Tabloid newspaper Free Essay Example

First of all, newspapers today can be categorised into to sections. These sections are ‘broadsheet’ and ‘tabloid’ newspapers. A broadsheet newspaper is very big and long in size. The layout of a broadsheet is formal and has a modest and plain masthead. There is a large amount of copy, which is segregated into seven to eight columns. There are usually three stories on the cover, with the main story getting a big colour photo. On the other hand, a tabloid’s size is very small.

The layout is informal and bold, there is not so much copy and there are only about four columns on the front page.

One or two large colour photos take up most of the room. The mastheads on tabloids all have a large white name with a bright red background. The newspapers that I will be comparing in this essay will be ‘THE WELSH MIRROR’ and ‘THE TIMES’ taken from Wednesday, the 5th of December. There are four columns on the mirror, very little copy and only two cover stories; this tells us that the newspaper catches the reader’s attention with boldness and colour because very little room is used for the cover story.

Alternatively, The times has an eight-column width with three cover stories, and loads of copy. This suggests that there are big differences in the type of reader these papers cater for. The main headline in the mirror is ‘DR DEATH WOUNDED’ The key words hear are ‘DR DEATH’ This story is about Osama Bin Laden’s ‘right hand man’ being wounded in an American bombing raid last night (Dec 4th).

This shows us that the newspaper is interested in the war.

The newspaper is British and would obviously encourage the defeat of Osama and His counterparts, so they make it sound like a great achievement by labelling him ‘DR DEATH’ and in a way this makes the news easier to understand by giving him an evil character and so we’ve wounded a doctor of death. The headline in the times is: “Top ministers ‘sabotaged’ war on sleaze” the key words are ‘war on sleaze’ this headline projects the parliamentary news values of the newspaper.

The main photograph on the mirror is of Neil and Christine Hamilton naked, on the other hand, supporting the general layout; the picture in the times is a close-up of a soldier in Gaza, with artillery. This shows that the mirror is very celebrity orientated, and the times are very fixed upon the war and governmental matters. There is a photograph on the mirror accompanying the story and it illustrates it very well, this shows that because the amount of copy is limited, the pictures make up for it. This is easier for the newspaper’s audience to understand.

On the contrary the times has no picture for the main headline, but it does for another story. This shows that the paper is very print orientated and likes to keep more space for more information in the written word. The language used in the mirror has the general attitude towards the emotive side of language, and gets readers to think in the same way as the paper portrays it: ‘Love Rat cop’ (suggesting a bad man. ) The opposite of this, is in the times where, although emotive language is normally used, the general sway is to the impersonal side of the language.

The mirror tends to have a more opinionated view on stories, whereas the times seems to prefer a more factual outlook on things. The times has nine pages containing home news, this suggests that this newspaper is interested in most foreign news as well as home, because the newspaper contains 10 pages of foreign news. However the mirror has 24 pages dedicated to home news, and only six for foreign. This suggests that the paper isn’t much interested in displaying foreign news, maybe its because that their readers are also not interested in the foreign news. It has nothing to do with them.

The times contains forty-one photos, whereas the mirror contains no less than sixty-one. This shows that the times is a paper that prefers to get the story across, as ‘a story’. Not a picture book. The mirror on the other hand, seems to explain stories very well and use pictures lavishly. Though this method cuts down the writing, it does add to the story immensely because you have an image to connect with. All pictures in the times have a story behind them. But not in the mirror, for example the picture of Neil and Christine Hamilton naked was accompanied by no story, except the headline: ‘For Heaven’s sake..

NO! ‘ The mirror contains around 56 adverts, for cheap, sales or special offers and others. Despite this, the times has around 26 adverts for what I would describe as upper-class goods. This shows me that the advertisers know the newspaper’s audience very well and know which paper to advertise successfully in. In the times there are eight pages of sports; like football cricket, horseracing and tennis. Also the mirror has 11 pages of sport like football, cricket, rugby and horse racing.

It would suggest to me that the mirror has more sports pages, because it’s a family newspaper that needs something for all of them. The dad might want sport, for example. But the times has a more plain faced ‘result’ orientated attitude to its sport, and it keeps it separate from the main news paper. The times is a very economical and business related newspaper. I can back this up by seeing that the times has five pages of business and two pages of stocks and shares. The opposite of this is displayed in the mirror where there are no pages dedicated to business.

There are differences in the stories, which are given higher news values in both papers. I have found that the mirror will give more news value to celebrity news, for example they covered a story on Emma Bunton’s new music video. Whereas in the times, there was no sign of that story. Notably in the times they will cover stories that are more political, for example: the story about how Saddam is still in America’s sights. But that story isn’t in the mirror, this shows that they know that people who read the paper, won’t bother reading the story.

The style of the times is very formal and impersonal at times; and makes sure it covers areas such as: foreign news, business, and political matters. The newspaper tends to use a necessary amount of photographs and has a lot of copy. As for the mirror, it can be very opinionated, emotive, and chatty. The mirror tends to give more news value to the gossipy side of news and takes up more room for the home news, and only has room for the very public issues within politics. Finally, I shall say about the audience and type of reader that the newspapers cater for.

I would say that from my evidence, the mirror approaches citizens with lower-status ‘office jobs’ and labourers in factories. By printing big pictures, more sport and being written in a chattier manor with entertaining stories they achieve their audience status. But on the other hand the times seems to go for the people with upmarket, higher ‘managerial’ jobs. They print more business news, and more foreign and political news. Also the newspaper gets written in a much less emotive way, by doing this they also achieve their audience status.