Context of The Guardian

Question 1

What is the print circulation of The Guardian?

Answer 1

189 000 copies of their print edition in the UK.

Question 2

What is the target audience of The Guardian?

Answer 2

Well educated, relatively young, predominantly male
and liberal audience. The demographic is 89%
ABC1. Fifty-two percent of Guardian readers
are male, and the average reader age is 44.

Question 3

What is the online readership figure for The Guardian?

Answer 3

Over 42.6 million readers (as of October 2014).

Question 4

When did The Guardian have a re-design and why?

Answer 4

2006 - It became smaller, had a new typeface
and balanced the longer pieces of journalism to adapt to what was going on in the market, to adapt to people’s reading habits, with people now having little time to
spare and increasingly ‘reading on the go’.

Question 5

What was the social context of the main article in the set text for The Guardian?

Answer 5

In March 2011, civil war in Syria broke out and
an estimated 11 million Syrians have fled their
homes since then. The majority of these have
sought refuge in countries that border Syria, but
an estimated one million have requested asylum
in Europe

Question 6

What were the issues for migrants?

Answer 6

Families have been broken up and many are making dangerous and difficult journeys across land and sea to get to, what they consider, a safe place.

Question 7

What are the perceived issues of the UK public about immigrants?

Answer 7

Fear and uncertainty about how countries will cope with the increased populations and the impact such migrants will have on their societies.

Question 8

What was the cultural context of the main article in the set text for The Guardian?

Answer 8

The two robots in the top third are an intertextual reference to Star Wars, appealing to shared knowledge and cultural understanding. It is also a subtle form of advertising, as the front cover is dated 4 September 2015 – just 3 months before the release of the latest film in the Star Wars sequel trilogy, The Force Awakens, and the day that all the new merchandise was released.

Question 9

What is the political context of The Guardian?

Answer 9

Mainstream left political values. It does not have an affiliation with any political party, but does lean towards the left and has a very liberal tradition.

Question 10

Who owns The Guardian?

Answer 10

The Guardian isn’t owned by a group of shareholders
like most other newspapers, for whom making a
profit is imperative. Therefore they believe that they
can hold true to their core journalistic principles.