NEWS MEDIA & POLITICS • NEWS MEDIA & POLITICS •
Endorsing a political candidate
Traditionally before a major election US & UK news press endorse a political party or candidate that is to say they specifically state or declare their support for them - or not...
Examples: The Sun’s and the Daily Mirror’s endorsements for the 2017 snap election on June 8, 2019 & The Economist criticising both US presidential candidates George W. Bush & John Kerry on October 30-November 5, 2004. (See Presentation slide 1
)
Quality versus popular papers
In the U.K., and to a lesser extent in the U.S.A., the two main types of newspapers are quality papers and popular newspapers -also called broadsheets & tabloids due to their format, which differ in form and content. Their competition for readership started in the age of print media but is still raging in today’s digital world.
NEWS MEDIA & POLITICS IN THE USA
• Comparing two endorsements
Example of two endorsements from the 2024 U.S. presidential election :
- The New York Times opinion page, September 30, 2024.
- The New York Post front page, Monday October 25, 2024.
(see Documents p.1 or Presentation slide 2)
| The New York Times | The New York Post | |
| Political leanings | supports Kamala Harris, the Democratic vice president | endorses Donald Trump the former Republican president. |
| Visual style | in black and white with simple fonts and no special effects & a half-page photo | more colourful, with bright, vivid -garish? colours & highly visible full-page photo, text with upper-case letter in the endorsement and bold, large letter in the sentence |
| Writing style | text is simple, serious & endorsement is implicit | endorsement is explicit & its headline plays on Trump’s first term as president |
| Generated impression | smiling, hopeful but determined => reflection | smiling but nearly smirking, more lively, determined => action |
| => | quality paper | popular paper |
• Comparing two front pages
Example of 2 front pages to characterise popular and quality papers.
- The New York Times, October 6 2020
- The New York Post, October 6 2020
(see Documents p.1 or Presentation slide 3)
| The New York Times, a quality paper | The New York Post, a popular paper | |
| Visual style | broadsheet format, many long articles with hierarchised (main one in block, capital letters and size) headlines in bold or italics, few small photos with systematic caption & source => text led paper (paper name in masthead in “antique” font) | tabloid format, nearly full page close up photo with only 4 sentences and a short text => image led paper ; headlines in large, bold and capital/block letters (paper name in masthead in modern font) |
| Writing style | descriptive, neutral headlines summing up the main idea of the news & focusing on people but with added context | catchy, sensational headlines using puns (“Face off” & “bomb away”) and colloquial English (“Prez”) & focusing on people (Trump & team) |
| News reporting | one half-page main story on Covid-19 pandemics with 5 reports (1 photo & 4 articles) putting Trump’s action into a wider context and two current affairs article + page bottom announcing 13 more news | two stories one on current affairs focusing on Trump’s provocative action and one on sports with just one “scandalous” headline |
| Targeted readers | older, more educated readers with factual, formal, objective paper | younger, less educated readers with emotional, informal, sensational, lively paper |
NEWS MEDIA & POLITICS IN THE UK
An analysis of 10 UK front pages from the 23rd May 2024 when PM Rishi Sunak called a GE to determine their political leaning, their support in the 4th July GE and if they are quality or popular papers.
(see Documents p.2 or Presentation slide 4 & following)
