A comparative analysis of broadsheet and tabloid newspapers Free Essay Example

A newspaper is a publication which includes news info and marketing. All over the world, people purchase and read newspapers every day in numerous different languages. The very first printed newspaper was released in 1605 and sales rapidly increased from then on, however, sales are not as high as they used to be since of our ever changing media industry. The future of papers is cloudy, with general readership gradually decreasing in most developed nations.

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There is increasing competitors from television, radio and the Internet as readers are now finding increasingly more methods to gain access to news without having to go out to a store and buy a paper.

It appears that the majority of people who purchase newspapers are travellers. There are 2 types of newspaper: tabloids and broadsheets. Readership varies between these two categories since the material of the paper is typically various. Typical readers tend to check out whatever newspaper is put in front of them but others will deliberately go out and buy either a tabloid or broadsheet of their option whilst some read both.

Some people like to buy tabloids due to the fact that they desire a paper for enjoyment and for specialist elements which the tabloids do much better than the broadsheets such as celebrities and human interest. On the other hand, people choose broadsheets because they desire to take satisfaction from good journalism and interesting subjects like politics, nationwide and worldwide news. Those who purchase broadsheets are normally well informed and can comprehend the complex and intellectual language utilized.

It is frequently clear how different the 2 designs of paper are, simply from the front page.

Looking at the front page of The Sun I can see that there is a difference concerning size compared to the guardian. Tabloids are normally small in size and are more like brochures when they are compared to broadsheets. These were initially broad sheets of paper). The cost also varies as The Sun; the tabloid expenses just 35 cent whilst The Guardian, the broadsheet is priced at 70 pence. Although The Guardian is double the rate of the tabloid but there are also additional areas such as the sports guardian and g2.

Analysing the front page, I notice how The Sun is clearly made up mostly of pictures with a large photograph otherwise known as the bull image on the top right. There is a lot of WOB (white on black) used and a great deal of pace is taken up by headlines of the splash. There are no second leads, only puffs in various forms for the content in the paper such as the free DVD, an exclusive interview with Jordan and a special report on the Chelsea versus man u game. More than one image is used for the main story and there is hardly any text at all save one small paragraph.

Lots of colour is visible and there are borders around pictures and paragraphs. Everything is very spaced out and I can see the red masthead at the top of the paper. This is why newspapers such as The Sun are known as redtops. I think that the layout is very eye catching and is much more appealing than the broadsheet. Reading the Guardian, it is obvious that the front page is very different to the tabloid because despite the fact that it is twice the size of The Sun, it is also made up nearly entirety of text with hardly any pictures.

It is significantly less colourful than The Sun and there is only one picture accompanying the main story as well as a small image of the statue of liberty in the ‘national’ section. Furthermore, at the top of the broadsheet I can see the puff advertising the free designer wrapping paper that comes with The Guardian and a photograph of Louis Saha in a red strip as part f the sport corner for the Manchester United against Chelsea game.

Usually there are puffs on the front page of the broadsheets and tabloids to inform readers of interesting and engaging articles inside the paper and this is evident in the bottom quarter of the page with headlines such as: ‘Hain’s remarks dent Russian relations,’ ‘Gaza cease fire holds after rocket attacks,’ and ‘companies protest at tax burden’ I have noticed how WOB is not used here and there are much fewer photographs. I observe how both newspapers use lots of colour on their first few pages to draw readers inside.

The font size is noticeably larger on the front page of the tabloid taking up most of the sheet, only leaving a small section for the first few sentences of the lead. Also, the font used on The Sun is less formal than that of the broadsheet which uses serifs (tiny marks on the edge of lettering). On The Guardian there is the splash and the second lead which uses large lettering including a bulky headline font, which catches the buyer’s attention.

The overall effect of The Sun’s front page seems interesting ad exciting and I like the way that it is so colourful and spaced out which makes the page clear and easy to read. However, The Guardian is also appealing in the way tat it has its own style and is very smart and formal. It includes topics on he front page that would interest a variety of readers. The styles of newspaper are dissimilar because the language, font and headlines are more formal on The Guardian and the opposite on The Sun which is very informal with mainly pictures, headlines and largely spaced paragraphs.

The tabloid contains simple sensational headlines which are sometimes in the form of a pun which grab the reader’s attention whilst The Guardian’s are much simpler. Sub headings are shorter and vaguer whilst broadsheets simply state the facts. On The Sun the headings are up for interpretation which makes the reader want to read on for further insight into the story. The tabloids like to glamorize things and the broadsheets write about events as they happened. The Sun is more humerase, biased but still has opinions and facts to back up their argument.

Emotive language is used frequently to evoke sympathy and influence reader’s opinions. Slang is more commonly used here and the language is more friendly and casual. I have noticed that the average sentence length in a broadsheet (21. 6 words) is nearly double the length of a tabloid newspaper (11. 8 words per paragraph) I think that this means that the sentences in a broadsheet are more complex and informative than a tabloid and this is proved true simply by reading one article.

The sentences vary a lot in The Guardian: some are very short, others are very long but in The Sun they are all extremely short as are the articles. I have also noticed how tabloids like to use crossheads in the articles such as “shocked” or “horrified. ” These introduce the paragraph ahead and summarise what it is about. Overall, I can truthfully say that the paper which catches my attention the most is the tabloid: The Sun. I like the colourful layout and the use of pictures and large headlines to attract readers.

On the other hand, I prefer the content of the broadsheet: The Guardian as its stories are fascinating and have been written by very good journalists as have some of the tabloids. Although celebrities and human interest is something I enjoy reading about, I prefer topics in The Guardian such as politics and international news because I find these more interesting. I think that my ideal newspaper would be set out like the tabloid and have stories on celebrity gossip, human interest as well as the fashion pages which I always enjoy reading, accompanying the stories that I can only usually find in a broadsheet.