Q9 Observer online messages and values

1.  The major use of newspapers is to offer a sense of knowing what is going on in the world. The Observer knows that its readers are serious and interested in international affairs. This is evident in hard news articles about..... politics (Brexit) and protests in foreign countries (yellow vest protest in France)



2. The Observer meets its audience's need for a range of cultural, sporting and artistic news. It provides these 
with... articles about music and history involving Britain



3. The Observer does not shy away from 'difficult' issues that could make uncomfortable reading, such as... the hunger strike in an Iranian jail and violent protests in France



4.  The Observer has sections which are designed to appeal to different types of readers.The Observer reflects the diversity of its readership in articles on... students and education as well as foreign people like Rahaf al-Qunun 



5.  Newspaper readership can still be used as a symbol of one’s social identity. The term ‘Guardian reader’ connotes a certain type of social attitude and The Observer  similarly reinforces a set of social and political attitudes, and thus identity, in its representations. For example, Observer  readers like to think of themselves as open-minded and this is reflected in the Observer’s practice of allowing both sides of an argument equally to be put when the newspaper is clearly on one side of this argument. There is an example of this in.... the main article on the page about Brexit and how they have opinions on Brexit and the current state of the government further down

6.  The entertainment function of newspapers may take the form of humour.  It may take the form of diversion into

a celebrity world of ‘glamour’. It may take the form of human interest stories in which readers are invited to sympathise with the subjects of the article. Newspapers further offer games, puzzles, crosswords and the like. At the higher end, sections such as the New Review in the Observer may offer the pleasure of extremely well-written think pieces and literature reviews. An example of this is.... the article on 'why today's leading men are driven to be buff'