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Name:______________________________Popular and quality newspapers

In some countries as many as nine out of ten adults read at least

one newspaper a day. Seen in purely business terms, few products can

ever have been so successful in reaching as much of their potential

market. Why do so many people read newspapers?

There are five basic functions of a newspaper: to inform, to

comment, to persuade, to instruct and to entertain. You may well

think that this list of functions is in order of importance but, if

so, you would not be in agreement with the majority of the reading

public. Of the two broad categories of newspaper, the popular and the

quality, the former have a readership of millions, while the latter,

only hundreds of thousands. Yet, the popular papers seem largely

designed for entertainment, with quizzes, competitions, cartoons and

light-hearted human interest stories. Their news coverage contains a

lot of comment and persuasive language; the information content is

rather low, and instruction is very minor. The quality newspapers put

a much higher value on information and a much lower one on

entertainment.

It is not only in content that the two types of paper differ.

There is a difference too in the style in which the articles are

written. The popular papers generally use more dramatic language with

a lot of word-play. Their journalists tend to use shorter sentences

and avoid less well-known vocabulary. This means that popular

newspapers are easier for a native speaker to understand, though

probably not for a non-native speaker.

In order to decide whether a newspaper is a quality or a popular

one is not even necessary to read it, since you can tell simply by

the way it looks. Popular papers are generally smaller with fewer

columns per page. They have bigger headlines and more photographs.

There is a greater variety of typeface and printed symbols. The

articles are shorter and there are fewer per page.

Such devices are not only used to make the paper more attractive;

they may also influence what the reader reads, large headlines,

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pictures and position on the page all serve to draw reader's

attention to one article rather than another.

Since popular newspapers have a much larger readership than the

apparently more neutral quality papers, it may be fair to conclude

that the average reader not only wants to be entertained by a

newspaper, but prefers his reading to be guided and opinions given to

him.

I) Write True or False after each of the following statements.

Then write down the words in the text that gave you the cue to the

answer.

1.- We can say that 90% of adults read newspapers every day.

2.- If you are a non-native speaker you should buy popular

newspapers as they are easier to understand.3.- Readers only want to be entertained.

II) Answer the following questions in your own words.

a) Which are the two basic types of newspapers? Mention, at least,

five differences.

b) What kind of things make a paper attractive?

III) Rephrasing.

a) The quality newspapers put a much higher value on information.

A ________________________________________________________________

b) Their news coverage contains a lot of comment and persuasive

language.

THERE ____________________________________________________________

IV) Write a composition on the topic: The Press in Spain. (80 to

120 words)