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‘Infosuasion’ in European Newspapers: A Case Study on the War in Kosovo 213

According to the German newspaper, if NATO did not intervene Kosovo would
be subjugated by the Serbian armed forces, burning houses, killing people and
provoking a new wave of refugees. Furthermore, NATO would lose its author-
ity as an organ of political and military security, putting the stability of Europe
in great danger.
The Spanish newspapers stand in contrast to these papers: here there is only a
limited use of persuasive techniques in non-significant percentages.

Figures of speech

With regard to the figures of speech used in the language of the headlines,
one can say that El Pais and the French newspapers tend to use referential
expressions. The German newspapers, even if their headlines do not scream out,
make ample use of the age-old tradition of alliteration. Die Welt, for example,
titles a commentary ‘Bauern und Bomben’, that is ‘Farmers and Bombs’; but
farmers only get a brief mention in the article at the beginning, probably only
to support the alliteration used. Frankfurter Rundschau writes ‘Die Maenner mit
den Muetzen ruecken’ for ‘The Men with Balaclavas are Advancing’, the alliter-
ation in this case raises interest but has nothing to do with what is written in the
article.
The headlines in The Guardian are particularly effective in their use of
metaphors, for example in the case of ‘Civilians Escape While the Serb Forces put
Kosovo to the Torch’ and ‘Europe Faces the Spectre of Ground Warfare’. Every
now and then The Times relaxes its style by using metaphor and metonymy, like
‘The Serbs Continue with Their Scorched Earth Strategy’ or ‘Belgrade Calls its
Fathers to Arms’.
Il Corriere della Sera uses a lot of quotations, like ‘Clinton says ‘‘We can’t allow
another genocide’’ ’; ‘Blair warns that ‘‘There’s no more space for optimism’’’;
‘Chirac explains that ‘‘There are no alternatives but the use of force’’’, ‘Clinton
‘‘We must avoid a catastrophe’’, ‘‘Our action will be morally right’’’.

Layout

Finally, the European press dramatizes events through the use of images that
serve to move and inspire pity in the reader. Sometimes the images emphasize
the news even if they are not coherent with the text. On 22 March both The Times
and The Guardian published the same picture of refugees escaping on a tractor.
Another photo that figured in the Italian press was that of heavy artillery,
primed for action. On 25 March some of the foreign newspapers published on
their front pages the picture of an aeroplane taken from the front, so that it was
possible to see the whole of its wingspan.
Although Italian dailies mirrored the others in the use of persuasive tech-
niques, they distinguished themselves for their graphic abilities. During the ‘hot’
days La Repubblica in particular published large colour photographs on the front