Statistical Comparison of Newspapers

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Statistical Comparison of Newspapers

Different newspapers are written to suit different preferences.

Tabloids are a lighter read whereas broad-sheets involve more

'serious' and detailed articles.

My hypothesis is that broad-sheets are more difficult to read as

tabloid newspapers summarise events using less profound wording, which

makes articles more easily understood than broad-sheet articles.

Tabloids also try to attract and hold the attention of the reader

more.

To see whether my hypothesis is true, I will have to compare

statistically certain data between a broad-sheet newspaper and a

tabloid newspaper concerning articles on similar topics and the size

of certain varying texts.

The difficulty of the reading can be measured by certain factors: word

length, sentence length, paragraph length, article length, the time

taken to read an article, area of article on page, area of headline on

page etc… I have decided, for the experiment, I will compare word

length- the amount of letters in a word; sentence length- the amount

of words in a sentence; and percentage area of headline text that

makes up the newspaper page excluding margins, pictures and other

texts. I have chosen these three factors as the longer the word or

sentence, the more concentration is needed to read and focus on what

is being said. However, the percentage area of a headline is to prove

how much of the newspaper is dedicated to actual text, therefore more

concentration is required, instead of just trying to attract attention

to the actual newspaper on news-stands etc, not the news it consists.

The language used in each newspaper will depend on the topic of the

article as well as the writer. In order for m investigation not to be

biased, I will have to take article samples from different kinds of

news such as politics, sport and finance. I believe these article

topics will be representative of each newspaper. The sampled news

articles will concern the subject in both papers.

When counting letters or sentences, I will take care not to be biased

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