Ways of attracting and keeping attention in tabloids — an example of “Fakt” daily
From the point of view of rhetoric, the choice of certain ways of attracting and keeping attention in the media is determined mainly by the assumed recipient. Tabloids are addressed to less demanding readers, who expect simple message and focus on those elements of reality which can affect them directly, as well as on surprising and extraordinary events. The analysis of several dozen editions of “Fakt” shows that among the ways of attracting readers’ attention are: 1 dominance of visualisation over text, 2 referring to what is familiar and close, 3 describing reality from a personal perspective, 4 referring to what is sensational. In turn, among the ways of keeping this attention we can distinguish: 1 the mixing of subjects, emotions and genres, 2 the importance, and so the serious treatment of all the problems, experiences and emotions of people presented in media content, 3 involvement manifested by unequivocal judgement of described aspects of reality, 4 matter-of-factness manifested by providing details concerning places, people and events, 5 informality thanks to which the tabloid texts are clear and easy to understand, as well as give readers a sense of co-being in a certain community, which makes messages more attractive.