News Question 3 Answer

Explain how the political content in which newspapers are produced, influences their ownership and regulation. Refer to The Guardian and the Daily Mail to support your answer. [10 marks]

The Guardian is a Quality Newspaper, therefore, the tone of the newspaper needs to be informative and formal. This idea is enforced by the fact that the headlines are usually direct and factual headline). The audience knows how high the quality of the article with the amount of text for the article as Quality newspapers is text led. This is needed because the newspaper heavily supports left wing so political and international stories need to be in detail. Therefore, because of the article they cover, their audience is people who are typically from higher social groups. The Guardian is owned by the Scott Trust Limited which consists of a group of people, therefore, the magazine features a range of opinions so that it is not biased. The print newspaper is heavily regulated by IPSO. This means that the articles The Guardian is producing are thoroughly checked so that it is not biased, and it ticks the boxes of the rules that they have set out to make sure that it is classified as newsworthy.

However, in Source A, The Sun has used a play on words for their headlines. This is typical for The Sun to use this because they are considered as a company who produces Popular Newspapers. They feature celebrities (as this attracts most of the audience). Their tone is informal and uses jokes in their headlines. Because of this, the newspaper is typically aimed at a lower social group. The magazine is largely image led. Furthermore, Popular Newspaper tends to be informative about their headlines so there could be bias when the audience reads the article. The Daily Mail is owned by the Daily Mail Group which makes it a conglomerate that is owned by Lord Rothermere. He is officially known to be a press baron meaning that men (typically white) having a great deal of power in their possession. Unluckily for the Daily Mail, the print newspaper is regulated by Ofcom and they have reported that they are not as efficient as IPSO. Because of this, the online service of the Daily Mail tends to have a phenomenon called fake news which simply means inaccurate information is being published to the public for consumption.

Further News Revision

Q1 & 2

• Both refer to  unseen source 
• 2 sources - 1 quality, 1 popular
• Same story

Q1

• Shorter (10 marks)
• Apply a theory of representation to the sources (slide 14)

Q2

• Detailed deconstruction of media language (layout connection, images, etc) 
• No theory
• Compare sources

Q3

• 10 marks
• Doesn't refer to the case studies of The Guardian or The Daily Mail

Question 3: context, ownership, audience

In this question you will be asked to refer to your set products: The Guardian and The Daily Mail.  You will touch on ownership, audiences and contexts (social, cultural, political, economic, historical). This could include the following:

• News is shaped by how it is produced, distributed and circulated.
• Digitally convergent media has been a key factor in change /development
• Ownership, regulation, and funding structures all affect the news
• Define audiences (demographic, psychographics / lifestyle)
• How news attracts, targets, reaches and addresses audience
• How audiences interpret the news in varying ways

Distribution and circulation

• *The newspaper industry is commercial in nature unlike the public service remit of some other industries e.g. BBC broadcasting. Effects news how?

  *Online news converges with social media, which means that the institutions Facebook / Instagram / twitter can also influence the selection and mediation of news from dailymail.co.uk and theguardian.co.uk.

Examples of recent news stories from the Daily Mail and The Guardian which have been widely shared on their social media and the meaning mediated / shared / commented on / gone viral?

• Grenfell fakes exposed by mail online. December 2018
• Video of Bali deep-sea diver brought by the guardian. Went viral and led to a cleaning-up campaign March
• Momo hoax-post modern example. 2018. Went viral but it was fake news
• Segregated play areas - March 2019. The Guardian led to rapid change/social action.

Question 1 and 2 for the News

Question 1

Analyse the different representations of gender, social class and / or ethnicity in Sources A and B. Apply one appropriate theory of representation in your answer. [10 marks]

Answer:

Both Sources A and B covers the royal family. Source A covers that there is another person that looks like Meghan Markle and warning Prince Harry to not get fooled by her while Source B welcomes Markle as well as her mother into the royal family.

Both sources covers different social classes as the public can argue that Meghan as well as her family are from the upper class and the Prince Harry is from the upper class. It is the first time a Royal will be marrying a person from a different social class therefore this is one of the reasons why their engagement is groundbreaking and it is historic as future generations will be remembered of the marriage of 2 different classes.

Furthermore, both sources also portray the fact that Prince Harry is also the first Royal who is marrying another person of a different race. Prince Harry is White British whereas Meghan is an mix race African-American who is born by a white father and a black mother. This can also been seen as revolutionary as this is the first time the Royal Family shows some diversity in terms of race.

With both of these points the engagement and Marriage of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle will be remembered for centuries as they have revolutionised the Royal Family.

Question 2

Q2. Sources A and B cover the same news event but are from two different newspapers. How far has the combination of elements of media language influenced meaning in the sources? In your answer you must:

• explain how the combination of elements of media language influences meaning in newspapers

• analyse how media language has been used to construct meaning in the sources

• make judgements and reach conclusions about how far the combination of elements of media language has influenced meaning in the sources. [15 marks]

Answer:
In Source B, since The Times is a Quality Newspaper, the tone of the newspaper is informative and formal. The audience can see this with the headline "Welcome To The Family" (which is a direct and factual headline) as Meghan Markle is walking with her mother to the Royal Family. The audience knows how high the quality of the article with the amount of text for the article as Quality newspapers are text led. This is needed for the political and international stories that the newspaper covers for example, the international story of Markle (American) marrying a Prince in the Royal Family in England. Therefore, because of the article they cover, their audience are people who are typically from higher social groups.

However, in Source A, The Sun has used play on words for their headline which is "Princess Pushy".  This is typical for The Sun to use this because they are considered as a company who produces Popular Newspapers. They feature celebrities (as this attracts most of the audience). This is argued by the fact that it is an exclusive article which is purposefully titled "Meghan's 'Shallow'"Their tone is informal and use jokes in their headlines such as "Princess Pushy". Because of this, the newspaper is typically aimed at a lower social group. This portrays to the audience that he could be mistaken into marrying the wrong person, in this case, a person who closely resembles Markle. This is further argued by the subheading "Don't fall for my little sis, Harry, she'd be the next". The magazine is largely image led with a large cropped image of both Prince Harry and Markle's look alike. Furthermore, Popular Newspaper tend to be informative about their headlines so there could be bias when the audience reads the article.

To conclude, the way that The Times on Source B uses a subtle headline to accompany this with a heart-warming image really persuades their audience into reading their article that has a huge amount of words in it. However, The Sun (Source A) persuades their audience by using headplay so that they feel rewarded by finding out what it means to further persuade them to read their article instead of their competition. Furthermore, since it is image led, they definitely have the advantage over Quality Newspapers as the audience tends to look out for huge images for front covers which attracts them instead of numerous lines of text which the audience tend to avoid.