With the data collected, I shall draw graphs to represent them. With headline area, as it entails percentages, a continuous scale, a histogram will be drawn and the frequency density calculated. With word and sentence length, it entails discreet data as it can be counted, a cumulative frequency graph will be drawn and the median and inter-quartile ranges calculated. I will also find the mean average and standard deviation through the use of a calculator. The standard deviation measures how far each item differs from the mean; it is the most satisfactory measure of dispersion, since it makes use of all the scores in the distribution.
I will be comparing The Independent and Daily Mail newspapers, both issued on Wednesday, 19th February. I expect The Independent to have longer words and sentences as well as smaller percentage on headline area then the Daily Mail.
Word length
The Daily Mail: every 5th word on all 3 articles sampled.
= 4.61 = 2.49
Word length
The Independent: every 5th word on all 3 articles sampled.
= 4.76 = 2.58
Comparison of results
As there is not a big difference between the word length of both newspapers, I shall draw a frequency diagram. A bar graph will be sketched to show the frequency of each newspaper’s word length using the total frequency of all 3 article’s data from each newspaper.
Sentence length
Grouped frequency tables:
Cumulative frequency is found by adding each frequency to each other, it is the running total of the frequency.
The mid point is found through the class width. We can only estimate the mean by using the mid point as an estimate of how many words there are in one sentence of the Daily Mail or The Independent.
The Daily Mail: the number of words in every sentence that make up the 3 articles sampled.
The Independent: the number of words in every sentence that makes up the 3 articles sampled.
Firstly, I will draw a cumulative frequency graph that accumulates the frequencies. I can use this to estimate the median as well as the Inter-quartile ranges. Using the same information, I will draw a frequency polygon by plotting the mid-point against the frequency.
Area and percentage area of headlines
When calculating the area of the headline, I will measure 9 headlines per paper. One headline per page for the first three pages of both news papers as well as the first three pages of the finance and sport sections. I shall ignore pages made up entirely of adverts or article word text, and simply use the next page as an example. The pages that share a headline like so:
When the area of the headline has been calculated, I shall divide it by 2 so that the 2 pages will share the same headline area and its percentage, though counting each page singularly. To calculate the percentage of the headline area: (headline area ÷ page area) x 100%.
The Daily Mail:
Total area of page = 985.5 cm²
986 cm²
100% = 986 cm²
There is a replacement page number for the page 76 situated in the finance section as it only contained share prices and there were no obvious headlines; I therefeore, ignored it and used the next pgae for data.
The Independent:
Total area of page = 1880cm²
100% = 1880cm²
Frequency tables: Headline area
The Daily Mail
Actual area:
Percentage area:
Frequency tables: Headline area
The Independent
Actual area:
Percentage area:
I will draw 2 histograms, one for actual area and one for percentage area of both newspapers and find the median for each.
Interpretations and conclusions of graphs and calculations.
Word length:
Systematic sampling every 5th word in 3 differently orientated articles of each paper collected data. The Independent had an average of 4.76 letters per word whereas the Daily Mail had 4.61 letters per word; a very small difference of 0.15 letters where the Independent had slightly longer words. The standard deviation of both papers also only have a small difference of 0.09 This gives no real indication to whether the broad sheet newspaper is easier to read than the tabloid. Though I have no evidence to suggest that another method of sampling could have led to more significant results, I could have counted every word length of the words in the first 2 or 3 sentences of every page. This method may have given a broader view of all articles in each newspaper; as most people consider broad sheets to deal with more difficult matters than tabloids, and that difficulty entails more concentration and so longer, complicated wording, the data obtained could have provided a different set of results.
Sentence length:
The results from the data obtained for this factor agree with my hypothesis.
The Independent mean = 26.51 standard deviation = 11.08
Daily Mail mean = 20.34 standard deviation = 9.74
The Independent has an average of 27 words per sentence compared to only 20 words per sentence for the Daily Mail. The Independent has an average sentence length of over 5 words more per sentence than the Daily Mail. The spread, measured by the standard deviation was larger for the Independent than the Daily Mail.
The Independent: mean + standard deviation
- + 11.08
-
37.59
Daily Mail: mean + standard deviation
20.34 + 9.74
-
30.08
The cumulative frequency graph also shows a larger sentence length for The Independent compared to the Daily Mail through the median and Inter quartile range of both papers.
The Independent median = 26.3 Inter quartile range = 14.9
Daily Mail median = 19.5 Inter quartile range = 14
The median and Inter quartile ranges of The Independent are both larger than those of the Daily Mail, supporting the mean and spread of The Independent.
The frequency polygon also maintains my hypothesis, as the line representing The Independent is significantly higher at the end of the x-axis, where the class widths represent the longer sentences.
Headline area:
The Independent: actual area mean = 89.54cm² standard deviation = 30.85
The Independent: % area mean = 4.77cm² standard deviation = 1.65
Daily Mail: actual area mean = 116.4cm² standard deviation = 33.67
Daily Mail: % area mean = 11.81cm² standard deviation = 3.43
From both the actual area and percentage area, it is obvious that the Daily Mail dedicates more of its page area to attention grabbing headlines than actual article text that informs. The histograms show this with the absence of The Independent data on certain scales of area.
From the histogram, we can find the probability of Headlines making certain proportions of the page as the area of each rectangle on the histogram relates to frequency.
Probability (Event) = frequency of event ÷ total frequencies.
Actual area
Probability = area of event rectangle ÷ total area
The Independent:
Probability (area between 90cm² and 150cm²)
= 5
Probability (> 120cm²) = 1 – 5 = 1
Daily Mail:
Probability (area between 90cm² and 150cm²)
= 2
Probability (> 120 cm²) = 1 – 2 = 2
These examples also show that the Daily Mail takes up more headline space.
My prediction was correct, my conclusion of all results support that The Independent uses more complicated language which requires more concentration which encourages difficulty whereas the Daily Mail’s page area is made up of more headlines than The Independent, suggesting that it attracts your attention to an attractive headline leading to read the less detailed article with interest. As the sentence length is smaller, it encourages easier reading and the reader continues read the article.
However, the conclusion is based on a very small sample of only 2 examples of braod sheet and tabloid newspapers. If more time was permitted, a wider investigation could have been performed with more examples of newspapers, investigating the size of photographs or pictures and seeing if there was any correlation between the size of pictures and sentence length etc.
