When looking at the papers, you can immediately see that there is a lot more text on the broadsheet containing several stories, whereas with a tabloid there are generally one main stories and the remaining space is taken up by “fill stories”. These Fill stories are generally humorous and interesting and I think this is why a tabloid newspaper is aimed at a much younger audience possible teenager upwards, whereas I would say that broadsheets are suitable for middle aged to older people. One other feature I noticed on the broadsheet newspaper was that they usually have two or three adverts on the front page. They do not have this on tabloids as they are a much smaller paper and do not have enough room!
With broadsheets, referring to the independent, there are three plugs along the top of the newspaper. Plugs are small sentences giving information as to what is inside the newspaper. Although tabloid’s still have a plug it is usually just one. With the sun, there is one in the top right hand corner in a star shape which to me is slightly informal and does not make the paper visually look important.
Tabloids in general, have the name of the paper – the masthead at the very top of the paper in line with plug. Broadsheets however have the plugs in neat, rectangular boxes all in line at the very top of the paper and the masthead below. The size of the masthead varies between different newspapers but the tabloid mastheads are noticeably larger than broadsheets. Broadsheets also look more formal as they have captions under the photos which help to anchor the meaning of the photo. The layout of the broadsheet newspapers are much more formal and important looking whereas the tabloid is not.
With tabloid and broadsheet newspapers, there are also some similarities. They both have a price and date written at the top of each paper and both have several images on the front however the broadsheet image is much larger! The tabloid and broadsheets both have headlines, both have straplines, both have jumplines and both have by lines. These are the usual features of a newspaper and after all they are both delivering news to the world.
Although both newspapers are telling stories which have recently happened, they tell them in a very different way. Both uses brevity however the tabloid does a lot more as there are not huge amounts of space to fill. Broadsheets generally use passive sentences as this is more complicated which appeals to the older generations and middle class people. Tabloids are usually quite basic in their sentence structures and deliver news in a much more understandable way for younger people. Broadsheets are a lot more formal when using someone’s name such as Mr Howard Johnson whereas tabloids would possibly say Johnson or Howard. Broadsheet newspapers also go into a lot more detail regarding politics and other governmental issues. This is because it is a formal paper which the target audience is generally middle aged people.
Overall, these two types of newspapers are very different in their layout as well as their language. The broadsheet is a lot more formal and uses syllabic and complicated vocabulary whereas the tabloid is much sensationalised and brevity is used throughout articles. Although both papers generally have the same stories in, they are told in very different ways. Broadsheets are formally told whereas tabloids are informal and in some cases, slang words are used. Because of this, the target audience is different too. Tabloids are for younger people possibly aged between 16-40 whereas broadsheets are generally for 40+.
