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Understanding Media Bias In Futbol Matches

Karthik Velayutham
IB Candidate Number: ?
Plano East Senior High School
May, 2017 Exam Session
Diploma Programme, Group 1
Language A: Language and Literature HL
Written Task 2
Supervisor: Alison Staring
Word Count:

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Rationale
The past unit that we went over in class was over newspaper structure and bias in
newspapers. We were able to analyze this topic by going over multiple newspaper articles and
how certain authors can completely change the view of a situation. We analyzed an article about
Sir Sam from the Toronto Times (in November 1916) and saw how two different views from two
different authors completely altered the entire meaning and tone of the article.
Based on this knowledge I decided to write a news article based on the Germany vs.
Brazil soccer game during the 2014 FIFA World Cup. The rationale behind this choice is because
the true result of the game was a 7-1 victory for the Germans. As a result, there were lots of
biases by use of language in articles that come from different sources. This included extreme
dissent from the Brazilian side and ebullient pride from the Germans. Thus I wanted to construct
a commentative news article from the perspective of the German side after this game that would
be directed towards an audience of sports enthusiasts and German readers in general.
In order to get a feel for how I needed to base the article, I researched multiple articles of
recaps of the games and I got a feel for the reaction that the Germans, Brazilians, and neutral
spectators had during the game. I read multiple articles from German sources and tried to find
out the tone of my article and I tried to find some nationalistic German sayings to include in the
headline to add a bias in headline effect to the article. In addition to following the style of a
sports article, I had to understand how Germans organized articles compared to western methods.
This helped me create a solid foundation for the authenticity and originality of the article.
Word Count: 293

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LIGHTNING GERMANS
SCORE

7 GOALS IN ROUT VERSUS BRAZIL IN

WORLD CUP SEMI-FINALS

By: Karthik Velayutham July 8th 2014

Estadio Mineirao, Belo Horizonte, Brazil: The most anticipated match of

this years World Cup ended up having the most astonishing score line as the
Germans absolutely thumped the hosts, Brazil, 7-1 at the Estadio Mineirao on
Tuesday. With this victory the Germans have successfully booked their berth
in the World Cup final against either Argentina or Netherlands.
The German boys showed great tenacity and patience by showing a great
display of defending and taking advantage of all chances that came along.
The deadlock was finally broken when Thomas Muller punished the Brazilians
by scoring from an open corner in the 11th minute.

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The destruction truly commenced after Miroslav Klose scored his goal in the
23rd minute, allowing him to be the highest scorer in World Cup history. It
seemed that the Brazilians had lost all sense of composure as they let
another goal slip through in the 24th and the 26th minute! The Germans then
pounded another wave of strong attacks and broke the Brazilian line to score
their 5th goal in the 29th minute. By halftime, the home crowd had gone
silent.
The second half resulted in a broken Brazilian team trying to keep its dignity.
However, the Germans proved to show their efficiency by scoring two more
goals, courtesy of Andre Schurrle.
However, things werent ALL that bad for the Brazilians as Oscar managed to
score one goal at the death of the match to prevent further humiliation.

Humility and Focus:

Even after a thunderous victory for the German machines, the team was still
stolid and focused. In fact, defender Mats Hummels stated that the team had
pledged to stay focused and not humiliate the Brazilian team during their
halftime discussion.
We just made it clear that we had to stay focused and try not to humiliate
them, said Hummels.