The Guardian vs. The Mirror :: Papers

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