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:

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

Watch James Curran interviewed by Barcelona Centre for Contempory Culture on Vimeo here.

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

Coursework: FINAL DEADLINE

The final deadline for A Level Media coursework is Friday 21 April.

You will have a coursework lesson in the first week back after Easter to submit your work. After Friday 21 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 music promo - format H264/mp4
2) Three PDF copies of your print posters
3) Statement of Intent Word/Google document

In class this week 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 21 April

Good luck!

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.

Due date: on Google Classroom

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. 

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.

Newspapers: News Values

Galtung and Ruge defined a set of news values to explain how journalists and editors decide that certain stories and photographs were accepted as newsworthy, while others were not. 

The following list is adapted from their work:

Immediacy: has it happened recently?
Familiarity: is it culturally close to us in Britain?
Amplitude: is it a big event or one which involves large numbers of people?
Frequency: does the event happen fairly regularly? 
Unambiguity: is it clear and definite?
Predictability: did we expect it to happen?
Surprise: is it a rare or unexpected event?
Continuity: has this story already been defined as news?
Elite nations and people: which country has the event happened in? Does the story concern well-known people?
Personalisation: Is it a personal or human interest story?
Negativity: is it bad news?
Exclusivity: do any other newspapers have this story?
Visual impact: are there amazing pictures accompanying the story?
Balance: the story may be selected to balance other news, such as a human survival story to balance a number of stories concerning death.


News Values: Blog task

Read Media Factsheet 76: News Values and complete the following questions/tasks. 
Our Media Factsheet archive is available here - you'll need your Greenford Google login to access.

1) What example news story does the Factsheet use to illustrate Galtung and Ruge's News Values? Why is it an appropriate example of a news story likely to gain prominent coverage?

2) What is gatekeeping?

3) What are the six ways bias can be created in news?

4) How have online sources such as Twitter, bloggers or Wikileaks changed the way news is selected and published?

5) In your opinion, how has the digital age changed Galtung and Ruge’s news values? 

6) How would you update these news values for the digital age? Choose TWO of Galtung and Ruge's news values and say how they have been affected by the growth of digital technology.

E.g. Immediacy is more important than ever due to news breaking on social media or elsewhere online. However, this in turn changes the approach of other news sources such as newspapers as the news will probably already be broken so different angles might be required. Newspapers now contain more comment or opinion rather than the breaking story.  

Due date: on Google Classroom

Newspapers: The decline in print media

Our final topic is newspapers: an industry that has changed hugely in the last 20 years due to the impact of the internet.

This is the final set of targeted CSPs - we will be studying the Audience and Industry key concepts plus all relevant contexts for the Daily Mail and the 'i' newspaper. This means newspapers will come up in Paper 1, Section B of the exams. Here's one Daily Mail front page we may want to reference:

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.

Blog tasks: The decline in print media

Part 1: Ofcom report into news consumption 2022

Read this Ofcom 2022 report on the consumption of news in the UK and answer the following questions (bullet points/short answers are fine):

1) Look at the headlines from the report on page 6. Pick three that you think are interesting and bullet point them here. Why did you pick those three in particular?  

2) Look at the overall summary for adults on pages 7-8. What are the key points on newspapers? 

3) Look at the statistics on page 13. What do you notice about newspapers and how has it changed in recent years?

4) Now look at the age demographics for news consumption on page 16. What age demographic groups are most and least likely to read newspapers and what are the percentages? 

5) Look at the newspaper-specific data on page 36. Which are the most popular newspaper titles? 

6) Now look at the total newspaper reach of print and online on page 39. How has this decreased over the last three years?


Part 2: Factsheet - The death of print media

Go to our Media Factsheet archive 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 or you can find it online here - you'll need to log in using your Greenford Google login.

Read the Factsheet and complete the following questions/tasks (bullet points/short answers are fine):

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?

Due date: on Google Classroom.

Newspapers: Weekly Media homework - news stories

For the Newspapers unit, you have an ongoing mini-homework every week: to find, read and post TWO news stories on your blog.

The very simple detail: every week you must find, read, and post two news stories from the websites of our two newspaper CSPs (one from Mail Online and one from The i news website):

Mail Online
The i newspaper website 

You'll also find stories related to the media linked from our Twitter account, @blogmacguffin (access it online here if you don't have the Twitter app) so make sure you're following that too, particularly in the run-up to the final exams/assessments.

Newspaper news story research: blog task

Create ONE blogpost that you return to and update weekly. Call it 'Newspaper news story research'. Then, each week you need to visit the MailOnline website and the 'i' newspaper website and choose one story from each to summarise and share. 

Most importantly, you need to do the following on your blogpost for each story...

1. Copy the headline, date and link.
2. Briefly summarise the story in a sentence or two: is this is an example of hard news or soft news? Does it reflect the politics or ideological stance of that newspaper/website?
3. Explain in a sentence how or why this story appeals to the audience of that newspaper (use media terminology and theory if you can). Is it quality journalism or an example of clickbait?

We'll be sharing our stories as a starter each week and this will ensure you build up a range of stories from both CSPs to provide examples to use in exam questions and essays. 

Due: EVERY week for the next five weeks. Just update the same blogpost with additional stories each time! 

Coursework: Print poster drafts and final Statement of Intent

With one half-term left to complete our coursework, we need to work towards two deadlines in the next few weeks.

The final deadline for all coursework will be the Easter holidays so we now need to be getting our work up to professional standards and ready to submit to Mr Harrison for final checking and collection.

Print poster drafts

You need to complete three A4 draft posters in Photoshop, save these as JPEGs and post to your blog.

Remember to keep your branding and graphic identity consistent across your video production and print posters.

Deadline: week commencing Monday 27 February

Statement of Intent

For your Statement of Intent, you need to submit a final draft that covers BOTH the video and print aspects of the brief and that is as close as possible to the 500-word limit.

The mark scheme for the Statement of Intent can be found here. This is worth 10 of the 60 marks so is definitely worth getting right.

Submit your final draft as a Word or Google document that can be printed and marked/moderated as well as posting on your blog. 

Deadline: week commencing Monday 6 March

Videogames: Final index

We have now finished our final in-depth topic - Videogames.

Your have done some superb work on women in videogames, Henry Jenkins, fandom and postmodernism and The Sims. You now need to complete a Videogames blog index to ensure you have completed all the work for our in-depth Videogame CSPs. 

This process is clearly excellent revision for the Media mock exams approaching as there is a lot of theory in there that could be applied across the full range of CSPs.  

Your Videogames final index should include the following:

1) Videogames: Women in videogames
2) Videogames: Further feminist theory
3) Videogames: Tomb Raider Anniversary

4) Learner response: OSP assessment
5) Videogames - Metroid Prime 2: Echoes
6) Videogames: Henry Jenkins - fandom and participatory culture
7) Videogames: The Sims FreePlay part 1 - Language & Audience
8) Videogames: The Sims FreePlay part 2 - Industries
9) Videogames: The Sims FreePlay part 3 - Representation

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 mock exams or class assessments due to gaps in your knowledge.

Index due date: on Google Classroom 

Videogames: The Sims FreePlay part 3 - Representation

The final aspect of our in-depth case study on The Sims FreePlay focuses on representations and postmodernism.

There is a lot to explore with representation in the Sims FreePlay - everything from gender, race and ethnicity to capitalism, reality and postmodernism. 

Notes from the lesson

The Sims franchise offers range of representations on gender, age, race/ethnicity, sexuality, capitalism and even reality itself.

One aspect of The Sims is the values and ideologies that the game reinforces. Although it has been praised for its liberal values over, for example, LGBTQ+ representation, it could also be argued that the game reinforces dominant American capitalist ideologies.

Expansion pack trailers

A useful way to analyse representations in The Sims FreePlay is to study the trailers produced by EA to promote expansion pack DLC. For example: 





Using these expansion pack trailers, we can study the representation of gender, age, race/ethnicity and much more.

The Sims and postmodernism

Watch this introduction to Baudrillard from 8-Bit Philosophy:



Baudrillard argued that our culture now perceives the ‘copy’ (media representation) as more real than the ‘original’ and stated that we live in a culture where the ‘fake’ is more readily accepted than the ‘real’ – therefore creating hyperreality. This blurs the line between fiction and reality.

The Sims franchise is a perfect study in hyperreality as it allows players to create an entirely constructed life through the game.

The Sims FreePlay social media channels also provide an example of simulacra – they are situated in the real world and interact with real players but feature entirely constructed fictional content from the game. Here, they also make intertextual references to real celebrities. Where is the line between fiction and reality?

The Sims FreePlay - Representation blog tasks

Create a new blogpost called 'The Sims FreePlay case study part 3 - Representations' and complete the following tasks.

Textual analysis

Re-watch some of the expansion pack trailers and answer the following questions:

1) How do the expansion pack (DLC) trailers reinforce or challenge dominant ideologies?

2) What stereotypes have you identified in The Sims FreePlay?

3) What media theories can you apply to representations in The Sims FreePlay?


Representation reading

Read this Forbes article on gender and racism in The Sims franchise and answer the following questions:

1) How realistic does The Sims intend to be?

2) How has The Sims tried to create more realistic representations of ethnicity?

3) How has The Sims responded to racism and sexism in society?

4) What is The Sims perspective on gender fluidity and identity?

5) How does The Sims reinforce the dominant capitalist ideologies of American culture?

Read this New Normative feature on LGBTQ representation in The Sims franchise (the website link no longer works but that will take you to the text of the article - you'll need your Greenford Google login to access). Answer the following questions:

1) How did same-sex relationships unexpectedly help the original Sims game to be a success?

2) How is sexuality now represented in The Sims?

3) Why have fans praised the inclusion of LGBTQ relationships in The Sims franchise?

4) Why did the Sims run into regulatory difficulties with American regulator the ESRB? How did EA respond?

5) How is sexuality represented in the wider videogames industry today?

Reality, postmodernism and The Sims

Read this Paste Magazine feature on reality and The Sims franchise. Answer the following questions:

1) What does the article suggest about the representation of real life in The Sims 4?

2) What audience pleasures did the writer previously find in The Sims franchise?

3) Why the does the writer mention an example of a washer and dryer as additional DLC?

4) In your opinion, has The Sims made an error in trying to make the franchise too realistic?

5) How does this representation of reality link to Baudrillard’s theory of hyperreality - the increasingly blurred line between real and constructed?


The Sims FreePlay social media analysis

Analyse The Sims FreePlay Facebook page and Twitter feed and answer the following questions:

1) What is the purpose of The Sims FreePlay social media channels?

2) Choose three posts (from either Twitter or Facebook) and make a note of what they are and how they encourage audience interaction or response.

3) Scroll down the Facebook feed briefly. How many requests for new content can you find from players? Why is this such as an important part of the appeal for The Sims FreePlay?

4) What tweets can you find in the Twitter feed that refer to additional content or other revenue streams for EA?

5) Linking to our work on postmodernism, how could The Sims FreePlay social media presence be an example of Baudrillard’s hyperreality and simulacra?


Extension: Postmodernism academic reading

If you're interested (or planning on studying Media or Cultural Studies at university), read this highly academic and challenging summary of hyperreality, implosion and postmodern theory from the University of Chicago. Consider how these approaches apply to the digital media landscape we’ve been studying and in particular the videogame industry and franchises like The Sims and Tomb Raider.

Complete for homework: due date on Google Classroom.

Coursework: Print brief research and planning

The Print aspect to our coursework brief is as important as the video work we have been focusing on so far. 

It is crucial that you research, plan and design print work that could comfortably hold its own alongside professional examples. You will also need to make sure you have included a section regarding your print work in your Statement of Intent final draft. A reminder of our coursework brief is here, with the key tasks as follows: 

Print

Create three adverts for the band/artist. The adverts will use the conventions of print advertising but will be distributed online via the band/artist's social media accounts. Each advert should aim to appeal to the target audience but use different strategies to engage the audience. You may include the promotion of a specific product or event if you wish. For example:

• a live show
• a TV appearance
• a new release
• a streaming event
• any other product or event you feel is appropriate.

Each advert should be different but the campaign should create a recognisable visual branding for the band/artist. The adverts should include content that encourages the audience to share the adverts on social media.

What are the minimum requirements?

Three print adverts for your artist (portrait OR landscape OR a mix of the two - your choice). You may want to use A4 size but consider the element of the brief concerning distribution via social media. A square design for Instagram, for example, may work best for one of the adverts. 

The minimum requirements from the brief:

• Three different adverts, each aiming to engage the audience as identified in the brief 
• Appropriate layout and design choices for each advert
• A common visual style to the overall campaign creating a recognisable brand and visual identity for the band/artist
• A distinct marketing strategy should be identifiable across the campaign
• At least three original images across the three adverts with a different dominant image in each advert
• Images should be created and chosen to appeal to the target audience
• Appropriate choices of font, type sizes and colours to create meaning
• Appropriate consideration of the industrial context of production.

Research and planning blog tasks

Create a blogpost called 'Print brief research and planning' and complete the following tasks to plan and prepare your print work:

1) Research music artist print promotion key conventions. Find at least five examples of posters promoting a music artist and post them to your blog. You may wish to search for print promotions via the headings suggested in the brief - live show, new release, streaming event etc.

2) Note down the design elements you notice in each print example you research and look for aspects you can use in your own work (e.g. a particular camera shot, page design or colour scheme). 

3) What key conventions can you find across different types of poster - e.g. tour poster, single release, album poster etc.

Here are a few examples to start you off: 

Ed Sheeran is a good example of consistent branding across different print products - note the font, style of photo, use of props (guitar) etc.:

These Billie Eilish posters have markedly different brands (which you won't be able to do) but offer a range of different marketing strategies. Here you'll see a tour poster (left), awards poster (centre) and album poster with track listing (right): 

These Dave posters offer both consistent branding (the first two) and a really creative lyrics-based design for the third:

These Sam Smith posters have a similar visual style / black and white colour scheme. One advertises a live show while on the right it highlights a single release: 

Like the Billie Eilish examples, these Stormzy posters use very different branding but are good examples of different marketing strategies. You have a single release (left), tour poster (centre) and Amazon appearance (right):

Planning and sketching

1) Plan the marketing strategy and main focus of each of your posters. For example:

Poster 1: album release

Poster 2: tour poster

Poster 3: live appearance / social media event 

2) Plan the images you will take for each poster.

3) Write the copy (words) you will use on each poster - e.g. artist name, album/single/tour name (if relevant), any additional information such as review quotes etc.

4) Plan the social media content you will include in each poster e.g. hashtags, TikTok/Instagram etc.

5) Research and select the font or typography you will use for your posters - particularly your artist's brand identity. Remember to be consistent with what you have in video promotion too.

6) Produce sketches of your three posters, deciding which will be portrait/landscape/square and where the key information will be placed on each design.

Extension task

Create three new documents in Adobe Photoshop in either A4, portrait, landscape or square and start designing your print work (even if you don't have the images yet you can add the text, correct font/typography, social media content etc.) See the tutorials below to help you.

Photoshoot

1) Who do you need to photograph for your print posters? Remember, you need three separate original images - one for each poster. 

2) What camera shots do you need? Write a shot list for your photoshoots. Make sure you plan a variety of camera shots you will look to capture - medium shots, close-ups etc.

3) Plan the mise-en-scene. What costume, props or make-up will you require for your photoshoots? Think carefully about music genre and creating synergy with your video production.

4) Finally, note down the time and date for your photoshoots. This may be inside or outside school (or a combination of both). You will have Media lesson time for this in the week after the mock exams.

Statement of Intent

1) Once you have completed your research and planning, go back to your statement of intent and make sure you have included the print brief in your final draft. Then, submit the final draft statement of intent to your teacher.  

Online tutorials

Remember there are plenty of tutorials on YouTube that can help you create professional-level print work in Photoshop. If you finish all of your research and planning, search for examples like these: 

Use the next two weeks of lessons to complete these planning tasks - homework time is to finish exam work and revise for your mocks.

Due date for research and planning on Google Classroom.

Videogames: The Sims FreePlay part 2 - Industries

The second aspect of our in-depth case study on The Sims FreePlay focuses on industries.

We need to know how videogames are regulated and also the companies behind the game. However, the most significant aspect of this concept is the 'freemium' model that The Sims FreePlay uses.

Notes from the lesson

Regulation: PEGI

• The videogames industry is regulated by PEGI – Pan European Game Information.
• In the UK, the Video Standards Council is responsible for regulating game content. In 2012, PEGI was introduced to UK law to make the age ratings legally enforceable.
• It is illegal to sell games to people below the age of the rating.
• The Sims FreePlay is rated 12+ due to mild references to alcohol, sexual content and similar adult themes.

Electronic Arts

• The Sims franchise is owned by Electronic Arts (EA), a huge name in the videogames industry.
• The Sims FreePlay was developed by Firemonkeys Studios, EA’s Australian subsidiary.
• The franchise was originally developed by Maxis after EA acquired the company.
• EA is famous for big-budget console games such as the FIFA series but has moved more into mobile gaming in recent years.

The 'freemium' model

• The Sims FreePlay uses the ‘freemium’ model – free to download and play but with in-app purchases. 
• Although initially more popular with smaller, independent game developers, the freemium model is now a huge revenue generator for major publishers like EA.

The Sims FreePlay - Industries blog tasks

Create a new blogpost called 'The Sims FreePlay case study part 2 - Industries' and complete the following tasks.

Regulation – PEGI

Research the following using the VSC website PEGI page - look at the videos and Q&A section.

1) How does the VSC and PEGI ratings system work and how does it link to UK law?

2) Click on the PEGI Rating tab in the top menu. What are the age ratings and what content guidance do they include?

3) What is the PEGI process for rating a game? 

The ‘Freemium’ gaming model

Read this Lifewire feature on freemium gaming and answer the following questions:

1) How does the freemium model work?

2) Why do some gamers believe freemium is ruining games?

3) What are the positives of the freemium model for gaming?

Now read this Business Insider feature on freemium gaming and multiplayer games. Answer the following questions:

1) Note the key statistics in the first paragraph.

2) Why does the freemium model incentivise game developers to create better and longer games?

3) What does the article suggest regarding the possibilities and risks to the freemium model in future?

Read this New York Times feature on freemium gaming and answer the following questions:

1) Why did Temple Run use the freemium model?

2) The bigger gaming studios like Electronic Arts used to avoid the freemium model. Why are they now embracing it?

3) Why does Peter Farago suggest independent game makers benefit more from the freemium model than the major publishers like EA?

Electronic Arts

Read this Pocket Gamer interview with EA’s Amanda Schofield, Senior Producer on The Sims FreePlay at EA's Melbourne-based Firemonkeys studio. Answer the following questions:

1) How has The Sims FreePlay evolved since launch?

2) Why does Amanda Schofield suggest ‘games aren’t products any more’?

3) What does she say about The Sims gaming community?

4) How has EA kept the game fresh and maintained the active player base?

5) How many times has the game been installed and how much game time in years have players spent playing the game? These could be great introductory statistics in an exam essay on this topic.

Finally, read this blog on how EA is ruining the franchise (or not) due to its downloadable content. Answer the following questions:

1) What audience pleasures for The Sims are discussed at the beginning of the blog?

2) What examples of downloadable content are presented?

3) How did Electronic Arts enrage The Sims online communities with expansion packs and DLC?

4) What innovations have appeared in various versions of The Sims over the years?

5) In your opinion, do expansion packs like these exploit a loyal audience or is it simply EA responding to customer demand?

Complete for homework: due date on Google Classroom.