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.

Freedom of the press or freedom of the media is the principle that communication and expression through various media, including printed and electronic media, especially published materials, should be considered a right to be exercised freely. ‘Different stances different news organisations or types of organisations take toward different audiences in the marketplace‘ (Curran, 1980). Compared to free media/press, the free market is an economic system based on supply and demand with little or no government control. Free markets are characterized by a spontaneous and decentralized order of arrangements through which individuals make economic decisions. The radical press, newspapers or print media that emphasises ideologies that are considered extreme or against dominant ideologies, was so influential that the backing of other daily newspapers may convey the idea of shared interests. In addition, the rise in costs of print media during the nineteenth century meant that there was large competition between newspaper enterprises. ‘The best test of truth is the power of the thought to get itself accepted in the competition of the market’ (Curran, 1980).The i was launched to pose a challenge to existing ‘quality’ newspapers with low cover prices and tabloid formats. It has battled to remain ‘cheap’ or at least ‘cheaper’: the weekday edition rising from 20p to 50p but can be freely read in many large UK airports. This relates to The Free Market theory as The i making their prices the lowest they can means they are trying to make their information as accessible as possible to their audience. This can also relate to Habermas’ Public Sphere theory as by making their papers as accessible as they can be, this can allow for wider demographics to connect and share ideas rather than these ideas being mainly restricted and accessible to only socially higher powers such as government and royalty or letting these ideas be changed and sent out to better suit the image of the government or royalty. The i doesn’t have a definitive political stance and is used more to convey factual news stories rather than manipulate it’s audience with propaganda from either right wing or left wing stances and has maintained a reputation after winning National Newspaper of the Year in 2015. An example of The i’s neutral stance is an article, written by Cahal Milmo, named “Biden edges closer to power after night of deadlock and rancour” which talks about how Biden and the Democrats managed to take the lead by gaining Wisconsin’s and Michigan’s votes after a close call of republicans almost taking Wisconsin and Michigan instead. Milmo manages to remain neutral with the article by referring to each party and referring to each presidential candidate by their real names rather than using name calling or bullying them like other papers have been, such as The Daily Mail calling Biden “Sleepy Joe”. This connotes that The i has an active audience as opposed to passive as with the neutral articles they produce, the audience can form their own views and opinions which therefore can refer to Bulmer, Katz and Haas’ Uses and Gratifications theory as it assumes the audience chooses themselves with what they want to watch and therefore the audience aren’t forced to buy, read and believe a certain view and opinion and are simply just reading it to get a balanced amount of information and education. The i is active on social media as well, reinforcing it’s radical balanced views by being up to date with new technologies and being able to keep up with the generational shift on how most teens and young adults use technology to keep updated with the news. There is also a discounted student subscription to The i that lasts for one academic year. This relates to Free Press/Media as The i tries to provide the most politically unbiased articles and views as possible and isn’t particularly swayed by specific politicians or government views/actions when producing articles. But, as of 10 months ago the owner of The Daily Mail, Lord Rothermere gained ownership over The i newspaper. This can be seen as an issue because even though Lord Rothermere and The i editor Oly Duff have both insisted that editorial independence would remain, The Daily Mail is well known for publishing fake news and therefore the fake news produced in the daily mail editor offices may carry over to The i editor offices, ruining the reputation and quality non-biased news articles The i has produced in the past. This links to Noam Chomsky’s Manufacturing Consent (How the media can manipulate stories ideas and concepts in order to portray a feeling of agreement and consent.) as having more richer higher powers own more media outlets, this means more filtered, manipulated and potentially propagandized information to better suit the narrative of governments and other higher powers to make them appear to be omnibenevolent amongst their people.Fake News is the deliberate attempt to publish hoaxes and/or disinformation for the purpose of profit or influence. The Daily Mail is published in London in a tabloid format. Established in 1896 by Harold and Alfred Harmsworth and Kennedy Jones in 1896, it is the United Kingdom’s highest-circulated daily newspaper but tends to promote extremely biased articles, consistent promotion of propaganda/conspiracies, poor or no sourcing to credible information, a complete lack of transparency and/or is fake news. Harold Sidney Harmsworth is also known to be an admirer of Mussolini and a supporter of Nazi Germany which can link to Free Press/Media as this can mean that The Daily Mail has most likely been promoting and producing Fake News and right wing propaganda since it first started in 1896 which goes against what Free Press/Media is as this means that The Daily Mail has been providing their readers with false information and misleading their audience for decades. The Daily Mail’s is a subsidiary of DMGT, a media conglomerate which owns newspapers including the Daily Mail, the Mail on Sunday, which again can link to Noam Chomsky’s Manufacturing Consent as having already large conglomerates, such as DMGT, own more media outlets means more manipulated narratives and makes the production and spreading of propaganda easier. Another theory that relates to this is Habermas’ Public Sphere but because The Daily Mail’s audience may connect and spread the ideas produced from fake news they read from The Daily Mail which ultimately creates gossip and even more fake news. This makes The Daily Mail a reactionary news outlet as they produce articles that are purposefully structured to create and bring out a reaction from their audience, whether good or bad. An example of The Mail’s reactionary right-winged articles is “The Biden Landslide that Never Happened” written by Arthur Martin, within the article Martin talks about how Biden’s (left-wing) major promises he made if he were to become president, such as climate reforms like having a net zero emissions target, would completely tank and fail due to how likely the Republicans (right-wing) are to remain control of the Senate. A quote from the article, proving the article’s right-winged stance even more is “As he inched closer to the White House last night, Joe Biden and his supporters cautiously started to celebrate. But as the dust settles on the nail-biting race, Mr Biden’s team will privately hold a post-mortem into why he came so close to defeat”, which talks about how Biden and his supporters will slowly start celebrating his victory as he is very close to winning himself but as the presidential race comes to an end, Biden’s team will try look into why he “came so close to defeat” which is a lie as currently (Thursday 5th November), Joe Biden is at 264 votes compared to Donald Trump who is at 214 votes. This can be seen as Cultivation Theory as The Daily Mail has a passive audience that they are repeating the message to that the left/democrats are “bad” as they have unrealistic plans and views that could never actually be achieved, so therefore their audience shouldn’t vote for left-wing politicians or else they would be disappointed because of false promises that are unachievable like Joe Biden has apparently done according to the article they have written about him. Martin has also named Biden “Sleepy Joe” making fun of Biden’s old age and used an image of an African American male wearing a “MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN” t-shirt, contradicting the dominant belief of POC being against trump.

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