OUGD403 STUDIO BRIEF 3 - NEWSPAPER INFORMATION SEMINAR

Yesterday I had a really interesting seminar informing us on the different types of newspapers, such as broadsheet and tabloid, and what makes a broadsheet newspaper for example a broadsheet, why not a tabloid or a compact.

I found out that there are four different types of newspapers:

1) Broadsheet

2) Berliner

3) Compact (Broadsheet compact)

4) Tabloid

Broadsheet newspapers are typically 75cm X 60cm, which is extremely large, and is impractical for reading on-the-go. They tend to have a more academic tone, and the articles have a high word count. Examples of broadsheet newspapers are The Daily Telegraph or The Sunday Times.

Berliner newspapers are typically 31.5cm X 47cm, which is smaller than the broadsheet quite significantly, but still bigger than a tabloid or compact newspaper. Berliner newspapers are quite uncommon in Britain, however most newspapers in France, Italy and Germany for example are of the Berliner style. They are used as an alternative to a broadsheet newspaper, as still have the serious content, but are much more practical in size. An example of Berliner is The Guardian.

Compact newspapers are also known as Compact Broadsheets, as they have a broadsheet newspaper content, but are tabloid newspaper size (43cm X 29.5cm). These are newspapers that used to be broadsheet newspapers, but were adapted to better suit the place where they were read, which was typically on the Tube or one some form on public transport as people were travelling to work or education. Generally, especially compact newspapers, newspapers tend to have a political stance, for example The Daily Mail is a compact newspaper and tends to have conservative views on articles. The Independent is left wing, and The Scotsman is upmarket centre. What political stance the newspaper has decides what angle each of the articles is aimed at. Another interesting thought to do with newspapers political stances, is that not many compact newspapers support the labour party, this, very stereotypically speaking now, could be because labour is more of a working class party, and the working class typically read tabloid newspapers such as The Sun or The Daily Mirror, rather than more academic ones such as The Independent. Compact newspapers are also however a sub-genre of tabloid newspapers.

The final type of newspaper is the Tabloid, which is the same size of the compact newspaper. Tabloid newspapers have less body text of a larger size, they have a lot more adverts, as often the adverts pay for a lot of the newspaper. Tabloid newspapers have a lot of images, often overlaying headlines, and the headlines themselves are often very large and in bold font. They are often called "red tops" due to the masthead of Tabloid newspapers often being red and white. The vocabulary use is often simple, with no technical vocabulary, as they are aimed at the working class, and articles and headlines themselves are straightforward and to the point, often about trivial of celebrity topics. Examples of Tabloid newspapers are The Sun and The Daily Mirror.

There is also some anomalies in newspaper types, as the Metro and the i newspapers are free newspapers that don't really fit under any category. The Metro is paid for by adverts, and often has whole pages dedicated to adverts, and you wont find one whole page without an advert on it. Companies also pay vast amounts of money to have the front and back cover of the Metro with their advertisements on it.

I also found out that there are actually very few companies that distribute newspapers, there are only about 1 or 2 companies which own all the newspapers you can buy. This results in the same article only slightly tweaked in several different newspapers. Newspaper companies often own film companies and TV channels as well, so this will also effect what content is shown in the newspapers, or what is being shown on the TV channel as well.