What is the difference between broadsheet and tabloid newspapers? Does one always deal with more respectable news / produce more professional journalism than the other? Are there in-between types of newspapers?
Last Thursday, we were asked to bring our own newspapers. During Language arts that day, our teacher asked us what was the difference between a broadsheet newspaper and a tabloid sized newspaper.
What is a tabloid and broadsheet newspaper?
Tabloid
A tabloid newspaper is slightly larger than drawing paper, an example would be the Newpaper. Tabloids usually deal with news that include sleaze, corruption, sex scandals and other things that their traditionally working and new middle class readership apparently enjoyed. Tabloids usually use a sensational tone, and usually try to blow up the matter for the sake of attracting the reader's attention. Tabloids normally contains more pictures and sentences are less dense with less information.
Broadsheet
A broadsheet newspaper is much larger than its distant cousin of a tabloid. An example would be the Straits Times. Broadsheets usually deal with news that has much less scandal and gossip, and it usually has much less sensational headlines. Broadsheets are serious in tone, and the articles are objective, strictly for the reader to know more about what is happening in the world. Broadsheets tends to have less pictures but longer and better written articles, with dense information packed in a single article.
In-between Newspapers
Berliner, or "midi", is a newspaper format with pages normally measuring about 470 × 315 mm (18.5 × 12.4 in). The Berliner format is slightly taller and marginally wider than the tabloid/compact format; but is both narrower and shorter than the broadsheet format. An example would be Guardian. Berliner newspapers lean more to tabloids, but information is more dense in Berliner formatted newspapers. The tone is also somewhat in between that of Tabloids and Broadsheets.
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Dear Nicholas,
ReplyDeleteI fully agree with your pointers about the two newspapers which lie on the opposite ends of the spectrum - the broadsheet and the tabloid. You also considered the Berliner, which is very fantastic! :)
I would also like to highlight and point out that the broadsheet is not that "perfect" in the sense that it also does report gossip and scandal news in broadsheets like the all-too-familiar The Straits Times, which also reports news like "Singapore's top eligible bachelors", for an example.
Therefore, all I would like to say is that newspapers cannot live without any important news articles, neither can they live without any gossip and entertainment news. It is the combination of both which makes the newspapers we read 'newspapers'.
Best Regards,
Nathan :D