Comparison between tabloid and broadsheet newspapers.

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GCSE Maths

Zara baig

MATHS COURSEWORK –

Comparison between tabloid and broadsheet newspapers

INTRODUCTION

        This coursework was about comparing two newspapers, which in this case are broadsheet and tabloid for readability. To compare these two newspapers properly, we must depend on two things; which is word length and sentence length. The longer the word and the longer the sentence, the more sophisticated the newspaper.

HYPOTHESIS

        I think that the reading difficulty should increase in the broadsheet newspaper than the tabloid newspaper since it has longer words along with longer sentences.

        Broadsheet newspapers contain longer words and sentences since they are aimed at a more sophisticated audience.

HOW SAMPLING WAS DONE

        In the sampling we used two ‘types’ of newspapers; tabloid and broadsheet. We randomly selected 4 pages from each newspaper by using the random button on our CASIO calculator.  We continued to press the equal’s button until we got a suitable page number. When we did, we once again used the same functions to choose a random line. Once we got the random line we had to count the letters in the first 25 words. In the first 25 words a few things were needed to be ignored. Things such as:

  • Abbreviations (NSPCC,BBC,NSPCA etc)
  • Hyphens (2 separate words)
  • Numbers
  • Headlines
  • Names of people and places.

 We did not include these since for example numbers could be repeated over and over again, meaning that the same number could be repeated and we would count it in which would not make it a fair test. I ignored the headings in the newspapers because the language used in the headings in not used in the actual report itself; therefore it is not suitable for my purpose. I neglected abbreviations, as these were not proper words. I ignored the real names of people because sometimes they could have very long names, like for example, Ruud Van Nistelrooy, and this is not suitable. Hyphenated words were treated as two separate words.

The information was put into a tally chart and then later on into a frequency table.

RANDOM SELECTION

        For random selection I used my CASIO calculator like I mentioned above. In this case random selection was used to select random lines or random pages. The calculator will give you any number between 0 and 1, so if, for example, you were doing how many letters there are in a word you would randomly select a page then you would randomly select a line on that certain page. This is done by the following procedure:

After doing this you will get a number, and if this number is too high and goes over the limit of the pages or lines that the newspaper has you continue to press the = button to get a suitable number.

MATHS STATISTICS

Stats mode =  MODE then 2

Clear stats memory =  SHIFT  AC  then  =  AC

Input data using =   M+  until  10  M+

Mean x =  SHIFT  1

Standard deviation S.D. =   SHIFT  2

The standard deviation is the average distance the data is away from the mean.

EXAMPLE:

MEAN = 2.8695

S.D. = 0.89948

Preliminary work – Pre-test

        In order to see if there is most definitely a change in readability between broadsheet and tabloid newspapers, I had to carry out a preliminary experiment before the actual investigation. Carrying out this preliminary test we can also see if the method I used to gain results was a fair test. The point in seeing if it is or is not a fair test is important. This helps us find any problems earlier on than in the main investigation.

        Factors that make a fair test include the following:

  • Random selection: if the selection was not randomly selected this would not be a fair test. This is because our own picking these values is bias and therefore could affect all the results.
  • We have to make sure that all of our articles are from the same two newspapers. If other newspapers were/are used it could once again affect all the results.
  • It is in fairness that the test should include articles, which are of the same topic, if not the articles may differ in style of writing in the different categories.
  • Adverts were not counted in since every newspaper contains the exact same advert and therefore it will not show reliable results which would later on be used for the comparison of the two newspapers.  
  • Last thing in what I had to make sure was that the same word or sentence was not picked up twice. It was more than once we had to disregard a pre-read reading.

If the results in my preliminary test are similar to my prediction, that means that the test was carried out fairly. If not the same or similar to my hypothesis, that shows that there was either a flaw in my test or in my actual prediction.  

Join now!

        To test my hypothesis in the investigation, I formed a simple test to find a portion of the two newspapers that deals with the same topic (Princess Margaret’s death). Secondly, I randomly selected 50 words (as described in the random selection section above) from two articles dealing with the same topic, and compared the number of letters in the words. I then selected 20 sentences, once again at random, and compared the number of words in those sentences. I then compared the results shown below in the form of tables…

Preliminary RESULTS

 TABLE SHOWING NO. LETTERS IN ...

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Comparison between tabloid and broadsheet newspapers.
Document Details
  • Word Count
    3745
  • Page Count
    21
  • Level
    GCSE
  • Subject
    Maths
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