What is wrong with British tabloids?

Question

It seems to me that British tabloids in recent times are nothing more than glorified gossip magizines, obsessed with immigration, celebrity drug abuse and Big Brother. Comments?

Answer 1

Oh the big wheels that turn in the tabliods..........it seems that we adore gossip and so many people actually believe what they read.......i think as a nation we are bored really. It would nice to find a paper that has worthy news stories and also some containing good news.

We are so media driven, my new partner doesnt have tv, it a breath of freshair and i realise there are more things in life than reading trash and watching trash....imagine if everyone decided not to buy certain news papers!!!!!!

Answer 2

Hard to add anything new to the comments already but...yes you are right added to the old adage "never let the truth get in the way of a good story" the agendas seek to reflect popular opinion in turn affecting opinion to become a nasty vicious but for the successful circle. You could also add what is wrong with the broadsheets - who have for several years started trying to widen their appeal with more "accesibility" the rsult is a pure dumbed down ready-meal approach to news with broadsheets needing to use pics of celebrities alongside news stories to somehow make them readable - an adoption story would now be accompanied by Madonna or Angelina Jolie even if neither were mentioned in the news article. Rolling enws with nothing to say 80% of the time means that it ends up making pointless editorial choices. Tabloids choose to masticate the news food and chew it into mush losing all signs of any identifiable stories...propagating as it goes hatred, lies, racism and so on
One small blessing they are seeing sales decline - the mother of all the worst nasty tabloids the News of the Screw lost 500,000 readers in les than a year. The only way forward is to reject them and find news through unmediated sources

Answer 3

They are designed to SELL. The bottom line is always "How many have we sold? How much money have we made?" They are not interested in information unless it is the salacious sordid scandalous gossipy kind because that is what SELLS. The truth and the facts don't matter. If it isn't interesting they will 'sex' it up so they can titillate the public with headlines such as "Freddie Starr Ate My Hamster!" (he did no such thing) or the publication of photographs showing British troops torturing Iraqis that turned out to be mocked up fakes. They are ridiculous scandal sheets that lack much semblance of a 'news'paper and have even less integrity. Most are also motivated by owners who have their own political agenda that is spouted as fact in editorial after editorial. Some pose under the name of being the voice of the middle classes but are no more than a group of ranting fascists more concerned to stir up racial hatred and suspicions among 'white' readers against immigrants, Romanies, asylum seekers, eastern Europeans, Muslims, anyone against fox hunting, militant environmentalists &c. I don't buy newspapers any more. They should be sued under the trades description act. After all, you couldn't sell a chocolate bar if it had no chocolate in it...

Answer 4

I think you are right to say that, it is definitely getting worse. Although there have been gossip publications for many years it has spread to the tabloids. It is the same with television, it appears that the majority of our society prefers to read and watch that which doesn't require much thought and will satisfy us in the same way a child will prefer sweets/junk food to a wholesome meal.
Maybe one day the tide will turn.
My children read a newspaper called First News which is just for kids. I would recommend it.

Answer 5

We call it the gutter press for any number of reasons, gossip is this the way in which they purport to relay the news when in actual fact the vast majority is speculative to say the least. However occasionally they are correct in the speculation,they highlight the majority of views which they believe the majority hold if they did not do so they would not sell as many as what they do,but it is not just the British that do this, very many western countries pay only a very small amount of lip service to the actual facts,preferring to sensationalise rather than report,they tell us what we want to hear.
When the Sun newspaper reported the stadium fire and ensuing disaster they reported that the Liverpool fans caused this to happen when in actual fact they did not, vast amounts of sun newspapers get returned from news vendors in the city of Liverpool if you can find one that will carry them, this is the way ,vote with your pocket. FL

Answer 6

Your powers of observation are amazing but what's your point?
Do tabloids put shallow crap in their papers cos that's what the population want to read, or do we read shallow crap cos it's what they put in the tabloids?
Who influences who?
If you don't like the "red tops" then start reading the Times or similar and persuade everyone you know to do the same, if you get enough people involved then you might get the "red tops" to smarten up. (The Mirror used to be THE serious newspaper back in 1900's - not much better than the Sun now).

Answer 7

while they can't discover the reality, they make it up. that is rather obtrusive while speaking politics. even with the undeniable fact that that is not in basic terms the tabloids, BBC information are responsible too, in the event that they can't get an answer from somebody they speculate and positioned it forward as actuality. i can not say for ITV through fact i don't watch it. the biggest difficulty is, they get away with it time and time back, even while proved incorrect through fact you nevertheless purchase the tabloids ( i've got stopped, especially through fact I spend my money on greater effective issues) that is comparable to mendacity.

Answer 8

Regardless of opinions people are still buying them in their millions, and while that happens editors will continue to provide the content that people want. Why should they change a winning formula?
The 'serious' broadsheets are generally showing declining sales, so although it's a sad reflection on society it is pretty much what the majority of newspapers readers want.

Answer 9

24 Hour news has wrecked the "raison d'etre" of the papers. If you want news, switch on the TV. They have fought back with this gossip and opinion. A very bad answer to the problem I thought. I just don't read them. Doing that allows them to generate more revenue from Ad coverage.
Ignore them and hopefully they will slowly but surely disappear.

xxB

Answer 10

omg just about everything is wrong with the tabloids , i don't but them anymore, waste of my money why do i care if any one in the celebrity world has broke a nail,