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‘The Daily Mirror’ has changed over time, when it was first published it was aimed at women. The first edition was made small so that it could be easily carried around in a women’s handbag. ‘The Daily Mirror’ was given its name because the word Mirror suggests that the newspaper shows us what’s happening in the world, it reflects society and the person reading the newspaper. The font of the Masthead is very plain and .. font as it is easy to read. The first edition cost 1p; the newspaper was a good price. At that time technology was not developed and it was quite poor, the newspapers were done on a printing press, so each letter was placed individually on to the press. The writers used no pictures, no colour and the front page was all adverts. The main adverts were for clothes and jewellery; this is because the target audience was women. The language used in the adverts is very formal. Such as ‘Exquisite Design at prices Exceptionally Advantageous’ this shows that the newspaper was targeted at posh/rich women, who could buy the products adverted.
Sud-heading
From the ‘Titanic’ front page we can see that technology has moved on and the target audience has changed; the newspaper is now not only for women, it is for men as too. Another change is that the main headline is on the front page with a big picture to go with the headline. The newspaper became more self-promoting; this is shown by their slogan saying ‘The morning journal with the second largest net sale’. The price is reduced; this is to get more buyers. In the headline, emotive language is used e.g. ‘disaster’, ‘worlds largest’ and ‘collides’. The headline is small in size compared to today’s headlines, but its long because there are eighteen words used, this shows us that the headline is important and has lots of detail. The headline is formal and there is no elision (no missing words), full sentences are used. There is only one picture used to illustrate the story, it’s a picture of the Titanic on the front page and it’s very large, this reflects the scale of the event and it tells us that it was a huge disaster. The large picture makes the newspaper eye caching, noticeable and unique which makes this newspaper stand out. This news made the front page, because it’s a British ship and it’s near home. At the bottom below the picture there is a two column simplified articles of the event, this gives information as to what happened. The text is dramatic, powerful, emotive, but formal language is used. In the text the word ‘wireless’ is used, this shows that they had a radio, which is important, because they had means of communication, but the Titanic still sunk.
Sub-heading
More recent tabloids have advanced and changed from the past tabloids. One change I noticed was that ‘The Daily Mirror’ has become the ‘Welsh Daily Mirror’, which has a sense of identity because the 'Welsh Daily Mirror’ appeals to people in Wales. Its Masthead is in a different font compared to the past ‘Daily Mirror’, it is bolder and it is less formal. I also noticed that this Masthead is set out in a more modern way. The key word in the Masthead is ‘Mirror’ the ‘M’ of the ‘Mirror’ is in very large font, but the other letters are in smaller font and the rest of the Masthead ‘Welsh Daily’ which is on top of the word ‘Mirror’ is in even smaller font. Also the newspapers price has gone up to 32p, but 32p is still cheap and all the people in all the classes A-E would be able to afford it. Their self-promoting slogan has become shorter and snapper ‘Newspaper of the year’. Now the ‘Welsh Daily Mirror’ has a website which suggests that the newspaper editors have used advanced technology to promote their newspaper, so now you can read ‘Welsh Daily Mirror’ news on the Internet.
The newspaper writers still use the same type of story on the front page, a disaster story, this is because the news is very important and needs to be on the front page to attract the readers attention.
The story is about the space shuttle ‘Columbia’ that exploded into pieces and all the crew on board where killed. On the front page there are three different pictures used and they are all related to the ‘Columbia’ space shuttle disaster, but in the past tabloid only one picture was used.
At the top right hand corner of the newspaper is a picture of the space shuttle and underneath the picture it says ’Columbia: the lost mission’ this is a dramatic sentence, it sounds film-like. This sentence is not the main headline, but it is a mini headline within the main headline. The actual headline is at the bottom of the newspaper, it is ‘Their dream must not die’ this headline is accompanied with a picture of the astronauts in their spacesuit. The picture is ironic because the astronauts look happy and exited and they are looking and waving directly at the audience, this is done so that we can see who the headline is talking about, but the picture also looks like they are waving their last goodbye, as if they knew they were going to die. Under the picture of astronauts the word ‘victims’ is used, this makes us think it was a crime case and that the astronauts were murdered. The headline ‘Their dream must not die’ is short and snappy, unlike past tabloids headings used eighteen words. The word ‘their’ makes it more realistic and heart wrenching. ‘Dream’ is used which links with the astronauts childhood ambition. Their dream to be astronauts came true and they tragically died, but ‘Their dream must not die’. Below the headline is a jump line, which tells us the pages containing the story, which are ‘pages 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10’ has the connotations of the shuttle countdown. The jump line also shows us that a lot of the paper is dedicated to the story, this shows how important the story is and this is why it’ on the front page.
The third and largest picture on the front cover is a close up cropped picture of a helmet of one of the astronauts. The astronauts have died and all that’s left to remind us of the tragic accident is the helmet, which is a symbol of hope, a symbol that tells us that life must go on. The picture of the helmet also connects with the main headline, which is ‘Their dream must not die’ although they have died the helmet has stayed, which is a symbol of their dream which must not and has not died. The picture has been enlarged so that it takes up the entire front page, with all of the surroundings cut off and the picture is in full colour. This is done to attract buyers, because there is a lot of competition between newspapers. It’s a human-interest story, which is extremely emotional.
Under the picture of the helmet a phrase describing what the picture is ‘POIGNANT: A helmet from the shuttle lies on the ground yesterday’, Poignant means painfully sharp, deeply moving, arousing sympathy. The rest of the phrase is emotional and attracts an audience.
If we look at the first edition of ‘The Daily Mirror’ and at one of the latest editions we can straight away see that there is a big difference between them. The price has changed from 1p to 32p, the target audience changed from the newspaper being just for women to both males and females. Also as technology has advanced it has had a big influence on newspapers in many ways. The newspaper layout, colour, pictures and even websites have been set up for many newspapers giving them a wider range of audience.
These days’ tabloids seem to have articles on celebrities, fashion, sport and weather. Many newspapers also contain adverts.
By doing my research at home, I found a ‘Daily Mirror’ newspaper on its 100th birthday and this newspaper contained an article showing 100 front pages of their newspaper from their 1st edition to one of their latest editions, showing us a gradual change in the front-page layout.
