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 are theorists that came up with the idea that media is controlled by a small number of companies and primarily driven by the logic of profit and power. The theory of liberal press is targeted at newspapers. It’s the view that there should be a range of wider views in newspapers to make sure they’re less bias. A quote from Curran about the liberal press ‘the freedom to publish in the free market’ ensures that the press reflects a wide range of opinions and interests. Curran 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.” which suggests anyone could create a newspaper. However Curren says in order to make it a successful newspaper “Newspapers and magazines must respond to the concerns of their readers if they are to stay in business”.
There are a few theorists that can link to The I and The Daily Mail such as Habermas. Habermas came up with a theory of the public sphere which is similar to the concept of free press. The public sphere suggests how people can freely be connected to others horizontally rather than vertically, but Habermas challenged that over time. The public sphere has been broken down due to globalisation and then the introduction of mass media. Within the public sphere, there are personal places, such as home to communicate with your family and then social places, such as coffee shops, where you can communicate and socialise with others, therefore connecting beyond our family and personal relationships. Socialising with others in public means you can transform your life and views and socialise with anyone throughout the whole World, which links to the Daily Mail and the I because they are available in shops and airports across the world. Noam Chomsky can also be linked to this, he came up with the theory of manufacturing consent. He argued that there are 5 filters of the mass media. These 5 filters are financial ownership, advertising, the media elite, flak and the common enemy. This links to these two newspapers because in 2019, the Daily Mail bought the I newspaper for £49.6million. Following on with the 5 filters of manufacturing consent, advertising links to the newspapers because each newspaper includes adverts, in which company’s pay to get published, meaning the newspaper will generate advertisement revenue from advertising. Usually, the newspapers would stick 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. The third filter looks at the media elite. This filter explains how the big media corporations will publish media, exclusive interviews and celebrities in order to attract their target 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 put up for publishing. An example of this is that a right-winged newspaper such as The Daily Mail will not include any left-wing articles journalists to write for them because The Daily Mail want to influence their readers to be more 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, but had a negative viewpoint towards Jeremy Corbyn (Labour). 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 include is 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 viewpoints on the topics. This is opposite to The I because they have not been criticised for media sensationalism and while they are left-winged, they include some right-wing articles too which can show some diversity and suggest both sides of the spectrum, which can also suggest they are more central on the political spectrum.
The Daily Mail is a right wing newspaper as stated previously, who is owned by the Daily Mail General Trust (DMGT). The I, however, is a politically aligned left wing newspaper including some right-winged articles, 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 rather than one side which could limit sales. This is because The Daily Mail, supposedly primarily targets working-class middle aged women. However, the I primarily targets younger audiences (young adults). 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 and because they maybe wanted to target more of a wider audience with their different newspapers, so would most likely buy their subsidiaries. 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 and may be a more simple way to connect with newspapers instead of going to the shop to buy them. By having mobile editions of their papers, it can attract younger audiences. While these newspapers 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.
The I newspaper, 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, which creates the message that the I favours their support for the Democratic Party because they are objecting to a claim. Another theorist than can be applied is 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 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. Lazerfeld’s two step flow can also be applied to the two newspapers, because while it can be susceptible to bias, interpretation, support and changes, what 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 opinions on this type of news. 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.
In conclusion, 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 with almost 1 million sales, They have received criticisms for publishing inaccurate stories. In Contrast, 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 and does sometimes include information from both the right and left wing.