Newspaper Comparison: The Australian v. USA Today

The international newspaper that I took a look at was The Australian.  The Australian is the biggest-selling national newspaper in Australia.  It is a daily newspaper that covers everything from national news to world news to business and sports.  The American paper that I looked at was USA Today.  The USA Today is a national American daily newspaper that is one of the largest national newspapers in the United States.  I wanted to compare two very similar newspapers in their respected countries in order to get a good comparison of the news covered, what links were provided, and the type of advertising that is apparent.      

I was pleasantly surprised that both national newspapers had 9/11 news as soon as the webpage opened up.  I was not surprised the USA Today was covering a story about 9/11 but I was a little surprised that The Australian was.  The headline for the USA Today story about 9/11 was “9/11: How do we tell this story?” and The Australian’s headline story was “US hunts three over 9/11 plot.”  Even though these are two totally different stories, they are similar in the fact that they are both about 9/11.  This goes to show that 9/11 not only had and has an affect on the United States, but it has affected the entire world.  Some other news on the top of the homepage for The Australian was news regarding asylum-seekers immigrating into the country, Wall Streets struggle, and a cricket milestone by Shaun Marsh.  Other USA Today news that made the top of the website’s homepage included terror suspects and more 9/11 topics, updates on college football games, and unemployment issues for the United States.      

Next, I took a look at each newspapers sports section.  As I have learned, different countries seem to have different sports that are popular.  This would reflect in what the different newspapers cover in their sports section.  The Australian covered sports like Australian football, cricket, and rugby, while the USA Today was covering college and professional football, baseball, NASCAR, and MMA fighting.  When I took a look at The Australian, I felt completely out of my realm while trying to read up on their sports stories.  There was one article that I could not tell what sport it was about after looking at the picture.  So I continued to read the entire article and still had no idea what sport it was talking about.  After some research, I found out that it was Australian football.  I was unable to distinguish this from the article itself because it is not a sport, team, or area that I am familiar with.  Comparing the two sports websites from these national newspapers, I found a lot of differences.  Not only were the sports covered very different, but the entire set-up was different as well.  The Australian consisted of just articles after articles to read.  The USA Today, however, had articles, scores from every game in every sport being played today, photos galleries, and videos.  I found one similar sport covered on both websites, and that was The U.S. Open.  However, on the USA Today the U.S. Open was a headline, while on The Australian it was at the bottom of the page. 

 

I felt that most of the links provided on both The Australian’s website and The USA Today’s website were fairly similar.  They both provided links to sports, business, health, news, travel, weather, and a few others.  I also really did not come across any huge differences in advertisements.  Both websites had similar advertisements regarding to hotels, insurance, and cars.  These were different in the sense they were not the same hotels, insurances, or cars, but the idea of the advertisements were pretty much the same.

Both of these newspapers had their similarities and differences.  However, they both were formed to capture the attention and interest of their targets.  I felt that both newspapers were successful in doing this.  Just by gazing and glancing at The Australian, I have a better understanding and awareness at their interests in sports and what is important news in their country.