tabloid cover analysis

1. Newspaper
Conventions:
Tabloid
Generic Conventions within Covers

2. Brief 01: • Brief 01: Newspaper Conventions
• This first brief is a research and production task aimed at giving you the opportunity to develop research and
production skills needed within the production of print media.
• Task 1:
• Create a PowerPoint in which you present your research into the generic conventions of broadsheet newspaper
covers.
• Begin with slide of covers. The Times, The Guardian, The Daily Telegraph
• Slide for each conventions. Slide of masthead (typical/conventional for it, fonts, differences (modern etc. to be
different) (do for every feature: lang of headline, images, news values with examples)
• Task 2:
• Create a PowerPoint in which you present your research into the generic conventions of tabloid newspaper covers.
• Same process as Task 1
• Decide whether daily mail and daily express as more tabloid or more broadsheet
• Task 3:
• Based on your research, produce one broadsheet newspaper front cover and one tabloid newspaper cover.
• Original newspaper or copy format of each.
• Look like existing media or break conventions (need a good reason to break these conventions)
• Think about lessons (signs etc.)
• Both covers should contain at least one original image.
• Further details on how to present your research and productions pending update.

3. • Examples of Tabloid Covers
• Daily Mirror, The Sun, Daily Star
• Within their conventions

4. Masthead: Analysis of style
• Included the date above the title
along with the price, creating
convenience for the reader. All
mastheads are located at the top of
their tabloid paper. The font is
inconsistent with ‘Daily’ being in all
caps and ‘Mirror’ has a capitalised
first letter, however this means that
the reader won’t have their attention
drawn away from the
word/information ‘Daily’.
• Compared to the other logos, there's
more text within it.
• The name ‘Star’ can link to the
celebrities that they report on
and emphasise how they are a
people magazine.
• Focus is put on the ‘Star’, like
the paper does with its
content, by the word ‘the’
subtly being in the corner in a
small font. Whilst the ’star’ is
presented in a bold italic font
and a large size.
• ‘THE Sun’ is written in a very
powerful font and large size,
making it instantly
recognisable with their very
‘flashy’ and crazy presentation
of covers.
• Breaking the conventions of
these other papers, they have
no other info in their masthead
other than their name. This
emphasises the focus on who
they are.
Labour/ Left-wing Politically neutral Conservative

5. News presented
• All tabloid papers report on gossip, crime and scandals all based on popular culture.
• They tend to stick to reporting on soft news.
These stories are used to create light relief and humour to put
across a serious topic. Allowing the reader to stay update on gossip
and serious issues with a fun twist.
Daily mirror- left
wing leaning
The sun- right-
wing leaning
Daily Star-
politically neutral

6. Audience of the papers
Left-wing views
The political stance of newspapers tend to influence the audience of their news. Therefore, most readers will
share a political view with the paper. However, we must also understand that some viewers want to expand
their knowledge with different opinions, and some may also try to be unbiased.
Conservative/ Right wing
views
Have sought egalitarian changes in the economic, political, and cultural
institutions of the United Kingdom. Generally, the left wing is
characterized by an emphasis on "ideas such as freedom, equality,
fraternity, rights, progress, reform and internationalism"
Have sought egalitarian changes in economic, political, and
cultural institutions of the United Kingdom. Generally, the left
wing is characterized by an emphasis on “ideas such as
freedom, quality, fraternity, rights, progress, reform and
internationalism”.
No favourable party but have
opinions on particular MPs.
They have been reported to
be right-centre-based
editorially.
They do not often report on politics; however, when they do, they use
negative language for Conservative Boris Johnson and Donald Trump in
particular. The Star does not endorse candidates other than this negative
language. However, they have reported negatively on the EU and
supported Brexit, creating a right-wing view on occasion.

7. Images
The Daily Mirror is covered in
multiple images, keeping the general
opinion of tabloid papers being
tacky and flashy. Each cover is set up
in a similar way where the top of the
page will contain information on
something less important but
interesting inside. Scanning down
the page you would next notice a
more important heading with a bold image to catch
your attention. However, you will next find an image
with large, bold anchoring text which naturally catches
initial attention and shows the importance of this story
and its images. None of these images feel particularly
important compared to Broadsheet papers but do
relate to the story. The Mirror’s political stance, left-
wing, can be seen through these images with how the
political images, e.g. Theresa May, aren’t the most
attractive, whilst the image and story for Bruce Rosyth
is much kinder and more respectful. This is possibly
due to his significance to the general British public
who read Tabloid ‘gossip’ papers.
The Star clearly focuses
on use of comedic
images, drawing
attention to their front
covers with the bright
colours and strange
edited images. Both
these covers fit the
personal conventions of
The Star by having the
same layout of images
and putting similar
This particular cover
(left) uses just one
image, drawing all
the attention to one
story with its size and
anchoring text. This is one
of the ways that The Sun
will present its images.
The image to the right is the second common
way that The Sun uses to lay out its images. As a
conservative newspaper, The Sun expectedly
respects and supports the royals. This is
demonstrated through their presentation of
Kate with the image shown. This proves the
conservative values of being pro-monarchy and
traditional. However, this respect disappears for
their ‘own people’ as The Sun creates an
embarrassing and typical tabloid cover for a
member of the Tory party due to his death by
suicide. This attitude is further proven by it
being the only image on the page, therefore
catching the reader’s attention instantly.
things of importance in the same places. The political
stories contain completely altered images to fit their
take on a story by making jokes about those involved,
fitting to their somewhat complicated political
stance.

8. Language of Headlines
These covers show that despite the
humorous nature that tabloids tend to
have, The Sun has headlines that report
on serious political news.
Many of their headlines clearly converse
their conservative opinion.
The Star has much less serious headlines,
these headlines are occasionally
inappropriate as well. Despite the
humorous nature of these, readers are
likely to understand the reference already
or will understand once reading the article.
Similarly to The Sun, the Daily
Mirror has headlines that clearly
convey the story to readers
before reading them.

9. News Agenda
Typically, Tabloid papers report on human
interest and celebrity news as
entertainment
The Mirror tends to report on typical
tabloid topics. The news seems to be
informative for the British public, but
the contents are not as ‘important’ as
global issues reported by most
Broadsheet papers with hard news.
The Daily Star has one of the least
serious news agendas out of the tabloid
newspaper. The topics surround British
pop culture and stranger takes on
mainstream news in the UK.
The Sun reports on topics
surrounding politics and royals,
unusual for a tabloid paper.
However, they do this in a less
‘professional’ way through their
political stance (right wing).

10. The Sun uses two different ways to present its images in
general, one being with an image and anchoring text across
the majority of the page, the other being multiple stories
spread out almost evenly across the cover. However, these
covers did stick out to me amongst the general covers of The
Sun. The image of Theresa May is central on the page, this
differs from the conventions of The Sun as they tend to place
their images to the side when they cover the page. This
normally allows for the anchoring text to surround the
silhouette on one side. Instead in this situation, the headline
sits below her face whilst the standfirst and other
information cover the space surrounding her, making the
page feel just as intense and full as it would be if the image
was in a conventional position.
This Daily Mirror cover
stood out to me because of
the unusual, convention-
breaking, amount of
advertisement. The large
number of advertisements is
distracting as it outweighs
the quantity of news stories
on the cover.
This cover stood out to me
due to how large the main
image and anchoring text is.

11. News register
Informal/ Indirect Mode of address
These Tabloid papers use informal language and an indirect mode of address as they aim for lower social groups
that are reading for ‘gossip’ so don’t want to be using lots of effort into finding and reading this information.

12. THE SUN Conclusion
• The Sun emphasizes who they are and their
values constantly, through their content,
masthead, and images. They are a conservative
paper. At times they can be disrespectful through
their serious content, this allows them to attract
their audience as opinions are the same and
readers are looking for gossip.

13. THE MIRROR Conclusion
• The Daily Mirror is a much more respectful and
progressive newspaper with a left-wing political
stance. Their reports tend to align with the opinions
of the general British working class, allowing them
to feel seen and also read information that lines up
with their views. They are straightforward with
their headlines and stories.

14. THE STAR Conclusion
• The presentation of The Star emphasizes its want
to be a people paper. They continuously use comedic
and recognizable content to keep the attention of
readers. They are one of the least serious tabloid
newspapers regarding their content and political
stance.