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.  

Analyze the ways that the i and Daily mail attempt to establish a distinctive identity within this free market. To what extent has this been successful? 

Both Curran and Seaton published the book “Power without responsibility” , which was originally published in 1981 by Fontana, the book expresses the views and ideas of liberal theories such as press freedom. Curran and Seaton stated “The free market makes the press a representative institution, newspapers and magazines are to respond to the concerns of their readers if they are to stay in business” this means that both believed that a good media business can only function fully if its main focus is the public, therefore a newspaper or magazine business will only do well if they highlight and include the concerns and opinions of its readers.  This can be seen in newspapers such as the I and The Daily Mail in the ways in which they distribute different political ideologies, because of their different political standpoints, both newspapers present ideas to audiences that share their views, The Daily Mail adopts a more right-wing stance in politics whereas the I presents a more liberalist and centrist view. 

The Daily Mail was first introduced in 1896, making it one of the oldest newspapers that continues to this day, because of this many of the Daily Mails attitudes are more traditionalist and right wing because of its older audience. The daily Mail has been criticized by many for its lack of factual evidence to support its articles which led to the online encyclopedia website Wikipedia banning The Daily Mail after Wikipedia’s editors voted it out for its general unreliability, the editors of Wikipedia publicly stated that their decision was “Centered on the Daily Mails reputation for poor fact checking, sensationalism and flat out fabrication” The Daily Mail can be related to Noam Chomsky’s theory of the five filters within media. Chomsky five filter theory suggests that media is operated through five filters: Ownership, advertising, the media elite, flak and the common enemy. The Daily Mail is a mass media corporation and can be related to ownership in the way in which it is owned by a larger conglomerate known as General Trust (TMG) which produce revenue totals of $2 billion, the General trust also owns the I which allows the General trust to control and oversee the media being released to the public, large conglomerates such as the general trust are driven by profit which means that the media they produce must generate revenue which can lead in a lack of factual evidence as seen in the Daily Mail. In the Daily Mail advertising is evidently seen in most pages of their newspapers, advertising strategies used by Daily Mail include full or half page advertisements to catch readers attention and bold titles that interest readers, this is done as advertising is The Daily Mails primary source of income so the adverts included in their papers must catch readers attention, the benefits of this can be seen in 2019 when The Daily Mail grew its revenues by 25% making the company a total of £76 million in 6 months. Governments, conglomerates and large institutions referred to as the media elite by Chomsky are the story tellers in media, they control the narrative of stories included in their forms of media which in this case is through the Daily Mail, in times of political or social controversy the media elite are able influence the public by including narratives that follow their own political agendas rather than the publics which in the daily Mails case is usually to support right wing representatives, by doing this the Daily Mails is able to manipulate readers by influencing them to support right wing ideologies. The flak can be seen as a way that corporations diminish and disregard ideas that challenge their traditional beliefs, an example of this can be seen when Erin Molan attempted to sue the Daily Mail for defamation over a report that portrayed her as racist, because Molans claims could have damaged the Daily Mails freedom of publishsing, the Daily mail denied her claims and aggressively defended its reporting by providing further evidence of Erin Molans controversial comments therefore damaging her reputation making her unable to win the court trial. The final filter of Chomsky’s five filter theory is the common enemy, the common enemy is the target or enemy portrayed in a certain article which in most cases is terrorists, communists or immigrants. This portrayal of the common enemy can be seen in the Daily Mail in its article “Sickly Immigrants add £1bn to NHS bill”, in this article the capitalist media Daily Mail portrayed immigrants as the common enemy by suggesting that “tax payers are likely to face a huge and ever- increasing burden because of the flow of migrants” which clearly implies that immigrants are at fault for the NHS bill when in reality this sum may be exaggerated to further add to the common enemy portrayal.  

The I is a much more liberalist and centralist newspaper despite being owned by the same conglomerate as The Daily Mail, because the I is a more politically left-wing media publisher its articles follow a more modernist standpoint. The I’s more left wing approach can be seen in the article “Boris Johnson is ready to address Joe Bidens concerns over Irish border as Government reaches out”  from the title alone, readers are able to make assumptions that Boris Johnson has made some type of mistake or misjudgment which portrays him negatively before the reader has seen the article, this is done as Boris Johnson is a right-wing representative and the majority of the I’s readers will have more politically left-wing views therefore this article attracts their focus. When reading the article, a segment states “Biden added that he would not approve a US-UK trade deal as president if the UK Government pressed ahead with the controversial step” this quote implies that Boris Johnson is the sole reason for the worsening of UK and US trade relations, which is done to paint Johnson as an unreliable prime minister which is included to further the negative views readers already have of Boris Johnson. This can be related to Skinners theory in the way in which repeated negative comments on Johnson result in the reader inheriting these negative views aswell, By publishing an adverse title the I are able to influence the reader before they have began reading the article, the reader is then influenced by the continuous reinforcement of worsening relations between the countries because of Boris Johnson’s actions and new plans therefore manipulating the reader into taking a more liberalist stance that opposes Boris rather than supporting him, this is a technique used by publishers to convert or influence the publics views and opinions on certain subjects. 

In conclusion, I believe that both The Daily Mail and The I have similar identities in the way that both newspapers are owned by the same conglomerate, The General Trust, which monitor and oversee all the publishing, editing and journalism done by media publishers in both corporations. In addition, both the Daily Mail and the I use similar tactics and strategies to engage their target audiences and influence them to follow certain social and political views based off the larger conglomerate’s agendas. Furthermore, The I also expresses right-wing views because of its centrist views, this means that both the Daily Mail and The I support right wing views at times usually due to the political stance of its larger conglomerate. 

In this image the misogyny and sexualisation of women is clearly displayed through a variety of different ways. One way in which this can evidently be seen is through the use of short clothing worn by the female characters in this image, this is done to attract the focus of the target audience which in this case is males.

H.F Skinner (Operant conditioning) – no person has free will, schedule of reward is shown in his study, the fiction of free will means that an individual believes their actions determine an outcome whereas in reality the causes for these outcomes are external factors.

Propaganda is a manipulative and influential way of expressing opinions based on a authorities or publishers interests.

Persuasion

Harold Lasswell – Involved in WW1, wrote a book called “Propaganda technique in the world war” this book highlighted the “subtle poison” injected into the veins of staggering people until they are knocked into submission.

Hypodermic model – Suggest that we have a passive audience that are spoon fed by the media, relates to direct injection.

The Age of Surveillance, by Shoshana Zuboff explain that behaviour control technology is linked with conditioning, “technology has begun to develop new methods off behavior controlcapable of not just altering just an individuals actions nut his very personality and manner of thinking… the behavoural technology being developed in the United States today touches upon the most basic sources of individuality

Cambridge Analytica, Alexnder Nix is the leader

Pastiche – Is a work of visual art, literature, theatre or music that imitates the style or character of the work of one or more other artists. Unlike parody, pastiche celebrates rather than mocks the work it imitates.

Parody – Is a joke or a play on work which is created to imitate or make fun of an originals work, the subject, artist, style or other targets are imitated ironically to create a humorous or satirical effect.

Bricolage – Is a collection or collage of different media texts which form into one text.

Intersexuality – Is a person whos reproductive or sexual anatomy doesn’t fit the boxes of “Male” or “Female”

Metanarrative – Is a narratives about narratives of historical meaning, experience or knowledge which offers a society legitimation through the anticipated completion of a master idea.

Hyperreality – Is the inability to distinguish reality from a simulation of reality, in Media a story can be presented that does not entirely reflect actual reality.

Simulacrum – Are copies of things that no longer have an original, Abstraction today is no longer that of the map, the double, the mirror or the concept. Simulation is no longer that of a territory, a referential being or a substance.

Consumerist Society – Is a societym in which people devote a great deal of time, energy, rescources and thought to consuming. The general view of life in a consumerist society is that consumption is good, and the more consumption the better.

Fragmentary identities – Refers to the loss of relatedness of ego parts, and a loss of aspects of ones identity.

Cultural appropriation – The unacknowledged or inappropriate adoption of the practices, customs, or aesthetics of one social or ethnic group by members of another (typically dominant) community or society.

Reflexivity – generally refers to the examination of one’s own beliefs, judgments and practices during the research process and how these may have influenced the research.

The Daily Mail is a British middle-market newspaper published in London, founded in 1896, it is the Uks highest circulated daily newspaper. while Scottish and Irish editions of the daily paper were launched in 1947 and 2006.

The newspaper is owned by Daily Mail and General Trust.

The current chairman and controlling shareholder of Daily Mail is Jonathan Harmsworth, 4th Viscount Rothermere.

The Daily Mail, devised by Alfred Harmsworth (later Viscount Northcliffe) and his brother Harold (later Viscount Rothermere), was first published on 4 May 1896. It was an immediate success. It cost a halfpenny at a time when other London dailies cost one penny, and was more populist in tone and more concise in its coverage than its rivals.

Lord Rothermere was a friend of Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler, and directed the Mail’s editorial stance towards the in the early 1930s. Rothermere’s 1933 leader “Youth Triumphant” praised the new Nazi regime’s accomplishments, and was subsequently used as propaganda by them. In it, Rothermere predicted that “The minor misdeeds of individual Nazis would be submerged by the immense benefits the new regime is already bestowing upon Germany”. Journalist John Simpson in a book on journalism, suggested that Rothermere was referring to the violence against Jews and Communists rather than the detention of political prisoners.

“The market based press is independent because it owes allegiance only to the public.”

“However most of the British press was bought up by, or diversified into, interests outside publishing during the 1960s and 1970s.”

“By 1977, all but one of the leading publishing groups in both the international and regional press were part of larger conglomerates with holdings in fields as diverse as oil, transport, mining, construction, engineering, finance or the leisure industries.”

Capitalist media – mainstream media owned by large conglomerates which aims to make profit and revenue for example SKY.

Public service media – government owned independent media that provides for audiences and the public and aims to provide information to the public, for example BBC.

Civil society media – Media which isnt owned by large conglomerates whos aim is to provide information for local audiences and provide this information off of public interest.

The public sphere can be defined as something in which public opinion can be formed through the exchange of different peoples opinions and ideas over particular societal problems and how these problems can be resolved through the implementation of political action. It challenges the methodological thinking in Jurgens school of Frankfurt and allowed for rational-critical debates and discussions.  

The discussions in which these debates take place were established in social areas such as coffee shops and salons where verities of different people could discuss current problems and resolutions freely, Habermas described this as “opinion became emancipated from the bonds of economic dependance” this concludes that the public sphere could have a multipurpose use as it can be a way of self-expression but also became a platform to air ones opinions and agendas.  

promotion and financial reward was conveyed in bombshell through the use of Roger Ailes abuse of power within the fox industry to promote and reward employees for his own sexual gratification and interests.

Financial reward relates to the Murdoch dynsaty as rupert murdoch and his partners abused their position of power and wealth to pay off police officers for stories that had not yet been released to the public,which was a clear breach of privacy and law.

• Media concentration / Conglomerates / Globalisation (in terms of media ownership)

Concentration of media ownership is a process whereby progressively fewer individuals or organizations control increasing shares of the mass media.

A media conglomerate is a company that owns numerous companies involved in mass media enterprises, such as television, radio, publishing, motion pictures, theme parks, or the Internet.

the process by which businesses or other organizations develop international influence or start operating on an international scale.

• Vertical Integration & Horizontal Integration

Vertical – the combination in one firm of two or more stages of production normally operated by separate firms.

Horizontal – Horizontal integration is the process of a company increasing production of goods or services at the same part of the supply chain. A company may do this via internal expansion, acquisition or merger. The process can lead to monopoly if a company captures the vast majority of the market for that product or service.

• Gatekeepers

an attendant employed to control what comes in and out of the company, selective choices.

• Regulation / Deregulation

a rule or directive made and maintained by an authority

the removal of regulations or restrictions, especially in a particular industry

• Free market vs Monopolies & Mergers

• Neo-liberalism and the Alt-Right

• Surveillance / Privacy / Security / GDPR

David Hesmondhalgh (cultural industries)

Two of Hesmondhalgh’s key ideas are:

• the idea that the largest companies or conglomerates now operate across a number of different cultural industries
• the idea that the radical potential of the internet has been contained to some extent by its partial incorporation into a large, profit-orientated set of cultural industries.

Hesmondhalgh argues that major cultural organisations create products for different industries in order to maximise chances of commercial success. In relation to online products, he argues that major IT companies now compete with the more traditional media conglomerates within the cultural sector: ‘Microsoft, Google, Apple and Amazon are now as significant as News Corporation, Time Warner and Sony for understanding cultural production and consumption.’

Rupert Murdoch

Murdoch’s holding company, News Corp, owns The New York Post, The Times of London, and The Wall Street Journal publisher Dow Jones & Company, among many other assets. Murdoch, now 88 years old, currently spends his days at the helm of another News Corp property, Fox News.

Key Concepts:

RE-IMAGINING, PASTICHE, PARODY, COPY, BRICOLAGE.

Postmodernism is seen as a complicated and fragmentary set of inter relationships , it is about self-referentiality .

Can be seen as a Parody or Pastiche

Pastiche – is a work of art, drama, literature, music or architecture that imitates the work of previous artists.

parody – is a work or performance that imitates another work or performance with ridicule or irony

Postmodernism suggest we live in a world full of surface signs.

Bricolage – is a useful term to apply to postmodernist texts as it ‘involves the rearrangement and juxtaposition of previously unconnected signs to produce new codes of meaning’ (Barker & Jane, 2016:237)

Intersexuality – is another useful term to use, as it suggests signs only have meaning in reference to other signs and that meaning is therefore a complex process of decoding/encoding with individuals both taking and creating meaning in the process of reading texts

In postmodern society we are unable to distinguish Fiction from Reality.