Branching off from my previous blog post, I have decided to discuss in today’s post how The Mail Online and The Sun approached their news story coverage on the event of a ‘terrifying’ open fire attack in a Spanish supermarket.

When reading both articles, I can’t help but roll my eyes over the fact that both headlined articles imply the attack to be of ‘terror’ and assumes the perpetrator is of an Islamic faith as he supposedly screams “Allahu Akbar”. Already, is this not racially stereotypical enough?

The Mail Online’s headline read “Gunman screaming ‘Allahu Akbar’ opens fire in Spanish supermarket while wearing ‘suicide vest’ filled with gasoline and gunpowder” – immediately, despite not using crude terms towards the event or the perpetrator, The Daily Mail allow their readership to make an assumption and categorise the perpetrator through key words within the article, such as “Allahu Akbar”, “suicide vest”, “gasoline” and “gunpowder”. Being a heightened moral panic within society, the major stereotypical assumption made by The Mail Online is that the gunman was committing an act of terror.

Now, when taking a look at The Sun’s headline of this event, “SUPERMARKET HORROR Gunman opens fire in Spanish supermarket while ‘carrying bag filled with petrol and gunpowder’”, a totally different, eye-opening view is pictured of this event. Firstly, in comparison to The Daily Mail’s headline, it can be noticed how there is no clear illustration of what the ‘gunman’ looks like. Further on this point, there happens to be a significant difference in narrative between the two headlines. Whilst The Mail Online deliberately create this terrifying image of a suicide bomber, was the actual reality that the perpetrator was really holding these harmful substances in his bag?

Despite the considerable difference the two tabloids construct within their headlined articles of the event, The Sun, however, had a similar broadcast to The Daily Mail when they first published their article. Mistakenly, The Sun posted online “SUPERMARKET TERROR Gunman ‘screaming Allahu Akbar’ opens fire in Spanish supermarket while ‘carrying bag filled with petrol and gunpowder’”. Directly, The Sun instantly claim this event to be a terror attack, whilst linking to the Islamic faith, stating the perpetrator said “Allahu Akbar”.

Miqdaad Versi, board member of Rights Watch (UK), posted an image on Twitter containing both versions of The Sun’s take on the event. In the image below, Miqdaad Versi heatedly states in his tweet against The Sun’s poor blunder “The Sun corrects false claim of terror attack by gunman shouting Allahu Akbar (actually robbery by Stefan): no recognition/apology for error”. As Miqdaad Versi labels both images, it is clearly shown how The Sun carefully change their wording to recreate a more realistic scene of the event.

“Actually robbery by Stefan” creates this humorous undertone, proving how ridiculous and daring The Sun and The Mail Online’s headlines actually are. But is it really necessary to go to such an extreme in suggesting the perpetrator was a terrorist? How can these tabloid newspapers be trusted for 24/7 news coverage, when they persistently alter the truth for a what they’d note as a thrill factor?