Tabloid Tradition

1

• Tabloid Tradition

2
Tab--loid

• TABletalkaLoid

3
Tabloids tradition

• 1833 The Sun (sold one cent on the street)
• While newspapers until then were very much
  establishment media, aligned with business and
  political interests, the Sun was the first
  American newspaper written less for merchants and
  politicians than for the general reader.

4
Newspaper Circulation in England

• 1828-1840
• 78,000 to 300,000 ( attributable to the growth of
  the penny press )

5
Penny Press

• Reporting skills
• Observation and interviewing
• Not rely on documents e.g. court records

6
Tabloids tradition

• 1883 New York World (Joseph Pulitzer founded)
  pushed a movement of Yellow Journalism
• what is original, distinctive, dramatic,
  romantic, thrilling, unique, curious, humorous,
  odd, apt to be talked about.

7
Tabloids tradition

• Slogan for tabloid
• All the news in 60 seconds
• -New York Daily

8
Tabloid tradition in China

• Tabloid ?? unofficial press
• Official press ordinary message
• Unofficial press extraordinary message

9
Lord Northcliffe

• Father of Tabloid, he lectures to his fellow
  journalists on how to please the masses
• the things people talk about are news-and what
  do they mostly talk about?
• Other people, their failures and successes, their
  joys and sorrows, their money and their food and
  their peccadilloes.

10
Lord Northcliffe

• Get more names in the paper-the more
  aristocratic the better, if there is a news story
  round them.
• You know the public is more interested in
  duchesses than servant-girls. Ask the
  Amalgamated Press (Northcliffes periodicals
  concern) whether they do better in Lancashire
  with serial or periodical stories of factory
  life, or stories of high life.

11
Lord Northcliffe

• Everyone likes reading about people in better
  circumstances than his or her own.
• News as anything out of the ordinary.the only
  thing that will sell a newspaper

12
Lord Northcliffe

• He requested his editors of Daily Mail to make
  the paper a happy one, fresh and free from
  dullness. The main news page is the surprise
  page.
• -in T. Clarke, My Northcliffe Diary,
  pp200-201)

13
Tabloid in China

• People in Sung Dynasty used to read Ti Pao as a
  routine/official newspaper and treated Tabloid as
  non-routine/unofficial newspaper

14
Tabloid tradition in China

• 1898 Ciao Fung Po ???
• Owner of Ciao Fung Po explained reasons to
  operate a Tabloid-it aims to raise up moral
  standard
• ???????, ????, ??????, ????, ???????????, ????,
  ??????????????, ????, ?????, ?????, ????????,
  ???, ????.?

15
Tabloid tradition in China

• A satirical dialogue to belittle newspaperman-a
  reflection against Wen Rens tradition
• .?????? ?????????, ??????, ??????????,
  ?????????? ?????, ?????? ?????????.??

16
Tabloid tradition in Hong Kong

• 1940???Chung-Fat-Pai
• Use names of cards of Mah-jong as the title of a
  newspaper, reasons-
• Chung-neutral position
• Fat-unveil the cover
• Pai-easy to understand

17
Tabloid tradition in Hong Kong

• ???????, ????????, ????, ?????, ????, ???????,
  ????, ??????, ????, ?????, ?????, ???, ???????,
  ????????????????????, ???????, ????????????,
  ???????, ????????, ???????, ??????????, ??????,
  ??????????????.?

18
Tabloid tradition in Hong Kong

• Manifesto of ?????Search Lamp Weekly 1941
• .Several HK reporters to operate a tabloid to
  serve the country, to fight against Japanese
  troops, to wake up nation not to be fooled by
  Communists, to express grievances for the grass
  root level and not to be compromised.

19
The Bone ??? June 2 1948
20
Apple Daily

• Founded 20.6.1995
• Jimmy Lai
• Investment700 1000 millions
• Circulation200,000
• A Hongkongers newspaper
• Defend HKs core values-freedom and democracy

21
Apple DailysManifesto

• We belong to Hong Kong
• Readers orientation
• Readers Focus Groups
• Daily criticism and self-criticism meeting
• New personnel policy
• Dictatorship

22
Apple Daily 24.10.1998Human Scum Incident
23
Apple Daily 24.10.1998Human Scum Incident

• Apple Daily reporter paid 5,000 to Chan and
  encouraged him to call two prostitutes..

24
Front PageApology
25
Apple-tization

• Graphics dominated pages
• Designer call the shoot
• Design graphics/dialogue
• Information decreased drastically

26
Apple-tization

• Lines blurred
• Tabloid and quality newspaper
• News and supplementary
• Gossip and important events

27
Apple-tization

• High structure
• Division of labor
• Reporterassembly line worker

28
Apple-tization

• Interactive
• Electronic media and printed media
• Media and message receiver
• Media and web

29
Side effects of Human Scum

• Journalists Code of Ethics
• Established HK Press Council
• www.presscouncil.org.hk

30
What makes a tabloid tick?

• Urban Population
• Price
• Simple word/sentence
• Interesting topics
• Large photos
• Sensational headings

31
Tabloids Features in Hong Kong

• 1. Low Price
• 2. No taboos
• 3. No Advertising
• 4. Flat structure
• 5. Short life span

32
Tabloids Position in Journalism Tradition

• A revamp of reporting skills since 16 Century in
  the West
• A rebellious newspaper against the conventional
  and pro-establishment newspaper
• A betrayal of Wen Ren tradition in Chinese
  culture
• A pioneer of market-driven media

33
The Future of Tabloid

• Your statement..