The front page of a broadsheet usually contains many different headlines, multiple stories and a strapline at both the top and bottom of the page. The advertising also differs; the front page of the Telegraph is advertising insurance for HIGH VALUE homes, the likes of which would belong to a professional worker who has a high income.
The format of the Daily Telegraph front page follows the formula of broadsheet audience attraction as described above. It has four different stories that include political and general interest. The headlines are rather bland and are not designed to attract the attention of the average passer by, but more that of someone who has an interest in the subject. It doesn’t use rhymes, exclamations or assonance, which may attract or shock someone at first glance.
The layout of the Telegraph is also characteristic of a broadsheet. It has a strapline at both the top and bottom of the page. There is one picture on the page, which the stories are all arranged around.
(Bottom strap line)
(Part of the top strap line)
How are the stories prioritised and how do they use pictures and headlines?
The prioritisation of stories on the front page are arranged in order to attract the widest audience:
A story about equal rights for woman is focused in the centre of the page underneath a large photo. This was placed to attract a female audience. The strapline also contains some headlines to attract them such as ‘London Fashion Week’, ‘Richard Eyre’s explosive diaries: The Queen and Mary Archers photographs are located underneath this headline in order to give people a taster of what the story is about.
The largest headline is a political story about Labours big expenses. A drop cap then contains information about the public and how there money is being wasted. This is very good for attracting all sorts of audiences as anyone can relate to it.
This story leads directly on to another political one. This has not got such a large headline so the editor is relying on people’s interest in the above story to lead them straight onto this one.
At the bottom of the page is a wob, this is in a totally different font from the rest of the paper and is in bold to attract attention to it.
How is the news presented in one of the front-page stories?
‘Top woman scientist attacks ‘sniping’ males’
This story is about Susan Greenfield, one of Britain’s most well known female scientists. It is immediately evident that the paper has taken her side and is explaining how men should not dominate the scientific frontier. This will immediately attract the attention of other woman who have either experienced this treatment or simply don’t agree with it.
It also has the largest picture on the page, which means that people are going to want to know what it is all about. This means that it will also attract male readers who have picked up the paper and seen the picture.
It uses a lot of quotes from Susan herself, which provides an almost emotive style to it. This will make people want to read on to see why she is saying these things.
Apart from this it uses a rather formal vocabulary to keep it sounding serious so that people believe what they are saying. It uses words such as emphatic and dominated, both of which provide a very emotive and moving story. They show that it is a subject worth reading about and that is should not be taken lightly.
How does the front page of the Telegraph help it succeed in appealing to its audience? Is there any possible bias?
The front page will be successful in appealing to its many audiences as it has a collection of stories that span across a lot of different subjects. It contains sport, politics, entertainment and national news.
Because of this vast amount of subject matter, unlike a tabloid paper, it will appeal to many different audiences.
There is however, definitely some evidence of bias. In all the stories were there are two sides; they have chosen to be bias towards one instead of staying neutrally inclined.
For example, in the Susan Greenfield piece, they make no attempt to say that she may be wrong or may be over reacting to it. They stay firmly with the belief that she is in the right and the ‘anonymous male scientists’ are wrong in what they are doing to her.
By: Ben Ingram
10 R
Dr. Pieters
