The Guardian vs. The Mirror

The Guardian vs. The Mirror

I am doing an investigation into the statistical differences between

the daily tabloid newspapers, and the weekly broadsheet newspapers.

My overall hypothesis is that the daily tabloid papers - here

represented by the Saturday edition of The Mirror, a daily tabloid -

make an easier read than the more comprehensive broadsheet - here

represented by the Guardian, a weekly broadsheet - To reach a

conclusion, I plan to test three hypothesise in specific area. I will

use a range of sampling methods, and presentation of data, in order to

form valid conclusions.

Planning

1 - My hypothesis is that the number of letters per word will be

greater in the Guardian than in the Mirror.

Number of letters - I will count the number of letters in every fourth

word.

In order to make my calculations accurate enough to reach a valid

conclusion, I must collect a minimum of twenty pieces of data from

each newspaper. I was planning to collect data from fourth word, in

the first sentence on each page. However, if my second hypothesis is

correct, then the sentences in the Guardian will be longer than those

in The Mirror. This would corrupt the results, as some would be more

accurate than others. So, I have decided to take the fourth and the

eighth word from the first article on each page. The sections of each

paper I have chosen are twenty-five pages long, so this will provide

more than enough data to support any conclusion I reach, and should

incorporate all sections of each newspaper.

I will display my results in a data frequency chart. Then I will use

averages and histograms, to compare the results and draw my

conclusion.

2 - My second hypothesis is that the number of words per sentence will

be fewer in The Mirror than in the Guardian.

Number of words - I'll count the number of words in the first

sentence, on each page.

In order to make my calculations accurate enough to reach a valid