‘Habermas argues that the development of early modern capitalism brought into being an autonomous arena of public debate.’
’emergence of an independent, market-based press, created a new public engaged in critical political discussions’
‘The public sphere came to be dominated by an expanded state and organised economic interests
| Key word / theme / question etc | Daily Mail (textual evidence) | Daily Mail (institutional evidence) | The I (textual evidence) | The I (institutional evidence) |
| Patriotism | Patriotism: Joyous Jubilee ‘We are strongest when united’ ‘Hilarious and barmy… final period was so very British’ ’70 years and her majesty remains the star of the show’ | |||
| Globalisation | Its website has more than 218 million unique visitors per month | |||
| Racial superiority | ‘You should be reading this on the front page – Have you heard about the hunger crisis in East Africa? Do you know people are dying right now – at an estimated rate of one person every 48 seconds’. | |||
| Links to the elite / establishment | The Proprietor is the The 4th Viscount Rothermere is the chairman and controlling shareholder of the company The head office is located in Northcliffe House in Kensington, London. | |||
| Militarism (use of military) | ‘Is Putin great? Hardly – His military incompetence must leave his hero Peter I spinning in is grave’ ‘Bodies were hanging from trees’ | |||
| The fusion of entertainment and news / information | ||||
| Authoritarian / Libertarian | Still uses an Editorial i.e. the voice of one over many? | |||
| Nationalism | page 10 ‘how the nation came together’ suggest national harmony – we are all together. | |||
| Class Differentiation | ‘Proof that the poorest people get hit worse by soaring inflation’ | |||
| Gender | Uniquely for a British daily newspaper, it has a majority female readership, with women making up 52–55% of its readers. The term “suffragette” was first used in 1906, as a term of derision by the journalist Charles E. Hands in the Mail to describe activists in the movement for women’s suffrage. | ‘men as monsters: is that really radical’ | ||
| Freedom of people | ||||
| Restriction of Immigration | ||||
| Religion | ||||
| Charity | ||||
| Labour Party | ‘Is west-end going broke cause it’s gone all woke’ – anti woke – against left | |||
| Social security | ||||
| Tory / Conservative | ‘dossier of doom’ – in support of the conservative party ‘Tory rebels’ are plotting course to catastrophe’ – paper is unhappy with ‘Tory rebels’ because they are plotting against authority – Boris Johnson. Ousting the PM now would be nothing less that insanity – right wing paper in favour of Boris Johnson ‘The deluded and dangerous left’ – Editorial ‘Labours chances of winning majority are vanishingly small’ ‘The truth is that Boris Johnson is by a country mile the best person to lead the tory government’ ‘A Tory peer’ p18 is the ‘Comment’ ie the editorial or voice of the paper ‘Only Starmer gains from this clueless plot’ – ie Labour will gain from Conservative divisions over Boris Johnson | The owner of the Daily Mail, Alfred Hamsworth, holds right-wing political vieAccording to a December 2004 survey, 53% of Daily Mail readers voted for the Conservative Party, compared to 21% for Labour and 17% for the Liberal Democrats.ws |
Daily Mail
The Daily Mail was founded in 1896
It’s the second highest selling newspaper in the UK
The owner of the Daily Mail, Alfred Hamsworth, holds right-wing political views
He encouraged people to buy the newspaper for nationalistic reasons
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.
The term “suffragette” was first used in 1906, as a term of derision by the journalist Charles E. Hands in the Mail to describe activists in the movement for women’s suffrage.
It had an average daily circulation of 1,134,184 copies in February 2020. Between April 2019 and March 2020 it had an average daily readership of approximately 2.180 million.
According to a December 2004 survey, 53% of Daily Mail readers voted for the Conservative Party, compared to 21% for Labour and 17% for the Liberal Democrats.
The Daily Mail had an average Writing Tone score of 0.38, placing it in the 18th percentile in our dataset. This suggests that articles from Daily Mail are often highly opinionated. This compares to an average Writing Tone score of 0.54 for all 240 news sources.
Over a dataset of 1,000 articles, the Daily Mail scored an average Factual Grade of 39.7%. This is well below the average of 61.9% for all 240 news sources that we analysed. This places the site in the 1st percentile of our dataset — it scored the third-lowest of any news source.
Lord Rothermere was a friend of Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler, and directed the Mail’s editorial stance towards them in the early 1930s.
The I
Daily Mail owner buys i newspaper for £50m
Reliability: 42.46
Reliability scores for articles and shows are on a scale of 0-64. Scores above 40 are generally good; scores below 24 are generally problematic. Scores between 24-40 indicate a range of possibilities
Bias: -8.80
Bias scores for articles and shows are on a scale of -42 to +42, with higher negative scores being more left, higher positive scores being more right
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 was also found in a 2018 poll to be the second-most trusted news brand in the UK after The Guardian. In March 2019, the i overtook The Guardian to become the most trusted digital news brand on-line, and third in print. The two then tied as most trusted national news brand for their paper editions in 2020; the i was third on-line
In 2017 and 2019 general elections the I chose not to support a political party
The paper had an average daily circulation of 302,757 in March 2013,
The i website was reported to attract around two million unique viewers at the start of 2018, but that figure had grown 457% by November, with Comscore reporting unique visitors to the website then stood at 5.2 million.
A ‘permissive society’ is one in which liberal behaviour becomes more accepted – particularly with regard to sexual freedoms. One of the most famous examples is that of 1960s Britain, where being ‘deviant’ gained new meaning.
Libertarianism –
Libertarianism is a political philosophy that upholds liberty as a core value. Libertarians seek to maximize autonomy and political freedom, and minimize the state’s violation of individual liberties; emphasizing free association, freedom of choice, individualism and voluntary association.
Authoritarianism –
Authoritarianism is a form of government characterized by the rejection of political plurality, the use of strong central power to preserve the political status quo, and reductions in the rule of law, separation of powers, and democratic voting.
| Key Questions | Focus | Specifics |
| Why regulate? | protection of children, criminal activity, health & safety, privacy | Rooney v Vardy (privacy), Depp v Heard (libel, slander, defamation of character) Elon Musk buying twitter |
| What gets regulated? | film, advertising, tv, social media (internet), music, games, books, newspaper, radio, the news, magazine, cartoons | |
| Who regulates what? | Government (overall), BBFC (cinema), Ofcom (broadcasting), NPCF (music), PRS (music), PEGI (gaming), Individuals, Groups, Bodies | |
| Types of regulations put in place | copyright, rating system, | broadcasting obscene content is prohibited by law at all times of the day. Indecent and profane content are prohibited on broadcast TV and radio between 9am. and 9pm., when there is a reasonable risk that children may be in the audience. |
Rules / Creative Freedom
In most Industries there is little to no creative freedom. You have to follow an extremely strict set of rules, and if you don’t follow those rules, you will fail in the eyes of your employer. However, in the culture industry, you have much more creative freedom to express your-self.
The Three Types of Media Ownership
Public Service Broadcasting
Public broadcasting involves radio, television and other electronic media outlets whose primary mission is public service. In many countries of the world, funding comes from governments, especially via annual fees charged on receivers.
BBC and Channel 4 are non-profit organisations. They are independent organisations which are reliant on the government for funding.
They usually make media which is ‘for everyone’.
Ethos of BBC – Inform. Educate, Entertain
It’s free!
The government regulating / tampering our media
David Hesmondhalgh states that media is a risky business. Therefore, to reduce risk, The Missing is a BBC produced TV series. The BBC is a state-funded / state-supported company. This reduces risk for many reasons. Firstly, as the BBC is a credible, well-known company, people are more likely to watch the show, The Missing, because they expect quality. This links to the concept of Two Step Flow of Communication from Paul Lazarfeld. The two step flow of communication process takes into account the way in which mediated messages are not directly injected into the audience, but are filtered through opinion leaders, those who interpret media messages first and then relay them back to a bigger audience. Because BBC is a well-known brand (and can employ highly-skilled actors) people are more likel;y to gravitate towards watching that rather than another independdently owned TV show.
On the other hand, Witnesses is funded and produced by an independent company.
| No. in series | Title | Directed by | Written by | Original air date | UK viewers (millions) [15] |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | “Come Home” | Ben Chanan | Harry Williams & Jack Williams | 12 October 2016 | 9.20 |
Episode description –
In 2003 Alice Webster is abducted in Germany, where her father is stationed on a British Army base. In 2014, just before Christmas, a barefoot and traumatised Alice re-appears in the same town, suffering from acute appendicitis. She claims that she was held captive with a French girl, Sophie Giroux, who went missing around the same time. Retired French detective Julien Baptiste, an expert on the Giroux case, investigates. He suspects that she may not be Alice.
Language
Media form – TV
Moving Image
Genre / Type – Crime Drama
Steve Neale ‘Corpus’ ‘repertoire’ + elements
Similarities + differences
Levi – Strauss
‘Enigma’ – Bartes
Todorov / Freytag pyramid
Audiences
Exposition
End – cliff hanger
Propp
Production
David Hesmondhalgh states that media is a ‘risky business, so to reduce risk The Missing and Witnesses use well-known plot devices and tropes which appeal to a wide audience.