive voice structures and reasons for the use. All three parts of the
newspaper report – headline, lead and body – were treated separately.
Two assumptions were made:
1. The proportion of passive voice incidence will be significantly higher in the quality
press.
2. There will be significant differences in the reasons for using passive voice structures
between broadsheets and tabloids.
It can be concluded that the number of overall occurrences of passive voice

structures within the corpus, as well as the reasons for the use, were influenced by the
nature of the event and also by the extent of the information that was known at the
beginning of the case. For example, if the culprit was known, it would not be necessary to
use passive voice structures to refer to the actions of the unknown culprit, or at least not to
such extent.
Considering the overall figures of occurrences of passive voice structures in the
articles, it can be concluded that within the boundaries of the corpus the assumption
number one was not validated since the highest proportion of passive voice structures was
reached by tabloid The Mirror (29.6%). The second scored broadsheet The Telegraph (26.7%)
followed by another broadsheet The Guardian (22.4%) while tabloid The Star (20.3%) was
the last one. There can be observed a significant proportional difference (more than 9%)
between the two tabloids scoring at the opposite ends of the scale. Another significant
anomaly can be seen between the last The Star and the last but one The Guardian where the
proportion is very similar; the difference is only 2.1%.
Nevertheless, this can be caused by the type of the event analysed and its details
and the size of the corpus, as mentioned above.
41
As Fowler (1991: 78) quotes: “Passive is a common structure in headlines. It saves
space, as well as immediately establishing the topic”. It can be concluded that there is at
least one other strategy used by journalists that is able to offer the same advantages – the
modified noun used at the beginning of the Mirror headline “Thailand beach murders”.
The tendency to shorten headlines by omitting verb TO BE and thus saving space
was observed within the corpus in both broadsheet and tabloid articles. When applicable,
this method was used for both active and passive structures. So it can be concluded that it
might be a method common to both broadsheet and tabloid papers but since the corpus is
too limited, a general conclusion cannot be drawn.
The differences in the reasons for using passive voice structures seem to be
noticeable in the use of the ‘cognitive passive’ (Van Dijk 1988a: 107) as a tool to take
distance and refuse responsibility for providing non-verified information. For this reason the
passive voice was used only once in The Mirror, twice in The Star, three times in The
Guardian but six times (the body plus the lead) in The Telegraph. It can be concluded that
the possible reason might be the nature of the broadsheet press; being more responsible
and preferring more verified facts than tabloids.
Since the corpus consists of only four articles of the same event and thus is limited,
the conclusions drawn above cannot be considered as generally applicable and therefore are
left for a more thorough and much broader analysis in the future.
42
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Appendix
THE GUARDIAN
The Guardian, Tuesday 16 September 2014
Josh Halliday and agencies
1 British tourists murdered in Thailand

2 David Miller, 24, from Jersey, and Hannah Witheridge, 23, from Great Yarmouth,
3 found dead on island of Koh Tao
4 Two young British tourists who met while backpacking have been murdered after
5 partying on a beach at a popular island resort in southern Thailand.
6 David Miller, 24, from Jersey, and Hannah Witheridge, 23, from Great Yarmouth, were
7 found half-naked with several deep wounds to their bodies near a beachside bungalow
8 on the island of Koh Tao, Thai police said.
9 A nationwide manhunt was reportedly under way for a third British backpacker whom
10 police suspect of carrying out the attack before fleeing the island.
11 A local police official told reporters that the pair had been murdered with a garden hoe
12 found nearby on the island, which is popular for its serene beaches and diving sites.
13 Locals were reported to have blockaded Koh Tao's only pier to prevent the killer
14 escaping. According to the Daily Telegraph, however, the local police chief, Colonel
15 Songsak, said a British man who may have known Miller had left the island.
16 Police Colonel Prachum Ruangthong said the male victim had sustained extensive
17 injuries to his head and the woman had injuries to her face.
18 Investigators were checking CCTV from local bars and restaurants, and appealing for
19 witnesses.
20 Ruangthong said a bloodied garden hoe used in the "gruesome" attack and
21 bloodstained clothes were found near the bodies.
22 Another local police chief said the pair were believed to have travelled separately to
23 Koh Tao, a popular island for backpackers in Surat Thani province, and met while
24 staying at the same budget hotel beside the beach.
25 CCTV showed they went to the same bar and left together at 1am on Monday, said
26 Major General Kiattipong Khawsamang. Local media reports said there had been a
27 beach party for about 50 people, mainly tourists, on Sunday night that continued into
28 Monday morning.
29 Witheridge is believed to have been travelling with three other friends while Miller is
30 thought to have arrived on the holiday resort island with two others.
31 Local police official Jakkrapan Kaewkhao said the two travellers had arrived in Thailand
32 separately on 25 August. "Their bodies were found 30 metres from the bungalow," he
33 said.
34 An employee at the seaside resort where the pair had been staying told AFP that the
35 bodies were found behind large rocks on the beach.
36 "It was the first time this has happened on the island, I have never seen anything like
37 this," the staff member added, requesting anonymity.
38 The Foreign Office said: "We are aware of the death of two British nationals on 15
39 September on the island of Koh Tao in the Gulf of Thailand. The embassy is urgently
40 seeking information from the local authorities and stands ready to provide consular
41 assistance."
42 The mountainous island of Koh Tao, which is described on tourism websites as "an
43 island of adventure action sports" and a place of "peace and tranquillity", is popular
44 with tourists but draws fewer travellers than the neighbouring island of Koh Phangan
45 with its well-known full moon parties.
46 The double murder came the day before the half moon party, a similar event that
47 attracts tens of thousands of people each month.
48 Thailand's lucrative tourism industry has been battered in recent months after a
49 prolonged political crisis ended in a coup that saw the army suspend the constitution
50 and impose a curfew and strict martial law on the country.
51 Although the curfew was swiftly lifted from tourist hotspots, visitor numbers have not
52 recovered.
53 Thailand's military leaders have promised to clean up the kingdom's tourist resorts
54 after complaints of scams, assaults and police extortion
THE TELEGRAPH
6:28PM BST 15 Sep 2014
By Martin Evans, Crime Correspondent
1 British backpackers murdered in Thailand named

2 as Hannah Witheridge and David Miller
3 Hannah Witheridge from Norfolk and David Miller from Jersey are thought to
4 have been murdered while walking home from a beach party on the Thai island
5 of Koh Tao
6 A manhunt is under way on a Thai holiday island after two British backpackers were
7 hacked to death.
8 Hannah Witheridge, 23, a university graduate from Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, and
9 David Miller, 24, from Jersey, were attacked with a garden hoe after a late night party
10 on Koh Tao in the Gulf of Thailand.
11 Miss Witheridge, who was travelling with three female friends, had been on the island
12 for only three days.
13 She met Mr Miller, who was travelling with two male companions, hours before they
14 were murdered.
15 Their semi-naked bodies were found on the blood soaked sand at Sairee beach, close
16 to the Ocean View resort where the two groups of friends had been staying.
17 It is understood that they went to a party on the beach with about 50 other
18 backpackers and tourists.
19 They were last seen leaving a bar together early yesterday morning.
20 Local reports say their bodies were found at 6.20am by a group of Burmese workers
21 who were cleaning the beach after the party.
22 Local police chiefs said they were still trying to piece together the circumstances that
23 led up to the murders.
24 One theory is that it may have been sexually motivated.
25 Police on the island, which attracts thousands of backpackers each year and is famed
26 for its world-class scuba diving, also said they were keen to speak to one of the British
27 friends who had been travelling with Mr Miller.
28 The friend is thought to have left Koh Tao soon after the murders.
29 Police Colonel Songsak was brought in from the neighbouring island of Koh Phangan to
30 help local officers investigate the case.
31 “We wish to interview David Miller’s friend,” he said. “But we cannot give out his
32 details at this stage.
33 “His name has been circulated. They all arrived together on August 25. We need to talk
34 to him as a matter of urgency.”
35 Detectives said the Briton was believed to have left the island on the first available
36 ferry to the mainland and was thought to be heading for Bangkok.
37 Police temporarily detained another friend of the victim after he was found to have
38 injuries to his hands.
39 However, he was released after providing what the police described as a “satisfactory
40 explanation”.
41 On Monday, Miss Witheridge’s family was being comforted as they tried to come to
42 terms with her murder.
43 Locals in the coastal village of Hemsby, eight miles north of Great Yarmouth, where
44 she grew up, described her as a lovely girl who was a keen and successful equestrian
45 rider. She was awarded a degree in education from the University of East Anglia before
46 undertaking postgraduate work at the University of Essex.
47 Her father, Tony, who runs a holiday company from his home, was too upset to
48 comment as he returned to his house accompanied by police officers. Mr Miller is
49 understood to have been travelling through Asia and Australia and had been in
50 Thailand since August.
51 A spokesman for the Foreign Office said it was aware of the deaths and was seeking
52 information from the local authorities. Koh Tao, which has stunning beaches and azure
53 waters, is popular with divers but is smaller and quieter than neighbouring Koh
54 Phangan, which draws hordes of backpackers to its hedonistic “full moon” party.
55 A shocked employee at the budget seaside resort where the victims had been staying
56 said: “It is the first time this has happened on the island. I have never seen anything
57 like this.”
58 The murders are likely to heap more misery on Thailand’s lucrative tourism industry
59 which has struggled in recent months after a prolonged political crisis ended in a coup
THE MIRROR
Sep 15, 2014 09:21
By Jessica Best
1 Thailand beach murders: Police 'hunting British

2 tourist' after UK pair battered to death
3 The man and woman were found on a beach on the island of Koh Tao in the
4 early hours of this morning
5 Two Brits have been found murdered on a Thai beach.
6 The naked bodies of a 23-year-old woman and 24-year-old man were discovered on
7 the island of Koh Tao in the early hours of this morning, near the popular Full Moon
8 party destination Koh Panga.
9 Both had suffered deep head wounds, with reports that a blood-stained hoe was found
10 nearby.
11 The woman, from Great Yarmouth in Norfolk, was found wearing just her bikini top,
12 and Thai media say she had been raped.
13 The man was from Jersey, in the Channel Islands.
14 Police colonel Prachum Ruangthong said: "The man was chopped in the back and on
15 the side of his head, while the woman was chopped in her face.
16 "It's very gruesome."
17 Detectives have begun an investigation, the beach has been closed, and residents have
18 blocked off the local dock in an attempt to stop anyone leaving, but it's thought those
19 responsible may have already fled.
20 The bodies were found between 4am and 5am after a beach party attended by around
21 50 people had continued late into the night.
22 In a statement, the Foreign Office said: We are aware of the deaths of two British
23 nationals on September 15 on the island of Koh Tao in the Gulf of Thailand.
24 "The embassy is urgently seeking information from the local authorities and consular
25 staff are ready to provide assistance to the friends and family at this tragic time."
26 Koh Tao is known for its diving and lively bars.
27 According to the Lonely Planet travel guides, the island welcomes thousands of visitors
28 who "come to worship the turquoise waters offshore".
29 Its turquoise coral, sharks and rays bring in divers, hikers enjoy jungle walks and the
30 bar scene "rages on until dawn".
31 According to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO), as many as 11 Britons have
32 been murdered in Thailand since 2009.
33 In a 2012/13 New Year's Eve party Londoner Stephen Ashton, 22, was killed in a bar on
34 Haad Rin beach on the Thai island of Koh Phangan - a resort where the FCO warns
35 British travellers to beware "vicious, unprovoked attacks by gangs".
36 The FCO says such attacks are particularly common around the time of Full Moon
37 parties and generally occur late at night near bars in Haad Rin.
38 British visitors are also warned that violent assaults and robberies have been reported
39 in the resort town of Chaweng in Koh Samui. Attacks have also occurred in other
40 tourist districts in Thailand including Chiang Mai, Pattaya and Krabi.
41 In July last year an American was stabbed to death, and his son seriously injured in an
42 attack in a bar in Krabi.
43 On crime generally, the FCO warns Britons to be wary of scams, pickpockets, bag-
44 snatchers and credit card fraud.
45 Just a few weeks ago, the FCO published comprehensive, country-by-country lists of
46 places where Britons needed consular assistance in the 12 months to March 2014.
47 The list also showed where Britons have been victims of crime.
48 Taking into account the number of visits made by Britons to a country as well as the
49 number of Britons living in that country, Thailand was second only to the Philippines in
50 being the destination where Britons needed the most consular assistance.
51 In 2013/14, Britons made more than 906,000 visits to Thailand - a country where
52 around 50,000 Britons live. There were 1,164 incidents of consular assistance,
53 including 11 cases of rape, six of assault and 267 instances of Britons being taken to
54 hospital.
55 There were also 362 deaths of Britons in Thailand in 2013/14. Although this figure
56 included those who died of natural causes, the total was more than in any other
57 country except Spain, which received around 12 times the number of Britons than
58 Thailand.
59 The latest murder is a further setback for Thailand's tourism industry which is still
60 recovering from the military coup which took place in May this year.
61 For a time tourists had to obey a strict night curfew which was lifted after a few weeks.
62 The FCO warns Britons that it is illegal to criticise the coup and that visitors "should be
63 wary of making political statements in public".
THE STAR
By Tom Rawle / Published 16th September 2014
1 Thai police 'quizzing three men' as search

2 continues for pal of murdered backpackers
3 THREE Burmese migrants are being questioned by police in Thailand linked to
4 the brutal murders of two British backpackers.
5 The body of Hannah Witheridge, 23, was discovered half-naked on a beach in Thailand
6 alongside the body of friend David Miller in the early hours of Monday morning.
7 Both were found with "gruesome" head injuries and a bloodstained hoe was found just
8 yards away from the scene with the pair’s clothes.
9 Reports last night said Hannah was the victim of a sexual assault.
10 The attack happened on the island of Koh Tao, a travelling hotspot for thousands of
11 young Brits, just hours after the two were spotted leaving a bar.
12 Police are searching for a male travelling companion of David, 24, who they believe
13 intended to leave the island but may have been stopped by bad weather.
14 Colonel Songsak said: “We wish to interview [the victim’s] friend but we cannot give
15 out his details at this stage.
16 “His name has been circulated. They all arrived together on August 25.”
17 But detectives believe the suspect may have left the island on the first available boat
18 to Bangkok.
19 While Colonel Prachum Ruangthong, of the Royal Thai Police, added: "We are not
20 stopping people entering or leaving the island but we will put up around 30 to 40
21 police at the ports.
22 "If we do find a suspect, we'll arrest them."

23 It is thought that David, from Jersey, and Hannah were targeted as they left the party
24 in the early hours of yesterday.
25 Both bodies were found in a rocky enclave, which separates Sairee Beach, and another
26 small beach near the Ocean View resort, where they were staying at the same hotel.
27 Their bodies were discovered shortly before 5am.
28 Col. Ruangthong said: "The man was chopped in the back and on the side of his head,
29 while the woman was chopped in her face.
30 "It's very gruesome."
31 Officers have spent the past day scouring through CCTV footage of the nearby location
32 and have detained and are questioning three Burmese migrant workers, reports say.
33 A police spokesman said: “We are focusing on migrant workers because of the
34 surrounding witnesses and evidence, including the video footage.
35 “We are sweeping hotels, bars, businesses and residences of migrant workers on the
36 beach to find the suspect.”
37 He said detectives are still looking to speak to an "Asian-looking man" that was seen on
38 CCTV staring at the victims as they left the bar.
39 Hannah, who was backpacking during her gap-year, is believed to be a graduate of the
40 University of East Anglia and was reading a masters degree at the University of Essex in
41 Colchester.
42 Her father Anthony was last night too upset to comment but said his family was
43 "distraught" at receiving "the most devastating news".
44 Tributes flooded in for the two victims online as the nation mourned the tragic deaths.
45 Amy Empson wrote: "Rip Hannah you were such a beautiful person inside and out
46 thoughts are with ur family and friends at this sad time xx "
47 While Sue Wharton Weaver wrote: "I have no words so sad thinking of you all that
48 loved Hannah with all my heart
49 xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx "
50 A Foreign Office spokesman said it was “aware of the death of two British nationals on
51 September 15 on the island of Koh Tao in the Gulf of Thailand”.
52 He added: “The Embassy is urgently seeking information from the local authorities and
53 consular staff stand ready to provide assistance to friends and family at this tragic
54 time."
55

Bachelor Thesis F

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Bachelor Thesis F

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MASARYK UNIVERSITY

Department of English Language and Literature

Supervisor: Written by:

1 Passive and active voice

1.1 Active voice

Figure 1. Transformation of active sentence into passive

Source: Richardson (2007: 55)

Figure 2. Frequency of finite passive v. non-passive verbs across registers

Source: Biber, Johansson, Leech, Conrad, Finegan (1999: 476)

1.2 Passive voice

1.2.1 Reasons for using the passive voice

1. They do not know the identity of the agent of the action.

2 Concept of passive voice in newspapers

2.1 Inverted pyramid

Figure 4. The practical example of inverted pyramid

2.2 Other concepts

Another quite common concept of using passive voice in newspapers depends on

3.1 General situation

Figure 5. The summary of British national dailies with details

August 2014 Circulation Owner Website Political Leanings

As a result of the growing influence of new technologies all the newspapers

3.3.1 Social classes

Figure 7. Social class of British Newspaper Readership

Source: John E. Richardson 2007: 81

3.3.2 Political preferences

Figure 8. British newspaper support for political parties

4.1 News production

Figure 9. The chain of news communication

Source: Galtung & Ruge 1965: 65

4.2 News values

Galtung and Ruge (1965) Jewkes (2004)

Figure 11. Set of reasons used for the analysis

British tourists murdered in Thailand

7.1.2 The Telegraph

7.1.3 The Mirror

7.1.4 The Star

7.1.5 Comparison of headlines

Figure 12. Occurrences of the passive voice in the headline

7.2.1 The Guardian

7.2.2 The Telegraph

7.2.3 The Mirror

7.2.5 Comparison of leads

Figure 14. Occurrences of the passive voice in the lead

1) Unknown identity of the agent of the action.

2) Not to assign or accept responsibility;

3) Agent is unimportant or obvious from the context.

4) Emphasis on the agent of action.

5) To avoid a long active subject.

7) To dissimulate negative actions of the elite.

7.4 Overall occurrences of the passive voice

It can be concluded that the number of overall occurrences of passive voice

1 British tourists murdered in Thailand

1 British backpackers murdered in Thailand named

1 Thailand beach murders: Police 'hunting British

5 Two Brits have been found murdered on a Thai beach.

13 The man was from Jersey, in the Channel Islands.

16 "It's very gruesome."

26 Koh Tao is known for its diving and lively bars.

1 Thai police 'quizzing three men' as search

22 "If we do find a suspect, we'll arrest them."

27 Their bodies were discovered shortly before 5am.

30 "It's very gruesome."

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