AQA GCSE Media Studies Student Book

180 Don’t worry, you won’t need to delve any further into the 300-year history of Britain’s press, but it will be useful for you to have a good general understanding of newspapers as a media form in the UK today. Following are some key points that you need to be aware of: • The range of daily and Sunday newspapers available and the different categories that they fall into. • The circulation figures (sales and readership) of these newspapers and trends in circulation. • The target audiences of the main national dailies and Sunday newspapers. • Who owns the newspapers and how does ownership affect content? • The political leanings of different newspapers. • The style of presentation and use of language, layout and images in newspapers. • The various ways in which newspapers have established an online presence. Most of these points refer to the national press but you should certainly make a point of looking closely at your local newspaper to see how it compares with the nationals. Before we move on to a closer study of The Times and the Daily Mirror , let’s see how these titles fit into the overall pattern of our newspapers. Tabloids and broadsheets These two categories refer to the physical size of newspapers: the dimensions of the paper they are printed on. Put simply, big ones are broadsheets and small ones are tabloids. Traditionally, broadsheets are aimed at a more upmarket (AB) readership of middle-class professionals and tabloids are aimed at either the midmarket (BC1) or popular (C2DE) sector of the market. Few broadsheets remain today. The Guardian , The Times and the Observer have all changed to a smaller format but the Daily and Sunday Telegraph are still broadsheets. Despite this, the terms broadsheet (or ‘former broadsheet’) and tabloid are still widely used to describe newspapers aimed at different market segments. Newspaper titles The Guardian is now printed in a smaller format. Can you name your local newspapers? Are they free or paid for? Quick question 5.14 See Chapter 3, pages 90–93. for an explanation of these demographic terms. Link AQA GCSE Media Studies