PAGE THREE GIRLS

Why 'Page Three' girls feature in a newspaper like The Sun, but not one like The Guardian

Why 'Page Three' girls feature in a newspaper like The Sun, but not one like The Guardian

Introduction

Based on the knowledge of the historical development of British tabloid journalism, this discussion will highlight the primary reasons why 'Page Three' girls feature in a newspaper like The Sun but not one like The Guardian. Introduced in 1970, the page three format was widely copied by some of the leading British tabloids and became immensely popular and accepted by the public as well. By the 70s, the page three column became so popular that some of the most controversial steps were taken by British tabloids in order to increase their subscriptions and outdo their competitors. As a result, tabloids like the Daily Mirror started a new trend of printing full-size images of topless models in order to make their papers more appealing to a wider audience. By the eighties, however, such practices were dropped, mainly becuae of strong anti-sexism movements that directed their flak on these tabloids. However, there are numerous tabloids in Britain that have still held on to the page thre format, mainly as a means to multiply their subscriptions. This paper investigates why papers like the Sun have a page three column while those like The Guardian prefer not to have them.

Discussion

Often viewed as a slavish and cheaper imitation of The Sun, The Daily Star has its own band of topless models, more popularly known as “Starbirds”. The popularity of topless models in tabloids was logically justified by Sunday Sport which later added a daily edition to its subscriptions before eventually straying into pornography. It was common for readers of the British tabloid The Sun to find every morning a nude model posing topless on page 3 of their paper (Tanofsky-Kraff et al., 2010). Such hyper-sexist practices were implemented in the 70's and were a trademark of Rupert Murdoch, a newspaper tycoon who owns Times of London and the Wall Street Journal.

Even in 2013, The Sun continues print nude pictures of topless models on its page three in order to attract more readers. In fact, such practices seem to have picked up pace after an increase in the intensity of competition among rival tabloids. The main reason why The Sun has preferred to continue with its page three column is that an increase in the number of tabloids has seriously affected the number of subscriptions. This has led to a sharp decline in revenues so that most of the tabloids have spiced up their page three column with nudity and pornography in order to attract more subscribers. This has essentially meant that these tabloids have stooped down to low levels to increase their subscribers base with tabloid rivals printing big catchy headlines and titillating nude images to distinguish themselves from each other. Similarly, readers of The Sun are entitled to their daily dose of 'Sunshine Girls' - scantily dressed models making suggestive poses ...