An Analysis of Two contrasting newspapers

News of the World (Red Top newspaper)

Target audience: 21-30

GNR

Genre: Newspaper
Narrative: Gossip related news

Representation: Features celebrity and showbiz gossip

Visual codes

·         Features semi-naked celebrity (biggest image on the cover)

·         Celebrity couple, small image in the lower right corner

·         Pop star featured as a selling point for the magazine (offers a free sticker album of the pop star)

·         Celebrity featured (image) in smaller headline after his name in print

·         Two of the England stars from yesterday’s game featured in bottom right-hand corner; accompanying this in the opposite corner there are the respective badges of the competitive sides, broken up by the trophy

o    Sports story features on the front cover (although small)

·         In the bottom left corner is the only picture of a civilian, featured for a related story

·         Contrasting colours throughout the cover

Layout and Design

·         Text is the feature of the page

·         Each story is individually boxed

·         Images are quiet small, with the largest image being a semi-naked celebrity

·         No colour scheme, mismatch of colours

Language

The mode of address is indirect and the register is relatively informal

·         Sensationalist

·         Emotive stories, appeals to people’s emotions

·         One sided view appeal to peoples ideologies and reactant views

·         The grammar is not correct in all places

·         Very small amount of text no more than 200 words, with an indicator to read further into the newspaper for the rest of the article

·         Headlines introducing stories with little to no text to accompany it

The Independent

Target audience: 40-60, perhaps 40+, intellectual readers

GNR

Genre: Global news provider

Narrative: Economic, political or relevant world news. International current affairs

Representation: Reputable news coverage

Visual codes

·         Large image demonstrating the demonstrations against the Governments cuts, image shows that violence broke out in the demonstrations, with three police officers centre behind their riot shields and visors down.

·         Smaller image of man wrapped in a Libyan flag standing on top of a tank, featured next to a relevant headline

·         Again smaller images to accompany relevant headlines

Layout and Design

·         The largest image covers 3/4s of a page from the bottom left side upwards

·         Name of the paper is centred and stretched across the width of the cover

·         Colour scheme:

o    Is in-keeping with the colours featured in the image

o    Genre neutral

·         Ordered, easy to read and accessible

Language

Mode of address: Is indirect and of a formal register

·         Factual based

·         Reliable sources

·         Intellectual read

·         Heading is put in a sophisticated way

·         Reports on International current affairs