Curran studied the early 1800s era of media distribution, and described how newspapers were only producible by people with the wealth to manufacture products on an industrial scale.
The free market of media and newspapers means that the outcome of the products has the potential to be ultimately decided by the consumers themselves.
The emergence of an independent, market-based press, created a new public engaged in critical political discussion.
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.
The public sphere is an area in social life where individuals can come together to openly discuss and identify societal problems, and through that discussion influence political action.
‘Habermas argues that the development of early modern capitalism brought into being an autonomous arena of public debate.’
‘He argues, the public sphere came to be dominated by an expanded state and organised economic interests’.
‘Created a new public engaged in critical political thinking’.
| Key Idea | Daily Mail (Textual Evidence) | Daily Mail (Institutional Evidence) | The I (Textual Evidence) | The I (Institutional Evidence) |
| Globalisation, Humans/Business | “Around the world yesterday” | |||
| Patriotism | “Joyous Jubilee” | |||
| Military Intervention | “First Russian missiles in months rain down on capital” | Lord Rothermere was a friend of Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler, and directed the Mail’s editorial stance towards them in the early 1930s | Britain to send long-range arms for the first time” | |
| Separation – Classes | “Mystique of the royals is strong as ever” | “Proof that the poorest people get hit worse by soaring inflation” | ||
| Untrustworthy Corporations | “Travel warning over tube strike” | |||
| Freedom | ||||
| Commodification | “Families pay after easyJet chaos” | On 14 September 2019, The i weekend price rose from £1 to £1.20. | ||
| Manipulation | ||||
| Personal Wealth | “She – and we – have all earned a place in history” | DMGT has an annual revenue of around £1 Billion. | In December 2017, the owners of the i, Johnston Press, announced the newspaper was bringing in a monthly profit of around £1 million. | |
| Prejudice | ||||
| Splitting Wealth | “Lunch for 18 Million!” | |||
| Religion | “Pope’s mobility problems spark new retirement speculation” | |||
| Charity | ||||
| Social security | ||||
| Views on schooling | ||||
| Older values | Pictures from 1950s, 60s, 70s and 80s, “final parade was so very British” | It was founded in 1896. A survey in 2014 found the average age of its readers was 58. | ||
| Protectionism | “Tory rebels “are plotting course to catastrophe” | |||
| Equality | “He’s at it again! Louis, court jester of the royal box” | |||
| Feminism | it has a majority female readership, with women making up 52–55% of its readers. |
Daily Mail Facts
It was founded in 1896.
it is the United Kingdom’s highest circulated daily newspaper.
Content from the paper appears on the MailOnline website, although the website is managed separately and has its own editor.
The paper is owned by the Daily Mail and General Trust.
A survey in 2014 found the average age of its readers was 58.
It has a majority female readership, with women making up 52–55% of its readers.
Its website has more than 218 million unique visitors per month.
DMGT has an annual revenue of around £1 Billion.
The i Facts
Also published in London by Daily Mail and General Trust.
The paper and its website were bought by the Daily Mail and General Trust (DMGT) on 29 November 2019, for £49.6 million.
The paper had an average daily circulation of 302,757 in March 2013, though that figure has since continued to decline, and had dropped to 233,869 by February 2019.
In December 2017, the owners of the i, Johnston Press, announced the newspaper was bringing in a monthly profit of around £1 million.
On 14 September 2019, The i weekend price rose from £1 to £1.20.
Statement of Intent
For my regulation NEA I plan to make three products, a flyer, a magazine ad and an Instagram post. These will all be based around a media campaign with the idea that gambling should be more regulated and restricted. Currently, the minimum age to buy lottery tickets in the US and the UK is 18, which is in place to regulate the ability to spend money for minors. I will make use of a hashtag in my flyer being #protecttheyoung to try and increase the audience participation in the campaign. My flyer would have a target audience of kids who would mostly be affected by gambling at an early age, and so they would be relatively simple with elements that are easy to recognise and relate to, similar to the flyers below with the vibrant colours. I would have indexical symbols relating to money (perhaps a dollar sign) and I would use these to try and get the audience to be more active while consuming it, as depicted in the Two Step Flow model by Lazarfelt. My magazine ad would have the same theme and ideas, but it would appeal to an older audience of people who have the disposable income to spent on things like betting or lottery tickets, and it will be more statistical, showing the real odds of getting money out of gambling compared to what you would be putting into it.
Flyer Campaign Design Inspiration
My Products
Libertarianism – a political philosophy that upholds liberty (freedom) 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 and individualism.
Authoritarianism – the enforcement or advocacy of strict obedience to authority at the expense of personal freedom.
Hedonism – The belief that self-pleasure and good experiences are the main things you should aim for in life.
Pleasure – feelings of satisfaction and good experiences. Pleasure, however, can not be experienced without pain.
The Frankfurt School
The Frankfurt school studied the manufacture (commodification) of pleasure and good experiences, as they knew that society and human beings were starting to crave these things. The development of technology made the public more able to experience pleasure without going to the trouble of obtaining it.
The idea of the “teenager” came about in the 1960s, along with a permissive society, which meant that unpopular ideas such as homosexuality became more prominent and accepted.
| Key Question | Focus | Specifics |
| Why Regulate? | Truth, appropriate messaging, knowledge and information, public decency, ethics, morals, privacy, health & safety, diversity, legal ownership | Elon Musk – Twitter Depp / Heard Life of Brian Rooney / Vardy War in Ukraine COVID |
| Who regulates what? | Government, companies, police, courts, law & order, ofcom (broadcasting), independent bodies/organizations, individuals & groups, BBFC, PEGI | |
| What gets regulated? | Newspapers, wesbites, films, music videos, television, advertising, radio, | |
| How is it regulated? | Copyright, rating systems, |
My film will involve the dominant signifier, being a boy who is simply just playing football, but showing immense technical skill and dedication to his play. Unknown to him, a scout is watching his every move, who then approaches the boy and offers him a big opportunity after watching him play and seeing him stay outside to train after his session. My two film posters and sequences would feature the protagonist before the big disruption in the story, being excited about the offer he’s just received and the opportunity to really experience the footballing world, and then the climax, with the protagonist crying in an office about how his career is declining due to a lack of management or real focus on the legal restrictions and requirements presented by the world of football. His agent, who really did not like the boy but saw the financial benefit in sticking with him, is trying to comfort him however he knows deep down that it was his fault for not giving the boy everything he had to maximise his chances of success. The pathos should be significant here, with a lot of sympathy for the protagonist coming into effect. My website will provide a simple yet effective means of navigating all that the production has to offer, with a home page, contents, sequences page, and a page for the posters at a minimum. It will have a simple yet sleek design to make it easy to use for a variety of audiences, and this is important because the production will be rated 12, so many people from younger audiences will be actively engaging with the product and using the service of the website. The type of audience which would consume this product is one of young people, typically males, who resonate with football well and often dream about growing up to be a footballer themselves. The type of institution who would release this kind of film would probably be a mainstream one, with perhaps ties to sports clothing, a sports brand or even with relations to football video games.
Capital
Produced by Kudos Film Company in the United Kingdom and distributed by Fremantle. Aired on BBC One.
Essay Draft
Television producers often attempt to target national and global audiences through subject matter and distribution. David Hesmondhalgh states that operating in the media industry is a “risky business” and so many actions must be taken to avoid and mitigate this risk. One example of this can be seen in the production of Deutschland 83, which is a co-production between UFA, AMC Network and RTL television. This can minimise risk in that money is split between multiple companies. In addition, Deutschland is set in Germany, which means that having companies from different parts of the world (Germany, United Kingdom, United States in this case) can assist in the globalisation (spreading a media product to a global audience) meaning that a more diverse audience can be targeted and so more money can be made, minimizing the risk. These multiple companies also have lots of different contacts, making things such as distribution much easier. Deutschland was distributed through All 4, which has a mixed model structure as it is both stately and publicly owned. The “Genre” of Deutschland 83 is a Spy Thriller, as described by Steve Neale as a “corpus” or repertoire of elements which can have both predictable and innovative elements. Examples of predictable elements in Deutschland include when someone’s drink was poisoned and the agent’s finger was snapped.
Many theorists can be linked to Deutschland 83, such as Vladmir Propp. He talks about stock characters, such as the hero, princess and villain. Martin could be described as the hero, his girlfriend as the princess, and the West as the villain. The use of these traditional stock characters makes the product more reactionary and so reduces risk in that people are more likely to buy and enjoy the product. Another theorist that is relevant here is Tzetvan Todorov, who talks of stories having a beginning, middle and end. The “denouement” in the story is when Martin completes the mission by taking photographs of the important documents. Levi-Strauss talks about the use of “Binary Oppositions” in media products and these are relevant in Deutschland, as shown with the rivalries between East/West. Finally, Laura Mulvey described an idea she termed “The Male Gaze” and this relates to Deutschland in the sense that the main character, Martin, is male who carries out tasks which many may deem as having lots of violence. While this is occurring, the female character, his girlfriend, remains in the East, not taking part in any entertaining or enthralling activities and often being used as a source of male gratification.
Capital is a public service broadcasting program from the BBC, produced by Kudos Entertainment and distributed by Fremantle, that satisfies the BBC’s ethos being to inform, educate and entertain. Public Service Broadcasting refers to products that are broadcasted to the public for entertainment and exchange of information and not intended for profits to be made. This is contrasted by Curran and Seaton’s viewpoint, and they refer to the idea that “The media industry is controlled by a small amount of powerful companies who create media products for profit”. These powerful companies are often able to alleviate the level of regulation required on their products, as described by Livingstone and Lunt.
Key Points
David Hesmondhalgh – “Risky Business” – Deutschland co-production, RTL, AMC, UFA – different countries/companies – globalisation, diverse audience – more money
All 4 – distributed Deutschland – mixed model structure partially state/public owned.
Genre – Neale – Deutschland = Spy Thriller, corpus/repetoire of predictable and innovative elements, predictable – finger snap, poison drink, innovative = German, cold war.
Propp – stock characters
Levi-Strauss – Binary Oppositions – East/West
Todorov – Denouement, beginning middle end
Mulvey – Male Gaze
Lazarfelt – Two step flow – Capital – Ideas about London could be misinterpreted – lose money
Capital – BBC – Public service broadcasting – not for profit
BBC – educate, inform, entertain
Contrasts Curran and Seatan – Small number of powerful companies control the media
Powerful companies may be able to waive regulation – Livingstone and Lunt,
Hypodermic model (passive consumption)
Harold Lasswell was the person behind the hypodermic needle theory, which was a model that breaks down the line of communication from point A to point B, in which the SENDER is transferring a MESSAGE, through a MEDIUM (eg Print, radio, TV, etc) that has a direct effect on the RECEIVER.
Two Step Flow of Communication (active consumption)
Paul Lazarfelt developed the Two Step Flow model of communication in 1948, 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. What is significant here is that this theory suggests that the audience are ACTIVE NOT PASSIVE, in that audience consumption is based on consideration of what others think not a PASSIVE process of unthinking.
Uses and Gratifications (active selection)
What are the similarities and differences between the culture industries and other industries?
Similarities between the industries are that they all want to sell things and designate their products to different audiences they also adhere to the different stages benig production, distribution and consumption.
Differences between the industries are that the culture industries can convey lots of different ideas and meanings from their products, and there is a lot more variation of what can be sold.
“On the other hand, it is equally clear that the goods they manufacture – newspapers, advertisements, television programmes and feature films – play a pivotal role in organizing the images and discourses through which people make sense of the world. – Peter Golding and Graham Murdock
Commercial Media – ITV, Sky – Multi regional
Public Service Media – BBC – Regional
Transnational Media – Netflix, Amazon Prime – Global
Public Service Broadcasting
Public Service Broadcasting refers to broadcasting given to the public for entertainment or information free of charge, and is not created to make profits.
The ethos of the BBC is to inform, entertain and educate.
Capital is a public service broadcasting program from the BBC that satisfies the ethos being to inform, educate and entertain.
Curran and Seaton are two key theorists (talk about them in TV question). They say that “the media is controlled by a small number of companies that make products to create profit”.
Key Words
