Comparing The Daily Mail & The Guardian

Comparing The Daily Mail & The Guardian

When it comes to the comparison of two of the most popular newspapers in the UK, the Guardian and The Daily Mail, there is a clear contrast not only politically but structurally.

The Daily Mail is a British daily middle-market tabloid newspaper, and the Guardian is a broadsheet legacy. Their front page structure is symbolic of their different newspaper formats; the Daily Mail contains a lombardic/ blackletter style of typography in its logo in combination with its dramatic headlines in a large, bold upper-case serif font. The central image also dominates the majority of the front page whereas the Guardian reveals a higher ration of text to photography which is illustrative of the newspaper’s preference for hard news. As the result of a recent re-design from January 2018, the Guardian’s logo contains a serif font, which in contrast with the Daily Mail’s, is potentially allegorical of its younger audience and thereby modern attitude. Overall, the presentation on the front page reveals their brand identity as the Daily Mail is shown as significantly more striking, in contrast with the Guardian’s which is more minimalistic and subdued.

When looking closer at the content of the articles, there are obvious juxtaposing techniques in relaying information; the Daily Mail adopts emotive language to report hard news in combination with many images to explore moral panic, which is typical of tabloid newspapers. The Daily Mail is noted to have previously published vitriolic articles to play on fears. Moreover, its use of language is significant – there is a common use of an informal and direct mode of address, employing pronouns such as ‘we’ and ‘you’ to imply that its views and beliefs are shared. On the other hand, the Guardian can be perceived to hold a more objective and balanced epistemology in addition with its more elaborated language code. This reflects a larger sense of professionalism.

According to research conducted by YouGov, the Daily Mail is considered Britain’s most right-wing newspaper whilst at the other end of the spectrum, the Guardian is seen as the most-left wing. Both newspapers are arguably as out-spoken in their political ideology as each other; the Daily Mail is notably ‘Anti-Corbyn’ and ardent Conservative supporters. In contrast, although the Guardian promotes a wider range of views, it is against the Conservative party intensely and is biased in favour of the Labour party. Both of the newspapers’ political beliefs, which are consistently portrayed throughout it, thereby support Bandura’s theory which suggests that audiences are victims to passive consumption, as the private ideas of the readers are influenced by this.

Contextually, the Daily Mail is considered more controversial than the Guardian. Overtime, the Daily Mail has released multiple controversial headlines and front pages that have left people upset and irritated. In 1993, The Daily Mail campaigned for the justice for Stephen Lawrence, a victim of murder. In 1997, this front cover accused 5 men of being his 'MURDERERS'. Although two of the men pictured were eventually found guilty in 2012, this is a considerably controversial moment given its potential risk. Furthermore, a front page published in November 2016 addressed the three judges which ruled that the UK Government must require Parliament's consent to give notice of Brexit as 'Enemies of the People'. This headline was widely criticised as being inappropriately condemnatory and attracted many complaints especially homophobia accusations as they described one as 'openly gay' despite the irrelevance. Lastly, the Daily Mail is credited as the worst IPSO offender of 2017 which clearly exemplifies this newspaper's contentious nature.