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.
