Newspaper Front Pages: The Guardian and The Sun (2022/2021 editions)
Two Front Pages, Two Political Worlds
This lesson focuses on two specific front pages set for close study: The Guardian (18 January 2022) and The Sun (1 January 2021). In the exam you may be given a copy of either page and asked to analyse its media language, explain the context behind it, or compare it with an unseen newspaper front page. You need to know exactly what is on each page — the images, headlines, coverlines and layout — and why those choices were made.
The Guardian is a national daily that switched from broadsheet to tabloid format for cost reasons, but keeps a broadsheet-style, fact-focused house style. It has mainstream left-wing, liberal values and no political party affiliation. The Sun is a red top owned by News UK, part of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp, and has political allegiance to the Conservative party.
The Guardian had an average daily circulation of about 105,000 in July 2021 (53,902 newsstand sales plus 51,232 subscriptions). 86% of its readers are ABC1, 54% are male, and the average print reader is 54 years old.
The Sun has an average daily print circulation of around 1.3 million copies and a daily readership of about 2.3 million. Most readers are C2DE and aged 35–64. The paper has a reading age of just 8 years.
Media Language: The Guardian’s Front Page
The dominant image is a long shot of Prime Minister Boris Johnson jogging with his dog, Dilyn, in St James’s Park. He wears a beanie hat, jumper, fish-print shorts and leather-effect trainers — clothing that makes him look clownish rather than statesmanlike. The caption gives anchorage to the photograph, naming the dog and location so the audience reads the image exactly as intended: as evidence of Johnson’s ineptitude.
The main headline, “Cummings accuses PM of lying over No.10 Party”, is short, factual and unemotional — typical of the paper’s broadsheet heritage. The dramatic verbs “accuses” and “lying” point to a political scandal, and the word “party” echoes the jogging image’s clownish tone while linking to a second cover story about the majority of readers missing office parties during lockdown.
Along the top of the page, the skyline promotes the G2 supplement with the coverline “What we miss about working in the office”. The pronoun “we” builds a collective identity with readers, most of whom the paper assumes are office workers — a clue to its target audience’s lifestyle.
A second headline, “Inquiry launched into Mone over ‘VIP Lane’ deal”, extends the theme of Conservative dishonesty to a different politician. Together, the choices of image, headline and layout construct a version of reality in which the governing party is amoral and untrustworthy — consistent with the paper’s left-wing readership.
Media Language: The Sun’s Front Page
The masthead uses block capitals in red and white, the classic red top design shared with papers like The Mirror. The main headline, “Join our jabs army”, is an imperative that calls readers to volunteer as vaccination stewards. Calling the volunteers an "army" frames Covid-19 as a common enemy the readers can help defeat, turning a medical story into a military one — a common tabloid technique, while “our” positions the paper itself as an active, patriotic participant.
The puff “Jabs army” is shaped like a heart and includes a Union Flag, softening the militaristic language with connotations of care while adding a sense of national pride and patriotism to the vaccine campaign.
The main image is a photoshopped picture of the Elizabeth Tower (Big Ben) with its clock hand replaced by a syringe, pointing to 12. This connotes urgency — time running out to vaccinate the nation — and is reinforced by the body copy phrase “help get millions vaccinated rapidly”.
Pull quotes from footballer-presenter Gary Lineker and broadcaster Kate Garraway add trusted celebrity endorsement. Garraway’s quote, “I see Covid up close with my Derek”, is personal and emotive, while the article’s standfirst opens with “The Sun says…”, asserting the paper’s own strong opinion and direct address to “YOU”, the reader.
The off-lead, tucked beside the masthead, shows Johnson giving a thumbs up under the headline “PM: Britain Brexpects”. This intertextually echoes Nelson and Churchill’s wartime rallying words, aligning Johnson with celebrated national leaders and confirming the paper’s pro-Brexit, pro-Johnson stance.
Dominic Cummings was Boris Johnson’s Chief Political Advisor from 2019–2020 before being forced out. He later published a blog accusing No.10 of holding a lockdown-breaching “bring your own booze” party, breaching rules that banned indoor gatherings of more than two people from different households — the “Partygate” scandal behind The Guardian’s headline.
Covid-19 was first identified in December 2019 and declared a pandemic in March 2020. The UK became the first western country to license a vaccine in December 2020, and by January 2021 the NHS had delivered over 1 million vaccinations — the urgent rollout behind The Sun’s “jabs army” campaign.
On 23 June 2016, the UK voted 51.9% to 48.1% to leave the European Union (“Brexit”). Boris Johnson was a figurehead of the Leave campaign, which The Sun supported. “Britain expects” adapts Nelson’s 1805 message and Churchill’s wartime use of it, a phrase long recycled by the tabloid press.
Representation: How Each Paper Constructs Its Politics
The Guardian represents politicians critically: Johnson is stripped of statesmanlike trappings (formal clothing, composure, an official setting) and shown instead as clownish and inept, while the Mone story reinforces a pattern of Conservative dishonesty. The paper also uses more inclusive language, such as “UK” in its Ukraine coverage, without crediting the Conservative government — a subtle sign of its own political leaning, even though it never states an opinion as directly as a tabloid would.
The Sun, by contrast, represents Covid-19 as an enemy to be “fought” and getting vaccinated as a positive, urgent, patriotic duty, reinforced by nationalistic imagery like the Union Flag and Big Ben. It represents Brexit positively too, describing a “newfound freedom” and a “dawn” for Britain — language consistent with its pro-Conservative, pro-Brexit ideology.
Stereotyping works differently across the two papers. The Guardian’s G2 skyline uses light workplace stereotypes (the office romance, the geek, the joker) only in an entertainment feature, whereas tabloids like The Sun use stereotypes and simplified, emotive framing throughout their lead political and news stories — a difference in how each form uses representation to communicate quickly to its audience.
Both front pages feature Boris Johnson, but construct opposite representations of him. The Guardian’s unflattering jogging photograph undermines his authority; The Sun’s thumbs-up image and Churchill/Nelson reference celebrates him as a decisive leader. Comparing the two shows how the same public figure can be represented completely differently depending on a paper’s political stance and target audience.
The two papers also address their audiences differently. The Guardian’s factual headlines and collective “we” assume an engaged, office-working, affluent reader; The Sun’s direct address (“YOU”), imperative headlines and low reading age assume a reader who wants quick, accessible, emotionally engaging content — reflecting each paper’s distinct target demographic.
Stuart Hall’s work on representation and stereotyping, and the idea that audiences are active rather than passive readers of news, are useful theoretical perspectives for analysing how each paper selects and constructs meaning for its own readership.