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Broadsheets Vs Tabloids

Recently, there's been a lot of discussion on these boards about the roles of tabloids and broadsheets in the context of politics. Some say that broadsheets are only for people who want to read serious political news, whilst tabloids are for those who are more interested in Kylie Minogue's arse and the like. Others say tabloids are a form of escapism, though I'm not totally sure what is meant by this. What do you think? Are the roles of tabloid and broadsheet newspapers different, and if so, how?

Answering my own question, I think the two are different by definition. Broadsheets like The Daily Telegraph for instance do not report the same stories as the Daily Mail, though there does seem to be an increasing overlap between the two, such as "PC gone mad" style stories. Maybe this is driven via falling newspaper sales or market demands, I don't know.

I'd also say readers of tabloids like The Sun clearly won't be interested in the ins and outs of Spanish politics, (hence them virtually ignoring the Yes vote in the Spanish referendum on the EU constitution, for example) and would be more interested in gossip about celebrities. I'm not quite sure what else to say in answer to my own question, so what do you reckon?
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Comments

  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Well I'm going to take a rather totalitarian view here: I wish tabloids didn't exist and I'd happily ban them- or at least restrict them from calling themselves 'newspapers' or suggesting they are a news information service.

    They've done infinitely more harm than good and in most cases are nothing but a cynical manipulation device by individuals with strong (and disturbing) agendas to push.

    Waste of good trees, they are.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Aladdin wrote:
    Well I'm going to take a rather totalitarian view here: I wish tabloids didn't exist and I'd happily ban them- or at least restrict them from calling themselves 'newspapers' or suggesting they are a news information service.
    But what does tabloid actually mean now? I mean, there are tabloids like The Sun, (which I assume you mean here) but there are also "tabloid-sized" (or compacts, as they call themselves) newspapers like The Independent and The Times. Would you ban those too?
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Horses for courses, but as Aladdin says you would need to define what "news" is, when it comes to news papers. More are just gossip rags...
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Just ban all the Red Tops and anything from the Mail Group.

    Or, better still have a Press Complaints Authority which actually had teeth. If you print something which is an obvious lie, or is inflamatory for no good reason you have your days sales taken away from you. Simple.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Victoria and David Beckham having a baby is news. Its just not political news.

    Some people find that interesting and I've no problem with that. Don't equate the fact that people aren't interested in the nitty-gritty of politics (especially foreign politics) with being stupid
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    stargalaxy wrote:
    But what does tabloid actually mean now? I mean, there are tabloids like The Sun, (which I assume you mean here) but there are also "tabloid-sized" (or compacts, as they call themselves) newspapers like The Independent and The Times. Would you ban those too?
    No, I'm not concerned by the size. I was referring to the traditional meaning of the tabloid (before the Times and Independent changed format). Like someone has said, the red-tops and the Mail ones. And the Express come to think of it.

    Change them into full gossip/sport papers if we must keep them, a Daily equivalent of Heat talking about nookie, tits, Beckham and footie.

    I just can't stand their appalling lies, manipulation, scaremongering, smearing, bullying and sometimes open racism, bigotry and prejudice masquerading as news.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Aladdin wrote:
    nookie, tits, Beckham and footie.

    That could be used as quite an effective and true advertising jingle.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Aladdin wrote:
    nookie, tits, Beckham and footie.
    Though not all at the same time obviously.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I normally go for a tabloid because they have better football sections in my opinon than the broadsheets.

    When something serious has happened or going to happen (run up to general election) i get myself a broadsheet, much more helpful.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    The red-tops should be banned, except for the Star and the Sport. Both are owned by dubious people, but the closest the Star gets to discussing politics is what colour t-shirt Jordan is falling out of this week.

    The Sun is a never-ending source of mirth to me. On the one hand it has naked children on it's pages, and stories about how some d-cup, sorry, d-list, celebrity is a "fox" in bed; on the other, it decries paedophilia, and is campaighning against "slack morals" among our society, as if four soldiers having a gang-bang with a waitress and filming it is a truly terrible thing.

    I never understand The Sun, it hates children having sex and it hates men who fantasise about having sex with children, but then it shows pictures of children being paid to strip naked.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    bongbudda wrote:
    If you print something which is an obvious lie, or is inflamatory for no good reason you have your days sales taken away from you. Simple.
    I couldn't agree more.

    In fact, forget the fine - they should be forced to publish a retraction and correction on the next day's front page.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Isn't it ridiculous how when they are forced to publish a retraction or apology they always bury it in the inside pages, usually in small print at the bottom of the 'news in brief' column?
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    The Sun.
    Hillsborough.
    The Truth.

    Enough said.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Aladdin wrote:
    Isn't it ridiculous how when they are forced to publish a retraction or apology they always bury it in the inside pages, usually in small print at the bottom of the 'news in brief' column?
    Yeah, I can't believe they're allowed to. And "such and such was last night unavailable for comment" aka trial by media.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Tabloids have a "stronger" political opinion do they?

    Never have I seen so much bollocks in my entire life. Newspapers represent the financial and political agendas of their owners, nothing else.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Aladdin wrote:
    talking about nookie, tits, Beckham and footie.

    Funnily enough, I don't have a problem with that.

    Sounds like an evening in the pub.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    If you don’t like the Sun or the Mail or whatever then simply don’t buy it. To call for it to be banned is extreme, the likes of Aladdin have no right to say they’d ‘happily ban them’. For somebody who claims to be a tolerant individual I find it a bit rich when they call for a particular publication to be banned, I guess Aladdin doesn’t favour the existence of a free press. Rather like your friend Pinochet in attitudes towards the media eh?

    Sure, the Sun is crap but if people want to read it they should be free to. To stop people from doing so would be a gross and crude breach of their civil liberties.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Funnily enough, I don't have a problem with that.

    Sounds like an evening in the pub.
    Same here.

    It's just when the right-wing tabloids start suggesting that lynching asylum seekers is a good thing that things get ropey.

    tabloids have no place in politics:)
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    In reality it is a bit extreme to call for The Sun and the HateMail to be banned, but theoretically it's perfectly fine. Newspapers have a duty to be impartial and fair, neither of these are. In fact both regularly come close to flouting race relations legislation; the NaziMail might as well say "hang all pa.kis" for all the difference it would make.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Actually Diss, I think think Aladdin is looking for a free and responsible press.

    One that doesn't publish the headline "Hurrah for the Blackshirts" for example...
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Kermit wrote:
    Newspapers have a duty to be impartial and fair

    Our newspapers are very partisan but I don’t think that’s necessarily a bad thing. First of all not all the papers are of the same political persuasion so its spread across the spectrum. Independent, Guardian, Mirror all left leaning and I guess the others more right leaning.

    And at the moment we have a weak opposition, the press notably the Daily Mail has been a pretty strong voice of dissent on a few issues. The new licensing laws for example. Don’t agree with a lot of the stuff they print and I wouldn’t buy it but you can’t really take that away from them.

    I also don’t think newspapers have the same obligations as TV news on impartiality/neutrality.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Kermit wrote:
    just when the right-wing tabloids start suggesting that lynching asylum seekers is a good thing that things get ropey.

    Riight. I must have missed that one. You gotta link by any chance? And I was thinking it was just the tabloids that lied and exaggerated... :rolleyes:
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I think the business with the MMR jab is an ideal indicator of the tabloids, it was clear to everyone who looked at the evidence that there was no story, but they whipped it up anyway.

    Because of that loads of kids didnt get their jabs potentially putting them in serious danger.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Actually Diss, I think think Aladdin is looking for a free and responsible press.

    One that doesn't publish the headline "Hurrah for the Blackshirts" for example...

    What Mok is saying Disillusioned.

    My point is, virtually every tabloid in the land (ironically, the Star and the Sport could perhaps be excluded, since they seldom- if at all- have anything to say about current affairs and politics, let alone push any dodgy agendas) are guilty of a million things from deep rooted racism, homophobia and xenophobia to plain lying, misleading, bullying, threatening, smearing and in many cases ruining lives.

    For that alone they should be punished severely. So no, I don't have a problem with those hideous rags being closed. They can re-start again after a few months if they want provided they have ceased their hideous agendas and they stick to gossip and nookie.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    bongbudda wrote:
    I think the business with the MMR jab is an ideal indicator of the tabloids, it was clear to everyone who looked at the evidence that there was no story, but they whipped it up anyway.

    Except that there was a story, you should read Paul Foot's work on the subject.

    Most children are not affected by the MMR jab, but some children have a abonormality in the spinal tissue which causes autism when triggered by the MMR jab. Or so it would seem; unfortunately, nobody will do any clinical testing to see if the link is there or purely coincidence.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    One thing that does irritate me is how little coverage broadsheets will give to football outside the Premiership.

    Just how many 'mind of Arsene Wenger' stories do they think we want per season. That fact that there are clubs like Exeter, getting screwed over by their chairman and being kept alive by the fans I guess is not newsworthy enough. :yeees:
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I can't complain about the Independent's coverage too much. It ran regular articles about AFC Wimbledon during our first ever season. In fact it ran a feature called "A tale of two Wimbledons" in which the match reports of our games were placed against those of Franchise FC. Great stuff...
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Thats the thing I want to hear about clubs like yours are getting on as well as the Man U's, Chelsea's and Arsenal's of football. Plus there's more interesting characters in the lower divisions :yes:

    (Not the fault of Premiership stars because English seems to be a second language for all of them)

    Yes the political or journalistic standards of the news stories may be why I buy broadsheets but I do find it annoying having to buy a seperate tabloid on a Sunday just to get some decent football coverage.
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