In comparison there is “The Times”, which in almost every way seems anti-Blunkett. To begin, the headline that this newspaper runs, “Blunkett puts his reputation on the line in visa inquiry,” makes it evident that they feel Blunkett is to blame for this situation. There is absolutely no sympathy in this headline whatsoever. Secondly if you look at the sub-heading it also makes it crystal clear that they think that the situation that Blunkett has gotten himself into is outrageous, especially for a man in his position of power to be abusing it in this way.
Another way that you can tell that these two papers are different is by looking at their second stories. “The Times” chooses to give their second story to the “Olympic Hero” Matthew Pinsent. Even though the article is on another page they chose to run the picture of him on the front page. This might have to do with the fact that is a contrast to the somewhat depressing story of David Blunkett and his former lover’s nanny. Pinsent’s story is one of victory and triumph and some people might find his story very uplifting to read. Another reason that “The Times” may have run this picture on the front page is to attract both male and female readers. Females might flock to his picture because of his appearance, while males will be interested in the fact that it has to do with sport. This suggests that the readers of the times are interested in praising the “heroes” while they scold and show their disapproval of the wrong doers.
In contrast to this second story of an Olympic hero in “The Times” we get the story of an actress from a soap-opera. This picture is probably there to attract women because of the subject of the article, but I have the distinct feeling that this picture was meant to attract men. I think this because the picture that they chose features her wearing a moderately low-cut dress, and she is making eye contact with whoever is reading the newspaper. I think that this newspaper is presenting this picture of Sarah as the actress who plays her to make her seem more down to earth, even though she is a very famous person who most men couldn’t associate with.
The one similarity that these two newspapers have is that they both feature sport. This is very important to include this section on the front page as many readers read the newspaper for the sport not for the news. As anyone would probably tell you this advertisement is to attract male readers, as they are the ones most interested (usually) in sport. These two papers know that their sales would dramatically decrease if they did not mention sport on the front page of their newspapers.
If you look at “The Times” it promises, “plenty more inside.” This suggests that there is a cornucopia of subjects to be read about, and that if you don’t like what you see on the front page, there will be plenty more to interest you inside. I think this is true because if you look at the front page it has a variety of different types of stories you can choose from. It features your daily dose of sport, scandals, politics, adventure, competition, etc. This would allow a diverse group of people to be interested by these papers and therefore gives the newspaper a good chance of selling very well. Also a good number of the stories on the front page take place internationally which would bring in readers from all over the world to boost your sales.
After meticulously studying these two newspapers, I feel that “The Times” and the “Daily Mirror” are trying to attract two different audiences. “The Times” is trying to target the more mature reader who would like to be informed rather than entertained. On the other hand you have “Daily Mirror” which seems to want to entertain more than inform their readers. The layouts tell a lot about the content, further high lighting the differences between the two newspapers. If you look at “The Times” they use a broad sheet which for the most part is text, which gives it the sense of being more informative, while the “Daily Mirror” uses a more compact format, which is mainly composed of pictures.
As a whole I would much rather read “The Time” if I wanted to be informed. I believe that people all over the world would agree with me, seeing as this paper is read throughout the world. You can tell that it is read throughout the world by looking at the bottom left corner of the front page. Here you will notice that this paper has prices for all different currencies of different countries. The “Daily Mirror” would be good to read if someone was in the mood for slightly sleazy humor, and if they wanted to be kept up to date on all of the celebrity scandals and such. I do not think that I would be lying if I were to say that “The Times” is the much better choice of an informative newspaper.
