What is the theory? Habermas believed democracy depended on the public and came up with the theory of the public sphere which is where individuals can come together to freely discuss and identify societal problems and form a public opinion.
Evidence from CSP’s? The i newspaper is politically liberal/centrist. This means it slightly favours left but is still mostly unbiased compared to other uk newspapers as centrism is a political outlook that involves acceptance or support of social equality. The editor, Oliver Duff has articles which mostly focus on global issues or straightforward unbiased political news. For example an article: We can find opportunities for common ground in adversity by supporting businesses safely after lockdown.
Interpretation: This applies to Habermas and the public sphere, because it focuses on delivering unbiased news, therefore the public can come together and form their own opinion without being persuaded into having a different political view. Another way in which the public sphere is represented in the i is that there is no set target audience which is more inclusive of the whole public instead of focusing on one group of people.
Chomsky proposed the theory of the five filters of consent what is the process that the media goes through to control and manipulate the public. Firstly is scale then Advertising, sourcing mass media, flacking, and finally Common enemy.
Let’s look at firstly Scale as the first filter of manufacturing consent in Chomsky theory the ideology of scale is how powerful, how influential it is, For example, The “i” and the Daily Mail, The daily mail owns The “i” and when we look at the daily mail scale we can see patterns of power. The Daily Mail in 2016 made revenue of 1.6 billion pounds with 9,600 employees (in 2014) so they are quite a powerful company as they have a large number of people working for them with a high amount of revenue made.
Noam Chomsky came up with the 5 filters of manufacturing consent. These 5 filters are financial ownership, advertising, sourcing news, flak and ideology. These 5 filters should be visible in mass communication media, which includes newspapers, radio, TV and advertising. In this instance, we are going to apply the 5 filters to the Daily Mail and the I newspaper.
The first filter of the manufacturing consent is financial ownership. In this instance, the Daily Mail is a conglomerate who contributes towards the monopoly of Murdoch’s News Corp UK, which have subsidiaries including the Daily Mail, The Sun, The Sunday Times and The Mail on Sundays. While these are huge newspaper corporation that publish the most popular newspapers within the UK, the Daily Mail bought out the I for £49.6 million. This is significant because while the I is a smaller, independent newspaper, the Daily Mail is very popular and famous, therefore by buying out the smaller newspapers, they can bring brand loyalty and encourage the Daily Mail readers to purchase the I, meaning they will generate more revenue.
However, while the Daily Mail and the I are owned under the Daily Mail General Trust (DMGT), it is apparent that these newspapers source their information very contrastingly. For example, the Daily Mail has had a load of controversy and has been removed as a reliable source from Wikipedia because they rely on media sensationalism and using inaccurate headlines in order to bring in customers to buy their newspaper, however the I is very different in the fact that although it is owned under the DMGT, it hasn’t been classes as controversial and instead has a reputation for having accurate information and therefore haven’t received backlash for media sensationalism and what some call ‘fake news’. What’s also different is that they have very contrasting political views, even though they are under the same company. The Daily Mail is very right-wing politically aligned and support the Conservative Party. However, the I contrasts this by being left-wing politically aligned and supporting the Labour Party. The way these 2 newspapers contrast each other and are differently politically aligned could be a marketing strategy by having a newspaper that’s left winged and one right winged in order to attract more consumers because they are differentiating from other newspapers, which usually will stick to one politically aligned viewpoint.
Another one of the 5 filters’s flak. Flak is when you have a negative viewpoint towards something in the media. An example of Flak in the Daily Mail was in 2016, with the election of the new Prime Minister. The Daily Mail was heavily supporting Teresa May, a Conservative, yet had a negative viewpoint towards Jeremy Corbyn (Labour). One example of this was their use of support such as their masthead “Your tactical voting guide to boost the Tories and Brexit”. However, the I juxtaposes this viewpoint held by the Daily Mail and instead was showing support for Corbyn and the Labour Party and tried to create a negative viewpoint towards Theresa May and the Conservative Party.
Habermas theorized that the media and the press should be free from interference and bias, ownership and political control. It was his belief that the media should deliver unbiased and factual news accounts. Habermas also believed that democracy depends on the public, and how individuals can come together to freely discuss and form an opinion. The fact that The I is known to be slightly left-wing, yet is not prone to speaking out politically often, is able to identify with Habermas with the fact that the press should be free from political control. However, The Daily Mail is commonly known to be a right-wing leaning, conservative newspaper so this is an opposing viewpoint. In 2019, The Daily Mail posted the headline “he`s done his duty. Now MPs must do theirs” in reference to Conservative Prime Minister Boris Johnson. This headline regards Boris as a sort of hero, in a positive light that reflects well on the Prime Minister and furthermore his values. This is a contrast to Habermas belief as you could say that they are showing favor to the Conservative party.
The Daily Mail is a national daily tabloid newspaper that has historical, social, cultural and political significance. The i and the Daily Male operate within contrasting political and economic contexts with clear differences in style, address, ideological viewpoint and target audience.
The Daily Mail, launched in 1896 offers many opportunities for studying the relationship between ownership patterns, economic factors and political viewpoints. The history of the Daily Mail provides many examples of the paper’s political influence including some high-profile clashes between the paper and its political opponents.
In the context of declining print sales for all newspapers, the Daily Mail has been relatively successful, particularly by embracing the opportunities of digital technology, adjusting its style to an evolving target readership and by adopting popular campaigns.
Interestingly, in 2017 Wikipedia banned the Daily Mail as ‘unreliable’ source (along with Fox News, Russia Today and others)
It launched Daily Mail Online in 2003. It is also known as dailymail.co.uk. It is a division of DMG Media, which is owned by Daily Mail and General Trust plc. It is the most visited English-language newspaper website in the world, with over 11.34m visitors daily in August 2014.Globally the site was forecast to reach £60m in advertising sales in the year to September 2014, up 49%. £35m has been invested in creating the site. The site has introduced sponsored articles, with a guarantee of 450,000 page views at a cost of £65,000 per article
Previously, there was an attempt to call into question the integrity of the website’s journalism after NewsGuard’s feature which is designed to fight what it describes as ‘fake news’, Microsoft Edge warned users against trusting content at the site, asserting that “this website generally fails to maintain basic standards of accuracy and accountability” and “has been forced to pay damages in numerous high-profile cases”. This warning has since been removed with Newsguard apologizing saying We were wrong. Also, stating that the website “generally maintains basic standards of accuracy and accountability”
Daily mail advertises products which are ideal for their audience to consume eg a cruise advert within paper, as they have an an older audience this product reaches to them as generally older retired people go on cruses. This ties into one of the 5 filters of manufacturing consent, the role of advertising.
Another one of the 5 filters of manufacturing consent is seen as the common enemy. This can be seen in this front cover as they are seen to be targeting the left wing and rallying their readers against those who disagree with May’s actions, this is because the newspaper supports the conservatives.
The I also uses advertising to reach to their readers, in this front cover you can see a large advert for a holiday destination. this shows that the newspaper isn’t trying to hid there ads as you can clearly see a big advertisement as soon as you see the paper, it shows that they are very clearly interested in feeding into consumer culture.
Habermas
Both newspapers share differing opinions into the public sphere, for example the daily mail supports the right wing so puts out news which supports these views therefore influencing their audience where as the I takes a more centralist view therefore nether sides with the left or ring wing which means there news is more impartial and is a more reliable source when influencing consumers opinions in the public sphere.
Althussar
Althussar’s ideas of isa is that the state uses media to form peoples views of the world. This can be seen in the daily mail when Boris Johnson is presented as having done a good job with a Brexit deal, this benefits the state as it gives the public confidence in the government whereas in reality the Brexit deal that Boris Johnson got wasn’t much different to the deal Theresa May got previously. This then forms the public opinion differently to what it may have been without the positive reinforcement form the daily mail.
The I also influences peoples opinions however the newspaper is less bias as they take a centralism stance which means they don’t directly favour one side of the government unlike the daily mail which means that they aren’t as influential.
Curran
As Curran describes the media as a public watchdog, this can be seen in the I as they offer a non bias critical view into the government which allows the state to be criticised and held accountable. This can be seen in this front cover as they are seen to be criticising the tories for cutting labours funding, it is important that these issues are shared through media outlets otherwise the public would not know about the conservatives attempts to gain more power and control. The public should be informed in such matters in order to make an educated decision when voting.
Seaton
Seaton discusses the theory of public service which refers to the BBC which is a public service broadcasting institution, both the daily mail and the I are not public service institution as they are both owned by the daily mail and general trust. this means that they feed into capitalist media as the generate revenue through advertisements. The owner of these newspapers also have massive influence into what is published and therefore what influences the public opinion.
Gramsci
Gramsci holds the idea of hegemony and the hegemonic struggle that some people face. This idea of hegemonic struggle can be seen in the daily mail. In this front cover of the newspaper it is seen to be focusing on Theresa may and Nicola surgeons legs rather than their political views, this demonstrates some of the hegemonic struggles faced by women in a male dominated field such as politics, that media tabloids enhance this through articles which objectify woman in this way.
“All ideology hails or interpellates concrete individuals as concrete subjects, through the functioning of the category of the subject.” – 1971
Althusser said that society is structured to keep you in your place & coined the phrase ‘socially constructed’. The ruling ideology (the ideas of the ruling class) constructs us. He says we cant escape, we are interpellated in this system which relates to Orientalism since the ‘other’ do not have the power to represent themselves. Ideological state apparatus (ISA) describes all the things which have an impact on us & makes us who we are, the way society encodes you is called interpellation, it shapes us, forced to look & think
In the sense of The daily mail, they has had a lot of criticizing accusations made against them such as racism, sexism and blasphemous accusations as well as clearly supporting the conservative political party who are right wing, meaning they hold traditional values. In terms of the latter, to endorse the conservative party they published an article in 2013 which criticized Ralph Milliband, father of Ed Milliband – the then labor leader, titled “The Man Who Hated Britain”. In the article, the writer Geoffrey Levy attacked Ralph as he is a Jewish refugee from the Holocaust saying that “his son was determined to bring back socialism in homage to his father.” Levy also wrote “As for the country that gave him and his family protection, the 17-year-old wrote in his diary: ‘The Englishman is a rabid nationalist.'” Ed Miliband said that the article was “ludicrously untrue”.
This antisemitism view shows how the news tries to shape our opinion and this Daily Mail article tried to boost the conservative party so more people would vote for them as well as paint the Jewish in a negative light, relating to the fact that Althssur said that the ruling ideology constructs the ‘other’ who do not have the power to represent themselves. (Orientalism)
Habermas’s theory of the public sphere is an area in social life where individuals can come together to freely discuss and identify societal problems, and through that discussion influence political action without the influence of the government. This can be applied to The Daily Mail as the government have no control over what is being written in the newspaper for the people to see. Both the I and The Daily Mail are on the internet and are now easily spread between people as well as this generation now being able to access the newspaper on their phone makes it much easier to spread and read the Daily Mail and the I amungst each other.
Habermas suggest the public sphere is “a public space between the private domain and the state in which public opinion was formed“.
Both newspapers support the idea of the Public Spheres as they wide spread information that serve the public therefore can spread communication between people easier as younger generations are more likely to read the news if it is on their phones. This is meant to serve the people, however it is run by the media elite and therefore biased, rather than being a media watchdog. This is seen in the Daily Mail as it is right wing than central and cannot fairly serve all people. The i is more central and therefore less biased to one political stance.
The public watchdog is responsible for “overseeing the state” which is seen the the CSP’s as they criticise the government by the Daily Mail saying ‘Boris set for war with UK’s five Church leaders’ which alerts the people of the workings of the government.
On the other hand, it does help people talk about societal problems within their country and spread important info. This is evident as the Daily Mail has a daily readership of 2.2 million and the i has 233,869 as of February 2019 which shows that the newspapers ideas can be spread across the country, especially via the internet (which is not measured).
Chomsky – the 5 filters that manufacture consent
The idea of The Media Elite filter is clear in the i as
Althussers’ ideas of ISA and Interpellation
This links to the Daily Mail and the i as it is about controlling the ideologies of the people through the media (newspapers). This si evident in the Daily mail of the headline of ‘Boris set for war with UK’s five Church leaders’. This rallied the readers of the Daily Mail against Boris by using hyperbolic language such as ‘war’ to control the people into believing Boris is too extreme. The idea that is presented creates interpellation that Boris is not a good leader.
The i’s headline of ‘UK heading back into lockdown by ‘back door’‘ suggests that the government is being sneaky as a back door has connotations of stealth. This links of ISA as it changes the ideology to be suspicious of the government and fear another lockdown.
How does Noam Chomsky fit in with The Daily Mail and The i.
Ownership – The Daily Mail is owned by a large conglomerate called the Daily Mail General Trust, However The i used to be an independent newspaper until it was bought by Daily Mail General Trust in 2019.
Advertising – Because the target audience for the Daily Mail is lower-middle-class British women so they would try to advertise products that would be appealing and affordable to them. As with the i, because the target audience is much broader as it is for lapsed readers of quality newspapers of all ages, they would advertise products that could be for everyone.
The media elite shows how they can influence stories which means they are no longer true. Newspapers will do this so that their readers will have a certain view on specific events or topics. With the Daily Mail they may change certain details in a story so that their readers see it how they want it to be seen. This has been brought upon with the Daily Mail getting backlash for having “unreliable” stories. With the i they have been known to produce much more reliable stories.
Flak shows us how the media can influence what media we see. For example because the Daily Mail supports the conservatives, they will only show positive news about the Tory’s rather than negative. With the i, they are a centrist newspaper meaning they’re neither left or right wing so they have no political preference so they will have negative and positive news about all parties.
The Common enemy filter suggests that they need a common enemy to be able to produce more intriguing news.
