Media Studies - Newspapers (Daily Mail + The Guardian)

News worthy

An event is worthy of coverage in the press

Hard news

Up to the minute news and events that are reported immediately

Soft news

Background information or human-interest stories

Brief History of the Newspaper Industry - PCC

-regulated the newspaper industry between 1990 and 2014, and even then it was a voluntary regulator with no legal powers

-was effectively run by the newspaper editors themselves and the papers merely had to print a small apology when the regulator ruled against them

Brief History of the Newspaper Industry - The Leveson Inquiry (2011-12)

A judicial public inquiry ordered by the government into the culture and ethics of the British press.

This followed the revelations of the phone hacking that was practiced by News of the World to get more information which also caused the closure of the company.

Brief History of the Newspaper Industry - Leveson ruling

-Regulations should not be done by current editors and must be independent from the industry

-Legislation must be the duty of the government

-Enshrine press freedom

David Cameron (prime minister at the time) disagreed that press regulations should be in law though

Brief History of the Newspaper Industry - For regulating the press

-investing in proper investigative journalism

-robust self-regulation

-IPSO doesn't meet Leveson requirements

-no other media form is allowed self-regulation (at the time) so why should newspapers

Brief History of the Newspaper Industry - Against regulating the press

-Lack of trust in politians e.g. trying to shut down stories

-Intervention and control

Brief History of the Newspaper Industry - IPSO

-Introduced after the Leveson report

-Basically PCC but under a new name

-Doesn't act on Leveson's key recommendation that the regulator is backed by government legislation

Brief History of the Newspaper Industry - IMPRESS

-Set up as an alternative regulator at the same time as IPSO

-Fully compliant with Leveson but most major newspapers haven't signed up with IMPRESS

Galtung and Ruge - News Values

-Threshold

-Frequency

-Negativity

-Unexpectedness

-Unambiguity

-Personalisation

-Meaningfulness

-Reference to the elite (nations and people)

-Continuity

Daily Mail - Basic Info

-a ‘black top’ or a mid-market tabloid newspaper

-the second most popular daily national newspaper

-offers a mix of hard and soft news

-socially, economically and politcially conservative and backs the Conservative Party in poltics

Daily Mail - Ownership and editorial

-owned by the DMGT

-chairman: Jonathan Harmsworth, 4th Viscount Rothermere (whose great-grandfather was the co-founder of Daily Mail)

Daily Mail - Readership

-average age: 40

-almost half of its readers are over 65

-only newspaper to have more female readers than male

-ABC1 percentage: 68% (seen as the voice of middle England)

Pluralism

Society consists of competing groups and interests, none of them predominant all of the time

Newspapers - Curran and Seaton

Argue that the media should follow the pluralist model and be shaped by audience demand

However, in practice the newspaper industry is dominated by a small number of powerful owners and this influences newspaper coverage and media influence.

In short, the free market doesn't work (3 companies own 71% of the newspaper circulation

Daily Mail - Mail Online

-Designed to encourage readers to stay on the site: the homepage has (virtually) endless scroll

-Celebrity gossip drives traffic to site (often via social media) with clickbait used heavily to initially attract readers

-News articles move to the top based on the amount of clicks (could be classified as clickbait)

Daily Mail - Mail Online - Other

The Daily Mail's editor argues that Mail Online is seperate from print versions and has a different world view (both can't be blamed for the other therefore, which makes it harder to criticise the publication)

Daily Mail - Mail Online - Audience

58% average age of 40

55% 18-44 year olds

68% A, B, C1

The Guardian - Basic Info

-Founded in 1821

-British daily newspaper with a liberal tradition

-Aims to deliver “fearless, investigative journalism” and “quality, trustworthy reporting” which is free from “political and commerical influence”

The Guardian - Ownership

Operated by the Guardian Media Group (GMG) and its parent company is Scott Trust Limited

The Guardian - The Trust

-The trust was created in 1936 to “safeguard the journalistic freedom and liberal values” and also to avoid paying death duties that may have forced the newspaper to close

-The limited company replaced the non-charitable trust in 2008 to “to ensure that no individual can ever personally benefit” from dividends so the paper could remain faithful to its libreral roots

The Guardian - Revenue: Ads (Adveristers)

These two types of display ads have high engagement rates:

-A double page spread in The Guardian costs £32,400

-A billboard at the top of the screen or a mid-page unti (MPU) would cost an advertising agency £46,000 per day

The Guardian - Revenue: Ads (Google)

Some advertising is handled by Google, with the products on offer depending on your own preferences, cookie history and geography

The Guardian - Audience

According to 2021 data from PAMCo, The Guardian readers monthly on average are:

-11.5 million men

-10.5 million women

-15.7 million ABC1

-15.7 million 35+ years old

-9.6 million have a degree or above

The Guardian - The Guardian ‘Reader’

-The phrase “Guardian reader” is often used to describe a left-wing and liberal point of view

-The Guardian targets this modern and progressive audience by drawing attention to social injustice and “championing the voices of those less heard”

-45% of their monthly audience are progressive (10.3 million)

The Guardian - Politics

-Considered to be part of the “quality press” (focuses on hard news rather than sensationalism)

-Promotes the ideologies of the mainstream left of British politics, for example it declared its support for the Liberal Democrats in the 2010 general elections and switched back to the Labour Party in 2015 (both are considered left-wing)

Oligopoly/oligopolistic/media oligarchy

The industry is controlled by a select few companies

Proprietor ownership model

The proprietor (a successful business person who controls the paper through personal ownership) and editor have a close relationship and the owner influences the leader lines and content

This model is driven by market forces and the need to make profit through sales (supports Curran and Seaton)

Framing and agenda settings

The piece of media constructs an image to promote/position the audience to see a certain reading

Citizen journalism (Shirky)

People outside traditional newsrooms can report what they see e.g. a protest video posted from a phone

Argued that the internet lowers the cost of sharing information with a crowd

Mass amateurisation (Shirky)

Claims that Web 2.0 technologies (e.g. blogs, photo and video sharing services, user-generated wikis) has allowed amateurs to create and distribute content that competes with creations offered by large, professional institutions