Broadsheet newspapers are targeted at those who like more realistic approaches to news. Their articles focus more on including political and foreign items. However their publication is less popular than the tabloids. Tabloid newspapers are aimed at people who are just expecting amusement from newspaper. Although they do cover some news, they tend to contain more gossip, personality issues, shorter articles and more pictures than text. Moreover they often refuse and neglect the idea of publishing political and foreign news. By investigating these issues this essay will be based on how language, content and presentation has been conveyed in newspaper.
Most newspapers are either broadsheet or tabloid in format and I will use this to explore the difference between Tabloid newspaper s and broadsheet newspapers. The Guardian and the Sun, by analysing and concentrating their front covers.
Presentation takes the form of words, images or symbols. The process of working on an image or a symbol is to convey our understanding of media message. This presented differently in each newspaper, simply because there are different types of audience that they have to target. For example, broadsheet papers have more text on the front page than tabloid paper. This is maybe because they have wider pages. However the design and layout of broadsheet and tabloid newspapers are very different in many ways.
The Sun paper tends to be brasher in presentation. They use large headlines and big pictures. The masthead is represented by bold enormous writing on red back round. Using red colour, which connotes a sense of danger, and so in effect we become exited and attract. The title ‘Sun’ suggests that the paper will shine as the sun does bringing us a scene of happiness and enjoyment. The headline ‘why did she have to die?’ refers to a young girl beaten to death. It uses rhetorical questioning to convey a message in order to market the product, to the readers of the newspaper. They typed the title as a question to attract the audience so that they will read on to find the answer. As well as, this dramatic question appeals to those who like to read tragic stories. Yet again, they present the headline as in white, bold letters on black background to draw the reader’s attention. Subheadings use bold writing to suggest that she was let down. They have also typed in capital letters whereas the Guardian uses small letters. This gives readers more information about the event and also influence them to find out more. There is just one column of text in the Sun article and a large photograph of the young girl dominates the article. The girl has a little smile on her which conjures the image of the sun shining, then when u realise that this pure little sun shine has lost her life, it brings up a sympathetic value in readers mind. At this point the reader becomes emotionally involved arousing their interest. Further more the photographs have been used partly because they are visually interesting rather than because they are newsworthy. As we see, the front cover of the Sun paper has been designed to people who want to scan the news quickly, in order to have a good idea about the events happening around them without giving up great amount of time to read lengthily articles.
The presentation of the article in the Guardian is less effective than the article in the Sun at attracting the readers’ attention. They give very little importance to eye catching the audience, but they are more standard and are strict on providing the news rather that some sort of gossip. It is controversial. The masthead is in bold black writing on white back round. The black and white colour is there to give a formal and serious look. The name Guardian suggests to look after the needs of its audience. The headline: ‘You can hide, general, but you can’t run’ is longer, therefore the powerful message is no as quick. Despite this, the headline is straight to the point and creates shock. It takes more time to make the audience read on. As we see it is more informative rather than startling. Yet they use black and white handwriting to make the thought simple. The subheadings are presented in bold and very small writings and not capital letters as well as that they help you to understand what the article is about. The Guardian uses two photographs whereas the Sun only uses one. The first picture is very big and it helps the reader to visualise the scene of how General Augusto Pinochet appear. It expresses the feelings of tension and sadness on his face. This brings up the interest and causes readers to become emotionally involved. This picture obviously draws, people’s attention to agree with. The other picture is quite small and it also relates to the article. In fact the photographs are used to illustrate the story rather that used as stories in their own right. As we see the Guardian paper concentrates more on delivering accurate information, than presenting it in a way that will instantly attract the attention of readers.
The content also takes an important place of targeting the individuals’ audience. Newspapers develop their own nature through the type of story they print.
The Sun paper has chosen a tragic story for it’s front page, which is a death about a five-year old girl Lauren. She has been horribly abused by her mother’s lover, which result in death. The officials spent three months holding a meeting about saving her. This story is obviously interpreted as shocking, tragic and dramatic. The opening paragraph, immediately engages the readers, and makes the feel empathy. It makes readers feel extra concern, as the fact that a young girl from their country has died makes the tragedy feel closer to home and brings the thoughts of their own problems. In effect they feel more emotional. As we can see there are more opinions than facts. The article is biased against her mother’s lover because of the owners’ personal opinion supports the young girl.
The Guardian paper has chosen a political story about the general leader Pinochet, who has been forced to move from the country. As we see this topic is very serious and informative, also the article is very detailed. At a glance, they provide more facts than opinions, as well as that the article is not biased because the argument is not only argued for one side.
The article in the Sun is the only article on the front page; this ensures that another does not distract the reader. But in the Times, there are several other articles with the main article; this draws the reader’s attention away from the main headline into the others. The Sun uses a bold, thick border around the article, making it stand out further. The Times doesn’t have a border, use colour boxes above and underneath the articles, to make it impressionable, yet is less effective as it doesn’t apply around the whole page.
The Sun article has aimed at very broad audience. It’s simplistic enough to reach a wider audience, with short simple facts about the situation. Other than, it requires more information and more informal in sequence to meet the needs of a more intellectual people.
In whatever circumstance media does not communicate with only words but with pictures and images. A large part of a newspaper’s identity is the language that it uses in its stories. The type of words used in the articles play an important role in the way it addresses its audience.
The Sun paper uses very casual and shortened words, which help create a chatty, friendly tone. Also the language is very informal, as how people use language through a conversation; moreover they tend to use onomatopoeia, for example, “cruel” instead of badness, and “punch and slapped” instead of hurt, as an advantage to alert readers as the text becomes alive creating musicality in a sense. They refer to characters by nicknames, like “her mothers evil lover”, “her mother” and “a neighbour”. They often fail to extant the language in grammar or standard. Since they want to hold the attention of the readers without using long sentences or either difficult vocabulary, for the reason that, it has to be understand by lower educated people as well as to the intelligent people.
The language used in Guardian tends to be formal. They contain more long and complex sentences. Headlines are in straight forward, in that they rarely use emotive or humour words. Use of difficult vocabulary is to put together the paper more standard. People in the stories have been given their proper titles such as “Gen Pinochet”, “Mr Straw” and “Mr Artaza”.
The Guardian has aimed towards a more intellectual people. This is mainly because of the language, the language and word structure is much more good. In addition, the simple layout and the story with more facts and information for the content make the paper brighter.
