Comparing newspapers,The Sun, a tabloid newspaper and The Telegraph, a broadsheet newspaper which went to print on the 25th September 2006.
Comparing two newspapers
For this assignment, I will compare the different techniques employed by tabloid and broadsheet newspaper in England to appeal their readership. An article is chosen for comparison between The Sun, a tabloid newspaper and The Telegraph, a broadsheet newspaper which went to print on the 25th September 2006. Both articles are in relation to an unpleasant incident that occurred in a pub when a five-month old baby girl died after being mauled by two Rottweilers guarding the pub.
At a first glance, the layout of the article in The Sun's headline would draw more attention then The Telegraph's headline.
The Sun's headline is in bold type, in dramatically enormous capital letters covering the top half of their front page: "PUB DOGS KILL BABY". If this sort of local news can be placed on the front page, you have a feeling that either there is nothing really vital happening in the rest of the world or the paper's focus is on less serious topics such as gossips about ordinary people and celebrities. Tabloid newspapers would never include news about the stock market or world affairs unless it makes an interesting topic. Tabloids love to place scandals on half of the front page over the years.
The Telegraph, on the other hand, is completely the opposite as it prefers to cover more serious topics such as current world affairs. The headline "Baby girl is killed by pub Rottweilers" is in much smaller prints and not in capitals. It is longer and therefore the power of the message is not as instant. Despite so, this headline is clear and straight to the point that a girl has died because of Rottweilers. The headline sets out a balanced viewpoint. The Telegraph does not use any emotive language in the headline. This evidently shows that they are not trying to arouse the readers' emotion by the death of the baby girl.
On the front of The Sun, the article is dominated by a large photograph of one angry, scary looking Rotterwiler that looks like it is going to jump out of the paper and eat you alive. Instantly you feel gruesome, threatened and scared by the Rotterwilers. They are trying to make you feel agitated and scared. They are not always that threatening but The Sun only wants the readers to see the dreadful side of the Rotterwilers rather then their good or normal side. There is also one large photo of the flowers and teddy bears left at the pub door by local residents, which makes you feel regretful for the baby girl.
The same scene is used in The Telegraph but it is just a normal looking pub, with no sign of any terrifying incident happened in the weekend. Underneath the photo is written in small print "The rocket, in Leicester, where the Rottweilers guard dogs prowled on the flat roof on the night." The Sun uses fifty-five percent of the front page to feature photos and tiny space for texts. On the other hand, The Telegraph allocates more space for texts with only one tiny photo.
The Sun puts the half of the story on the front page and a full story on page eleven whereas The Telegraph has a small piece of texts on the front page and another little paragraph on the second page and sums everything up with interviews.
The Sun uses sensational language which can blow the article out of proportion. This form of language appeals to a certain audience who are looking for a less challenging read, and the humorous style appeals to an audience ranging from teenagers to the elderly. Although tabloid articles can be more humorous, sensational and biased, they still have facts and opinions to back up their stories. The vocabulary is very simple but gruesome and also more emotive to sway the readers; furthermore this shows us that the paper is also aimed at the working class. They are looking for ...
This is a preview of the whole essay
The Sun uses sensational language which can blow the article out of proportion. This form of language appeals to a certain audience who are looking for a less challenging read, and the humorous style appeals to an audience ranging from teenagers to the elderly. Although tabloid articles can be more humorous, sensational and biased, they still have facts and opinions to back up their stories. The vocabulary is very simple but gruesome and also more emotive to sway the readers; furthermore this shows us that the paper is also aimed at the working class. They are looking for a short exciting story about the world about them, and an interesting topic for them to talk about in the pub.
The Telegraph articles are more formal than tabloid articles. This is more appealing to a more mature and educated audience who are interested in current affairs and are looking for a more challenging read. Facts and evidence are used in broadsheet articles to back up a story and, to a lesser extent, emotive language to reinforce the point of the story. However, The Telegraph does not use any emotive language in the entire article. Its readers care more about stocks, politics, and the news that would affect the whole world or their businesses, rather than some baby girl who dies because her parents do not look after her properly and let the dog get to her. Inside The Sun article, neighbours said that the parents and grandparents are irresponsible, should not have left a little baby girl in such a dangerous environment. The Telegraph might probably have interviewed the same person but did not include it in the article because it may not be thought as relevant or important.
The Telegraph concentrates more on delivering accurate information than presenting it in a way that will instantly attract the attention of readers. The Sun's headline is bold, dramatic and typed in enormous capital letters covering half of the front page. It is punchy and straight to the point, simply reads "PUB DOGS KILL BABY". Readers become emotionally involved and extremely interested by just reading the headline. Emotive language like the subheadings "Dog dragged the poor child around like a rag playing" and "Beasts snatch girl out of cot" is frequently used. Tabloids love to play around with words and dramatic expressions to agitate the readers such as "dragged", "poor child" and "like rag playing". It describes the baby girl as a dog's chew toy in addition to being mauled by it. It makes readers feel more drawn to it because a lively baby girl has been mistreated that way by what they call beasts. The rest of the article is on page eleven; this seems a long way from the main article. However The Sun is still trying to keep people interested by ending part one of the article in a continues sentence it was understood her grandparents, who run the pub, had left it in the care of her parents while on holiday" and it is indented to keep the readers interested to read on. The Sun wants the readers to find out what that statement has to do with what has happened. The Telegraph uses the same technique i.e. continues sentence method: "there is a school opposite the pub, for ..." and it stops there but carries on the next page, most readers will want to read on because that sentence keeps the readers interested to see what happens next and what is more to say about the baby girl: have the dogs attacked anyone else before? Many questions will have popped up in the readers' mind.
The first section is a summary of what has happened. The next section titled "Hysterical" is called a "cross-head" which is common in tabloid newspaper. It describes in a state of hysteria a grief that the baby girl has got killed because of her grandparents' guard dogs which are expected to look after the family and not to kill. The Sun uses colloquial language and slang such as "snatch", "plaything" and "tot" to suit an audience who are possibly less educated and looking for an easy read. The sentences are quite short, simple and effortless for people to understand. The vocabulary is accessible to most people. There are few technical jargons in a tabloid newspaper. Hence, The Sun is called "The People's Paper".
The sun uses a lot of "chatty" language and they also use a lot of slang like "tot", "stuns", "living quarters" and "devil dogs". It appeals more to lay people, people that do not have technical jobs. Furthermore, emotive language is frequently used in tabloids through words such as "Beasts", "snatch", "dragged", "desperate" and other similar words causing emotional feelings. Tabloids use more emotive language than slang.
The Telegraph uses standard English and has well-structured columns, unlike The Sun which uses a casual language. The Telegraph tends to use more formal language in order to create a better understanding for the readers. The Sun has more emotive language than slang. The article is written in longer sentences. The headlines are rarely humorous but mainly informative and straight to the point e.g. "The baby was rushed to Leicester Royal Infirmary but died of her injuries. The Rotterweilers have been destroyed. After the tragedy at around 4pm, flowers and teddy bears were left outside the closed pub". The sentences are longer, in compound and complex structures, more detailed and more informative than The Sun which does not even tell the readers what time the tragic happened. The Telegraph has included fine details and is very straightforward that gives the readers all the information they need without personal opinions from the writer. There is hardly any emotive language due to the informative focus. Naturally, there is more sophisticated vocabulary like "prompt", "lavatories", "eliminated", "inferences" and "malicious". The extensive use of sophisticated vocabulary is a way of informing a broadsheet's audience. This tells us that the readers are more educated and are looking for news that are related to their jobs or businesses and they will understand these sophisticated business terms and jargons.
The Sun always uses a humorous but sympathetic tone in the article. The sun is biased because it displays hatred for the Rottweilers, calling them "beasts" and have scary photos of them barking. This sentence "Horror at pub stuns estate" makes the readers feel scared and wonder what has happened inside a pub where a lot of people go every night or weekend. This state of anxiety is achieved by using words like "horror" and "stun". It simply tells you it is going to be a shock and quite uneasy for everyday life. The Sun labels the Rottweilers as "beasts". This is done so that the readers does not dismiss the journalist's views as unworthy. Therefore, the biased tone is established by using emotive language and omitting facts to argue a point. It seems like the writer wants to influence the readers' thinking.
Due to the informative aim of a broadsheet, it is less biased and lets the readers form their own opinions and draw their own conclusions. The Telegraph shows no emotion for the baby girl and therefore has no biased feelings. This leads me to conclude that a broadsheet is a better source of information than a tabloid.
Both The Sun and The Telegraph has interviewed people who live nearby the pub and asked them what they thought of the dogs and the baby. Similar people have been interviewed as both newspapers have several statements from the witnesses or the locals. However, none of the family members have been interviewed by neither papers. Clear evidence shows that The Sun does not have as many details as The Telegraph. Only two people have been named in The Sun; on the other hand The Telegraph has all the interviewees' names and age. The Telegraph tells the readers exactly who said them and how old they are so they know it is from a variety of people.
The Sun added, "If that was my baby I'd want the animal destroyed - in fact I'd want to do it myself." It shows how much the incident has frightened people and that they would destroy a life because of what has happened. The Sun is desperately trying to make the readers feel emotional by saying how sad and angry the locals are. In The Sun, an interviewee called the owner "irresponsible" and again to show a lot of negativity. On the contrary, The Telegraph always tries to stay positive and have a balanced viewpoint, it does not include as many awful things about the dog or family,.
In The Telegraph, it relates the incident to another similar tragic happened with a boy a couple of weeks ago: George Brown was mauled but luckily the neighbour dragged the dog away. It goes on to report that some people from hunting don are going to take some action and do something about "dogs that are dangerously out of control in public place". This is an evidence that The Telegraph always give a balanced negative and positive point of view.
The Sun carries a strong message saying "Kill all Rottweilers". Even though the message is not actually said by The Sun, that hidden message is loud and clear. The Sun has made the Rottweilers sound as mean and evil as possible in the whole of the article. This is common for tabloids to carry a message behind the texts. The tabloids always try to influence people by how they write their articles.
No particular emotional message is intended for the readers by Telegraph. The Telegraph is just trying to report the facts of the news to the audience and nothing else.
Lastly from analysing the two articles of the same incident, one from a broadsheet and the other from a tabloid, I can conclude that their layouts, audience, language, interviews, neutrality, tone and whether they include a message are all different. The cause of such diversity is due to clashing aims and different types of readers.
The Sun as a tabloid newspaper uses the article to entertain rather than to inform. In contrast, the broadsheet uses the interview to inform or state a fact from a neutral standpoint. A typical tabloid article has a simple and sensational headline, sometimes in the form of a pun, which grabs the readers' attention. The sub-heading is shorter and tends to be vaguer and is therefore open to interpretation, which means the readers have to read on for further insights into the story. The emotive language, used frequently in tabloid articles, is perhaps an attempt to evoke sympathy, influencing the readers' opinions and leading them into forming a more biased perspective.
All broadsheet articles are more formal than tabloid articles. This makes them suitable for mature and educated audience who are interested in current affairs and are looking for a more challenging and detailed read. Fact and evidence rather than emotive language are used in broadsheet articles to back up stories.
Personal Preference
In my opinions, The Telegraph is a better newspaper to read because it gives readers different dimension to a story while The Sun tells the readers what to think. There are much more details in The Telegraph while The Sun has a lot of irrelevant texts. The Telegraph is well constructed although I think that The Sun's heading is much better because it tells me a lot about the incident and the photo of the dogs makes the story even more shocking. Overall a broadsheet reader will have a better understanding of the story than a tabloid reader, although a tabloid reader will get more sensational photos and more gossips about the story because tabloids prefer light topics while broadsheets are serious. For me I do not like reading about unimportant news like the world's biggest pie or something trivial like this.