This is the final set of targeted CSPs - we will be studying Audience and Industry contexts for the Daily Mail and the 'i' newspaper. This means newspapers will come up in Paper 1, Section B of the exams.
Notes from the lesson
In the lesson, we looked at the history of the newspaper and some key terminology we need to learn:
Newspapers: hard and soft news
Notes from the lesson
In the lesson, we looked at the history of the newspaper and some key terminology we need to learn:
Newspapers: hard and soft news
Newspapers cover a range of stories that are generally divided into two categories:
Hard news: stories related to current affairs, politics, economics, wars and other serious news.
Soft news: stories related to entertainment, sport, celebrities, gossip, scandal and human interest/lifestyle topics.
Newspapers: tabloid and broadsheet
Newspapers were traditionally available in two sizes: tabloid and broadsheet. Today, most newspapers are in the smaller broadsheet size but the terms are still used to describe the style of paper:
Tabloid: focusing largely on soft news, famous examples include the Sun and the Mirror. Generally read by more working class audience. Mid-market tabloids are a middle ground between tabloid and broadsheet and include the Daily Mail.
Broadsheet: serious newspapers that focus more on hard news. The Times, Guardian and Telegraph are all examples.
Newspapers: sources of news
Newspapers tend to get their news content from two sources:
Journalists: newspapers employ reporters and photographers to attend events, interview people and write stories.
News agencies: Reuters and Associated Press are examples of global news agencies that are independent institutions that employ journalists to write stories that newspapers and other media organisations can pay to use.
Increasingly in the digital age, newspapers are sourcing news from their audiences using citizen journalism. This is sometimes criticised as creating clickbait – an example of soft news aimed simply to attract online readers.
The decline of newspapers
In the last 20 years, the newspaper industry has faced a sharp decline due to the rise of the internet.
In 2003, almost 30 million newspapers were sold in the UK every day. By 2017 that was down to 12.4 million (source: Ofcom).
Newspapers have traditionally made their money in two ways: through the cover price and by selling advertising. With so much news available for free online, audiences are not buying newspapers so both these sources of income have been decimated.
The Wall Street Journal produced a short video demonstrating how the industry has changed in the last 100 years:
Once you've learned the key terminology, watched the video and considered the decline in the industry, work through the blog tasks below.
Part 1: Ofcom report into news consumption 2019
Read this Ofcom 2019 report on the consumption of news in the UK. Note down the key statistics and changes that Ofcom highlight and answer the following questions:
1) Look at the key findings from the report on pages 2-3. How do UK adults generally get their news?
2) Read the overall summary for adults on pages 7-8. What do you notice about the changing way adults are getting their news?
3) Look at the summary of platforms used on page 13. What do you notice about newspapers and how has it changed since 2018?
4) Now look at the demographic summary for news platforms on page 15. What audience demographic groups (e.g. age, social class) are most and least likely to read newspapers?
5) Read Section 3 on cross-platform news consumption (page 20). What newspaper brands can you find in the list of most popular news sources across platforms?
6) Now turn to Section 6 focusing on newspapers (page 33). How has the circulation of national newspapers decreased between 2010 and 2018?
7) What are the most-used newspaper titles?
8) What are the most popular titles when print and online figures are combined (look at page 38)?
9) How does the i compare to the Daily Mail?
10) Now study the demographic details for our two CSP newspapers on page 39. What is the breakdown of the Daily Mail audience and the i audience? What differences do you notice?
11) Read section 7 of the report: news consumption via social media (pages 40-52). Pick out three statistics from this section that you think are interesting and explain why.
12) Look at the summary of readers' attitudes for newspapers on page 76. What statements for Daily Mail readers tend to agree with?
Part 2: Factsheet - The death of print media
Go to our Media Factsheet archive on the Media Shared drive and open Factsheet 165: The death of print media. Our Media Factsheet archive is on the Media Shared drive: M:\Resources\A Level\Media Factsheets
Read the Factsheet and complete the following questions/tasks:
1) What has happened to print media in the last 30 years?
2) Why is the Independent newspaper such a good case study for the decline in print media?
3) What was the Independent newspaper famous for?
4) What did the then-owner of the Independent, Evgeny Lebedev, say about the newspaper's digital-only future?
5) How do online newspapers make money?
6) What did the Independent's longest-serving editor Simon Kelner warn regarding the switch to digital?
7) What is the concern with fake news? What does 'post-truth' refer to?
8) What is your view on the decline in print media? Should news be free? Is it a concern that established media brands such as the Independent can no longer afford to exist as a printed newspaper?
Complete for homework if you don't get it finished in the lessons: due next week.
