Assignment # 1 PART 2
Society has been surrounded by the media for many years. The media exists worldwide and in every language spoken around the world since its main purpose is to keep people informed about current news around them and the world. Not only to inform, but the media has also some other purposes as for example, advertise, entertain, educate, sell, influence and engage its large audience. All of these things are transmitted in many different accessible ways to everyone, for instance by television, radio, internet, magazines, newspapers, etc., but newspapers are one of the most common media nowadays since it is a daily printed publication that can be bought almost everywhere, delivered door to door and even online. Newspapers also divided into different sections such as weather and forecasts, sports, health, comics/humor, showbiz, opinion, politics, entertainment, fashion, business, education, and of course ads for cars’ dealers, TV shows, homes, pets, medical and legal services, stores, announcements and tons more are all over these. Overall, readers can increase their knowledge in every of these aspects by reading all these different types of information presented in a daily or weekly newspaper.
Many countries such as The United States are very diverse, so therefore these have two different types of newspapers, ethnic and mainstream. Ethnic newspapers focused on local but mainlyon international news for immigrants, racial, ethnic and linguistic minorities residing in many different countries outside of their home country and which are written in their native language(s). On the other hand, the mainstream newspapers focused mainly on local and national news, but also covers international information if it is relevant to the country itself. In addition, both mainstream and ethnic newspapers want their reader to feel comfortable reading the information that they are interested in and in their first language or the one they understand the most.States, cities and neighborhoods across the country are very multi-ethnic, which means that publications on all and each of these newspapers need to be carefully edited since no everyone is interested in reading about the same thing, as an extreme example of diversity we have New York. Also, their pricesare affordable and range from no cost/free up to $6.00 depending on the type of newspaper and the days these are bought. Also exists the online subscriptions, where there is a monthly fee to be paid to have access to read their publications as often as there are published and to the readers convenience.
The ethnic newspapers seem to be a media that mostly focus on reporting information of interest to minority groups, in this case Hispanics. On the other hand, the mainstream newspaper does not report news for a specific ethnic group, but acknowledge all their audience as a whole by reporting local and national rather than global news. Mainstream and ethnic newspapers are set up differently and provide information according to the group they have as their readers. Each newspapers’ sections such as news, jobs, entertainment, etc. emphasizes on their own community’s interest. One of the most curios similarities that these newspapers have is the fact that they know what their audience or reader want to read and know about each topic.
I have chosen three different newspapers, NY Daily News, El Especialito and El Diario, written in two languages English and Spanish respectively. Two of these newspapers are divided into almost the same sections, but one of thesethree newspapersis much less informative than the other two. The NY Daily Newspaper reports news, politics, sports, entertainment, opinion, living and autos while El Diario has three more sections which are immigration, international news andeducation. El Especialito has less section than the other two just mention, and also the information it contains, in my opinion, is not to keep the audience informed, but to give advises as of how to lose weight, save money, have a better life style and of course to target them with their many exaggerated ads.
The audience targeted by these newspapers will not only see news of their interest but also, in some way, persuasive ads in most of the sections of it taking up small or significant portions of its pages. Apart from addressing relevant news and entertain, the ethnic group focused and the general public newspapers generally make sure that their customers are introduced to outside businesses that could assist them with different goods and services according to their needs.One other things is that some newspapers, in this case “Daily News”, also bring a page full of discount coupons for their customer to redeem.By comparing these three newspapers, I did notice that “El Especialito”, which is a free newspaper, bombards their readers with too many ads covering most of its pages compare to the other two. Also as I mentioned before, “El Especialito” publications were not about politics, social news, immigration, etc, which are publications that specifically address most readers’ interest regardless of their ethnicity, but these are about health, beauty and money tips instead.
So now through my comparative analysis, I notice that the coverage to certain topics such as politics and sport in the NY Daily News and El Diario are more extended and more emphasis is put on these compared to the other section of it. El Diario newspaper has agreat distribution of its different sections for its Hispanic audience that want to know about trending news in their native countriesto continue connected even long after they have moved away. Basically the content of this newspaper provides them with an abstract of the most important news of the country they live in and the one where they come from, keeping them linked to both.“After a study, three newspapers tended to cast their own community in a positive light” (Lindgren 2013), this was a finding that caught my attention the most because the audience not only wants to be seen or knownfor good things, but they also want to be aware of things that might affect them or their status in a foreign country at some point. It is important for them to know could stop them from advancing or move forward in this country. This “El Diario” newspapers has a very interesting classified section which highlights jobs, their descriptions and if whether or not the English language is a must, but the showbiz section needs better focused on Hispanic famous people, which will be of most interest or more meaningful to its Hispanic audience.
On the other hand, I notice that the NY Daily News does not cover much information of interest to any specific ethnic group, which I thinks is biased. It is understandable that this is a mainstream newspaper therefore it covers information of interest to the general public, but being that this is a newspaper published in New York it must partially address information for immigrants/non-citizen in general.The following quote better explains that a mainstream newspaper can no ignore the different ethnic groups when publishing news ,especially in the United States, “Communicator need to understand the identifying characteristics and media preferences of various audience segments so that they can better adapt message content to the needs of their particular audience” (Bearden, J. E., & Durand., 1978). The mainstream and the ethnic newspapers surely need to work together for better coverage depending on the location these are published.The general public has to be studied and their needs and/or interests have to be understood so that the printing results meaningful to them.
It is interesting how sports are presented in these mainstream and ethnic newspapers. This section in both newspapers cover statistical reports explaining where each team is standing at. People who might not even feel interested in sports, just by overviewing the statistical report can feel attracted to read it. Also, mainstream and ethnic newspapers are correlated and in need of each other somehow, for instance the New York Fashion Week which is supposed to be a mainstream coverage was published in the ethnic newspaper because of the collaboration of Hispanic designersin this event,whose work were shown in this New York show.Even though this show is not related to the Hispanic population, it was still covered because of the work put into it by Hispanics. In such a diverse country like the United States, mainstream and ethnic newspapers cannot overlook each other. In fact they need to work together to better satisfy and better provide relevant information not only to one targeted ethnic group but to the public in general.
WORK CITED
Bearden. W. O. Teel, J. E., & Durand, R. M. (1978). Descriptive Audience. Profiles Of Different Daily Newspaper Sections. Journal Of Applied Communications Research, 6(1), 31.
(2014, September 9). Daily News, New York’s HomeTown Newspaper, pp. 1-64.
(2014, September 9). El Diario, El Campion De Los Hispanos, pp. 1-40.
(2014, September 12). El Especialito, El Semanario De La ComunidadHispana, pp. 1-44.
Lindgren, A. (2013). The Diverse City: Can You Read All About it in Ethnic Newspapers?. Contemporary Readings in Law & Social Justice, 5(2), 120-140.
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