Notes on exam question 3 about political context in news

Explain how the political context in which newspapers are produced, influences their ownership and regulation. (10 marks)

Refer to The Guardian and The Daily Mail newspapers you have studied to support your answer.

Notes on CNN video about Murdoch:
Murdoch owned 30% of the press - he had the two most popular tabloids aswell as the times and sunday times 
The inquiry is about the ethics of the press - phone hacking, email hacking and alleged payments to police. why did this abuse of power go on for so long?! this inquiry is trying to find the truth

murdoch (indomitable head of the News Corp. empire) was not happy this has been set up

this now questions:
to what extent are we getting the true news?
to what extent is a big media organisation like news corp determining politics?

Question 1) Explain the political significance of the concept of 'press freedom' and its relationship to representative democracy. Why do you think freedom of the press is important? How much influence do you think the government should have about the things reported in the UK press?

i believe that freedom of the press is important because it allows people to adopt an unbiased view towards what their reading. i believe the government need to have a significant amount of control over what theye publish so that none of it is going against our human rights.

We personally feel that the free press has both positives and negatives and therefore shouldn't be totally self regulated.
The invasion of privacy of those in the public eye is becoming more common. Reporters taking stories too far and gaining private information is happening due to the demand that the audience and readers give, responding well to stories that seem more exclusive.

The concept of "press freedom`' has political significance as newspapers are able to support any political ideology, printing stories hatching this ideology.
due to this, even though the government has little say or control of the press, politics remains one of the most covered stories.
This relationship between press freedom and its political significance helps to represent the democratic society in Britain; allowing readers to choose which ideology they may follow, without any regulation against them.
We personally feel that the government should oversee what is covered within the press.

Question 2) How are newspapers regulated and why do you think this is necessary? Can you refer to an academic idea we have studied in class?

The owners of newspapers can influence the editorial stance of a newspaper. The motives and agenda of newspaper owners and editors, and how they try to influence our understanding of certain events, is important when analysing how newspapers tell stories. Newspapers will also attempt to influence how the public vote in elections, with certain newspapers openly backing specific political parties.

With this much power, it is important that newspapers stick to a code of conduct or rules set out by independent organisations. This is known as regulation.

Regulation – Livingstone and Lunt studied four case studies of the work of Ofcom. Ofcom is serving an audience who may be seen as consumers and/or citizens, with consequences for regulation: consumers have wants, are individuals, seek private benefits from the media, use the language of choice, and require regulation to protect against detriment; citizens have needs, are social, seek public or social benefits from the media, use the language of rights, and require regulation to promote the public interest.

Traditional regulation is being put at risk by: increasingly globalised media industries, the rise of the
digital media, and media convergence.

The main organisations that regulate newspapers consist of: Editor's code of practice, Press Complaints Commission (PCC), and the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO). This is necessary so that newspaper companies are protected by these organisations so that stories are checked to make sure there is no obligation to those stories which could harm the company involved if there was a problem with story coverage.


Question 3) What examples of editorialised content would not fit 'impartial' television news (e.g. social or political opinion) from The Guardian and The Daily Mail print or online editions.

Editorialised content means that its not advertising based in the act that they pursue direct sales intensions. This is the reason in which customers purchase or subscribe to these news outlets. News outlets of this type manipulate and distorts news values in order to broadcast impartial judgments of peoples beliefs and what they want to hear.

Question 4) What examples of ownership models, e.g. The Guardian’s trust ownership and The Daily Mail’s proprietor model, could show the opportunities offered by the latter model for control by ‘press barons’.

Ownership models like the Daily mail’s proprietor model offer a prime example of how media can be controlled to influence public political views. Press barons like Rupert Murdoch, who controls most UK tabloids, can be seen to share his political opinions in each of his newspapers; this allows for an unfair opinion to be shared with the UK. 


Question 5) How much power does the press have to shape political debate, e.g. the influence of proprietors on politicians to support policies promoting cross-media ownership or holding back from regulation.

The press can develop power through ownership of newspapers which consequently can shape political stances due to their ideologies and therefore political debate through the widespread circulation which has the power to influence politicians in their debates. The owners of newspapers can influence the editorial stance of a newspaper. Newspapers will also attempt to influence how the public vote in elections. It is important that newspapers stick to a code of conduct or rules set out by independent organisations in order to avoid this. If one large business or one singular man owns a company their ideologies can filter down into the papers. This relates to Hesmondhalgh's theory on cultural industries as DMGT (owner of the Daily Mail) also owns multiple other companies as shown above. This therefore shows the integration and conglomeration of cultural industries which follows the normal capitalist patterns seen in Hesmondhalgh's theory.


Question 6) Explain the political affiliations of the two newspapers, e.g. The Daily Mail as a right wing newspaper is partly defined by its support for the Conservative party, The Guardian as a centre-left newspaper is partly defined by its support for Labour or the Liberal Democrats, and how this is clear from an example you have studied.

DAILY MAIL

• Right wing (capitalist) - partly defined by it's support for the conservative party. It evidently portrays these views through its conservative stories and layout.
• always tends to have a focus on money and prices in modern life - they do this because of its political affiliation, due to the wealthy being interested in the price of things. 
• the mail favours right wing people and the wealthy, which is clearly shown in their bias to some stories. An example of this, was the paradise papers coverage, which involved the queen being under fire for not paying taxes and also for the elites dodging tax. In this, the DM back up the queen and made it as if those lesser off were wrong and the queen was simply a victim. 

THE GUARDIAN

• adopts the left wing (socialist) ideologies because of its support for labour.
• The guardian is very much a hard newspaper and so what it conveys tends to be less biased and more factual. 
• Despite this though, there is a slight lean in what it has written towards the socialist side of things and so the rich tend to look worse.
• Interestingly, the guardian also says a lot about tax at the minute, though what it says is how rich rich should really help the poor and so they should be taxed a greater amount.