Estudo sobre a nova imprensa tablóide "EXTRA! EXTRA! New Tabloid Breed is More than Screaming Headlines. But could they be Blueprint to the Future?". Assim se intitula o mais recente estudo - foi publicado hoje mesmo - elaborado pelo Project for Excellence in Journalism, de Washington, centrado no fenómeno da novíssima imprensa tablóide. O estudo começa por reflectir sobre os aspectos inovadores da imprensa tablóide, relativamente ao conceito de imprensa sensacionalista e de escândalos que já existiu e ainda existe: "Today, however, tabloid is coming to mean something else. A new breed of youth-oriented tabs is emerging in cities such as Philadelphia, Chicago, Washington, Dallas and Boston. And a second, new model of tabloid is being established in several cities aimed less at young people and more at stealing readers from the traditional broadsheets by offering them something quicker to read. Some newspaper executives, indeed, think audiences may soon prefer the size and even the style of tabloid to the 'mainsheets' of the past". Formula, depois, as perguntas que orientaram o estudo: "What are these new tabloids like? How does their journalism compare with the traditional broadsheet papers that came to dominate American journalism in the 20th century? Might these new tabloids suggest anything about the future of print?" As respostas a estas perguntas "poderão surpreender os tradicionalistas que tendem a menosprezar os tablóides tomando-os por lixo impresso", observam os autores do relatório. E enunciam as grandes linhas das conclusões: "A reader with 20 minutes will be more likely get a basic outline of the news about a broader range of topics?including foreign affairs, technology, science, faith and the top stories of the day - from the tabloids than the section fronts of the broadsheets. "Yet readers of the tabloids would be hard pressed to get much in the way of sourcing, impact or even more than one side of the story - even on the top stories of the day. Indeed, 74% of controversial stories offered just one side or mostly one viewpoint on things - and this doesn't include the very shortest items. "And despite their supposed youth orientation, the new tabs do surprisingly little to pioneer making news events more relevant to new audiences - fewer than one in ten stories even tried. This is basically the same percentage found in the section-front stories in the broadsheets".