Technically the first lesson of the semester for this module (as in previous weeks our time was somewhat occupied with doing shorthand instead), this is the module that will teach the bare bones and essentials of journalism and journalism theory.
To start with, we discussed the Agenda of the news, and by this we mean the running order of the news and how it applies or differs according to specific audiences. For instance, a National Audience might be interested in the latest developments of the Chilean Miners story, whereas a more niche audience would be interested in different subjects. The difference between Broadsheet and Tabloid agendas usually consist of different priorities, except in cases where the news is so wide-spread, it becomes news that affects everyone i.e. the Chilean Miners. The Tabloids agenda is normally similar to that of the TV news agenda, whereas the Broadsheet agenda is the official "doings" of society, and generally the same as the BBC's agenda which would mostly consist of parliamentary news (which normally gets set by the BBC or The Times), or larger affecting news stories.
The audiences and demographics of each kind of news is reflected in the style, content and coverage of each of the papers. The Mail, for instance, with its health scare stories and general stirring up of troubling subjects cater towards a more female-oriented demographic than The Times’ news and political coverage might do.
We were told that “The business of Journalism is turning information into money”, basically meaning that bringing the information to the people that want it and are willing to pay for it is the kind of writing that we should be aiming for. However, the concern of this is selling it to people in large numbers, and how to shift and sell all this information when there is an audience for each different kind of information. The trick is to find a market that you can write for that has an appeal, and write in a way that appeals to every person in that market.
The key for most papers is finding a common ground that relates easily to its readers. This can consist of a basis from subjects such as: England, TV, Sex, etc. Its these kinds of stories that sell because it is what people have in common and are interested in – things that are British or affect Britain, things involving or surrounding issues that are from or affect Television, etc... So, in the case of The Daily Mail, who we have now established has a large appeal to a female oriented demographic, the style and coverage will appeal to that demographic. However, in order to widen their net, there is a balance in their appeal to men as well by including content coverage of gadgets and sports as well. In this way, The Daily Mail has an appeal, but is not exclusive to, a wider audience. In contrast to this, The Daily Star is almost exclusively centred on male interests and there is little to no appeal for women, as well as little to no coverage of current events. Another example would be The Financial Times, which has a much lower circulation than a lot of other papers as it caters to a much more direct market than the others with its specific coverage and niche appeal.
That was all about the Broadsheets, but the Tabloids are almost like frozen TV, and the demographic for them tend to be people who are normally watching TV a lot of the time and rely on it to get most of their information about the outside world. In this sense, Tabloids are very visual, and contain a lot of images reflective of their content, much like a visual news package would. Broadsheets tend to appeal more to people who don’t have the time to get their information from the TV and need another means of doing so.
Essentially, this introduction will show us a lot about the different functions of the papers, and how their style and coverage appeal to different demographics.
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