Tabloidizarea Presei Scrise

Table of contents

Introduction

Content

1. Tabloids and tabloidization. Sense and signification.

1.1. What does tabloid mean?

1.2. Characteristics of a tabloid.

1.3. Words, expressions and style used in tabloids.

1.4. What is tabloidization?

2. A brief history of tabloids.

2.1. The causes that led to tabloid journalism.

2.2. An overview of tabloidization across the world.

3. Tabloid journalism in Romania.

4. The impact or the consequences of tabloid journalism.

4.1. Social

4.2. Linguistic

4.3. Cultural

5. Tabloidization – a continuous and irreversible process or just a “trend”?

Bibliography

Introduction

Tabloid

The noun tabloid has two senses:

Sensationalist journalism

Newspaper with half-size pages

Tabloid journalism is generally considered to be synonymous with bad journalism. This assessment of tabloid journalism is not very productive from a social scientific point of view. The argument of this article is that the journalistic other of tabloid journalism has appeared throughout the history of journalism, and that elements and aspects of journalism defined as bad in its own time in many cases served the public good as well as, if not better than, journalism considered to be more respectable. Tabloid journalism achieves this by positioning itself, in different ways, as an alternative to the issues, forms and audiences of the journalistic mainstream – as an alternative public sphere. By tracking the development of tabloid journalism through history, we want to contribute to the reassessment and revision of the normative standards commonly used to assess journalism that is currently taking place within the field of journalism studies. We do this by first examining what is meant by an alternative public sphere (tabloid) and how it can be conceptualized, then by relating this to the historical development of tabloid journalism. The historical examples are used as a basis for reviewing and revising a key dimension of current criticisms of tabloid journalism.

In the past a tabloid was simply a medical pill or tablet, taken internally for a variety of ailments. According to John Tulloch, the term tabloid was a source of contention between the drug industry and the media at the end of the nineteenth century.

Tulloch, author of The Eternal Occurrence of Journalism states that in England, tabloid was registered by the pill manufacturers Burroughs, Welcome & Co. in 1884 as a trademark for a combination of the words tablet and alkaloid. Fewer than twelve years later, the word tabloid had come to mean anything in a concentrated medium. In a journalistic sense, the tabloid described the print media most notably designated by Alfred Harmsworth, once editor of the New York Daily World in 1900 Harmsworth tabloid referred to the use of economy with words short sentences and short simple paragraphs (Tulloch, 2000, p. 146).

Tabloids are also defined as a specific print media structure, where a newspaper or magazine is made half the size of the traditional broadsheet newspaper.

Today, according to author Elizabeth Bird, the label of tabloid is most often used to represent the sensational tabloid the paper whose stock in trade is the human interest, graphically told story, heavy on pictures and short, pithy, highly stereotyped prose (Bird, 1992, p. 8). Colin Sparks defines tabloid in a similar manner:

It devotes relatively little attention to politics, economics, and society and relatively much to diversions like sports, scandal, and popular entertainment; it devotes relatively much attention to the personal and private lives of people, both celebrities and ordinary people, and relatively little to political processes, economic developments, and social changes. (Sparks, 2000, p. 11)

Other labels that are regularly used interchangeably with tabloid include yellow journalism, soft news, infotainment and most recently, newshawk. Tabloids tend to be filled with soft news, a type of news that is less hard-edged or challenging and consisting of stories with a human-interest spin. In the article Myth, chronicle and story: Exploring the Narrative Qualities of News, Elizabeth Bird and Robert W. Dardenne noted:

Running through most American writing on news is the assumption that there are two kinds of news, variously called hard versus soft, important versus interesting (Gans, 1979) news versus human interest (Hughes, 1968) and information versus story (Schudson, 1978).

Hughes, for example, claims that news articles either edify or entertain, and this either/or split has become a taken for granted, if constantly qualified, assumption in American journalism. (Bird & Dardenne, 1988, pp. 68-69).

Infotainment and newshawk are hardly considered news at all and are often pointed to as examples of dumbed-down news content for consumption by the masses. Both infotainment and newshawk are believed to be lacking in quality, hard, informative and useful news, said Bird in support of the tabloid-infotainment connection. Tabloids do not claim to be fiction, even if they do claim primarily to be entertainment. They do report on real people and events, and their staff members are journalists (Bird, 1992, p. 104).

Bob Franklin defined newshawk as a product designed and processed for a particular market and delivered in increasingly homogenous snippets that make only modest demands on the audience. Newshawk is news converted into entertainment (Franklin, 1997, p. 5).

Finally, the word tabloid has become associated with a distinctly negative connotation, one of sleazy content and immoral reporting techniques. The tabloid is now considered by many to be a villain in the media world, as well as a source of extreme embarrassment for society’s journalistic and literary elite. Citing Mary Ellen Brown, Bird provided an example of anti-tabloid thought: As defined by the elite, tabloids are the epitome of trash reading as described by Brown:

First, trash connotes that which ought to be discarded, a sort of instant garbage; second, it connotes cheapness, shoddiness, the overflow of the capitalist commodity system. Third, it connotes a superficial glitter designed to appeal to those whose tastes are ill-formed according to the dominant perspective. Fourth, trash is excessive: it has more vulgarity, more tastelessness, and more offensiveness than is necessary for its function as a cheap commodity. (Bird, 1992, p. 107)

Tabloids are also almost exclusively thought of as belonging to the supermarket tabloid variety, a tabloid that (among other locales) is sold in supermarkets across the United States. Supermarket tabloids are commonly described as colorful tabloid-size papers (half the size of the traditional broadsheet newspaper), containing large headlines, plenty of pictures, the latest gossip (usually about American celebrities) and other columns about a variety of subjects. In a much more critical definition of the supermarket tabloid, Jostein Gripsrud referred to John Paletz view of popular supermarket tabloids the Star and the National Enquirer. Both tabloids, emphasize sexy crime, celebrities, and scandal, use exaggerated language and re-stage events as they may or may not have occurred. They skirt journalistic ethics by using long-lens cameras, engaging in high-speed chases, paying for interviews and exclusive rights to information. Their stories are often fanciful, if not invented. (Gripsrud, 2000, p. 293)

1. Tabloids and tabloidization. Sense and signification.

1.1. What does the tabloid means?

A newspaper has usually about 5 columns wide are about half the size of a standard-sized newspaper. Also, in my opinion it's a style of newspaper that focuses more on the juicy gossip rather than the political news.

A tabloid is a newspaper industry term which refers to a smaller newspaper format per spread; to a weekly or semi-weekly alternative newspaper that focuses on local-interest stories and entertainment, often distributed free of charge (often in a smaller, tabloid-sized newspaper format); or to a newspaper that tends to emphasize sensational crime stories, gossip columns repeating scandalous innuendos about the personal lives of celebrities and sports stars, and other so-called junk food news (often in a smaller, tabloid-sized newspaper format). As the term tabloid has become synonymous with down-market newspapers in some areas, some papers refer to themselves as Compact newspapers instead.

The tabloid newspaper format is particularly popular in the United Kingdom where its dimensions are roughly 17 by 11 inches (430 mm × 280 mm) per spread. Larger newspapers, traditionally associated with higher-quality journalism, are called broadsheets though several British 'quality' papers have recently adopted the tabloid format. Another UK newspaper format is the Berliner, which is sized between the tabloid and the broadsheet and has been adopted by The Guardian and its sister paper The Observer.

Tabloid is Peeping Tom journalism.

A tabloid has two meanings a newspaper that specializes in sleazy, it talks about sensational stories and it is a newspaper that is printed into smaller paper that folds like a book.

Tabloids are fun to read because you will enjoy them and you will learn new things about what’s happening.

A tabloid has a small amount of writing but a huge amount of pictures. Usually there would be a huge picture on the first page of the tabloid it is like the cover.

Tabloids mainly talk about shocking things.

The characteristics of tabloids is that they are specializing in the sensational, they use scandal sheets, they feature bold pictorial coverage of sex escapades, murder and gore, sports and about many things but mostly rich and famous people.

Tabloids were originally been Pint sized newspaper specialized in the sensational. Tabloids are very fun things to read. A tabloid is much different than a newspaper. The tabloids always have weird stories that are based on true stories, however most of the time, is fake, made up and really exaggerated.

A tabloid is not printed on huge papers like the newspapers and magazines, however is quite the opposite, printed on small paper, and folded. It also has a lot of pictures.

The basic point of the tabloid is to attract the reader’s attention since everything is not true. The tabloid is also based on many rumors. Tabloids are not serious at all.

Tabloids ask the questions: Who? When? How? Why? Sentences are basically 16-30 words.

The main topic of the tabloids is sex and scandal.

Tabloids talk about all topics including sports, murder, sex, and scandals mainly relating to people who are famous and/or very rich.

Phrases do not repeat themselves, and words are small, and columns are narrow making it very easy for a person to read.

Tabloids are also written to ruin a reputation of someone important. Sometimes, the people who write tabloids are very jealous, and they try to look for a way to ruin a person’s life, either by saying rumors about him, or by saying something that he did.

A tabloid is always brief. All the details are put in small paragraphs to make it understandable and not boring. The main topics are always put in the headlines.

1.2. Characteristics of a tabloid.

A tabloid is a newspaper, in small format, which gives the news in condensed form with the use of illustrations and sensational exaggerated material:

– News featuring sex, escapades, murder and gore, sports, and scandals of all sorts.

– Scandals are focused on rich and famous people’s lives.

– Key source of gossip.

– Colorful adjectives.

– Lack of fact-checking.

– Interesting, shocking and appealing Headlines.

– Sentences of 16-30 short words.

– Columns are narrow and easy to read.

– Phrases do not repeat themselves.

– Stories are personal.

– Falsification of entire incidents.

– Answers the six basic questions: Who? What? When? Where? How? Why?

– Basic point is to attract reader’s attention.

– Based on rumors.

-ensational exaggerated material:

– News featuring sex, escapades, murder and gore, sports, and scandals of all sorts.

– Scandals are focused on rich and famous people’s lives.

– Key source of gossip.

– Colorful adjectives.

– Lack of fact-checking.

– Interesting, shocking and appealing Headlines.

– Sentences of 16-30 short words.

– Columns are narrow and easy to read.

– Phrases do not repeat themselves.

– Stories are personal.

– Falsification of entire incidents.

– Answers the six basic questions: Who? What? When? Where? How? Why?

– Basic point is to attract reader’s attention.

– Based on rumors.

– Funny information.

– Eye-opening stories that are log on scandal and mayhem (willful damage or violence) but short on analysis or depth.

– Rely on gossip

– Barely credible sources

– Use the material merely for entertainment

– Defend the guilt or innocence of the parties involved.

– Most stories examine crime and sex.

– Over exaggerate on stories making them seem more dramatic

– Covers problems of lives of celebrities.

– Stories on murder and gore (blood).

– Eye-opening stories

– Yellow journalism is a type of journalism where sensationalism triumphs over factual reporting.

– Tabloids practically reinvent the story that has actually taken place.

– Consists of large papers, usually 11-by-17 inches

– Takes a moralizing tone

– Uses checkbook journalism

– Used to be called scandal sheets.

– A lot of stories about scandals and sex.

– Personal problems of Presidents and celebrities made public in tabloids.

– Focuses on famous people’s personal lives.

– Stories about murders.

– Many pictures.

– Contains stories not usually found in newspapers or magazines.

– Does not present a lot of facts

– There are a lot of fake stories/things that never happened.

– Damages peoples’ reputations by lies.

– Tabloids tend to over-exaggerate stories.

– Critical

– Bias

– Many sections are found in tabloids

– Advice/Comment sections.

– Joke section.

– Advertising section.

– Clothes section.

1.3. Words, headlines, expressions and style used in tabloids.

1.3.1. Words

Colorful adjectives and words are defiantly used in tabloids. Every article uses a wide variety of different adjectives to make the reader more interested in the topic.

Examples:

Anger – fury

Annoyance – outrage

Attempt – bid

Avoid – shun

Cancel – axe, scrap

Confiscate – grab

Controversy – row, turmoil

Criticize – slam, blast

Difficulty – snag, hurdle

Disagreement – clash

Dismissed – dumped, axed

Division – split

Encourage – boost

Exclude – bar, ban

Fail to attend – snub

Fatal fall – death plunge

Mystery – riddle

Possibility – threat

Promise – vow, pledge

Proposal – plan

Question – quiz

Quarrel – feud

Raid – swoop

Reform – shake-up

Replace – oust

Reprove – rap

Request – call for

Resign – quit

Restrict – curb

Rise – soar

Setback – blow

Sex – sex romps

Vital – key

Giant, kingpin, celluloid, local hero, reclusive, locusts, high-speed chase, heartbreak, careen, prostitute (or hooker), smart, crime ring (or spree), brazen, Para quakes of lightning, bloody, savage, pit bull, cannibal, horrified, grotesque, brutal, greed(y), feud, malpractice, galpals.

Exaggerate on the words to add more drama to the story and make it more interesting.

Fury, clash, boost, feud, swoop, oust, curb, soar.

Although most people know the meanings of these words and others, they are not used in a lot of newspapers or books. These words and others like them are normally found only in tabloids. Tabloids use different words a lot of the time.

Giant, Kingpin, Celluloid, Local hero, Reclusive, Locusts, Almost, Bloody, Savage, Pit bull, Cannibal, Horrified, Grotesque, Brutal, Greed (y), Feud, Malpractice, Desperate, Illicit, Unusual, Sordid, Strange, Eccentric, Loner, Price-gouging Porn (star), Jenna (name Jenna is always used), Lurking, Choking, Windshield, Freezer, Cessna, Decomposed, Voices, Recall, Tornado, Extraterrestrial, Snake-handlers, Grand slam, Ringside brawl, Abdication, Assassination, Hurricane, Twister, Tsunami, Zeppelin, Murder-for-hire, Debutante (only when arrested or accused is in the same headline), Stuntman, Stripper, Sex toys, Aliens, Confess, Cover-up, Cry, Deny, Dirt, Embarrass, Exclusive, Fib, Gossip, Headline, Lie, Nasty, Personal, Photos, Probe, Reveal, Sad, Scandal, Scoop, Shame, Shock, Sleazy, Tales, Talk, Tattles, Tragedy, Severe

Correct – Call stupid

Dislike – Hate, despise

Eyes watered – Broke down into tears

1.3.2. Headlines

The headline is the most important part of the article. Headlines in tabloids are very shocking. They include a wide variety of appealing and exciting words that would make the reader anxious to read on.

A headline must:

1. Fit the story to tell the reader clearly what it’s about.

2. Make the reader interested in the story and want to read on.

3. Be on a front page, and should be visually striking enough to grab the eye of the readers at stations, news agents, and news stands.

4. Reflect the newspaper attitude to the new story.

5. Fit into a very limited space but still be bold and capitalized

Examples of headlines:

Atlanta Housewife Investigated And Almost Arrested For Losing 73 Pounds.

Overweight Granny Looses 57 Pounds, Steals Granddaughter’s Tight-Fitting Jeans, Then Enters Limbo Contest.

In addition to these characteristics, a headline includes a variety of techniques and various forms of language.

Examples:

– Alliteration

– Assonance

– Cliché

– Euphemism

– Exclamation

– Expletives

– Metaphor

– Metonym

– Misspelling Words

– Parody

– Pun

– Rhetorical question

– Rhyming

– Slang

According to Big Al’s website, in order to have a sleazy, trashy, and exciting headline, you should follow a four step formula:

Step 1: Benefit

Step 2: Occupation

Step 3: Geography

Step 4: Odd numbers

– Let the headline fit into a limited space

– Make the reader interested and want to read on

– Make an interesting visual to grab the reader’s eye.

To attract the readers attention, use:

Alliteration

– Saucy Sarah’s Sexy Secrets with Secretary of State

– Sexy Suzy’s Sausage Surprise!

Slang:

– Ayyt

– Aint

– Das Cool

Misspellings of words:

– Gawd instead of God

Rhymes:

– Pix nix flix in stix.

– Doc Knocks Flocks in Flu Shocks

Examples:

Squeezing Pimples can kill you!

Medical students learning surgery from comic books

World’s Biggest Kid

Tabloid’s headlines are one of the most important things in the tabloid. The tabloid makes the titles so strange and interesting that they attract people’s attention (which is why they make the headlines this way). Titles are very general but include the main point of the story. Sometimes the title might contain advice. Sometimes the title has two parts, and separates them with ellipses points. But the titles in the tabloids are the main attraction to readers.

Headlines are very important parts of the tabloid. They fit in the story, and tell the person exactly what the story is about. They definitely make the story much more interesting and they make the reader want to go on and on. On the front page, they are big and catch a person’s attention. They fit into a very limited space. Headlines often are made up:

– Alliteration and Assonance: Repeating things over again.

– Cliché: Phrase that lost its originality

– Euphemism: Using polite words to describe something that is brutal.

– Exclamation

– Expletives: Swear words to make it interesting

– Metaphor

– Slang language

– Pun

– Parody

– Questions that have no answers

– Metonym

– Misspelled words on purpose to attract a reader’s attention

Words that are used in headlines:

Boss, Row, Flee, Quit, Probe, Sleaze, Swope, Mercy Dash, Boss, Axe, Video Nasty, Menace, Rap, Fling, Bid, Ban, Nightmare, Blast.

Headlines are considered to be the most important thing of the story. They should grab someone’s attention, making him want to read more.

Another website states that to have a good headline, it should fit the story and tell the reader exactly what it’s about, make the reader more interested, be visually striking, and fit into a limited space. These are the forms of language that are used by journalists:

– Metonym: where the name of a specific object or idea stands for something else to which it is related or a part of. Thus, the Royal Family is often referred to as The Throne, or The Crown; ‘the bottle’ could mean milk or alcohol.

– Misspellings words: deliberately miss-spelt for effect, e.g. Gawd for God.

– Parody: an imitation of a well-known phrase or saying which is in some way distorted or changed.

– Pun: a play on words, often with a double meaning

– Rhetorical question: a question to which no answer is expected.

– Rhyming: words ending in identical sounds (Pix, nix, flix in stix).

– Slang: words or phrases not considered part of standard English, e.g. fresh, cool, dread.

– Alliteration: repeating the same first letter or syllable (usually a consonant) in successive words to create a poetic or humorous effect (Sexy Suzy’s sausage surprise!).

– Assonance: repeating certain vowel sounds in the same phrase or sentence. (Away Day for Gay Ray)

– Cliché: An over-used phrase or expression which has lost its originality – e.g. Phew! What a scorcher!

– Euphemism: the use of a polite or pleasant form of words to describe something less pleasant, e.g. the little girl’s room.

– Exclamation: usually used to indicate surprise, sarcasm or amusement, e.g. Gosh!

– Expletives: exclamation or swearword, usually expressing a strong emotion, and usually deleted or substituted by a less offensive word or sound.

– Metaphor: implied comparison between two unconnected people or things.

There is also another tip, which is to keep everything short and simple, instead of using 3 words, use 1.

To attract readers, headlines in a tabloid are large and exaggerate, tend to rhyme and usually more of a big deal then the article itself:

An example of a tabloid headline:

-INNOCENT boy falls off bike, all because of SPEED!

The difference between that and a normal headline is that the author emphasizes the words innocent and speed because those words are more attractive to viewers. A normal heading would read: Boy falls off bike. Another thing the tabloids tend to do is blame something or someone, in this case SPEED is at fault, if a person’s name was mentioned the article would look more appealing.

1.3.3. Expressions

It's snooping on the neighbors with a political edge, courtesy of a new Web site.

A couple who say they were nearly killed by a 300-pound ice chunk that crashed through their apartment's roof and shattered on the bed where they were laying have sued the owner of the building next door

Man Google’s Himself, Sues for Libel

Caring Indian marries his grandmother

Tabloids have different expressions than you would normally find. There are some that would say the fat, ugly… and comments like that. They are not careful with their expressions. Many tabloids are unprofessional which is why they write these types of expressions.

Expressions are also put in the tabloids to make them much more interesting. They make the reader go and not get bored. Some of the expressions are:

– Oh My Gaud! (Instead of God)

– Look at the blood

– Very Sad

– Extremely

– Almost dies from…

– Unbelievable

– Ol’ instead of Old.

– Beautiful!

– Did you here about this!

– Can you imagine?

1.3.4. Style

A tabloid style is like a newspaper, with large pages, usually 11-by-17 inches, printed on newsprint. Each sentence is made up of 16-30 words. Also, each column must be justified and the writing should be clear. Finally, each article should have pictures and illustrations.

Tabloids have a unique style. Tabloids are not like newspapers, but they are not completely false either. They write about news, but they over-exaggerate a lot. They misplace facts. Tabloids write more about people’s personal lives rather than world news. They concentrate on murder stories, sex and scandal stories, small crime stories, miracle stories, and bizarre stories.

The style of the tabloid is just like the style of the newspaper. The pages are 11-17 inches, and printed on newsprint paper. The headline font is very big just like newspapers for people to see easily. The columns of the writing are really small because there are so many pictures, so each sentence has about 16-30 words depending on the amount of pictures. Everything is just like newspapers except for one thing, which is that newspapers are real while tabloids are fake.

A tabloid style is just like the newspaper, with some graphics, justification, clarity, bullets, and balance.

Tabloids are not lies; they just are not the whole truth. The style in a tabloid is that the author will make a big deal out of something that is normal. For example if two celebrities kiss, I’m sure everyone will hear about it in the tabloids. Even if it was a goodnight kiss the article will read: two stars under one moon making out! Tabloid writers are very comedic in a serious sense, and they try to work with words, making it a snappy article. That is the tabloid style.

1.4.1. What is tabloidization?

Tabloidization is:

The conversion of a newspaper into tabloid format

The change in the style of journalism away from politics and foreign affairs towards entertainment and celebrities

Communication that is condensed and sensationalized, as characteristic of tabloid journalism

Tabloidization is a new, frequently used term equally employed by journalists, media critics and academics to characterize a recent, dubious trend in the mass media. This article sets out to define this diffuse, multidimensional concept and discusses its usefulness for communication research. It emerges that `tabloidization' can only be analysed adequately with a long-term cross-national design that focuses on quality news media and employs a wide range of empirical measures. This approach is taken here by comparing the press of Britain, Germany and the US, whereas the focus remains on the first two countries. A three-step empirical analysis — based on a definition developed before — demonstrates that journalistic values, media cultures as well as economic and legal conditions are responsible for the degree of `tabloidization' in a given country.

A brief history of tabloids

Sensationalism was not invented by the modern press, much less the creators of the modern tabloid. According to Sloan, sensationalism predates the appearance of the very first newspaper in Germany in 1609 by many centuries: It can be found in the bloodcurdling ballads sung by wandering balladeers in the sixteenth century, the crowds that flocked to public beheadings in the Middle Ages, the gruesome games of ancient Rome, and all the way back to prehistoric times. (Sloan, 2001, p. 18)

Songs and folklore such as mythology and tall tales were some of the first means of mass diffusion of sensational stories before print journalism began. In America, the six-penny press marked that beginning with the settlers of American colonies from England. Even then, concerns over newspaper standards were an issue. Said Michael Schudson in 1978, the introduction of the penny press (a cut rate version of the six-penny papers) elicited charges of sensationalism from the six-penny authority. This accusation was confirmed less by the way the penny papers treated the news (there were no sensational photographs, of course, no cartoons, drawings or large headlines) than by the fact that the penny papers would print news as we understand it at all. (Sparks, 2000, p. 18)

This debate would continue over the years as new, more evolved newspapers and magazines established themselves, often with serious competition and criticism by others. A new standard would be set in 1903 with the establishment of the world’s first tabloid newspaper, the British Daily Mirror. This paper set the tabloid formative standard, with an emphasis on large pictures, sensational banner headlines and certain varieties of short stories, which has not been altered by any tabloid paper since (Gripsrud,2000, p. 289).

Tabloids or yellow papers as they were then called, used many of the reporting techniques first used by the penny press hundreds of years prior, producing stories containing detailed physical description, colloquial dialogue and alliterative wording (Bird, 1992, pp. 17-18).

Tabloids also introduced the Sunday edition, a practice then unheard of among the serious press. By the 1920s, tabloids had gained a devoted following, as well as a bad reputation. Moral leaders and ethic champions issued dire warnings about the evils of tabloid excess, and admonished would-be consumers to avoid the tabloid pitfall. Large sensational photographs made their first appearance, with the topics of sex, violence, accidents and scandal as their major themes. According to Fiske, press historians point to this era as a low point for the press, defined by the loose morals and loss of ethical standards that they believed threatened public and private life (K. E. Becker, 1992, p. 133).

Despite the warnings, however, the next ten years saw tabloids grow into a permanent fixture within American journalism. By 1937, there were at least forty-nine established tabloids, with a combined circulation of around 3.5 million (Bird, 1992, p. 23).

Tabloids had also begun their influence on other forms of media. The excitement and innovation surrounding this new and boundlessly popular journalism form quickly took root, and was widely adapted. David Krajicek, author of the book Scooped!: Media Miss Real Story on Crime While Chasing Sex, Sleaze, and Celebrities quipped, the American media seemed to transform itself into a hybridized combination of Police Gazette and Confidential magazine. (Krajicek, 1998, p. Preface)

Tabloids and what we now consider elements of tabloidization were even beginning to be seriously studied for more than their novelty and moneymaking elements. In a study of newspaper design in the late 1940s, it was noted that several of the methods introduced by the yellow journals, notably banner headlines, have had a lasting effect on the American press. (Campbell, 2001, p. 151)

Tabloids also made the leap from selling on street corners and at newsstands to appearing on general store and market shelves and began being referred to as supermarket tabloids. This event precipitated what is known by many to be a monumental change in media in the United States. To quote Bill Sloan: Future historians may recognize the Age of the Supermarket Tabs for what it actually was: the strongest influence of the past hundred years on the overall direction and philosophy of the America’s mass media. (Sloan, 2001, p. 16)

By the 1960s it was widely accepted that tabloids had had a profound and lasting effect on other forms of media, particularly the print variety.

In the 1960s and 1970s, tabloid journalists were making enormous strides and boldly covering new ground in the American press. Sloan explained the tremendous contributions tabloid journalists made to the news in the United States: Tabloid journalists in the 1960s and 1970s became the first among their profession since World War II at least in this country to take a questioning, aggressive, often adversarial approach to government and other major forces that control our society. Long before the downfall of Richard Nixon shook the mainstream media out of its lethargic naïveté, the tabs were telling their readers how secretive, scheming, wasteful, and willful the nations power brokers could be. Watergate and subsequent government scandals proved how right they were. The period since Watergate has been called the Age of Endless Exposure and this is an apt description. Supermarket tabloids led the way into this age, digging in celebrity’s garbage and dogging the heels of the famous and notorious wherever they went. (Sloan, 2001, pp. 15-16)

The mid 1970s to late 1980s were the reported high point of tabloid sales and popularity. Sales of traditional newspapers actually fell, while those of tabloids rose to unprecedented levels (Bird, 1992, pp. 15-16; Sloan, 2001).

Tabloid content during that time was similar, but not completely identical to that of today’s tabloid. Coverage included stories about unexplained phenomena (i.e. UFOs, telekinesis, the afterlife), strange inventions and hobbies, medical breakthroughs and self-help articles, but interestingly enough, little attention was paid to celebrities. (Sloan, 2001, p. 95)

This mix of trashy stories pummeled quality newspaper circulation figures, forcing other media outlets to concede the advantages of utilizing tabloid fare. What tabloids did (to the dismay of the media elite) was add an irresistible new flavor to the media scene, one so delectably irreverent and seductively spicy that a vast segment of the reading public became addicted to it. (Sloan, 2001, p. 18)

Tabloids seldom, if ever, had any reason to concern themselves with the doings of other media outlets. Tabloids had their niche; their market was theirs and theirs alone. Wrote Sloan, they operated in what Newsweek once called a kind of parallel universe, covering and creating stories that the mainstream wouldn’t touch with a ten-foot pole, and of course, earning massive profits that were largely competitor-free (aside from other tabloids). The rest of the media was simply part of the Hollywood publicity and government propaganda machines, docilely accepting and reporting whatever information was given them. (Sloan, 2001, p. 213)

Finally it became clear that mainstream newspapers could no longer afford to turn up their noses at stories typical of the sensational tabloid. The hunger for dirt and thirst for scandal that fueled the tabs immense popularity in the 1970s and 1980s had spread like a virus through every level of serious journalism (Sloan, 2001, p. 209).

The late 1980s and early 1990s saw a major turn in the way the American media produced its product. Trashy stories came to dominate our news and popular culture as newspapers and news broadcasts chased the National Enquirer and its broadcast playmate, tabloid television, to the margins of legitimacy, (Krajicek, 1998, p. 3), all the while protesting against media sensationalism and calling for a renewed commitment to press decency.

This trend has gone far beyond any fad or phase, although many media critics had hoped it would be otherwise, and has become the norm for established American media. Since the late 1990s, mainstream newspapers in particular have managed to surpass the production ability of the tabloids, so much so that tabloids have begun to be squeezed out of the news market. Newspapers possess a larger page size and number of pages (not to mention production staff), an extensive list of advertisers with deep pockets and most importantly, an ability to whitewash gossipy, sensational and trashy stories by merely placing them under their banner or excusing them as a necessary take on stories that are already out there. By whitewashing these stories, mainstream papers were able to do what the still-shameful tabloids could not: They made these stories legitimate and acceptable. Also, the ability of newspapers to exhaust any story with endless columns of detailed information (i.e. legal depositions, taped interviews, testimony) spiced with the juiciest, most explicit details (and run them long after tabloids could afford to do so) often left the tabloids with nowhere to go (Sloan, 2001, p. 210).

Tabloids, whose smaller page size and number necessitate short numerous stories to maintain reader interest and story variety, cannot afford to focus too much on any one subject. According to Sloan, most popular magazines, many metropolitan newspapers and major TV news operations had, in essence, become tabloids themselves by the last years of the twentieth century, leaving the supermarket papers to sift through leftovers or ballyhoo lesser scandals. (Sloan, 2001, pp. 15-16)

The time came when the public’s mounting thirst for exposé-style journalism outgrew the tabs ability to satisfy it. The supermarket papers, after all, only came out once a week and in a rapidly shrinking world where news could circle the globe in seconds, new scandals and horrors were erupting by the hour, sometimes by the minute. In this supercharged news environment, the mainstream press could deliver doses of sensation and shock every day, and television could supply it instantly or endlessly or both as circumstances dictated. At this point, the mainstream media simply out-tabloid the tabloids. (Sloan, 2001, p. 16)

As this brief history of the American tabloid shows, there has long been criticism as to the existence of sensationalism, gossip and trashiness in our media, lending added support to the idea that tabloidization in one form or another is not a new phenomenon. Journalists emphasis on the personal, the sensational, and the dramatic is nothing new. Street literature, ballads, and oral gossip and rumor all contributed to the development of news. (Bird, 2000, p. 216)

Moreover, wrote Bird, while journalists today seem to prefer the idea that the tabloids have nothing to do with real journalism, they have also always been torn between a perceived duty to inform and a need to engage their audience. (Bird, 1992, p. 9)

This history also refutes the sentimental idea of the so-called golden age of journalism. The idea that there could ever be an American media that create entirely serious, enlightening and ethically impeccable journalism is basically futile. (Gripsrud, 2000, p. 287)

Author Goodheart agreed, noting that it wasn’t until after World War II, when political journalism became dominated by only a few big news services, networks and newspapers, that there was perception of impartiality and imperishable moral standards among the news media. He went on to say that the current wild anarchy within our media (i.e. the Internet, round-the-clock television news, and other new media), warned against by certain media analysts and critics, represents not a break with American media traditions, but a return to them (Goodheart, 1999, pp. 68-69).

2.1. The causes that led to tabloid journalism and effects

It's been suggested that we get the press we deserve. But the reality is that we probably get the press we demand.

Nobody forces anyone to buy tabloid newspapers but they do. So while newspaper sales have fallen over the past decade, the tabloids remain kings of the newsstand, outselling their broadsheet rivals by millions every week.

The tabloid diet sells. The UK loves stories involving celebrities, sex, drugs and rock and roll. We love to see people in high places fall from grace. And we love to watch nobodies live the dream – provided we can watch their fall in full Technicolor afterwards. But the tabloid story diet is relatively limited. And that's the way we like it. It's not that journalists have limited imagination far from it, but we are all drawn to the same basic story lines. All journalists have to do is change the names and pictures.

Take, for example, the Triumph Over Tragedy or TOT. Here we see someone at their wits' end. A high flyer will have lost her job. Her marriage has crumbled. She's taken to the bottle. But something deep inside clicks and she claws her way back. It's a story of hope, of courage and of the resilience of the human spirit. And we love to read it.

Other stories offer us despair. How the mighty are fallen is a story of ultimate disappointment. It says that people in high places will always let you down. We will meet a successful person who has it all – the house, the job, the life, the wife. But somehow he can't resist the self-destruct button. It's a story ultimately of the futility of the human spirit – and we love it too.

The more "unbelievable" the story, the more it reassures us, the readers, about the nature of our world. In our cultural DNA there must be basic assumptions about the way things are: nobody deserves to do well; those who do, must do so on the backs of others; and when they do, they will, in time, get their comeuppance.

Is there something in our culture that encourages these story lines? Is it about Schadenfreude – that we delight in the misfortunes of others? Perhaps that.

Or maybe we just like to know that others are doing less well than us – a kind of misery relativism.

It is Attila the Hun thinking: it's not enough that I must be happy, everyone else must be miserable.

The tabloids offer us stories we clearly like to read – and therefore buy. Newspapers are not charities. They are businesses. And if these stories did not sell, they would not spend a penny on them.

Of course, the newspapers don't operate in a vacuum. They have a symbiotic relationship with key institutions.

Popular television heavily relies upon the tabloids. Both the X Factor and Britain's Got Talent deliver year in, year out on stories such as Rags to Riches and A Star is Born. New celebrities are created. Just watch the way that both programs frame apparent no-hopers and show us their transformation in a neatly packaged, you tube ready mini saga. They then get given acres of coverage establishing them as key figures in the public mind.

As they rise to fame, so they will fall, in time, one and all.

Why is tabloidization occurring now? Sparks sees three of the master themes of social change in the developed world as likely playing a part in this change in the media and their audience (Sparks, 2000, p. 33).

First, Sparks refers to the high literacy and educational level of the overall population, which increases the potential market for serious newspaper consumerism. However, his second theme, changes in the structure of the family and labor market, goes against this market potential. Although there is an increasing population of women involved in education and employment, and thereby an increase in the number of potential consumers, their status as reluctant purchasers of newspapers, quality or otherwise, compared to their male equivalents does not provide a supportive environment for the quality press. Newspaper content in general traditionally has had a distinctly male focus, reducing the likelihood of female interest or consumption. Third, while the number of college graduates is increasing the graduate job share is likely not keeping up, leading to a possible dissatisfaction among college graduates with the status quo. The positions of economic and social responsibility and leadership that were characteristic of the elite readership of the serious press are not shared by many of the new, educated employees. (Sparks, 2000, p. 33)

These three factors, says Sparks, may cause general upheaval in the news and established newspaper market: The confluence of three of the master themes of contemporary social change in the developed world are combining to alter the social ground of the audience for serious media, and with it what we might term the preferred average mix of content is shifting. The serious press is struggling to identify this new mix, and in the course of doing so is finding that it seems to contain much more sensation and scandal than they were trained to believe was appropriate in a serious newspaper or news broadcast since the shrieks of tabloidization. (Sparks, 2000, p. 33)

They point to a perceived crisis in the democratic process, marked by low participation rates and declining party membership, as well as the rise of new technologies for the delivery of news as agents of change in the composition and lifestyles of the modern news audience. Another factor is the existence of intense competition between commercial news outlets, which forces editors and journalists to scrutinize and tailor their product as never before. Next, as mentioned earlier, society’s consumer composition is drastically changing in regards to education and the participation of women, and as a result, news producers must reconsider news that is potentially unappealing to many of its female consumers. Finally, there is displeasure with the political and private elite’s immense power, which happens to be the main ingredient of the serious media news diet. This type of content is seen by many possible consumers as being uninteresting and useless to themselves personally, marking it as distinctly undesirable. (Sparks, 2000, pp. 35-36)

Peter Golding and Philip Elliott, authors of the 2000 article News Values and News Production, gave a similar opinion on tabloidization and the news audience, saying that the desire of the journalist to engage the audience may cut across some professional and moral standards and ideals long-standing among the journalist community. The familiar argument is that in order to inform the audience you must first gain its attention. Said Golding & Elliott, there’s no point preparing serious, well-intentioned, high-minded journalism if the audience registers its boredom by switching off. Thus entertainment is high on the list of news values both as an end in itself and as a means to other journalistic ideals. (Golding & Elliott, 2000, p. 635)

An overview of tabloidization across the world

U.S. and Canada

A photographer's photographer quote by First Lady Mrs. Warren G. Harding who stated the Edward Jackson's photograph of her was the best photo ever taken."The photo ran on the entire front page of the February 5, 1921 New York Daily News.

In the United States, daily tabloids date back to the founding of the New York Daily News in 1919, followed by the New York Daily Mirror and the New York Evening Graphic in the 1920s. Competition among those three for crime, sex and celebrity news was considered a scandal to the mainstream press of the day. In comparison, today's American daily tabloids are generally much less overheated and less oriented towards scandal and sensationalism than their predecessors, or their British counterparts, reduced to sections of only one-three pages as internet sources and magazines such as US Weekly have taken up the mantle of disseminating most gossip. The tabloid format is used by a number of respected and indeed prize-winning American papers.

Prominent US tabloids include nationally the Metro, locally, the New York Post, the Philadelphia Daily News, the Chicago Sun-Times, the Boston Herald, the New York Observer, Newsday on New York's Long Island, the San Francisco Examiner and Baltimore Examiner. (Newsday co-founder Alicia Patterson was the daughter of Joseph Patterson, founder of the New York Daily New.).

Canada

In Canada, many of the Sun Media newspapers are in tabloid format. There is also The Province, which is a tabloid in British Columbia, and has no connections to Sun Media. The Canadian publisher Black Press publishes newspapers in both tabloid (10+1⁄4 in/260 mm wide by 14+1⁄2 in/368 mm deep) and what it calls "tall tab" format, where the latter is 10+1⁄4 in (260 mm) wide by 16+1⁄4 in (413 mm) deep, larger than tabloid but smaller than the broadsheets it also publishes.

Europe

The biggest tabloid (and newspaper in general) in Europe, by circulation, is Germany's Bild, with around 4 million copies (down from above 5 million in the 1980s). Although its paper size is bigger, its style was copied from the British tabloids.

In Britain, three previously broadsheet daily newspapers – The Independent, The Times, and The Scotsman – have switched to tabloid size in recent years, and two – Daily Express and Daily Mail – in former years, although all of the above call the format compact to avoid the down-market connotation of the word tabloid. Similarly, when referring to the down-market tabloid newspapers the alternative term red-top (referring to their traditionally red – colored mastheads) is increasingly used, to distinguish them from the up- and middle-market compact newspapers. The Morning Star also comes in tabloid format; however, it avoids celebrity stories, and instead favors issues relating to labor unions.

Netherlands

In the Netherlands, several newspapers have started publishing tabloid versions of their newspapers, including one of the major 'quality' newspapers, NRC Handelsblad, with nrc next in 2006. Two free tabloid newspapers were also introduced in the early 2000s, 'Metro and Sp!ts, mostly for distribution in public transportation. In 2007 a third and fourth free tabloid appeared, 'De Per’s' and 'DAG'. However, De Telegraf, the Dutch newspaper that most closely resembles the style of British tabloid papers, comes in broadsheet.

In Norway, close to all newspapers have switched from the broadsheet to the tabloid format, which measures 280 x 400 mm. The three biggest newspapers are VG, Dagbladet, and Aftenposten, the former the most sensationalist one and the latter more serious.

In France, the Nice Matin, a popular Southern France newspaper changed from Broadsheet to Tabloid on April 8, 2006. They changed the printing format in one day after test results showed that 74% liked the Tabloid format compared to Broadsheet. But the most famous tabloid dealing with crime stories is Le Nouveau Détective, created in the early 20th century. This weekly tabloid has a national circulation.

Denmark

In Denmark tabloids in the British sense are known as 'formiddagsblade' (before-noon newspapers), the two biggest being BT and Ekstra Bladet. The old more serious newspaper Berlingske Tidende shifted from Broadsheet to Tabloid format in 2006, while keeping the news profile intact.

Poland

In Poland the newspaper Fakt, sometimes Super Express is considered as tabloid.

South Asia

India

Tabloid journalism is still an evolving concept in India's conservative print media. The first tabloid, Blitz was started by Russy Karanjia on February 1, 1941 with the words "Our Blitz, India's Blitz against Hitler!" Blitz was first published in English and then branched out with Hindi, Marathi and Urdu versions. In 1974, Russy's daughter Rita founded the CineBlitz magazine. The first issue featured Zeenat Aman on the cover and a streaking Protima Bedi inside. The venerable Times of India too changed its entire content, tone and editorial style in 2002. It now features more sensationalist stories, snappy headlines, and Page3 parties. In 2005, Times of India brought out a dedicated Mumbai tabloid newspaper Mumbai Mirror which gives prominence to Mumbai-related stories and issues. Tehelka started off as a news portal in 2000 and broke the match-fixing story in Indian and International Cricket and later on a sting operation on defence deals in Indian Army. In 2007, it closes shop and reappeared in tabloid form and has been appreciated for its brand of investigative journalism. Other popular tabloid newspapers in English media are Mid-Day, an afternoon newspaper published out of and dedicated to Mumbai and business newspapers like MINT. There are numerous tabloids in most of India's official languages. There is an all youth tabloid by the name of TILT – The ILIKE Times.

Pakistan

In Pakistan, Khabrain is a tabloid newspaper popular in local lower middle class. If you ever happen to visit any barber shops or other small gathering places in cities like Multan, you can find a copy of this newspaper there. This news group introduced a new paper, Naya Akhbar which is comparably more sensational. At the local level, many sensational tabloids can be seen but unlike Khabrain or other big national newspapers, they are distributed only on local levels in districts.

Bangladesh

In Bangladesh, Manabzamin became the first and is now the largest circulated Bengali language tabloid in the world, in 1998. Published from Bangladesh, by renowned news presenter Mahbuba Chowdhury, the newspaper is ranked in the Top 10 Bengali news sites in the world, and is the only newspaper in Bangladesh which houses credentials with FIFA, UEFA, The Football Association, Warner Bros., and Sony Pictures Entertainment. Manabzamin is led by Editor-in-Chief Matiur Rahman Chowdhury, who is also the regional correspondent for Voice of America and political talk-show host in Bengali television stations Banglavision and Channel.

China

In the People's Republic of China, Chinese tabloids have exploded in popularity since the mid-1990s and have tested the limits of press censorship by taking editorial positions critical of the government and by engaging in critical investigative reporting.

Other countries

When a tabloid is defined as "roughly 17 by 11 inches (432 by 279 mm)" and commonly "half the size of a broadsheet," confusion can arise because "Many broadsheets measure roughly 29+1⁄2 by 23+1⁄2 inches (749 by 597 mm)", half of which is roughly 15 in × 12 in (381 mm × 305 mm) not 17 in × 11 in (432 mm × 279 mm).

Oman

In Oman, The Week is a free, 48-page, all-color, independent weekly published from Muscat in the Sultanate of Oman. Oman’s first free newspaper was launched in March 2003 and has now gone on to gather what is believed to be the largest readership for any publication in Oman. Ms Mohana Prabhakar is the managing editor of the publication. The Week is audited by BPA Worldwide, which has certified its circulation as being a weekly average of 50,300.

Georgia

In Georgia, the weekly English-language newspaper The FINANCIAL switched to a compact format in 2005 and doubled the number of pages in each issue. Other Georgian-language newspapers have tested compact formats in the early 1990s.

In Russia and Ukraine, major English language newspapers like the Moscow Times and the Kyiv Post use a compact format.

Argentina

In Argentina, one of the country's two main newspapers, Clarín, is a tabloid and in the Southern Philippines, a new weekly tabloid, The Mindanao Examiner, now includes media services, such as photography and video production, into its line as a source to finance the high cost of printing and other expenses. It is also into independent film making.

Australia

In Australia, The Advertiser, Herald Sun, The Sun-Herald, Daily Telegraph, The Courier Mail (All News Ltd papers), The West Australian, The Mercury, The Hamilton Spectator, The Portland Observer, The Castleton News and The Melbourne Observer.

India

In India, MID DAY and Afternoon are the leading tabloids. MID DAY is particularly known for publishing sensationalizing stories about celebrities.

In South Africa, the Bloemfontein based daily newspaper Volksblad became the first serious broadsheet newspaper to switch to tabloid, but only on Saturdays. Despite the format proving to be popular with its readers, the newspaper remains broadsheet on weekdays. "The Daily Sun" published by NEWS24 has since become South Africa’s biggest selling daily newspaper and is aimed primarily at the black working class. It sells in excess of 500,000 copies per day reaching approximately 3,000,000,000 readers. News is gathered widely and reports on the almost-unbelievable, headline-making stories which Daily Sun journalist/news gatherers write from their encounters with real people, and astounding ‘eye-witness’ accounts of bizarre occurrences which are literally stunning. Besides offering a sometimes satirical view of the seriousness of mainstream news, the Daily Sun confers weightiness upon issues that would likely be treated with laughing dismissal in traditional South African broadsheets. Thus, The Daily Sun features stories about tokoloshes (hob-goblins), ancestral visions and all things supernatural and wildly absurd, together with localized stories and main stream news. It is also published as "The Sunday Sun".

Brazil

In Brazil, many newspapers are tabloids, including sports daily Lance! (which circulates in cities such as Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo), most publications from Group RBS (especially the Porto Alegre daily Zero Hora), and, in March 2009, Rio de Janeiro-based O Dia switched to tabloid from broadsheet. Its sister publication, Meia Hora has always been a tabloid, but in slightly smaller format than O Dia and Lance!

Tabloid journalism in Romania.

The print media environment is rich and diverse if judged by the number of titles on the market. There is no available comprehensive data on the concrete effects of the economic crisis over the media yet, but evidence suggests there haven't been massive closures.

The most recent available statistics from the National Institute of Statistics (NIS), compiles data from 2007 (“Activitatea unităților cultural-artistice” / “The Activity of the cultural and artistic units”, The National Institute of Statistics, 2008). According to NIS, in 2007 there were almost 300 publishers that published newspapers (159 dailies, plus newspapers appearing once or several times a week, and papers with no specific frequency), and over 350 publishers that published magazines.

The total yearly print run for dailies was 553.7 million, with an increase of almost 50 million, or 9.5 percent, compared to the previous year.

Non-dailies printed a total of more than 63.3 million copies, 25.5 million (or 67.5 percent) more than the previous year. The total yearly print run for weekly newspapers was over 58 million in 2007, more than twice that of 2006.

The statistics institute recorded 1,515 magazine titles on the market in 2007. That is 126 more titles than in the previous year. The statistics take into account periodicals other than newspapers, from those appearing several times a week, to those appearing a few times a year, once a year or even at larger intervals, to those with no specific periodicity.

Although there were no figures available for 2008 at the date of redaction, I estimate that the growing trend continued throughout 2008, an electoral year, when traditionally businessmen, politicians and various groups increase their investment in the media. That trend should have reversed once the global economic crisis hit, towards the end of 2008.

Just over 300 publications are audited by BRAT, the Romanian Audit Bureau of Circulation. Members of BRAT usually enjoy more credibility and more advertising, as print run and distribution figures are available for advertisers. Local newspapers audited by BRAT generally benefit from national ads, as the big advertisers looking to buy nationwide advertisements pay attention to the numbers.

As far as the publications distributed across the nation are concerned, the past few years have seen a decline in circulation for those dailies marketed as quality newspapers, whereas the two national sports dailies have done relatively well, and the tabloids even better.

One of the most important daily newspapers from the so-called quality segment, Evenimentul zilei, owned by the Switzerland-based group Ringer, distributed under 35000 copies a day in June 2009, which means its circulation is half of what it was three years ago. Another big newspaper from the same category, România Liberă, owned by local businessman Dan Adamescu and the German group WAZ, sold 45000 copies a day in June 2009, losing almost a third from what it distributed in the same month in 2006. Gândul, also a quality newspaper, belonging to the MediaPro group, halved its circulation in the same interval, from roughly 30000 to about 15000 copies distributed each day. Jurnalul Național, the former market leader in the sector, owned by Romanian media group Intact, is also decreasing in circulation, although not as significantly as the above-mentioned newspapers; it sold around 66000 copies a day in June 2009, compared to almost 74,000 the same month three years ago, but its sales tend to go up and down partly due to the frequent promotions that offer various prizes to the readers.

By comparison, Click, a tabloid launched by Adevărul Holding a couple of years ago, sells much more than all the above-mentioned titles combined. The bestselling Romanian newspaper at the moment, Click, distributed more than 236000 copies daily in June 2009. Another tabloid put on the market recently, CanCan, sold about 80000 copies a day in the same month, after it peaked at almost 120000 in 2008.

When launched, Click was a perfect copy of the then market leader, Libertatea, belonging to the Swiss group Ringer. In fact, the team of journalists that started Click had been lured from Libertatea, in a move that left an entire newsroom almost empty. Ringer’s tabloid sells around 200000 copies a day, a regress compared to 2006 and 2007, when it distributed 250000-300000 copies every day.

The two national sports dailies also display slightly smaller distribution figures than in previous years, when each sold up to 100000 copies a day. In the first six months of 2009, Gazeta Sporturilor, owned by Intact, sold, on average, 67000 copies a day, while its competitor, Pro Sport, belonging to Media Pro, sold 45000 copies each day. Attempts to create a third national newspaper specialized in sports have failed.

Except for the tabloid market, the only other category of national newspapers with an effervescent activity was the business daily press. With a small, but steady circulation, Ziarul Financiar, published by Media Pro, is arguably the most profitable newspaper in Romania, as it enjoyed an elite readership and a constant influx of ads from big companies. Apparently it pays to focus on business, as companies seem to give more attention and money to those newspapers that write about them, even though they don't have a very wide audience.

Two other media groups launched financial dailies in the past couple of years. Realitatea-Cațavencu brought Business Standard to the market, while Intact started Financiarul. Although not as successful in terms of attracting advertisers, they managed to significantly increase the circulation of the business daily press in Romania, and to bite a chunk from Ziarul Financiar's audience. According to the Romanian Audit Bureau of Circulation (BRAT), Ziarul Financiar sells around 17000 copies a day, Business Standard around 11000, and Financiarul about 4000.

In any case, 2008 and 2009 could be considered bad years, over all, for the national print publications, save for Adevărul Holding, the relatively new media group belonging to billionaire Dinu Patriciu. Most of the publications mentioned in the paragraphs above have been going through tough times, and the global crisis has made matters worse. Ringier laid off dozens of journalists from Evenimentul zilei.

Evenimentul zilei is one of the leading newspapers in Romania. Based in Bucharest, the Romanian daily has a paid circulation of 110000 per day. Its name means The event of the day. It was founded by Ion Cristoiu, Cornel Nistorescu and Mihai Cârciog and the first issue was published on 22 June 1992. In those early years of Romanian journalism after the fall of Communism, many of the stories in the Romanian newspapers (even the serious ones) were actually made up. Evenimentul Zilei also had its share of bizarre stories, such as reports of smuggling of headless cats.

However, the most famous episode was a series of articles regarding a hen which gave birth to a live chicken. The original article was published on 2 October 1993. As many readers were interested in more details, Evenimentul Zilei published several other articles on this theme, placing the event in the Republic of Moldova (in order to be harder to verify) and giving the testimony of an alleged leading Moldovan scientist. The author, Cătălin Ștefănescu, later said that he made up that article because Ion Cristoiu, the chief editor, demanded every reporter to write three articles each day and he expected that the article would go unnoticed.

The newspaper reached its peak daily circulation of 675000 in 1993. In 1997 Chief Editor Ion Cristoiu quit and this job was taken by Cornel Nistorescu.

The newspaper was purchased along with its parent company Expres Publishing in 1998 by the German company Gruner&Jahr (owned, in turn, by Bertelsmann), which later, in 2003 sold it to the Swiss press trust Ringier; at the time of purchase, Ringier representatives stated that there would be no direct or indirect intervention in the newspaper's editorial policy.

In September 2004 more than 50 Evenimentul zilei journalists protested Ringier's management decisions. Similar issues were raised at the same time at rival daily România liberă, owned by Germany's WAZ-Mediengruppe. At both papers, journalists have complained that foreign owners are telling them to lessen the political coverage and tone down their negative reporting of the government. Their concern has been echoed by a variety of organizations including the Open Society Foundation. After this scandal, Evenimentul Zilei became one of the most fervent attackers of the government's corruption.

In an effort to cut costs and become more efficient, the newspaper shut down its regional editions. Romania Libera took similar steps, while the journalists at Jurnalul Național had to take a 20% cut of their wages. Realitatea-Cațavencu's newspapers Cotidianul and Business Standard also imposed pay cuts, sometimes so drastic that some journalists had to leave to look for jobs allowing them to pay the bills.

Adevarul Holding is a different story. The wealthy owner of this relatively new media group has been investing millions of Euro in the past two years, and does not seem to back away. The group's flagship newspaper, Adevărul, which Dinu Patriciu acquired in 2006, when sales were at around 25000 copies per day, is now the number one newspaper in the so-called quality category. It sold more than 110000 copies a day, on average, in the first half of 2009, and more than 127000 copies per day in June. At the same time, the group’s tabloid, Click, became the best sell newspaper in Romania.

Moreover, in October 2008 the group launched Adevărul de Seară, a late-afternoon free paper that became the largest daily newspaper in Romania considering the number of distributed copies. It has 32 local editions covering 50 cities and smaller towns, with a total print run of 550000 copies a day.

All these newspapers operate at a loss, but Adevărul Holding says it will continue to invest.

The group expanded to Ukraine, where it owns the tabloid Blik, and plans to enter the print media market in other countries in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union.

Although Adevărul de Seară seems to be an example that at least some publishers are willing and able to keep subsidizing free newspapers in the hope of future gains, there is also evidence of the contrary. Ringier cancelled its own free newspaper, Compact, at the start of 2009, after less than three years since its launch. The newspaper was distributed only in the capital, Bucharest, with a print run of 160000 copies a day. The only morning free paper distributed at the moment in the city is Ring, launched in 2008, which prints 100000 copies a day. The newspaper is subsidized by a business group with strong interests in the real estate and hotel sectors.

Curentul, a newspaper focused on business, which switched to the free model a couple of years ago, does not have any audit figures since December 2008.

Austrian group Inform Media, which owns several local newspapers in cities from the region of Transylvania, closed down its free paper in Hunedoara three years after its launch.

Inform Media's written press operations in Transylvania now include three free dailies, five paid dailies (two of them in Hungarian), three free classified weeklies and two paid classified weeklies. Some of its free newspapers distribute more than 15000 copies each day.

Unlike papers in Bucharest, local newspapers usually have not received any attention from big investors. That is one of the reasons why they are generally more vulnerable to pressure from local political and business circles, and from individuals who use the press to influence political/economic decisions and to win or keep public support. Among the chronic problems facing the local media are poor distribution networks and the lack of professional skills.

The global crisis and stiff competition from national newspapers have made the life of local publishers and journalists even harder. There are, however, successful local newspapers that strive to deliver quality products to their readers. Some of the largest local dailies are Gazeta de Sud in Craiova (24000 copies a day, down from almost 30000 a couple of years ago), Tribuna in Sibiu (15000 copies a day), Ziarul in Iași, Viața liberă in Galați or Transilvania Expres in Brasov (all selling under 10000 copies a day). Circulation for most of these newspapers has been in decline.

In 2009 a number of quite prominent local publications closed. The Agenda media company in Timisoara shut down the print version of its local daily, Agenda zilei and is now focusing on the regional weekly Agenda, its daily news website and its printing business. Publimedia, the publishing branch of Media Pro, closed its chain of six local weeklies after it had already shut down its daily newspaper in Cluj.

One of the important players on the local press market, EMI, a German-based company that was acquired by Gold Bach Media Group from Switzerland in 2008, decided to limit its activities in the print landscape in order to focus on new media. It exited from four local dailies, Monitorul de Alba, Monitorul de Sibiu, Monitorul de Mediaș and Monitorul de Cluj. It remains the main stakeholder of three newspapers it had acquired in recent years, Ziarul de Iasi, Viața liberă from Galați and Obiectiv from Vaslui and Ziarul de Brăila, which it launched in 2007. EMI's former strategy included plans to buy or start dozens of local newspapers in Romania, but Gold Bach Media Group, the new owner, an advertising and marketing company specializing in new media, announced it was not interested in the print market. The company is now looking for solutions to get rid of its remaining newspapers.

Some of the bestselling weeklies are spin-offs of popular newspapers such as Libertatea or Click Libertatea puts out a Sunday newspaper and a women's weekly, both selling more than 100000 copies a week. Click does the same; its Sunday paper and its women's weekly each sell around 150000 copies a week.

Femeia de azi, a women's weekly published by Sonoma Hearst, also sells more than 100000 copies per issue. National TV guides are doing well, too; TV Mania (Ringer) and Pro TV Magazin (Media Pro), for example, each sell around 75000 copies a week.

There is fierce competition in the business weeklies segment. There are two The Economist-style weeklies distributed nationwide, Business Magazin (around 11000 copies sold each week), belonging to the Media Pro group, and Money Express (6000), published by the Realitatea Cațavencu group. There are also two tabloid economic weeklies, Săptămâna financiară (around 33000), published by Intact, and Ringer’s Capital (around 20000 copies sold each week).

The glossy and magazine market was booming prior to the crisis, with more than a dozen women's magazines, a few men's magazines, as well as publications dedicated to automobiles, computers, cooking, house and gardening and other niche products. There are many international franchises, including Elle, Esquire, Marie Claire, Men's Health, FHM, Playboy, GQ, Popcorn or Harper's Bazaar. The fall in advertising has forced some publications to fold or to change their frequency, but most major titles enjoy steady print runs and some magazines have even picked up in circulation.

One of the most popular is Practic în Bucătărie, a cooking magazine owned by Burda România, selling more than 250000 copies a month.

However, not everybody believes in the future of the magazine business. The group Realitatea-Cațavencu, publisher of the cult satirical weekly Academia Cațavencu, announced in October 2009 that it would get rid of all the publications in its Lifestyle division: magazines Tabu (women's), Aventuri la pescuit (fishing), Bucătăria pentru toți (cooking) and Super Bebe (parenting), plus 24 FUN, a free weekly leisure guide. Through a management buyout, all except one have been taken over by their managers, but Tabu is going to close if it does not find an investor.

4. The impact or the consequences of tabloid journalism.

On the surface, tabloidization is not a complex phenomenon. It is merely a transition of the media from being driven by a public welfare agenda to being driven by market forces. But if one is to probe deeper into the study of this phenomenon then it is important to understand the reasons – social, cultural and linguistic, behind the growth of this trend.

Tabloidization has been given many synonyms – Yellow press, gutter news, red top, rag sheet, junk food news etc. All have derogatory connotations. This is primarily because of the fact that important issues of citizen concern have taken a backseat, with entertainment, scandal, crime and lifestyle holding the glare of publicity. This has undeniably affected the quality of the mass media and its relationship with politics and current affairs. So what are the reasons of the tabloidization of media? Is it a recent phenomenon? And what are its consequences – How does it affect the structure and the role of the media as a public service organization?

4.1. Social

When Prince William started dating Kate Middleton, it was like watching Princess Diana and Prince Charles all over again. Kate could not go anywhere without the Paparazzi being right on her route waiting for her to show her face. Diana experienced this exact same thing when she started dating Prince Charles. This not only puts emotional stress on the individual, it also puts emotional stress on the couple or the family. The Paparazzi does not realize this, or does not seem to care what their constant following does to the personal lives of these people. They can still get a story for the public without being right on top of the people that they are doing the story on they. Paparazzi needs to respect the personal space of the people they are doing a story on, and think about how they would feel if someone was right in their face with a camera doing a story on them.(Emily Jensen)

Sensationalism is very much a part of the way in which tabloid journalists cover news stories that relate to extraordinary crimes, political scandals and celebrity gossip. There appears to be less emphasis on finding out the facts of a story and more on being the first journalist to uncover the salacious details of a high-profile affair. Celebrity culture has come to dominate the social landscape, anyway, and the tabloids have played a significant role in driving this. Plus, tabloid newspapers and magazines appeal to people’s emotions, rather than reason and rationality, which is one of the reasons why they are so popular. (Michelle Wilkinson)

The obsession with celebrities, scandal and gossip may not be particularly healthy, but it is nothing new. There has always been a fascination with the lives of the rich and famous as well as the murky criminal underworld – both of which most people will never had any experience of. In the late Victorian period, it was Jack the Ripper that captured the public’s attention, with a little help from a number of hoax letters – which may have been written by journalists in order to garner more publicity for the case and to sell more papers. People wanted to know who the mysterious murderer was and what the police were doing about it.

Indeed one of the problems with tabloid newspapers and magazines is that they follow their own particular agenda, whether it is in the interests of the general public or not. Of course, the media is there to hold politicians and other people in authority to account, but at the end of the day, newspaper and magazine owners have to sell copies to make profit. Thus, it is easier to label all criminals as evil and to call for tougher jail sentences than to acknowledge the social problems that can lead people into a life of crime and to provide a balanced analysis of the whether jail works.

Most people know what they are getting when they pick up a tabloid – they don’t expect an intellectual debate on any of the day’s issues. Instead, they want stories that they can relate to and a journalistic voice that echoes their own thoughts. Un fortunately, this means that many people do not bother to question what they are told, accepting as fact something which is biased and judge mental. Politicians are particularly aware of the role that tabloids have to play and it is therefore not surprising that in the UK, for instance, a number of prime ministers have employed former tabloid journalists and editors as advisers.

This doesn’t appear to be very healthy for society. Politicians are more concerned with how they look to the public than whether what they are doing is right for the country. Most people are more interested in celebrity life styles than what is going on in the country or the world, anyway, and so aren’t bothered about trying to change society. Young girls and boys are being conditioned into thinking that being a celebrity is a profession and that it is extremely lucrative and comes with plenty of other benefits. This may not be all the fault of tabloid journalism, but it has certainly had a significant role to play.

4.2. Linguistic

The language of newspapers is quite different from, for instance, business language or academic language. As is mentioned by Crystal and David (1969: 173), everything that happens to be printed in a newspaper or written by a journalist is not going to be linguistically homogenous. Crystal and David (ibid.) also claim that there is not any reason to expect such a homogeneity since a newspaper is always very eclectic from the stylistic point of view. We come across a number of journalizes in the pages of various daily presses, and as a striking fact, while they are dealing with the same issue their overall styles are very different.

Everything that is written in a newspaper has to be transmitted through the medium of language. The transmission of a message through language entails encoding values into the message. Therefore, what language encompasses is emotional and cultural loading. The content of this loading, on the other hand, is determined by the nature of the culture or sub-culture in which the language exists (Reah, 1998).

The language of newspapers has attracted the attention of many scholars whose interests lie in language and its varieties. Crystal and Davy (1969), who were quoted above, posit the disparity between tabloid newspapers and broadsheets and they point out the “audiences” envisaged by the two different types of newspapers concerned. They indicate that these papers` target reader is different; therefore they use different language and style. They also maintain that by keeping the subject matter constant, different stylistic coloring which each paper throws over the story can be seen clearly.

Fowler asserts that any aspect of linguistic structure, whether phonological, syntactic, lexical, semantic, pragmatic or textual, can carry ideological significance (1991: 67). It will be dealt with the analytic categories or linguistic tools that are important in critical linguistics, Fowler gives also many examples.

Firstly, it is transitivity (whether the verb takes an object or not) that can change neutral reporting. In most cases transitivity is maintained and both the agent and the object are mentioned (e.g. PC shot boy from 9 inches.), passive without an agent occurs rarely (A boy was shot…) (Fowler 1991: 70-76).

Secondly, clause transformations, namely passive (e.g. Robber’s son, five, killed in his bed) and nominal (e.g. Mr. Tom King rejected a call… instead of Mr. Tom King rejected that he called…) are significant. Generally, passive construction is used when the article is not interested in the agent as much as in the action itself. It is even emphasized when the agent is deleted. On the other hand, active sentence stresses the agent and thus imply his or her responsibility (Fowler 1991: 76-80).

Vocabulary is another major determinant. Fowler stresses the occurrence of so called maps which are related words. For example an article from the field of police investigation contains many words from this map (alleged, police, involved, suspect, inquiries, solicitor etc.) (Fowler1991: 80-85).

Next, modality as comment or attitude is noted. Fowler distinguishes among four types of such comment: truth (expressions like will, could, certainly, unlikely), obligation (must, ought to, should), permission (can, may) and desirability (e.g. she was right, it is barmy) (Fowler 1991: 85-87).

Finally, speech act must me mentioned. In this sense, a speech act is a form of words which, of spoken or written in appropriate conditions, and under appropriate conventions, actually constitutes the performance of an action (Fowler 1991: 88). Such words are for instance declare, name, promise, announce, request, ban and many others (Fowler 1991: 87-90).

4.3. Cultural

Media culture and popular culture are increasingly difficult to classify; the ongoing blurring of boundaries between information and entertainment can be termed ‘infotainment’ and is generally attributed to market forces, commercialization and commodification of media content (Dahlgren and Sparks,1992; McManus,1994; McChesney,1999). Particularly in the realm of journalism, concerns about infotainment or tabloidization have been voiced by scholars and professionals alike throughout elective democracies with shared histories of journalism professionalization.1 Although there are several ways to study the articulation of popular culture

with journalists and journalism, this article specifically interrogates this development by analyzing the perceptions of reporters and editors in the field of popular journalism regarding their work and values. A range of expert interviews with journalists working for the leading tabloids in the

Netherlands were conducted in order to further study and understand the relationships between working for an archetypical infotainment genre and the various ways in which practitioners give meaning to their professional identity in contemporary (popular) journalism.

Authors like Hallin (1992) and van Zoonen (1998b) identify the tabloid as the prime example of a popular medium where one cannot draw a meaningful distinction between ‘information’ and ‘entertainment’. Connell (1998) also argues that the news discourse in broadsheet and tabloid media is largely similar. Bird (1992) showed how journalists working for

supermarket tabloids in the United States can be considered as the same (kind of) people who work for mainstream newspapers. Tabloid reporters and editors operate in the margins and along the edges of professional journalism, while also located in the middle of this peer group in terms of their professional identity as journalists (van Zoonen, 1998a). I am fascinated by the ways in which journalism as a profession with a certain (real or perceived) power position in contemporary society defines and organizes itself over time. Listening carefully to those within the profession

who operate in the margins and thus (sometimes) deviate from what the current consensus about what good or real journalism is offers us insight into how journalism organizes and defines itself, how this process of definition is structured, and how, in turn, this influences how journalism functions (Deuze, 2002). For an operational definition of tabloid, or rather, popular journalists, I

have used studies by van Zoonen (1998b) and Sparks (2000), showing a certain consensus within and about journalism on which sections or genres can be considered more ‘infotaining’ than others. Sparks (2000: 14–15) in particular defines this infotainment field for print media as news-stand tabloid press, typified by a concentration on private life of individuals specifically in terms of scandal, sports and entertainment. Sparks’ typology supports a wider selection of news media to be included in the interviewee pool, which is important as the Netherlands does not have such an extreme tabloid press as the United Kingdom or the United States. Thus I analyzed the intersection of popular culture and journalism by looking specifically at those journalists directly involved: the editors of those media in the Netherlands corresponding closest to Sparks’ definition of news-stand tabloids. Through a series of extensive, in-depth expert interviews I explored a wide band of relationships between issues related to popular culture and infotainment on the one hand, and journalism on the other. These relationships – as they can be found in (transcripts of) interviews – are conceptualized here as the different and sometimes inconsistent ways in which journalists give meaning to their work, thereby constantly negotiating their professional identity with elements of structure (the context in which they work, the journalistic field) and subjectivity (what they bring to the job). Loosely based on Giddens (1984), these elements are seen as both enabling as well as constraining the range of actions and choices for individuals. The notion of a more or less shared occupational ideology among journalists across genres and types of news media can be seen as

instrumental in this conceptualization, as it functions as an overarching discursive set of ideal-typical values, carried by journalists through common discourse, and functioning as (less than clear) benchmarks in their work (for more detailed explorations of the occupational ideology of journalism see e.g. Golding and Elliott, 1979; Reese, 1990; Kovach and Rosenstiel, 2001; Deuze, 2005). Looking at this ideology as discursively constructed by practitioners in the field in order to include and exclude certain journalists and journalisms, it can serve as a tool for analyzing the impact of a particular development (such as popularization of news media) on the values and professional self-perceptions of journalists. By targeting reporters and editors working within a typical popular journalism genre, these expert interviews additionally shed light on the various articulations under investigation.

By opting for interviews with experts, I consider that what these reporters and editors say effectively constitutes the wide variety of meanings they bring to the phenomena under investigation. This project utilizes the transcribed in-depth interviews with (expert) professionals to explore and analyze the various ways in which they give meaning to their everyday work. The analysis of the interview transcripts to some extent follows the so-called ‘Grounded Theory’ (GT) coding procedure as offered by Strauss and Corbin (1990) and Wester (1987), but can also be located in a more general and common-sensical approach in qualitative analyses of interview data, moving from a tabula rasa-based formal text-analysis, structural description of text-content, analytical abstraction, interpretation and comparative analysis of multiple texts to the construction of a (theoretical) model (see for example Heinze, 1995). The open coding sequence was used to select and code each sentence or phrase in the transcript, thus identifying the various topics and issues addressed by the participating journalists. This resulted in a variety of different topics. These were then grouped and labeled. In the axial coding phase, the statements were categorized and tested against the transcripts to verify whether this grouping matched the setting offered in the interviews. These steps allowed me to construct more or less distinct topical categories. The next step was to identify the various ways in which the interviewees discussed these topics, resulting in a series of coherent themes. This thematic analysis follows Potter and Wetherell (1987), whose work on discourse analysis helps us to interpret the inherent inconsistencies of concepts and categories, by regrouping and understanding propositions in terms of possible repertoires used by participants (like theatre actors) to perform certain roles in everyday life and to give meaning to the issues at hand. In the analytical procedure, the topical categories are considered to be an index of what journalists talk about when discussing (issues related to) infotainment. The themes or repertoires are seen as the full range of ways reporters and editors talked about these topics.

5.Tabloidization – a continuous and irreversible process or just a “trend”?

Tabloids have an exceptionally strong quality about them. They are loud and brash, use sensationalism as a tool, and give prominence to anything that arouses public interest.

Their journalism covers the realm of fantastic and sometimes the crazily invented and their consumers know and accommodate this in their reading strategies. (Garbner, 1992, p. 111-112)

Sex, scandal, crime, celebrity, sport, nightlife, fantasy and space attacks, horror, gore and a probe into the personal lives of people are the frequent areas under discourse in the tabloids.

Photographs and posters are extensively used throughout the papers and in a very down market tabloid like The Sun, a few lines of reporting text are just fillers.

Many tabloid papers carry a poster picture of a semi nude girl on page 3 or 5 and crime and sex stories occupy most of the general news pages. (Garbner, 1992, p.112)

This although does not mean that tabloids do not carry political news and current affairs. According to Garbner, politics and business news is reported, although the tone used is ‘highly personalized’ and the commentators are greatly opinionated. Thus there is no scope for objectivity and analytical coverage of news, and most often than not, it is about taking sides.

The tabloids also have a propensity to juxtapose fantasy and reality to arouse the interest and trust of their audience. There have been instances in the past where off the wall reports about alien mass attacks having jolted the proceedings of the parliament, have hit the headlines. In fact The Sun carried a front-page picture of an extraterrestrial shaking hand with former president of the United States, Bill Clinton.

On the surface, tabloidization is not a complex phenomenon. It is merely a transition of the media from being driven by a public welfare agenda to being driven by market forces. But if one is to probe deeper into the study of this phenomenon then it is important to understand the reasons – socio-economic and political, behind the growth of this trend.

Tabloidization has been given many synonyms – Yellow press, gutter news, red top, rag sheet, junk food news etc. All have derogatory connotations. This is primarily because of the fact that important issues of citizen concern have taken a backseat, with entertainment, scandal, crime and lifestyle holding the glare of publicity. This has undeniably affected the quality of the mass media and its relationship with politics and current affairs. So what are the reasons of the tabloidization of media? Is it a recent phenomenon? And what are its consequences – How does it affect the structure and the role of the media as a public service organization?

It has been very difficult for writers and experts to concretely point out what motivates media organizations into turning tabloid, but following are some apparent roots that we can assume:

· Catherine Lumby says that tabloid news shows and afternoon chat shows such as Oprah and Ricki Lane are markers of an expansion in the range of issues and voices becoming audible through the media. She further goes on to say that by juxtaposing the usual serious news with the tabloid’ private and public spheres are spontaneously connected. This clearly notes the shift in people’s outlook towards the media – they want it to be more personalized, more interactive. There is a declining audience for the traditional news agenda.

· The rise of tabloidization is most commonly attributed to the corporatization of media and to the rise of capitalism. This has lead to the marketing and shaping of news to cater to the tastes of audiences and advertisers. Revenue maximization is the ultimate aim of any corporate business, thus leading to a populist agenda.

· Increasing competition and proliferation of media outlets. What one follows, another follows suit, to stay in the competition. Tabloidization is a trend that is bound to crop up in a competitive industry, especially in a free market.

· As far as newspapers are concerned, declining circulation, especially in the western world, has given way to the press adopting the tabloid agenda.

In rough terms, people in 1964 were prepared to pay four times as much money for newspapers that had only a quarter of the content. In terms of value for money today, papers are sixteen times more valuable, but only have the same number of customers. (Horrie, 2003 p.232) He further adds that the tabloid industry has begun giving away free copies to stay put (The London Lite), and suspects that it won’t be long when young people will start turning their backs even on the tabloids.

· And lastly but most importantly, technology. The internet bump up poses a serious threat to print and broadcasting industries, which use the tabloid strategy to keep up in the rat race.

These apart, many researchers feel that reading is getting tougher and tougher for young people, as many of them have lost the habit of reading daily due to other mediums of communication. And to read the quality papers there needs to be significant basic as well as analytical knowledge of news.

Tabloidizm as we may call it is alleged to change the whole structure of the media environment. One of the biggest threats that tabloidization poses to the media industry is that it is blurring the gap between quality journalism and tabloid news. Secondly the tabloid press is a crisis of democracy as it does not perform the primary function of journalism, i.e. – to inform the people concerning the major issues of public interest (Raboy and Degenais, 1992 p. 44).

The obvious consequences of tabloidization can be seen in the fact that there is a shift in the priorities with regards to time-slots. In terms of TV, prime time is no more dominated by current affairs and politics, but is rather a spectacle of an assortment of news features, with the above mentioned being just ones among others.

Another change that is very apparent is the lack of coverage of foreign news, of investigation and information that may not be of interest to people, but of public interest. The tabloids have as a consequence led to the trivialization of the media by catering to just the choices or likes of people and not their welfare.

Although much hoopla is made about the whole tabloid issue, there is a point of view among experts that defends the tabloids.

– According to Joshua Gamson (Freaks talk back) tabloids and talk shows are good as they present different lifestyles and cultures which in the long run contribute to human integration and tolerance of other cultures.

– John Fiske about the supermarket tabloids – such superstitious knowledge offers an alternative reality to the official one and carries utopian-ized fantasies of emancipation from the constraints of poverty and conceived social failure.

– Helen Hughes exudes tremendous optimism and stresses the fact that newspapers which are an omnibus of variety introduce the masses to social happenings and perform a democratic function in the society, however indirect it may be.

Thus the tabloids have got its share of defenders who mainly stress on the fact that it is news that is of interest to the people and thus popular and hence it is inevitable. I personally feel that hard news is a product that is very difficult to digest and also very impersonal and thus does not interest many people, as they cannot relate to it. This is one of the main reasons why people choose tabloids. They are more reader friendly and do impart information, although it may be a bit over the top.

Is tabloidization an important issue for journalism?

The Miriam-Webster online dictionary offers two definitions of journalism – Writing characterized by a direct presentation of facts or description of events without an attempt at interpretation

Writing designed to appeal to current popular taste or public interest.

According to the Wikipedia encyclopedia –Journalism is a discipline of collecting, analyzing, verifying, and presenting news regarding current events, trends, issues and people.

The oxford dictionary defines news as – Newly received or noteworthy information about recent events.

None of these definitions stress on the fact that news or journalism is only about politics, economy, business or issues of public interest. In fact the 2nd definition given by Webster online makes it loud and clear that journalistic writing is that which appeals to current popular taste OR public interest. So essentially media organizations have a right to choose the audience they want to cater to. If most of them choose to cater to popular taste they could do so, without having violated the boundaries of journalism.

It is however important to note that the factors that have been markedly stressed in the above given definitions are – presentation of FACTS, analysis, verification of news and NON interpretation of events. These are exactly the issues that tabloids don’t seem to follow closely or obey, which makes it an important issue for the practice of journalism.

Tabloids are often accused of sensationalizing news and blowing things out of proportion. Many a time facts are not verified before being published or broadcast and objective analysis and unbiased interpretation of news is seldom offered. This is totally contrary to the primary function of journalism whereby the journalist seeks to report the truth and not some story modified to suit the taste of consumers and advertisers.

I believe that the phenomenon of tabloidization has more to it than the news agenda (scandal, crime, celebrity and entertainment, sport etc) it adopts. It simply doesn’t stop at that. It is important to reconstruct the definition and make it inclusive, so as to understand the menace that it has become in today’s context. Tabloidization today is more than just celebrity and scandal. Modern media have created a profound mess by putting it together with politics and public affairs in order to sell themselves harder. The agenda today is more than monitory vested interests. It is about brainwashing, propaganda, about taking sides, about a new pattern of serial obsessions that periodically take over the airwaves for weeks at a time’ as rightly put by Al Gore in his speech at the We Media Conference in New York, 2005. Tabloids today are dangerously moving towards a political orb, representing certain people, unseeing others, which threatens to make modern media a completely dysfunctional tool of public discourse.

Media organizations today haven’t simply crossed the boundaries of journalism, but are miles ahead of their confines. If this is how things are going to take shape it wouldn’t be exaggerative to assume that tabloidization is indeed a threat to democracy.

Tickle the public, make `em grin,

The more you tickle the more you'll win.

Nothing else could be more appropriate than this, to explain the state of the tabloid media. The Mother Pie blog carried an article (august 06) in which the writer says of the media’s tabloid agenda – we are subliminally being engaged at the level of our deepest needs – the need for safety and security. Stories that make us feel vulnerable (could this happen here, are we at risk?) get your attention at our most base level of instinct. This observation I believe is strikingly real. How else do we explain the fact that even 4 years later, almost a third of the Americans still believe that Saddam Husain was responsible for attacking them on September 11? How can Bush’s re-election be put in plain words?

It is very difficult to reach an authoritative conclusion – in favor of or in opposition to the tabloid media. On one hand I feel it is an impossible dream to expect private media organizations or even the commercial government media to be public service units in a consumerist world. But on the other hand the least a viewer can expect is truth and the right to information. A change in the news agenda to being more entertainment driven is comprehendible, but it is unacceptable when hard news is incorporated into an entertainment package. It is also totally detrimental to have a media that is propagandist and predisposed to governments. The media is the government’s watch dog not its pet dog!

The tabloid media unfortunately seems to be all of this and more. The point in time when the tabloids existed independently, but alongside the qualities was better off than what we see today, where the gap between them is blurring. And with other unfavorable circumstances such as the advent of the internet and the plummeting demand for traditional media, the situation seems to be getting only worse.

So, tabloidization is a new, frequently used term equally employed by journalists, media and academics to characterize a recent, dubious trend in the mass media.

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