I then measured how big the paper was. The local paper and the quality tabloid were 1140cm². The tabloid was 1110cm² and the broadsheet was 2146cm².
The results of my pilot study show me that the quality tabloid is the hardest to read, then the local paper is second hardest to read, followed by the broadsheet and the tabloid is the easiest to read. This is because the quality tabloid has on average more words in a sentence than the rest of the newspapers. The broadsheet is the biggest paper and the most expensive but its headlines are only the second largest. The quality tabloid and the local paper are both the same size but the local paper is 10p more expensive than the quality tabloid and is the second most expensive out of all the papers. The quality tabloid is the cheapest out of all the papers. The quality tabloid has the biggest headline out of all the papers and the local paper has the smallest headline. The tabloid is 5p more expensive than the quality tabloid, which makes it the second cheapest and it has the second smallest headline.
There are quite a few different sections in a newspaper. These sections are: -
- News
- Sport
- Gossip/Showbiz
- Politics
- Notices
- TV Listings
- Jobs
- Adverts
- Finance
- Special Interest Stories
- Horoscopes
- Pictures
I sorted the paper into four large categories because there were so many different categories that it would make the smaller categories insignificant: -
I did not pick TV Listings because they are the same in every newspaper so it is pointless comparing them. I included politics, notices, jobs, adverts, finance, special interest stories, horoscopes and pictures in the ‘Other’ section because they are all so small by themselves that the results from them would not be any good.
Then I counted how many pages there was for each section. Next, I found what percentage of the whole paper each section was by dividing the amount of pages in the section by the amount of pages in the newspaper and then multiplying the answer by one hundred.
Section Percentage = Amount of pages in the section
Amount of pages in newspaper
QUALITY TABLOID
News Section= 19 pages which is 16% of the whole paper
Sport Section = 10 pages which is 31% of the whole paper
Gossip Section = 15 pages which is 25% of the whole paper
Other Section = 17 pages which is 28% of the whole paper
LOCAL PAPER
News Section = 13 pages which is 33% of the whole paper
Sport Section = 3 pages which is 8% of the whole paper
Gossip Section = 16 pages which is 41% of the whole paper
Other Section = 7 pages which is 18% of the whole paper
TABLOID
News Section = 5 pages which is 6% of the whole paper
Sport Section = 30 pages which is 34% of the whole paper
Gossip Section = 9 pages which is 10% of the whole paper
Other Section = 43 pages which is 49% of the whole paper
BROADSHEET
News Section = 72 pages which is 43% of the whole paper
Sport Section = 28 pages which is 17% of the whole paper
Gossip Section = 18 pages which is 11% of the whole paper
Other Section = 50 pages which is 30% of the whole paper
After that, I found how many sentences were in the whole paper by counting the amount of sentences on one page and multiplying that number by the amount of pages in the newspaper. I included headlines and picture captions. I counted numbers, hyphenated words and abbreviations as one word.
QUALITY TABLOID
Amount of sentences in the newspaper = amount of sentences on one page X the amount of pages in the newspaper
Amount of sentences in the newspaper = 43 x 61
= 2623
LOCAL PAPER
Amount of sentences in the newspaper = amount of sentences on one page X the amount of pages in the newspaper
Amount of sentences in the newspaper =1521
TABLOID
Amount of sentences in the newspaper = amount of sentences on one page X the amount of pages in the newspaper
Amount of sentences in the newspaper =3045
BROADSHEET
Amount of sentences in the newspaper = amount of sentences on one page X the amount of pages in the newspaper
Amount of sentences in the newspaper =16800
Then I found 10% of the total amount of sentences in the paper by diving the total amount of sentences in the paper by one hundred then multiplying that number by ten. Except in the case of the broadsheet where my sample had to be 2% instead of 10% because 10% was too big for me to count.
- Quality Tabloid = 2623/100 = 26.23 x 10 = 262.3 Sentences
- Tabloid = 3045/100 = 30.45 x 10 =304.5 Sentences
- Broadsheet = 16800/100 = 168.00 x 2 = 336 Sentences
- Local Paper = 1521/100 = 15.21 x 10 = 152.1 Sentences
Next, I found how many sentences I would have to count for each section in each paper by dividing the amount of sentences in the paper by one hundred and then multiplying that number by the amount of percent that each section is. I rounded the amount of sentences up or down depending on whether the number after the point (The first decimal place) was above or below five.
QUALITY TABLOID
News = 262
100
Sport = 262
100
Gossip = 262
100
Other = 262
100
LOCAL PAPER
News = 152
100
Sport = 152
100
Gossip = 152
100
Other = 152
100
TABLOID
News = 305
100
Sport = 305
100
Gossip = 305
100
Other = 305
100
BROADSHEET
News = 152
100
Sport = 152
100
Gossip = 152
100
Other = 152
100
I counted the amount of words in a certain amount of sentences (The amount stated above) for each part of each paper and kept a frequency chart. To count the sentences I used Stratified Sampling. I counted the words in one sentence and then counted five sentences and counted the sixth one. I repeated this until I counted the right amount of sentences.
QUALITY TABLOID
TABLOID
LOCAL PAPER
BROADSHEET
Then I did stem and leaf diagrams for each section of each paper. I also worked out the Mean, Median, Mode, Upper Quartile, Lower Quartile and the Inter Quartile Range. I rounded the answers up or down depending on whether or not the number after the point (The first decimal place) was above five. I worked these out using the formulae: -
Mean = All the numbers added together
The amount/quantity of the numbers
Median = Put the numbers in order (Lowest Number to the Highest Number). The mean is the number in the middle.
Mode = the most common number.
Lower Quartile = Put the numbers in order (Lowest Number to the Highest Number). The Lower Quartile is the number halfway in-between the first number and the median.
Upper Quartile = Put the numbers in order (Lowest Number to the Highest Number). The Upper Quartile is the number halfway in-between the median and the last number.
Inter Quartile Range = Upper Quartile minus the Lower Quartile
Quality Tabloid – Sport
Mean = 19
Median = 18
Mode = 18
Lower Quartile = 13
Upper Quartile = 25
Inter Quartile Range = 12
Standard Deviation = 7.56 (To 2dp)
Local – Sport
Mean = 20
Median = 18
Mode = 14 and 25
Lower Quartile = 14
Upper Quartile = 25
Inter Quartile Range = 11
Standard Deviation = 5.80 (To 2dp)
Tabloid – Sport
Mean = 17
Median = 15
Mode = 10
Lower Quartile = 11
Upper Quartile = 21
Inter Quartile Range = 10
Standard Deviation = 7.44 (To 2dp)
Broadsheet – Sport
Mean = 16
Median = 19
Mode = 15
Lower Quartile = 15
Upper Quartile = 25
Inter Quartile Range = 10
Standard Deviation = 8.39 (To 2dp)
Quality Tabloid – News
Mean = 23
Median = 21
Mode = 19
Lower Quartile = 10
Upper Quartile = 25
Inter Quartile Range = 15
Standard Deviation = 11.13 (To 2dp)
Local – News
Mean = 19
Median = 20
Mode = 19 and 22
Lower Quartile = 15
Upper Quartile = 24
Inter Quartile Range = 9
Standard Deviation = 5.78 (To 2dp)
Tabloid – News
Mean = 17
Median = 18
Mode = 26
Lower Quartile = 12
Upper Quartile = 22
Inter Quartile Range = 10
Standard Deviation = 6.50 (To 2dp)
Broadsheet – News
Mean = 24
Median = 26
Mode = 20, 30 and 35
Lower Quartile = 18
Upper Quartile = 33
Inter Quartile Range = 15
Standard Deviation = 9.81 (To 2dp)
Quality Tabloid – Gossip
Mean = 18
Median = 16
Mode = 15
Lower Quartile = 8
Upper Quartile = 27
Inter Quartile Range = 19
Standard Deviation = 11.85 (To 2dp)
Local – Gossip
Mean = 18
Median = 16
Mode = 16
Lower Quartile = 12
Upper Quartile = 23
Inter Quartile Range = 11
Standard Deviation = 7.32 (To 2dp)
Tabloid – Gossip
Mean = 17
Median = 18
Mode = 26
Lower Quartile = 12
Upper Quartile = 23
Inter Quartile Range = 11
Standard Deviation = 6.50 (To 2dp)
Broadsheet – Gossip
Mean = 17
Median = 15
Mode = 14
Lower Quartile = 14
Upper Quartile = 22
Inter Quartile Range = 8
Standard Deviation = 6.40 (To 2dp)
Quality Tabloid – Other
Mean = 13
Median = 14
Mode = 5
Lower Quartile = 7
Upper Quartile = 20
Inter Quartile Range = 13
Standard Deviation = 7.42 (To 2dp)
Local – Other
Mean = 16
Median = 14
Mode = 10 and 13
Lower Quartile = 11
Upper Quartile = 24
Inter Quartile Range = 13
Standard Deviation = 7.64 (To 2dp)
Tabloid – Other
Mean = 14
Median = 14
Mode = 10
Lower Quartile = 9
Upper Quartile = 21
Inter Quartile Range = 12
Standard Deviation = 9.56 (To 2dp)
Broadsheet – Other
Mean = 20
Median = 22
Mode = 15
Lower Quartile = 15
Upper Quartile = 26
Inter Quartile Range = 11
Standard Deviation = 9.00 (To 2dp)
Then I did stem and leaf diagrams for each paper. I also worked out the Mean, Median, Mode, Upper Quartile, Lower Quartile and the Inter Quartile Range. I rounded the answers up or down depending on whether or not the number after the point (The first decimal place) was above five.
Quality Tabloid
Mean = 19
Median = 18
Mode = 15
Lower Quartile = 10
Upper Quartile = 24
Inter Quartile Range = 14
Standard Deviation = 10.72 (To 2dp)
Local Paper
Mean = 18
Median = 18
Mode = 14
Lower Quartile = 13
Upper Quartile = 23
Inter Quartile Range = 10
Standard Deviation = 6.97 (To 2dp)
Tabloid
Mean = 15
Median = 15
Mode = 10
Lower Quartile = 10
Upper Quartile = 21
Inter Quartile Range = 11
Standard Deviation = 7.59 (To 2dp)
Broadsheet
Mean = 21
Median = 22
Mode = 20
Lower Quartile = 15
Upper Quartile = 28
Inter Quartile Range = 13
Standard Deviation = 8.36 (To 2dp)
The stem and leaf diagrams and the box and whisker diagrams show me that the broadsheet is the hardest to read because it has more words in a sentence than the other papers. The second hardest to read is the quality tabloid because it has more words in one sentence than the tabloid and the local paper. The tabloid is the second easiest to read because it has less words in a single sentence than the quality tabloid and the broadsheet. The easiest to read is the local paper because it has the least amount of words in a sentence than all the other papers. My hypothesis about how hard each paper was to read was almost correct except I thought that the local paper would be harder to read than the tabloid.
The stem and leaf diagrams and the box and whisker diagrams show me that the Tabloid has the most space devoted to sport. I know this because more sentences had to be counted for tabloid than for the rest of the papers. The broadsheet has less space devoted to sport than the tabloid but more than the other two papers although only a 2% sample was taken for the broadsheet and 10% was taken for the rest of the papers. The local paper has less space devoted to sport than the tabloid and the broadsheet but more than the quality tabloid. The quality tabloid has the least amount of space devoted to sport out of all the papers. My hypothesis was completely wrong because I got all the papers in the wrong order.
My plan seemed effective because I chose sensible newspapers and my pilot study provided a good sample of information.
If I had more days to do the study, I would look at more papers from different days to make the study bigger and therefore get results that are more accurate. I think the way I presented the data was all right but it might have been better if I could fit all four stem and leaf diagrams for each section of the paper on one page.
The information gathered from the newspapers that I chose would be slightly different from an average day’s newspapers because of the war on Iraq. Most of the news would have been about the war and there may have been more words in a sentence because the article would be aimed at adults rather than children, which means the words may be more sophisticated also.
In conclusion, the hardest paper to read is the broadsheet paper (‘The Times’) because it has on average the most words in a sentence also it is the biggest paper and has the least amount of pictures. The next hardest to read is the quality tabloid (‘The Daily Express’) because on average it has many words in a sentence but not as much as the broadsheet. The quality tabloid is also the second biggest. The tabloid (‘The Sun’) is the third hardest to read because although it is the smallest it has the second least amount of words out of all the papers. The easiest to read is the local paper (‘The Stourbridge News’) because it has the least amount of words in a sentence on average. It is also the second biggest (It is the same size as the quality tabloid).
