MailOnline case study: Blog tasks

 Work through the following tasks to complete your case study on Mail Online. 

MailOnline close-textual analysis

Go to MailOnline and analyse the stories currently featured:

1) What are the top five stories? Are they examples of soft news or hard news?

Harry's new job in the US - hard

Zara Tindall's new baby - soft

Children COVID vaccine - hard

Boris Johnson makes remark about EU vaccine - hard

Suez Canal blockage - hard

2) What celebrity content is featured?

Zara Tindall's pregnancy, Derek Draper's hospitalisation, Prince Harry's new job

3) What examples of ‘clickbait’ can you find?

the extent of Derek Draper's condition, the defamation of Laurence Fox

4) To what extent do the stories you have found on MailOnline reflect the values and ideologies of the Daily Mail newspaper?

I think that they reflect the same ideologies, with more stories on celebrities because they would be more likely to get shared online

5) Think about audience appeal and gratifications: why is MailOnline the most-read English language newspaper website in the world? How does it keep you on the site?

- the endless scroll feature baits you in with more clickbait - diversion

- it caters to certain ideologies that the majority of the readers identify with (right wing bias) - personal identity

- nostalgia - they often refer to things from the past that the audience would remember

Guardian column: So Daily Mail and Mail Online are ‘totally separate’? It depends how you look at it by Peter Preston

Read this Guardian column by Media veteran Peter Preston on a row between the Guardian and the Mail over the controversial MailOnline (ex-) columnist Katie Hopkins. Answer the following questions:

1) Why does Preston suggest that the Daily Mail and MailOnline should be considered to be basically the same publication?

they're owned by the same kind of media moguls and the way that they're constructed is very similar

2) How does Preston summarise other newspaper websites?

they're all far behind MailOnline in terms of readership, other newspaper websites feature completely different content and often use different ideologies 

3) How many readers does the online-only Independent now boast?

24.5 million

4) Do you feel the Daily Mail and MailOnline have a different ‘world view’?

I think the MailOnline has a focus leaning more on soft news that gets people talking om social media, leading to a muted view of the real world. The Daily mail newspaper acts as an anchor the brand's beliefs as it focuses itself on harder news that reflect a grittier outlook on life

5) Do you see a future for the paper version of the Daily Mail or will it eventually close like the Independent?

I think that as long as there is an audience for hating Royals, supporting right wing politics, and enforcing traditional gender roles, there will always some sort sort of print DM. As time progresses however, the print readership numbers will decrease as the readership age is around 60+ so one day the print version of the Daily Mail will cease in my opinion. 

Media Magazine MM55: Media, Publics, Protest and Power

Media Magazine 55 has an excellent feature on power and the media. Go to our Media Magazine archive, click on MM55 and scroll to page 38 to read the article Media, Publics, Protest and Power', a summary of Media academic Natalie Fenton’s talk to the Media Magazine conference in 2015. Answer the following questions:

1) What are the three overlapping fields that have an influence on the relationship between media and democracy?

the economic, political, and journalistic field 

2) What is ‘churnalism’ and does MailOnline provide examples of this kind of news gathering?

the regurgitation of news stories - the coverage of the Suez Canal incident was reguargitated by many media outlets including DM

3) Fenton argues that news should serve the public and help democracy. Does MailOnline do this?

I think the right wing bias of the DM allows it to be a fair voice for democracy because they are well knowledged in politics - left wingers could debate this because there is an unhealthy bias towards the right 

4) What is infotainment? Is MailOnline guilty of relying on this kind of content?

information about entertainment - MailOnline features an abundance of soft news 

5) Has the internet empowered audiences or is it still dominated by the major media conglomerates? How does MailOnline fit into this?

Martin Clarke's comments with the audience shape their content and demand 

Factsheet 182 - Case Study: The Daily Mail (Part 3) Industrial Context

Finally, read Media Factsheet 182 - Case Study: The Daily Mail (Part 3) Industrial Context and complete the following questions/tasks. You won't be able to access our Factsheet archive now school is closed but you can open this factsheet here if you log in to Google using your School email and password.

1) What do Curran and Seaton suggest regarding the newspaper industry and society?

that newspaper industry should follow plurist values and allow audience to shape their content

2) Curran and Seaton acknowledge that media ownership in the UK is dominated by what kind of company?

large news organisations like the BBC, the Guardian, The Times 

3) What does the fact-sheet suggest regarding newspaper ownership and influence over society?

the newspaper industry is dominated by very few rich men who share the same political views

4) Why did the Daily Mail invest heavily in developing MailOnline in the 2000s?

Because they saw that developing wave of new technology and the decline in their print was another reason why

5) How does MailOnline reflect the idea of newspapers ‘as conversation’?

they offer readers with an open debate due to controversial opinion pieces 

6) How many stories and pictures are published on MailOnline?

there's an endless scroll feature which means virtually endless stories 

7) How does original MailOnline editor Martin Clarke explain the success of the website?

"we give the audience what we want" - audience shape content 

8) What does it mean when it says readers are in control of digital content?

the number of interactions determine what gets featured on the front page 

9) How is the priority for stories on the homepage established on MailOnline?

soft news stories tend to get more clicks 

10) What is your view of ‘clicks’ driving the news agenda? Should we be worried that readers are now ‘in control of digital content’?

digital content forms a lot of shared posts on social media - I think that the number of clicks something receives should determine the pecking order of the ordering of news stories and that according to Clarke "the audience choose their own content"

Videogames assessment: Learner response

 Create a new blog post on your Media 1 Exam blog called 'Videogames online assessment learner response' and complete the following tasks:

1) Copy and paste your feedback into your blog in full (you don't need to write the mark and grade if you want to keep this confidential).

Mark: 21

 

Grade: A*

 

WWW: This is a very good response that focuses on the question impressively and uses the two CSPs to analyse the genre, marketing and audience reception. There is detailed, confident and consistent reference to aspects of the gameplay and marketing material. Use of media terminology is a strength with consistent use of media language and lots of theory in discussing the genre and construction of the games. I particularly like the paragraph that focuses on Postmodernism and the reception of Sims Freeplay on audiences. Your conclusion clearly summarises your argument and links very closely back to Neale’s theory and you do well to interrogate this throughout.

 

EBI: This is a very impressive essay marked towards the bottom of level 5 but not quite into the top section of this band. In order to get top marks, you need to add a little more sophistication and clarity in your response. This may be due to the online nature of this assessment and completing this on a computer may have impacted how you structured your essay. Consider interweaving your paragraphs of both CSPs within the same paragraph rather than two standalone paragraphs.

 

2) Read the mark scheme for this assessment carefully - in particular the indicative or suggested content. Identify three specific points that you could have made in your response.

trailer of the game - sci fi genre - new and different - Neale's repetition and difference

The social media page for Sims being an example for simulacra 

metroid nostalgia links to the marketing of the game - hints to Star Wars

3) Now read this exemplar answer. Write one thing that you can learn from this exemplar - it could be content, structure, writing style or something else. 

CSP-specific knowledge (knowing the details behind the game's development)

4) Use your own response, the mark scheme, the exemplar essay and any other resources you wish to use to write a new essay plan for this question. Make sure you are planning at least four well-developed paragraphs in addition to an introduction and conclusion.

P1: Sims - Audience + Language 

P2: Sims - Industry + Representation

P3: Metroid: Audience + Language 

P4: Metroid: Industry + Representation

P: Metroid uses a sense of nostalgia to attract its audience through intertextaul references and age-specific marketing 

E: Star Wars-like text on the front cover, the trailer for the game stating that it was an FPS but also had a new four-player mode

T: Steave Neale's repetition and difference 

A: using new and old game modes to bring in audience creates a liminal space between the target audience and the developing 'new' audience

L: the way the game was marketed as an FPS game but also featured new modes cements how the genre is used as a device through which the audience are attracted through the marketing of the product.

5) Finally, identify three key areas you plan to revise for Videogames for the in-class assessment on Videogames after Easter. 

better acedemic writing

small trivial facts

link more to the question

(industry + audience)

Daily Mail case study: Blog tasks

 Work through the following tasks to complete your case study on the Daily Mail and specifically the 31 January edition of the newspaper. 

Daily Mail analysis: Friday 31 January 2020

Use your notes from the lesson to answer the following questions - bullet points/note form is fine.

1) What is the front page story on the 31 January 2020 edition of the Daily Mail and how is it presented?

Brexit has finally happened

- British flag for patriotism 

- image of the White Cliffs of Dover - patriotic symbol of victory

- there's only one news story on the cover - hinting at the importance of this event 

2) From your analysis in class, what other stories and topics are covered in this edition of the Daily Mail? Focus on the following pages:

• Page 2-3
• Page 4-5
• Pages 6-7
• Page 8-9
• Pages 38-39

3) Media language: Write an analysis of the construction of the Daily Mail front page: Page design, font, text, images, conventions, hard news/soft news, news values etc.

- the news shifts from hard to soft as you progress through the edition

- classic newspaper colour scheme (black+white) with occasional hints of blue, yellow, and red to highlight things

- Serif font for a classic look, easy to read, reinforces the older readership requirements

- images all pertain to a strong national affiliation with a right-wing bias - images seem, to dominate the page's content suggesting an intentional emphasis

- the pull out quotes also affirm the newspaper's political stance

- news values: familiarity; Brexit concerns the UK, ambiguity; we wanted it to happen but didn't know when it was actually going to be decided

- use of red implies that readers should pay attention to this

4) Narrative: How is narrative used in this edition of the Daily Mail? Look at the selection of news: is there an ongoing narrative? How is narrative created by the paper to engage an audience?

- Brexit's ongoing narrative refers to the impacts it'll have on Brits and what readers could;d expect in the coming months and years

- a pro-right wing narrative is supported by the inclusion of mainly Tory politicians, including Farage

- right at the end there isn't much to do with Brexit, it just transitions into the gossip and lifestyle section

5) Ideology and audience: What ideologies are present in the newspaper? Is the audience positioned to respond to stories in a certain way?

- capitalist right wing ideologies 

- a majority of the Daily Mail's readers lean towards the right of the political spectrum

- use of striking, often controversial quotes suggest a clickbait tendency for the editors



Factsheet 175 - Case Study: The Daily Mail (Part 1)

Read Media Factsheet 175: Case Study: The Daily Mail (Part 1) and complete the following questions/tasks. Our Media Factsheet archive is on the Media Shared drive: M:\Resources\A Level\Media Factsheets or online here (you'll need your Greenford Google login).

1) What news content generally features in the Daily Mail?

lifestyle, politics, gossip, a blend of hard and soft news, British interests, anti-Labour columnists

2) What is the Daily Mail’s mode of address? 

outspoken, hyperbolic, expresses fustration of readers, simple sentence structures

3) What techniques of persuasion does the Daily Mail use to attract and retain readers?

practical (bribery), emotional(reducing or instigating fear), association (celeb endorsement)

4) What is the Daily Mail’s editorial stance?

81% of the UK public say that DM is right wing, 44% say it;s very right wing

5) Read this brilliant YouGov article on British newspapers and their political stance. Where does the Daily Mail fit in the overall picture of UK newspapers? 

The DM is seen as very right wing, compared to the Guardian, it's on the opposite end of the spectrum 


Factsheet 177 - Case Study: The Daily Mail (Part 2)

Now read Media Factsheet 177: Case Study: The Daily Mail (Part 2) and complete the following questions/tasks.

1) How did the launch of the Daily Mail change the UK newspaper industry?

Harmsworth introduced new technologies into the production

process. He raised revenue from carefully targeted marketing and

developed national distribution on a larger scale than previously

existed.

He also added a smaller section called 'Tit-Bits' which featured stories you'd find on a magazine, making the newspaper industry a little more accessible

2) What is the 'inverted pyramid of journalism' and why is it important to the way the Daily Mail and Mail Online presents news?

presenting the most important news first so that readers can digest information quickly, it'll be important to the DM as they want to push forward their ideologies and values as fast as they can so that the reader can be more passive in their consumption

3) What company owns the Daily Mail? What other newspapers, websites and brands do they own?

DGMT:

Daily MaiL, Mail on Sunday, MailOnline, Mail Plus, Metro, Metro.co.uk, Mail Today

4) Between 1992 and 2018 the Daily Mail editor was Paul Dacre. What does the extract from Dacre’s speech on the freedom of the press tell us about his ideological position?

The press should have more freedom because they contribute to an important part of societal function

5) What is Dacre’s view on the BBC?

The BBC holds too much power and the TV section holds more power than any press segment in the UK, it's necessary for the BBC to act as a PSB but we need more diversity in broadcast journalism 

6) Look at the right-hand side of page 4. Why is the editor of a newspaper so important?

News is a creation of a journalistic process and therefore it

is a commodity.

the way that the gathered information is presented has a massive impact on the circulation and readership

7) Why did Guardian journalist Tim Adams describe Dacre as the most dangerous man in Britain? What example stories does Adams refer to?

He has the power to influence readers which then affect political events

8) How does the Daily Mail cover the issue of immigration? What representations are created in this coverage?

- DM is anti-immigration and uses them as scapegoats for major external threats to the UK

9) How did the Daily Mail cover the murder of MP Jo Cox?

but failures in the social services that led to his depression going untreated. (The Mail subsequently, in November, shamefully, reported news of Mair’s conviction for the only murder of a sitting MP this century on page 29 of the paper, making the case that his motivation appeared to be that “he feared losing his council house to an immigrant family”).

10) What was Dacre’s position on Brexit?

although he agreed with the ethics of Brexit, he thinks that the way that the Tory government handled this situation is extremely problematic. 

Regulation blog tasks

 Newspaper regulation: blog tasks

Task One: Media Magazine article and questions

Read the Media Magazine article: From Local Press to National Regulator in MM56 (p55). You'll find the article in our Media Magazine archive here. Once you've read the article, answer the following questions:

1) Keith Perch used to edit the Leicester Mercury. How many staff did it have at its peak and where does Perch see the paper in 10 years' time?

130 staff - he thinks that it'll be extremely hard to run print weekly because of the increasing costs, online allows for a much more cost effective method

2) How does Perch view the phone hacking scandal?

"The biggest single issue is that something

illegal was going on which obviously

should not have been, and which

wasn’t dealt with by the police, and

unfortunately the resulting actions

have been disproportionate"

He thinks we need something harsher and more impactful than regulation

3) What does IPSO stand for and how does it work?

Independant Press Standards Organisation

A newspaper has 28 days to deal with a complaint which after that point ISPO will intervene and assess if the editors code of conduct has been broken

4) What is Perch's view of newspaper ownership?

He believes there should be a wider spread of newspaper ownership so that one person's ideologies don't get spread to a majority of the country's papers

5) Do you agree with his view that broadcast news should have less regulation so that TV channels can support particular political parties or people?

no because channels like the BBC are not meant to have a bias. I think that if political parties used certain channels in their favour, it could manipulate the audience to vote for the party that appears on the channel they watch mots; despite there being no correlation to their actual political beliefs.


Task Two: Newspaper regulation essay

Write an essay on your blog answering the following question:

What are the arguments for and against statutory regulation of the newspaper industry? 

The UK newspaper industry has been the centre for a lot of press coverage ironically due to the way it regulates and controls the content which is being printed. Between Rupert Murdoch and Lord Rothermere, they own over 50% of the UK's newspaper brands. This includes newspapers such as The Sun, Metro, and The Times. So it's no surprise that the influence of these extremely rich men could have a vast impact on the way content is written nationwide. Certain political bias may also occur due to the capitalist nature of newspaper ownership. This is where regulation comes in - it's needed right now. We need to regulate our newspapers because without the statutory significance, we would simply repeat the evens of 2011 where The News of The World shut its doors due to the controversial phone hacking scandal. This incident brought around the Leveson inquiry, a process in which over 100 journalist and newspaper owners were interviewed by court to delve deeper into the regulation of the newspapers. The result of this enquiry was the creation of two new statutory regulatory bodies - IPSO and Impress. Although presented with firms IPSO and Impress, all newspapers chose IPSO as a regulator as it's not backed by any legal punishment, IPSO is merely a front for the same offences, just under another name. Accoprding to IPSO, The Daily Mail has only received two complaints since IPSO's establishment in 2014. Therefore, I can confidently say that the newspaper industry required a sense of regulation because the manipulative measures taken by certain accountability journalists were tarnishing the reputation of the newspaper industry. As I have mentioned before, the editors and owners of a certain publication can significantly impact the political bias and the content it puts out. For instance, The Daily Mail is owned by Johnathan Harmsworth, 4th Viscount of Rothermere, this already tells us he comes from a line of wealthy aristocrats so it's certain that there is no shortage of money. The political bias of TDM has always leaned to the right wing as suggested by their special edition Brexit edition which celebrated the "liberation" of Britain, harking back to a wartime-like front cover. This is just one example that shows you that if newspapers aren't regulated enough, they could be used as fuel for hate groups with an agenda. 

Conversely, you have the side that supports free speech. With the common sense of the newspaper's editors and it's loyal reader base, you already have the basis for no regulation. If newspapers are regulated. you silence and suppress the freedom of speech which countries like the UK heavily pride itself on. If readers do not like a certain newspaper for its values, they could stop reading it, this minimises the need for regulation because the public won't be exposed to that specific ideology. Furthermore, the regulation of newspapers might suppress the accuracy of the information that is being given - it could also demoralise the writers at the newspaper because their work might not be included, reducing the quality of the content. 

To conclude, I think that the newspaper industry SHOULD be regulated but not to an extent where freedom of speech becomes a social/political device. 

News Values: Blog tasks

 Read Media Factsheet 76: News Values and complete the following questions/tasks. 

Our Media Factsheet archive is available here - you'll need your Greenford Google login to access.

1) Come up with a news story from the last 12 months for each of the categories suggested by Harriss, Leiter and Johnson:

• Conflict - the conflict in Armenia and Azerbaijan 
• Progress - legalisation of gay marriage in some countries 
• Disaster - COVID 19
• Consequence - Californian forest fires
• Prominence - Sean Connery's death 
• Novelty - world's oldest meteor lands in UK garden

2) What example news story does the Factsheet use to illustrate Galtung and Ruge's News Values? Why is it an appropriate example of a news story likely to gain prominent coverage?

Asylum seekers could pose a threat to culture, safety of a country at stake. The story cements fearful views. 

3) What is gatekeeping?

the process of filtering imformation prior to disemination

4) What are the six ways bias can be created in news?

selection + omission - editor's bias 

placement - where it is in the newspaper (front or back page)

headline - it's the most important part of the front cover

photos, captions, and camera angles - certain photos can be deceiving

names - media often use labels and titles to describe people, places, and events

choice of words - negative or positive connotations

5) How have online sources such as Twitter, bloggers or Wikileaks changed the way news is selected and published?

They have a much bigger sense of transparency as they are doing it for no profit, it doesn't matter to them whether a story is relevant or not

6) Complete the task on the last page of the Factsheet regarding Sky News and Twitter:

• What does this reveal about how Sky views Twitter as a news source?

Immediacy is key to the spread of important news

• What does it say about how news is being produced?

Citizen journalism is the fastest growing type

• What role does the audience have in this process?

they are the creators and sharers of this news

• Why might this be a problem for journalistic standards?

normal citizens lack the journalistic knowledge

 

7) In your opinion, how has the digital age changed Galtung and Ruge’s news values? 

It's decreased the reliability of the news values such as elite nations, it could bring in national bias. Citizen journalism decreases the value of news values. 

8) How would you update them for 2018? Choose TWO of Galtung and Ruge's news values and say how they have been affected by the growth of digital technology.

ambiguity - posts on social media, especially from bystanders, make a developing situation much more clearer for news companies

 exclusivity - social media leaks may prevent exclusives developing

E.g. Immediacy is more important than ever due to news breaking on Twitter or elsewhere online. However, this in turn changes the approach of other news sources such as newspapers as the news will probably already be broken so different angles might be required. Newspapers now contain more comment or opinion rather than the breaking story.

The Future of Journalism: Blog tasks

 Go to the Nieman Lab webpage (part of Harvard university) and watch the video of Clay Shirky presenting to Harvard students. The video is also available on YouTube below but the Nieman Lab website has a written transcript of everything Shirky says. 

Play the clip AND read along with the transcript below to ensure you are following the argument. You need to watch from the beginning to 29.35 (the end of Shirky's presentation). Once you've watched and read the presentation and made notes (you may want to copy and paste key quotes from the transcript which is absolutely fine), answer the questions below:

1) Why does Clay Shirky argue that 'accountability journalism' is so important and what example does he give of this?

Because of budgeting, newspapers' capacity to produce accountability journalism is reducing

He uses the priest pedophile example o show that the reporters did not know whether the story would have substance ie. the priest would be charged or bailed.

2) What does Shirky say about the relationship between newspapers and advertisers? Which websites does he mention as having replaced major revenue-generators for newspapers (e.g. jobs, personal ads etc.)?

"Best Buy was not willing to support the Baghdad bureau because Best Buy cared about news from Baghdad. They just didn’t have any other good choices."

advertising in newspapers is becoming an unlikely occurrence 

newspapers were less motivated to do "long-range, high-risk work"

3) Shirky talks about the 'unbundling of content'. This means people are reading newspapers in a different way. How does he suggest audiences are consuming news stories in the digital age?

, the decision about what to bring together into a bundle is made by the consumer and not at the level — and not by the producer.

more active consumers 

4) Shirky also talks about the power of shareable media. How does he suggest the child abuse scandal with the Catholic Church may have been different if the internet had been widespread in 1992?

It would have been shared a lot of times and become a stale story. Spreading the news to more people makes it a more trending story

So the ability to reuse and republish that material was a huge part of the battle.

5) Why does Shirky argue against paywalls? 

He thinks that the newspapers put profit over the quality of the news. Of course, people have to be paid, but the public reuse Shirky mentions should mean that the reporters get paid a lot.

6) What is a 'social good'? In what way might journalism be a 'social good'?

Shining a light on something that people may have not known

7) Shirky says newspapers are in terminal decline. How does he suggest we can replace the important role in society newspapers play? What is the short-term danger to this solution that he describes?

- the digital age can reduce the load of the investigative journalism by spreading it out on a smaller model

- it is something that'll make users complacent to news

- accountability journalism will decline massively

8) Look at the first question and answer regarding institutional power. Give us your own opinion: how important is it that major media brands such as the New York Times or the Guardian continue to stay in business and provide news?

 I think that these major companies should use their platforms to spread reliable and quality journalism, albeit without the use of a paywall might mean that users will be put off using it and then switch to other competitors. I think that the money generated by these brands should be distributed a little more wider so that areas that accountability journalism is taken seriously by the public.

Blog tasks: The decline in print media

 Part 1: Ofcom report into news consumption 2019

Read this Ofcom 2019 report on the consumption of news in the UK. Note down the key statistics and changes that Ofcom highlight and answer the following questions (bullet points/short answers are fine):

1) Look at the key findings from the report on pages 2-3. How do UK adults generally get their news?

They get their news from platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and Instagram 

2) Read the overall summary for adults on pages 7-8. What do you notice about the changing way adults are getting their news?

Print is in decline, TV is the most popular source of news, social media is increasingly becoming the most used platform.

3) Look at the summary of platforms used on page 13. What do you notice about newspapers and how has it changed since 2018?

The internet is the only one that has increased, the rest, including print, are declining very quickly.

4) Now look at the demographic summary for news platforms on page 15. What audience demographic groups (e.g. age, social class) are most and least likely to read newspapers?

males read more newspapers than females

people aged around 65 are most likely to read print news

It's the least popular method amongst the ABC1 and C2DE groups

5) Read Section 3 on cross-platform news consumption (page 20). What newspaper brands can you find in the list of most popular news sources across platforms?

Daily Mail

The Sun

The Guardian

Metro

6) Now turn to Section 6 focusing on newspapers (page 33). How has the circulation of national newspapers decreased between 2010 and 2018?

The total market has fallen from 21.9 million in 2010 to 10.4 million in 2018, just over 50% decline

7) What are the most-used newspaper titles?

Metro

The Guardian

Daily Mail

8) What are the most popular titles when print and online figures are combined (look at page 38)?

Daily Mail

The Guardian

The Sun

9) How does the i compare to the Daily Mail?

The i has seen no change in readership or circulation whereas in one year the Daily Mail saw a 1% increase in numbers, so not a huge difference between the two newspapers

10) Now study the demographic details for our two CSP newspapers on page 39. What is the breakdown of the Daily Mail audience and the i audience? What differences do you notice?

Daily Mail: a majority of its readers are white, aged 65, and are from a ABC1 or a C2DE background

The 'i': Alot less circulation and popularity, male ABC1 readers,.same white and ethnic minority readership

11) Read section 7 of the report: news consumption via social media (pages 40-52). Pick out three statistics from this section that you think are interesting and explain why.

Facebook is still the most [popular news source on social media - FB is seen as an ageing platform with a lot of older users, it's surprising that it's still the most popular, compared to Twitter.

Trending news stories are most shown on Twitter - the retweet function helps to spread news faster even though it might be fake

The BBC and Sky News are 1st and 2nd respectively in terms of the most used source of news - these are two British PSBs which practice two different levels of news - public and commercial.

12) Look at the summary of readers' attitudes for newspapers on page 76. What statements do Daily Mail readers tend to agree with?

It's an important part of their life, high quality, and it informs the readers with current affairs really well. Although it's not as high as its competitors, the Daily Mail isn't the worst on the table.

Part 2: Factsheet - The death of print media

Go to our Media Factsheet archive and open Factsheet 165: The death of print media. Our Media Factsheet archive is on the Media Shared drive: M:\Resources\A Level\Media Factsheets or you can find it online here - you'll need to log in using your Greenford Google login.

Read the Factsheet and complete the following questions/tasks (bullet points/short answers are fine):

1) What has happened to print media in the last 30 years?

Print media was one of the biggest industries in the world but as soon as audiences could get their news for free and at a greater convenience 

2) Why is the Independent newspaper such a good case study for the decline in print media?

The Independent was one of the UK's biggest newspapers but as time drew on, many newspapers made the switch to digital much faster than the Independent and it was closed down a few years ago because it wasn't an economically sound idea.

3) What was the Independent newspaper famous for?

unorthodox front pages and not being politically biased

4) What did the then-owner of the Independent, Evgeny Lebedev, say about the newspaper's digital-only future?

“The newspaper industry is changing, and that change is being driven by readers. They’re showing us that the future is digital. This decision preserves the Independent brand and allows us to continue to invest in the high quality editorial content that is attracting more and more readers to our online platforms.”

5) How do online newspapers make money?

cookies, brand deals, sponsored articles

6) What did the Independent's longest-serving editor Simon Kelner warn regarding the switch to digital?

 “For me, the power of the Independent came from the variety of voices, the originality in its design and the iconoclastic feel of the paper. It is very difficult to replicate that in digital form. And it is even more difficult to do that with a paper like the Independent.

7) What is the concern with fake news? What does 'post-truth' refer to?

That it will have a much larger prominence than real, genuine news. The websites are easy to set up and free, increasing the likelihood of fake news as readership online grows to record numbers

8) What is your view on the decline in print media? Should news be free? Is it a concern that established media brands such as the Independent can no longer afford to exist as a printed newspaper?

I think that the technological revolution has made sure that traditional print media is now a thing of the past. It's something that the industry should have seen coming but alas it was unavoidable. The audience should pay for its news if it wants quality news reporting but social media has made the public think that their citizen reporting has put paywall journalism to rest.