Band 8 IELTS Essay Sample | News stories on TV and in newspapers are very often accompanied by pictures
News stories on TV and in newspapers are very often accompanied by pictures. Some people say that these pictures are more effective than words. What is your opinion about this?
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Band 8 IELTS essay sample
Photographs have become an integral part of news stories. Some people believe that the pictorial presentation of news is more effective than textual pesentation. I completely agree with the statement and in this essay, I will support my view with valid arguments and examples.
There is no doubt that pictures attract the attention of the audience. They also give a basic understanding of the news story and thus make it easy for the reader to figure out which stories are worth their attention. In this age of information explosion, we are bombarded with news stories. We receive updates every second and it is impossible to read or watch all of the stories that we come across. Pictures make it easy to filter out stories we are not interested in.
What’s more, according to a survey conducted by the media association, 70% of readers are more likely to read a news story accompanied by an image. To illustrate, I am a great fan of Amitabh Bachchan. Whenever I see him on screen or in a newspaper, I become more curious to read or watch the whole news story. It is his photo that grabs my attention. Furthermore, by adding more pictures to news articles, news editors can attract the attention of children as well. For example, there is a particular section in Sunday’s newspaper which highlights children specific topics and contains more graphics than text material. That colorful page attracts my son the most and, as a result, he goes through that entire section without fail. Thus it is evident that if there is no picture the media may lose the attention of a particular group of audience.
To sum up, I believe that including pictures in news can play a pivotal role in gaining / attracting reader’s attention to a particular topic. Pictures can also tell a story more vividly and make comprehension easier.
Band 8 essay sample 2
Many people assert that pictures that go along with news stories make them more impactful. I agree with this because pictures enhance the reality of the reports, and graphics in paper describe the text.
First of all, visual communication is a powerful tool which provides recognisable facts. Some people hear all happenings around the world via radio. Many listeners are easily distracted because radio is just background music whereas visuals used on television make the reports more interesting and compel the audience to sit and watch. For example, news channels use graphical representation of the spread of coronavirus in each state with the number of new cases and death. This statistical graph delivers a clear message to the viewers / audience and are mostly beneficial for conveying information to the busy and uneducated sections of the society.
Secondly, including snapshots in newspaper increases the sale. Nowadays, people cannot read all the news stories as they have several commitments. An info graphic, which gives the gist of the whole text can help people decide if it is relevant or important for them so that they can go through the full paragraph. For example, the use of tables or the photos of people related to the news in the newspaper attracts people to read the whole content. Having said that, written information is also significant because words describe the picture. A picture does not reveal the purpose of the news. For example, the picture of an accident scene without text describing it is difficult to understand. So, both are equally critical for publishing news.
To sum up, I believe that including pictures with news stories help people get a better understanding of the story. Written information is also equally important for conveying news to people and pictures merely complement text – they cannot replace text.
