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 where individual newspapers can compete through their political stances and points of view.

Analyze 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 elaborate, and further explain the theory byJurgen Habermas on the topic of, the “Free Press”. The theory of the “Free Press” was the idea that the press should be uninfluenced, or be persuaded by large corporations enforcing their ideologies, and views in the daily news. The Liberal theory is the freedom to publish in the free market, to “ensure that the press reflects a wide range of options and interests in society.” quoted by Curran from the liberal theory of press freedom. Where giant conglomerates are not driven by logic of profit and power, but instead to benefit and inform the public sphere. Curran quoted “The UK regards press freedom as an absolute freedom, the government leaves it to the market forces to decide which press products survive”.Or in other words Curran describes the market as survival of the fittest. The news has become a product to be bought, and sold instead of what should be, the expression of all information without a hidden agenda of profit. Therefore, we can link this information from Curran and Seaton to our case studies, theiand the Daily Mail. In addition, we can see theorists work about audience theory such as Habermas, Chomsky, together with Gramsci, through theiand Daily Mail’s similarities, and or traditions of both newspapers.

First beginning with thei, theiis a newspaper brand that began in 2010 on the 26th October. The i was launched as a sister paper to The Independent. Then later was acquired by Johnston Press in 2016, after The Independent shifted to a digital-only model. Then in November 2019, the paper and the digital model, were both bought out by Daily Mail and General Trust plc. Theidoes not particularly have the clearest audience profile according to the website “statista”, with their data showing the age range being 15+ for its readers and having a slightly more following of women than men. The way theiis presented, can also be a reflection on its readers. As theihas more pictures in comparison to other newspapers, which could reflect the certain class of the population, theiis trying to target. which with the previous data it would seem more middle/lower class. Theinewspaper focuses on politics and social inequalities which appeals more to Habermas’ free press theory as their focusing on hard news that has beneficial properties to the public sphere. The political stance of theiis radical and inline with the idea of the unbiased press compared to most conglomerate owned newspapers, being swayed to one or the other. Theiparticularly shows mixes or right, and left points off view which gives a more equal point of view on news stories. Unfortunately, theinewspaper approach and style of presenting news stories, with unbiased or equal opinions on both sides, as curran phrases ‘anyone is free to start a daily national newspaper, but few can afford even to contemplate the prospect’. Which for the i’s prospects correlates with the data from “statista” that theihas been decreasing in sales and was declining by 38% from June 2019. A newspaper’s life depends on its viewpoints, and presentation of news being desired, and the constant showfront of hard news that theipresents compared to a lot of current newspapers, who fill feed excessive amounts of soft news for profit, it becomes more the dominant ideologies for our newspapers to be not only, be a source of information about the public sphere. But tied in with the use of Elihu Katz theory of Uses and gratifications or even Maslow hierarchy of needs, the news has in addition become more of a platform for sources of enjoyment and or escapism than the basic feed of information to the public sphere.

The daily mail on the contrary could be also seen as just of a liberal press as thei,however the daily mail has always shown more extreme views referring to right wing views, with substantially less left-wing views being favoured in their news stories. Examples of these extreme right-wing views, one headline comes to mind from the 16th of July 1993, reading “Abortion hope after ‘gay genes’ finding“. This headline was commenting on the Xq28 gene, the Mail’s was criticisedas “perhaps the most infamous and disturbing headline of them all”. According to a December 2004 survey, 53% ofDaily Mailreaders voted for the Conservative Party, compared to 21% for Labour and 17% for the Liberal Democrats. Curran also states that “the national press was overwhelmingly right wing”. We can link this with Noam Chomsky argument that the mass media “are effective and powerful ideological institutions, that carry out a system-supportive propaganda function, by reliance on market forces, internalised assumptions, and self-censorship, and without overt coercion”, by means of the propaganda model of communication. So, in other words, Chomsky is explaining why their audience’s media’s political stance is the way it is. These conglomerates coerce their audience’s over time with propaganda and opinions to shape their audience to a line with their opinions.

Thus, with changing their audience, it makes sense to cater their news for the most profit to the larger demographic of the manipulated, political opinions of their audience. which from that survey was Conservative(right winged). Throughout the years the pattern of click bait and right-wing headlines, is a clear tactic of physical click bait, woven in an excessive amount of soft news contributing, to entice readers.

The daily mail is considered as one of the top newspapers in England winning “The National Newspaper of the year award” 7 times from 1995 across to 2019. And with the internet becoming more popular as the 2000’s progressed, this conglomerate adapted to the change, and not only kept producing papers, but spreaded their product across various online platforms with its own website and appearing on apps such as snapchat. This ensures that the daily mail reaches many more audiences or using the media term globalized across the world. Crossing platforming opens their product to more audiences therefore giving a higher chance for more profit overall.

In conclusion the daily mail and theinewspaper both had very separate identities in the public sphere from their presentations, their business tactics, and media theorist tactics by using uses and gratifications to appeal to readers on a more physiological level appealing to the hierarchy of needs that Maslow describes as the fundamentals that every person needs. The references to Gramsci, and Chomsky’s work, of how these conglomerates control and manipulate the readers views and opinions over time. It showed that from these theories that have been learned and adapted over the years the one newspaper who has lived through it all and has used it to their advantage is the daily mail. Theiwas the slightly more radical of a newspaper out of the two, with its shorter life span, before being bought out. Shows us how important these theories, and past media knowledge is to stay in the public interest. Am I saying that the daily mails presentation is the only conglomerate of news that works in today’s society? No, but I will say that from the theory of cultivation, you must adapt your audience over time and appeal to their fundamentals, to keep yourself afloat in the mass ocean of media sources and products.