Newspapers, Section B Flashcards
Purpose of newspapers
To inform
To help voting decisions
Act as the fourth estate (to criticise and expose gov)
Make money/profit
Engines of social/political change
Sell audiences to advertisers
Bring their owners power/profit
To entertain
How are newspapers funded?
Sponsored content
Advertisement
Subscriptions
Cover price
Challenges facing newspapers financially
Young people
Energy and print costs
Audience engaging more with digital products
Lack of advertisers
How newspapers stay financially viable
Online version to reduce print costs
Making content exclusive
Ask readers/viewers to donate
Advertising marketing and subscription
- On The Times website you can’t read the content unless you subscribe
- The Daily Mirror uses pop up ads through the use of cookies
Rupert Murdock and News Corp
Chairman/CEO of News Corp from 1980-2013
News Corp owns:
- Dow Jones & CO
- Wall Street journal
- New York post
- Fox news
- Fox TV network
- Harper Collins publisher
- 20th century fox studios
News UK (subsidiary of News corp(
News UK owns:
- The Times
- The Sunday Times
- The sun
- The sun on Sunday
- Wireless group: owns talksport, talk radio and virgin radio
Reach PLS
Uk conglomerates
Owns130+ brands including:
- The mirror
- The Sunday mirror
- The express
- The daily star
- Sunday people
The Times context
Published in 1785
By Times newspapers since 1981, a subsidiary of News UK which is owned by News Corp
Neutral stance, right wing leaning
ABC1
65% of readers are AB
35+
Rupert Murdoch is the founder of News Corp, ceo from 1980-2013
Affluent
Middle class
Interested in politics and global affairs
Finance and business content
£55,585 mean family income (of readers)
35+
Read marginally more women than men
Regulation
Newspapers are self-regulating
Papers/magazines/online versions of papers pay a subscription to be part of regulatory bodies, if they choose so
If someone has a complaint they should go to the newspaper first
£1 million fine if they breach the rules
Printed apologies and retractions
Levenson inquiry
News of the world hacked a 13 year old girls voicemails who was murdered
Deleted the texts
Review of the ethics and standards of the British press
Regulatory bodies did not exist
PCC (press complaints commission) were the regulators
Called over 300 people to give evidence in court
Report was 2000 pages long
Complaints weren’t taken seriously enough
Impact
92 different recommendations
Impress follows every one and its an official regulatory body (200 papers)
IPSO is an unofficial body (2000 papers)
0.2% that they will uphold your complaint
IPSO
IPSO look at complaints
If they feel the code has been broken they will ask the paper to deal with it first or will resolve the issue themselves
Have to write to the compliant saying that no breach has been found
Faced criticism as its too closely tied to major publishers
Follow the editors code
Financed by the industry itself, which sets the rules under which it operates
Impress
Indict publishers for hate speech
Investigates a high proportion of complaints
Offers a low-cost arbitration alternative to libel trials
Protecting vulnerable groups and ensuring responsible journalism
Not funded by the industry
Challenges
So many different newspapers
Fine line between regulation and censorship
Taking away from freedom of speech
No parental blocks
Balanced against the potential costs of gov intervention
Don’t have to join
Editors code: public interest
Different countries have different regulatory practices and global papers can be read online
Power of owners
Public interest
Something that is deemed to be in the public interest is ok to publish
