My anlysis of the front page of a tabloid

    There are three photo's on the page, the main photo is of a stunning young model, she wears a white dress that makes her look angelic, she has a perfect complexion and a wide bright smile. In the corner of  the model's picture is a grumpy looking old man, his face is lined with wrinkles and he is scowling, he almost looks as if he disapproves of her from the way the photo is positioned. These two photo's are linked with the headline “Monty's new birdie : life's all so wonderful”  the newspaper is trying to put across the idea that a very old man is 'going out with' a young girl. Perhaps this is designed to shock readers or possibly make them jealous.  The effect it has is to grab the readers attention through photographs and allowing them to draw their own conclusion through inuendo. The picture plays on our perceptions as a society about what is acceptible in other cultures this may look aceptable but to a British audience it looks wrong. The paper knows this and over  plays the couple's diference making the woman look far younger and prettier than “Monty”. The paper is biased towards the opinion that she is only with him for the money- if another better picture was used it could look more like a loving relationship.

     The other  picture is of a nineteen year old soldier serving in Iraq, he looks very young in the photo, and helps put across to the reader the point of the article which is that young boys are being killed in Iraq.  In the photo he looks young and innocent which is to make readers pity him even more. The paper has chosen a picture that makes him look very young to help put there point across. The picture grabs the readers attention as seeing the picture of someone who looks so young and pityful next to the headline “angry and nervous”makes them concerned for his well being. The soldier himself is 19 years old an adult and able to look after himself.

    The main point of the news item is that young British troops are being sent to their death and the American government just does not care.   The report represents a British viewpoint as it has no quotes from any other nationalities and is biased towards the British troops. The article has no actual facts just quotes from two soldiers and the chief of staff.  They don't show the whole interview, they simply pick quotes that support their point. As the mirror has consistently been against the Iraq war and the Bush administration this is not suprising. The article sides with public opinion which is generaly against the Iraq war to be sure that most people will agree with the article and read and continue to buy the paper. The article is extremely short, written in small font and hidden away in the corner of the page. This gives the impresion that catchy headlines and pictures are more important than the actual articles. However if the front page was just writing it would not look very intresting, this small piece of writing acts as a taster to atract the audience into buying reading the rest of the article. The small amount of writing in the article could attract people with little time on their hands or for whom reading is not a strong point.

    The language of the article is very dramatic and often emotive so the reader comes round to the authors viewpoint. The author uses language such as “furious”, “triangle of death” and “angry and nervous”.  This gives the impression that life for a soldier in Iraq is horrendous and phrases such as “triangle of death” make death seem imminent.  All the sentences are very short and extremely easy to read.  This would make it easy for people who are not strong readers to read and make sense of the article. The language is extremely emotive to grab the readers attention. The article is also extremely biased towards Britain and especially to lower ranking British troops serving in Iraq.  The article gives quotes from only British servicemen and has many anti-American quotes, for instance “It seems we are moving up to take a piece of ground while the Americans push off”. The Mirror strongly opposes the Bush administration and on the day of his election ran the headline “how can 59,054,087 people be so dumb” and claimed that those states that had majority suport for Bush had statisticaly lower IQ's.  The paper sides with the British giving a one sided view of events and is seen to be backing the soldier on the ground at the front. This to is typical of the Daily Mirror which since the 1930's has been a sensationalist left wing newspaper aimed at the working man. This is not the first time the Mirror has taken this stance- in world war two they sold themselves as the paper for the “ordinary soldier and civilian” and critisized political leaders just like they do today. The paper is obviously using the Americans as a scape goat rather than calling into question why Britain joined the war. This would atract a target audience of patriotic Brits and is clearly aimed at British readers.

There is a picture on the cover of a pull-out magazine free with the paper which looks just like a proper glossy magazine, the sort that might be competing for circulation with the paper. This puts across the idea that it has everything a glossy magazine might have for a fraction of the price. The magazine atracts a female audience giving the impresion that the Mirror is a family paper that can be read by all members of the family. Most tabloids specialize in celebrity gossip and the mirror has clearly put its celebrity gossip into a seperate magazine to give the readers there impression they are getting more for their money and to stop family members arguing over the paper. The magazine that is clearly aimed at women has a very similar format to the original Mirror which was aimed at women.

      The target audience of the Daily Mirror in my opinion has not changed since the 1930's and is still aimed at British left wing men and women. The paper attracts its wide audience by covering as many diferent areas as possible such as Celebrities, Sport, News, T.V and more. The aim of the front page is to grab peoples attention and atract people to buy it. It does this by using bold attention grabing headlines with shocking emotive titles like “Angry and Nervous” and also funny up beat headlines like Montie's New birdie, both of which grab the audience's attention and makes them want to read on. The photos are also bright and attention grabing and help you form opinions about the story wether its on the position of soldiers in Iraq or the legitimacy of other people's relationships. The article acts as a teaser tempting you to read more whereas the free magazine offers celeb gossip. The wide range of articles make people of every age stop and pick up the paper. Essentialy the role of the front page is to grab the attention of someone walking past it and make them want to read more.

      In conclusion I believe that the paper gives a one sided uneducated view on the news events of the day and the majority is gossip.  The paper has very little information, mainly misleading photographs and flashy headlines made to suck the reader in.  The front page is made to advertise the paper with it's huge headlines and eye catching pictures.