IDEOLOGY CAN BE DEFINED AS A COLLECTION OF VALUES AND BELIEFS. TO WHAT EXTENT DO MEDIA PRODUCTS TARGET AUDIENCES BY CONSTRUCTING AN IDEOLOGICAL VIEW OF THE WORLD? YOU SHOULD REFER TO YOUR NEWSPAPER CLOSE STUDY PRODUCTS, THE I AND THE DAILY MAIL.

In this essay I will be comparing the Daily Mail and The i to the theories depicted by James Curran and Jean Seaton, and Livingstone and Lunt. In addition, the target audiences are naturally going to construct different ideological views of the world after consuming these newspaper products, and I will explain why this is the case.

Firstly, the Daily Mail is a conservative, right-wing newspaper and has been for many many years. I know this because in the editions from Monday 6th June, there were repeated articles with patriarchal quotes such as “Joyous Jubilee” praising the royal family, suggesting that the Daily Mail frequently targets audiences by constructing an ideological view of the world. However, these articles may be biased in that the paper is owned by Viscount Lord Rothermere, and he is likely to be in strong and healthy relations with the royal family because of his position. In addition, these kinds of relations have been known to cause potential propaganda in the Daily Mail, as during the time of the Second World War the paper supported Hitler and Mussolini, likely because of the owner’s good relations with them. According to a 2021 report by the Media Reform Coalition, 90% of the UK-wide print media is owned and controlled by just three companies, Reach PLC (formerly Trinity Mirror), News UK and DMG Media. This links to Chomsky’s theory of Ownership and Curran/Seaton’s idea that the media is heavily controlled by a few powerful media corporations. It also goes against Habermas’ concept of the “Public Sphere”. They are constructed through horizontal and vertical integration and mergers – their main goal is to make money, as Hesmondhalgh describes the media industry as a “risky business”. As such, a lot of the newspaper’s articles will be geared towards it’s audiences point of view and will be reactionary to them, which suggests that “Critical journalism takes second place to the needs and interests of the corporation” as described by the 5 filters of the mass media machine a depicted by Noam Chomsky. This also relates to the ideas of Livingstone and Lunt, who say that the interests of citizens and those of consumers cannot be easily merged. However, the idea from Shannon and Weaver that messages (the hypodermic needle theory by Lasswell) can be interrupted or modified by noise or error, and as such lose clarity and consistency indicates that the potentially biased arguments constructed as a result of the Daily Mail’s political compass may not be received as they were intended. This links to libertarianism as we are allowed to think freely, and take into account the purpose behind the stories from the Daily Mail, and by doing so we go from passive consumers to active consumers and become more accustomed to not blindly following what the newspaper tells us in an Authoritarian fashion.

In addition, the Daily Mail has an online edition which is updated each day. In this, I saw an banner advert for mortgages, and these link to the idea that the paper is selling “us” as an audience to the advertisers. This takes away from the idea that we are a libertarian country in the UK, because we are being forced to consume advertisements which we may not want to, as this particular ad was on the front page and very hard to ignore. This also fits into one of Chomsky’s 5 pillars theory, being the role of advertising.

On the other hand, the I presents a much more varied viewpoint, being particularly left wing. This is important because it is still owned by the Daily Mail General Trust (DMGT) and so from this we can see that the DMGT are attempting to horizontally integrate, and cover all political bases and audiences in order to make the most money – particularly as the media industry is a “risky business”. The front cover of the I from Monday 6th June 2022 shows a viewpoint which seems to be against the conservatives, with the quote “Johnson’s future turning toxic for Tories” being made very apparent. The I could be said to be showing a much more realistic, harsh depiction of what is going on in the world, which shows that the paper’s true concerns are to highlight important issues and try to figure out how they can be solved. One example of this is ““Proof that the poorest people get hit worse by soaring inflation” which was a key subheading from the 6th of June 2022. This goes against the ideas of the Frankfurt School, who studied the manufacture (commodification) of pleasure and good experiences, as they knew that society and human beings were starting to crave these things.

The idea that the I presents a more radical outtake on the world around us may mean that there are less opportunities for money to be made. This is suggested by the fact that the weekend price of the I increased from £1 to £1.20 in September 2019. This was likely a measure with the intent of mitigating the risks involved with the media industry, as the average daily circulation (302,757 in March 2013) has been rapidly decreasing with the rise of technology (233,869 by February 2019). All of this shows that the extend to which the I targets audiences by constructing an ideological view of the world isn’t very large.

To conclude, the Daily Mail and The I present differing values and beliefs in their newspapers. These come from various different editors and journalists, and so are to be taken with a “grain of salt” due to the fact that the political compasses of these people are likely to play a heavy part in how the articles and papers are portrayed, linking with Chomsky’s idea of Flack. The Daily Mail could be said to construct an ideological view of the world in that it presents articles with the aim of satisfying it’s right-wing audience with patriarchal quotes such as “Joyous Jubilee” and indexical symbols, for example images of the royal family, painting them in a godly manner. This is all done to mitigate the risks laid out from the media industry as depicted by Hesmondhalgh. However, the I could be said to be more left-wing as it satisfies a very different audience, being more libertarian and focusing on the importance of freedom. The fact that the I is owned by the same company as the Daily Mail (DMGT) supports Curran and Seaton’s theory that big companies are able to waive regulations, and therefore retain power and dispose of companies creating newspapers not being beneficial to them. This suggests that the I does not construct a very ideological view of the world.

All products and services have a purpose, if it is to entertain or educate, they all have a reason to provide a function to people. Newspapers have a primary purpose to inform, but how can there be different newspapers if they all serve the the same function? The difference is, is that each newspaper supports different ideologies and uphold different values and beliefs of the world, there is no way everyone in the world can hold the exact same values and beliefs, which is why multiple different newspapers all around the world serves a reasonable value. Habermas says that there is an arena of public debate as in form of a public sphere, when applying these ideas, newspapers have an important obligation to inform with veracity. The issue with this is that with modern regulations, entire and vastly different views from person to person, in their own private spheres, modern newspapers lose their “bite as a watchdog” as said by Haberman and will bend to the “service of the state”. When looking at Noam Chomsky’s filters of the mass media machine, it is said that mass media companies and firms as parts of even bigger conglomerates, have a sole function for profit. It’s in their interest to push what ever increases that profit. This is relevant because knowing that the Daily Mail owns The i, they try to reach as vast audiences as possible to sell as many newspapers as possible. The more newspapers that become a part of the Daily Mail, DMG Media, General Trust conglomerate, the larger the public sphere becomes and the larger control they have on public views and ideas, controlling their ideologies of the world. The Daily Mail is the United Kingdom’s second biggest-selling daily newspaper after The Sun and to maintain this status they target audiences by constructing an ideological view of the world, this is done by having a priority for entertainment over news on their news website and also their newspapers, but also reporting on news that suit their traditionally right-wing tabloid, conservative party views, proven by the quote on a recent issue that the ‘Comment’ ie the editorial or voice of the paper says ‘Only Starmer gains from this clueless plot’ – ie Labour will gain from Conservative divisions over Boris Johnson, showing their views on Conservative party clearly and steering their audiences into their own philosophies and ideologies of country issues.

Noam Chomsky believes that there are five filters to the mass media machine, like mentioned before it is believed that mass media companies and firms are parts of even bigger conglomerates and have a sole function for profit. But also there are other ideas supplied by Chomsky that are relevant. The main reason for a business to function is for profit, it’s every businesses main function, so when looking at advertising we can see these advertisers as a tool for the big conglomerates to use, these advertisers are paying for audiences for the businesses to use. When then using these tools, it has to suit the ideas of the ‘media elite’ who make themselves crucial to the process of advertising. They are used as an authoritative power, you cannot challenge power. A way in which media is controlled and controlled specifically in newspapers and journalism is through what’s called the ‘flak machine’ which discredits, distorts challenges and undermines stories which oppose the ideas media products intent to construct for the world.

When looking at the Daily Mail, published by DMG Media and owned by DMG Media, Daily Mail and General Trust we can apply these ideas as a notion that media products target audiences by constructing an ideological view of the world. A morning daily newspaper published in London, long noted for its foreign reporting, it was one of the first British papers to popularize its coverage to appeal to a mass readership and in current world issues it still does so, on page 18 there is a piece on the war happening between Russia and Ukraine and supports ideas of justified use of military against Russia, so it can concur that the Daily Mail supports the use of mass military against certain other nations when believed to be justified. Generally an idea of ‘The common enemy’ supplied by Noam Chomsky can be applied here, it is a current world issue that is being crowed by mass media coverage, each supporting different ideas and opinions on the situation, so The Daily Mail is helping to create a public opinion that supports their views specifically as a method to control the masses and create their ideal ideological view on the world. Also looking further into the target audience for the Daily Mail it seen to be that women make up 52–55% of its readers and are lower-middle-class British women and were the first newspaper in the UK to write articles targeted at women. Since their audience mainly consists of women there goal is to appeal to this audience as much as possible to maximise profits. But generally only ever as a goal to apply ideas that best suits their views, such as the term “suffragette” being 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. Also there is a general fusion of entertainment and news / information in the current papers. Page 9 shows a picture story of Prince Louis and his mother in a comedic manner as the 4 year old misbehaves (not relevant but is still in as its own page – shows patriotic values of the daily mail – right side, more authoritarian). Also on page 13 it Shows a fictional character beside the queen as in an entertainment aspect, promoting the Paddington film. Ideas of patriotism and nationalism is largely predominant in The Daily Mail, using a handful of Roland Barthes theory on semiotic signs and showing indexical signs such as the front page containing ‘Joyous Jubilee’, supporting Royal Family as well as a header above many pages “Our platinum queen” – use of ‘our’ shows a support for the queen and shows patriotism. Moreover, on page 10 there is a heading saying ‘how the nation came together’, suggesting national harmony – we are all together, which is done as an objective to make the nation look perfect and shroud current issues in the country, they try to serve an ideological view of the world to the readers about patriotism exclaiming how great the event was in order to control opposing persons and ideas.

However in The i, it has a different structure and can support different ideas to The Daily Mail. In the front cover it reads ‘Johnson future turning toxic for Tories’, the paper seems to be against Conservative / Boris Johnson, which when related to The Daily Mail is interesting as even though they are owned by the same conglomerate, they support different idea on politics and world issues. This is done as a method to support as many ideas as possible which people may have in order to generate the most profit possible, this paper supports peoples opposing views on the Conservative party. In this paper there is not a voice of an editor, but an ‘Opinion Matrix’ instead having a range of different voices and opinion, having so much more freedom and plurality, in voice and thought as apposed to the Daily Mail and has space for many views and different stories in a more fair and libertarian way compared to the Daily Mail’s more authoritarian techniques of construction. Also the main page and anchorage master header ‘i’ is interesting as it can be seen to reflect the views and the structure of the newspaper. Can be viewed as a personal pronounal address as an effect to illustrate its more modern values and goals to be a greater newspaper for everyone. Page 20 shows political views against the more authoritarian views of certain parties. “How long before Priti Patel makes it illegal for people to boo someone who they find offensive?” “… showing the Prime Minister as a bumbling spinner of lies.” – The i allows all different ideas and views on its ‘Opinion Matrix’ sections.
“Speaking truth to power” – title – “Thank you to Michael Day for saying what needed to be said about the oppressive Israeli state”. The i has different and more fair views on issues, supporting more than one idea like The Daily Mail seems to do. The front page also contains a heading ‘The new Firm’ which seems to be slightly critical of Royal Family which is vastly different to the patriotic ideas the Daily Mail supplies.

Overall, the use of the Daily Mail and The i, both owned by the same conglomerate is done as a tool to target audiences by constructing an ideological view of the world and reach and appeal to as many people as possible as a main function to generate the most profit as possible supporting Noam Chomsky’s ideas on ownership like mentioned earlier.

“Ideology can be defined as a collection of values and beliefs. To what extent do media products target audiences by constructing an ideological view of the world?” 

The purpose of newspaper is to highlight global issues and to reflect the conversation of the ‘public sphere.’ Habermas (1989) says that the newspaper has allowed a libertarian expression of thought and opinion, he comments on how the media is an ‘arena of public debate’. Curran reinforces this ideology by saying that “the freedom to publish in the free market ensures that the press reflects a wide range of opinions and interests.” Different newspapers use their political stance to influence their target audiences, providing information that links to their ideological view of the world. ‘The Daily Mail’ and ‘The i’ provide us with opposing ideological viewpoints. ‘The Daily Mail’ constructs a right-wing political stance with support for the conservative party whilst ‘The i’ is presenting a more libertarian, central viewpoint.  

‘The Daily Mail’ is the “Highest-circulated daily newspaper,” implying the popularity within the UK public. It is known as the “voice of Middle-England” suggesting that it represents traditional, archaic views that have continued from the paper’s conception in 1896 and direct correlation to Lord Rothermere, suggesting links to the British monarchy. The average reader demographic was aged 58 with over 50% of them being female. This could connote to the paper presenting an ideology relatable to an older generation or a less progressive sub-section of society. In the edition on Monday 6th June 2022, the paper’s political compass is presented through their support for the royal family and the conservative party at the time of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee and Boris Johnson facing a vote of no confidence. On the front page, their political ideologies are made obvious in the headline “magnificent celebrations,” “joyous jubilee.” Here, the paper is putting key importance on celebrating the status of the monarchy and are also hinting on their views towards nationalism and patriotism. These ideas a further perpetuated on page 6, in the line; “the final parade was so very British”. This highlights the national pride the paper holds and could presume their views on issues such as immigration as well as their representation of global news and other countries. Like many newspapers and media forms in general, the plethora of information is not a ‘transparent window’ into the truth of the world, the ideology of the paper is used to skew the truth and influence the passive reader into perceiving these views as fact. Chomsky says that the media works with the monarchy, the state and alongside with the ruling ideology. He highlights how the media are ‘hand in hand’ with the government to “manipulate” and “persuade” their audiences. In his book “manufacturing consent” he says that “(The media) is a mechanism that is deliberately used by the rich and the powerful (the elite).” Furthermore, on page 18, in the editorial (the voice of the newspaper), the Daily Mail’s support for the conservative party is reinforced through the statement in the title: “Boris is right”. A strong opposition to the labour party is also explored through the line: “If the Tories implode, they could let in the nightmare coalition of the Labour”. Essentially, they are suggesting that the UK is a one-party state, and any opposing political power is not good enough. This is repeated throughout the edition for example on page 3, when they comment on how there is “No alternative candidate” and page 23: “ousting PM now would be nothing less than insanity.” Clearly, they are trying to project to their target audience. 

Habermas looks at the distinction between the private sphere, the issues that concern an individual, and the public sphere which is the societal discussion of issues facing the wider population. He comments on the libertarian nature of the media and says that “once the media is subject to public regulation, it will lose its bite;” the ability to comment freely on current affairs. ‘The i’ presents a less right wing, more left-wing ideology, which is more concerned with humanity over business, leaning towards more libertarian attitudes. Linking to Habermas, this paper represents a more diverse range of voices which pushes the public to the ‘forefront’ of the paper’s view. Contrastingly, the i is owned by the ‘Daily Mail General Trust (DMGT),’ a conglomerate which uses horizontal integration to merge ownership over a range of newspaper products including ‘The Daily Mail’ and ‘The Independent’ for the “Endgame: Profit.” This implies that they share similar ideologies which suggests that ‘The i’ has a more central political compass than what it presents. On page 22, a small column from a member of the LGBTQ+ community says that “pride month is an empty gesture” and expresses how Pride has been stripped of celebration for individuality it is now “one giant rainbow painted empty gesture”. Not only is this the paper’s way of diversifying its content but it is also allowing a criticism of society to be expressed. This opposes the ‘Daily Mail’ who were criticised in 2016 for describing a high court judge as “openly gay.” “Critics accused the Mail of unnecessarily highlighting the judge’s sexual orientation due to anti-gay motives.” As for the political compass of ‘The I’, the paper obviously seems representative of a more centralised viewpoint. This is reinforced by the fact that during the 2016 Brexit vote, the paper chose not to declare ‘leave’ or ‘remain’ and chose not to show support for a particular political party in the 2016 elections. A criticism towards the Royal Family is shown on page 3 in which the headline says, “A grand spectacle packed with pomp, silliness.” Here, ‘The i’ is criticizing the over- dramatic parades seen at the Queen’s jubilee, it also brings light to the lack of the Queens presence when a “grand” amount money and effort has been put into creating the Queen’s jubilee in the quote: “(The Queen) absent from party at the palace.”  

Through Stuart Hall’s theory on encoding, decoding and implied and Barthes’ ideas on semiotics and the meanings of signs, we can evaluate the way in which the newspapers present their own viewpoint through their outlook on the world. Both papers construct different views on the world through their political compass although some of their views overlap.