Newspapers index
4) Newspapers: The future of journalism
5) Newspapers: Regulation
6) Newspapers: Daily Mail and Mail Online CSP
5) Newspapers: Regulation
6) Newspapers: Daily Mail and Mail Online CSP
Monday 8 April 2024
Tuesday 26 March 2024
The Guardian CSP:
The Guardian CSP: Blog tasks
The Guardian newspaper and website analysis
1) What are the most significant front page headlines seen in the Guardian in recent years?
2) Ideology and audience: What ideologies are present in the Guardian? Is the audience positioned to respond to stories in a certain way?
I feel like the audiences can respond or interpret things in whatever way they want to, I also feel like the Guardian allows for speculation and theory to run rampant.
3) How do the Guardian editions/stories you have studied reflect British culture and society?
They target big British ideas on institutions such as the government or big British corporations.
Now visit the Guardian newspaper website and look at a few stories before answering these questions:
1) What are the top stories? Are they examples of soft news or hard news?
2) To what extent do the stories you have found on the website reflect the values and ideologies of the Guardian?
To a high extent.
3) Think about audience appeal and gratifications: what would an audience enjoy about the Guardian newspaper website?
The ability to hit all angles of news, regardless of where its coming from.
The Guardian newspaper Factsheet
1) Who owns the Guardian and what is their ownership designed to achieve?
1) Who owns the Guardian and what is their ownership designed to achieve?
The Guardian is now owned by The Guardian Media Group (GMG), which also owns The Guardian Weekly, The Observer, and other media businesses. GMG is a global media company whose parent company is the Scott Trust Limited. The trust was originally created in 1936 to “secure the financial and editorial independence of The Guardian” and to “safeguard the journalistic freedom and liberal values” of the paper from “commercial or political interference.” The Guardian’s ownership pattern was designed so that no individual could benefit from the profits of the newspaper or have total control over it.
2) How is the Guardian regulated? Note its very unusual regulatory approach and give examples where you can.
3) Pick out some key statistics on the Guardian's audience (see beginning of page 2).
2) How is the Guardian regulated? Note its very unusual regulatory approach and give examples where you can.
Each newspaper has its own institutional biases, values, and political persuasions. This is part of a free press in Britain. Each news institution is “free” to write stories that put forth their views on any given subject, but they must not print lies or fabrications because they may be sued or referred to a regulator. In The Guardian’s case, they have formed their own regulatory board with The Financial Times and are not regulated by IPSO. They are the only British national daily to conduct an annual social, ethical, and environmental audit since 2003, in which they examine, under the scrutiny of an independent external auditor, their own behaviour as a company. For example, they have been criticised for their coverage of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, for which they commissioned an audit.
3) Pick out some key statistics on the Guardian's audience (see beginning of page 2).
The Guardian is a centre-left, quality, British broadsheet, national UK newspaper. The demographic of the readership is 86% ABC1. Fifty-four percent of The Guardian readers are male, and the average age of the print reader is 54. The people who read the newspaper and online are interested in left-leaning politics and social issues, mainly social progressives [reformers] psychographic. The circulation for the newspaper is 3.2 million monthly, and the digital readership is 18.4 million. This compares favourably to other quality newspapers in the UK.
The Guardian is also online and is now the 3rd largest individual newspaper website in the world, delivering news to over 62 million unique browsers worldwide every month, with almost two-thirds of these coming from outside of the UK. The Guardian has a global reach; therefore, its content reflects this.
4) What are the institutional values of the Guardian? What does it stand for?
Both the newspaper and the website aim to follow the institutional values of the newspaper, which are as follows:
Guardian Media Group is a global news organisation that delivers fearless, investigative journalism – giving a voice to the powerless and holding power to account. Our independent ownership structure means we are entirely free from political and commercial influence. Our values determine the stories we choose to cover – relentlessly and courageously.
The Guardian’s tone, style, and content are shaped by their values. They are a quality newspaper that adopts a formal tone. In the past, their final manual typesetting editing was not as sharp as other newspapers, which led to it being called The Grauniad, a mocking joke on its name. Nowadays, The Guardian is a highly respected global newspaper that has had some major journalistic scoops, such as investigating Uber for breaking laws, playing a role in the BBC documentary that accused Tim Westwood, a famous DJ, of sexual misconduct, and covering stories about cyberstalking and equipment shortages in Ukraine during the war.
The Guardian adopts a “critical friend” approach to political parties that share their centre-left political values, such as The Labour Party, The Liberal Democrats, and The Green Party.
However, to maintain integrity, they stop short of fully endorsing any one party. Although the paper declared its support for the Liberal Democrats in the 2010 general election and their desire for electoral reform, it then switched back to the Labour Party for the 2015 election. That endorsement continued for the elections in 2017 and 2019 when Jeremy Corbyn was the leader of the party. The Guardian provides opposition to more right-wing political papers, such as The Daily Mail, The Telegraph, and The Times.
5) How is the Guardian's international audience described? See the end of page 2 and pick out some more useful statistics here about their audience .
6) Now look at page 3 of the factsheet and the Guardian online. Select a few examples of the different sections of the website and copy them here.
7) What different international editions of the Guardian's website are available and what example stories are provided as examples of this?
The UK edition on April 29th leads with a story about the resignation of the BBC Chair Richard Sharp, who allegedly provided a “secret” £800,000 loan to former Prime Minister Boris Johnson. This is a hard news story because the BBC is expected to maintain impartiality and remain free from government influence, suggesting a failure to fulfil this role. Stories that expose corruption are appealing to The Guardian’s audience and position them to question the legitimacy of the BBC.
The BBC’s free news model directly competes with The Guardian’s business model, and stories like this could undermine trust in the BBC, potentially leading people to be more inclined to pay for the quality journalism offered by The Guardian.
The April 29th US edition leads with a story about Florida’s Republican Governor Ron DeSantis and his time as a lawyer for the state in Guantanamo Bay, the prison for suspected terrorists. The article presents accounts from researchers and individuals who were there, creating bias against him without making direct accusations. This story would appeal to the audience because it investigates a centre-right politician, which opposes the political ideologies of the readership and aligns with their viewpoint.
8) What is the Guardian's funding model? Do you think it is sustainable?
In a struggling economic climate, news institutions are finding it hard to adequately fund quality journalism. However, The Guardian has several ways in which it funds its journalism. The site delivers free news with no paywall:
- The sale of the print newspaper – although it is clear that print news is declining rapidly and the costs associated with print make it less profitable and attractive to advertisers.
- – the newspaper offers a range of packages to suit different economic groups.
- Patron support with exclusive offers.
- Traditional advertising.
- Philanthropic partnerships such as with The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Despite the decline in physical copy newspaper revenue, subscription to The Guardian makes up more than the advertising revenue. The Guardian’s digital edition has increased in readership to over a million recurring subscribers, and digital revenues account for two-thirds of total revenue. International revenues are at £79.9 million.
9) What is the Cotton Capital Commission and how does it link to the Guardian's values and ideologies?
One recent story The Guardian has run is a story about their newspaper’s founder, J. E. Taylor, and other businessmen, who financed the start of the paper. The Scott Trust commissioned research in the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement of 2020. The report found that their founder, John Edward Taylor, and others had links to the slave trade, and some of that money was used to found the paper. This, of course, did not chime with their core values, so they have dedicated a whole series of articles to this matter.
As well as revealing the findings of their commission, the paper utilised a more magazine-style aesthetic in the telling of this story. The news site’s visual design has evolved over the years, with animations, font styles, infographics, and photojournalism. There is also interactive content, with “Have your say” areas on news stories.
“The Cotton Capital” is investigative journalism, coupled with what amounts to a historical autobiography of the newspaper. It is a fascinating read that utilises a range of literary techniques to tell the story of the newspaper’s past.
10) What audience and industry theories could be applied to the Guardian? How?
Both the newspaper and the online website provide the gratifications [Blumer and Katz] of information, surveillance, and entertainment. Some aspects of the opinion page could provide identification with similar groups, and shared values unite some of the online community. This could be seen in the letters that responded to the “Cotton Capital” story. The Guardian is also encouraging a model where subscribers get involved with news-making, and this breaks down the gatekeeping model that news institutions use. That is not to say that The Guardian does not employ traditional methods of news sourcing; they actively advertise for people to come forward with stories the paper might be interested in.
There can be pleasure in seeing the values reflected in the media products you consume, but this could also have a negative effect by creating an echo chamber of ideas. Of course, audiences are free to reject or negotiate what The Guardian writes about as well. Loyal readers are more likely to accept the preferred readings of articles without looking for other sources, and this could strengthen political leanings, as well as shape opinions around social issues.
The daily engagement with the newspaper could enhance a reader’s cultural capital [Bourdieu], giving them insight into the world beyond national borders. This reinforces both a national and global view of issues at any given time. The selection and mediation of news stories reflect The Guardian’s values of social progressiveness, and investigative journalism is something that Curran and Seaton would argue fulfils an important civic duty for people because the stories challenge power. The structure of The Guardian has been designed so that not one person can benefit from editorial control. While ultimately the remit of the editor-in-chief, the content of The Guardian is a collaborative effort between trust members and journalists.
Media Magazine articles
MM78 - The Guardian
1) What are the Pandora Papers and how does the story fit with the Guardian's ethos, values and ideologies?
Dreariness here equates to seriousness. This, combined with the continuation in iconography, signals a big story, one with many strands that needs to be reported on over a period of time. It is now clearly badged with a name, giving it added status: the Pandora Papers, bolded in eye-catching red. In Greek mythology Pandora opened a box that released the evils of humanity into the world. Here the name refers to secret documents about the financial dealings of the world’s rich and powerful. They’ve been uncovered and released through the collaborative efforts of over 150 news organisations from around the world, including The Guardian. These two front pages, then, demonstrate The Guardian’s desire to position itself as a serious news organisation speaking truth to global power (among others, the collages feature the leaders of Jordan, Ukraine, Kenya, Hungary and Russia). The front pages aren’t designed primarily to sell these two particular issues, but to remind loyal readers of the paper’s commitment to a form of investigative journalism that it wants them to buy into, both metaphorically and literally. This commitment is made possible by the paper’s increasingly successful online funding model and its innovative ownership structure.
2) Pick out all the key statistics and quotes from the section on the Guardian's funding model. In particular, the fall in paper readership, the rise in digital readership and the number of contributors paying to support the journalism.
The Guardian still sells paper copies, but in nowhere near sufficient numbers to sustain its global operations. July 2021 sales averaged 105,135 copies per day (down from 248,775 10 years previously). Its online readership, though, is huge. In the same period, it had 3.5 million readers per day online and 129 million monthly visits. The Guardian is free to read online, but at the end of many articles a text box urges readers to contribute either one-off or regular monthly payments. It frames this as a philanthropic act. Those who pay are supporting a free press and making information available on a global scale to those who cannot pay. The approach has been phenomenally successful. The Guardian now operates in profit, after over a decade of extensive losses. It has ongoing financial support from almost 1 million readers: 401,000 took digital subscriptions in 2020/21 (daily download to an app, etc.) and 506,000 made a recurring payment simply to support what they could read for free. Additionally, 508,000 made one-off payments. Over half of these online contributions were from readers overseas. The Pandora Papers investigation was very much pitched at these digital contributors.
3) What does it mean when it says the Guardian frames regular payments from readers as a "philanthropic act".
The Guardian is free to read online, but at the end of many articles a text box urges readers to contribute either one-off or regular monthly payments. It frames this as a philanthropic act.
4) What is the Scott Trust and do you think it is a sustainable model for newspaper ownership in the future?
It maintained this standpoint for over 100 years, thriving in the early 20th century under the ownership of CP Scott, who asserted that ‘comment is free, but facts are sacred’ and that newspapers have ‘a moral as well as a material existence’. When Scott and one of his sons died within months of each other in 1932, the survival of the newspaper was threatened by having to pay death duties and inheritance tax. To avoid this, the surviving son gave up all financial interest in the newspaper, transferring all of the shares into what became known as the Scott Trust. The Trust operates for profit, but all money is ploughed back into the newspaper. It ensures that editorial interests remain free from commercial pressures. The paper’s journalists, under the terms of the trust, must strive to maintain the liberal traditions and investigative principles upon which it was founded. The paper flags up this ownership structure when appealing to readers.
5) Why is the Guardian criticised as hypocritical? Give some specific examples here.
Clearly not everyone will agree with The Guardian’s editorial line. It can be difficult, though, to understand the level of dislike that many people have for The Guardian. Global leaders and billionaires aside, who could possibly have a problem with exposing how money is secretly shuffled around the world for the benefit of an extremely powerful minority? The answer perhaps lies in charges of hypocrisy that are often levelled at The Guardian and other liberal institutions. Liberalism is entirely compatible with capitalism and so allows its supporters to accrue wealth and power. In calling for a fairer, more equal society, within capitalist structures, it also gets to hold the moral high-ground – a form of power in its own right, and one that can be particularly galling for people on middle or low incomes, forced to engage with some of the more unsavoury elements of life in a capitalist society in order to earn a living.
MM87 - The Daily Mail and the Guardian front page analysis
1) What are the stories featured on the Guardian and Daily Mail on November 10, 2023?
2) How do they reflect the values and ideologies of the two newspapers?
3) Why does the writer suggest the front-page images on both papers might be exploitative? Do you agree?
Looking at the front page picture with these questions in mind, it’s difficult not to conclude that The Guardian is exploiting the very gender stereotypes it is supposed to challenge Of course, it is possible to view this image very differently. It could easily be read as a proclamation of female empowerment and humanity in the face of the male war-machine. Yes, the woman in the placard being held up might be a victim, but the victim of very real patriarchal structures. And the woman holding the placard appears to be anything but a victim. Instead, she has a face of grim determination. The two women beside her are grief-stricken but hold each other in an act of intergenerational solidarity. This isn’t hypocrisy, it’s feminism in action. In many ways I prefer this second, positive reading. But set it beside The Daily Mail front page and it becomes harder to justify. Is the image of murder-victim Ashling Murphy used any differently than that of kidnap victim, Doren Steinbrecher? Perhaps all we can really say is that at least The Mail is more honest in putting a young female victim on its front page. The Guardian does it by stealth. The blue-eyed smiling face is on a poster within the photograph: it’s as if they have to pretend that the victim is on the front page as an afterthought. In contrast, The Mail actively draws attention to how it is using Ashling Murphy to make money.
4) What else does the writer suggest regarding the Daily Mail's front-page image of murdered teacher Ashling Murphy?
Is the image of murder-victim Ashling Murphy used any differently than that of kidnap victim, Doren Steinbrecher? Perhaps all we can really say is that at least The Mail is more honest in putting a young female victim on its front page.
When you interrogate The Mail front page further, it really is shamefully exploitative. The murdered teacher lived and died in the Republic of Ireland, where the paper isn’t sold. It’s a curious editorial decision to feature a non-British murder story in the first place, so presumably its inclusion can only be because of the age and appearance of Ashling Murphy. It’s feeding into a voyeuristic interest in female victimhood that sells copies and feeds into the general sense that women should be aware of the dangers out there and so know their place.
5) How does the rest of the Guardian's front page (features on Yoko Ono and Todd Haynes) reflect the values and ideologies of Guardian readers?
The Guardian’s top banner, promoting stories in other sections, has a similar playfulness. In Yoko Ono and Todd Haynes, they are featuring two artists associated with, respectively, peace movements and gender politics. Is it possible that Ono is there because she is linked to anti-war protests? After all, can anyone of any age recall a single Yoko Ono song, let alone rank them? (I can’t and I’m old enough to remember the murder of her husband, John Lennon, in 1980.) Haynes, meanwhile, specialises in films that explore gender identity, particularly female identity. These two figures, perhaps much more than the paper’s approach to news, identify its demographic, one which is interested in identity politics, not in knee-jerk inflexible ways (sorry, Daily Mail, that’s you) but complex, ambiguous ones. It’s a readership quite able to deal with the cognitive dissonance that comes with reading a paper that simultaneously promotes feminism while giving prominence to an image of female victimhood on its front page. Is this indicative of woke phoniness or a rational representation of the world as it is today? That’s for you to decide. Do you go for mildly compromised integrity, or full-on jingoistic chauvinism?
Thursday 14 March 2024
Daily Mail and Mail Online CSP:
Daily Mail and Mail Online CSP:
Daily Mail and Mail Online analysis
1) What are the most significant front page headlines seen in the Daily Mail in recent years?
'New dawn for Britain' -Brexit related stories.
2) Ideology and audience: What ideologies are present in the Daily Mail? Is the audience positioned to respond to stories in a certain way?
2) Ideology and audience: What ideologies are present in the Daily Mail? Is the audience positioned to respond to stories in a certain way?
Explicitly reflected of The Daily Mail's conventionally conservative/right-wing views and bias. Their reflection of Theresa May is quite positive; during a time where news coverage surrounding her efforts is usually negative, this article highlights their support of the Conservative party and what they stand for.
It reflects British culture and society as they cater to what the public are familiar with.
Now visit Mail Online and look at a few stories before answering these questions:
1) What are the top five stories? Are they examples of soft news or hard news? Are there any examples of ‘clickbait’ can you find?
2) To what extent do the stories you have found on MailOnline reflect the values and ideologies of the Daily Mail newspaper?
In my opinion I feel like they reflect the values and ideologies to a rather large extent, as they are, in retrospect, attempts to cover foreign and or national news that reflect the publics needs.
3) Think about audience appeal and gratifications: why is MailOnline the most-read English language newspaper website in the world? How does it keep you on the site?
3) Think about audience appeal and gratifications: why is MailOnline the most-read English language newspaper website in the world? How does it keep you on the site?
Blumler and Katz, uses and gratifications theory - Diversion and surveillance
Factsheet 175 - Case Study: The Daily Mail (Part 1)
1) What news content generally features in the Daily Mail?
Factsheet 175 - Case Study: The Daily Mail (Part 1)
1) What news content generally features in the Daily Mail?
The Daily Mail is a national tabloid middle market daily paper in the UK. This means that the paper includes a combination of serious journalism and entertainment, occupying the middle ground between broadsheets that cover hard news and the more down-market sensationalist tabloid papers .
To understand how the Daily Mail address their readership, we need to know who the dominant readership is. From the NRS data, we can see that the dominant readership for the Daily Mail are adults aged 65+, in the demographic group ABC1(C2).
3) What techniques of persuasion does the Daily Mail use to attract and retain readers?
A method used by the Daily Mail is the use of techniques of persuasion to establish a consensus
in line with the political and social ideologies. These techniques are subtle and will attempt to stir the emotions of the consumer to prompt consensus. These techniques are split into 3 areas: Practical, Emotional, Associations.
The Mail’s political stance is traditionally Conservative, having supported the party in all recent general elections. The paper is also known for criticism of the Labour party, and in particular the current leader Jeremy Corbyn (correct as of January 2018). So much so, that during the 2015 general election, The Daily Mail advocated readers in some constituencies to vote UKIP (as the main challenger to the Labour Party). The paper is often critical of the BBC, seeing it as an institution biased to the left. Other published pieces reveal a pro- Brexit, consumerist stance that supports traditional Britishness.
In a recent YouGov poll (Feb 20-22, 2017), of those questioned “81% considered the [Daily Mail] to be right-wing to one degree or another” with 44% considering it as “very right-wing”. These responses were largely unaffected by the ideologies of those questioned, and highlights that the media is seen as being dominated by a more right-wing press.
Factsheet 177 - Case Study: The Daily Mail (Part 2)
1) How did the launch of the Daily Mail change the UK newspaper industry?
Technological developments allowed the Daily Mail to increase their volume of sales, and then offer an affordable cover price for the lower middle-class readership. The new layout appealed to this newly literate readership, but also to advertisers who provided a large chunk of the revenue. As the advertisements took a fair proportion of the space, the news content that arrived in the Daily Mail newsroom had to be internally edited to fit the space available. This gave way to a new single style and tone of news across the entire paper.
The Daily Mail is owned by the British Media company DMGT (Daily Mail and General Trust plc) and “manages a balanced multinational portfolio of entrepreneurial companies, with total revenues of almost
£1.5bn.”
Something must be done about my favourite bête noire: the ever-growing ubiquity of the BBC. For make no mistake, we are witnessing the seemingly inexorable growth of what is effectively a dominant state-sponsored news service. The corporation has all but seen off ITV’s news services, both nationally and locally, has crippled commercial radio, is distorting the free market for internet newspapers and now, with its preposterous proposal for 65 ultra-local websites, is going for the jugular of the local newspaper industry. Lines must be drawn in the sand.
4) Why did Guardian journalist Tim Adams describe Dacre as the most dangerous man in Britain? What example stories does Adams refer to?
There is a series of front pages about Britain’s “wide-open borders”. These stories are sparked by a coastguard’s interception of a boat of 18 Albanian asylum seekers off the coast at Dymchurch. It follows with the splash that the boat had been bought on eBay. The following day, by implication, we get an extrapolation of what this boat portends. The headline identifies “EU killers and rapists we’ve failed to deport” and details, in the manner of Trump and Mexico, that “thousands of violent thugs and rapists from the EU are walking Britain’s streets”, a number “equivalent to a small town” flooding in through Kent. The following week, we have our first view of Magwitch himself, Avni Metra, 54, who is surprised at his flat in Borehamwood in the proximity of a kitchen knife, and apparently wanted for murder two decades ago in Tirana. He is not alone: there is also the “one- legged Albanian double killer” Saliman Barci in Northolt. Though Albania and Kosovo (where the killers claim to come from) are not members of the EU, and it is not clear how leaving will do anything to prevent their arrival in Britain, the implication is clear.
The Mail led with this immigration narrative on 17 of them. One exception was the grim morning of 17 June when Jo Cox’s murder made the front page. Her killer, Thomas Mair, was not a one-legged Albanian. Mair was, of course, a violently extreme advocate of “Britain first”. The Mail appeared anxious to relegate his shouted rage against the perceived evils of multicultural Britain to a side-issue, however. He was, their report emphasised, just a “loner with a history of mental illness”. The following day it reported that the police were investigating primarily not Mair’s far-right links in the targeting of Jo Cox for her pro-immigration views, but failures in the social services that led to his depression going untreated.
Factsheet 182 - Case Study: The Daily Mail (Part 3) Industrial Context
1) What do Curran and Seaton suggest regarding the newspaper industry and society?
Curran and Seaton suggest that have to reflect the needs and desires of the reader in order to maintain circulation and readership and that, technically, anyone should be able to set up a newspaper and that newspapers should maintain a liberal ideology. However, this assumption is wrong and an illusion because the press has been industrialised; ‘ordinary people’ would require substantial capital to establish a paper. The Internet has lowered these entry costs, however, the “the list of the ten most-visited sites is dominated by large news organisations like BBC News, the Guardian, The Times, The Sun and Telegraph.” This would suggest that the individual may have access to resources, but they will have difficulty reaching an audience without the power of the mass media industries.
2) What does the factsheet suggest regarding newspaper ownership and influence over society?
The independence of newspapers has been harmed due to these facts. It is not surprising that the editor or owner of a newspaper would have a big influence on the views and ideologies of the paper. For example, Rupert Murdoch in 2003 strongly wanted a war with Iraq and it is no coincidence that all of his 175 newspapers around the world that he owns supported this view in their articles.
3) Why did the Daily Mail invest heavily in developing MailOnline in the 2000s?
They came to notice that the readership figures for their newspaper were declining dramatically and that they needed a way to generate more readers and more profit.
"We are […] in the middle of a perfect storm of horrifically rising newsprint prices, disappearing classified revenues, diminishing display advertising, the rise of cannibalistic and parasitic Internet sites, the ubiquity of the frees and, now, most worryingly of all, readerships […] who have less and less disposable income to spend on newspapers.” (Dacre, 2008)
"We are […] in the middle of a perfect storm of horrifically rising newsprint prices, disappearing classified revenues, diminishing display advertising, the rise of cannibalistic and parasitic Internet sites, the ubiquity of the frees and, now, most worryingly of all, readerships […] who have less and less disposable income to spend on newspapers.” (Dacre, 2008)
4) How does MailOnline reflect the idea of newspapers ‘as conversation’?
Newspapers transitioning to online has led them to be more of a conversation. This is because of the fact that people can engage with the articles online through comments and social media. This allows more views to be heard and people to debate with each other.
5) How many stories and pictures are published on MailOnline?
The digital Daily Mail publishes around 1000 stories, but 10,000 pictures. The fact that there are so many pictures compared to stories illustrates how heavily MailOnline rely on visuals to tell their stories and attract an audience.
6) How does original MailOnline editor Martin Clarke explain the success of the website?
Clarke explains that “The reason MailOnline has become a success is because we cover the waterfront. It’s all the news you need to know, all the news you wanna know. The big stories. The lighter stories. The completely amazing stories."
He suggests that it is all a competition for people's time and that readers look for something that is "engaging and interesting and fascinating – and as fun – as possible.”
He suggests that it is all a competition for people's time and that readers look for something that is "engaging and interesting and fascinating – and as fun – as possible.”
7) How is the priority for stories on the homepage established on MailOnline?
Whichever story gets the most views. The stories that are on the homepage are there because they have a high click count; lots of people in the last 5 minutes read these stories so it’s highly likely that new readers arriving at MailOnline will want to read these as well.
8) What is your view of ‘clicks’ driving the news agenda? Should we be worried that readers are now ‘in control of digital content’?
To some extent, yes. Readers are clearly more interested in celebrity gossip or soft, useless news rather than the important politics and world affairs that will actually impact our lives. In the case of MailOnline, these important stories get sent to the bottom because they don't have as much views as the soft news. This means that people are becoming less and less aware of what is happening in the world around them and this is quite dangerous for society and the future.
Friday 8 March 2024
Newspaper regulation:
Newspaper regulation: blog tasks
Task One: Media Magazine article and questions
1) Keith Perch used to edit the Leicester Mercury. How many staff did it have at its peak and where does Perch see the paper in 10 years' time?
Where does he see a paper like The Mercury, which once employed 130 journalists, in ten years time? Perch thinks that if it is still in print, it will be weekly, extremely expensive, and have a very small circulation; if it is online only – the likeliest outcome – it will be unlikely to make money, and so would employ as few as five or six staff.
2) How does Perch view the phone hacking scandal?
The biggest single issue is that something illegal was going on which obviously should not have been, and which wasn’t dealt with by the police, and unfortunately the resulting actions have been disproportionate [...] Far too many newspapers and magazines have been caught up in a regulatory system that they shouldn’t really be caught up in [...] A small section of the press was behaving in a totally unacceptable way, but it should have been dealt with legally. I don’t think regulation is the answer. I know many people point to Leveson and the fact he held a massive inquiry, but I don’t think he looked carefully enough at what is happening in the regional press or in small weekly papers. I think his form of regulation is unacceptable, and that actually what people really want to do is ‘tame’ the press.
3) What does IPSO stand for and how does it work?
A newspaper has 28 days to deal with a complaint. If it hasn’t been resolved, the complainant can then take it to the IPSO Complaints Committee, which will decide if the Editor’s Code of Practice has been broken. If it has, the Committee can insist on corrections and demand that they be placed on a particular page.
4) What is Perch's view of newspaper ownership?
Keith does not believe that businesses such as Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation, which owns The Sun, The Times and 39% of Sky, should be forced to sell some of their titles to ensure that no one person or company can control too much of the media industry and therefore control the agenda:
Ultimately if people wanted to, they could buy The Guardian or The Mirror and just ignore The Sun. But they don’t, they buy The Sun! Rupert Murdoch is as entitled to his say as you or I. There are a million different voices online but everyone chooses to listen to the views in print – The Daily Mail’s website is far far bigger than anybody else’s little blog or point of view. It’s not The Daily Mail’s fault if that’s what people choose to read. What I really struggle with is that the Left are effectively trying to say people who read The Sun are stupid, and I don’t understand that. It’s trying to control what people read.
5) Do you agree with his view that broadcast news should have less regulation so that TV channels can support particular political parties or people?
I disagree with his view because I believe that no matter how much regulation is kept or not kept, broadcast news will still be biased in what they produce.
Task Two: Newspaper regulation exam question
Write an answer on your blog answering the following exam question:
What are the arguments for and against statutory regulation of the newspaper industry? [20 marks]
The debate regarding whether newspapers should have statutory regulation is a difficult one and has been ongoing for many years. Between the years 1990 to 2014, the newspaper industry was first regulated by the ‘Press Complaints Commission’ (PCC). This was a voluntary regulator that that technically had no legal powers. It was essentially run by the newspaper editor themselves which led to heavy criticism- the newspaper merely had to print a small apology when the regulator ruled against them and this meant that no one really saw the apology and it held no value.
Following the phone hacking scandal on Milly Dowler in 2007 and the closure of the ‘News of the World’ in 2011 led to the Leveson Inquiry (2011-2012). The 2,000-page report featured 337 witnesses, ranging from those at the top of the chain - Rupert Murdoch and Hugh Grant - to the victims at the bottom of the chain, such as Sally Dowler. Following the Leveson report, a new news press regulator was introduced: The Independent Press Standers Organisation (IPSO). IPSO is more powerful that the PCC and can order newspapers to print apologies at the front of newspapers and even fine accused newspapers. However, it crucially doesn’t act on Leveson’s key recommendation that the regulator is backed by government regulation. An alternative regulator - IMPRESS - was also set up. Unlike IPSO, it was fully compliant with Leveson. However, no major newspapers have signed up with it, making it essentially useless.
The phone hacking scandal on Milly Dowler was an action of invasion of privacy and it gave her family false hope that she was still alive. This was completely unfair and inhumane to the Dowlers and it was just the newspapers twisted and “evil” way of creating a bigger story and gaining more profit. If statutory regulation had existed at the time, the News of the World would have had to print an apology on its front covers and they would have been fined. This would have meant that justice would have been served and the Dowlers would have been compensated. However, the actions of these journalists jeopardised an ongoing police investigation and caused more trauma to the school girl’s family. One columnist from my CSP the Daily Mail, Richard Littlejohn, is an example of this. In March 2013, Littlejohn published a column on MailOnline concerning a primary school teacher, Nathan Upton. Upton decided to undergo a gender transition and would return to the school as a female teacher. Littlejohn expressed his views on the matter, stating that this adult life should not be “forced down their (the school children’s) throats”. Later on, Meadows was found dead and DailyMail were forced to take the column down. Many people expressed anger towards Littlejohn and a petition started to get him fired. Therefore, it seems logical that statutory regulation should exist for the purpose of preventing such crimes from occurring again in the future.
Furthermore, the main goal for almost all newspapers is to generate large amounts of profit. Therefore, other newspapers may be pressured into carrying out these unethical actions themselves as well in order to match up to another newspaper’s readership. This is extremely dangerous and puts many people at risk of being victims of the newspaper industry. In order to prevent this, there must be some form of regulation. The newspaper industry is owned by very few people with too much power and they seem to have no problems on inflicting pain if it means they get a higher readership. This is especially true in our current time, where the internet is taking over and newspapers are declining dramatically, meaning they are more inclined than ever to carry out unjust acts. Curran and Seaton suggest that newspapers must reflect the needs and desires of the reader in order to maintain circulation and readership and that, technically, anyone should be able to set up a newspaper. However, this assumption is wrong and an illusion because the press has been industrialised; ‘ordinary people’ would require substantial capital to establish a paper. The Internet has lowered these entry costs, however, the “the list of the ten most-visited sites is dominated by large news organisations like BBC News, the Guardian, The Times, The Sun and Telegraph.” This would suggest that the individual may have access to resources, but they will have difficulty reaching an audience without the power of the mass media industries. Perhaps regulation would change this.
The other side of the debate, however, would argue that all these cases are not a reason for statutory regulation to exist. The phone hacking scandal, and any acts similar to this, are illegal. This means that it should be the police taking care of the issue. Keith Perch states that ''Far too many newspapers and magazines have been caught up in a regulatory system that they shouldn’t really be caught up in.” This would be completely true if we did have statutory regulation. The unjust actions of one newspaper would lead to all the others having to suffer the consequences. It is important to note that a free press is essential for a free and democratic society- this cannot be possible with statutory regulation.
Furthermore, it is essential to consider the good that has come from newspapers. One example is ‘Watergate’ in the Washington Post – one of the most famous newspaper stories of all time that broke out in 1972. It exposed president Nixon and led to his resignation. This is an example of investigative/accountability journalism and there have been many other cases like this where newspapers have exposed people in power for the greater good. They may have needed to invade people’s privacy with these matters, but no one seems to mind when its for the benefit of the general public. If statutory regulation existed, these powerful people would have been able to get away with what they are doing. In addition, it is important to also note that newspapers provide an alternative voice that isn’t controlled by one viewpoint. For example, some people argue that if the current Fox News had been around and Nixon was accused, he would have been able to get away with it because they would have supported him.
In conclusion, I believe that statutory regulation shouldn’t regulate the newspaper industry. Although there have been some illegal cases in the past, these should have been dealt with by the government and police. The law already compensates victims- libel laws. Furthermore, the British press has illustrated that it can regulate its ethics on its own, by listening to the voices of the British people. The newspaper industry will always have to work in favour of its readers, as they will not be able to exist without them.
Wednesday 28 February 2024
News Values
News Values:
Read Media Factsheet 76: News Values
1) What example news story does the Factsheet use to illustrate Galtung and Ruge's News Values? Why is it an appropriate example of a news story likely to gain prominent coverage?
The factsheet uses the story of Lisa Head- a 29 year old British servicewoman who died after an Afghan bomb blast. This is an appropriate example of a news story that is likely to gain prominent coverage because of the fact that it covers many news values. Proximity - because she is British. Intensity - because it is more unusual for a female officer to be killed. Continuity - because of the ongoing stories regarding Afghanistan.
Gatekeeping is the process of filtering what news ends up on the newspapers and to the public. This process is usually done by an editor, but it can also refer to how journalists selectively choose their words and images for a news story, resulting in a certain opinion to be expressed. Ultimately, gatekeeping is a way for news industries to control what kind of information their readers are obtaining.
3) What are the six ways bias can be created in news?
- Bias through selection and omission - specific details are included while others are disregarded, creating a certain opinion.
- Bias through placement - Stories at the front of the newspaper are seen a more important as stories at the back, the editor has purposely placed them there to intrigue a reader.
- Bias by headline - bold and large part of the newspapers that readers are forced to see; can make or break a story.
- Bias by photos, captions, and camera angles - heavily influence the public’s perception of a person or event.
- Bias through use of names and titles - Labels and titles used to describe people or places. A name suggests that this person/place is important and everyone should know about it.
- Bias by choice of words - People can be influenced by the use of positive or negative words with certain connotations as well as the tone the writer is using.
The internet has redefined news. People are now able to document what they see and share their own news in an instant with social media platforms such as Twitter and Blogger.
Wikileaks is different in the fact that it is essentially a library for everything that happens in the world. It is all raw materials, meaning that people can read it in any way they please, without editors of massive news industries gatekeeping the stories. However, this site is not known to the average person and is mostly used by journalists to gather their sources for their own biased stories.
5) In your opinion, how has the digital age changed Galtung and Ruge’s news values?
In my opinion, I believe that the digital age has changed Galtung and Ruge's news values in terms of:
1) Time span- it becomes harder for newspapers to find news they can publish as people are
already updated with news in the same moment via social media.
2) Unexpectedness- as there is very little that can be unexpected in today's time.
However, their news values can still apply to news stories and are still very useful.
6) How would you update these news values for the digital age? Choose TWO of Galtung and Ruge's news values and say how they have been affected by the growth of digital technology.
- Continuity
- Social media usually always updates people on news stories. This is particularly true for soft news and entertainment news. This means that newspapers don't have the chance to report this as they lag behind technology.
- Socio-cultural
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