Notes & quotes
Why print remains dominant
“It’s the passion and beliefs and ruthless
investigative journalism of papers like the Mail, the Times and the Guardian
that will decide on which battlegrounds the campaign is fought, and therefore
play a key role in deciding who will win,”
This quote from journalist Ed Amory expresses his
opinion of why print Is still a dominant medium for things like political
campaigns and votes/elections.
“This technological tsunami has been mirrored
by a collapse in trust in traditional media. In the UK, the former editor of
the News of the World went to jail for presiding over a culture
of phone hacking, and the Leveson inquiry that followed that hacking has
precipitated an ongoing row over the regulation of UK newspapers, exposing the
once mighty British press to increasing legal and political scrutiny,”
Decisions …
“But with fewer people buying a daily print
newspaper, does an endorsement from the Sun, or any other title, really woo
voters?”
How influential are the newspaper front pages?
Arguably by themselves not so much but when their front pages are posted on
social media and featured on national and local tv news channels.
"In the case of the EU referendum, I think a
lot of its readers are probably already decided."
I disagree with this statement as the uk was very
divided on the issue in the build up to the referendum making the newspapers
job even more important.
TNS poll showed that on 23rd may one month before the referendum
16% of people were still undecided.
‘The Sun, which had waged a vitriolic campaign
against his Labour rival Neil Kinnock, claimed the
glory. When the paper switched sides and backed Labour's Tony
Blair in 1997, it was again seen as a key moment.’
‘Tom Felle, a lecturer in journalism at City
University, believes the Sun may historically have been good at reading the
mood of the country and backing a winner - but he questions whether it ever had
the power to sway opinion.’
‘In fact, it's as likely that the Sun echoes its
readers as influences them, professor of politics at the University of
Strathclyde John Curtice says’
List of uk newspapers and what side of political
spectrum they are on.
Rupert Murdoch
“I once asked Rupert Murdoch why he was so
opposed to the European Union. 'That’s easy,' he replied. 'When I go into
Downing Street they do what I say; when I go to Brussels they take no notice,”
Owner of the sun having this kind of opinion
‘But today (16 June), front page stories in half
the national newspaper market favoured Leave, with no front-page stories
clearly favouring Remain.’
A week before the referendum and newspapers in
favour of Brexit with remain campaign failing to be promoting itself.
An article summarising each papers opinion on the
referendum decision
‘A recent Oxford university study found that of 928 articles taken
from the first two months of the referendum campaign, 45% supported Brexit
while only 27% backed remaining in the EU, leaving 19% undecided and 9%
concentrating on other stories.’
Already at this stage and newspapers are already choosing which
side to support and beginning to sway public opinion.
‘The report said "established news brands continue to
resonate most with readers everywhere".’
This is suggesting that newspapers are still dominant in
influencing public opinion.
‘There's also the view that if someone is constantly exposed to such
coverage, then it is almost certain that one will be pushed in one direction or
another. Although some claim that with newspapers in particular, people are
already choosing to read titles based on their established political views.’
Pretty self explanatory.
‘there are over 18 million daily newsbrand readers in the UK and
82% of people believe that newspapers have 'power and influence' over their
readers.’
‘As Ian Whittaker, head of European media research at Liberum,
said: "The EU Referendum should be positive for newspapers as businesses.
In the short-term, it will have helped to boost circulation revenues given the
huge public demand for in-depth news and analysis of the Brexit vote and its
consequences; and in the medium to long-term, it will be taken as a
demonstration of how much influence newspapers still have, which is a
persuasive argument to use with advertisers.’
Why print remains dominant
“It’s the passion and beliefs and ruthless
investigative journalism of papers like the Mail, the Times and the Guardian
that will decide on which battlegrounds the campaign is fought, and therefore
play a key role in deciding who will win,”
This quote from journalist Ed Amory expresses his
opinion of why print Is still a dominant medium for things like political
campaigns and votes/elections.
“But with fewer people buying a daily print
newspaper, does an endorsement from the Sun, or any other title, really woo
voters?”
How influential are the newspaper front pages?
Arguably by themselves not so much but when their front pages are posted on
social media and featured on national and local tv news channels.
"In the case of the EU referendum, I think a
lot of its readers are probably already decided."
I disagree with this statement as the uk was very
divided on the issue in the build up to the referendum making the newspapers
job even more important.
TNS poll showed that on 23rd may one month before the referendum
16% of people were still undecided.
List of uk newspapers and what side of political
spectrum they are on.
Rupert Murdoch
“I once asked Rupert Murdoch why he was so
opposed to the European Union. 'That’s easy,' he replied. 'When I go into
Downing Street they do what I say; when I go to Brussels they take no notice,”
Owner of the sun having this kind of opinion
could be quite damaging as it would suggest he has too much power.
‘The Sun, which came out last week with a union
jack-draped front cover urging its readers to “BeLeave in Britain” and at 6am
on Friday published “See EU later”, did not rise against the EU alone. British
newspapers were overwhelmingly in favour of Brexit, with the Mail, Telegraph,
Express and Star accounting for four times as many readers and anti-EU stories
as their pro-remain rivals.’
‘In recent weeks, as the polls got closer, the
desire to highlight what newspapers considered the worst excesses of the EU’s
freedom of movement laws led to some horrible errors. The Mail was forced to run a correction to a front page story that
claimed that a group of migrants were from Europe when video footage showed
members of the group, which included three children, say they are from Iraq and
Kuwait. Other papers, including the Sun, reported the same story. ‘
‘This argument - that the “liberal elite”
professed expertise but were out of touch with real people – was made not just
by newspaper editorials but by Ukip leader Nigel Farage. As another tabloid
editor said: “If you’d listened to Twitter or Facebook there would have been a
massive vote for In.”’
This quote suggests that on social media the
information was more accurate and when reading it you’d more likely be leaning
towards the remain campaign.
“The media has more influence in telling people
what to think about than telling them what to think” said David Deacon,
Loughborough’s professor of communication and media analysis.
‘And yet there is evidence that, despite such
declining readerships and lack of trust, the press still sets the agenda. Where
the newspapers lead on issues, far more trusted broadcasters follow. The latest
research from Loughborough University’s centre for research in communication
and culture found that issues which dominated the press also led the television
news.’
This is suggesting that despite the press loosing
most of its readership it still heavily influences whats on broadcast news and
with most people getting their news from there the press still has a large
influence.
“Inaccurate stories like this lead to a toxic
public debate which very much affects how we treat refugees and migrants who
are often in fear for their lives and futures. We are pleased this has been
corrected, but we cannot continue to set our nation’s policy in a context of
half-truths and headline grabbing distortions of reality.’
This was a common scene and accurate and
factual information was difficult to come by during the build up to the
referendum.
‘IT'S THE SUN WOT SWUNG IT
Our paper led
the fight against the EU and had the strongest influence on people voting for
Leave
It said 30
per cent of them were most motivated by our Brexit campaign’
The sun
claiming responsibility again for swinging a political vote, however during the
leverson inquiry Murdoch revealed that the front page released after the 1992
general election ‘it’s the sun wot won it’ had no weight behind it and was a
mistake but yet again they’re boasting on their front page for swinging a
political vote.
‘Twenty years
later, the Sun’s owner, Rupert Murdoch, downplayed this boast, describing
it to Lord Justice Leveson as ‘tasteless
and wrong’.
No wonder. Murdoch did not want Leveson to subject the press to the same
social responsibilities as other elements of our democracy. ‘We don’t have
that sort of power’, he protested, with characteristic humility.’
Reinforcing
the point made above.
‘The Sun does
not clarify which elements of their journalism constituted their
‘Brexit campaign’. Did it include their front-page claim that ‘Queen Backs
Brexit’ (found to be inaccurate but still defiantly available on the
Sun’s website)’
‘The results
suggested that newspapers were the fifth most influential source of
influence with 44 percent of the public saying that newspapers would be likely
to shape their views as opposed to 34 percent saying that they were unlikely to
be influenced by them.’
This
poll suggests that newspapers are still quite influential and combine this with
their presence on broadcast media it can make them very influential especially
with a referendum with a high turnout like this…
‘The evidence
suggests that overall the influence of newspapers during the referendum is most
likely to have helped the Leave Campaign. In 1975 (the last time that the UK
voted on its relationship with Europe) the Prime Minister, Harold Wilson, had
the support of all the main newspapers, with just the Morning Star and the
Spectator Magazine urging its readers to support leave the European
Community. This time David Cameron and the Remain campaign faces
opposition from the Sun and the Daily Mail, two of the biggest selling newspapers,
as well as the Daily Telegraph - the biggest selling quality daily - and the
Sunday Times and the Express Group of newspapers.’
This is
important as it refers to the historical text and confirms that the newspapers
had more of an affect for the leave campaign, this is most likely got something
to do with voter demographics and psychographics as the type of people to read
pro-brexit papers like the sun are also more likely to regularly read the paper
instead of getting their information online, and ultimately vote leave in the
referendum. (go back and check previous homework with statistics)
‘Newspaper readers tend to vote for parties that broadly represent
their interests, in the same way they buy newspapers that broadly speak to
their interests’
This quote suggests that newspapers influence people that already have
the same views as the newspaper, the same way they vote for political parties
however, during the eu referendum when most political parties were split the
newspapers chose clear sides in the debate with major newspapers showing
support for the leave campaign and potentially swinging voters that were split
along with their parties.
‘In the last 70 years, Labour and the Conservatives have been in power
for nine terms each. In all that time the Daily Telegraph and the Daily Mail
have never supported Labour during elections, and the Daily Mirror has never
supported any party except Labour. The Times have been broadly supportive of
Conservative lead governments, except in 2001 and 2005, whereas the Guardian
has been broadly supportive of Labour or Liberal Democrat governments in every
campaign since the early 1950s’
This would suggest that newspapers typically back a particular party
year in year out like the mail and the telegraph, although the sun is known for
changing its support for a political party and with this being one of the most
influential newspapers what party it supports is quite significant.
Critical Investigation Task #1
Issues/debates
Hate
crimes stemming from result of EU referendum, the sun not making obvious link
to brexit as a supporter of it.
Lack of
censorship because of freedom of speech meant newspapers could lie on their
front pages.
‘The
brother of the Polish man claims he was attacked by the teenagers because
they heard him speaking in his mother tongue’
70% of the UK national market is controlled by just three companies (News UK, Daily Mail and General Trust, and Trinity Mirror), with Rupert Murdoch’s News UK fully holding a third of the entire market share.
http://www.mediareform.org.uk/media-ownership/the-elephant-in-the-room
News Corp. controls 20% of the market share across all UK media outlets, almost twice that of the public service news services provided by the BBC.
News Corp. controls 20% of the market share across all UK media outlets, almost twice that of the public service news services provided by the BBC.
Theories
Semiotics
Enigma codes and action codes difficult to take out of print text
Marxism and hegemony
Marxist or Liberal pluralist approach would involve the media acting without outside influence from the government, it is also suggesting that the media to the best they can to give a fair and balanced approach to ongoing and past events.
The term hegemony refers to the dominance of social classes over other.
Audience theories
Blumler&Katz- people use newspapers for surveillance/information also for integration/social interaction as what people have seen in the newspaper is a topic for people to talk about though this isnt as common anymore when things like forums and comment sections exist online.
Demographics, groups
for the newspapers in question it ranges from ABCDE-1234 and of all ages but readership is most heavily concentrated among older people 55+
Semiotics
Enigma codes and action codes difficult to take out of print text
Marxism and hegemony
Marxist or Liberal pluralist approach would involve the media acting without outside influence from the government, it is also suggesting that the media to the best they can to give a fair and balanced approach to ongoing and past events.
The term hegemony refers to the dominance of social classes over other.
Audience theories
Blumler&Katz- people use newspapers for surveillance/information also for integration/social interaction as what people have seen in the newspaper is a topic for people to talk about though this isnt as common anymore when things like forums and comment sections exist online.
Demographics, groups
for the newspapers in question it ranges from ABCDE-1234 and of all ages but readership is most heavily concentrated among older people 55+
TEXT 1 ANALYSIS
The sun a ‘swing’ paper owned by
Rupert Murdoch is currently a right leaning paper in terms of the political
spectrum. This front page released just before the EU referendum on the 23rd
june 2016 conveyed the message of ‘pro-brexit’ and anti-EU encouraging the
British people to vote leave in the referendum. The front page is very simple
but has some conative meanings but some of the denotations include the only
word in capital letters being ‘LEAVE’ which emphasises what the sun believe
people should do during the referendum. Moreover, the play on words ‘BeLEAVE’ has
an ambiguous meaning as it sounds like ‘believe’ but also suggests we should
‘leave’ the EU. They want people to believe that Britain can handle itself and
that as a country we can leave the EU but also with ‘leave’ its almost as if
they are commanding their readers to vote this way…most people reading the sun
would most likely vote this way but this could solidify their choice and
possibly influence others. Also, the Union Jack flag in the background of
‘LEAVE’ could evoke patriotism in some of the readers and help to convey the
message of the leave campaign in a subtle way. Moreover, knowing the result of
the referendum now this front page could be seen as an enigma code as the
referendum question is not yet answered and this front page is suggesting that
we as a country leave the EU.
A group known as ‘Scott trust limited’
owns the guardian UK, the paper is left leaning on the political spectrum and
was in support of the remain campaign. The Guardian have a more sophisticated
audience that the sun and they tend to give their audience their information
straight, reinforcing Blumler & Katz audience theory that audiences only
use newspapers for surveillance and information and not entertainment. The
photo used is very significant as it pretty much describes what the Guardians
audience look like; white, middle class, sophisticated and a young audience.
The glasses of wine also suggest the audience is more sophisticated and infers
people who voted for remain are and those who voted to leave are less
sophisticated as they would be out celebrating. A strong central image helps to
bring the readers attention to the disappointment in their faces. Also the
wording of the headline is ambiguous as it tell the reader that Britain is
leaving the EU on paper but also suggests further isolation from Europe as we
‘set course for Brexit’ suggesting we are a vessel about to depart the eu into
‘international’ waters. The simple black, lower cased font of the headline just
get to the point.
The independent owned by legbdevich is a very
left wing paper and arguably socialist. It features a large image of now
secretary of state Boris Johnson taking up the right side of the page and
staring into the distance with his Shadow covering the rest of the page more
dominantly as the article suggests Boris the favourite to be the next Prime
minister. Highlighted in red and in a larger font to the other text on the page
is ‘welcome to Boris island’… this is suggesting that as the UK has voted to
leave the EU because of a campaign largely led by Boris Johnson the UK is now
more isolated than before and being more cut off to Europe than before.
Moreover, this could also refer to an article in 2014 by the Independent
criticising him at the time as mayor of London for wanting to build a new and
environmentally damaging new airport hub in London, the headline was ‘Battle of
Boris island’. The text is plain and simple with no elaborate or vibrant
colours…just the facts of the consequences of the referendum result, something
which the pro-brexit papers haven’t addressed. This appeals to a more
sophisticated audience. A Marxist perspective can be applied here with ‘welcome
to Boris island’ and his shadow cast over the page as it would suggest Boris is
now in control and after convincing the majority of the electorate to vote
leave who knows what he could influence next as the next Prime minister.
The daily express is notably a right
wing paper and showing clear support for Brexit, similar to The suns front page
pre-referendum the union jack dominates the colour scheme in the background and
again evokes patriotism in the readers. All text is in capital letters
suggesting they are proud of the referendum result and they are making this
clear to the readers by having this in the centre of the page. Also the daily
express are saying that the brexit campaign has been, ‘worlds most successful
newspaper crusade ends in glorious victory for your daily express’ this reinforces
Marxist views on the media and news that they have too much power and audiences
are passive to this soaking up to everything they say.
‘setting the agenda, Author Maxwell
McCombs, first published in 2004, polity press, November 27th
2016. https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=VAHXAgAAQBAJ&pg=PT16&lpg=PT16&dq=the+news+media+can+set+the+agenda+for+public+thought+and+discussion.+Sometimes+the+media+does+more+than+this&source=bl&ots=xE3B5IPt5M&sig=9SUqxv7LJ3dHUy4kf1OGxULJWGM&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiM78PX6dDQAhUmBMAKHVREB6cQ6AEIHTAA#v=onepage&q=the%20news%20media%20can%20set%20the%20agenda%20for%20public%20thought%20and%20discussion.%20Sometimes%20the%20media%20does%20more%20than%20this&f=false
‘All I know is what I read in the newspaper’(Will rogers) page 1
‘the news media can set the agenda for public thought and
discussion, sometimes they do more than that’ page 2
‘The 1973 oil crisis in Germany resulted from a sharp rise in
demand stimulated by intense press coverage, not from any critical decrease in
supply’ similar to migrant crisis being blown out of
proportion by british press creating moral panics’ page 27
The political communication reader james stayner, first published in 2007
published by routledge, 28th noviembre 2016
‘overall during the 1997 campaign more than twice as many people
were reading newspapers that backed labour as we're reading one that supported
the conservatives’ page 164
‘ Britains highly partisan press’ (Dalton et al 1998) page 164
HISTORICAL TEXT
-This front
page from the sun in 1997 reveals who the sun would be supporting in the 1997
general election, sun known as a swing paper at the time showed clear support
for a labour government which now has changed rapidly to now support further
right wing ideologies and the conservative party, this election ended with tony
blair winning with a landslide majority. 30% more major british newspapers
supported the labour party in this election including the sun which repeatedly
had front pages diminishing the conservative government.
In 2016
the paper with the highest average circulations is the sun at 1.7 million and
in 1997 it was also the sun at 3.8 million. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_newspapers_in_the_United_Kingdom_by_circulation#20th_century
