Primary Research - Newspapers

Jarring, large language on the front pages - ABUSE/ CAR WRECK/ INJURIES

Entire pages filled with meaningless irrelevant information ??? Nobody wants to read an article about Boris Johnson's dog. I would much rather this space be used for something uplifting or educational. I feel like this space is just being used to paint a picture of the Prime Minister instead. 

Again - completely irrelevant news: half a page to discuss the fact Ellie Goulding is pregnant, next to a jarring discussion of a man who was stabbed to death? How is this allowed? Surely when looked at in context editors must realise that this is bordering on inappropriate?

As I'm interested in printed media I thought that it would be important to do some hands on research into the most popular form of printed news - the newspaper. 

I've never bought a newspaper to read or even subscribed to a magazine as I've never felt the desire to. I can get all the same jarring, anxiety inducing news for free online. 

I picked up a few to browse through - The Daily Mail, The Guardian, and The Sun. The Sun was mostly full of irrelevant gossip and only really reported on the two major stories - A near fatal celebrity car crash and COVID. The Daily Mail was similar, but focused more on politics and churning out upsetting stories. Surprisingly, the Guardian was the most 'uplifting' (on the whole I wouldn't call it that, but out of the choice of three). It had different sections for Arts and Culture, Lifestyle - which included health and wellbeing. This is positive, but within the masses of negative news, it feels really small. 

Furthermore, the physicality of the papers further pushed this idea that they are full of negativity - grey, flimsy, unsaturated, transparent, bulky and oversized. They're not nice publications to hold or look through. The way that you're forced to flip the pages is obnoxious and aggressive. It's almost impossible to look through one with care. I suppose this is because they're made to be discarded, but the end product results in something that is lacking in care when it comes to the experience of reading it.