In The Times, we see a lot of information crammed into spaces. The main headline is quite long compared to The Sun, but precise, with no chance of it being misunderstood. ‘Outrage as Paris burns and French riots spread’, has a clear meaning and gives quite a good indication of what is to come in the following article. You can tell that people need time to read the paper, as there is a lot of the actual story in the first page. There is also a fact file with a few facts and figures, which summarises what has happened so far. However, above the main headline, there is a bit of gossip on “How to survive the party season”. This is not gossip that most people hear which are mainly rumours. The gossip here is based more on facts again and the ‘must-haves’ for the season. This is also an advert for its secondary paper, which presents all the gossip and small talk. There is a column on the left had side of the paper which summarises all of the main headlines across the world and gives a contents column. This is something which is not found in tabloid papers, as they contain much less global news and concentrate on news closer to home. The Times also gives a small contents page at the bottom of the ‘contents column’, which shows things that would seem very uninteresting to the working class people, but for people in marketing and business people, this would be something they need. This also shows the differences in audience that the papers target. The language in The Times is much more formal, and shows much less quotations from people than The Sun, and presents only paraphrases of speeches that people give.
There is also a sport section which is advertised by a glum looking Chelsea manager, with the title ‘Who’s feeling blue now, Mr Mourinho?’ This is an idiomatic pun as Chelsea’s colours are blue, and to feel blue is to feel down, and as Chelsea had just lost a game it sounds quite amusing to those who watch sport. The sport section of the Times seems much more advertised than that of The Sun, as the Sun’s sporting section has a small advert under the masthead. In comparison, The Times’ sporting advert takes up the entire right hand side.
In The Sun, we can see an example of an ‘easy to understand’ language as there is a huge headline: “Bang ‘em up!”, which contrasts the style used in The Times. This kind of language – slang and abbreviation – is there for the purpose of attracting the reader and wanting to know what they mean by the headline. The headline is likely to be a quote, which also attracts people who wish to know of public opinion, so people like MPs could actually benefit from reading The Sun. The subheading itself is, “7/7 mum urges MPs to back Blair on terror law”. This heading makes a few assumptions that people know who ‘Blair’ refers to, what ‘MP’ stands for, and what happened on the 7th July. The actual story that goes with the headline is only a very small paragraph and is as big as the picture of the mother. However, what is there of the story is quite unoriginal and boring. They describe the 7/7 attacks as an ‘outrage’, and also says that the prime minister would ‘cave in’ under pressure. These phrases are often used, as calling the 7/7 attacks anything but an outrage would result in a lot of anger and drops in sale of the paper. Also, saying the prime minister would cave in is also common, as prime ministers are often portrayed as weak and willing to bend either way depending on public views. The actual story also appears quite unimportant, as it is only continued on pages 8 and 9. Celebrity gossip also appears on the front page, with a ‘Potter premier special’ that appears on pages 4 and 5. This shows that this newspaper considers celebrity news quite important and targets an audience that enjoys reading about celebrities. The entire right hand side is covered by a picture of the Harry Potter actor, Daniel Radcliffe, and there is a headline within the picture, which is “What the frock you got on, Harry?” This question is a humorous one, as the word ‘frock’ is very close to an expletive and therefore makes it quite humorous to those with this kind of vocabulary. Also, the sporting section is, as I said before, much less advertised. However, we can see from the advert that there is a 28 page section on sport only and a big sporting section appears to be printed every day. The headline for the sport is “Victorious Fergie turns the air blue”. This again makes an assumption that we know who Fergie applies to, and is again a pun, as Sir Alex Ferguson swore on live television, and because the fact that Chelsea play in blue. The fact that which explains the use of the phrase ‘turns the air blue’. It is also a pun as ‘turning the air blue’ often means that swearing is taking place.
From the front pages, we are able to identify who the target audience is, just by looking at the style, size and use of language and text. We can also tell the differences in audience by the amount of pictures on the page and what the pictures are of. For example, in the Sun, we see a huge picture of Harry Potter which shows that The Sun has a lot on showbiz and celebrities. The fact that The Times barely mentions on the front page it shows that the paper is barely interested, and puts global news before celebrities. Also, The Sun assumes that its readers are very up to date with the news, but The Times is much more informative about the facts and what, if anything, has occurred in the past with similarities to a recent incident. I feel that there is a smaller advert for the sport in The Sun because it expects its readers to know about the sporting section and assumes it to be a regularity for its readers. However, in The Times, a big sport section is probably rare, and therefore it wants its readers to take notice.
Overall, I think that The Sun is for the working class with little time to read the newspaper and wants to read about sports and glamour. The Times is more for people with time to read about facts and world news, but has no general interest in sport or celebrity life, and is therefore has a higher class target audience. We can tell this from the language they use in the two papers, and the selection of what they put on the front page. I believe that a comparison of what the two papers put on the Harry Potter premiere is a good example of how much the papers care about celebrity, and also The Sun puts in a smaller advert but dedicates more pages to sports, which is an opposite to The Times. The language is also much more formal in The Times, which also gives an indication of the audience it is aimed at.
