Classification of newspapers

You have learned about the history of a newspaper. Now you will broaden your knowledge in print media reading the text about different types of the newspaper classification. While reading write out the key words so as to make a cognitive map. Be ready to reconstruct the text on the basis of your personal cognitive map.

There are different types of classification of newspapers. We will have a look at some of them.

FIRST, the newspapers may be classified as daily and weekly.

A daily newspaper is issued every day, sometimes with the exception of Sundays and some national holidays. Most daily newspapers have their sister Sunday issue. They tend to be larger, include more specialized sections and advertising inserts, and cost more. The Sunday Times, for example, has a circulation of over a million and is known for its excellent reporting in eight separate sections: a main news section and others devoted to sport news review, business, the arts, jobs advertisements, fashion and travel as well as a book review. Most daily newspapers are published in the morning. Afternoon or evening papers are aimed more at commuters and office workers.

Weekly newspapers are common and tend to be smaller than daily papers. The Observer is the oldest Sunday newspaper in Britain. It was founded in 1791 and today has circulation of around half a million. In some cases, there are also newspapers that are published twice or three times a week. In the United States, such newspapers are generally still classified as weeklies.

SECOND, we can speak about national, regional and local newspapers.

Most nations have at least one newspaper that circulates throughout the whole country: a national newspaper, as contrasted with a local newspaper serving a city or region. In the United Kingdom, there are numerous national newspapers, including The Independent, The Times, The Daily Telegraph, The Guardian, The Observer, The DailyMail, The Sun, The Daily Express and The Daily Mirror. In the United States and Canada, there are few truly national newspapers, with the notable exceptions The Wall Street Journal and USA Today in the US and The Globe and Mail and The National Post in Canada. Large metropolitan newspapers with expanded distribution networks such as The New York Times and The Washington Post can fill the role of de facto national newspapers.

THIRD, and one of the most important classifications of newspapers is into broadsheet and tabloid.

Traditionally it is about the size of the page - there is the large-format and aptly-named broadsheet and the more compact tabloid format. But for convenience of reading many traditional broadsheets have switched to a more compact-sized format, originally used by tabloids. The berlina format which is closer to the format of German newspapers is used by the Guardian nowadays. So the matter now is rather about the content and form of presenting material than about the size of page.

The quality or serious newspapers (usually referred to as broadsheets) also known as “heavies” deal with home and overseas news, detailed and extensive coverage of sports and cultural events. Besides they also carry financial reports, travel news and book and film reviews.

The tabloid or popular press is also known as “red top” offer news for people less interested in daily detailed news reports. They are characterized by large headlines, carry a lot of big photographs, concentrate on personal aspect of news, with reports of the recent sensational and juicy bits of events. Tabloids also tend to be more irreverent and slangy in their writing style than their more serious broadsheet brothers. For example, in a crime story, a broadsheet refers to a police officer, while the tabloid calls him a cop. And while a broadsheet might spend dozens of column inches on "serious" news - say, a major bill being debated in Parliament or in Congress - a tabloid is more likely to zero it on a heinous sensational crime story or celebrity gossip.

And FORTH, there is also a small group of newspapers which may be characterised as international newspapers. Some, such as Christian Science Monitor and the International Herald Tribune, have always had that focus, while others are repackaged national newspapers or "international editions" of national-scale or large metropolitan newspapers (the Financial Times, the Wall Street Journal).

www.en.wikipedia,org

If you want to learn more about the British and American newspapers and magazines you can read texts 2, 3, 4 in the Supplement.

Task 1

As you have learned the newspapers can be broken into a number of types. The table below contains all the right information but it has got muddled up. Sort it out.

	type of a newspaper		definition	example
	national	A	Contains some national and international news, but focus on news relating to a specific area of the country	the Sussex Times, South West Mercury
	regional	B	Contain some national and international news, but focus on fairly local news topics in detail. Usually based around town, cities or groups of villages.	Bath Chronicle, Bristol Evening Post
	local	C	A newspaper which covers news across the whole country, together with international news.	the Daily Express, the Guardian, the Sun
	tabloid	D	The largest type of newspaper. Cover all national and international news, often in a serious or formal way.	the Times, the Telegraph, the Guardian, the Independent
	broadsheet	E	Cover all national and international news. Often contains a certain amount of more ‘gossipy’ or scandalous news items, or more personal stories.	the News of the World the Daily Mirror the Sun

www.teachit.co.uk

Task 2a

Read the following characteristics of newspapers and divide them into two groups as to describe popular and quality newspapers.

Are bigger in size, have lots of pictures, include topical features, contain detailed news coverage, easy to read, are sometimes called “heavy”, give more space to opinions, put emphasis on sensational stories, cater for educated readers, contain longer articles, have “human interest” stories, pay much attention to sports, publish cartoons and contests, contain editorials, “red-top”, are designed for undemanding readers.

Task 2b

Here you can see the chart of differences between the broadsheets and tabloids. Compare it with the information you have already learned. Summarize the whole material and speak about the peculiarities of the serious and popular newspapers.

tabloids	broadsheets
· ‘popular press’	· ‘quality’ or ‘serious’ press
· aimed at a lower social grouping	· aimed at higher social groupings
· bold layout (color on the masthead, very bold typeface), with large, dramatic pictures	· plainer layout (no color on the front page, smaller typeface), subtle, possibly smaller pictures
· shorter articles, more pictures, less ‘indepth’ reporting	· longer articles, more detailed
· puns and jokes in headlines	· serious headlines
· more focus on human interest stories, celebrity gossip	· more focus on politics, international news
· use of gimmicks such as bingo games, free travel tickets, phone-in-surveys

Task 3

This task is connected with the researching the newspaper. You know that the type of newspaper affect the audience and therefore the content and style. Split into groups of 3 or 4 people. Look closely at four different newspaper front pages, and report your findings in the table like the one below (yours will need to be much bigger than this!).

	Newspaper 1	Newspaper 2	Newspaper 3	Newspaper 4
Name of newspaper
Type of newspaper
Main story headline
Main picture (How big is it? What is it of?)
Other news items
Language (What sort is it? Give examples)

www.teachit.co.uk

^ Task 4a

This is a pair work. Compare the way newspapers are classified in Belarus and in Britain. What similarities and differences can you name?

Task 4b

You are going to speak to the students of the English language summer school on Media studies. Make a report about the classification of newspapers in Belarus.

Task 4c

You are invited to speak about the classification of newspapers to the senior school students in the School of Journalism organized by the Institute of Journalism. It will be easier for you if you make a poster about the classification of the English language newspapers for your presentation.

 

 

Task 5

There are different types of newspaper ads. The two most common types are display and classified. First, read the information about the peculiarities of these kinds of advertisements. Second, look through any copy of a newspaper, find the ads and specify their type.

from “TYPES OF NEWSPAPER ADS”

By Rick Suttle, eHow contributor

www.ehow.com

For further information about other kinds of advertisements go to text 5 in the SUPPLEMENT.

Task 6

You have learned a lot about the different types of newspapers. Get a copy of an English language tabloid or quality newspaper. Analyze its organization and content. Present the results of your analysis to the group. You should pay attention to the following:

· the format

· the rubrics or sections

· the length of the articles published;

· the amount of photos;

· the amount and type of advertisements;

· length and complexity of headlines;

· the range of news the newspaper introduces to the readers (e.g. home news and the news from abroad);

Don’t forget that the following elements are the conventions of a front page:

· Masthead – the newspaper’s name, often in traditional gothic lettering (it may not have changed for many years and is the easiest way to identify a newspaper) and some basic information about the newspaper (date, price, e-mail address, etc.).

· Slogan – a ‘catchphrase’ for the newspaper.

· ‘Puffs’ or ‘blurbs’ – colour bands which aim to attract readers to stories inside the newspaper or ‘coming soon’.

· Headlines – the largest typeface on the page for the most important stories.

· Sub-heads – in smaller typeface, sometimes italicised, that explain more about the story

· Lead-story – one that has been chosen as being of most interest to the most readers.

· By-line – journalist’s name and details.

· Secondary lead – still an important story, but less than the lead.

· Photographs – sometimes colour, sometimes black and white. They may refer to the lead story, or be there to make a reader “turn to page 6 …”. Don’t forget the all-important captions which accompany photographs.

· Menu – a ‘table of contents’ showing what is in each section and where to go to find articles inside.

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