- ‘The Guardian’ is a broadsheet newspaper, and costs reasonably more than ‘News of the World’ which is a tabloid newspaper.
- ‘The Guardian’s’ desired readers are of both genders and are presumably very wealthy with steady high class jobs. They have a passion for culture and economy, and government activity is significant to them. ‘News of the World’ is aimed at working and lower class men who hold a job or are unemployed. They are interested in sports, motors and pornography.
- ‘The Guardian’ incorporates subject matter like politics, crime, health and education, which are of interest to the upper classes. However, tabloid newspapers do not base any articles on these types of topics. The material in ‘News of the World’ is centred on celebrity gossip, crime and other extraneous articles.
- The pictures in the broadsheet newspaper consist of politicians, members of the royal family, journalists, authors and sportsmen/women. The pictures are mundane and hold no sex appeal. Pictures are a great importance in tabloid newspapers. The photos used in ‘News of the World’ are of exposed bodies of women, glamorous celebrities and sportsmen - all placed largely on the first few pages to be more eye-catching.
- The layout of ‘The Guardian’ is plain and remote. The front page is printed in black and white with no large subheadings, compelling images or streams of colour. Broadsheets are constructed formally, and the articles are written in small font in Standard English dialect. This differs immensely from the layout of ‘News of the World’. ‘News of the World’s’ front page is bold, with use of colours like red which seem to jump out of the white background. The title and subtitles are written in bold and are most commonly typed in capitals. Written pieces are laid out so they are appealing to the reader, and usually have a large picture in the centre of the page. The articles, unlike those in broadsheets, are written in a colloquial style and contain slang and informal English. Tabloid newspapers at whole spend a lot more time focusing on the overall appearance of their newspaper than broadsheets do.
After establishing the main discrepancies between tabloids and broadsheets, I proceeded to study two articles which include women as the direct subject.
I found my first article in ‘The Times’ broadsheet newspaper. The article concentrates on what women have achieved recently, in particular, a Member of Parliament’s wife Sarah Brown. Also, the article explains that women are not the inferior gender, but are just as smart and successful as men.
The article shares a page with a caricature of John Prescott and Gordon Brown, describing them as ‘useless, fat and irrelevant’. This cartoon has an immediate effect on the engagingness of the article below. The insulting drawing of two of the most powerful men in Parliament is sure to intrigue the reader. They will read on to find out the significance the caricature has to the article.
The article is titled ‘Suddenly wife power looks quite different’. This title is a suggestion the author has made and from a male perspective can be seen as boasting. However, the article goes on to praise women in Parliament for the way they present them selves and for what they have accomplished. It states that women can be beautiful and intelligent, not just one or the other. The article links to the cartoon because, as men in power continue to make faults, (which are becoming more apparent), women in power are rapidly gaining more trust and recognition by doing their jobs correctly.
In the centre of the article the author has put a quote which is an unusual presentational device for a broadsheet to use. The quote reads ‘picking out a lemon coat from Topshop now may not be enough’. The author is urging women to be interested in more than just fashion and glamour, and to reach further to not be part of the stereotype.
The only picture on the page besides the caricature is a photo of the author. She is pictured suited to look professional, and with a smile on her face. The picture is small, and has been placed at the beginning of the article.
My second article is from ‘The Sun’ tabloid newspaper. The article talks about the breast sizes of women in the United Kingdom increasing. The article does not talk about any particular woman, just women as a whole and their bodies.
The article is diminutive, but the entire piece is spread across two pages.
The article is titled ‘Brit girls’ boobs are biggest’. The title has been shortened and there is a repetition of the letter ‘B’. All this helps to grab the reader’s attention and sensationalises the fact. This title is a boast from British males. They appear to be proud that ‘their girls’ have the largest breasts. The author refers to a woman’s breasts as boobs, which is a word of slang. This is a form of colloquial language and engages the reader the newspaper is aimed at. This also helps members of the public to pick out their preferred style of newspaper.
The writer has already included a presentational device just in the article’s title. In the article, the author refers to several known celebrities such as Kelly Brooke, (voted sexiest woman in the world). By making pointers like this, men are warped into believing British girls are beginning to look just as good, which of course is untrue. Included in the article are polls and statistics to prove that women in Britain do in fact have the largest breasts.
The pictures take up the majority of the two pages and are of glamour models and celebrities either in lingerie or wearing absolutely nothing. The article relies purely on sex appeal to attract men to it and to gain more attention.
Conclusion.
After looking at both articles I was able to come to a conclusion about how each newspaper portrays women. Broadsheets consider women’s points of view and include articles that are written for and/or about women. Women are respected just as highly in broadsheets as men. They are aware that women earn just as much, are just as successful and just as intelligent. Pictures in broadsheets are modest and never reveal more than a woman’s face. Views from broadsheet newspapers are unbiased, and do not have a set stereotype. I believe all women should be seen in this way as beauty is truly skin deep.
Tabloids are disrespectful towards women, and take away their dignity. The authors of tabloids present women as sex slaves and as nothing more than an agile body. They discriminate women and what they can achieve and diminish them as a gender. The opinion someone reading a tabloid newspaper would differ extraordinarily to one of somebody reading a broadsheet. Tabloids describe and display women as the ‘inferior gender’.
I believe that broadsheets are the better source when describing women and their lives. Tabloid newspapers are biased, and give millions of men across the world the idea that it’s okay to treat women with sacrilege.
However, I believe women allowing themselves to be pictured in newspapers this way are as much to blame as the newspaper itself. They cast a stereotype of women across the globe which will affect the entire gender.
