News

Friday 6th March. 2020
What is news?
LO: To explore the nature and ownership of the news industry

What is the purpose of the news?

• Entertain
• Inform 
• Educate
• Profit
• Influence/Persuade

1. "News was not a spectated sport" What does stephens mean by this?

Way before there was any kind of technology, we got our news from each other. 

2. What developments 150yrs ago made it posible for people to make a business selling news? 

People could make money from the printing press and telegraph.

3. We can now access news anywhere, from our own ideas and opinions and even contribute ourselves. Stephen says "This is mostly a wonderful thing". Why? Do you agree?

Yes, i agree. This is because theres a lot of fake news.

Newspaper ownership

• Newspapers are not PSB (like the BBC) they are commercial publications.
• Over three quarters (77.8%) of the british press is owned by a handful of billionaires. Over a quarter (23.7%) of the press is owned by lord rothermere and 24.9% by rupert murdoch between themselves, the two men have over 50% of the printed press.
• Newspapers and their online publications are not legally obliged to provide an unbiased public information service.
• There are ethical and moral codes of press conduct but the printed press is elf regulatory industry.

Newspaper funding

• In the UK, there are 3 ownership models
• 1. 'media barons' owned by wealthy individuals or proprietors. e.g. rupert murdoch.
• 2. 'trusts' a legal arrangement that transfers funds from the owner to 'trustee' to manage and control the running of the paper. e.g Scott trust (GMG) the guardian 
• 3. 'cross media converged conglomerates' global institutions that own numerous media outlets. These may be owned by media barons. e.e DMG and lord rothermere.

1. Write a brief definition of what news is?

News is an industry that is there to inform, entertain, educate, profit, persuade/influence. 

2. What are the disadvantages to news being a commercial industry?

The news and media make or come up with fake news to try and make a profit out of a boring story.

3. What are the advantages to news being a commercial industry? 

They will make it interesting for the public to view and to also entertain them. 

4. What are the disadvantages of newspapers/online newspapers being self regulatory?

Gives them more or less power to print what they want without anyone but themselves checking. 

5. What are the advantages of newspapers being self regulatory? 

Having the influence from media barons

6. Why is ownership important?

Power and influence from a small percent of people owning our press.


1. What is fake news?
News that isn't real

2. How can you spot or check fake news?
Check who has published it and who named it

3. Why is there more fake news now than there was 30 years ago?
Because there are more apps to edit photos and make them look more realistic than there was 30 years ago.



Friday 13th March. 2020.
Newspaper ownership, funding and regulation
LO- To explore the impact of newspaper ownership, funding and regulation on the printed press.

Tabloid

• the sun
• daily mirror 

Hybrid

• daily mail
• daily express

Broadsheet

• the telegraph
• the guardian
• the times

How do newspapers make money?

• advertisement 
• subscriptions
• circulation sales
• donations
• paywalls & membership
• events & the sales

• Rupert Merdoch owns the sun, times, sunday times, sun on sunday
• DMGT owns daily mail and mail on sunday
• Reach owns express on sunday and star
• Reach PLC owns mirror, sunday mirror, sunday people and daily record
• The Barclay brothers owns daily telegraph and sunday telegraph
• Scott Trust owns the guardian and observer 
• Nikkei inc owns financial times

Media ownership:

1. Media barons
2. Media conglomerates
3. Trusts

How does media ownership contribute to news bias?

• Commercial advertising ties
• Political opinion of owner
• Business interests of owners/friends
• Profit: newspapers are not PSB -news is not 'non fiction' it is stories designed to sell

The guardian and observer are owned by a trust set up in the 1930s. it was set up to protect the editorial indipendance of the guardian newspaper.


Friday 20th March.2020.
Newspaper audiences
LO- To investigate how newspapers target specific audiences

The observer target audience is very equally spread between male and female. They are upmarket readers, they live mostly in London and south. These readers are sold to advertisers as affluent, ‘progressives’ forward looking people who are keen to try new things such as arts and culture, food and drink and aficionados.
Monthly online UK observer readers are slightly more male than female with 55% as male  and 45% female. The male bias in online news content is very common. 1 third of the audiences are 15-34,
2 thirds are 35+. This is a younger audience than the print readership. 75% of the online audience are social class which makes the slightly downmarket from the print audience, but still upmarket compared to the UK population as a whole. Online readers are about 1 third PCs, 2 thirds on mobiles.

What does convergence mean?
Convergence is the merging of mass communication outlets such as print, television, radio, internet and interactive technologies through various digital media platforms.

How does convergence apply to the observer?
The observer online follows the structure of the print edition but with greater prominence for the lifestyle, food and sport sections that are kept out of the main section of the print newspaper.

The digital convergence helps the observer appeal to a wider audience because more than one person can or will read each newspaper and many more people can access the observer online.


Tuesday 14th April 2020

Find out the political bias of the Uk's national newspapers
The guardian- liberal
The mirror- liberal
The independent- liberal
The times- conservative
The telegraph- conservative
The sun- liberal
The daily express- conservative
The daily mail- conservative

What does the term free press mean?
This is when news/media is not controlled or restricted by government censorship political or ideological matters.

What self regulatory body do most newspapers now use today?
Impress