Monday, 1 April 2019

How far has the genre influenced the media language used in sources A and B?

Genre has a huge influence upon the media and the way its portrayed. The two types of newspaper genre are Tabloid and Broadsheet. Now almost all newspapers adopt a tabloid sizing, as its deemed easier to read, the original generic conventions of either a tabloid newspaper or broadsheet.

Tabloid newspapers, this type of newspaper has as downmarket or commonly working class target audience. Due to its specific target audience the newspaper has been designed very differently to a broadsheet newspaper. Tabloid newspapers tend to encompass a softer news agenda, talking mainly about human issue stories or celebrities, it also contains a less formal language register, using simple common dialect, the mastheads is bold, often red on white, similarly the headlines are bold and capitalised, all text is written in sans-serif font. The pages are usually dominated by headlines and images.

Broadsheet newspapers, this type of newspaper has as upmarket or commonly middle class target audience. Due to its specific target audience the newspaper has been designed very differently to a tabloid newspaper. Broadsheet newspapers tend to encompass a much harder news agenda, including politics, finance and international news, it also contains a much more formal language register, using a more extensive, complex dialect, the mastheads often black on white, while the headlines are capitalised as in a sentence, all text is written in serif font. The pages are usually dominated by copy.

Looking at the tabloid newspaper first, the Daily Mail, this is a middle-market tabloid as apposed to a red top tabloid. It finds its own characteristics a blend of both tabloid and broadsheet newspapers in the middle of both set of conventions. We see a cover with a 50/50 split between copy and image a balance between tabloid and broadsheet conventions. Capitalised but lack of extreme formal or informal language, it finds the median between both alternatives. This enforces that the genre is of a tabloid, however a slightly higher market than red top tabloids, reinforcing the belief that it is a middle market tabloid newspaper. The type of language used in the newspaper has a lack or formality, however remains stereotypically informal (swearing/ obtuse language) this reinforces the representation of it being a stereotypical middle-market tabloid.

Upon analysis of the Guardian, we can see its a typical broadsheet genre newspaper. as apposed to a tabloid. It finds its own characteristics with the original broadsheet newspapers conventions. However this issue of the Guardian is less typical and appears to have been hybridised, aside form the masthead being white on blue which is the Guardians own original convention we see a cover dominated with image, which is not stereotypical of broadsheet. There is also a short headline, however the cover conforms to the conventions of a broadsheet with the lower case of the headline and the use of serif font. This reinstates that the genre is of a a broadsheet, however the conventions are being changed in this issue. This could be an overall change in hybridising the newspaper and breaking conventions as to being marketable to a larger target audience. By appealing to more people they may gain a larger viewership and then increase profit and influence. Or this may be a special one off edition as to emphasise the situation thats being reported.

To conclude both newspapers are in some way influenced by the genres and conventions that have been set however, many conventions are being broken and altered to appeal to a larger amount of people. This change is a way of hybridising the magazine however, it is clear that set conventions still show and this may be permanent no matter how much change is seen with the newspapers.

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