News

 Monday 1st November 2021

Print news

L/O: to explore the purpose and process of the printed news industry.

Purpose of newspapers

The main purpose of news is to inform in some way.

Tabloid - Broadsheet

Tabloid is smaller than standard newspapers and focusses on less serious topics mostly sport, celebrities and sensationalist crime stories. (entertain). More photos less writing. Red colour.

A broadsheet newspaper is a standard or full size newspaper which focusses on the serious news/major news stories. (inform). Less photos more writing. Non red colour. 

Newspapers are expensive to produce - requires a large amount of material - employ many highly trained staff.

Technology has changed to the traditional approach - printed in colour, satellite and internet.

Newspapers have to be transported physically to places and need to be in the outlets early in the morning. To lessen the cost newspapers could be printed locally and posting news online will make it cheaper.

Newspapers promote their papers using advertising strategies like tv, social media and sister papers, they may also have exclusives and have synergy deals with other companies. Circulation is the number of copies distributed, not those that are sold. 

Ownership refers to the people who financially supports and produces the newspapers. 

Technological developments

technology introduced - effects in owners and audiences

1980s - computers, printers and DTP programs 

Made production of newspapers easier and less time consuming to report. Makes things cheaper in the long run because it takes away some cost. 

owners control production and distribution mass scale.

Audiences have power to create own print media more easily but not distribute it.

1990s - the internet

Use the internet to access certain pieces of information easier to spread news. Print sales may fall but makes news more accessible. 

Growing availability of information leads to greater competition for owners.

2000s - Broadband, web 2.0, smartphones and tablets, HD digital cameras and apps 

Allows other softwares and formats for news to now come about. Its a lot wider spread and the technological changes allow the different formats and ways that news can be shared. It would be easier to access all of the information necessary and allows for more news to be shared around faster than before. 

Owners no longer in control of the production and distribution of news. Owners no longer in control of information circulated. 

Audiences can access information anywhere.

Daily Mail - Tabloid 

Owners - Daily Mail & General Trust

Funding Model - 

Circulation figures -  1,134,184 - 1,158,192

advertising costs - colour - £181 per centimetre

Sales figures for last 5 years - 

Online website - blue, 

Online options: revenue - 

The Guardian - Broadsheet 

owners - guardian media group - Scott Trust Limited  

funding model - 

circulation figures - 111,155

advertising costs - DPS - £32,400 FP - £18,000 HP- £11,000 per centimetre £90

sale figures for the last 5 years -

online website - 

online options: revenue - 

Monday 8th November 2021

Print News

L/O: to explore the news values, bias and regulation of printed news.

The effect it would have is that it changes what you see. You wouldn't be able to have your own view, you'd have the view which has been given to you within a news article, featuring the companies views and values. The views of the middle class white males, making news with their views and ideas.

references to elite person 

negative

meaningfulness

Meaningfulness

Reference to elite persons

Free Press - Freedom of the press or freedom of the media is the principle that communication and expression through various media, including printed and electronic media, especially published materials, should be considered a right to be exercised freely.

The forth Estate -  refers to the press and news media both in explicit capacity of advocacy and implicit ability to frame political issues.

Right wing - the conservative or reactionary section of a political party or system. Right-wing politics supports the view that certain social orders and hierarchies are inevitable, natural, normal, or desirable, typically supporting this position on the basis of natural law, economics, or tradition.

Left wing - the radical, reforming, or socialist section of a political party or system. Left-wing politics supports social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition of social hierarchy.

No we don't have free press since its all in some way controlled and aims to influence our beliefs.

Barthes Semiology - 

Barthes semiology is the study of signs, signs consist of a signifier and its meaning.

The mirror - 

Refering to Barthes semiology we see Theresa May presented negatively and as an untrustworthy leader through the visual image, the photo of Theresa May does not make her look the most trustworthy and the word lies makes her seem less trust worthy and an unfit leader, and political party. 

Daily Mail -

The daily mail cover, however, makes Theresa May seem positive and looks like she has support behind her, from the image. 

The Daily Mail cover, using Barthes semiology, we see Theresa May presented positively through the image which looks like she has a lot of support behind making her more positively presented. 

Levi-Strauss Structuralism/Binary oppositions - 

Structuralism is all about the hidden rules governing a structure.

The mirror - 

You have labour presented to be good while conservative are seen to be bad.

Daily Mail -

You have conservatives presented as good while labour are seen to be bad. 

Monday 22nd November 2021

Print news

L/O: to explore the regulation of printed news. 

1. Historical

2. Economic

3. Political

4. Social

5. Cultural

Regulation Notes:

Regulation (1)

• Regulation may be directed by goverment legislation or an independent authority (any industry)
• It contols how an indestry is run and how people behave.
• Two main arguments for and against the regulation of the printed press:
• FOR: The news industry has too much political power and influence over the British public which has reduced freedom of speech, compromises democracy and is not in the public interest. 
• AGAINST: The printed press should not be regulated or controlled, especially by government legislation. It would affect freedom of speech, democracy and would not be in the public interest.

Regulation (2)

• Regulation is concerned with maintaining the need for free press and the function of the Fourth Estate to protect the people and democracy. Political influence of owners and the need for plurality is also a regulatory concern.
• Recent events have put regulation at the top of the political aganda. In light of recent debates, regulation in the UK focuses on:
• News content and information printed by the press.
• Ownership and competiton laws.

Regulation (3)

• News Content and information:
• The british press is SELF-REGULATED.
• Through an independent organisation of editors, it regulates itself within an accepted code of conduct. 
• Punitive rather than preventative.
• Breach could lead to a fine or printed analogy. 

Regulation (4)

• 2011
• The Leveson Inquiry - culture, practices and ethics of the press
• Public-led inquiry into the relationship between the press and the publc, police and politicians.
• Recomendations:
• 1. Continue to be self regulating.
• 2. Create a new press standards body with rigorous code of conduct.
• 3. Back up regulation with legislation.
• 4. Provide public with confidence that complaints will be dealt with.
• 5. Protect the press from governement interference.

Regulation (5)

• As a result, TWO new regulatory bodies were established:
• Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO)
• Independent Monitor for the press (IMPRESS)

Regulation (6)

• Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO)
• Is not seen to fulfil Levinson's requirements, so doesn't have official regulatory status.
• In its role it:
• hold newspapers to account.
• protects the right of the individual.
• upholds standards of journalism.
• maintains freedom of expression for the press.
• It is funded by its members (national daily papers like The Mail). The public can submit complaints without going through the courts and IPSO will investigate. Papers can opt-out and self regulate outside of IPSO. E.g. The Guardian.

Regulation (7)

• Independent Monitor for the press (IMPRESS)
• Became a Levinson compliant regulaor in 2016
• Funded by the IPRT, meaning that it is commercially independent from the news industry and not compromised by its funding system, unlike IPSO.
• First of its kind in the UK, but not recieved well by editors who see it as an attempt from the government to control the freedom of the press.

Regulation (8)

• Ownership & Competition Laws
• Regulated by the Communications Act 2003
• The Enterprise Act 2002 enables discretional intervention by the government if a cross-media merger raises plurality concerns.
• This is to prevent any one media type or voice having to much influence. 
• The Levinson Inquiry identified that existing ownership laws didn't take changes in the media into account.
• In 2012, OFCOM recommended reviews of mergers between cross-media companies and news owners in the UK every 4/5 years.
• Currently, plurality and competition is regulated by the 20/20 rule:
• Prevents anyone who runs a newspaper group with a national market share of 20% or more from controlling licences to provide ITV or C5 TV news.

Monday 29th November 2021

Print news

L/O: to explore the economic factors which influence print news.

Explain how economic contexts, including commercial and not for profit funding, affect the distribution of newspapers. Refer to The Guardian and the Daily Mail to support your answer.

(10 Marks)

How does funding impact distribution

Both newspapers

Newspaper that makes money - The Daily Mail

Newspaper that doesn't make money - The Guardian

1. How does = Explain

2. Funding = funding different methods

3. Impact distribution = impacts distribution of news 

Economic context: financial stuff going on at the time.

The Guardian

What is the funding for the Guardian?

Scotts trust  

How is it not for profit?

Investment fund - goes towards socially responsible investments.

What changes have been seen in the recent years?

Increased online news 

How will this impact the funding?

Less print copies sold, decline in circulation, less money for print sales. Advertising online and in the news paper creates revenue.

How is funding supported now?

Donations from readers, no dividends from shareholders, receive money from philanthropy (from rich individuals) 

How has this impacted the distribution of the paper?

Increased the cover price - reduced the cost by reducing the size of the newspaper

The Daily Mail

What is the funding for this? 

Owned by the Rothermere family 

How does this fit into the DMGT group?

Makes money

How does it make money?

Through circulation and advertising (the mail revenue) 

What issues are seen in future funding?

How have they cut costs?

Closed a printing factory

How has this impacted the distribution of the paper?

Explain how economic contexts, including commercial and not for profit funding, affect the distribution of newspapers. Refer to The Guardian and the Daily Mail to support your answer.

(10 Marks)

Economic contexts affect the distribution of newspapers, no matter whether the newspaper is commercial or not for profit funding. The Guardian is a not for profit funded newspaper compared to the Daily Mail which uses commercial funding. 

The Guardian is funded by the Scotts trust which is a fund that focuses on socially responsible investments and all profit from the investments supports GMG. The Guardian is a left wing broadsheet newspaper which focus its attention to informative, but yet still biased, important news. This would likely appeal to university educated people who support the left wing political party. As time and technologies have evolved the news industry has evolved also. The proliferation of technology has led to more people reading news online than those reading print newspapers, this has led to a decline in circulation which has led to print sales bringing in less money. The Guardian has taken to not only advertising in print newspaper but now advertises online. Advertising online has now led to more revenue being created, advertising with The Guardian costs anywhere between 5000-32,400. The Guardian would have decreased the cost of advertising in print because of the way the sales were declining, compared to how online sales were growing. Funding now is supported through the online advertisements and the donations in which people make through the Guardian online. The people who read the Guardian are likely to have money and so would be able to help fund the guardian by donating. The print newspaper of the guardian is now a smaller size, similar to the size of a tabloid newspaper which reduces the size and the printing costs while increasing the cover price by double. The Guardian also recieves money from philanthrophy, from rich individuals such as Bill Gates. The guardian has increased its online presence over the years with 7.8 million on desktop, 3.1 million on tablet and 15.8 million mobile. Economic contexts have affected the distribution of the newspapers due to now having different ways of interpreting the news, so therefore different ways of having to produce and fund the news. The Guardian can link to Hesmondhalgh's theory of cultural industries due to the risk seen through the loss of money. This suggests that by The Guardian moving to online news it lessens the risk of the loss of money as the production costs go down from the papers not being printed as well as the printing costs being reduced due to the smaller printing size.

The Daily Mail, however, is owned by the Rothmere family. The Daily Mail compared to The Guardian is there to make money. Compared the The Guardian being a left wing newspaper the Daily Mail is right wing, and also a tabloid newspaper opposed to The Guardian being a broadsheet newspaper. The Daily Mail contributes more towards the capitalist society in which we live in due to making money from their newspaper. The Daily Mail has been owned by the Rothermere family for over 100 years. For the Daily Mail things like advertising and circulation are their main sources of revenue. The Daily Mail has a circulation figure of 1,264,810 and a 25% of the market share. The Daily Mail would rely a lot more on circulation and advertising due to not being a part of a trust like The Guardian. Advertising in the Daily Mail costs anywhere between 3000-3,000,000 but would decrease if the readership were to decline due to people not wanting to pay as much for advertising in a declining sales newspaper. The Daily Mail even due to the fall in sales was still able to make £77 million in 2017 which was the same as the previous year. Due to the proliferation of technology, news is now available oline over many different platforms. This would mean that news owners and funds would have to change the way in which they distribute their news. The Daily Mail took to using online news which meant that distribution techniques had to change. Advertising would be the Daily Mails main source of income due to the online news being free to read and access. As a lot of news was being released online and print news becoming less of a demand The Daily Mail decided to close one of there printing factories while also increasing the cover price. The Daily Mail also saw an increase of the number of online readers with there being 7.7 million online readers with 22.7 million mobile readers. The Daily Mail links well with Hesmondhalghs theory of cultural industries because of the way in which it is used to contribute to a capitalist society and is owned only by the Rothermere family opposed to a trust, like The Guardian, so the production is only owned by a few conglomerates.  

Economic contexts have affected the distribution of newspapers based on many factors, it can be seen that due to the proliferation of online news, commercial and not for profit newsapers have had to adapt to the changes which they have had to face when distributing news and newspapers for the readers.

Monday 6th December 2021

Case Studies

L/O: to investigate the ownership, funding, regulation, values and ideologies of the set products.

Ownership and funding

The Guardian:

Summary of the history of the paper:

The Guardian is a British daily newspaper founded in 1821 as The Manchester Guardian and changed it's name in 1959. 

Sister paper to The Observer

Guardian is part of the Guardian Media Group owned by the Scott Trust - Trust was created in 1936 to secure the financial and editorial independence of The Guardian to safeguard the journalistic freedom and liberal values of the guardian free from commercial or political interference. 

Owners/Trusts and funding models used:

Scott Trust - not for profit funding

Circulation Figures:

111,155

Advertising costs:

Sales figures for the last 5 years:

Alternative revenue options:

Revenue comes from print advertising, donations

Online options: revenue:

Donations online, online advertising

Changes in the last 10 years (distribution/price/format/technology) and effect on circulation and audience:

Technology has changed allowing online news sites to become more popular, leaving print news to dissolve

Ideologies, Values and Regulation

Mission statement or principles: 

To use clarity and imagination to build hope

News values it prioritises:

political bias (previously and now):

Previously: centre-left

Now: Left wing 

ideologies conveyed:

reporting style:

which body it's regulated by:

The independent press standards organisation (IPSO)

Any recent complaints and breaches:

The Daily Mail

Summary of the history of the paper:

British daily newspaper founded in 1896, the UK's highest circulated daily newspaper - tabloid newspaper not broadsheet.

Has a sister paper - The Mail on Sunday launched in 1982

Owned by the daily mail and general trust with the founders being the Rothermere family - commercial newspaper

Owners/Trusts and funding model used:

Rothermere Family - The Daily Mail and General Trust - commercial newspaper - makes money, contributing to the capitalist society.

Circulation figures:

1,134,184 - 1,158,192

Advertising costs:

Sales figures for the last 5 years:

Alternative revenue options:

Print advertising 

Online options: revenue:

Changes in the last 10 years:

Mission statement or principles?

News values it prioritises:

Political Bias (previously and now):

Previously: Has always been right wing

Now:

Ideologies conveyed:

Reporting style:

which body its regulated by:

The Independent Press Standards organisation (IPSO)

examples of recent complaints or breeches:

To much coverage not enough privacy to those involved.

Curran and Seaton:

2. fits with the Daily Mail as its a commercial newspaper which contributes towards a capitalist society, narrowed opinions due to ownership. Right Wing

3. Daily mail - invades privacy - clickbait, lost privacy battle with duke and duchess, reduced quality of news. 

The Guardian: no shareholder profit, donations to fund not reduced quality of news.  

Hesmondhalgh:

1. Daily Mail - owned by only a few conglomerates.

2. Daily Mail - gotten rid of a printing place - seen as money.

The Guardian - no does not have the risk of losing money.

3. Daily mail - Similar covers (makes it recognisable) doesn't want risk.

The guardian - Similar covers (makes it recognisable) reduces risk.

Theory tables:

Curran and Seaton:

Hesmondhalgh:

Exam question:

Explain how the cultural context in how the news is produced influences the content offered to audiences?

(10 marks)

How the news is produced heavily impacts the content offered to the audiences. Newspapers typically have a political bias based on the ownership of the newspaper. Therefore, the news is very concentrated supporting a one dimensional view of British culture because of the ownership. The daily mail is a commercial newspaper with a right wing political bias compared to the Guardian which is a not for profit newspaper which has a left wing political bias. A newspaper like The Guardian is likely to provide more informative news compared to The Daily Mail which is a tabloid newspaper doesn't supply as much informative news, it is typically used for entertainment. The Daily Mail is likely to supply news which supports the conservative party, this would tailor the news which is produced to back up the conservative party. The Guardian is likely to support the labour party, this aims it's news to oppose the conservative party, suggesting news is still influencing the content which is being offered to audiences.

Monday 10th January 2022

Target Audience

L/O: to investigate audiences of printed news and audience appeal.

The Guardian:

Demographic:

-Educated

-Middle-class

-left leaning

-50% female

-Average age 55+

-75% ABC

Psychometrics (VALs):

- Explorers 

-Reformers

-Succeeders

Hobbies/interests:

-culture

-travel

-embrace technology and change

Issues they would be aware of:

What they do with their disposable income:

How they access media:

Films/Docs/Magazines/Music/Sites they like:

Types of stories that would appeal to them:

The Daily Mail:

Demographic:

-59% female

-Average age 59

-62% ABC1 (most C1)

Majority live in SE

-Average savings of £39,000

Psychometrics (VALs):

-Mainstreamers 

-Resigned

-Succeeders

Hobbies/interests:

-

Issues they would be aware of:

What they do with their disposable income:

How they access media:

Films/Docs/Magazines/Music/Sites they like:

Types of stories that would appeal to them:

1. the power elite/celebrity - Kate 

2. relevance - Boris Johnson - politicians - Brexit 

3. magnitude - 

Technical codes:

-layout, cover lines and headlines

-colour and fonts

-conventions making the paper visually appealing.

Language:

-Lexis 

-Mode of address

-depend on the genre, ideology and target audience.

Layout, coverlines and headlines - boxed layout, everything's split into boxes and columns. The boxes makes things easier to read, allowing for ease of reading. 

Colour - typically black and white but also colour used in photos and making certain stories stand out more. The colour, rather than the black and white seem to point out advertisements or things in which the daily mail think will get more sales. 

Fonts - serif font, the daily mail had a mixture of serif and a script kind of font this makes it seem more professional.

Harcup and O'Neil - Celebrity

Mode of address - 

Lexis - 'war' - negative, fighting, violence - the word war suggests opposition, something isn't happening which needs to be thought for in certain peoples eyes.

Layout, cover lines and headlines - columns of writing, a lot more writing, less photos and smaller text, appealing more to a higher educated audience due to having to do a bit more reading.

Colour - images in colour, with the masthead in blue and white, different to the daily mail which is in just black and white. 

Fonts - serif font, more professional.

Mode of address -  professional and informative.

Lexis - 'love' - more positive, makes it stand out more than words like support and is a lot more meaningful. 

Harcup and O'Neil - Celebrity, the power elite

Monday 17th January 2022

Targeting audiences

L/O: to explore how newspapers attract their audiences

Apply audience theory to newspapers.

Bandura: 

The media influences people directly and indirectly through related platforms such as social media so we can become influenced by the media without being exposed to them. 

Gerbner: 

Exposure to particular media forms, genres or content over long periods of time and cultivate and shape our behaviour. 

Repetition of negative media messages and values are likely to create 'mean world syndrome' which leads to mistrust and fear of other within our society.

The Daily Mail is a good example of 'mean world syndrome' 

Hall: encoding and decoding model 

Media producers encode with a preferred meaning.

Audiences can decode in one of 3 ways:

1. dominant reading - accepts the preferred meaning and ideological meaning.

2. Negotiated reading - some of the decoded messages is accepted but the audience disagrees with parts of it and so changes it to fit their experience and values.

3. Oppositional reading - both the preferred and any ideological assumptions encoded in the product are rejected.

Bandura:

1. The weight watchers advert influences people directly it also shows Theresa May in a positive light and the NHS in a more negative light

Gerbner:

1. weight watchers advert can shape peoples behaviours and the political bias of the newspapers.

2. 'Lets go to war on NHS waste' - the NHS is a free healthcare service, this negativity enforces mistrust and fear within our society due to the daily mail suggesting going to war based off of the NHS a free healthcare system having to much waste.

Hall:

Dominant reading - people see Boris Johnson negatively, the Guardian do not trust him and use language, such as 'PM bets', suggesting the leaders lack of certainty. 

Negotiated reading - people would see the uncertainty and maybe not favour Boris Johnson but would respect his efforts at trying. 

Oppositional reading - people would fully respect Boris and would say that he's done the best job he could do and support him fully which would oppose who The Guardians target audience actually is, due to many of them being left wing than right wing as it is a left wing newspaper. 

Daily Mail:

Price: affordable to ABC

Cross-platform advertising 

Promotional offers: range of companies, e.g. weight watchers

Subscriptions: range of subscription packages

Partnership marketing: offer many savings with Global Savings Group in various retailers

The Guardian:

Price: affordable to ABC

Cross-platform advertising

Promotional offers: range of offers linked to supplements; 30% off at bookshop

Subscriptions: range of subscription packages and donations

Sponsorship: deals with UNICEF, unilever and Philips; sponsored Glastonbury festival

Exam question: 

Evaluate the usefulness of one of the following in understanding audiences for newspapers, such as the Guardian and the daily mail.

Hall - encoding/decoding 

media products are chosen with the idea of the target audience and preferred meaning in mind. 

audiences can be decoded in 3 ways, dominant, negotiated and oppositional 

Monday 24th January 2022

Media langauge

L/O: to explore the use of media language and codes and conventions in print news.

Tabloid and Broadsheet:

Tabloid is a smaller size than broadsheet

Tabloid has a more informal mode of address compared to a Broadsheet which is a lot more formal

Headline size is bigger in a Tabloid

Media Language: Barthes:

1. denotations can signify connotations 

2. denotations and connotations are organised into myths

3. Myths create an ideological meaning and help ideology feel natural, real and acceptable

Tabloid journalism (soft news):

News which is entertaining and personally useful. Its sensationalist journalism. It's typically things like entertainment, celebrity and lifestyle. 

Quality journalism (hard news):

Topics which are important and consequential, like politics, international affairs and business news. 

Dual convergence:

A genre borrows conventions from another in the use of media language and so increasingly resemble one another. 

Media language: Neale: genre theory:

1. Genres change or decline in popularity.

2. There is a process through which generic codes and conventions are shared by producers and audiences through the repetition of conventions in media products.

3. Genres aren't fixed but are constantly evolving: they can become hybrids, playing with genre codes and conventions from other genres. 

Monday 31st January 2022

Media language and case studies

L/O: to analyse the use of media language and codes and conventions in set products.

The Daily Mail:

- considered to be the first UK tabloid in terms of it's journalism.

- it is considered to be a mid-market tabloid.

- It is a newspaper which offers a mix of both soft and hard news content in its coverage of news to appeal to its target audience.

Using your knowledge of the conventions of both tabloid and broadsheet papers, explain how the mail has hybridised these two genres. Look at content and layout:

Content:

Theres not necessarily any majorly long or complex articles to read hinting to its tabloid nature. It does however focus on some serious stories, not just sensationalist stories, but the majority of stories featured are sensationalist. This suggests theres certain broadsheet aspects within the newspapers.  

Layout: 

The images are quite large, taking up a lot of the page, suggesting that the newspaper has tabloid elements. If the newspaper featured less or smaller images then the newspaper is a lot more likely to be seen as a broadsheet newspaper.

- the technical conventions for the Mail enables the editor to signify meaning and communicate the papers conservative viewpoints and ideologies e.g. the serif font is used throughout the majority of the front cover, connoting traditional values and a sense of authority - that the reader can trust their reporting.

Cover analysis:

Masthead: The name of the daily mail suggests that the news is daily and could suggest quick news.

Use of sans serif font: The use of the sans serif font allows for the text to stand out. Its different from the cover lines and the masthead font, which allows it to stand out. 

Colour: The colours used are red and blue with a little bit of yellow. The colours stand out and allow for the information within the colours to stand out as they are likely to help sell the paper to certain target audiences. 

Headline, subheading and stand first: The headline suggests the right wing bias based off of the way they choose to word their opinions on Jeremy Corbyn. 

Byline: Jason Groves and Chris Greenwood, both male with names which suggest they are from a white background suggesting a lack of diversity.

Main image: The main image shows the Queen suggesting the papers British values. Its right wing values are seen in the paper due to the way that the newspaper speaks positively about Theresa May compared to the way that it speaks about Jeremy Corbyn. 

Media language theory:

Levi-Strauss: structuralism: 

1. This is the study of hidden rules that shape a structure to communicate ideology or myths.

2. We understand that the world and our place within it based on binary oppositions. For example, night and day. 

The Guardian:

- historically it was a broadsheet associated with serious journalism and hard news coverage requiring a well-educated reader.

- It adopted the compact (tabloid) size in January 2018.

- In doing so, it made changes to its masthead, colour palette, font and layout.

Look at examples from pre2018 and now. Explain the changes it made to the areas mentioned above.

Changes to: 

Masthead - The masthead changed, and it introduced capital letters at the start of the newspapers title 'The' and 'Guardian'. It became a lot more serious, making the paper look a lot more of expensive and of a higher cost. 

Colour Palette - The colour palette changed colours of the paper, it typically involved blue and a lot of it, however after it changed in 2018 it started using red alongside a darker shade of blue. 

Layout - Due to its smaller size, it had to make alterations to what was on the paper. Its layout has a lot of writing on it making it one of its main features. It still uses features like photos, but they are placed in an array of places rather than just the top corners underneath the images. 

- The technical conventions in the Guardian enables the editor to communicate the paper's liberal viewpoints and values e.g. the serif font connotes traditional broadcast journalism and indicates that, despite the tabloid size, the paper still provides the same quality journalism.

Media language theory:

Baudrillard: postmodernism

1. Postmodern society is concerned with hyper-real simulations, play of signs and images.

2. Social distinctions are no longer rigid; difference in class, gender, politics and culture become simulations.

Postmodernism is the idea that society has moved beyond modernism - either modernism in art and culture or modernism in the sense of a belief in progress, which dates back much further.

As modern societies were organised around production of goods, postmodern society is organised around 'simulation' - the play of images and signs.

Differences of gender, class, politics and culture dissolve in a world of simulation in which individuals construct their identies.

The new world of 'hyperreality' - media simulations, for example, Disney Land and amusement parks, malls and consumer fantasy lands - is more real than the 'real', and controls how we think and behave. 

Cover analysis:

Masthead: The masthead is very plain and simple but the word Guardian could suggest leader or responsible for you. The Guardian is likely to provide you with the information in which you need. 

colour: The colours are dark blue, a tiny bit of red and a tiny bit of yellow.

Skyline and puff: Appeals to the most people, broad audience. 

Splash/lead story: It focuses a lot on the US president rather than the Prime Minister. The Guardian is known for having a more left wing bias when it comes to politics.

Byline: 

Main image: The main image shows Donald Trump and Theresa May. From the image we can see Donald Trump holding Theresa May's arm suggesting his power over hers (male dominance) 

Caption: 

Headline: 

Layout: The layout fits more with the broadsheet because of the number of paragraphs.

Monday 7th February 2022

Media Language

Todorov: Narratology

1. Narratives can be seen to move from a state of equilibrium to disequilibrium, to resolution, to a new equilibrium.

2. The narrative structure, the character we see within it and the role they play help to reinforce ideological values.

Monday 14th February 2022

Practise Exam: 

Sources A and B cover the same news events from two different tabloid newspapers.

How far have media conventions been used to construct viewpoints in sources A and B?

In your answer you must:

• Outline the conventions of the front pages of tabloid newspapers, including use of style of headlines and images.
• Analyse the contrasting use of symbolic, technical and written conventions in the sources. 
• Make judgements and reach conclusions on the way in which media conventions construct viewpoints and ideologies. 

Media conventions have been used to construct viewpoints in sources A and B, this is seen through their choice of words, image, colour and headline. 

Looking at the images used in both sources we see 2 different viewpoints. The image for source A suggests that the Daily Mirror supports a 

Print news: representation

L/O; to explore the construction of representations in papers and the impact of contexts on these representations. 

Dominant group: holds power within social institutions or owns the production of cultural products.

 

Contexts:

Ownership

• Media Barons - Dominant ideology
• Journalism - Choose what to write and feature in a newspaper

Economic Factors

• Capitalism - Controls what is being written about as it has to make money
• Newspaper Genre - Has to have a range of stories to make sales

News values and political bias

• Genre - control the kind of news being written about
• Target audience - Influence the type of things being written about
• Political agenda - Influences the viewpoints their newspapers have

Regulation

• Free press - 
• Self-regulation - 

1. Number of stories: selection of stories (2 main stories)

Issues covered: royals, NHS, beauty

Social groups represented or absent: women are featured on the cover but it is based around the idea of beauty.

2. Explain how the different groups, issues or individuals are represented:

Doctors - shows them being well educated and powerful. 

Yard targets radical preacher - demonising

Queen - positive as she looks happy

Beauty editor reveals their secrets - strong, business like

1. Number of stories: 2-3 stories covered

Issues covered: sensationalised stories e.g. entertainment, nothing particularly important. Like music - entertainment

Social groups represented or absent: Women and an absence of a range of ethnic groups

2. Explain how the different groups, issues or individuals are represented:

Adele - women 

Stereotypes:

Social group - Common stereotypes found - Purpose of negative stereotype: 

Class - Middle class is the dominant groups and so many of the stories are directed toward people within the middle class. Working class are typically not represented within newspapers - To reinforce the dominant group within the newspaper.

Age - Mostly aimed towards middle age people due to the middle class being the dominant group and the people likely to read the newspaper, Likely to represent younger people negatively - This reinforces the dominant group.

Gender - Men are likely to be represented as sporty, women tend to be absent when sports is mentioned, but where women are seen they are typically being sexualised or seen as frail and needing assistance. This reinforces the dominant group who are male and suggests the mans power.

Ethnicity: Likely to be white people seen on the newspapers as opposed to other ethnicity's since these fit the dominant group. Other ethnic groups are likely to be stereotyped negatively due to them not fitting the dominant group.

Disability - Able-bodied people are likely to be seen positively and many disabled people are less likely to fit into the dominant group and are likely to be seen needing help. 

Monday 7th March 2022

Representation and case studies

L/O: To analyse the constructions of representations in case studies and the impact of contexts on these representations.

Applying theory: 

Hall: 

The Times: 

Gender has been represented. You have a female by the word beauty, and the queen. The queen is not necessarily presented as powerful and likely to be seen through the idea of beauty. This takes away the quality of how people see the queen but it reinforces the idea of the dominant group being powerful. 

The Sun:

Gender has been represented as well as sports. The sports stories show men playing sports and the female singer is being represented through her looks based on the outfit she war to the Brits. This would suggest that men are the ones to be active and go out and play sports while representing women as the kind of people to dress up and look pretty.

Gauntlett:

The Times: 

There isn't necessarily any way to make choices based in your lifestyle other than the idea of beauty being something that females are interested in as the only image to link to beauty has a female featured. This reinforces the idea of women changing and choosing their identities however that only gender and doesn't link to sexuality or identity, and necessarily just reinforces the idea of women liking beauty and doesn't necessarily look at men. 

The Sun: 

Male and females have been represented with the idea of gender neutral being looked into however the men have been represented strictly as sporty while the female has been represented as dependent and likely to be pretty since she's dressed up. 

Van Zoonen:

The Times:

Our ideas of femininity are see through the word beauty as well as the queen being presented as quite feminine. There are no ideas of masculinity, it just shows women.

The Sun:

Ideas of masculinity and femininity. Men - sporty and athletic. Women - pretty, wear dresses.

Monday 14th March 2022

Online news

L/O: to explore the industry, regulation and ownership of print and online, social and participatory news.

Tasks: 

1. What impact has digital convergence had on the production, distribution and circulation of DMGT online content?

The impact of digital convergence can be seen through the mail online. The mail online offer 4 ways in which you can access the content on different platforms, these are Desktop, mobile, tablet and social media. The mail online has lead to an increase in money, readers and success. In 2017 the mail online's combined revenue was £119 million which had lead to an increase of £93 million from 2016 this helps to show the success of the online brand. 

2. Go to the IPSO website and find examples of complaints against Mail Online content. What features do these complaints all have in common? were they upheld?

3. Select 2 article from the mail online and look at the types of comments left by users and explain the problems they can create for regulation.

Task:

1. What impact has digital convergence had on the production, distribution and circulation of GMG online content?

The impact digital convergence can be seen through the guardian. The guardian offers 4 ways of accessing the content, desktop, mobile, tablet and social media. It has had a positive impact on GMG as it has risen to become one of the third largest newspapers in the world. 

2. Select two articles from theguardian.com. Look at the types of comments left by users and explain the problems they could create for regulation. 

Explain how the global cultural context in which online news is produced influences the content offered to audiences. Refer to the mailonline and theguardian.com to support your answer. (10)

The global cultural context in which online news is produced influences the content offered to audiences. 

Monday 21st March 2022

Online news

 

Ad-like:

Click-stream:

a users activities on the world wide web as represented by the sequence of the links they click on.

Echo chambers:

refers to a situation in which beliefs are amplified or reinforced by communication and repetition inside a closed system and insulated from rebuttal. 

Front door traffic:

Explain how news brands target and reach different audiences using online platforms?

News brands target and reach different audiences because the news is widely accessed by 18-34 year olds, who are less likely to read print news, and over a variety of platforms. Men aged between 35-54 are the people who are most likely to access online news on the desktop, with 20% of people read news brand content weekly on the desktop with 4 million people accessing the news content daily. 27 million adults access news content on a mobile and tablet platform with 18-34 year olds make up a third of them with 56% being women. The news read on a mobile is likely to be read between 6am and 10am. 

Mail online:

• accessed by almost 13 million daily browsers across its platforms
• 73.3% aged 35+ 
• 26.7% aged 15-25 (print is 9.5%)
• ABC1 most vists
• DMGT argue their success is due to consistent application of core principles
• They use click streaming to analyse audiences preferences, these can be seen through Editors six of the best and most shared right now, they show a range of stories that appeal to their audience the most.
• Desktop:
• 843,000 daily browsers
• 6.5 million monthly browsers
• Mobile and tablet
• 3.6 million phone daily reach
• 2.3 million 35+
• 1.3 million 18-24
• smartphone reach is 2.9 million daily
• tablet reach is 775,000
• Social media
• FB page has over 1.4 million likes
• Most successful news brand on FB
• Approx 1 billion video views per month
• Twitter profile has 2.2 million followers, 2nd most popular
• 10 million snapchat followers

Mail online: 

Appeal through use of news values and selection - find examples of stories that fit Harcup's news values:

Celebrity:

Entertainment:

Surprise:

Bad news:

Good news:

Relevance:

Follow-up:

Appeal through use of technical codes and language - explain how technical codes and language are used to appeal to the target audience:

Uses and gratifications of mail online - Find examples to illustrate how audience uses and gratifications could be satisfied:

The Guardian:

• Accessed daily by over 4 million daily browsers
• 67% aged 35+
• 33% aged 15-25 (print is 9.5%)
• majority of visits from ABC1 group
• Digital news provision is highly successful and believe their audience to be very much 'consumers of content'
• 34.7 million monthly global unique users
• 24.2 million UK monthly cross platform users
• They are the market leader in providing online news content across desktop and twitter platforms.
• They use click streaming to analyse audience preferences. This can be seen through the most viewed section and shows readers are most interested in stories ranging from culture, sports, politics and economics.

The Guardian:

Appeal through use of news values and selection - find examples of stories that fit Harcup's news values.

The power elite:

Celebrity:

Entertainment:

Surprise:

Bad news:

Good news:

Magnitude:

Relevance:

Follow-up:

News agenda:

Appeal through technical codes and conventions - explain how technical codes and language are used to appeal to the audience.

Uses and gratifications of the guardian - Find examples to illustrate how audiences uses and gratifications could be satisfied.

Bandura: 

The media influence people directly. Human values, judgement and conduct can be altered directly by media modelling.

The media can influence directly and indirectly through related platforms such as social media, so we become influenced by the media without being exposed to them.

Gerbner:

Exposure to particular media forms over a long period of time cultivates and standardised roles and behaviours. 

Hall:

encoding/decoding model: media producers encode with a preferred meaning. Each audience can decode in one of 3 ways. 1 - dominant reading, accepts the preferred meaning and ideological meaning. 2 - negotiated reading, some of the decoded message is accepted but the audience disagrees with parts of it and so changes it to fit their experience. 

Monday 28th March 2022

Terminology:

The Guardian website:

The Guardian: 

Online news: 

• There are a lot more headline on the home page of the website than what there is in print as it is an endless space.
• sections for certain types of news stories.
• Theres a mixture of videos 
• They have a masthead
• Search bar

Social media:

• differences in types of stories shared 

The mail online:

Multiple meanings:

MAIL ONLINE:

The Masthead of the print newspaper and the online news paper are different, but the font of the word mail is the same as on the print paper. The print paper is called the daily mail whereas the online news site is called mail online. 

The only thing to suggest similarities are the font used for the word mail, other than that there aren't many similarities to suggest the news is the same or from the same news brand. 

THE GUARDIAN: 

The masthead is used and is the same as the masthead on the print newspaper. 

Media Language theory:

Baudrillard: postmodernism: 

• Postmodernism is the idea that society has moved beyond modernism. 
• Baudrillard argued that, as modern societies were organised around production of goods, postmodern society is organised around 'simulation'  - the play of images and signs.
• Important social distinctions suffer 'implosion' as differences of gender, class, politics and dissolve in a world of simulation in which individuals construct their identities.
• The new world of 'hyperreality' - media simulations (disney land) is more real than the 'real', and controls how we think and behave.
• Postmodernism challenges the established order and calls into question fixed ideas about reality.
• Hyperreality - the idea that representations are now more powerful and real than reality.
• Hyperreal representations don't represent reality. 
• IT DOES NOT EXPLAIN: anything specific to newspapers as it is an extremely high level theory of the postmodern world.

Levi-strauss: Structuralism: 

• The study of hidden rules that shape a structure to communicate ideology or myths. 
•  Binary oppositions, pairs of opposing terms.

Barthes: Semiology:

The study of signs, denotations signify connotations, meaning is communicated through signs. Barthes uses the word myths to describe the way the connotations are suggested by a sign.

Todorov: narratology: 

Narratives be seen to move from a state of equilibrium (the normal) to disequilibrium, to resolution to a new equilibrium.

Monday 4th April 2022

Online news

L/O: to analyse representations in online, social and participatory news.

Selection and combination of content & connotations of this representations 

Events - covid across the world - globalisation 

Issues - rise of living costs - government 

Social groups - women are being sexualised wearing little amounts of clothes.

class - indirectly negative 

age - variation of ages - positive in having a range, but not in having many teenage representations

Individuals - June Brown - actress - seen negatively and only seen as a women, like caring and seen as motherly. 

consumerism - side stories help to create these ideologies.

Theory:

Hall: meaning is created by a representation, but it isn't just by what is present but also whats absent the representations may intent to fix meanings in a preferred way. 

Gauntlett: media representations offer a range of diverse and contradictory messages about identity allowing the audience to explore and express their identities.

Van Zoonen: women are objectified in the media representations and the ideas of feminity and masculinity are constructed in the performance of these roles.

Bell hooks: feminism challenges patriarchy, with hooks arguing for an intersectional approach considering how identities such as race, class and sexuality contribute to oppression alongside gender.

Butler: gender identity is not something we are born with but something we express through the performance of it.

Gilroy: Gilroy draws attention to the continuing role of colonial ideology. 

The Guardian:

Selection and combination of content & connotations of this representation

Events - Ukraine invasion - hinting towards supporting Ukraine due to covering everything on the side of Ukraine, makes Ukraine seem vulnerable but has support.

Issues - Climate crisis - suggesting an overall lack of care to the environment

Social groups - gender - women aren't necessarily sexualised or stereotyped negatively, although there is less stories on women compared to the number of stories about men.

class - not necessarily mentioned or focused on to much.

Ethnicity - you have many stories with positive outlooks on other ethnic groups, they are not being looked down on, forgotten about or presented negatively or seen to be harmful.

Individuals - June Brown - actress is shown but not said to be an actress since that can easily be distinguished from the article and not seen as mother or nurturing person like her character is made out to be seen in the mail online's story. 

Monday 25th April 2022

News contexts

L/O: to explore the context of the news industry.

Explain how the political context in which newspapers are produced influences their ownership and regulation. 

The political context in which newspapers are produced influences their ownership and regulation. The ownership of a newspaper would influence the political bias of the paper and would share the views of the owner to the audience. The idea of free-press helps to create democratic societies, since the news is not controlled and has a chance to reflect the owners political stance. The Daily Mail, which is owned by The Daily Mail and General Trust and the founders being the Rothermere family are able to share their values with the public, influencing the publics thinking. The Guardian however is part of the Guardian Media Group owned by the Scott's Trust and has a different political stance than The Daily Mail. The Scott's Trust was created in 1936 to secure financial and editorial independence of The Guardian to safeguard the journalistic freedom and liberal values of the Guardian free from commercial or political interference. The Daily Mail has a more right wing political bias compared to The Guardian which is more left wing. 

Facts that could be included:

73% of Guardian readers voted labour in 2017 electorial coverage supported Corbyn.

74% of Daily Mail readers voted conservative pro leave in Brexit. 

Monday 9th May 2022

News: exam format

L/O: to understand the exam format for the news unit.

Question 1 - 

• Analyse 2 sources in terms of either media language or representation.
• The sources will be from a tabloid and the quality press with only 1 being a set product.
• May ask you to use a specific concept or theory.
• Will need to reference the sources in detail, using accurate terminology.
• 10 marks = 17 minutes 

Van Zoonen: women are objects, performance of gender roles, what we do rather than what we are (dependent on cultural/historical context)

Patriarchy = male dominated society

Question 2 - 

• show your understanding of the news industry through analysis, as well as asking you to make judgements and draw conclusions.
• same sources as question 1.
• bullet points to show you want to include.
• need to show a developed line of reasoning, supporting your ideas with detailed reference to the source.
• 15 marks = 25 minutes.

state expectations of tabloid and broadsheet 

new hybrid - celebrity culture

state our view

Have a conclusion

Question 3 -

• Will ask for your understanding of the news industry and the impact and influence of the contexts.
• You will be expected to reference the set products as examples.
• 10 marks = 17 minutes.

Question 4 - 

• Will ask you to evaluate one of he theories studied, in relation to understanding print and/or online news.
• May be given a choice of theories or it might specify one.
• You should be talking about the usefulness and limitations of the theory - do not just explain the theory.
• Will be expected to reference the set products as examples.
• 10 marks = 17 minutes.

1. Summaries the theory.

2. How does this apply to the daily mail and examples of it.

3. How does this apply to the guardian and examples of it.

4. Limitations of the theory or where it falls short in general application to news.

Shirky's - end of audience theory - Was designed to explain the changes in media audiences brought about by the online media. Online participatory media brings about a change in the audience from atomised consumers addressed by centralised media to consumers as producers, due to the user-generated content allowed by the online media.

Monday 16th May 2022

Industries:

Curran and Seaton: Media industries are capitalist and the owners control the media leading to a narrowing of opinions concluding that owners pursue profit.

Hesmondhalgh: Production is owned and controlled by a few media conglomerates with companies rely on repetition to minimise risk and cover failure as risk is seen in loss of money.  

Livingstone and Lunt: Citizens are social, seek public or social benefits from the media and require regulation to promote public interest and consumers who seek private benefits from the media require regulation to protect them.

Audience:

Bandura: The media can influence people directly influencing their values judgements and conduct can be altered directly.

Gerbner: Long term exposure to media forms cultivates standardised roles and behaviours with 'mean world syndrome' causing a mistrusting attitude towards others. 

Hall: media producers encode with a preferred meaning the dominant readings, negotiated readings and oppositional readings. 

Jenkins: Audiences are active, participatory audiences create online communities using new media forms to develop or influence how media is consumed. 

Shirky: Traditional media are shaped by centeralised producers, audiences are now seen as a mass of people with predictable behaviours, audience behaviour is now variable, they are prosumers who can create and shape their own content and user generated content creates emotional connections.

Media Language:

Baudrillard: Modern societies were organised around production of goods, postmodern society is organised around simulation - the play of images and signs. Hyperreality - media simulations which control the way we think and behave.

Levi-strauss: Binary oppositions, hidden rules which shape a structure to communicate ideologies or myths. 

Barthes: the meaning is communicated through signs which are made up of a signifier, the meanings created by these myths often reflect dominant values and ideologies.

Neale: Genre depends upon the repetition of codes and conventions in media products, genre conventions are not fixed and evolve over time as producers subvert established conventions or use other genres. 'the intertextual relay'

Todorov: narratives move from a state of equilibrium to disequilibrium to resolution to a new equilibrium. 

Representation:

Butler: Gender is created in response to our performance of gender roles. Performativity of these roles causes 'gender trouble' for those who do not fit the heterosexual norms.

Gilroy: The black atlantic is a transatlantic cultures that is simultaniously African, American, Caribbean and British. Britain has failed to mourn its loss of empire, creating post-colonial melancholia, leading to a version of British colonial history that criminalises immigrants.  Representations support a belief in they inherit superiority of white western civilisations.

Hall: meaning is created by a representation, but it isn't just by what is present but also what is absent and different. stereotypes are constructed and should be deconstructed to identify what they tell us about ideology. 

Gauntlett: identity: The media portray a wide range of different identities allowing people to think through their own identities, identities of gender and sexuality are now less fixed than they were in the past. 

Van Zoonen: Women are often objectified, viewed as sexual objects, in media representations.

Bell Hooks: Feminism challenges patriarchy and sexist representations, hooks argues for an intersectional approach considering how identities such as race, class and sexuality contribute to oppression alongside gender.

Webinar notes:

Daily Mail: masthead in a serif font - elaborate.

Monday 23rd May 2022

Webinar:

Media language elements: 

rhetorical questions - informal language

Unflattering photo - low quality, entertainment values - typical tabloid layout.

The mirror - left wing values - labour values

Daily Mail - construct meaning and ideology: 

Vibrant colour palette - younger demographic, upbeat mode of address. Balanced ratio of image to text - mid market tabloid. (General information)

Cultural context: 

Platforms and technology - 

How a newspaper reflects the culture in which it is made, because of digital technology print media has been in decline for many years, hence more online news on a range of platforms.

Genre - 

Readers expect more soft news in a mid market tabloid than a tabloid.

How responses to certain news stories may be culturally interpreted, dependent on beliefs/views.

Industry -

Curran and Seaton

Hesmondhalgh

Livingstone and Lunt

The Guardian - doesn't make you pay but asks for you to support them.