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Writer's pictureNick Saward

Semiotic Analysis: The Guardian


The masthead of the word "Guardian" has connotations of safety and protection. This idea may link to the ownership of The Guardian which values journalistic freedom and liberal values such as being free from commercial or political interference. This suggests that the newspaper is the keeper of "good, honest journalism", due to it not being controlled by owners, advertisers, or political parties and is free to say what it wants to. Furthermore, the masthead is written in a curved font that included the correct use of capital letters. This formality is very typical of a broadsheet newspaper as it clearly focuses on formality and aims to be informative, rather than being more direct with the audience.

Moreover, the use of language in this newspaper is very typical of a broadsheet newspaper as it uses lots of formal language with a vast vocabulary which would suggest that someone of a high educations may have written this paper. For example, this can be shown through the use of declaratives like "Police given powers disperse groups and enforce lockdown". Also, this paper uses various statistics and quotations from directly prominent people involved with the issues suggested by the articles such as the PM at the time Boris Johnsons. This idea would suggest that the paper does not have a political bias rather, it aims to provide information for the British public about the state of the country. Furthermore, the headline in this paper is not sensationalised or exaggerated , which gives off the impression that the evidence provided is facts and the reader can make up their own mind on the topic.

Also, the layout and style of the paper is very interesting as it seems that there is one clear focus from this paper. It is clear that the main focus of the paper is to provide information on the national emergency and lockdown due to COVID-19. The paper makes this the most important issue by the clear amount of space that the article takes up, as it dominates almost the entire of the front page. Moreover, there is further evidence of this as another headline "Salmond Cleared of Sexual Assault" which seems like an important headline is subjected to the top of the paper next to the masthead, this suggests that the news of COVID-19 is the most important and it is what everyone should be paying attention to.

There are a variety of different news values being used to select the stories for the front page, that make sure that there are numerous appeals to a potential reader. One of the most obvious ones being the recency and continuity of the story. There are only two main stories/events featured on the paper, however both are clearly apart of one bigger news story. Furthermore, there is definitely an element of elite person used in this front cover due to the main image of this newspaper cover depicting at the time prime minister Boris Johnson.


Finally, the agenda being set by this newspaper is very clear in most broadsheet newspapers, as it is clear that the paper is attempting to keep up with politics. As well as the belief that long form journalism is an important if not the most important part whilst reporting news. Moreover, there is a clear formality set by the paper due to the seriousness of the story being covered. This can be shown through the use of proper nouns such as "Johnson" used throughout the paper which keeps the tone of the newspaper very formal suggesting that the story being covered is a very serious issue that should not be taken lightly, therefore setting the agenda that COVID-19 is a huge problem at the time of the paper being published.

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