The Guardian Analysis

The Guardian Analysis

The Guardian is one of the most popular UK news sites, with the target audience being predominately adults at an estimated age of 18 plus. This is evident from the use of colours; when they use colours it is more evident because of the fact the background is a plain white. This also gives us a clear indication of what articles they want us to look at the most. Although there is a separate tab for 'Dating' as well as an advert for The Guardian's personal dating site, there is a severe lack of colours for both of these. The tab is one of the only 4 which is coloured grey as opposed to pink or blue, and the advert has the standard blue hyperlinks with a rather dull image.
  However, the placement of this advert can reveal more than the advert itself; it is placed next to their most prominent headline of the 'Vagina Stadium'. A certain theme is carried on around this area, but not to an extent that the company could be sued for 'misconduct' if a person under 16 was to be viewing their website. The advert above the Guardian Dating is one for Guardian Jobs. This is a topical issue, as there is a job crisis surrounding the UK. They have made this one of the most eye-catching adverts on the page as well as being the first one on there; this shows they feel it will be a priority to their viewers, and will therefore give them more hits.
  This feeling of a priority is a motif carried through out the web page. As people will not typically want to spend a lot of time on websites such as these, instead opting to view them on-the-go via their tablets and mobile phones, they want to make sure the articles they spend the most time on are the ones people are most likely to view. Red is used first to highlight the news section, and is then used again for the Breaking News section, and then again for the latest news. Putting this on the opposite side of the screen to the pink advert means your attention is divided between the two, but as we read from left to right, we are likely to first pay more attention to the News section.
  The type of articles they are providing us with in the first section of the page are varied. There are slightly more serious articles, such as the woman admitting to murdering the three men, but not as bold as one would suspect. This could indicate a lack of priority, perhaps because they have briefly covered it on a previous day and it is now considered to be 'older' news. Slightly more controversial points, such as the Catherine Deveny article, are put closer to their main headline, as well as next to Sport, which is obviously another priority for them. This means The Guardian feels viewers will want to hear about these opinions in order to discuss them, and that is also why they have finished the sentence on this bar. With the Dennis MacShane article, they probably feel the reader is not enticed enough, and so they use ellipsis at the end of their last sentence in order to entice people to follow up with the article. The Denvey article will cause enough controversy and discussion without the need for enticement.
  In the second row of tabs at the top of the page, there is a separate tab for women, yet there is a severe lack of the same for men. Maybe The Guardian are assuming that men are their predominant viewers, and so any woman who wants to view the page should be rewarded by having a whole tab of her own. However, it is not at the front of the queue, and so it is obviously not a priority issue they feel the need to address. Some might classify this as sexism, or at least segregation, as it is separating women's issues from the issues surrounding everything else.