News

Thursday 14th March 2019                           What is News?

L.O. to critically evaluate the nature of news and news sources.

Purpose of news: 

• to inform, and educate the public about events that are around them and may affect them. 
• news can also be used to make a profit.
• for entertainment purposes.
• to influence and/or persuade the readers.

• Newspapers are not PSB (like the BBC) - they are commercial publications.
• 77.8% of the British press is owned by a handful of billionaires.
• 27.3% of the press is owned by Lord Rothermere
• 24.9% is owned by Rupert Murdoch
• between Lord Rothermere and Rupert Murdoch, they have over 50% of the printed press.
• Newspapers and their online publication (example of synergy/convergence) are not legally obliged to provide an un-bias public information service.
• There are ethical and moral codes of press conduct but the printed press is a self-regulatory industry.

What is fake news?

Fake news is a term given to news that has been made up / fabricated. Fake news has no basis in fact, but is presented as being factually accurate.

How can you spot fake news?

• Consider the source (to understand its mission and purpose)
• Read beyond the headline (to understand the whole story)
• Check the authors (to see if they are real and credible)
• Assess the supporting sources (to ensure they support the claims)
• Check the date of publication (to see if the story is relevant and up to date)
• Ask if it is a joke (to determine if it is meant to be satire)
• Review your own biases (to see if they are affecting your judgement)
• Ask experts (to get confirmation from independent people with knowledge).

Why is there more fake news now than there was in the past?

There is more fake news now than in the past because there are more platforms anyone can use to fabricate a news story. For example, PhotoShop can now be used to create, edit and share false pictures that can be sold to news publishers.

Examples of fake news:

'News is not a spectator sport' - what does Stephens mean?

A spectator sport attracts more spectators than it has competitors. So if news is not a spectator sport it means that there are a lot of competitors and not many spectators, perhaps meaning that there are a lot of news publishers with varying opinions and stories, all fighting for the larger audience. Also, everyone can access the news and contribute to it.

What developments 150 years ago made it possible to make a business out of selling news?

Steam powered printing press could create more newspapers faster so more could be sold for a profit.

As we can now watch news directly from our own ideas and opinions - through CNN and the internet we see the events, hear at first hand the witnesses. Stephens says this is 'a mostly wonderful thing'. Why? Do you agree?

I agree because people can find out about new stories and gain more information quickly, however the 'mostly' is important because although this can be a good thing, it can also be harmful because if a fake news story is published, it is going to spread quickly and people are going to see the false information.


This image shows that eye-witness accounts are often false because people only go off of what they can see (or what they think they can see) and rarely research the whole and true story.

Monday 18th March 2091                           History of the News Industry

L.O critically evaluate the impact of technology in the newspaper industry.

• News is the current events happening in the world. It is to inform, educate and entertain the public on the events going on around them.
• The disadvantages of being a commercial industry is that news publications often sensationalise news stories, and they publish stories that aren't necessarily in the interest of the public, but stories that are interesting to the public, so news is led by whatever sells best.
• The advantages of being a commercial industry is that they can generate a profit through placing advertisements in their products. It is a competitive industry, so we get fast-paced, up to date news quickly.
• The disadvantages of news being self-regulatory is that news can be fabricated, for more sales or more views online, which therefore spreads false information (or 'fake news') around the world.
• The advantages of news being self-regulatory is that news publications can publish whatever they want and whatever they feel is going to generate the largest profit (as long as it is in their guidelines), which in turn can be a disadvantage to the public. They also regulate each other so no one news publication has more influence than the other, and their is no government input that may influence the press.

News Context

• Printing press technology - newspaper were first produced in Germany in the 1600s.
• Early newspapers were controlled by the government, they required permission (the License Act 1643) to be printed.
• The Stamp Act 1712 made them expensive to buy, this meant that news was (a) controlled and (b) available only to those who were wealthy enough.
• Low levels of literacy also restricted the possible readership.
• The French Revolution and the freedom of the American press spread the idea that newspapers can contain opinion as well as fact.
• In the 1800s and during the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, specialist newspapers contained a new type of data (statistics) that were very useful for sophisticated investment decisions of the booming Victorian economy.

• The electric telegraph changed news as it meant news was available quickly from distance locations. Transmissions came into one central location focused on rail tracks - leading to the development of news agencies at these points who specialised in gathering news and selling it onto national and international newspaper. 

• Competition from radio began in the early 1920s. The BBC was formed during the 1926 National Strike. For a period of days, news was not printed and the only news in the uncertain time was BBC radio.
• Newspapers and radio remained the only source of news until the mid-1950s and the introduction and spread of television. By the 60s TV news began to have an increasingly dominant role in how the audiences both accessed and understood news.
• TV had an impact on newspapers who developed their product to meet the challenge, broadening out into more features and backgrounds.
• The development in internet in homes (2000s onwards) has had a similar impact on how audiences access and understand the news. It has provoked a similar response from newspapers in how they have been forced to evolve and how they have developed their product to keep up with he rapid changes in technology from social media's increasing presence.

Exam Style Short Questions:

Do you think newspapers will survive? How long for? What will they need to do to keep making money? (2 marks)

In the long term, I don't think newspapers will survive because of the inventions of new technology, such as television, phones and the internet. Within the next 100 years I think that newspapers will die out, however they can prolong or stop this I think they should make an online website for news, they can make money from this by getting advertisements on their website.

How has technology shaped our access to the news? (4 marks)

As the time has gone by, the population has more ways to access news. For example, the inventions of radio and TV in the early 1900s meant that people could now access the news through a medium that wasn't newspapers. I think that camera phones have been the biggest development because they are portable and wifi or mobile data can be accessed everywhere, so therefore the news can too.

Exam style Longer Question:

What challenges have different forms of technology posed to newspapers and their survival? (10 marks)
Early versions of technology meant that newspapers could thrive and produce hundreds of copies per day. An example being printing press technology as this allows more newspapers to be produced. Although this was very beneficial, it could also be seen as a challenge because its the first large technological development with many more to come.
Radio and TV technologies are also a challenge to newspapers because it means people with access to them don't have to buy newspapers to receive information about current events. When radio was introduced to cars also posed a threat to the survival of newspapers because now people could receive news when they are travelling and a newspaper didn't need to be present.
I think the biggest threat to newspapers is mobile phones as they are portable and can connect to the web almost anywhere in the world. Although the internet and mobile data could be argued to be the biggest develop in technology threatening newspapers' existence, without mobile phones they would be pointless.
Over time technology has reduced the public's need for physical newspapers, as news can be accessed online, and can be listened to. Therefore I think as technology develops further, the public's reliance on newspapers will decrease, and unless they resort to online news, newspaper publishers will no longer be able to survive.

Monday 25th March 2019                            1960s Newspaper Case Studies

L.O. critically evaluate the impact of social, cultural, political and historic contexts on newspapers (in particular 1960s newspapers) and identify examples of 1960s political segmentation.

Tabloid newspapers

Softer news stories (e.g. celebrities), less formal language, pages dominated by headlines and images, targets a more downmarket audience, offers news as entertainment, e.g. Daily Star, Daily Mirror, The Sun.

Broadsheet newspapers

Harder news agenda (e.g. politics, finance, international news), formal language, pages dominated by copy, targets a more upmarket audience, offers news as information, e.g. The Independent, Financial Times, The Daily Telegraph, The Observer, The Guardian, The Times.

Hybrid newspapers

A mix of tabloid factors and broadsheet factors, e.g. Daily Mail, Daily Express and The i.

1 - What are the main differences between a tabloid and a broadcast newspaper?

Tabloid newspapers offer news as entertainment whereas broadsheet newspapers offer news as information. Tabloid newspapers use softer news stories containing less formal language and target a more downmarket audience, whereas broadsheet newspapers use harder news containing more formal language and target an upmarket audience.

2 - What category of newspaper was The Observer in the 1960s?

Broadsheet.

3 - What category of newspaper is it now? Why? How has it changed?

The Observer is still a broadsheet newspaper, but it is a Berliner format, so it is smaller than a typical broadsheet newspaper. It is tabloid size, but broadsheet format, so a compact form of a broadsheet.



1 - What threatened newspapers in the 60s?
Television.

2 - What percentage has Sunday Newspaper circulation figures fallen by 1965?
They fell from 2 papers per household in the 50s, to 1.4 papers per household in 1965, a fall of 25 million, a fall of 30%.

3 - By comparison, what percentage were figures down to in 2010? 
In 2010 it was down to 10 million, which represents 0.4 papers per household, a fall of 80%.

1960s Political segmentation

Thursday 28th March 2019

L.O. critically evaluate the impact of social, cultural, political and historic contexts on newspapers (in particular 1960s newspapers) and identify examples of 1960s political segmentation.

1960s Case Study

• "Lawyers will urge divorce by consent" - shows laws and attitudes to gender equality are changing, prior to 60s marriage is something you have for life, 60s and after the idea of marriages not lasting forever appears.
• "Wilson-brown market crash" - UK has a slightly tense relationship with the rest of Europe.
• "So polite, this North Sea Spy Game" - Cold War between UK, US and Russia, fear of invasion and being spied on was prominent in the 60s.
• "Jackie: we're very happy" - Jackie Onassis (married to JFK), after he was assassinated she remarried, woman taking control of her own life but it was seen as news as it was unusual, gender (in)equality and new attitudes to marriage.
• "Unions postpone strike" - lots of strikes in the 60s, many about fair pay, Labour very pro-unions and equal pay for everyone. 
• "Briton shoots a gold" - about Mexico Olympics 1968, institutional racism of ethnic minority athletes, shows the difference in attitudes towards different races, UK predominantly white in the 60s.
• "Stephen Pollock... with Elizabeth Jambe, 21, a Rhodesian-born African, after their marriage yesterday" - neither of them were celebrities but interracial marriages were so rare that it became news.

Monday 29th April 2019                      Newspaper Online Case Study

L.O. critically evaluate how the online content (Observer online, Facebook and Twitter) reflects the values and beliefs of the newspaper and the audience AND evaluate the importance of convergence (to newspapers and audience) in the digital age.

Pros of online newspapers

• Can be accessed anywhere
• News can be distributed, received and edited quicker
• Readers can interact with the online news, e.g. via comments and polls
• It can be accessed for free and created for free (after paying for website)
• Saves paper
• Reporters and readers can be all over the world

Cons of online newspapers

• Bigger threat of fake news
• Have to have a connection to the internet to access it
• Reporters may lose their jobs if the newspaper doesn't need print news anymore
• Readers and news workers will have to adapt to making/receiving news online

Political bias

• The Observer is a left/middle newspaper so is either neutral or supports Labour more.
• This can be seen on the website because Jeremy Corbin (Labour leader) is on the biggest and central article.
• There is also an article called "Angry Labour activists threaten campaign boycott" showing their support for Labour activists.
• There is also an article about Margaret Thatcher who was part of the Conservative party, showing that The Observer supports both sides but Labour slightly more.

Owned by Guardian Media Group

• You can see it is owned by the Guardian Media Group because although the website is about The Observer, at the top of the website on the header, it says 'The Guardian'.
• On the header, there is also an option where you can support The Guardian as a whole, again showing that The Observer is owned by Guardian Media Group.

Representations

• All genders are represented in The Observer, as there is an article about JRR Tolkien's son being abused, and an article about the Women's Equality Party.
• The website includes articles that everyone can relate to, for example there are stories about politics, world events (such as the Sri Lanka terrorist attack), social issues (such as the abuse gay people get), food and sports. The only aspect that there isn't much of is celebrity news.

Model Answer

• Values culture equally as political news
• Variety of different opinions and viewpoints
• Includes international stories / has a positive view in internationalism, interested in other cultures
• Includes middle class values, e.g. talks about wine reviews
• Social conscience, e.g. humans being responsible for climate change

• If asked to make a judgement, include a concluding sentence summarising what you've written, worth 5 marks.

'The representations featured in the online Observer reflect its values and beliefs' - Discuss this statement in relation to the online Observer homepage.

Both The Observer and The Observer Online are news publications that support either the middle or the left on the political spectrum. As a result of this, articles about Labour and international events can be seen on this Observer Online homepage. For example, at the top of the homepage there are at least two articles about the Labour party (the main article of 'Climate Change / Corbin launches national bid to declare national emergency' and also 'European Election / angry Labour activists threaten campaign boycott'. These values are shared by its sister newspaper The Guardian, and show that the newspapers value a political view favouring towards Labour.

As a result of the leftist view of the newspaper, articles showing its social conscience can be found. For example the article titled 'Climate Change / Corbin launches national bid to declare national emergency' shows that the newspaper recognises humans are responsible for climate change.

Thursday 9th May 2019                  Contemporary Newspaper Case Studies

L.O. critically evaluate the impact of social, cultural, political and historic contexts on newspapers (in particular contemporary newspapers) and identify examples of political segmentation.

The Guardian and Observer reader profile:

• Hard to reach (95% read no other quality newspaper, more engaged with the newspaper than any other reader, like to be influencers, possess characteristics and attributes that are key for spreading word of mouth, they are well-connected and information hungry, they are vocal and large media consumers)
• Affluent (85% = ABC1, average household income = £59,764 which is 53% higher than the average British home, 57% have a degree or doctorate qualification)
• Well travelled (4 trips per year, average Brit takes 3 a year, they spend an average of £1,426 on each holiday and £596, tend to make their own travel arrangements and avoid package holidays)
• Art and culture lovers (3x more likely to go to an art gallery in the past 12 months, likely to have been to ballet, opera on an art gallery in the past 3 months,
• Progressive (60% are forward thinking, embrace change and technology, curious about the world)
• Food and drink aficionados (£81 a week on groceries, take care to purchase free range, fair trade, non GM and organic food, 75% more considered heavy restaurant users at once every 3 months)
• Fashion and tech consumers (they have a high disposable income, enjoy shopping, expensive taste and wear designer clothes, spend 22% more on coats and shoes than the average adult in the past 12 months and 10% more on jeans. They like to buy new gadgets before their friends, one in five agree that there home "it is important my home is equipped with there latest technology", they spend 14% more than the average Brit on TVs and DVD players.

Monday 13th May 2019                  Contemporary Newspaper Case Studies

L.O. critically evaluate the impact of social, cultural, political and historic contexts on newspapers (in particular contemporary newspapers) and explain the appeal to the specific target audience.

Characteristics of the target audience in the newspaper (Sunday 12 May 2019):

• Affluent - advert page for 'Mercury Holidays' e.g. "A passage through India from £2,649pp"
• Progressive thinkers - "Mixed-race Britain" (about Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's baby)
• Left wing / centre politically - "'Labour should be pushing for a referendum. I might go for the Greens or an independent'" 
• Art and culture lovers - advert page for 'Mercury Holidays' e.g. "Flavours of South Korea" ; "Theatre: A heroin burning bright"
• Food and drink experts - "Food and drink with Nigel Slater and Jay Rayner"
• Digitally savvy - "How Microsoft reinvented itself as a master of the tech universe"
• Embrace change and technology - "How Microsoft reinvented itself as a master of the tech universe"
• Enjoy travelling - "Europe's no1 low cost car hire company" ; "Travel: A brush with Rembrandt: Exploring the artist's legacy in his home town"
• Fashionable - "Frills, beads and bows: fashion goes child-like" ; "New looks in leisure" ; "Perfect the bare-faced look. Plus, a primer that really works"
• Have a social conscience - "Are these the worst recycling offenders on the supermarkets' shelves of shame?"