Tabloid and a broadsheet newspaper

Introduction

The aims of the essay are to look at a tabloid and a broadsheet newspaper and to compare the language and layout of each paper. The tabloid we are going to look at is 'The Daily Express', and the broadsheet we are looking at is 'The Independent'. While comparing these two papers I am going to observe the style, content, and design of each paper. The tabloid I am analysing is the 'Daily Express', dated Tuesday 23rd September 2003. The main stories covered are home news, celebrity scandal and entertainment.

Most tabloids including this one mainly focus on having celebrity news as their main stories.

What a tabloid actually contains?

By knowing what a tabloid actually contains, we get the impression that the audience who is going to read this will be reading it to get gossip. Tabloids have typical news on the front cover and we usually know what it's going to be about, most of the time, there will be a celebrity on the front page; in this case they have Frank Bruno the boxer.

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They also have a picture of Price Harry and Prince William. Having celebrities on the front page wants us to read inside because people like to find out what celebrities are doing and knowing all the gossip about them is interesting to read.

The 'Daily Express' layout uses big pictures, big text, colours and used (mostly reds), NIB (news in brief), storm boards, Its eye- catching, Bullet points, lists which make it easier to look at and pick out the bits you want to read, photo stories also help this.

Tabloids use a lot more visual techniques to make you want to read it. It also uses a few strap lines which show us either adverts or more information about what other stories are inside the paper. It uses big, bold headlines, and sometimes they are in capital letters, which will make them stand out more.

The audience of Daily Express

The Daily Express' audience is more for adults or teenagers. I don't think any newspaper will appeal to a younger child, but this one would be easier to read as the language would be easier to understand and there is more to look at as the tabloid has more visual things on it. It is also easier because tabloids tend to have lists rather than block paragraphs which make it easier to read the bits you want rather than having to read the whole story. Tabloids are more 'casual' in the way that the language is informal and everything is made to the point easily and quickly.

So if you were in a rush, this paper would be easy to read and the stories are brought across to you quickly. The tabloid uses a selection of layout techniques like Stand 1st, Strap lines, Pugs, Splash, Master Head and kickers. The puff used is 'The world's greatest newspaper', this suggests that this is the best paper in the world, but this is an opinion not a true fact. All newspapers are obviously going to say their paper is the bets as they ant the most people to buy it. The language used in a tabloid is very simple. It is informal and casual.

The language of tabloids

The tabloid uses alliteration, Word play, puns, metaphors and similes. This makes the reader want to read on, Say if you had a catchy headline, you will want to read on about the story. In a tabloid everything is made to the point quickly, it is straight forward, and easy to understand. The Sentence structure is less complex which changes the target audience, in a tabloid as the language is straight forward the audience will be people who don't want to have to be reading all these complex words, they just want a straight forward story and to be told it quickly.

The language is chatty and colloquial. Bare facts and basic news is got across to the audience easily. The language is quite bias; most tabloids have their own views on things like which party they are going to vote for etc. In the Daily Express they have a negative connotation about Gordon Brown, because they put a headline besides him saying, 'Is this man bleeding middle England dry? ' This makes him sound like he is not doing any thing for England apart from ruining it. The picture they have of him is also very negative because it shows him angry.

The Daily Express uses more opinions compared to facts, for example, the royal exclusive about the story on Prince William and Prince Harry which states they were on a wild night out with a girl. If these two boys weren't celebrities this would be nothing to a newspaper. This story is written by one girl who claims she spent all night with the two princes and it was a wild night. Just because Prince Harry and Prince William spent a night out, the paper says it was a 'wild' night out. Most tabloids seem to over exaggerate most things. They have a lot of use of hyperbole.

By using hyperboles this makes the reader more interested in the story. Headlines are over exaggerated to make the reader want to read the rest of the story, it draws them in. The broadsheet I am analyzing is 'the Independent'. The main stories covered are politics, overseas news and home news. This paper doesn't like to 'gossip' it tells you facts rather then opinions. People who read broadsheets are usually stereotyped to be business men or a very intellectual person as the language is harder to understand and the sentence structure is very complex.

The Independent

The audience of the independent will more likely be towards an older person. I think this because the layout is in block paragraphs which make it harder to read and the language used is complex. Broadsheets are formal compared to casual because it has a lot to do with the layout and the language used. The layout of the independent is very busy. It has a lot of words on the front page compared to any other newspaper. Rather then having a little bit of a story on the front cover, they have the whole story. This broadsheet also goes into a lot more detail, but it only states the facts.

The Independent uses pictures, bold headlines and also uses a puff. The logo is placed before the title the independent. The logo is a picture of an eagle which may represent England and it has claws with the paper in, this might represent you being in their hands, shows the paper is powerful. The broadsheet the independent and the tabloid the daily express are very different papers but they also have their similarities. The similarities are they both use pictures and bold headlines to attract the audiences attention.

They both also want you to buy their paper by saying theirs is the best in the world. Both papers use a logo which could represent many different things but they both relate to the audience. The independent and the daily express have one major difference which is the independent is a broadsheet and the daily express is a tabloid. The language of both papers is initially different because the broadsheets language is complex and hard to understand but the tabloid is more casual and easy to understand.

Conclusion

This relates to why they have different audiences to appeal to. Tabloids use more celebrity endorsement; this is because I think that tabloids like more 'gossip'. The audience likes to know what celebrities are doing in their life; Broadsheets do this too but not as much. The layout in a broadsheet is more in block paragraphs rather then lists or bullets like tabloids. When broadsheets have stories like on the front cover they will tell us the facts involved and go into detail about both sides of the story.

But in tabloids I have seen that they say what happened without giving evidence of facts and then state their opinion on that subject and try to make you change their mind and think how they are. Overall I have decided if I was to have to choose to read a tabloid or a broadsheet I would choose the tabloid as I like to know gossip about celebrities and the language more appeals to me. The layout is also better for my age group as I can chose out parts I would like to read instead of having to read the whole block paragraph which can be very complex.