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’s theory of The Liberal Free Press suggests that the public should be entitled to their own opinions and views. Newspapers should reflect a wide range of interests and options in society. “The freedom to publish in the free market ensures that the press reflects a wide range of opinions in society.” This quote by Curran and Seaton explains how diversity will cater to everyone’s needs in terms of the media and being able to see what they want. Curran and Seaton suggest that newspapers in a free market stay successful by being diverse as they are in the public’s interest. Curren also states, “the press is the people’s watchdog, scrutinizing the actions of the government and holding the countries rulers to account.” This idea suggests that the press is providing information to the public in regards to what is happening in the world without being told what to write by the government. Curran and Seaton’s theory also links to habermas’s theory of the public sphere. The theory of the  public sphere is an area in social life where individuals can come together to freely discuss and identify societal problems, and through that discussion influence political action. This links to the theory of the liberal free press because both theories are about the peoples own ideas and views that aren’t inflicted by the government and what the government wants people to think. 

The Daily Mail, which was founded in1896, is a right wing British newspaper. The Daily Mails target audience is lower middle-class women which is 55% of its readers. Since the newspaper is leaning to the right wing they generally hint their favour towards the Conservatives in the UK and the Republicans in American News. The daily Mail is a successful newspaper in terms as a profitable newspaper earning £140 million per year as it provides its readers news and information for the public’s interests. This can be linked to Habermas who thought of the theory of the public sphere which is similar to the concept of free press. The public sphere suggests how people can freely be connected to others horizontally rather than vertically, However, since a lot of articles are in there for the public’s interest it has been proven that a lot of what the Daily Mail is publishing isn’t as true as they’re letting on. A quote from Wikipedia reads,”The Daily Mail has been noted for its unreliability and widely criticised for its printing of sensationalist and inaccurate scare stories of science and medical research, and for instances of plagiarism and copyright infringement.” By publishing fake news suggests to the reader that the Daily Mail newspaper is primarily driven by its profits rather than the truth to the public. 

The i is a British national morning paper published in London by Daily Mail and General Trust and distributed across the United Kingdom. It is aimed at “readers and lapsed readers” of all ages and commuters with limited time, and was originally launched in 2010 as a sister paper to The Independent. The I has been seen as leaning to the left wing of the political spectrum, making it more a competitor to The Guardian. However, The Independent tends to take a liberal, pro-market stance on economic issues. The Independent on Sunday referred to itself as a “proudly liberal newspaper”. An article in the i, “Biden vows to ‘heal America’ as armed trump supporters warn ‘this isn’t over’. This article presents to its viewers and readers that it is a liberal newspaper like it claims to be neither favoring the left or right wing political stance. However connotations in this quote can be seen as favouring the centre left wing like claims say the I favours. This is because of the connotations against Trump in the quote such as “armed” could suggest that these are dangerous people, however nothing remotely bad is said about Biden this could suggest the i is centre left wing because Biden is as well. 

In conclusion, the i and the Daily Mail are both successful newspapers in the free market due to the fact one newspaper is influenced by the need to only make profit out of the papers and feed false information to their readers and to either gain political readers. However the two competing newspapers know how to appeal to their individual audiences whilst still maintaining their individual identities. 

Comparing the advert to Oh! because of the contrasting view of the adverts outdated feminine representation against the oh!’s modern take on female empowerment and feminist thinking.

‘Raunch culture is the sexualised performance of women in media that can play into male stereotypes of women as highly sexually available, where its performers believe they are powerful owners of their own sexuality’ – Hendy and Stephenson

^ raunch culture seen in the advert, woman very subservient to man in sexualised clothing, compare to magazine expressing the talents of women and current female empowerment, taking back ownership of bodies and stereotypes, while showing all that woman can do for themselves and men

critisicigng advert off feminist critical thinking

NO CHANGING TO MAYBELLINE ADVERT

Raunch culture

Judith butler – queer theory suggesting gender is fluid – gay man, not killed becuase of 1963

Laura Mulvey – 1975 thesis on male gaze – active male passive female – scopophilia – pleasure of looking

stereotypical

reinforce typical masculine traits after gays allowed – gun connotes/symbolic masc traits

selling product through appeal to men – male words like grooming and score woman – whereas Maybelline inclusive, showig poc woman and gay man, also the porter for product