The Daily Mirror has a standard pattern. This means that every day the newspaper will have a similar layout. The structure and layout is very different from the Daily Telegraph. The first few pages are about media and celebrity gossip. The articles in the Daily Mirror are usually emotive stories about topics like cruelty to animals, global warming, murder stories and injustice. There are plenty of competitions in the newspaper unlike The Telegraph. Most of the pages are used to advertise. About 34 sides of the newspaper contain advertisements. After a couple of pages, there is one page dedicated to politics. In the newspaper that I bought, there was an article on the war on Iraq on the 6th page, which was an article based on opinions rather than a factual article. This newspaper contains an advice column, puzzles, cartoons and a horoscope section. The newspaper contains cinema listing, gig listing, TV guides, movies section and a theatre section. There are a lot of articles on ways to keep safe when online. At the end of the newspaper, there is a sports section. The reports of sport are too short. All the main stories are at the beginning of the newspaper. The less important news and the advertisements are at the end of the newspaper.
Similar to the Daily Mirror, the Telegraph also has a standard pattern. The patterns themselves are very different though. The Telegraph has its own website, unlike the Daily Mirror. The newspaper contains many articles about what has happened lately in Britain. The articles discuss more important and serious issues than the Daily Mirror and are about British television, gay bishops, cancer patients, etc. These articles are written well-respected writers or columnists, which includes MPs, academics, Industry tycoons and novelists. This gives the reader an insight of viewpoints other than the viewpoints of Chief Cf Peterborough, The Way of the World, etc which may be slightly biased. These articles continue up to page 25. It contains a lot of political news, however it is slightly biased. There are adverts on the same page with the articles. However, all in all there are very few adverts compared to the Daily Mirror. There is a weather forecast on page 2, when in the Daily Mail; the weather forecast is situated in the last pages of the newspaper. On page 27 there is a section of “Letters to the editor.” There is a TV guide on pages 30 and 31. There is a section on shares and their prices. On page 33, business news begins which continues for 4 pages. The Daily Mirror does not contain any Business section. After about 40 pages, there is a quarter of a page crossword and puzzles. There is also a website for the crossword section. The Daily Mirror contained a full page on puzzles. The Telegraph has only one comic in the whole newspaper, which takes up one tenth of a page. Similarly to the Daily Mirror, the Telegraph has a sports section at the end of the newspaper. The Telegraph however, has much lengthier and in-dept reports; therefore its sports coverage is more preferred by people.
Both newspapers contain colour but The Daily Mail is much more colourful than The Telegraph however. Different colours are used to make some shocking stories stand out.
Most of the news in The Daily Telegraph is about what is happening in Britain today. There is a lot of national news. The Daily mirror mostly contains lurid stories on celebrities, as well and many advertisements. In the Daily Mirror, there is some national news on the front page of the newspaper. There is some global and international news on politics on the 6th page. The newspaper does contain local news sometimes but in very small amounts, as the Daily Mirror is a national newspaper. In the Telegraph, there is some news on international issues and well as some local news on the Manchester football team in the sports section. Similar to the Daily Mirror, the Telegraph also contains very little local news.
On the front page of the Daily Mirror you have news headlines asking the reader to turn to a page to find out more about a story. The news on the front page is mostly celebrity gossip and some news as well. There is also a pug at the side offering a free DVD with the Daily Mirror. The Masthead is in the top-left corner of the page and the font is big and bold. The font colour is white. Each letter is printed very clearly and the font style is very basic.
On the front page of the Telegraph, There is a splash about Barclays bank, which almost takes up the whole page. The Headline has a very fancy and posh font and is very clear and eye-catching. There is a side bar about commercialising genetically modified crops. There are a couple of kickers present as well. The front page also consists of an advert about a travel agent, which is uncommon to find on the Daily Mirror’s front page.
Language
These two newspapers use very different languages. The Daily Mirror uses conversational language that may be used by workmen canteen and is very informal. This language is more entertaining. A lot of acronyms and puns are used in articles in these newspapers. Colloquial language is used, as the target audience the articles are written for will prefer this. The Daily Telegraph uses more formal English and the language is more difficult and may require a dictionary to understand. The Telegraph uses proper English words and does not use any slang unlike The Daily Mirror.
Comparing stories
The comparing coverage of individual stories is quite different in both newspapers. I noticed there was a difference between the purpose, tone and register of each paper. On the front page of each newspaper there is an article about Barclays bank. In the Daily Mirror, the article takes up half of the page, which is basically just the heading as the font is quite large. There are a few lines about the bank and the rest that is just another small paragraph continues onto page 4. The Telegraph however has much more detail about the story and the headline is much smaller than the Daily Mail’s headline. The Headline in the Telegraph says, “Credit cards branded a rip-off as Barclay’s chief does a Ratner”. Comparatively, the Headline in the Daily Mail only says “Barclays Plank”. The Daily Mail uses much more simple English and there is an opening sentence to the article which basically tells what the news is about. This is added here because the target audience will probably not want to read a lot about serious news, and this sentence will save them from reading the whole article, which may bore them. However, the article in the Telegraph is much longer and in more detail. Formal Standard English is also used that may require some people to use a dictionary. The article in the Daily Mail is written to entertain as it contains quotations such as “totally crap”. The words used are very simple and are easy to understand. The ways the words are delivered make the article seem more shocking. The sentences are much smaller. Words like “blundered”, “put his foot in it”, “chronic debt”, and “baffling” are used. It is also much exaggerated. In the Telegraph there is a quotation said by the chief of Barclay Bank in which he says he has four young children and advises them not to pile up debts on their credit cards. To make the story seem more interesting The Daily Mail says that the chief told his four grown-up children not to run up credit card debits. This is effective because if he told his grown-up children not to do this he must be seriously advising them as they probably have credit cards, as they are older. Also, The Daily Mirror contains two pictures when The Telegraph contains only one with this coverage.
Another article that both newspapers contain is about a farmer trying to rescue his dog who got stuck down a whole in his field. This story is a human interest as it is about a local, small town event. The articles in both newspapers are about the same size, but the Daily Mail contains a much bigger picture of the dog and the Headline is “Grrreat escape” which is something you would never find in The Telegraph. The Daily Mirror contains words like “dramatic moment” and “massive rescue mission” to make the article seem more interesting. Both articles are written to entertain; However The Telegraph uses proper English to narrate the story, which makes the story seem less shocking and still enjoyable. The last line says, “Mr. Sadler was fantastic” which makes the story sound like a miracle done by Mr. Sadler, the farmer. This is a very short, simple sentence and the last sentence give most effect to the story as a whole.
There is another story that both newspapers cover and that is about a band called “Girls Aloud”. The purpose of this article is to inform. This is an article where a member of the band, Nicola Roberts denies covering up for her band mate, Cheryl Tweedy who is accused to racial assault. Looking at the article in The Daily Mirror, you can immediately tell it is much exaggerated. It is biased and the article is written in a way to make Cheryl Tweedy look guilty. Words like “vicious racial assault” prove this. A rather disturbing picture is added to the article, which shows the victim’s face swollen after she was punched in the face. This article’s title has a big font and the article takes up a whole page of a tabloid newspaper, when the article in The Telegraph takes up only a small section of a page. This is what I expected, as The Daily Mail had much more detail on this story than The Telegraph because people who read the Telegraph wouldn’t be very concerned about celebrities’ lives. The reason why such an article is located in The Telegraph may be because it is about racism which might interest some of the readers of The Telegraph. Both articles have nearly the same amount of text but the article in The Daily Mail takes up a lot of space because of the big pictures and titles. The article in The Daily Mirror has many more pictures and the pictures are much bigger. Compared to The Daily Mail, The Telegraph has only one, smaller picture.
Social differences:
Different people prefer to read different newspapers and it is more likely that people living in Hale and other posh places will prefer to read The Telegraph. Blue collar workers living in places like Wythenshawe and Stretford will prefer to read a tabloid newspaper as this is less informative and more entertaining. So, where more newspapers are going to be sold matters greatly on the place that it is being sold at.
To compare the differences of these newspapers in more detail, I needed to obtain more information so I decided to carry out a survey. I asked people what their occupations were, which newspaper they preferred to read and how often. I also carried out the survey at different locations to see if there was a geographic difference. I needed to ask their gender to see if there was any difference.
Political stance
The Telegraph contains a lot of political news and is slightly to the right of the centre. It mainly supports the Tory Party, which is the Conservative party. The Daily Mirror however, supports Tony Blaire who is part of the New Labour party.
Advertisements
Most of the pages in the Daily Mirror are used to advertise. Even though it has more pages than the Telegraph, most of them are advertisements. There is a wide range of products advertised like cars to products like lingerie. The adverts are about forthcoming movies, music CDs, electronic products, furniture, garden tools, etc. Some of these adverts are in colour.
The adverts in the Telegraph are about more expensive products. These adverts are about car and home insurances, furniture shops, electronics, etc. The adverts contain photographs that are of higher resolution than the mirror. It contains offers like “deals” with hotels and dining out tickets which is very middle class, whereas the Daily Mirror contains more competitions and information about the lottery for example.
My personal opinion
I would personally prefer to read The Daily Mail as this newspaper contains more gossip about celebrities and the articles are much more exaggerated to build up the interest of the reader. Most articles are written to entertain. Instead of the newspaper seeming boring with a lot of text, this newspaper contains a lot of pictures and big headings. The Daily Mail is also targeted to teenagers as it contains less serious articles and more gossip. So, it is no surprise that I would prefer to read The Daily Mail. However, this newspaper does not contain many serious articles about world issues or politics or any other educational articles. That’s why; sometimes I would prefer to read The Telegraph to keep up with the news about the world. It is still more likely that I would read a tabloid publication if I were offered both.
This is how the survey that people were asked to fill looked like:
Survey
- Where do you live?
Wythenshawe
Stretford
Hale
Bowdon
- Which type of newspaper would you prefer to read?
Tabloid
Broadsheet
Thank you!
These are the results I got:
This graph shows that places where blue collar workers live like Wythenshawe sell more tabloid newspapers. These places also have a higher number of women living there who read tabloid newspapers. This is because women prefer to read tabloid newspapers which contains celebrity gossip.
