The Evening Herald-tabloid?

tvnutz

Hey,

Firstly I'd ask you to bear with me for this post as it might be a bit long and I tend to ramble sometimes.

I have been reading the Evening Herald for years now,its the paper my Dad has always bought and still buys, so it has become the paper I read and now buy myself. I know it has always been thrown into the category of being a tabloid, but I have always felt it wasn't really a tabloid in the true sense of the word. Maybe that is just wishful thinking on my part because perhaps I don't want to believe I buy a tabloid paper, considering I think tabloids are pure rubbish. I have no delusions of the Herald being a broadsheet either but is it somewhere in between the two?

The reason I am asking people here is because I am currently doing a Sociology masters in NUI Maynooth,and I have a project on the media due in about a month. The project involves exploring a media service in more detail. Therefore I have decided to look more into The Herald as I have been reading it for years and it interests me!

So I am asking for everyone's views on this. I would greatly appreciate if people could vote in the poll and if possible post your own opinions. If you could also give me your age and sex that would be helpful. I would ask that you put some consideration into your post if this type of thing interests you (since you are on this forum I presume it does). If you just hate the paper please don't just post something like "that paper is crap" or "it is tabloid junk". Please try to give genuine reasons why you think what you think.

I know this is beginning to sound like a project for you rather than me,but if as many people as possible could respond it would be a great help. Considering I am asking you for your opinions,I should obviously give mine.

So,is the Evening Herald a tabloid?

Upon further thinking I reckon it is somewhere in between a tabloid and a broadsheet.I think calling it a tabloid is unfair when you see what a tabloid really is.

A tabloid,in my opinion, can be labelled "sleazy". they generally contain images of a sexual nature and even pornographic photos (Page3,The Sun). They have excessive amounts of celebrity focused stories and "celeb gossip". They tend to have seperate pullout soap or tv magazines from time to time that once again are filled with celeb and soap gossip. They put a lot of focus on "agony aunt" type columns and plenty of their advertisement pages contain ads for sex lines and moblie phone clubs that eat away at your phone credit. Their front page headlines can be quite ridiclous at times. Big Brother has occasionally gotten front page coverage on the Star at times. The last space shuttle disaster a few years back in America dominated the front pages of most papers. I do however remember that the front page of one tabloid (not sure which one,with Star,Sun or Mirror) had the headline "my boyfriend in actually my brother",with the shuttle crash on page 6 or 7.

Broadsheets tend to lack the majoirty of this nonsense,and in my opinion The Herald does too,or for some parts,plays a balancing act. The Herald contains no porn images,there no soap pullout mags. The have a Friday tv supplement which I find to be very professional. Their advertising pages contain professional ads. They have a section where readers send in their views,something common in broadsheets and less common in tabloids. Their news coverage is of a serious nature for the majority of the paper. Smaller sections do cover things like Big brother or soaps,but these stories tend to be small and short,and rarely take up an entire page,whereas The Star devotes several pages to Big Brother. The Herald recently introduced "Polski Herald" for the large Polish community living here. While this is most likely to try grap their readership,it also sparks of professionalism,and it is not something you would see in the The Star,Sun,Mirror etc.

In terms of size,tabloids have always been small,meaning the Herald was thrown in that group. However in recent years broadsheets have published smaller versions of their paper known as compacts. i.e The Independent,The Times and The Scotsman in the UK. So perhaps that is not an issue in defining a paper a tabloid anymore. ON that note the Herald has put out a new design that I think makes it look more like a broadsheet than a tabloid such as,again,the Sun,Mirror and Star. Visually it looks very impressive.

So,those are my points on why I think the Herald is not really a tabloid. For me tabloids are papers like The Star,Mirror and Sun that I would consider sleazy and junk. The Herald on the other hand,is above that,but not a broadsheet either. It has a larger sports section than broadsheets would have,and as I said,contains small articles on celebrity stories that you might not find in a broadsheet.

I hope you made it to the end of this post which I now realise is very long! And I also hope you will vote and give your opinions (all welcome!).

Thanks a million

Dundalk Daily

The Herald is a tabloid, as the meaning of tabloid is the format/size of the publication. It just so happens that the format known as tabloid was quite popular with or even hijacked by the British gutter press and in recent years the Oirish gutter press.

I will give you a more detailed opinion of it later.

segadreamcast

In format, the Herald has always been a tabloid.

In content, the Herald has definitely become a tabloid over the last decade... look at their headlines? They scream sensationalism.

DMC

Tabloid-sized since the late 70's/early 80's, sorry to be a pedant! :P I'm just old enough to remember seeing a Herald as a broadsheet.

The Evening Herald, to me, has gone downhill in recent years. No longer does it have a breaking news story on the front cover of its three editions. It appears to enjoy a good murder and/or gun crime on page one.... Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't remember any day when Bertie's woes were paramount, that it led with it?

flogen

tvnutz wrote:

I have been reading the Evening Herald for years now,its the paper my Dad has always bought and still buys, so it has become the paper I read and now buy myself. I know it has always been thrown into the category of being a tabloid, but I have always felt it wasn't really a tabloid in the true sense of the word. Maybe that is just wishful thinking on my part because perhaps I don't want to believe I buy a tabloid paper, considering I think tabloids are pure rubbish. I have no delusions of the Herald being a broadsheet either but is it somewhere in between the two?

Firstly, as has already been stated, the terms Tabloid and Broadsheet refer to size, not style. With that in mind the Herald is indeed a tabloid, while only the Irish Times and Irish Examiner remain as national broadsheets.
I figure your question isn't so much about format as it is about the negative connections the term 'tabloid' has in Ireland and Britain... I'll take the word tabloid to mean what I think you want it to mean from now on!

The reason I am asking people here is because I am currently doing a Sociology masters in NUI Maynooth,and I have a project on the media due in about a month. The project involves exploring a media service in more detail. Therefore I have decided to look more into The Herald as I have been reading it for years and it interests me!

Good stuff and good luck with it. I would suggest you find a more suitable term for the styles of newspaper though. Try finding non-emotive words to categorise the different times; perhaps something like hard news or news-led for the more serious newspapers and entertainment or soft-news led for the others... just a suggestion, I'm sure there are better ones available

So,is the Evening Herald a tabloid?

Upon further thinking I reckon it is somewhere in between a tabloid and a broadsheet.I think calling it a tabloid is unfair when you see what a tabloid really is.

I disagree; I think that the Herald is sitting perfectly amongst the low-brow. It may not be at the lowest level of all, but it doesn't form a bridge between low and high brow reading... if anything the Indo does, but that's been slumping for a long time too.

A tabloid,in my opinion, can be labelled "sleazy". they generally contain images of a sexual nature and even pornographic photos (Page3,The Sun).

Yes it can, but it doesn't define the "genre". You don't have to have porn to be a tabloid, and the Herald goes for a different low brow market; one that doesnt' consist of giggling school boys

They have excessive amounts of celebrity focused stories and "celeb gossip". They tend to have seperate pullout soap or tv magazines from time to time that once again are filled with celeb and soap gossip. They put a lot of focus on "agony aunt" type columns

I suppose the term excessive is a matter of opinion, but I think the Herald puts too much focus on celeb gossip, celeb stories and soaps etc. It also has a pull out tv mag, doesn't it? And an agony aunt?

and plenty of their advertisement pages contain ads for sex lines and moblie phone clubs that eat away at your phone credit.

Not really a sign of style, just a sign of the rates they charge for ad space and the opinion advertisers have of their readership.

Their front page headlines can be quite ridiclous at times. Big Brother has occasionally gotten front page coverage on the Star at times. The last space shuttle disaster a few years back in America dominated the front pages of most papers. I do however remember that the front page of one tabloid (not sure which one,with Star,Sun or Mirror) had the headline "my boyfriend in actually my brother",with the shuttle crash on page 6 or 7.

So can the Herald, case in point it's obsession with the murder of Rachael O'Reilly, and anything loosely related to the woman. For example the piece recently about the unchanged ESB bill, and the two days of headlines reporting on a vigil mass; day 1; vigil mass to be held for Rachael tomorrow, day 2; a vigil mass was held yesterday for Rachael. All of these were front page.

Broadsheets tend to lack the majoirty of this nonsense,and in my opinion The Herald does too,or for some parts,plays a balancing act. The Herald contains no porn images,there no soap pullout mags. The have a Friday tv supplement which I find to be very professional.

I'd say it's full of nonsense; and I fail to see how a TV suppliment can be professional...

Their advertising pages contain professional ads. They have a section where readers send in their views,something common in broadsheets and less common in tabloids.

On the rare occassion that I read a tabloid, I'm pretty sure they all have letters pages; even though the letters are usually fictional.

Their news coverage is of a serious nature for the majority of the paper.

I'd use the term sensationalist and right-wing.

Smaller sections do cover things like Big brother or soaps,but these stories tend to be small and short,and rarely take up an entire page,whereas The Star devotes several pages to Big Brother.

The fact that they give any coverage to Big Brother doesn't bode well in my mind.

The Herald recently introduced "Polski Herald" for the large Polish community living here. While this is most likely to try grap their readership,it also sparks of professionalism,and it is not something you would see in the The Star,Sun,Mirror etc.

Well the Sun and Mirror don't really have any sizable Irish operations, so you cannot expect them to respond to the Irish market very well.
That said the Polski Herald was a great marketing stunt that probably does well to get in niche readers and, more importantly, advertisers. I don't think it says anything about their seriousness or otherwise.

In terms of size,tabloids have always been small,meaning the Herald was thrown in that group. However in recent years broadsheets have published smaller versions of their paper known as compacts. i.e The Independent,The Times and The Scotsman in the UK. So perhaps that is not an issue in defining a paper a tabloid anymore. ON that note the Herald has put out a new design that I think makes it look more like a broadsheet than a tabloid such as,again,the Sun,Mirror and Star. Visually it looks very impressive.

No, format shouldn't really matter. The Independent, for example, has been going down hill for a long time; it's appointment of Gerry O'Regan(formerly of the Herald) as editor in response to the oncoming Mail offensive was the final nail...

It's worth keeping in mind that being a newspaper with a slightly lighter approach to news isn't a bad thing, you're catering for a market. Some readers like to read concise, technical and serious news and others prefer more laid back, easily digestable information... neither is right or wrong as long as the information is correct.
The problem is that newspapers like the Herald are moving away from news and focusing on entertainment. They're also pushing their own agenda's too and cannot be described as even close to balanced.

That's my 2c anyway

Sarsfield

The term tabloid has generally been replaced with the term red-top in Britain to refer to the sensationalist/gutter press.

I think the Herald & Sunday World also have a red logo?

Yes it's a tabloid. Even the freesheets have more depth.

Andrew 83

Tabloid. Articles tend to be slanted, sensationalised, and simplified. That's not to say it's all bad though - it's probably the only tabloid I'd buy (maybe the Star too).


Something interesting to look at would be readership and how it tailors to that. I remember reading that it's the only Irish tabloid where the majority of its readers are women, in all the others most readers are men. Has this had an effect on the content?


Good luck with the masters anyway, have just finished a Sociology masters in UCD myself and did a media related topic too.

Dave!

NoelRock wrote:

In format, the Herald has always been a tabloid.

In content, the Herald has definitely become a tabloid over the last decade... look at their headlines? They scream sensationalism.

I'll agree with this.

I used to read the Herald, but I've made a conscious decision to stop buying it (out of protest, yes ) after they had a headline on the front page, "WHAT CHEEK!" The story was basically that the bloke who killed Robert O Houlihan threatened to sue a number of papers for whatever reason. So the Herald essentially used the article to issue a DARE to the bloke, to get his lawyers in touch with them!!! :eek: Absolutely ridiculous stuff.

I've been buyin the Irish Times every morning now, cos I'm uber smart! lol

beanyb

The Herald is definitely a tabloid. The writing style, the layout and the sensationalism all leads to there not being any possibility that it's anything else. There is absolutely no comparison between it and The Irish Times.

I swore to never read it again after its coverage of the Robert Holohan trial which was horribly biased and sensationalist. They used completely illogical and inaccurate arguments which made my blood boil as I read it.

tvnutz

Thanks for the replies,please keep them coming! Pretty overwhelming view on it being a tabloid so far. Keep the votes coming.

Good stuff Flogen,lots of answers,I like that! You are right about what tabloid and broadsheet refer to,size,but I think their meaning has come to match their style. From my experience people tend to view a tabloid by the content it contains,mostly rubbish.Also some broadsheets are going smaller in size. So sorry for not being clearer,I have a lot more work than this project! lol :P

I would actually agree with most people that the Herald is declining in quality and has been for a while. But like I said I still don't see it as gutter press.

Keep the opinions coming please!

tvnutz

I would like to hear from the people who voted in between...all 3 of them

Heisenberg.

This post has been deleted.

Dave!

Huh? NOT in terms of content?!

wikipedia says...
"Tabloid newspapers in Britain, collectively called the tabloid press, tend to be simply and sensationally written, and to give more prominence than broadsheets to celebrities, sports, crime stories and even hoaxes; they also more readily take a political position (either left- or right-wing) on news stories, ridiculing politicians, demanding resignations and predicting election results."

The Herald fits very snugley into that description.

edit:

Just remembering a headline the other day... The story was about some rapist getting early release, and some TD didn't oppose it, or something like that (I didn't read it all).

"TD WANTS THIS PAEDOPHILE RELEASED" (or words to that effect, and with a picture of the paedophile)

Quality.

Miss Fluff

Can't even believe you would seriously ask whether it could possibly be considered a broadsheet. I mean ROFL. Written by knackers for knackers.

r3nu4l

TV nutz, I'm Male, 31 and Biology PhD graduate NUIM.

Glad to help a fellow NUIM person...Just a note, you should try to get information on the socio-economic class and demograph of the people you are surveying. If you did your degree at NUIM you would know that these factors will have an incredible influence on the type of answer you get and may even predict the answer in most cases.

Anyway...onwards.

My parents always bought the Evening Herald and so I read it every night when I was at school but always found the writing to be opinionated and sensationalist, conveniently ignoring fact where it was possible to put spin and allegation.

I read it less at University because I bought the Irish Times most days. I still read the Herald anytime I return to Ireland as there is usually a copy lying around at my folks place.

I find that the paper fixates on one issue for a while, driving their agenda forward and ignoring many of the more important issues, especially political subtleties which they obviously seem to think (probably rightly) that their readers will not care about.

The Herald appears designed to appeal to 'de ordinary workin' man from Dublin, fish fingers, chips and beans for dinner' etc. Since the demise of the Evening Press in the 80's there have only been one or two attempts to infiltrate the evening paper market and these unfortunately have not worked, perhaps because the Herald had no competition for so many years and people got used to it.

The main focus and appeal of the Evening Herald seems to centre around the following premise:

"XXXX is/are terrible, it's an outrage!"

Where XXXX refers to Utility charges (gas/electricity/oil), knife/gun crime, drugs, suicides in Ireland, the Health system, numbers killed on the road.

Most of the stories also seem to exaggerate events with a particular focus in mind, to incite feelings of anger at the Government/Gardaí or anyone in authority.

In short, it's one of the worst rags out there because it tries to pretend it's not gutter press and actively tries to incite distress. This is all just my opinion and I must say that I like the cartoon pages

tvnutzz, if you are conducting a full survey PM me and I'll gladly respond, anything to help an NUIM fellow . Remember your research should be both qualitative and quantitative

jdivision

I'm a journalist and can tell you that it is viewed as a tabloid, size or not. Aside from the size, it's very sensationalist, there's a large amount of opinion content and their news focus is all tabloid.

santosubito

And, Jdivision, as a hack as well, some people might say calling the Herald a tabloid is unfair on tabloids...

tvnutz

r3nu4l wrote:

TV nutz, I'm Male, 31 and Biology PhD graduate NUIM.

Glad to help a fellow NUIM person...Just a note, you should try to get information on the socio-economic class and demograph of the people you are surveying. If you did your degree at NUIM you would know that these factors will have an incredible influence on the type of answer you get and may even predict the answer in most cases.

Anyway...onwards.

My parents always bought the Evening Herald and so I read it every night when I was at school but always found the writing to be opinionated and sensationalist, conveniently ignoring fact where it was possible to put spin and allegation.

I read it less at University because I bought the Irish Times most days. I still read the Herald anytime I return to Ireland as there is usually a copy lying around at my folks place.

I find that the paper fixates on one issue for a while, driving their agenda forward and ignoring many of the more important issues, especially political subtleties which they obviously seem to think (probably rightly) that their readers will not care about.

The Herald appears designed to appeal to 'de ordinary workin' man from Dublin, fish fingers, chips and beans for dinner' etc. Since the demise of the Evening Press in the 80's there have only been one or two attempts to infiltrate the evening paper market and these unfortunately have not worked, perhaps because the Herald had no competition for so many years and people got used to it.

The main focus and appeal of the Evening Herald seems to centre around the following premise:

"XXXX is/are terrible, it's an outrage!"

Where XXXX refers to Utility charges (gas/electricity/oil), knife/gun crime, drugs, suicides in Ireland, the Health system, numbers killed on the road.

Most of the stories also seem to exaggerate events with a particular focus in mind, to incite feelings of anger at the Government/Gardaí or anyone in authority.

In short, it's one of the worst rags out there because it tries to pretend it's not gutter press and actively tries to incite distress. This is all just my opinion and I must say that I like the cartoon pages

tvnutzz, if you are conducting a full survey PM me and I'll gladly respond, anything to help an NUIM fellow . Remember your research should be both qualitative and quantitative

Thanks for the opinions! It is a media project I am doing,only has to be about 1,500 words. I just wanted a general feel of what people think about the paper. It is not a full research project. I'll save that for my thesis!

You have some good points,like the majority here (with the exception of Miss Fluff). I do see where you are coming from,but Is till don't see it as gutter press,despite "inciting distress" as you put it. When comparing it to the star,the sun etc,its just not as low. I thinks its sports coverage is good, and despite its sensationalism,its tends to deal with real news stories,which can't be said for some papers.

And I never thought of it as a broadsheet,but the I needed to allow people to have that option. This of course would be just my opinion. The project is to investigate a media source,how it is funded,its readership etc. I also thought it would be interesting to see how people view it in comparison to other papers. Hence this poll and thread. Age and sex would be interesting and of course essential if I was doing a full blown research project on the Herald. But as of now,I am not.

Thanks for the opinions people. If anyone has any more please keep them coming. I have another few weeks before the project is due

tvnutz

Miss Fluff wrote:

Can't even believe you would seriously ask whether it could possibly be considered a broadsheet. I mean ROFL. Written by knackers for knackers.

Thanks,but I asked for mature and intelligent responses and opinions. " Written by knackers for knackers" is the type of comment that excludes you from that group,and of course makes your views irrelevant to me.

r3nu4l

What makes it more 'tabloid' for me is the fact that it reports stories that suit their particular agenda, at the expense of other stories that would be considered more important and news-worthy by other papers.

Also, rather than report the facts and allow readers to make up their minds, they simply report the story centred to their opinon as the central theme to the story.