James Curran and Seaton looked at power and media industries and how conglomerates (a large company which consists of smaller companies) being driven by money and power. The ownership and control over small companies means they have power in multiple industries. The focus on profit means conglomerates will rarely take risks on projects and instead focus on making profit increasing media products. Therefore, the is limited variety of content. A quote by Curran and Seaton to avoid this is ‘Media policy should seek[…] to create the conditions of greatest possible competition, thus enabling consumers to exercise sovereign control. This produces media that people want, a wide range of choice, and media independence from government’ To simplify Curran and setons power and media theory is that that media producers have different rules. For example, if the media producer is paid for by the government it must remain unbiased Liberal Free press, therefore it should be free from interference and political control, as they should be neutral and unbiased.

Another relevant theory is Gramsci’s theory of hegemony. This is linked with the idea of capitalist state and claims that the state rules and has power through force and consent, with society being a realm of force into a dominant ideology. Hegemony refers to the idea that nothing is fixed and things such as culture and identity power can be changed and the media how the power to do so, much like Curran and Seaton who said the large media companies (driven by money) have power in multiple industries.

The I newspaper was introduced in October 2010 and was originally a sister paper to The Independent a considered Liberal newspaper. It was later bought by for £49.6 million by the daily mail and the general trust a newspaper considered to be less liberal with right wing political views. Regardless of their ownership The ‘I’ still has editorial independence meaning the daily mail and general trust don’t influence the contact published by the newspaper with the stories often being presented more factual are what is considered hard news. The conglomerated of the daily mail and the general trust manages a multinational portfolio of companies, giving them horizontal integration (process of a company increasing production of goods or services at the same part of the supply chain) with total revenues of almost £2 billion. The Daily mail was introduced much earlier beginning production in Created on May 4 1896. The magazine is owned by Viscount Rothermere & Family, with lord Rothermere Jonathan Harmsworth being chairman of various newspapers including the daily mail and the general trust (which have ownership of the I newspaper) and has accumulated a net worth of 1.9 billion dollars (august 2017).

A key component to the I newspapers is how it positions itself neutral, this is largely to do with it target audience of fast pace, comminutors of any age and all political views meaning a wide range of readers. The ‘I’ has a readership reach of 221,083, and is a free newspaper, this means that they do not rely on costumers buying their product but instead on advisers to create a profit and keep up production, meaning they are not aiming to reach a niche audience such as right wing positioned audiences allowing the newspaper to include their own views as well as remaining more neutral and giving information for audiences to decode and form opinions on themselves. An example of a story published by the newspaper was headlined ‘reasons to vote Trump’ written by Kate Maltby who lived in the USA in 2009, she talks about various reasons to support trump exposing the positives of his presidency, this is unusual for a left wing newspaper which tend to portray Trump in a negative light. The magazine however also published an article headlining ‘Why Donald Trump falsely declaring victory and claiming voter fraud in his speech has been so widely condemned’ reflecting more negative view on Trump. I think this is a positive thing as explained by Stuarts Halls theory of preferred reading where individuals are not only active in the process of interpretation and the construction of meaning, but they are also able to dismiss and reject dominant messages. The inclusion of article coming from a variety of different political stand points allows audiences to create their own opinions much like a quote from Curran and Seaton “Media policy should seek[…] to create the conditions of greatest possible competition, thus enabling consumers to exercise sovereign control”.

The Daily mail however has a more specific target audience of lower-middle class women are reach a much wider audience of 2.2million. Due to it large readership the newspaper holds a lot of power and openly positions themselves as right wing and in support of the conservative party. The magazine if known for publishing articles on supporting their views. An article recently published headlined ‘Donald trumped?’ on the front page clearly demonstrating their dislike for Trump. By doing reader who perches the magazine likely have a similar view something the newspaper does purposefully to get achieve readers. Curran and Seaton talk about conglomerates being driven by money and power, something the daily mail could be thought to do, by creating story headlines to deliberately incise audiences rather than portraying their personal politically views. However, the newspaper does also present their own view throughout the paper this could be seen as trying to persuade readers to adopt their views meaning free press is not fully achieved. 

In conclusion, the political identities which the Newspaper has created may be influenced by the want to persuade reader for certain political gain or to increase profits.

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? 

Curran and Seaton’s summary of the theory of Liberal Free Press states that “the freedom to publish in the free market ensures that the press reflects a wide range of opinions in society” This allows for no political bias in the media which suggests there will be politically balanced stories within the media, therefore expecting the press to be as “the people’s watchdog, scrutinising the actions of the government and holding the country’s rulers to account”. This theory supports the idea that the media and newspapers specifically are there to serve the public, as they need to keep the interest of their readers to stay successful and recognise that those newspapers that do not “respond to the concerns of their readers”, cannot be as successful in a competitive space than alternative news outlets that do. Curran and Seaton’s belief however, that the media is controlled by a small number of companies who are driven by: Profit, power and logic, relates to the theory of Althusser who suggests the theory of Interpolation. This theory was created by people in high social and political power, stating “an ideology always exists in an apparatus, and its practice, or practices” suggesting that within media, there is always an ideology which is presented to the audience, often used as propaganda to make the audience believe a certain political view. This then challenges the idea that the liberal free press could ever even exist, as there will always be an imbalance in presentation of views, as each outlet will still have an urge to present their own ideologies, enhanced by the pressures of “competition, choice and new technology”; leading to a narrowing in range of opinions represented in the media, with one ultimate conglomerate owning multiple subsections with a pursuit of profit at the expense of quality or creativity. 

The Daily mail was founded in 1896 and is owned by General Trust PLC which owns multinational companies, also including the I, and DMGT, which owns all stages of production, with editing and printing in their own HQ. It circulates 1,158,192 copies, currently running as the most successful UK newspaper, with the main target audience of the lower middle class.  The daily mail also has a majority female readership, with female readers consisting of 52-55% of the total daily mail readership, and has also been shown as a middle-market newspaper, with both entertainment and information. The Daily Mail thrives off the idea that most readers would not care to factcheck articles, as they are produced in often short bites, although they known to include unreliable information, highlighted on the Wikipedia page for the Daily Mail, where “In February 2017, the Daily Mail became the first source to be deprecated as an “unreliable source” to use as a reference on the English Wikipedia”.  Furthermore, both magazines participates in advertising, including multiple fashion and entertainment pages combined with full-page advertisements. Therefore meaning even with the I being a centre left newspaper, they wouldn’t be seen including frequent strong-left political opinions because they rely on capitalism to survive. However, The Daily Mail disguise this by their use of creating original, unique articles, with sources that seem to hold strong evidence, with facts and figures, which as a result is often useful for persuading readers to adopt their political viewpoints.

An example to show the I’s moderate swing to the political left can be seen in an article for the front cover of the I edition released on November 5th, relating to the current situation with the American presidential election. The article, although appearing as only a factual piece of work, using short bullet point sentences to highlight some key points in the election, can be analysed to present a swing to the supporting of Joe Biden, the Democratic candidate. The first point states ‘poisonous legal battle begins as Trump opposes routine counting of postal ballot’, which can be understood, although subtle, as being anti-trump, as the speculation of trumps next actions were described as ‘poisonous’, which obviously holds negative connotations. The headline of the front page article also made sure to bring attention to Biden’s success by writing ‘Biden edges closer to the White House’. Whereas the Daily Mail’s headliner in their November 5th edition, known to be more right-wing aligned, highlighted Donald Trumps fight in the election, and only referenced the idea of trumps retaliation as trumps ‘campaign threatened to go to the Supreme Court’ with the phrase more so showing Trumps high authority than the huge complications he’s trying cause to bring himself back into the election. However both of these instances are intertwined into the articles so subtly, its obvious that these 2 outlets are keeping away from any strong political standpoint, as to appeal to a larger audience.

To conclude, its clear that Curran and Seatons description of the theory of the free market, is not as free as once thought, and that the idea of a truly transparent market could never exist. The Daily Mail and The i are two competing newspapers with developing ideas on how to appeal to their readers, while both maintaining individual identities. The competition between newspapers within the free market is always thriving, and consumers feed into this by purchasing the papers and engaging with articles online. The transformation of the public sphere has caused a large shift towards the political right, shown through The Daily Mail as the most popular newspaper in the UK, and the overall success of the i also in the media market.

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.

• Two theorists who co-wrote a book called “Power Without Responsibility”
• the liberal theory of press freedom:
• The broad shape and nature of the press is ultimately determined by no one but its readers
• self regulation

Curran and Seaton co-wrote a book called “Power Without Responsibility” where the liberal theory of press freedom is discussed. Curran and Seaton describe the liberal theory of press theory within Power Without Responsibility as “ultimately determined by no one but its readers”. This means that the political variety found within the press is not decided solely by its editors – but by its readers. This is shown through newspapers like the i and Daily Mail where they both display a largely differing set of political opinions, with the Daily Mail adopting more centre-right ideologies compared to the i displaying more centrist or centre left ideologies.

The Daily Mail has been known to adopt more dubious strategies to its reporting. The Daily Mail capitalises on the fact that most of its readers will not bother to factcheck articles due to a lot of the more uneducated population reading it, and often creates articles with unreliable information. This is shown on the Wikipedia page for the Daily Mail, where “In February 2017, the Daily Mail became the first source to be deprecated as an “unreliable source” to use as a reference on the English Wikipedia”. The Daily Mail has a centric enough political stance that it can influence central-aligned readers, or those “uninterested” with politics. This is shown through Chomsky’s theory of the Five Filters of Mass Media: ownership, advertising sourcing, flak and anti-communism and fear. The Daily Mail is owned by the Daily Mail and General Trust, which also owns the i. The DMG owns all stages of production, with editing and printing in their own headquarters. Furthermore, both, but particularly the daily mail participate in the advertising stage, where the daily mail includes multiple fashion pages combined with full-page advertisements. certain articles are purged in order to keep readers in the “buying mood”, meaning that despite the newspaper being centre left, the i will never include articles that hold more strong-left political opinions because each newspaper relies on capitalism to survive and a criticism of the system would not put the readers in a “buying mood”. Therefore, it can be said that the Daily Mail is especially successful from this, due to its articles being mainly centre-right (more economically based). The Daily Mail makes particular use of creating its own, unique articles, providing a source that seems to provide strong evidence, with facts and figures. This, as a result, is useful for persuading readers to adopt these political viewpoints. The Daily Mail also incorporates flak, where ideas that threaten its traditional beliefs are shunned. An example of this is an article in the Daily Mail, discussing how “The number of white male, secondary school teachers has fallen by almost 20 percent in a decade, sparking fears over a lack of role models for working class boys”. This provides flack on diversity in teaching and reinforces the idea that the increase in diversity of teachers is bad because “white boys don’t have any role models”. (Conveniently leaving out that minorities never had role models in the first place). This creates racist ramifications as it ultimately creates the idea that “minorities are invading teaching spaces”. This is used to defend the Daily Mail’s centre-right beliefs and pushes its readers to think like this. Finally, the Daily Mail uses anti-communism and fear. While 2020 is the result of a post-red-scare era, anti-communism is still used to reinforce capitalism as the main ideology, with fearmongering used to paint leftism as ‘the evil’. An example of this is a recent article n the Daily Mail. A quarter of the page is headed with read and the communist flag. The title text reads: “Russia’s Cyber War on the Olympics”. However, Russia has nothing to do with communism as the soviet union dissolved in 1992. Furthermore, Russia has become more and more neo-liberal as it has incorporated more and more forms of privatisation. The article frames Russia’s attempt to “sabotage the games” as not Russia’s attempt to sabotage the games, but communism’s attempt to sabotage the games. This reinforces the idea that leftist ideas such as socialism and communism are “evil”, and are “a threat”. This political stance has been incredibly successful for the Daily Mail, as it is currently the top selling newspaper in the UK.

The i has adopted a centre-let political stance, but despite seeming somewhat different to the Daily Mail, they are both owned by the same conglomerate: the Daily Mail General Trust. A notable article in the i is a politics article titled “Even a win is not good news for Democrats”. Further in the article, it questions socialists if socialism is “just an idea” and “would never become a reality”: “The uncomfortable closeness of the election will empower the socialists in his party to push a niggling counterfactual: what if it had been an ideologue, not an establishment-type, at the top of the ticket?”. While the i appears centre-left, it can be argued that both of its opinions of leftism, especially far leftism, are the same, with the i expressing ideas of socialism as “unrealistic” and the Daily Mail expressing stronger ideas of counter-leftism. It can be argued that, historically, the public sphere was a lot more diverse, with a lot of early post-world-war two newspapers taking a leftist, anti-capitalist approach, being allowed to criticise the capitalist system. This was changed after these local newspapers either died out from a lack of funding or were pushed to become more right-wing as they required funding through advertising, which would require complying with the capitalist system. This has meant that the public sphere as a whole since then has shifted more and more to the right, with right wing views beginning to dominate the public consciousness, and as a result, has changed the public sphere to care less about socialist ideas and more about economy-based ideas. The point being, newspaper identities have shifted closer and closer together, to the point where it is a lot harder to tell the difference between centre-right and centre-left.

In conclusion, it can be argued that the identities the Daily Mail and the i have created are not as distinctive as they seem. The Daily Mail General Trust owns not only both newspapers, but all forms of journalism and production. The transformation of the public sphere has caused a large shift towards the political right, which is shown where The Daily Mail is the most popular newspaper in the UK, compared to the i, which is 7th. Furthermore, the i itself has started to shift more to the right, complying with the dominant ideology more and more

1. Show any knowledge and understanding you have of any related theoretical ideas (eg Habermas – transformation of the public sphere, Althusser, ISA/interpellation, Chomsky, 5 filters, Gramsci, hegemony). Make sure this section coherently links to the last.
2. Show your knowledge and understanding of the distinctive identity of your case studies (Daily Mail & The i) in terms of patterns of institutional ownership in the culture industries. As illustrated by:
   1. statistics, names and dates related to your case studies.
   2. key terminology related to ownership (media as public good, capitalist media, vertical, horizontal, transnational, conglomerate, subsidiaries, concentration of ownership, diversification, production/distribution etc etc)
3. Show your knowledge and understanding of the distinctive identity of your case studies by examining their audience profile & reach (eg ABC, psychographic profiles, readership, circulation, profit, costs, size)
4. Show your knowledge and understanding of the distinctive identity of your case studies by looking in detail at some key stories, which help you to illustrate the political stance and point of views presented in your case studies. Make sure you refer to both print and digital (and be clear about what differences and similarities you find).
5. Evaluate the success of each of your case studies in terms of:
   1. quantitative / statistical analysis
   2. qualitative analysis (think about the stories that you are talking about, how can they be measured as successful?)
6. Show your knowledge of audience theory to both support and criticise the way in which you can suggest qualitative success (point above). In other words, how does audience theory link to the particular identity (ie political and/or social stance) of your case study? (So you could reference Lasswell, 2 Step Flow / Lazarfeld, Skinner, U & G theory, Gerbner, Hall, Shirky, Zuboff)
7. Make some astute judgements and draw some conclusions from what you have written in your essay
8. Summarise (what you have presented as) your argument and try to end with a 2 sentence final though

lasswell’s model: the daily mail article

WHO:

Sarah Harris and joshua fullard

SAYS WHAT:

“The number of white male, secondary school teachers has fallen by almost 20 percent in a decade, sparking fears over a lack of role models for working class boys”

CHANNEL:

The daily mail newspaper

TO WHOM:

right-wing aligned or centre-right aligned audience

WITH WHAT EFFECT:

reinforces the idea that the increase in diversity of teachers is bad because “white boys don’t have any role models”. (Conveniently leaving out that minorities never had role models in the first place). This creates racist ramifications as it ultimately creates the idea that “minorities are invading teaching spaces”

1.  When they were first introduced – ie do they have a tradition?
2. Are they part of a bigger organisational structure?
3. Are they known for a particular political perspective?
4. What kind of journalism do they produce? What is their USP? What stories do they specialize in?
5. What kind of people run the paper? Produce the stories?
6. Do they have a similar readership reach?
7. Do they have a similar readership profile / target audience?
8. How are they currently doing? Increasing or decreasing sales and revenue?
9. How are they looking to embrace new media technologies?
10. Do they have a similar layout and design?

Similarities & Differences

1. The I was introduced in 2010 whereas The Daily Mail was introduced in 1896. Therefore, The I is less traditional.(Difference)

2. The Daily Mail is owned by DMGT – Daily Mail and General Trust plc (public limited company) whereas The I is owned by The Daily Mail & General Trust

3. The Daily Mail clearly supports the conservative party whereas The I has shown perspectives from both left (socialist) & right (conservative(traditional)) wing. The Daily Mail has endorsed the conservative party in all general elections and put down other views, for example in 2013, it was criticized for an article on Ralph Milliband, father of Ed Milliband the then labor leader, titled “The Man Who Hated Britain”. Ed Miliband said that the article was “ludicrously untrue”

 Ralph is a Jewish refugee from the Holocaust which the artcile commented on saying “Jews can’t be trusted because of their divided loyalties’

A Jewish newspaper described the article as “a revival of the ‘Jews can’t be trusted because of their divided loyalties’ genre of antisemitism.”

James Curran wrote ‘Mass Media and Democracy’ which focuses on Habermas and his idea of the public sphere. Curran stated that “Public service broadcasting organizations tend to be unduly influenced by the political class.” and argued that the developments the mass media, as well as education, makes it simpler to access information related to the government, authority and control. This relates to liberal theory as it discusses the freedom to publish in the free market to “ensure that the press reflects a wide range of options”. Habermas believed democracy depended on the public and came up with the theory of the public sphere which is an area in social life where people can come together to freely discuss and identify problems. This could possibly influence political action. Both theorists described the press as ‘watchdogs’, suggesting that it is more of just a way of providing information to the public, but discreetly persuading people’s political viewpoint though lying or “twisting the truth”. 

In terms of The Daily Mail, it was introduced in 1896, whereas The I was introduced in 2010, therefore, The I is less traditional. Since The I is owned by The Daily Mail & General Trust, it is curious that The Daily Mail clearly supports the conservative party whereas The I has shown perspectives from both left (socialist) & right (conservative(traditional)) wing. This brings up the question: why do they not support the same political views?  The Daily Mail has had a lot of criticizing accusations made against them in regard to racism, homophobia, and sexism, not to mention the questionable reliability and the power they hold over politicians. “Immigrant-bashing, woman-hating, Muslim-smearing, NHS-undermining, gay-baiting” is how a critic described The Daily Mail on intelligence2.com who are partners with New York Times. The Daily Mail has endorsed the conservative party in all general elections and put down other views, for example in 2013, it was criticized for an article on Ralph Milliband, father of Ed Milliband the then Labour leader, titled “The Man Who Hated Britain”. Since Ralph is a Jewish refugee from the Holocaust, the article constantly referred to this negatively and described him as untrustworthy. Ed Miliband said that the article was “ludicrously untrue”. A Jewish Newspaper described the article as “a revival of the ‘Jews can’t be trusted because of their divided loyalties’ genre of antisemitism.” With regard to politics, Ministers may ask themselves “What would the Mail say?” when considering any new policy as this newspaper determines a certain amount of the public’s opinion on said policy. Relating to Noam Chomsky, he came up with the idea of manufacturing consent which states that the mass media has the power to use propaganda to persuade the public. The press sets an agenda, meaning the public’s awareness & concerns of big issues are caused by the media which links to the idea of  ‘conditions of consumption’ which means the media actually decides how the mass audiences interpret it. “A political economy perspective has sometimes tended towards ‘conspiracy theory’” he writes, relating to the concept of gatekeepers which is the process through which information is filtered for dissemination which is the action of spreading information widely. This is apparent in The Daily Mail since they strain through the information that fits their political views which raises their stance and puts down alternative notions. 

On the other hand, The I is much more tame, which is staggering considering that The Daily Mail bought it for £49.6 million in November of 2019. This conglomerate recognises that people with alternative views would not be interested in their stories and information, which perhaps is what caused them to allow The I to publish views from different political parties. A copy of The I from the 5th of November 2020 featured presidential candidate Joe Biden on the cover in which clearly encouraged him, stating that “Biden edges closer to power.”. It is as if they collected data from this election to see which side the masses are on as an ominous online media presence. This idea of watching and surveillance is used to protect or observe the public which relates to Shoshana Zuboff who wrote ‘The Age Of Surveillance Capitalism’ and says there is an “emerging behaviour control technology” to establish the public as one, however, she says that we are no longer a mass, but individuals in which technology is being pushed on us which “gives one man [power] to impose his views and values on another.” The fact that is it possible for a newspaper to publish information taken from online sources shows that their political stance can dominate the public’s knowledge, permitting right and left wing views to become less distinguishable.

This relates to Althusser who said that society is structured to keep you in your place as the political views presented in such news sources are able to create falsehoods which ignorant masses will easily regard as truthful. He coined the phrase ‘socially constructed’ meaning that the ruling ideology constructs us and that we are interpellated in this system. He wrote “All ideology hails or interpellates concrete individuals as concrete subjects…”. In terms of The Daily Mail, a prime example of this would be an article written by Jams King in 2015 for Gawker, a New-York based blog, titled ‘My Year Ripping Off the Web With the Daily Mail Online’ as he formerly worked in the Mail’s New-York office. The article alleged they rewrote or reworded stories from other reporters with little to no credit as well as journalists publishing pieces that they knew were untrue. In September 2015, the Mail’s US company filed a $1 million lawsuit against King and Gawker Media, showing how untrustworthy this conglomerate is.

Finally, both newspapers have established their political views despite The Daily Mail’s questionable reliability. Perhaps that is strategy to keep their paper relevant, by using controversy the public is a target to be influenced by said views.

 
Curran and Seaton believe that media is controlled by a small number of companies who are driven by: Profit, power and logic. This led them on to present the radical idea of the Liberal free press which means a free press that isn’t controlled by the government. ” the freedom to publish in the free market ensures that the press reflects a wide range of opinions”. This allows for no political bias in the media which suggests there will be politically balanced stories with in the media. However, to do this there needs to be a free market which is the idea of how no media is forced and is priced, by businesses, at regular quantities without any government control. It is also used to serve the public. “Broadcasting was started as a public service” This relates to the theory of Althusser who suggests the theory of Interpolation. This is a theory that was created by people in high social and political power an example is people in the government. “an ideology always exists in an apparatus, and its practice, or practices” The quote suggests that with in media, there is always an ideology which is presented to the audience which can be used as propaganda to make the audience believe a certain political view. This then relates to his second theory of the Ideological state apparatus which means even outside of media the governmental practices are still adapted because the audience of the political media will adapt these ideologies to everyday life. 

Evidence is presented by The Daily Mail and The I newspapers. The Daily mail was founded in 1896 and is owned by General Trust PLC which owns multinational companies and the chairman of the company is The viscount Rothermere. The paper has a right winged political view. This is shown through the paper which uses propaganda such as its articles based on the presidential election of 2020. The paper released on November 5th of 2020 where it states the election to be “knife edged” which was in large title text and used as click bait. This states the election is viscous, this makes the public believe that the election is similar to a war where there will be harm caused if either win the election which makes this form of media look capitalistic. This allows a wide number of individuals who read the daily mail to become right winged because of subtle uses of propaganda and they mainly target middle class women . As of November 6th 2020, there was a circulation of 1,134,184 which shows how many people will believe and follow the daily mail as there dependent source of use.  

This is unlike The I newspaper. The I was founded in 2010 which is where radical left ideologies were more viewed. The paper claims to have an unbiased political view and the paper focuses on social and political issues. Evgeny Lebedev owns 41%, Sultan Muhammad Abuljadayel owns 30%, Justin Byam Shaw owns 26% with minor shareholders owning 3 percent. On Thursday 5th of November, The i released a news paper with the front cover page of the 2020 presidential election. The paper states “Biden edges closer to the White House” In big, bold black text. Unlike the daily mail, The i doesn’t use click bait and only states the political and social issue by using facts seemingly without any right or left winged bias and is for simply serving the public and public good. The paper targets 15-35 year olds which are subject to being swayed in the terms of political bias and has a circulation of 215,932 in 2020 of November which means these people won’t be biased and this is their source to get public information.  

The theories link with these forms of media because The i newspaper seems to be a free market which serves for the public good which shows how the paper isn’t controlled by any political view and remains unbiased and reviews a wide range of opinions which is beneficial to the public as a whole. However, The daily Mail seems to reflect Althusser theories of Interpolation and Ideological state apparatus. This is because the paper reflects the right winged views which the theory of Interpolation states there will be a political ideology in an apparatus and is practices which means in media there will be a political bias. This is a form of propaganda and links the Daily Mail to the theory of ideological state apparatus because the consumers of the paper will have a right winged bias and adapt this bias into their everyday life and there’s a circulation of 1,134,184 which means this many people will be subjected to this. This then relates to audience theory and the theory of Chomsky’s lack of freewill which suggests readers believe what they see and adapt it to their own lives and don’t make their own political opinions and adapt the ones they see unwillingly. 

 I believe that people believe what they read and agree with it because they innately do so and it biases them. This suggests that the readers of The Daily Mail will have a right winged political bias where as readers of The i remain politically biased.

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. 

Curran and Seaton’s summary of the theory of Liberal Free Press posits that “the freedom to publish in the free market ensures that the press reflects a wide range of opinions in society” In essence, the Liberal argument rests on the case that the free market is representative of the public’s needs and desires, and that the press therefore acts as “the people’s watchdog, scrutinising the actions of the government and holding the country’s rulers to account”. As the theory claims, Newspapers in a free market are aligned with the public interest because they must keep the loyalty of their readers to stay successful, and those newspapers that do not “respond to the concerns of their readers”, as Curran and Seaton phrase it, cannot be successful in a competitive space where alternative news outlets do respond to the concerns of their readers. In the theory of Liberal Free Press, the free market is touted as the institution that protects the freedom of the public and prevents the press from being untruthful or unrepresentative of the public interest, by holding the press accountable to the public. 

The Daily Mail is a traditionally right-wing newspaper owned by Jonathan Harmsworth, 4^th Viscount Rothermere, a descendent of the newspapers’ original founders, Harold and Alfred Harmsworth who introduced the newspaper in 1896. The I, on the other hand, was founded in 2010 as a sister paper the Independent, a newspaper in which the views expressed tend to align with liberalism. However, the I was bought by the Daily Mail and General Trust (DMGT) on 29 November 2019, for £49.6 million. DMGT is the conglomerate that owns the Daily Mail, and through purchasing the I the Daily Mail and General Trust has performed horizontal integration to extend their reach and income. Both newspapers are a part of capitalist media, meaning that the primary objective of the corporation that owns them is to make money, and not necessarily to produce newspapers that are balanced or informative sources of information. The Daily Mail circulates 1,158,192 copies, currently the most successful UK newspaper in terms of circulation. The daily mail’s main target audience is the lower middle class (C1). The Daily Mail is a middle-market newspaper, meaning that it is aimed towards readers who prefer entertainment as well as informational articles. The daily mail also has a majority female readership, with female readers consisting of 52-55% of the total daily mail readership. The I, as stated by the editor Oliver Duff, is a compact newspaper designed for people who do not have much time to read a newspaper, usually due to most of their time being taken up at work. As of October 2019, the Daily circulation of the I was 221,083. The main target audience is mostly middle-class people since the newspaper focuses on combining brevity with depth, allowing commuters to read it while they have time to get to work. Both newspapers have established their distinctive identities in the free market by appealing towards different interests of the public, and the Daily Mail, with the largest circulation of any UK newspapers has been very successful in creating profit. It can also be argued that since the daily mail sells so many copies and has such a large readership that it has been successful in representing the views of the public and has proven the liberal theory of the free press by being representative of the public interest. The I, while less successful financially, has also been successful in gaining a dedicated audience, showing how the newspaper has been representative of the interest of their target audience. 

Curran and Seaton write that, in an election: “The press’s autonomy enables it to fearlessly scrutinize government, brief the electorate, stage a national debate and relay public opinion to authority.” However, an article published by The Daily Mail on 4^th November 2020 pertaining to the US election indicates a problem with the idea of Liberal Free Press. Entitled “What Joe needs to stagger home”, the article includes subtle references to how the predicted president elect at the time, Joe Biden of the Democratic Party, is unfit for the position due to his age, indicated by the use of the phrase “stagger home”. The problem is that the article’s writer may have been influenced to imply this because of the pattern of ownership in the Daily Mail. Jonathan Harmsworth, the owner of DMGT and the Daily Mail newspaper, is a descendent of the newspapers’ original owners and is extremely rich, with his net worth being around 1.19 billion US dollars as of August 2017. Left-wing ideas are likely unfavourable for Harmsworth because of his wealth, and as a result he is likely to oppose the left-wing ideas of the distribution of wealth and welfare. Because he owns a newspaper and is powerful, this seems to go against the Liberal idea that newspapers are autonomous from the government and powerful individuals and instead suggests that the ideas expressed in newspapers owned by powerful capitalists are influenced by the views of those who own the newspapers, and therefore use them to spread their ideas. The I, on the other hand, appears to be very successful in establishing itself as the ideal liberal free newspaper that is balanced and informative. In the I’s 4^th November issue, the front page and the articles inside are far more neutral, as opposed to the Daily Mail’s subtle right-wing bias. Articles entitled: “No winners in this battle” and “Tense wait on three states that decide the next president” suggest that, despite the fact that DMGT own the I, they have remained the neutral and informative newspaper they claim to be.  

However, some theorists whose work relates to audience theory suggest that the free market may not be an entirely truthful or accurate model of the state of the press and newspapers which challenges the theory of liberal free press. Paul Lazarfeld introduced the idea that media communication is a two-step flow model in which thought leaders act as the filters of ideas shown in the media to the public masses and thus, they add another layer of interpretation, making their information subject to bias, interpretation, amplification, support and change. Therefore, based on the theory of Lazarfeld, the press is not selling copies to everyone who agrees with them because of their own convictions they have had the freedom to choose themselves, but rather the ideas of readers are influenced by the other readers around them, who can act as thought leaders and influence others with their interpretations. This can influence other people to certain political views and since the newspapers publish opinions on politics people can stick to reading certain newspapers not because of how the newspapers act in the public interest, but rather because they agree to the views most expressed by the newspapers. This links to the theory of surveillance capitalism by Shoshana Zuboff, in which harvested data of people is used online to target them with advertisements that influence their views and thus what media they consume, and what political views they align with. Noam Chomsky’s theory of five filters of mass media also links to these ideas as he introduces the idea that major news corporations act as gatekeepers of information that they “filter” to push the ideas they want to influence people with. This can be seen in the Daily Mail, as the ownership and organisation of the Daily Mail as a capitalist news organisation that also owns the I enforces the ideas of capitalism as it benefits them the most. 

Overall, The Daily Mail and The I have both been successful in establishing their own identities in the free market despite the capitalist ownership and influences from the powerful owners of the newspapers. This is because both newspapers, although the Daily Mail is more right-wing and the I is more left-wing, display some articles that have differing viewpoints from the norm, indicating that the idea of Liberal Free Press is not groundless since it is backed up by the examples of the Daily Mail and the I. 

 Harold Lasswell

In 1927 Lasswell broke down the line of communication from point A to point B, in which the SENDER is transferring a MESSAGE, through a MEDIUM (eg Print, radio, TV, etc) that has a direct effect on the RECEIVER.

The Daily Mail were saying there is a direct correlation between Donald Trump supports and his attitudes, and the rise in Covid-19 cases in a second wave. They’ve used a full page article for their audience, where many are already anti-trump, to give further information to sway them against him.

Shannon and Weaver

This approach was later adapted by Shannon and Weaver in 1949, as the Transmission model of Communication, which included other elements, such as NOISE, ERROR, ENCODING and FEEDBACK. In other words, there is the suggestion that the process of sending and receiving a message is clear-cut, predicable or reliable and is dependent on a range of other factors that need to be taken into consideration.

Paul Lazarfeld – 1950(ish)

He developed the Two Step flow model of communication. The role of key individuals in society all of whom are capable of exerting an influence on the process of communication. This makes it subject to bias, interpretation, rejection, amplification, support and change.

Audiences are active not passive. Audience consumption is based on consideration of what others think.

Uses and Gratifications – 1960’s

1. information / education
2. empathy and identity
3. social interaction
4. entertainment
5. escapism

 Rather than categorising the audience as passive consumers of messages, either directly from source or from opinion leaders.

& Maslow’s hierarchy of needs (1954)

It argues that people actively looked to satisfy their needs based on a hierarchy of social and psychological desires

1. Physiological – Breathing, food, water, sex.
2. Safety – Security of body, employment, morality.
3. Love/belonging – Friendship, family, sexual intimacy.
4. Esteem – Self-esteem, confidence, achievement.
5. Self-actualization – morality, creativity, spontaneity.

George Gerbner – 1970’s

Cultivation theory – “television cultivates from infancy the very predispositions and preferences that used to be acquired from other primary sources” – (television shapes the way individuals within society think and relate to each other)

Stuart Hall – 1980’s

The theory of preferred reading.

1. A dominant position accepts the dominant message
2. A negotiated position both accepts and rejects the dominant reading
3. An oppositional position rejects the dominant reading

Clay Shirky – 2000’s

Instead of the choice of three subject positions as offered by the theory of preferred reading, there were limitless, individual subject positions available to all of us, at any time, in any place, from any perspective?

Says there are no audiences, but individuals – not the same but target each one for their needs.

A position which allowed us to produce our commentary and communication on the outside world, while still maintaining the ability to comment, feedback, accept or deny

Curran and Seaton build their idea of the liberal free press off the back of Habermas’s’ public sphere, allowing a  “critical public debate” that is “open to all”. Curran and seaton state that “the primary democratic role of the media is to act as a public watchdog” and “The freedom to publish in the free market ensures the press reflects a wide range of opinions and interests in society”. This allows the all media sources to have a stance in the public sphere and to express any and all opinions. This can be restricted and enhanced by “competition, choice and new technology” as the importance of competition forces the press to be responsive to the audience but with new ways to access the media it can be limit audience groups without new technologies or knowledge of choice from different opinions ; putting a financial and educational gate on certain media. Curran and Seaton’s theory of the liberal free press could be viewed through Louis Althusser’s Independent State Apparatus. Althusser says that those in power put certain systems in place and have power in places to allow them to control and gatekeep the media. This is formed through vertical and horizontal integration, conglomerates and monopoly this can impact the freedom of the press as they have or share with those in power.

This can be linked to The Daily Mail , created in 1896 by Alfred Harmsworth, as it is now a subsidiary of DMGT with is vertically integrated from Rothermere Continuation Limited, an analytics company that claims to”See trends, challenges and opportunities with similar companies in these industries.”. The Daily Mails has established its distinctive identity as the nations favourite newspaper taking the spot of The Sun. This could be contributed to the longer living older generation who started reading the newspaper back when the choice was limited that have continued their patronage as the average age of the reader is 58. Furthermore, the female readership is higher being 52-55% giving The Daily Mail a clear demographic. According to The Daily Mail, 6.9 million (61%) of its readers are B, middle middle class, on the NRS social grade. It continues its identity as the nations favourite news source as was given best app by google in 2013 with 2 million downloads. Their profits also back this up doubling from £342m in 2017 to £688m and in 2018 w share price also doubled from 97.8p to 194.7p. On page 5 of the CSP an article says “Ultimately, Biden may owe a victory to the single electoral college vote he gained against the presidents five in Nebraska”. The clear bias and attempted provocation are used as a way to draw readers in, irrespective of political viewpoint. It creates a strong rapport with those that share the same political stance and forces engagement from opposing parties through provocation.

On the other hand, the I Identifies as a young, intellectual, commuter focused newspaper bringing concise, sharp and easily readable news on culturally popular topics at an affordable price. Curran and Seaton say “Only by anchoring the media to the free market is it possible to ensure the media’s complete independence from the government.” which is what the I’s roots come from; The Independent as most of the staff jumped ships when it closed. Although The I has its focus in the public sphere to keep its identity up to date is must not become regulated by the public as “Once the media becomes subject to public regulation” it is “transformed” into a “service of the state” going against what it set out to be. Moreover, despite its liberal stance, it portrays no political bias and offers hard news aimed at middle-class adults over 35. Although its identity has altered due to a choice to move online from a convenience paper it had a readership reach of 33.7 million from April 2019 to March 2020. The CSP clearly shows the type of hard news with the headline “Biden edges closer to the White House” which is without provocation or bias.

In conclusion, both newspapers have differing identities, although the I is owned by DMGT (Daily Mail and General Trust). The Daily Mail identifies through its audience and expectations as the nations favourite paper whereas the I identifies through the ideologies of it parents company to stay “independent”. Both are distinctive within the free market and are very succesful as shown by their high readership reach and profits.

B.F Skinner operant conditioning

behavioral conditioning/management

“the fiction of free will” meaning that we are coursed and shaped into what we do. when organisations condition peoples behavior into doing or being drawn into things.

propaganda vs persuasion

propaganda is overtly political and manipulative

persuasion though is seen to gain/ sway public opinion

harold laswell was the first one to talk about the first world war . that the militry was able to use a range of properganada to get knocked into submission

hypodermic model=direct injection =meaning the idea of a passive audience

“the age of surveillance capitalism”

zuboff has a book talking about the various forms of persuasion are used to stimulate certain types of behavior while suppressing others

“technology has developed or evolved the way companies manipulate there audiences. so new methods of behavior control.”

Harold Laswell

laswell explored how we only had mass communications at the turn of the 18th centre eg first world war

also the idea of propaganda and persuasion

 each government had ‘manipulated the mass media in order to justify its actions’ in World War 1

components of Lasswell’s model 1930’s

my example;

Who (sender) the daily mail

Says what (msg) asks has the stress of covid given Boris dandruff?

Channel (medium) the daily mail newspaper October 20th 2020

To whom (receiver) lower-middle-class British women

With what affect (impact/feedback) to mock the Toris priminister

Paul Lazarfeld 1940’s

we are more likely to be persuaded by people than the media.the key thing to remember is that the audiences are now active.

uses and grats 1960’s

this theory is linked with Maslows hierarchy of needs theory

George Gerbner 1970’s

George Gerbner, Larry Gross and others worked on a large-scale, positivist, in-depth, longitudinal study into the effects of television, which started in 1975. Looking primarily at the relationship between violence on television and violence in society. They developed what is known as CULTIVATION THEORY,

Gerbner and Gross assert that ‘television’s major cultural function is to stabilize social patterns and to cultivate resistance to change‘ (1978: 115). In other words, they assert the power of television to modify behaviour in support of the dominant structures of society.

(structures or organisations have more power over agencies)

Stuart Hall 1980’s

the theory of preferred reading

Hall proposed three distinct positions that could be occupied by individual viewers, determined, more or less on their subject identities. 

1. A dominant position accepts the dominant message 
2. A negotiated position both accepts and rejects the dominant reading
3. An oppositional position rejects the dominant reading

Towards this aim he proposed the encoding/decoding model of communication, or the theory of preferred reading, where individuals are not only active in the process of interpretation and the construction of meaning, but they are also able to dismiss and reject dominant messages.

Clay Shirky 2000’s

the theory of : The End of Audiences

intersectionality

To bring this summary of different audience approaches towards a conclusion, would be to look at Clay Shirky‘s notion of the end of audience. Because what could happen if, instead of the choice of three subject positions as offered by the theory of preferred reading, there were limitless, individual subject positions available to all of us, at any time, in any place, from any perspective? A position which allowed us to produce our commentary and communication on the outside world, while still maintaining the ability to comment, feedback, accept or deny those who choose to interpret the outside world for us?

In many ways, Shirky is not too removed from the work of Hall, prioritising the power of individual agency in the relationship between audiences and institutions, for example, recognising how the audience can be both producers and consumers of media text. This can be realised in the realm of new (interactive) communication media, where individual communications can be made in what appears to be beyond State or commercial control and interest.

Zuboff 2010’s