Headline Analysis

Historic cottage that stood for SIX HUNDRED years faces demolition after 174mph Audi RS4 smashes through its living room - Daily Mail

The first thing that you notice about the headline is the two words written in the larger font and put in capitals, this is supposedly in order to emphasise them. The headline is long and contains lots of details such as statistics. As is the fashion with the Daily Mail the headline is written in a very sensationalist manner, this is also typical of many tabloid newspapers.

Abandoned NHS IT system has cost £10bn so far- The guardian

This headline is noticeably smaller than the last, it cuts straight to the point. It again contains a statistic. The word 'abandoned' is a pre-modifier, it's dramatic and causes the NHS to look weaker as a result,  the words 'so far' suggest that it is going to continue loosing money.

Wiggins wins time trial to take lead in Tour of Britain- The guardian

This title starts with a proper noun 'Wiggins', this is used to make it clear to the reader who they are reading about. Another proper noun is 'Britain' because it is the name of a place, gives the reader a clear outline of the story. The writer also uses a  'Wiggins wins' by putting 'wins' after Wiggins (which was a proper noun) he has explained further what has happened. 'Wiggins wins' is also alliteration, this draws the attention of the reader.

Yes, David Cameron, 'Yid' really is a race-hate word. Here's why - the guardian

Much like the last one it includes a proper pronoun 'David Cameron'. Including this name draws the readers attention because every reader of the guardian knows who he is. If instead, they had said 'he, nobody would have had a clue who they were talking about. The way in which the writer ended the headline on 'here's how' influenced the reader to read on because they want to know why 'Yid' is a race-hate word. And to find out the context in which he said it.

'You'd be better off on benefits': Council advisor tells single mother to give up her job because she'd get £3000 a year MORE - daily mail

This headline once again includes a proper noun 'council advisor' This was very specific, if they were to put just 'council' it would have been a collective noun. But this, instead of making the council look bad, only makes the council advisor look bad. Much like the first headline, this one included statistics. '£3000', this is simply used to give a clearer picture of the story. I couldn't find any other nouns however i noticed how the word 'MORE' was in a bolder font than the rest of the headline. This made it stand out. The writer clearly did this to inform the reader of how shocking it actually is, that someone who doesn't work can earn more than someone who does.

Overview
Towards the end I noticed the difference between the two papers. For example the daily mail included more statistics than The Guardian. And the fact that the Guardian used proper nouns in all of their headlines whereas the daily mail did not. And of-course The Guardian was the only paper i found to use a pre-modifier in its headline. I link these differences to the fact that the daily mail is a tabloid newspaper whereas the guardian is broadsheet. The daily mail explains it's stories thoroughly in the headline perhaps because the target audience are not so intellectual as the guardian readers.

By Alex Hampson and Dan Hunt