IDENTIFY 5 BULLET POINTS FROM THIS HAND OUT THAT COULD BE USED IN AN ESSAY ON TRANSNATIONAL TELEVISION PRODUCTION.

• Money wins, while audience size and audience share determine content.

• Commercial broadcasting is based not on the sale of programmes to audiences, but on the sale of audiences to advertisers.

• The sucess of horizontal and vertical integration means that most commercial print, film television based media in America and the UK is now controlled by just 6 global players – CBS, Comcast, Disney, News Corporation, Time Warner and Viacom.

• Horizontal integration of large conglomerates can maximise profit whilst reducing production costs. On the other hand, Vertical integration is the ownership of subsidiaries that enable a media producer to produce, promote and distribute products.

Endemol Shine UK (branded as EndemolShine UK and formerly Endemol UK Ltd) is one of the largest independent media producers in the United Kingdom. The company is part of Banijay Group, a worldwide network of production companies spanning 22 countries.

• Advantages of PBSs as they are not reliant on advertising to fund production nor do they make products for commercial gain.

• Commercial Media – An organisation that makes products for profit –
• Horizontal Integration – Endemol Shine UK owns the Kudos production company and its parent company, Banijay Production company based in France, owns 120 production companies in 22 countries.
• Vertical Integration –
• Media Concentration/ Media Convergence – Kudos is an independent production company owned by Endemol, limiting the amount of co-companies that might have also been used to produce the show which would ultimately reduce overall profit for Endemol.

Front Cover –

Contents Page –

Double Page –

Ad 1 –

Ad 2 –

Ad 3 –

Statement of intent

For my NEA I will be completing the second brief; aiming to produce a front cover, double page spread, contents page and three adverts for the gaming genre. My ideas will be influenced by a selection of already-produced gaming magazines that share similar codes and conventions to the ones I wish to use to attract a certain demographic. My magazine is predominantly aimed at a younger audience of 12-15 years. I aim to produce a product that is attractive and inclusive of all genders as this would likely increase circulation of my product as well as profit; many gaming-based products are targeted at a male audience. Ideas proposed by theorists such as David Gauntlett; his theory on gender fluidity suggests that whilst in the past the media tend to convey singular, straightforward messages about ideal types of male and female identities, the media today offers us a more diverse range of icons and characters from whom we may influenced by, meaning that gender identity is less constricted, this is what I aim to achieve.

I aim to target this specific demographic as they are highly impressionable, as they are seen as ‘mainstreamers’ they are also more likely to follow popular trends, especially in areas such as gaming which allow for a form of escapism. As the form of gaming is presented in a physical, literacy-based form this product will also act as a device to reinforce and enhance their use of lexis and vocabulary. The style of language and register that I will use is a mix of colloquial and slightly more formal as I want the magazine to be professional and factual in relation to its contents. However, it should also be appealing to my target audience through the informal language; they would use in everyday life so that they can relate to it, using the magazine as a form of escapism, interlinking with the uses and gratification theory.

My product is also going to be highly influenced by ideas surrounding postmodernism – the idea that reality is not reflective in human understanding, but rather constructed by individuals based on their own collection of fragmented thoughts. Therefore, my product will reflect these ideas as it aims to influence the audience to construct their own opinions based on individual interpretation, also linking in with Habermas’s theory on the ‘Public Sphere’ whereby individuals can share individual thoughts and feelings globally without intervention from higher institutions such as government.

I will also use the san-serif font – ‘Acumin Variable Concept’ – an informal font would be more eye-catching to a younger audience who may want to rebel against formal customs that are dominant in more reactionary or ‘adult’ texts such as ‘The Daily Mail’. The font also act as anchorage for plugs as they will use similar styling. I also wanted to incorporate a retro theme to my magazine and used 8-bit characters and a tabloid size, similar to popular 80s magazines, with a width of – 27.94 CM and height of – 43.18 CM.

[Word Count = 500]

For my NEA I will be completing the second brief; aiming to produce a front cover, double page spread, contents page and three adverts for the gaming genre. My ideas will be influenced by a selection of already-produced gaming magazines that share similar codes and conventions to the ones I wish to use to attract a certain demographic. My magazine is predominantly aimed at a younger audience of 10-12 years. I aim to produce a product that is attractive and inclusive of all genders as this would likely increase circulation of my product as well as profit; many gaming-based products are targeted at a male audience. Ideas proposed by theorists such as David Gauntlet; his theory on gender fluidity suggests that whilst in the past the media tend to convey singular, straightforward messages about ideal types of male and female identities, the media today offers us a more diverse range of icons and characters from whom we may influenced by, meaning that gender identity is less constricted, this is what I aim to achieve.

I aim to target this specific demographic as they are highly impressionable, as they are seen as ‘mainstreamers’ they are also more likely to follow popular trends, especially in areas such as gaming which allow for a form of escapism. As the form of gaming is presented in a physical, literacy-based form this product will also act as a device to reinforce and enhance their use of lexis and vocabulary. The style of language and register that I will use is a mix of colloquial and slightly more formal as I want the magazine to be professional and factual in relation to its contents. However, it should also be appealing to my target audience through the informal language; they would use in everyday life so that they can relate to it, using the magazine as a form of escapism, interlinking with the uses and gratification theory.

My product is also going to be highly influenced by ideas surrounding postmodernism – the idea that reality is not reflective in human understanding, but rather constructed by individuals based on their own collection of fragmented thoughts. Therefore, my product will reflect these ideas as it aims to influence the audience to construct their own opinions based on individual interpretation, also linking in with Habermas’s theory on the ‘Public Sphere’ whereby individuals can share individual thoughts and feelings globally without intervention from higher institutions such as government.

I will also use the san-serif font – ‘Acumin Variable Concept’ – an informal font would be more eye-catching to a younger audience who may want to rebel against formal fonts that are dominant in more reactionary or ‘adult’ texts such as ‘The Daily Mail’. The font also act as anchorage for plugs as they will use similar styling. I also wanted to incorporate a retro theme to my magazine and used 8-bit characters and a tabloid size, similar to popular 80s magazines, with a width of – 27.94 CM and height of – 43.18 CM.

[Word Count = 500]

Media Language –

Mise-en-scene – ‘Mise en scene is the arrangement of scenery and stage properties in a play. Translated from French, it means “setting the stage” but, in film analysis, the term mise en scene refers to everything in front of the camera, including the set design, lighting, and actors’

The use of props such as the outfits, the gun, the trees and the animal skin in combination with the stances of the women and the higher positioning of the male all force the audience to believe that this product is able to give uses this form of superiority and dominating or dangerous power.

Language Analysis – Semantic field of masculinity – ‘Men’ ‘Masculine’ ‘Scent’ ‘Groom’, almost animal like. Also use of repetition in order to reinforce the product and force readers to think about it.

Production values and Aesthetics – ‘Exotic’/ ‘Tropical’ aesthetic reinforces the idea of animal like behaviour. The use of the ‘adventure-esq’ outfits is used to reinforce the language used, referring to adventure and animal like behaviour as well as more glorifying more ‘exotic’ cultures that contrast to Western societies.

Semiotics: how images signify cultural meanings – Could be interpreted as a form of cultural appropriation. The outfits resemble that of famous adventurers such as Indiana Jones, it also uses a similar technique used towards Lara Croft in Tomb Raider as the females outfits are short and easily sexualised in order to suit and capture a stereotypical male Gaze.

How advertising conventions are socially and historically relative – In contrast to more modern social norms and dominant ideologies, this piece may be viewed as quite sexist as it glorifies women’s bodies purely for male satisfaction and benefit.

The way in which media language incorporates viewpoints and ideologies – Laura Mulvey – Male Gaze Theory

Narrative –

How does Score construct a narrative which appeals to its target audience – Takes the POV of a Male gaze, sexualising women and giving the ONLY male in the ad power and domination, represented through ‘animal’ like semiotics to describe the product he is using as well as his overall positioning in the shot.

How and why audience responses to the narrative of this advert may have changed over time – Social norms, dominant ideologies as well popular political opinions vary and change within cultures over time, following popular norms or as a way to adapt to an adjusted socio-economic climate. When this ad was created in 1967, ideas on the role of women were very different to now, women were seen more as objects that were disposable to men rather than independent individuals with the same capabilities as men.

How does this advert create desire for the product – This product has a target audience of adult men, therefore the representation of loads of women seemingly inferior to the ONLY male in the ad allows for the target audience to believe that this product may bring them some form of sexual gratification.

Techniques of Persuasion –

• Representation of Women
• Figurative Language techniques – repetition/ Semantic Fields
• Cultural appropriation – suggests exotic product
• Weapon – signifies power and authority
• Higher positioning of Man – Also to signify dominance and power of men (in society too)
• Heteronormativity – ‘the belief that heterosexuality, predicated on the gender binary, is the default, preferred, or normal mode of sexual orientation. It assumes that sexual and marital relations are most fitting between people of opposite sex.’

Students should be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the persuasive techniques used in the advert and issues surrounding brand values, brand message, brand personality and brand positioning should inform the analysis

Media Representation –

Representation of Gender –

The processes which lead media producers to make choices about how to represent social groups – in terms of a late 1960s perspective, the representation of social groups, especially gender, is an accurate representation for society IN THE 1960S, sharing very different beliefs to modern society.

How audience responses to interpretations of media representations reflect social, cultural and historical attitudes – Depending on when an analysis of the product was conducted, the response of the audience would be different. For example in terms of the Theory of preferred reading, those from the late 60s or early 70s may have a preferred reading towards the piece as it is appropriate with their cultural and social norms. However, from a modern perspective, I have more of an opposition reading of the texts due to the difference in dominant ideologies between 1967 and 2020.

Theories of representation including Hall –

‘Hall is very closely identified in media studies with an approach
known as “cultural studies,” and he starts with one of its central concepts: representation. The usual meaning of this term is connected with whether the depiction of something is an accurate or distorted reflection. In contrast to this, Hall argues for a new view that gives the concept of representation a much more active and creative role in relation to the way people think about the world and their place within it. This new view of representation is central to thinking about communication in much more complex ways. Hall shows that an image can have many different meanings and that there is no guarantee that images will work in the way we think they will when we create them.’

In other words, the audience has to be active in order to decode the messages of a piece of media. Due to this and the different beliefs people may hold, their understanding and reading of the product may be completely different.

The effect of historical contexts on representations –

Historical views on gender typically place men as the superior and women as the inferior, which contrasts to todays climate as there due to previous and continuous fight for gender equality.

Theories of gender performativity including Butler –

She describes gender as a ‘stylised repetition of acts’ therefore meaning that the stereotypes forced upon people are likely to influence the way that they view and present themselves. For example, a common negative stereotype of men would be that they should show less emotions as this is viewed as a feminine trait that signifies weakness.

Theories of identity including Gauntlett –

Gender Fluidity – The idea that whilst in the past the media tend to convey singular, straightforward messages about ideal types of male and female identities, the media today offers us a more diverse range of icons and characters from whom we may influenced by. Gender identity is less constricted. This idea isn’t really represented in this CSP though as in the 1960s, although there was an increased amount of feminism and fight for gender equality, men were still viewed as the superior.

Jean Kilbourne –

Ted Talk – The Dangerous ways Ads see women – 2014

Second wave of feminism – late 1960s

Second-wave feminism of the 1960s-1980s focused on issues of equality and discrimination. The second-wave slogan, “The Personal is Political,” identified women’s cultural and political inequalities as inextricably linked and encouraged women to understand how their personal lives reflected sexist power structures.

Jean Kilbourne’s film “Killing Us Softly: Advertising’s Images of Women” shed light on the ways in which women are negatively portrayed and often objectified in advertising, paving the way for larger conversations about media and gender research.

Jean Kilbourne has transformed the way in which organizations and educational institutions around the world address the prevention of many public health problems including smoking, high-risk drinking, eating disorders, obesity, sexualization of children, and violence against women. In the late 1960s, she began her exploration of the connection between advertising and its impact on several public health issues, most notably violence against women and eating disorders. Ms. Kilbourne launched a movement to promote media literacy as a way to prevent these problems – a radical and original idea at the time that is today mainstream and an integral part of most prevention programs.

Feminist theories including bel hooks and van Zoonen –

Structure (institutions) is more important and have more power over individual agents = structure over agency

Lasswell –

Media has a direct and powerful influence

1920-30 – Hypodermic needle theory. In 1927 wrote Propaganda Technique in the World War which highlighted the brew of ‘subtle poison, which industrious men injected into the veins of a staggering people until the smashing powers . . . knocked them into submission’

Linear model of communication –

Who – Larlsa Brown

Says What – How British spies exposed and disrupted Russia’s cyber war on the Olympics ‘A Russian pilot to sabotage the Olympic games.

Channel – Article in the Daily Mail, Page 3

To Whom – British Public. main target audience of middle aged women

With What Effect – Captures attention easily, possibly false or more extreme/ exaggerated news

Editorial – What the newspaper/ Editor truly thinks

1949 – Shannon + Weaver

Transmission model of Communication, which included other elements, such as NOISE, ERROR, ENCODING and FEEDBACK. In other words, there is the suggestion that the process of sending and receiving a message is clear-cut, predicable or reliable and is dependent on a range of other factors that need to be taken into consideration. Theres more than just utterances between two people as communication is not that simple and may read it in a different way. Decoding and interpreting is different in different individuals. (criticise Laswells model)

1948 Paul Larzafeld – 2 step flow of communication

More likely to be influenced by others rather than institutions or media, meaning that the audience is active.

He recognised that a simple, linear model may not be sufficiently complex to understanding the relationship between message sent and message received.

. As such, in 1948 he developed the Two Step Flow model of communication, which took account of the way in which mediated messages are not directly injected into the audience, but while also subject to noise, error, feedback etc, they are also filtered through opinion leaders, those who interpret media messages first and then relay them back to a bigger audience.

1960s Uses + Gratification – McQuail, Blumler and Katz

In essence, they put forward research to show that individual audience members are more active than had previously been thought and were actually key to the processes of selection, interpretation and feedback. In essence, individuals sought particular pleasures, uses and gratifications from individual media texts, which can be categorised as:

1. information / education
2. empathy and identity
3. social interaction
4. entertainment
5. escapism

Or categorised as: diversion, personal relationships, personal identity and surveillance.

Uses and Gratifications is also linked into Maslow’s hierarchy of needs as the audience is active. Argues that people actively looked to satisfy their needs based on a hierarchy of social and psychological desires.

1970s Gerbner

Cultivation theory suggests that exposure to media, over time, subtly “cultivates” viewers’ perceptions of reality. Gerbner and Gross assert: “Television is a medium of the socialization of most people into standardized roles and behaviours. Its function is in a word, enculturation”. Behaviour can be changed over time via exposure.

Cultivates predispositions and purposes.

Skinner VS Chomsky

Behaviourist VS Nativist

Skinner = conditioning

1980s Stuart Hall Theory of Preferred Reading

Stuart Hall = Black Academic = ‘The world is looking very white’

 A critical theory that looked to analyse mass media communication and popular culture as a way of both uncovering the invidious work of the State and Big Business, as well as looking for ways of subverting that process. Hall was working at a time of great societal upheaval and unrest in the UK

Hall suggested that power, control and therefore, behaviour management cannot be exerted directly, wilfully and without resistance. Towards this aim he proposed the encoding/decoding model of communication, or the theory of preferred reading, where individuals are not only active in the process of interpretation and the construction of meaning, but they are also able to dismiss and reject dominant messages. Although it could be argued that we all take up different readings of different media, Hall proposed three distinct positions that could be occupied by individual viewers, determined, more or less on their subject identities.

1. A dominant position accepts the dominant message
2. A negotiated position both accepts and rejects the dominant reading
3. An oppositional position rejects the dominant reading

This view presents people as producers and consumers of culture at the same time. It means they are active in the making (or rejecting) of meaning through mass communication

2000s Clay Shirky End of Audience

In many ways, Shirky is not too removed from the work of Hall, prioritising the power of individual agency in the relationship between audiences and institutions, for example, recognising how the audience can be both producers and consumers of media text. This can be realised in the realm of new (interactive) communication media, where individual communications can be made in what appears to be beyond State or commercial control and interest.

Shirky stated that, ‘the more ideas there are in circulation, the more ideas there are for any individual to disagree with.’ In other words, Shirky makes claim for the emancipation gained from new media technologies, liberating individual consumers from the behavioural management techniques of the State that were positioned as problematic by Hall, Althusser, Chomsky and others. 

No mass audience only an individual mass audience

Links into intersectionality, an intersection of different subject positions – we are all fragmented and different, just a combination of thoughts, ideas and influences.

2019 edition – Zuboff – Surveillance Capitalism

Today’s means of behavioural modification are aimed unabashedly at “us.” Everyone is swept up in this new market dragnet, including teh pscyhodramas ofordinary, unsuspecting fourteen-year-olds approaching the weekend with anxiety. Every avenue of connectivity serves to bolster private power’s need to seize behaviour for profit. Where is the hammer of democracy now, when the threat comes from your phone, your digital assistant, your Facebook login? Who will stand for freedom now, when Facebook threatens to retreat into the shadows if we dare to be the friction that disrupts economies of action that have been carefully, elaborately, and expensively constructed to exploit our natural empathy, elude our awareness, and circumvent our prospects for self-determination? If we fail to take notice, how long before we are numb to this incursion and to all the incursions? How long until we notice nothing at all? How long before we forget who we were before they owned us . . . (p. 326)

Zuboff

Question –

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 –

Currran –

Due to price increases of some PSBs some citizens are excluded by price.

‘The United Kingdom regards press freedom as an absolute freedom.’ The government leaves it to the market forces to decide which press products survive’ (1992: 53).

Seaton –

Free Press – 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.

Free Market – 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 I attempts to establish a distinctive identity –

• Can be freely red in many large UK airports
• Doesn’t have a definitive political stance and is used more to convey news and stories rather than persuade its audience

• The i launched to pose a challenge to existing ‘quality’ newspapers with low cover price and tabloid format.

• In the context of declining newspaper sales it made a bold statement: “condense, re-format, repurpose – and produce a terse, intelligent summation of the day’s news that busy commuters can enjoy” (Peter Preston).

• It has battled to remain ‘cheap’ or at least ‘cheaper’: the weekday edition rising from 20p to 50p.

• Historical lineage going back to a much-missed ‘parent’ paper, the Independent, now defunct in print form: A significant number of staff joined the team from The Independent.

• It has maintained a reputation: named National Newspaper of the Year in 2015.

• Actually this link was broken when it was purchased by regional publisher Johnston Press (this has not affected its identity).

• It has a distinct ‘independent’ register, crisply edited: aimed at “readers and lapsed readers” of all ages and commuters with limited time: you don’t have to ‘identify’ yourself as a reader of a newspaper.

• Appearance is vital: USP: inside and out: compact, “matrices” for news, business and sports— small paragraphs of information which are expanded upon in full articles further on in the paper”.

• Its title reaches back to ‘independence’ but also forward to internet: i-pad, i-phone, i-player, i!

• The paper is active on social media, reinforcing its youthful feel: there is also a discounted student subscription that lasts for one academic year

The Daily Mail attempts to establish a distinctive identity –

• published in London in a tabloid format. Founded in 1896, it is the United Kingdom’s highest-circulated daily newspaper.
• A questionable source exhibits one or more of the following: extreme bias, consistent promotion of propaganda/conspiracies, poor or no sourcing to credible information, a complete lack of transparency and/or is fake news. Fake News is the deliberate attempt to publish hoaxes and/or disinformation for the purpose of profit or influence, this could be applied to the Daily Mail as many ideas it expresses are very right-wing.
• Overall, rate Daily Mail Right Biased and Questionable due to numerous failed fact checks and poor sourcing of information.
• Established in 1896 by Harold and Alfred Harmsworth and Kennedy Jones, The Daily Mail is a tabloid newspaper in the UK. It is edited by Geordie Greig, who took over as editor in November 2018 from Paul Dacre, who had been the editor since 1992.
• The Daily Mail’s parent company is DMGT, which owns newspapers including the Daily Mail, the Mail on Sunday = gatekeep information/ manufacture consent/ public sphere
• Harold Sidney Harmsworth is also known to be an admirer of Mussolini and a supporter of Nazi Germany.
• Daily Mail and General Trust (DMGT) reported adjusted operating profit (before tax) of £63m for the nine months to 30 June, down from £112m in 2019. DMGT also reported revenue of £934m, down an underlying seven per cent for the period.

Theories –

James Curren and Jean Seaton – SYSTEM BASED UPON SUPPLY AND COMMAND (CONSUMER RATE) Free Market. 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. Information used by the press is free and transparent within the public domain. Free from political control (liberal, free, neutral, transparent press) Developed Habermas’s ideas.

Noam Chomsky – Manufacturing Consent – How the media can manipulate stories ideas and concepts in order to portray a feeling of agreement and consent. Manufacturing consent works in a similar, if not the same (modern) way as propaganda.

• The five ‘filters’ of Manufacturing Consent’ –
• 1) The size, concentrated ownership, owner wealth, and profit orientation of the dominant mass-media firms
• 2) Advertising as the primary income source of the mass media
• 3) The reliance of the media on information provided by government, business and ‘experts’ funded and approved by these primary sources and agents of power.
• 4) ‘Flak’ as a means of disciplining the media
• 5) ‘Anticommunism’ as a national religion and control mechanism. – common enemy

Habermas – Public Sphere – The idea that the media allow for wider demographics to connect and share ideas rather than ideas being mainly conveyed from socially higher powers such as government and royalty.

Roland Bathes – Semiotics/ signs/ symbols – Don’t take everything conveyed in the media at face value, as even font style can influence a reader or convey a meaning or message.

Useful Ideas/ Quotes –

Curran and Seaton Quotes

• the suggestion that the news media ‘reinforces’ a political situation (Murdock, 1982), or the idea that
• ‘different stances different news organisations or types of organisations take toward different audiences in the marketplace‘ (Curran et al, 1980), or
• the proposition that “major media conglomerates control more and more of the world’s media. Where media are not controlled by organisations, they are generally voices of the state.”
• the propaganda model that the media ‘serve to mobilize support for the special interests that dominate the state and private activity‘ (Chomsky, 1988)
• Roland Barthes signs in the news

• The significance of economic factors, including commercial and not-for-profit public funding, to media industries and their products.

• How media organisations maintain, including through marketing, varieties of audiences nationally.

• How media producers target, attract, reach, address and potentially construct audiences.

• How media industries target audiences through the content and appeal of media products and through the ways in which they are marketed, distributed and circulated. The Liberal theory of press freedom (eg summarised by Curran & Seaton)

• In this view of freedom of expression, it is the interests of the press, not of its readers nor of the subjects of its coverage, which are fundamental. (‘Free enterprise is a pre-requisite of a free press’)

• Based on the assumption that democracy is best served by the free exchange of ideas, for which freedom of expression is vital. (‘the best test of truth is the power of the thought to get itself accepted in the competition of the market’)

• In the case of the press, with certain limited exceptions, no legal restriction is placed on the right to buy or launch a newspaper. (This ensures, in liberal theory, that the press is free, diverse and representative (Curran and Seaton 2003: 346-7).

• ‘the United Kingdom regards press freedom as an absolute freedom.’ The government leaves it to the market forces to decide which press products survive’ (1992: 53).

• ‘press freedom is a property right exercised by publishers on behalf of society.’ Any other form of regulation simply distorts the market, operates against the interests of both producers and consumers, and violates the private property rights on which this whole edifice rests.

Improvements (Based on AS question) –

• Make sure you are aware and able to discuss Curran and Seaton’s ideas around the liberal press. And that you are able to use quotation from them to support your ideas and to illustrate your knowledge. ·
• Go back to your notes on the key words, phrases and ideas; reflect, expand, develop and extend your thinking and your definitions.

• Responses are required to apply these ideas about press freedom (aka The Liberal theory of press freedom (eg summarised by Curran & Seaton) to the set newspaper and to make judgements and draw conclusions around the extent to which the product has been successful in its attempts to find its place in this free market

• Responses in the higher bands will explicitly engage with the ‘to what extent’ aspect of the question through reference to the set product and will demonstrate an understanding of the complex character of relationships between production, markets and audiences.

Structure –

( /20)

Paragraph 1 – introduction – Define Free Press & Free Market, Introduce ideas by Curran and Seaton and briefly explain how this can be linked to The Daily Mail and The i newspapers.

Paragraph 2 – In depth analysis of quote by Curran AND Seaton and how this might link in with the i and Daily Mail, using specific institutional analysis and theories such as Manufacturing Consent. How do the ideas presented by Curran AND Seaton allow for these papers to express a distinctive identity either successfully or unsuccessfully.

Paragraph 3 – Analysis of the i and the CSP pages, referring to political stance and close analysis on lexis and font style/ layout plus connotations that are presented – link to Roland Barthes, also referring to institutional analysis such as specific dates, names or stats. Refer back to question and how this might allow the i to establish a distinctive identity. Link in with ideas presented by Curran and Seaton.

Paragraph 4 – Introduce The Daily Mail, using the CSP pages and their political stance (contrast to the i) use institutional analysis and refer back to the question. Is the Daily mail more reactionary or radical? Link in with the idea of monopolies or gatekeeping or Public sphere. Link in with ideas presented by Curran and Seaton.

Paragraph 5 – Conclusion, summaries all points and closely refer and answer the points raised in the question –

• 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.

The group traces its origins to the launch in 1896 of the mid-market national newspaper the Daily Mail by Harold Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Rothermere, and his elder brother, Alfred Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Northcliffe. It was incorporated in 1922 and its shares were first listed on the London Stock Exchange in 1932. 

published in London in a tabloid format. Founded in 1896, it is the United Kingdom’s highest-circulated daily newspaper.

Who owns the Daily Mail?

• Viscount Rothermere

DMGT – Daily Mail and General Trust plc, a British media conglomerate, owning the Daily Mail as well as Mail on Sunday and Metro. The UK’s national newspapers are owned predominantly by 6 major media groups. Three of these corporations own 71% of national newspaper circulation, those three groups being ‘News Crop’, ‘DMG Media’ and ‘Trinity Mirror’.

Holding Company – A holding company is a company that owns the outstanding stock of other companies. A holding company usually does not produce goods or services itself. Its purpose is to own shares of other companies to form a corporate group. 

Intermediate Holding – An intermediate holding is a firm that is both a holding company of another entity and a subsidiary of a larger corporation. An intermediate holding firm might be exempted from publishing financial records as a holding company of the smaller group. It gives the holding company owner a controlling interest in another without having to invest much. When the parent company purchases 51% or more of the subsidiary, it automatically gains control of the acquired firm. By not purchasing 100% of each subsidiary, a small business owner gains control of multiple entities using a very small investment.

In relation to DMG media – DMG media is an intermediate holding company for Associated Newspapers, Northcliffe Media, Harmsworth Printing and other subsidiaries of Daily Mail and General Trust. 

Financial –

•  The company manages a multinational portfolio of companies, with total revenues of almost £2 billion. 
• The company operates in over forty countries through its subsidiaries (An example of one would be DMG media)
• Daily Mail and General Trust (DMGT) reported adjusted operating profit (before tax) of £63m for the nine months to 30 June, down from £112m in 2019. DMGT also reported revenue of £934m, down an underlying seven per cent for the period.
• Revenue is the total amount of income generated by the sale of goods or services related to the company’s primary operations. … Profit is the amount of income that remains after accounting for all expenses, debts, additional income streams, and operating costs
• The owner of the Daily Mail, the i and Metro said that print advertising revenues for its portfolio of titles plunged by 70% in April and May as the coronavirus lockdown hammered the newspaper industry.
• In April, DMGT said circulation revenues fell by 17%, with total advertising revenue down 46% – with print ads down 69% and digital advertising falling 16%.

Political Stance –

The Mail has traditionally been a supporter of the Conservatives and has endorsed this party in all recent general elections.

Lord Rothermere was a friend of Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler, and directed the Mail’s editorial stance towards them 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

Audience –

A survey in 2014 found the average age of its readers was 58, and it had the lowest demographic for 15- to 44-year-olds among the major British dailies. Uniquely for a British daily newspaper, it has a majority female readership, with women making up 52–55% of its readers

Antonio Gramsci expresses the idea of ‘hegemonic struggle’, which links in with the control of oppressed/ inferior groups by those who are seen as ‘the dominant ideology’ in society. For example, the binary opposition of representation between men and women. Hegemony can also be seen as a ‘social injustice’ among a certain group or class, women for example, are commonly seen as inferior to men.

In relation the the Daily Mail, Gramsci’s idea of hegemonic struggle can be applied due to the political stance the newspaper takes and how that political stance leads to the support and representation of more ‘shocking’/ ‘offensive’ stories. (Ultimately used for entertainment and profit purposes). The image below shows dominant newspapers, such as The Daily Mail, can use the likes expressed by their demographic in order to draw in viewers. Rather than focussing on the key factor of this story – Brexit – the story rather moves attention to the politicians legs, also linking in with the idea of the male guise expressed by Laura Mulvey. However, if the subjects in this image were men, it is highly unlikely that they would be sexualised and objectified like this; the story would be a lot more formal and news-based rather than a joke almost mocking the women in the image. In relation to Gramsci, hegemonic struggle is clearly evident here as although they are discussing a topic that will change the course of a nation, the newspaper manipulates this and objectifies it, which contrasts to the second front cover where the headline is used to support the politician rather than mock them.

Ultimately, I believe that the ideas coined by Gramsci are accurate as they can be applied to the daily mail in terms of the struggles between Genders and how women are negatively represented in the media where as men are generally more supported. Therefore, the newspaper can use these ideas on gender in order to gatekeep certain information and ideas and reinforce dominant ideologies that they may not want to be changed or influenced.

In relation to theorists –

1- Jurgen Habermas – In relation to the public sphere, The ‘i’ newspaper and the daily mail can be used as they both inform and share current political affairs and entertainment.

2 – James Curren and Jean Seaton –

3- Noam Chomsky –

4 – Louis Althusser –

5 – Antonio Gramsci –

key word – diversify