An analysis of the front pages of The Guardian and The Daily Mail from 16th March 2001.
How do editors of tabloids and broadsheet newspapers use content, language, layout and images to attract and reflect their target readership?
An analysis of the front pages of 'The Guardian' and 'The Daily Mail' from 16th March 2001.
Targets:
. To show insight into the idea of readership.
2. To analyse the way that the style and presentation are used in the media.
3. To analyse the way that language and images are used to create an impact.
4. To present and explain my opinions clearly and logically.
British newspapers have been around for nearly three centuries. There are ten British national papers divided into two main categories: the tabloids and the broadsheets. The tabloids contain many articles on celebrities and gossip, some news and many large pictures. The most popular tabloids are 'The Sun' and 'The Mirror' ('red tops'). The broadsheets are larger papers and more serious. They include more news stories and cover politics and world issues. The most popular broadsheet is 'The Daily Telegraph'.
The circulation of the national papers has lowered from 15,672,431 in 1989, to 14,270,111 in 1994. This is because there is more technology today. People can receive instant news on the television, radio and internet.
It is important for newspapers to know, target, attract and reflect their readership. With this information, they can write articles that interest their readers. It creates an image of what the readers are attracted to.
'The Guardian' is a broadsheet. It is a slightly left-wing newspaper generally supporting the Government and Labour Party. According to stereotypes, people with professional jobs mainly read this paper. Statistics show that about twenty per cent of people aged 20-45 read 'The Guardian'.
'The Daily Mail' is one of two newspapers called the middle market dailies. It is a tabloid paper, but has a balance of news and feature articles. Stereotypes of the readers of 'The Daily Mail' suggest that this paper is read mostly by less professional people. However, statistics prove that mostly professionals or people in junior management read 'The Daily Mail' with a wide age group.
The top of a newspaper can encourage sales if the readers are interested in what they see. As 'The Guardian' is a very large newspaper, it is folded when in the shop so that only the top is seen by the customers. For this reason, the top of 'The Guardian' has to be attractive and contain articles that interest its readers;
"Rewriting history. Why South Africa's schools are stuck in the past."
This is in the strapline that focuses on a different story than the main article. This suggests that the newspaper's readers are interested in history and world issues, as this paper focuses on Africa and education. It seems that the editor of the newspaper wants to include all articles that its readers are interested in.
The top of 'The Daily Mail' is quite different to 'The Guardian'. The style of the name suggests the newspaper is traditional as it has a royal crest in between. This suggests that the newspaper wants to create a traditional style paper.
The main strapline reflects the readership of the newspaper;
"Britain's farmers are suffering terribly. For them, and for the sake of our rural heritage..."
Firstly, this shows that 'The Daily Mail's' readers are concerned about Britain and its farmers. Secondly, it shows that its readers are interested in the countryside and want to keep up the tradition of farming. 'The Daily Mail' uses emotive language as it asks for their readers' contribution to their "Farm Aid Appeal". An emotional photograph is placed in the top right corner of newborn lambs, which attracts people, especially animal-lovers. This ...
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The main strapline reflects the readership of the newspaper;
"Britain's farmers are suffering terribly. For them, and for the sake of our rural heritage..."
Firstly, this shows that 'The Daily Mail's' readers are concerned about Britain and its farmers. Secondly, it shows that its readers are interested in the countryside and want to keep up the tradition of farming. 'The Daily Mail' uses emotive language as it asks for their readers' contribution to their "Farm Aid Appeal". An emotional photograph is placed in the top right corner of newborn lambs, which attracts people, especially animal-lovers. This will make the readers feel sympathetic and will feel like they have to contribute to the appeal.
Both papers focus on the 'foot and mouth' story on the same day as it gives the latest information on a disease that indirectly affects almost everyone. Most cows and sheep are being killed, even if they are healthy, to try to stop the disease from spreading. Farmers are losing their money and the general election has been postponed as politics are also affected.
This story will attract most readers for different reasons: farmers will want to know the latest information as it affects their business; any member of the public will want to an update on the disease as it affects the food they buy; and the people interested in the Government will want to know the date for the election. Also, animal-lovers will be concerned about the disease.
Considering the stereotypes and statistics of the two different newspapers, it is clear that the two different newspapers will have different types of articles regarding the 'foot and mouth' story.
One can expect 'The Guardian' to focus on the political side of any story and how business is affected by the news. The reader of 'The Daily Mail' can predict to read less about politics, but about personal views and their opinions to the story.
'The Guardian' focuses on the political side of the 'foot and mouth' disease. It contains information on the latest news about the election and what the Government is planning to do about the crisis. The reporter is an environment correspondent and is trying not to be biased. Instead, he quotes the NFU president as he is more biased.
This suggests that the newspaper aims to be as fair as possible and to produce mainly facts for its readers. This indicates that the reader does not want to read any gossip, but news that can inform them of the latest.
'The Daily Mail' focuses on a personal point of view;
"It was when Blackie caught his eye that it really hit Leyland Branfield."
This gives an emotional view about a specific farmer. It is the introduction to the article and makes the reader question who 'Blackie' and 'Leyland Branfield' are, encouraging them to read on. This, along with the heading, makes the article sound like it is a story. This will attract more readers.
The heading of 'The Guardian' is less attractive than 'The Daily Mail';
"Ministers gamble on mass cull"
This is the main headline and tells the reader that the main story is focused on politics. The word "gamble" is emotive language, which could suggest to the reader that Labour is lacking control or giving up. This will attract readers, as it is close to the election, and if Labour is not achieving what they should, the public could change their mind on who to vote for. In addition, there is a small article next to this about Labour, proving that the Government is a subject that most readers are concerned about.
Some of the language used in the two different newspapers is quite different. However, a few techniques are used in both papers.
'The Guardian' uses incomplete sentences;
"One million healthy animals to be killed"
This sentence is in the strapline and it gives a brief overview of what is in the story and encourages readers.
Key words of 'The Guardian' show the readers' interests. "May 3 poll date", and "Labour" proves that most of the readers are concerned about politics. I think this is because it is close to the election date, so the newspaper gives the public an update of what the Government are doing, helping them to choose for their vote.
Compared with this, 'The Daily Mail' rarely uses incomplete sentences;
"...we are asking our magnificent readers to contribute to..."
This is the only incomplete sentence but it is used to give an insight of what is yet to come. The elipsis shows that there is more of the sentence to come and prepares the reader for the request to donate to the aid appeal.
Emotive language is used in 'The Guardian' to help the reader relate to the story and feel emotional;
"There will be many tears around the British countryside...Our farms should be starting to jump with life with new-born lambs. Instead many will feel that their farms are simply 'dead'."
The reporter does not use this, but he has quoted Ben Gill as he is biased. This helps the reader understand the story and how it is affecting everyone. Juxtaposition is used contrasting newborn animals with 'dead' farms. This creates a shocking atmosphere as it shows that the disease is ruining spring, by stopping the lambs from jumping with life.
Statistics are used in 'The Guardian' to prove a point;
"...the number of animals killed under the existing measures rose to more than 219,000...the figure in Dumfries and Galloway at 200,000 sheep in 500 farms..."
This is used as evidence for the 'foot and mouth' story. It helps the reader understand how many animals are being killed because of the disease.
'The Guardian' uses some complex language;
"...to take draconian action to kill epidemic coincided with his own plans."
This indicates that people who read this newspaper have a high level of education, as this paper is more difficult to understand.
Pyramid writing is used in the 'foot and mouth' story. The most interesting and latest facts are at the beginning. This is because everyone will read the headline, 70% will read the introduction, but only 50% will carry on reading.
Key words in 'The Daily Mail' give an insight of what the newspaper is going to include in their stories. "Britain's farmers" and "rural heritage" indicate that readers of 'The Daily Mail' are interested in. Along with these key words and the font of the newspaper's name suggests that it is a traditional newspaper.
'The Daily Mail' uses some language in its story that 'The Guardian' would not use. The reporter says that the "old ewe" was as "good as gold" leading the flock into the pen where the "slaughter commenced". The cliché is used to attract attention and suggests that the ewe, being described is an innocent animal, is always good and helps the farmer. However, sympathy is shown for the farmer as the newspaper uses cold words in the article.
Slang is also used in 'The Daily Mail';
"...he could only give her a fond final stroke on the nose before the bolt of the slaughterman's gun did its business."
This creates a depressing atmosphere, as the emotive language makes the reader feel sympathetic towards the farmer and the sheep. The newspaper could feel that this is important as it will help the readers to feel more supportive and perhaps contribute to the 'Farm Aid Appeal'.
A mixture of tenses is used in 'The Daily Mail'. The story starts in past tense, and then changes to past perfect where it uses "...she had led..." Then near the end of the story on the first page, present tense is used. The variety of tenses could be used to have a more dramatic effect on the readers.
The layouts of the two newspapers are quite different.
''The Guardian'' is a large paper and has room for plenty of writing. There is approximately between 1,500 and 2,000 words on the front page. This immediately suggests that the people who buy this paper are keen to read and have time to read the news in detail.
The main story is set so that it fills the top half of the paper. The headline is small and bold, so it still stands out. As it only takes roughly less than 10% of the page, it suggests that the readers are more interested in the story's detail.
'The Guardian' has a few different straplines. One is at the top, which is likely, to be read first, suggesting that its readers' are interested in world history. The main strapline is larger and directly under the newspapers name. There are two photographs and one picture of the magazine that is included. One photograph is of Kevin Costner, the "All-American peacenik", who is giving a political point of view, and the other is of Polly Toynbee who has a different point of view on "sneerers". This suggests that the readers of 'The Guardian' are interested in reading about other points of view as well as political.
'The Daily Mail' uses the whole of the front page to focus on the 'foot and mouth' crisis. There is a large strapline at the top including a photograph of lambs. This photograph will attract attention, as it is an emotional photograph. The lambs are newborn, but are likely to be killed.
There is a larger picture in the bottom-left corner of 'The Daily Mail' of the farmer the newspaper is focusing its story on. The photographs are laid out like this because when a person reads they go from top to bottom and from left to right automatically.
The photograph in 'The Guardian' is in the middle of the article. It is posed as the sheep and lambs, farmer and sheepdog are all looking at the camera. This makes the photograph more emotional along with the caption;
"Triplet lambs born yesterday on a farm Longtown in Cumbria. Though healthy, they are destined to be culled under the Government's new action plan."
Emotive language is used and there is contrast between lambs being born and lambs being killed. This makes the reader feel pity for the sheep as even though they are healthy, they are going to be killed and the readers are unable to do anything about it. This caption also criticises the Government's new plan because it is saying that it is because of them that the healthy animals are being killed.
The caption for the photograph on 'The Daily Mail' is also emotional;
"Tears of grief and anger: Farmer Leyland Branfield yesterday"
This is not as emotional as 'The Guardian' because it is a photograph of the farmer. The photographs of the lambs are more emotional. However, along with the photograph it does come across to the reader as emotional.
The by-line of 'The Guardian' is very small and does not seem to be of much importance;
"Paul Brown
Environment correspondent."
The name of the reporter is in bold with his job in fine text. "Environment correspondent" is mentioned in the by-line to show the readers that he has background knowledge and can write a story that he knows about. This is important to the readers as they will know that they are reading facts about the 'foot and mouth' disease.
In 'The Daily Mail', the by-line is quite different;
"By Robert Hardman on Dartmoor"
There is a photograph of the reporter, which makes it seem personal. The by-line does not say what his job is, but says where he is. This shows the readers that the reporter is explaining what he sees and what he feels.
There is an advertisement in 'The Guardian' in the bottom-left corner. It is tall and is about a trip to Copenhagen. This is not really the place people would go for a holiday, so this suggests that, because stereotypically, business people read 'The Guardian', it is a business trip. There is also no information on family tickets or trips for children, so this proves that it is aimed at professional people.
In conclusion, I think that 'The Daily Mail' seems to be more effective at attracting readers. It has larger pictures and headlines which attract the reader if what they see is something they are concerned about. However, 'The Guardian' is also effective at attracting readers as the newspaper focuses on politics and interests people who are concerned about the Government.
Both newspapers are effective in presenting information, although 'The Daily Mail' would probably appeal to people more than 'The Guardian'. There is less writing in 'The Daily Mail' and it is easier to understand.
Sofia Tahir