Adoption is the legal act of permanently placing a child with a parent or parents other than the birth parents. Adoption results in the severing of the parental responsibilities and rights of the biological parents and the placing of those responsibilities and rights onto the adoptive parents. After the finalisation of an adoption, there is no legal difference between biological and adopted children. When Madonna decided to adopt a 13 month old child from Malawi, it created uproar from nations all over the world. Some people thought that adopting an underprivileged child into a well off family was a good thing, whereas others thought it was wrong to snatch a child whose father was already alive. It was major news for every paper and this is what I am going to comment on. In this essay I am going to compare the different points of view from which the Daily Telegraph and The Daily Mirror use to cover the story about Madonna and David.

The title of the first paper that I am going to review is the Daily Telegraph. It is a broadsheet paper and is a very sophisticated paper. People that are of a higher class and more educated people tend to read this paper. The tone of the Telegraph is very informative and comments on the more legal side of the story, and is therefore is a more factual paper. It is slightly biased against Madonna and is very formal. The language used is also very serious. Madonna is one of a long list of celebrities that have decided to adopt a child from abroad. The start of the Daily Telegraph basically sums up what side the paper is on. “Madonna outraged child rights campaigners in Malawi yesterday” this is showing what side the paper is on and it is commenting on the legal side of the argument. Some of the features of the article are that it gives interviews from people all on the same side to make Madonna look like a bad person. The Daily Telegraph shows no sympathy towards Madonna or her family and is totally against her and the adoption.

The title of the second paper that I am going to review is The Daily Mirror. This is a tabloid paper and is mainly read by people of a lower class and people who prefer more pictures and more gossip. This paper comments very differently on the article. It tends to be on the side of Madonna, as if they are supporting her instead of scorning her. They do comment on similar points as the other paper but the language is different. However some ideas are different, such as what adoption is all about “it is about a parent finding a child” which is on the side of Madonna. In places this newspaper is slightly biased towards her.

Madonna has been lucky, because being a celebrity has helped her to adopt the child easily and quickly, but this is unfair on other people who want to create a family using the process of adoption. Some people may say that it is unfair how Madonna won her child. The effect of overseas adoption can also be hard on the child, as they may be sent back to their country of origin, which could be impossible after experiencing the life of luxury. Madonna has funded the orphanage, as a sign of her thanks, but ordinary people wouldn’t be able to do this as Madonna is a multi-millionaire. I think that it is unfair how Madonna gained the right to adopt David because I think it is mainly to do with her social status. I also think that it is not right to take a child away from their family, as there are many other babies who are orphans and need a loving home.

Both articles are covering the same story, but in a different way. The views of The Daily Telegraph and The Daily Mirror are different to each other in many ways. This is probably due to the fact of what type of people read their newspapers, as people who read The Daily Telegraph want to read about the real story and all of the information, whereas people who read The Daily Mirror want to read something that is interesting, and they prefer gossip and celebrities to politics.