Monday, 15 October 2018

Daily Mail case study: Blog tasks


Newspapers: Daily Mail

Analysis


1) What are the front page stories on the 21 September edition of the Daily Mail?

The front page stories are that Meghan Markle's mother is introduced and Theresa Mays Chequers plan in Salzburg.

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

Pg10: RAF bombers close to UK 'areas of interest'.
- NHS hip and cataract surgery waiting list is getting longer
- Millennial doctors refuse to work extra hours
- about a third of GP's work less than full time hours


Pg3: Bodyguard star Keeley Hawes first rise to recognition photos.


Pg5: Will Self, an established writer and TV personality is going through a messy divorce who also took heroin in former Prime Minister John Major's plane bathroom.


Pg6,7: Theresa May chequers plan gone wrong in Salzburg.


Pg12,13: Megan Markle's mother introduced to the paper with the editors column.


Pg16: Writer with 10 weeks left to retirement is terrified of getting bores. Plus there's an editors note on Brexit.


Pg19: One of Jeremy Corbyn's closest advisers think they are being targeted by MI5 to stop him becoming Prime Minister.


Pg23: One of Strictly Come Dancing's contestants seen clutching ribs in pain during rehearsal.
-1227 stores across British town centres have shut down last year.
-National trust may be forced to remove barbed wire as its a threat to animals and people.



5) Representations: Are any stereotypes reinforced? Is the audience positioned to respond to the stories in a certain way? You should focus on the Brexit and NHS stories (front page, p6-7, p10) as a minimum here.

Stereotypes of millennials being lazy and not working extra hours are positioned to make the audience think that this is one of the reasons the NHS is failing. What will make them even more frustrated is that waiting lists for hip surgery -which is more prominent to take place for 65+ which is the age demographic for the newspaper.


The Brexit view from the Daily Mail shows that the EU are against Theresa May to spite her and reinforcing the reading that the EU is responsible that Brexit has been going poorly.

Factsheet 175

1) What is the history of the Daily Mail?

Was established in 1896 by Alfred Harmsworth who wanted to introduce a new style of journalism aimed at the working classes, focusing on sensationalism.

2) What news content features in the Daily Mail?

A combination of serious hard news and more down-market sensationalised soft news.

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

It is aimed at women s the language and discursive strategies likely applying to women and ABC1 65+ are used. A relationship between the producer and audience are created using textual features for print.
4) What techniques of persuasion does the Daily Mail use to attract and retain readers?

Stir emotions with consumers to promote consensus political and social ideologies. There are three techniques.

Practical: Bribery - using coupons/awards. Longevity: remind consumers of brand and nostalgia for trust.Newness - being new and improved. Ease of use: offering a simple solution to a complex problem.Inexpensive: produce at low price compared to competitors. Luxury: offering consumers a chance to feel rich with abundant content.

Emotional: exaggeration/hyperbole - blow statistics out of proportion. Repetition - reinforce ideologies.Comforting - human interest. Fear - danger to way of life, family, security. Humour - at the expense of the other side of values for an echo chamber effect.

Associations: celebrity endorsement/experts - to convince consumers.


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

Traditionally Conservative party support, criticism of Jeremy Corbyn, criticism of the BBC for having a left-wing stance.

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

It's seen by the majority of being very right-wing at 44pc, with 81pc being right-wing one way or the other. But anyone describing the paper as far right-wing they would consider themselves as far left-wing.

7) What is the Daily Mail’s view of the BBC? What are the possible reasons for this?

They criticise them for being left wing biased. This could be because of the positive coverage they gave him, but also they have to reflect the negative as well. The BBC is seen as being the peoples paper of being unbiased set up by the government. 

8) What controversies have followed Mail columnist Richard Littlejohn? You will need to research this beyond the factsheet.

Death of Lucy Meadows: he criticised a schools decision of keeping a teacher who underwent gender reassignment surgery. He said he sympathised with those who underwent surgery and felt they were 'trapped in a body of the wring sex' but they shouldn't be teachers as it could upset children. In March 2013 she was found dead with the suggestion of suicide. Littlejohn then criticised the school of burying the news of her death. But this was later removed by the Daily Mail and an obituary kept referring to Meadows as a man. It was later revealed she contacted the PCC over press harassment of Littlejohn.

Disabled protester: a 20 year old man with cerebral palsy complained mistreatment by police at a protest. Littlejohn argues he should't have attended the protest and compared him to the character 'Andy Pipkin' from Little Britain.



Factsheet 177

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

News was presented in shorter articles in bite sized boxes with clear headlines. They targeted a specific audience which lead to more deals with advertisers.

2) What is the inverted pyramid of journalism and why was it important in the way the Daily Mail presented news?

A guide to place the order of stories in the newspaper starting with the most important. It allows readers to see if a story applies to them - the Daily Mail can use this as a guide to see what stories will interest readers most by seeing the sales volume.

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

Owned by DMGT (Daily Mail and General Trust plc). Newspaper publishes: Mail on Sunday, Metro, Mail Today(India).


Websites: Mail Online, Mail Plus(app), Metro.co.uk, Mail Travel(travel business - holidays and cruises), Wowcher(online vouchering website), Jobsite (reaches 65pc of UK from tech, finance, sales and admin); and This is Money(private consumer financing advice)

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?

He believes to the full extent that the freedom of the press should be kept to the full extent, to prevent bias from judges and individuals who disagree on topics or who are offended personally shouldn't have a right to dictate what each newspaper should or shouldn't be allowed to say.
The readers should be able to dictate the moral standards a newspaper should uphold when a general consensus of public outcry shows the current standards of society the people want. And if the people disagreed with what a newspapers valued are they simply wouldn't buy the newspapers.
5) What is Dacre’s view on BBC news?

They are a 'state sponsored news service', that has destroyed media plurality and has made it difficult for other news organisations to make people pay for news. They simply have too much power and keep on giving a mono-culture destroying free debate by only giving a left wing approach.


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

The editor dictates the effect of individual producers on the media industries - they dictate the how information is presented that impacts the stance of the newspaper in public perception.
7) Why did Guardian journalist Tim Adams describe Dacre as the most dangerous man in Britain? What example stories does Adams refer to?

Asylum seekers on a boat reaching the coast are described as 'EU killers and racists we have failed to deport'. 'Cameron and his remainers are bringing a townful of knife-wielding Albanian murderers to the home countries'.

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

They see immigration as the evil that is destroying the countries values and bringing threats to the country such as 'rapists and thugs'. These negative representations create fear in consumers to believe that remainers in the UK are creating a society where dangerous people can enter freely.


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

Her killer was a 'Britain first' advocate with a history of 'rage against the perceived evils of multicultural Britain' They reported he was a loner' with a history of mental illness' as they didn't want to create a sense they were ousting a group that buy their newspapers and someone that they had shared valued with on immigration. They put the conviction of the killer on pge 29 - the only murder of an MP this century.

10) What was Dacre’s position on Brexit?

He wanted to leave the EU and to have a 'hard-Brexit'.

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