Critical Analysis 6-Characteristics of the Tabloid Press

The British press is dominated by national newspapers, which are divided into tabloid and broadsheet. They are positioned as quality, middle market and down market on the media landscape.Tabloid newspapers are deemed to be down market, but why is this? The Sun, the biggest tabloid, has a readership pushing 3 billion.

Many techniques are used in tabloid writing to invoke shock, awe or emotion in the readers, the most obvious being sensationalism, use of verbal or graphic media in order to be shocking, personification, a person or thing typifying a certain quality or idea, and pictorial focus, basically a picture is worth 1000 words. Many ‘qualities’ are now using certain tabloid techniques to try and grab a slice of the pie, such as the Guardian dedicating it’s centre pages to a photograph.

Tabloid newspapers came about with changes to industrialisation, urbanisation and economics. They also, rather surprisingly, gained a large female readership, due to the tabloids having a lighter focus on politics and international issues, and having a higher concentration on celebrity and gossip, along with intertextuality with other media forms the readers were involved in.

These tabloid characteristics allow alternative cultures, often those disdained by classic liberalism. But if the public sphere is what we aspire to, shouldn’t we reject the idea of a tabloid press?