Thursday, March 28, 2024

Newspapers: Final index

We have completed our final topic - Newspapers. Well done! 

This means you have studied all NINE types of media and covered all the CSPs. This is an outstanding achievement - you know how much work we set! Now, to finish off Newspapers we need to complete our index. As you will know after almost two years of this, indexes are a good way to check we have covered all the work while also kickstarting our revision.

Newspapers index

Your Newspapers index should include the following:

1) Newspapers: Weekly news stories from Mail Online and The Guardian 
4) Newspapers: The future of journalism
5) Newspapers: Regulation
6) Newspapers: Daily Mail and Mail Online CSP

For your index, the text should link to YOUR corresponding blogpost so you can access your work on each aspect of the case study quickly and easily. This also means you if you have missed anything you can catch up with the work and notes and won't underperform in the final exams due to gaps in your knowledge.

Due date: on Google Classroom

Friday, March 22, 2024

Easter revision links and tips

The Easter holidays are a critical time for revision and final coursework improvements.

This is the time to be revising the exam topics, practising questions and making any final improvements to your production work. It's also important to have a break too! Make sure you give yourself a few proper days off amongst the school work. 

Coursework deadline

The coursework deadline is Friday 19 April - all details on this blogpost here. Please remember that although the production work is due after Easter your Statement of Intent cannot be changed after Friday 31 March so whatever we have on that date will be your final Statement of Intent. 


Exam revision links

Here's what you need to revise with links to the original blogposts:

Media Paper 1 - Monday 20 May (afternoon)

Section A: Language and Representation

Unseen analysis

Advertising and Marketing

Music Video


Section B: Industry and Audience

Film Industry

Radio

Newspapers


Media Paper 2 - Tuesday 4 June (afternoon)

Unseen text analysis

Television
Magazines
Online, Social and Participatory Media
Videogames


Revision links, resources and guidance

We've got plenty of resources to help you with your revision and preparation for the upcoming exams.

You'll be given eight full practice papers to take away for Easter - four Paper 1 and four Paper 2. Make sure you collect those from your exam teacher.

Here are some sample questions and answers we've worked on in exam revision lessons in previous years. We'll be adding to this document in our revision lessons after Easter but you may want to look through this for exemplar answers and help revising. Note that many of the CSPs have changed so we'll be updating these after Easter. You'll also need your Greenford Google login for this resource as it is only for GHS Media students.

We also gave you a paper copy of the Theoretical Perspectives resource which covers all the theories in the A Level Media specification. Let us know if you didn't get one!

On the subject of theories, we've collated all of Media Magazine's Theory Drop articles on the named theories into one PDF document. It's a great way to revise the theories - remember AQA's suggestion that for each named theory you create a bullet point summary followed by a table of reasons to agree/disagree with the key ideas. You'll need your Greenford Google login for the theory drop link.

Finally, here's a short blog on what makes a good flashcard - always useful to get top tips on effective revision techniques.


Walk-and-talk Paper 1

As promised, we'll be doing a walk-and-talk mock exam to practice the timing and style of questions for Paper 1. This will be in the second week back after Easter so be prepared! 

Good luck with your revision!

Tuesday, March 19, 2024

Newspapers: The Guardian CSP

The Guardian is our very final CSP and provides a compelling case study of a newspaper evolving to survive in the digital age.

As with the Daily Mail, we need to study the newspaper from the perspective of audience and industries, linking what we've already learned about the newspaper industry and journalism. Similarly, we need to look at the Guardian newspaper website just as we studied MailOnline.

Notes from the lesson
The Guardian is a centre-left, national UK broadsheet newspaper. Its website is freely available worldwide and the Guardian reflects the changing nature of technology, the media globally and the newspaper industry specifically. 



The Guardian: values and ideologies
The Guardian’s ideological position – its overall values and beliefs about the world – reflects a progressive stance on a range of contemporary issues (which can cause controversy amongst its readership – such as in the recent debate around trans/gender critical positions). 

The political affiliation of the paper has shifted across left-wing parties, and it has a ‘critical friend’ approach rather than unconditional support for one party.

You can get a good sense of the Guardian's values and ideologies from this email newsletter to subscribers from editor-in-chief Katharine Viner


The Guardian: ownership and control
The Guardian has an unusual ownership model: 
  • Owned by the Guardian Media Group (GMG)
  • Parent company of GMG is the Scott Trust - created in 1936 to "secure the financial and editorial independence of the Guardian" and "safeguard the journalistic freedom and liberal values" of the paper.
  • The Scott Trust allows the Guardian to make significant losses - usually around £20m - £30m each year. They cope with this by making money elsewhere in their global media business.
  • The current editor-in-chief of the Guardian is Katharine Viner.
 
The Guardian: economic contexts
The Guardian has responded to the decline of the print newspaper industry by focusing on growing its global digital audience. Significantly, it doesn't use a paywall, believing that its journalism should be free for people to read around the world. Instead, it asks readers for voluntary donations and makes money from online advertising and print subscriptions. It has around 500,000 readers making regular donations globally. 

 

Audience 
The Guardian readership key details (according to The Guardian Media Kit):
  • UK audience is 57% male - 43% female.
  • 43% of Guardian readers from high/highest income bracket; 81% is ABC1.
  • 45% of monthly audience are progressive: influential in driving change, hold progressive views, feels a responsibility to shape the future.
        Ofcom report on news consumption
        The Guardian is:
        • Rated #1 by UK readers for accuracy.
        • Rated #2 for trust (just behind the Times).
        Circulation and global readership
        The Guardian's statistics include:
        • UK print circulation now under 100,000 - one of the lowest for daily UK newspapers. Ten years ago it was around 250,000 a day. 
        • However, when including the website the Guardian boasts 22.4 million cross-platform UK readers a month (print and digital) which is more than the Times and the Telegraph.
        • It also has 86 million unique browsers globally each month. This includes 45m in North America, 20m in the UK and 11m in Europe. 
        Watch the Guardian's Richard Furness talking about this transformation over the last 20 years from print to digital and from UK to global: 

         

        The Guardian: regulation
        The newspaper industry is regulated by IPSO - the Independent Press Standards Organisation. However, 
        The Guardian has not signed up to IPSO and instead established their own complaints procedure. This includes their own internal ombudsman - called the 'reader's editor' - who responds to complaints raised about the paper. 


        The Guardian analysis and significant front pages

        AQA's CSP booklet suggests studying one entire issue of the Guardian print edition alongside a selection of stories from the Guardian website. You can buy a copy to study for this or alternatively you can take pictures of the Guardian print editions we look at in class alongside some notable Guardian front pages. Either way, consider the following in your analysis: 

        Selection of news
        How is news selected and presented by editors? Is there an ongoing narrative created by the newspaper to engage an audience? 

        Audience and ideology
        What ideologies are present in the text? Is the audience positioned to respond to stories in a certain way?

        You can find a complete history of significant front pages from the Guardian on their website here. These are some of the front pages you may want to study:

        Brexit day - 31 January 2020: 

        Phone hacking scandal that led to closure of News of the World and Leveson report: 



        Biden US Presidential election: 


        Boris Johnson partygate report:


        The Guardian website

        The Guardian website has become the driving force of the newspaper with four international editions based in the UK, Europe, the USA and Australia. Audience engagement is a major aspect of the newspaper with live blogs and reader comments and interactions a key audience pleasure.


        The Guardian CSP: Blog tasks


        Work through the following tasks to complete your case study on the Guardian newspaper and website. 

        The Guardian newspaper and website analysis

        Use your own purchased copy plus the notable front pages above to answer the following questions - bullet points/note form is fine. 

        1) What are the most significant front page headlines seen in the Guardian in recent years?

        2) Ideology and audience: What ideologies are present in the Guardian? Is the audience positioned to respond to stories in a certain way?

        3) How do the Guardian editions/stories you have studied reflect British culture and society?


        Now visit the Guardian newspaper website and look at a few stories before answering these questions:

        1) What are the top stories? Are they examples of soft news or hard news? 

        2) To what extent do the stories you have found on the website reflect the values and ideologies of the Guardian?

        3) Think about audience appeal and gratifications: what would an audience enjoy about the Guardian newspaper website?


        The Guardian newspaper Factsheet

        Read Media Factsheet #257 The Guardian Newspaper. You can access it from our Media Factsheet archive on the Media Shared drive or download it here via Google using your school login details. Answer the following questions:

        1) Who owns the Guardian and what is their ownership designed to achieve? 

        2) How is the Guardian regulated? Note its very unusual regulatory approach and give examples where you can. 

        3) Pick out some key statistics on the Guardian's audience (see beginning of page 2).

        4) What are the institutional values of the Guardian? What does it stand for?   

        5) How is the Guardian's international audience described? See the end of page 2 and pick out some more useful statistics here about their audience .

        6) Now look at page 3 of the factsheet and the Guardian online. Select a few examples of the different sections of the website and copy them here. 

        7) What different international editions of the Guardian's website are available and what example stories are provided as examples of this?

        8) What is the Guardian's funding model? Do you think it is sustainable? 

        9) What is the Cotton Capital Commission and how does it link to the Guardian's values and ideologies?

        10) What audience and industry theories could be applied to the Guardian? How? 


        Media Magazine articles

        Media Magazine has two excellent features on our newspaper CSPs - a focus on Guardian front pages and a comparison of how the Guardian and Daily Mail cover the same story in different ways. You need to read both articles - MM78 (page 12) and MM87 (page 20) - our Media Magazine archive is here. Answer the following questions:

        MM78 - The Guardian

        1) What are the Pandora Papers and how does the story fit with the Guardian's ethos, values and ideologies?  

        2) Pick out all the key statistics and quotes from the section on the Guardian's funding model. In particular, the fall in paper readership, the rise in digital readership and the number of contributors  paying to support the journalism. 

        3) What does it mean when it says the Guardian frames regular payments from readers as a "philanthropic act". 

        4) What is the Scott Trust and do you think it is a sustainable model for newspaper ownership in the future? 

        5) Why is the Guardian criticised as hypocritical? Give some specific examples here.


        MM87 - The Daily Mail and the Guardian front page analysis

        1) What are the stories featured on the Guardian and Daily Mail on November 10, 2023? 

        2) How do they reflect the values and ideologies of the two newspapers?

        3) Why does the writer suggest the front-page images on both papers might be exploitative? Do you agree? 

        4) What else does the writer suggest regarding the Daily Mail's front-page image of murdered teacher Ashling Murphy? 

        5) How does the rest of the Guardian's front page (features on Yoko Ono and Todd Haynes) reflect the values and ideologies of Guardian readers?    


        A/A* extension tasks

        Look at the Guardian Media Kit in more detail. What do you notice about the Guardian's audience compared to other newspaper brands? What is a 'typical Guardian reader'? 

        Take on the tasks at the end of the Guardian factsheet, including the exam question: “Media audiences do not simply consume media content anymore.” Focusing on the newspapers you have studied, to
        what extent do you agree with this statement?


        Due date on Google Classroom

        Sunday, March 17, 2024

        Coursework: FINAL DEADLINE

        The final deadline for A Level Media coursework is Friday 19 April.

        You will have a coursework lesson in the first week back after Easter to submit your work. After Friday 19 April, we will be marking and moderating the coursework before sending it to AQA for approval.

        Submitting your coursework

        You will submit your work to Mr Harrison for collection and packaging up for the exam board. It is YOUR responsibility to make sure Mr Harrison has the following:

        1) Video file of final three-minute TV crime drama - format H264/mp4
        2) PDF copies of your magazine front cover and three-page inside feature
        3) Statement of Intent Word/Google document

        In class before Easter we will be completing the Candidate Record Forms that are sent to AQA with your work and writing a list of non-assessed participants. The list of non-assessed participants is simply any other people who were involved in the production of your coursework as it is very rare that media projects can be completed by one single person. This is required by AQA as they need to confirm that you have either made the coursework yourself or that you clearly directed people if you worked with others.

        Final deadline: Friday 19 April

        Good luck!

        Sunday, March 10, 2024

        Newspapers: Daily Mail & Mail Online CSP

        The Daily Mail (and its website Mail Online) is our first newspaper CSP and represents a hugely influential voice in British media.

        We need to study the newspaper and website from the perspective of audience and industries, linking what we've already learned about the newspaper industry and journalism.

        Notes from the lesson

        The Daily Mail is a ‘black top’ or mid-market tabloid newspaper. It is the second most popular daily national newspaper after the Sun.

        The Daily Mail was most successful in the early 2000s with more than 2m copies sold daily. It is now down to around 1.2m but still influential.

        The paper offers a mix of hard and soft news. It is socially, economically and politically conservative and backs the Conservative Party in politics.

        The Daily Mail: ownership and editorial
        The Daily Mail is owned by the Daily Mail and General Trust (DMGT). Its chairman is Jonathan Harmsworth, 4th Viscount Rothermere, whose great-grandfather was a co-founder of the newspaper. 

        From 1992 until Autumn 2018, the editor was Paul Dacre – a hugely controversial and influential voice in the UK newspaper industry. The editor is now Geordie Greig who moved over from the Mail on Sunday. 

        The Daily Mail: influence and accuracy
        Even with falling circulation, the front cover of the Daily Mail can set the news agenda and dictate what broadcast media lead on – such as the influential BBC Radio 4 Today programme or Newsnight on BBC2. This is why newspapers are still seen as having a disproportionate influence despite falling sales.

        In February 2017, the Daily Mail was labelled ‘generally unreliable’ by Wikipedia editors, discouraging people from using the Mail as a source. The Daily Mail responded by saying it had only been adjudicated ‘inaccurate’ twice by IPSO – but as we know from our newspaper regulations lessons: how effective is IPSO?

        Audience 
        The Daily Mail readership key details:
        • Average age of 58
        • Almost half of its readers are over 65 and only 14% of the paper’s readers are under 34 
        • The Daily Mail is the only newspaper to have more female readers than male (52% - 48%)
        • Two thirds of the readership are ABC1 so middle class. Seen as ‘voice of middle England’
        In constrast, the MailOnline website readership details are quite different to the newspaper:
        • Average age of 40
        • 58% female
        • 55% 18-44 year olds
        • 68% ABC1

        Daily Mail: analysis and significant front pages

        AQA's CSP booklet suggests studying one entire issue of the Daily Mail print edition alongside a selection of stories from Mail Online. You can buy a copy to study for this or alternatively use our scanned copy of the Daily Mail's Brexit edition from 31 January 2020

        In addition, the following Daily Mail front pages are particularly significant in terms of political contexts, British culture and values and ideologies. Consider the following when analysing your chosen copy and these front pages:


        Selection of news
        How is news selected and presented by editors? Is there an ongoing narrative created by the newspaper to engage an audience? 

        Audience and ideology
        What ideologies are present in the text? Is the audience positioned to respond to stories in a certain way?

        Enemies of the People:

        Response to Liz Truss's budget that crashed the UK economy:

        Asylum seekers / Immigration:


        Daily Mail website - Mail Online

        MailOnline is the most successful English-language newspaper website in the world and one of the most popular news sources in the UK.

        We need to study MailOnline alongside the newspaper version of the Daily Mail, again from the perspective of audience and industries. This is particularly important in terms of the editorial stance, the internet's influence on media power, the clickbait-driven business model and the prevalence of soft news or social-media driven stories.


        Pluralism: a brief introduction
        Pluralists see society as consisting of competing groups and interests, none of them predominant all of the time. Media organizations are seen as enjoying an important degree of autonomy from the state, political parties and institutionalized pressure groups. 

        A basic symmetry is seen to exist between media institutions and their audiences, since in McQuail's words the 'relationship is generally entered into voluntarily and on apparently equal terms’. Audiences are seen as capable of manipulating the media and as having access to what Halloran calls 'the plural values of society' enabling them to 'conform, accommodate, challenge or reject'. (Gurevitch et al. 1982: 1)


        Curran & Seaton: Power Without Responsibility
        Curran and Seaton argue that the media should follow the pluralist model and be shaped by audience demand:

        “The free market makes the press a representative institution…newspapers and magazines are to respond to the concerns of their readers if they are to stay in business.”

        However, in practice the newspaper industry is dominated by a small number of powerful owners and this influences newspaper coverage and media influence. In short, the free market doesn’t work.


        James Curran on the internet and power in the media


        MailOnline: audience-driven news
        Curran and Seaton argue audience demand rather than powerful owners should influence news media. But can we trust audience demand?

        Original MailOnline editor Martin Clarke said: “We let the readers decide what they’re interested in, that’s why MailOnline is so sticky and why it’s so addictive and why people love it so much.”

        The homepage stories are selected by clicks – the most popular stories move to the top of the page. But does this turn news into ‘clickbait infotainment’? Shouldn’t news be about informing the public – not entertaining them?


        MailOnline: addictive design
        MailOnline is designed to encourage readers to stay on the site: the homepage has (virtually) endless scroll, there are thousands of images, embedded social media posts and promotional features linked to the stories. 

        Celebrity gossip drives traffic to site (often via social media) with clickbait used heavily to initially attract readers. Then, controversial headlines and opinion columns encourage users to comment, share and engage with the site. 

        The right-hand bar (‘sidebar of shame’) means an endless supply of celebrity gossip available on every page. This creates clickbait within the site itself.


        Daily Mail and Mail Online CSP: Blog tasks

        Work through the following tasks to complete your case study on the Daily Mail and Mail Online

        Daily Mail and Mail Online analysis 

        Use your own purchased copy or our scanned copy of the Brexit edition from January 2020 plus the notable front pages above to answer the following questions - bullet points/note form is fine.

        1) What are the most significant front page headlines seen in the Daily Mail in recent years?

        2) Ideology and audience: What ideologies are present in the Daily Mail? Is the audience positioned to respond to stories in a certain way?

        3) How do the Daily Mail stories you have studied reflect British culture and society?


        Now visit Mail Online and look at a few stories before answering these questions:

        1) What are the top five stories? Are they examples of soft news or hard news? Are there any examples of ‘clickbait’ can you find?

        2) To what extent do the stories you have found on MailOnline reflect the values and ideologies of the Daily Mail newspaper?

        3) Think about audience appeal and gratifications: why is MailOnline the most-read English language newspaper website in the world? How does it keep you on the site?


        Factsheet 175 - Case Study: The Daily Mail (Part 1)

        Read Media Factsheet 175: Case Study: The Daily Mail (Part 1) and complete the following questions/tasks. Our Media Factsheet archive is on the Media Shared drive: M:\Resources\A Level\Media Factsheets or online here (you'll need your Greenford Google login).

        1) What news content generally features in the Daily Mail?

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

        3) What techniques of persuasion does the Daily Mail use to attract and retain readers?

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

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


        Factsheet 177 - Case Study: The Daily Mail (Part 2)


        Now read Media Factsheet 177: Case Study: The Daily Mail (Part 2) and complete the following questions/tasks. Our Media Factsheet archive is on the Media Shared drive: M:\Resources\A Level\Media Factsheets or online here (you'll need your Greenford Google login).

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

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

        3) Between 1992 and 2018 the Daily Mail editor was Paul Dacre. What is Dacre’s ideological position and his view on the BBC?

        4) Why did Guardian journalist Tim Adams describe Dacre as the most dangerous man in Britain? What example stories does Adams refer to?

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


        Factsheet 182 - Case Study: The Daily Mail (Part 3) Industrial Context

        Finally, read Media Factsheet 182 - Case Study: The Daily Mail (Part 3) Industrial Context and complete the following questions/tasks. Our Media Factsheet archive is on the Media Shared drive: M:\Resources\A Level\Media Factsheets or online here (you'll need your Greenford Google login).

        1) What do Curran and Seaton suggest regarding the newspaper industry and society?

        2) What does the factsheet suggest regarding newspaper ownership and influence over society?

        3) Why did the Daily Mail invest heavily in developing MailOnline in the 2000s?

        4) How does MailOnline reflect the idea of newspapers ‘as conversation’?

        5) How many stories and pictures are published on MailOnline?

        6) How does original MailOnline editor Martin Clarke explain the success of the website?

        7) How is the priority for stories on the homepage established on MailOnline?

        8) What is your view of ‘clicks’ driving the news agenda? Should we be worried that readers are now ‘in control of digital content’?


        A/A* extension task

        Read this Guardian column if you'd like to go the extra mile on this CSP: So Daily Mail and Mail Online are ‘totally separate’? It depends how you look at it by Peter Preston

        To further your understanding of the Daily Mail, read this Guardian column by Media veteran Peter Preston on a row between the Guardian and the Mail over the controversial MailOnline (ex-) columnist Katie Hopkins. You could then answer the following questions if you wish:

        1) Why does Preston suggest that the Daily Mail and MailOnline should be considered to be basically the same publication?

        2) How does Preston summarise other newspaper websites?

        3) How many readers does the online-only Independent now boast?

        4) Do you feel the Daily Mail and MailOnline have a different ‘world view’?

        5) Do you see a future for the paper version of the Daily Mail or will it eventually close like the Independent?


        Due date: on Google Classroom

        Wednesday, March 06, 2024

        Newspapers: Regulation

        The debate regarding the regulation of the newspaper industry has been one of the most controversial and important media issues of the last 15 years.

        You need to understand how the newspaper industry is regulated, how some people think it should be regulated and what might happen in the future. Most importantly, you need to form your own opinion on newspaper regulation and how the industry should operate following the 2012 Leveson Inquiry.

        Newspaper regulation: notes

        A brief history of newspaper regulation
        The newspaper industry was regulated by the Press Complaints Commission (PCC) between 1990 and 2014. It was a voluntary regulator with no legal powers and was heavily criticised for saying it found no evidence of phone hacking at the News of the World in 2007.

        The PCC had a code of practice that provided guidelines for newspapers in how to report inaccuracies, crime, news stories involving children and more. However, the PCC was effectively run by the newspaper editors themselves and papers merely had to print a small apology when the regulator ruled against them.

        The Leveson Inquiry 2011-12
        The Leveson Inquiry in 2011-12 was a judicial public enquiry ordered by the government into the culture and ethics of the British press. This followed the revelations of the phone hacking scandal and the closure of the News of the World.

        Post-Leveson: IPSO and IMPRESS
        Following the Leveson report, a new press regulator was introduced: the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO). IPSO is more powerful than the PCC and can order newspapers to print apologies or corrections on the front page or fine papers. However, it crucially doesn’t act on Leveson’s key recommendation that the regulator is backed by government legislation.

        Alongside IPSO, IMPRESS was also set up as an alternative regulator. This was fully compliant with Leveson – but no major newspapers have signed up with IMPRESS.

        Watch the following videos on Leveson and the press regulation debate:

        BBC News overview:


        Newsnight debate:



        Channel 4 News debate:



        Read the following articles and features on the press regulation debate:

        Viewpoints – Should the press be regulated? BBC website
        THEOS think tank website – press regulation debate 
        Guardian letters – How should the press be regulated?


        Newspaper regulation: blog tasks

        Task One: Media Magazine article and questions

        Read the Media Magazine article: From Local Press to National Regulator in MM56 (p55). You'll find the article in our Media Magazine archive here. Once you've read the article, answer the following questions:

        1) Keith Perch used to edit the Leicester Mercury. How many staff did it have at its peak and where does Perch see the paper in 10 years' time?


        2) How does Perch view the phone hacking scandal?


        3) What does IPSO stand for and how does it work?


        4) What is Perch's view of newspaper ownership?


        5) Do you agree with his view that broadcast news should have less regulation so that TV channels can support particular political parties or people?



        Task Two: Newspaper regulation exam question


        Write an answer on your blog answering the following exam question:


        What are the arguments for and against statutory regulation of the newspaper industry? [20 marks]

        Aim to write an answer of around 400-500 words featuring at least three detailed paragraphs. Make sure you cover both sides of the debate. This topic could well be our 20-mark essay at the end of Paper 1, Section B so it's great preparation for the summer exams.


        Extension task: The role of media in democracies

        Read this excellent article from the Constitution Unit on why media plays such an important role in democracies - and how regulation and affect this. Does this change your opinion on whether the newspaper industry should face statutory regulation? 

        Due date: on Google Classroom

        Sunday, February 25, 2024

        Newspapers: The future of journalism

        One of the factors we must consider when studying the decline of the newspaper industry is the importance of news and journalism to society and democracy. 

        Technology moves on and industries evolve - but newspapers have traditionally played an important role in holding governments to account, exposing corruption and keeping the public informed about the world they live in. As media students, we need to consider the impact to society of news coverage being driven by 'clicks' and ending up with funny cat videos rather than hard-hitting investigative journalism. 

        We've got some excellent video resources to work with on this topic. Both of our videos refer to the 2016 Best Picture winner at the Oscars - Spotlight. This is director Tom McCarthy's film based on the true story of Boston Globe reporters investigating widespread child abuse in the Catholic Church. We highly recommend you watch this film as part of your work on newspapers.

        John Oliver on journalism

        British comedian John Oliver presents a show called Last Week Tonight on HBO in America. In a previous episode, he put together a report on the decline of journalism in America and its replacement by 'clickbait' stories rather than real news. Watch it here:



        Clay Shirky on news: don’t build a paywall around a public good

        Clay Shirky is a professor at NYU (New York University) and a worldwide expert on digital and social media. As we know from our work on Online, Social and Participatory Media, Shirky is a named media theorist for A Level Media and he also makes a compelling argument for the role news plays in society. Interestingly, he argues against paywalls - the subscription model that some newspapers use to make money in the digital age - and says that news is a 'public good' that is vital in a healthy democracy. 


        The Future of Journalism: Blog tasks

        Part 1: Clay Shirky lecture

        Go to the Nieman Lab webpage (part of Harvard university) and watch the video of Clay Shirky presenting to Harvard students. The video is also available on YouTube below but the Nieman Lab website has a written transcript of everything Shirky says. 



        Play the clip AND read along with the transcript below to ensure you are following the argument. You need to watch from the beginning to 29.35 (the end of Shirky's presentation). Once you've watched and read the presentation and made notes (you may want to copy and paste key quotes from the transcript which is absolutely fine), answer the questions below:

        1) Why does Clay Shirky argue that 'accountability journalism' is so important and what example does he give of this?

        2) What does Shirky say about the relationship between newspapers and advertisers? Which websites does he mention as having replaced major revenue-generators for newspapers (e.g. jobs, personal ads etc.)?

        3) Shirky talks about the 'unbundling of content'. This means people are reading newspapers in a different way. How does he suggest audiences are consuming news stories in the digital age?

        4) Shirky also talks about the power of shareable media. How does he suggest the child abuse scandal with the Catholic Church may have been different if the internet had been widespread in 1992?

        5) Why does Shirky argue against paywalls? 

        6) What is a 'social good'? In what way might journalism be a 'social good'?

        7) Shirky says newspapers are in terminal decline. How does he suggest we can replace the important role in society newspapers play? What is the short-term danger to this solution that he describes?

        8) Look at the first question and answer regarding institutional power. Give us your own opinion: how important is it that major media brands such as the New York Times or the Guardian continue to stay in business and provide news?


        Part 2: MM55 - Media, Publics, Protest and Power

        Media Magazine 55 has an excellent feature on power and the media. Go to our Media Magazine archive, click on MM55 and scroll to page 38 to read the article Media, Publics, Protest and Power', a summary of Media academic Natalie Fenton’s talk to a previous Media Magazine conference. Answer the following questions:

        1) What are the three overlapping fields that have an influence on the relationship between media and democracy?

        2) What is ‘churnalism’ and what issues are there currently in journalism?

        3) What statistics are provided by Fenton to demonstrate the corporate dominance of a small number of conglomerates? 

        4) What is the 'climate of fear' that Fenton writes about in terms of politics and the media? 

        5) Fenton finishes her article by discussing pluralism, the internet and power. What is your opinion on this crucial debate - has the internet empowered audiences and encouraged democracy or is power even more concentrated in the hands of a few corporate giants?

        Complete for homework: due date on Google Classroom.