There are many different types of newspapers ranging from tabloids to broadsheet. Tabloids tend to have lighter reading standards an example of this would be the Sun.
Maths Coursework
Introduction: there are many different types of newspapers ranging from tabloids to broadsheet. Tabloids tend to have lighter reading standards an example of this would be the Sun. Broadsheets are more complex and include a few pages on things like finance (tabloids do not have finance), therefore it may appeal to more people who don't want to buy more than one newspaper to check such sections. An example of this type of newspaper is the Daily Telegraph.
Aim: my aim is to see if a tabloid is easier to read than a broadsheet newspaper.
For this investigation I have chosen three newspapers. These are the Daily Mirror, Harrow Times and the Guardian. The Harrow Times is a local newspaper and a tabloid; I have chosen to investigate this newspaper because I want to see if the area in which I live in makes a difference in the complexity of the wording. I decided to choose the Mirror because it is a tabloid as well and because it is an average priced newspaper, which makes it a difficult to choose between other newspapers such as the Sun. Guardian was my choice for a broadsheet because it is a popular in its section and it provides all or almost every section in the news.
Hypothesis: my hypothesis is that the broadsheet newspaper (Guardian) will have a higher average in wording than the tabloid newspapers (Harrow Times & The Mirror).
Objectives:
. Collect all newspapers
2. Present data in a meaningful way
3. Present data both sets of data and interpret them
4. Draw up conclusions
Method: to save time the data will be collected in groups. I will be looking at three sections in each newspaper and find the seventh word in these sections; this will hopefully give me a good idea of the word length. The seventh word in each section will be in the headlines, sport and economics. I will be looking at the seventh word in each section and count the number if letters in the word, this will in turn become part of my results. I will be looking at three words in each section of a newspaper so for one newspaper I will end up with nine different words and a total of twenty-seven words for all three.
Guardian: headlines seventh word = discovery. Number of letters 9
Harrow Times: headlines seventh word = shock. Number of letters 5
Mirror: headlines seventh word = last. Number of letters 4
Guardian: sports seventh word = collapsed. Number of letters 9
Harrow Times: sports seventh word = month. Number of letters 5
Mirror: sports seventh word = real. Number of letters 4
Guardian: economics seventh word = urgent. Number of letters 6
Harrow Times: economics seventh word = deal. Number of letters 4
Mirror: economics seventh word = ...
This is a preview of the whole essay
Guardian: headlines seventh word = discovery. Number of letters 9
Harrow Times: headlines seventh word = shock. Number of letters 5
Mirror: headlines seventh word = last. Number of letters 4
Guardian: sports seventh word = collapsed. Number of letters 9
Harrow Times: sports seventh word = month. Number of letters 5
Mirror: sports seventh word = real. Number of letters 4
Guardian: economics seventh word = urgent. Number of letters 6
Harrow Times: economics seventh word = deal. Number of letters 4
Mirror: economics seventh word = blame. Number of letters 5
Conclusion so far.
As you can see from the results gathered above the Guardian has on the whole more letters than the other two newspapers.
This proves that the Guardian is a more sophisticated newspaper than any other one that I have chosen and uses more letters in a word than the Mirror and Harrow Times.
Guardian: headlines seventh word = cumulative. Number of letters 10
Harrow Times: headlines seventh word = first. Number of letters 5
Mirror: headlines seventh word = between. Number of letters 7
Guardian: sports seventh word = apparently. Number of letters 10
Harrow Times: sports seventh word = miserable. Number of letters 9
Mirror: sports seventh word = Fowler. Number of letters 6
Guardian: economics seventh word = liberal. Number of letters 7
Harrow Times: economics seventh word = fortunate. Number of letters 9
Mirror: economic seventh word = unlikely. Number of letters 8
Guardian: headlines seventh word = deliberately. Number of letters 12
Harrow Times: headlines seventh word = combined. Number of letters 8
Mirror: headlines seventh word = deviate. Number of letters 7
Guardian: sports seventh word = million. Number of letters 7
Harrow times: sports seventh word = final. Number of letters 5
Mirror: sports seventh word = yards. Number of letters 5
Guardian: economics seventh word = delivery. Number of letters 8
Harrow Times: economics seventh word = lowest. Number of letters 6
Mirror: economics seventh word = volume. Number of letters 6
Conclusion:
As you can see from the 9 sections of results above I have completed the obtaining part of the investigation I set myself to do. Overall the guardian has the most amount of letters per word out of all the other newspapers I have chosen. 8/9 of the sections are dominated by the Guardian letter wise. Since the Guardian has the more longer words and slightly more complicated words it proves that my hypothesis was correct.
Here are the results from the Guardian: 9,9,6,10,10,7,12,7,8
Results from the Harrow Times: 5,5,4,5,9,9,8,5,6
Results from the Mirror: 4,4,5,7,6,8,7,6,5
From the figures shown above I can use a few statistics methods to get a better overall conclusion and average length of the words used by each newspaper company.
The mean shows the average of a set of data. In this case I will be using the mean to find the average word length of each newspaper I've chosen.
The Guardian.
MEAN= Sum of values / number of values
= 9+9+6+10+10+7+12+7+8= 78
= 78 / 9 = 8.6
Harrow Times
MEAN= sum of values / number of values
= 5+5+4+5+9+9+8+5+6= 56
= 56 / 9 = 6.2
The Daily Mirror
MEAN= sum of values / number of values
= 4+4+5+7+6+8+7+6+5 = 52
= 52/9 = 5.7
As you can see from the mean average above, the average longest word length comes from the Guardian, which again shows that the Guardian uses longer words than the other two newspapers. A surprising results in my opinion was the fact that the Harrow Times has a longer word length than the Mirror.
Now I will be attempting to find the median of the data already collected. The median of the data is the middle value, when the data is placed in order of size, starting from the smallest.
The Guardian:
To find the median you have to add one to the number of values then divide by two.
6,7,7,8,9,9,10,10,12
So 9+1=10 / 2 = 5
The answer is five subsequently; the fifth number is the median, which is nine.
Median = 9
Harrow Times:
4,5,5,5,5,6,8,9,9
Seeing that I already know that the fifth figure is the median there is no need to complete another calculation.
Median = 5
Mirror:
4,4,5,5,6,6,7,7,8
Median = 6
The statistics shown above demonstrates that the median of the Guardian is higher than the other two newspapers just like the mean was, therefore proving that the Guardian has a longer word length. Something that surprised me was the fact that the median for the mirror was higher than the Harrow Times. This is odd because the mean of the Harrow Times is higher than the Mirror and now I have found the median of the Mirror to be higher than the Harrow Times.
With the intention of accomplishing the aim of finding the median, which I have now completed, I will attempt to discover the mode of the results. I hope to find a better conclusion to why there is a peculiar relationship between the Mirror and the Harrow Times.
The mode of a set of data is the value, which occurs most frequently.
Guardian:
6,7,7,8,9,9,10,10,12
Mode = 9
Harrow Times:
4,5,5,5,5,6,8,9,9
Mode = 5
Mirror:
4,4,5,5,6,6,7,7,8
Mode = 6
I have now found the mode of all three newspapers, despite the fact that to of them have multiple frequent numbers like the guardian. The mode shows me that again the
Though I have used three different methods of comparing the results, I think that is not enough to draw up a clear conclusion. Therefore I will be using three more methods of arranging these statistics and I will be constructing a few graphs and charts.
The Range: this is a method of seeing how spread a piece of data is. It is usually used to compare more than one piece of data, therefore it would be ideal to use in this case. The way to use the range is by finding the lowest value and then subtracting it by the highest value.
Lowest value - highest value = range
Guardian:
6,7,7,8,9,9,10,10,12
= 6 - 12
= 6
Harrow Times:
4,5,5,5,5,6,8,9,9
= 4 - 9
=5
Mirror:
4,4,5,5,6,6,7,7,8
= 4 - 8
= 4