Comparing the Language and Layout of A Broadsheet Newspaper and Tabloid Newspapers.

Siobhan Mitchell 10A/PK

Comparing the Language and Layout of A Broadsheet

Newspaper and Tabloid Newspapers

I plan to compare a broadsheet newspaper with a tabloid newspaper. I will compare the language, colour, style and layout of newspapers that were bought on the same day. Broadsheets and tabloids are very different newspapers for very different people.

My broadsheet newspaper is The Times and my tabloid newspaper is The Sun. The Times newspaper is twice the size as The Sun. The Times is a serious newspaper, which deals with important global issues. It is designed for older, highly educated, literate people who are of a higher class are who have professional high wage careers. The Sun is a lively newspaper, which mainly deals with gossip and celebrities. The Sun aims for younger people who take an interest in voyeurism and want something easy to read. The people who read The Sun are probably less educated than people who read The Times.

The format of a broadsheet and tabloid is very different and one basic example of this is that the broadsheet is a lot bigger than a tabloid. The front pages are different. The Sun has a picture of Amanda Holden, who is a celebrity, which takes up half of the page and the headline box, which relates to the article on Amanda Holden, takes up a quarter of the page. On the front page of The Times there is quite a big photo, however it is not as big as the one on the front page of The Sun. The photo is of an ordinary boy, who is not famous, floating on water. The front pages of the newspapers alone indicates that The Sun concentrates more on celebrities and gossip whereas as The Times doesn’t. There are lots of headlines on the front page of The Times but They are not big and just state what is in article. The headlines are factual and objective and do not give an opinion. For example “Pressure grows on Zimbabwe cricket links.” The Sun’s headlines gives an opinion and using emotive words to encourage the readers to have this opinion, for example “Amanda’s Cheeky Claim. ‘Can’t you see I'm grieving for Les?’” The Sun is more colourful than The Times and I think that colour is very significant in a tabloid as it is eye-catching and will attract buyers. The Times isn’t attractive because it has an old contemporary look with little colour. On The Sun newspaper, ‘Sun’ is written with white writing on a red background, which adds to the attraction. On The Times newspapers, ‘The Times’ is written with a black, old English style font on the plain white background, which has probably become a tradition for readers. Between ‘The’ and ‘Times’ is an unusual picture of a horse and unicorn and in the picture, there is banner with the words ‘Dieu et mon droit’ which is French for ‘God and my right’. When you look at this, it gives the impression that the newspaper is important and upper class and makes you think that high society families would read it. There are more photos on the front page of the Sun than the Times. In general there are more photos in The Sun because there are a few photos and pictures for most articles which I think make it easier to read because it breaks up the text. The Times has many articles without pictures or photos. The Times usually has an advert space on the bottom of the front page and boast that is ‘newspaper of the year’ under the price.

The Sun is a more widely read newspaper than The Times. I think this is because most people find the language in The Sun easier to read because of the informal language and the content is easier to digest. The Sun aims at younger people and younger readers would like The Sun because the content is easy to digest and this would enable them to have a quick read. Also in The Sun there is mainly gossip and stories for which there is a public demand.

“Fashion queen Stella McCartney is to wed style mag boss Alasadhair Willis in ...

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“Fashion queen Stella McCartney is to wed style mag boss Alasadhair Willis in a secret ceremony. Sir Paul McCartney’s daughter has booked guest on to a ferry to Ireland for the bash.” (The Sun)

Important issues in the Sun take up a very small amount of space and are usually on page two. Other important issues were found on page four and also took up little space. The Times has complex language and multi-syllabic words in so the reading age will be much higher than in the Sun. The Times has higher density of text compared with The Sun.

“Gregarious MPs used to the conviviality of evening at the House of Commons are viewing the arrival of a ‘working day’ regime with dread. They fear a consequent demise of traditional dining clubs.” (The Times)

The Times would take a longer time to read because the readers will have to think about the articles more. Its main purpose is to inform whereas The Sun’s main purpose is to entertain. The Sun also tries to persuade its reader. It uses lots of emotive language and is a biased paper, which has opinion about most of the articles.

I have chosen an article to compare from both newspapers. The article is about the funeral of Myra Hindley. Myra Hindley is famous for the Moors Murders, which happened nearly 40 years ago. The funeral was a quiet affair but I will look at how the two newspaper interpret the affair and how they write the article which shows how they want they readers to think and feel about the funeral.

A good heading is very important because the first thing a reader looks at is the heading. It should be catchy, short and sharp. It should also give us a taste of the story so we know what it’s about. Tabloids usually use puns or play around with words although they haven’t in this article. I think they haven't in this article because the issue is too serious. The Sun for this article used the heading “Myra Gets the Funeral Her Child Victims were denied”. I think for this article, this is a good heading because it tells us what the story is about. It’s good that The Sun hasn’t tried to use a pun because the issue is too serious and would offend people. Although the headline isn't short or catchy, it is still sharp and very effective. The heading is in a big, bold and black font, which immediately stands out from the rest of the page, and this is good for catching a person’s eye for the article. Unfortunately this article does not have a subheading probably because it is not the main story. The main story, which would have had a subheading, would is about celebrities. A subheading is there to break down text and make it easier to understand. This article is already understood by the main heading, so there is no need for a subheading. In The Times the heading is also bold and is black on a white background. The size of the font is 16 and it is titled ‘Police guard for 'dignified' funeral of Myra Hindley’.

In The Sun there is five photos. One is of the author of the article, one is of the coffin being carried by the undertakers, one is of her solicitor, one is of the priest and one is of Myra Hindley herself when she committed the Moors Murders. The title and the photos take up about three-quarters of the page while the rest of the page full of small font text. The layout is questionable to me because a lot of space is wasted through the photos. They could have made the photos smaller and they could have written more and a bit bigger because there is not a lot of writing about the actual story and the writing is very small. They have made the writing small to fit in more photos. In The Times there is a lot of text in the article about the story and there are two long columns and three short columns. The font is a bit bigger because there is fewer photos so the Times is easier to read than the Sun.

In The Sun, the vocabulary is very simple but gruesome e.g. ‘left to rot in grim and shallow graves ’. The language is informal and easy to understand. The Sun obviously feels very strongly about the Myra Hindley issue as uses emotive words and very strong descriptive words and sentences in a negative manner. ‘Myra was laid to rest in the compassionate manner than her and Ian Brady denied their victims’. Another example of this is saying that her coffin was ‘cheap’ and saying that the funeral only cost £340 was unnecessary information. They implied that she had no friends when the wrote ‘The “friends” included solicitor Andrew McCooey, Edward Fitzgerald QC and freedom campaigner Trisha Forrestor.’ The way in which The Sun writes this article is scandalous, gossipy and seems to be a way in which they could vent their feelings about the issue. Rather than informing the reader of what actually happened, which was a just quiet funeral, they twisted the information to suit them. The Times wrote the article in a totally different manner. They wrote about what actually happened. They remained neutral and did not give an opinion. The article was factual and objective. The Sun uses a lot of ‘chatty’ language and they also use a lot of slang while The Times uses Standard English and has well-structured columns. There was much more detail in The Times while The Sun had a lot of irrelevant text. . The Sun also has more slang because its target audience uses slang a lot while the Times’ audience use Standard English. The Times was well constructed. A broadsheet reader will have a better understanding of the story than a tabloid reader will, although a tabloid reader will get better photographs and more gossip about the story because tabloids like gossiping while broadsheets are very serious.

In my opinion The Times is a better paper to read because it gives readers different dimensions to the story while The Sun tells the viewers what it thinks. Tabloid readers just want to know the story flat out, while broadsheet readers want to know about the story from every angle. The best newspaper for people who want proper news is The Times. The news is genuine facts. This is aimed at highly educated, literate, high wage earners who take an interest in global news. The Sun and tabloids in general is best for entertainment and to catch up with the latest gossip on celebrities. This is aimed at younger people who want something quick and easy to read.