Curran and Seaton present the view that a free press relies on a free market where individual newspapers can compete through their political stances and points of view.

Analyse the ways that The i and the Daily Mail attempt to establish a distinctive identity within this free market.  To what extent has this been successful? Refer to the specific edition of your case study – for both papers – as well as, on-line versions of these publications.

James Curran and Jean Seaton came up with the concept of the free market, which is where media sources (such as newspapers) are allowed to publish what they want freely, without any restrictions from the Governments on what they can and can’t do. Curran has published a book called Media and Democracy, in which he stated how  “The assumption that ‘anyone’ is free to start as new paper has been an illusion ever since the industrialization of the press.”. This means that anyone could start up a newspaper, however, according to Curran, to make it successful,  “Newspapers and magazines must respond to the concerns of their readers if they are to stay in business”.

Some theorists that can be linked to The I and The Daily Mail include Habermas and the concept of the public sphere, Similarly to the concept of free press, the public sphere explores how people can freely be connected to others horizontally rather than vertically, however Habermas has argued that over time, the public sphere has broken down due to globalisation and the introduction of mass media. Within the public sphere, you have personal places, such as your home to communicate with your family and then social places, such as coffee shops, where you can communicate and socialise with others and see what is going on, therefore connecting beyond our family and personal relationships. Socialising with others in public spaces means you can transform your life and socialise with anyone throughout the whole World, in which links to the Daily Mail and the I because they are available in shops and airports across the world. Another theorist that can be applied to the production of newspapers is Noam Chomsky. Noam Chomsky came up with the theory of manufacturing consent, where he argued that there are 5 filters of the mass media machine. These 5 filters are financial ownership, advertising, the media elite, flak and the common enemy. This links to the two CSPs because in 2019, the Daily Mail bought out the I newspaper for £49.6million. Following on with the 5 filters of manufacturing consent, advertising links to the newspapers because they include adverts, in which company’s pay to get published, meaning the newspaper will generate revenue from advertising. Usually, the newspapers, such as the I and Daily Mail, would keep to very generic adverts such as supermarket ones in order to attract a wider audience, however, more specific gender-orientated media, such as magazines would include adverts that would appeal to their target audience (for example New magazine is aimed at women so will include adverts such as ones for makeup in order to attract their primary audiences). The third filter looks at the media elite, which explains how the big media corporations will publish media scoops, exclusive interviews and celebrities in order to attract their audience. Flak is the 4th filter and is where there is a negative viewpoint towards media sources. Newspapers commonly use flak to remove any articles that are being out up for publishing. An example of this is that a right-winged newspaper (Daily Mail) will disregard any left-wing articles journalists write for them because they want to influence their readers to be right-winged on the political spectrum. 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. The final filter is having a common enemy. The Daily Mail often uses their common enemy of terrorists, in order to help create a negative public opinion towards them. A final theorist I will explore is Antonio Gramsci, who came up with the theory of hegemony. Hegemony outlines how certain ideas can be influential to others and this is shown by the lack of power that the working class would have over the higher class. Hegemony is shown in the Daily Mail because they have been criticised for using media sensationalism and overdramatising their news articles, as a technique to attract their audiences and change their viewpoint. This is very different to the I because they have not been criticised for media sensationalism and while they are left-winged, they include some right-wing articles, which suggest they are more central on the political spectrum.

The Daily Mail is a politically aligned, right wing newspaper, who is owned by the Daily Mail General Trust (DMGT). The I, however, if a politically aligned left wing newspaper, which was also bought out by the DMGT in 2019. It is significant that by buying out the I, the DMGT has been able to generate more revenue because they are attracting people from both the different sides of the political spectrum. It can be argued that another reason why the DMGT bought out the I, was to cover wider demographics. This is because the Daily Mail, primarily targets working-class middle aged women (social classes A/B/C1). However, the I primarily targets younger audiences (young adults) which a social class of C1/C2/D. While the Daily Mail has around 999,997 newspapers in circulation (as of June 2020), the I newspaper only had circulation of around 140,154. Therefore, it could be argued that the DMGT bought out the I to maximise their sales because Daily Mail readers would have brand loyalty to the newspaper, so would most likely buy their subsidiaries, thus meaning more will be enticed to buy the I and if all small newspapers are bought out by the DMGT, they could become a monopoly and dominate the newspaper industry. Both the I and the Daily Mail are available online as well as in print form, which attracts new audiences because phones are the new age of our generation. By having mobile editions of their papers, it can attract younger audiences and bring awareness to their newspaper. While these newspapers are hold very contradicting viewpoints and are oppositely aligned on the political spectrum, they both include a mixture of hard and soft news and a range of articles, such as games, sports and breaking news in order to attract an all rounded audience, rather than 1 specific audience, which will mean that they will be generating as much revenue as possible

Another theorist which can be applied to both the I and the Daily Mail is Laswell’s Hypodermic Model of Communication, in which it is explored how the sender will transfer a message through a piece of media and it will have a direct effect on the receiver. An example of this is the Daily Mail, where journalist Larisa Brown reports how how “British Spies exposed and disrupted Russia’s Cyber War on the Olympics. Russia plotted to sabotage the Olympic Games using a series of Cyber Attacks”. This article by Larisa Brown will then be received by the Daily Mail readers (predominantly the British Public) and the effect that will be created will be a pejorative viewpoint on Russians. It is apparent that the Daily Mail/Larisa Brown talks about the Olympics because it is a famous event, therefore it will intrigue the audience to buy the newspaper and read it because it is reporting about something that interests them and address global issues. However, this article is in the words of Larisa Brown, therefore due to the liberal free press explored by Curran and Seaton, Larisa Brown was free to publish her personal viewpoint on the story. Due to the article being somebody’s personal viewpoint, it is not 100% evident she is being truthful, therefore she could be saying how she is feeling and spreading so called “fake news” to their audiences. With the I newspaper, they are politically left winged and will focus on left-wing articles. Using Laswell’s hypodermic model, Nigel Morris speaks about how Biden and Boris Johnson never met. This article from Morris will be received by Daily Mail readers and following the 2020 US Presidential Election, creates the message that the I favours their support for the Democratic Party because they are objecting to a claim. While this is qualitative data written by Morris, it can be seen as more reliable than Larisa Brown’s article because it is backed up by 10 Downing Street and a key political figure (Boris Johnson and his associate), rather than just being the viewpoint of the journalist writing the article. Another theorist than can be applied it Katz, who came up with the uses and gratifications theory. The uses and gratifications theory is linked with Malsow’s hierachy of needs and for newspapers, it can be identified that by using the uses and gratifications theory, newspapers serve the purpose for knowledge about the world and escapism. This is because both the I and the Daily Mail cover news articles from both locally around the UK, as well as having a few pages for global news. Paul Lazerfeld’s two step flow can also be applied to the CSPs. This is because while it can be susceptible to bias, interpretation, support and changes , newspapers have are the main source of media and the opinion leader would be the reader, who may choose to believe something written in the newspaper and tell their friends, influencing them to change their decisions. This is a common strategy the I and the Daily Mail use because they are politically aligned a certain way and would want their readers to adopt the same political spectrum viewpoint they have (the I being left-winged and the Daily Mail being right-winged).

To conclude, both the I and the Daily Mail have been mostly successful at creating their own distinctive identity. This is shown by the theory of the free press as they have both been able to publish what they want without any restrictions or interference from the government. However, it is significant that while the Daily Mail is one of highest circulating newspapers in the UK, They have received criticisms for publishing inaccurate stories, such as the qualitative article from Larisa Brown that has her view on The Russians doing a cyber war at the Olympics. Contrastingly, it can be argued that the I is a more reliable newspaper source than the Daily Mail because it has included accounts from key political figures in the UK, such as Boris Johnson and 10 Downing Street. However, overall they have created a distinctive identity, having both been under the conglomerate company Daily Mail General Trust and being two newspapers who are owned by the same company, yet hold very contradicting political stances, which is beneficial for the Daily Mail General Trust because they will generate more revenue, since they are attracted reader from both sides of the political spectrum.