Print genre

Broadsheet newspapers are quality newspapers which offer news as information, are generally more expensive and have lower circulation. Tabloid newspapers are popular newspapers which offer news as entertainment, are generally cheaper in comparison to broadsheets and have a higher circulation.

The mid-market genre has evolved due to the process of tabloidisation (a method of hybridisation) - this is when broadsheet newspapers borrow conventions from tabloid conventions to increase their popularity.

Tabloid (including red-tops)

Softer news agenda - eg. human interest stories, celebrities etc.
Less formal language register
Pages dominated by striking headlines and images (might be edited to add sensationalism)
Target a more downmarked C2DE audience
Offers news as entertainment.

Mid-markets

Hard news agenda, but can include soft news agenda items on cover. Populist.
Mix of formal and informal language - usually formal, but with more colloquial tone
Pages have more copy than a tabloid, but less than a broadsheet
Target a BC1C2D audience - gives illusion of being more formal
Offers news as information, with entertaining style of tone

Broadsheets

Hard news agenda - eg. politics, finance and international news
More formal language register
Higher text to images ratio - pages dominated by text
Target a more upmarket, ABC1 audience
Offers news as information

The ‘front page’

The front page is the ‘shop window’ of a newspaper, designed to grab attention and sell the paper the public.
Front pages reinforce the newspaper’s identity and project the paper’s attitude to the events of the previous day.
While the front pages of popular and quality newspapers may vary in content and style, both contain certain common conventions.

It used to be so simple…

Newspapers used to be defined as either Tabloid or Broadsheet. The conventions of each genre were simply distinguishable by their stylistic features.
Today however, these terms are more appropriate when discussing the size of a newspaper because of a process called tabloidisation.

Tabloidisation: The mid-market genre has evolved due to the process of tabloidisation (a method of hybridisation) - this is when broadsheet newspapers borrow conventions from tabloid conventions to increase theirpopularity.

Genre theory - Steve Neale

Steve Neale declares that 'genres are instances of repetition and difference'. He adds that 'difference is absolutely essential to the economy of genre': mere repetition would not attract an audience. This means that newspapers must evolve and be dynamic in their use of genre conventions in order to stay profitable.

Task: Annotate the genre conventions

Use the following terminology to annotate the two extracts on the genre conventions of tabloid and broadsheet newspapers.

Masthead
Dateline
Standfirst
Secondary lead
Language and register
Headline
Main image
Captions
Splash

Answers

Task: Annotate two extracts.

Go to https://www.tomorrowspapers.co.uk/

Find a day where all the papers reported on the same story.

Pick one tabloid or middle-market newspaper.
Pick one broadsheet newspaper.

Paste these front covers onto a new google slides document and deconstruct how the genre conventions communicate different meanings.

Populism and Sensationalism

Populism - news that is designed to not be the hard truth but instead what the readers want to hear - the idea is to juxtapose ‘the people’ versus ‘the elite’ (eg. to make ‘the elite’ seem self-serving and corrupt and ‘the people’ as a morally good force).

The Sun is a good example of populism. Their political support for the Conservatives is almost satirical sometimes for the opposition and thus creates a juxtaposition between ‘the readers’ versus ‘labour’.

Remember - the reading age of an average Sun reader is just 8 years old so they want people to effectively support their politically affiliated party through easy but humorous language.

Sensationalism - the presentation of stories in a way that is intended to provoke public interest or excitement, at the expense of accuracy.

Daily Star is known for an almost satirical approach to creating representations. Often, they would take a small issue in society and they will blow it out of proportion.

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