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

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

The use of free press has both positives and negatives, and therefore shouldn't be totally self-regulated. The invasion of privacy of those in the public eye is becoming more common, with reporters taking stories too far and gaining private information. This is happening due to the demand the readers give, responding well to stories that seem exclusive. However, I feel that when  scoop is no longer in the public interest then it shouldn't be printed and hence should be regulated, as reporters are gaining both unwanted information and information which is too invasive. The concept of 'press freedom' has political significance as newspaper are able to support any political ideology, printing stories backing this ideology. Due to this, even though the government has little control of the press, politics remains one of the most covered topics. This relationship between 'press freedom' and it's political significance helps to represent the democratic society in Britain; allowing readers to chose which ideology, and therefore newspaper, they follow and buy, without any regulation against them. Just as everyone is entitled to an opinion when voting for the future of the country, with the majority gaining power. Also the government should oversee what is covered within the press, though it should not be able to control; what can and can not be published. The press should be covering stories and events with the public interest as a priority. 

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

The main organisations that regulate newspapers consist of: Editor's code of practice, Press Complaints Commission (PCC), and the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO). This is necessary so that newspaper companies are protected by these organisations so that stories are checked to make sure there is no obligation to those stories which could harm the company involved if there was a problem with story coverage. Curran and Seaton argue that ownership and regulation is the most significant factors in how the media operates. This contributes to the media not having a broad range of opinions and perspectives as companies such as News UK own multiple news outlets which leads to the same opinion coming from the same person being put out into the media, this comes from a capitalist structure, newspapers such as the guardian are ran by trust boards and not by one person so their news comes form a wider perspective and has less bias. 

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

To begin with, the Daily Mail is a clear right wing (capitalist) newspaper, which evidently portrays these views through its stories and layout. The Daily Mail tends to have a great focus on money and prices in modern life - even when not especially relevant to the story. The Mail does this because of its political affiliation, due to the wealthy being interested in the price of things. Another point, is that the Mail favours right wing people and the wealthy, which is clearly shown in their bias to some stories. An example of this, was the paradise papers coverage, which involved the queen being under fire for not paying tax and also for the elites dodging tax. In this, the Mail back up the queen and made it as if those lesser off were wrong, and the queen was simply a victim. 

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

Analysing Shelter's Advertisements

In this advertisement poster, the advertisers have chosen the colours black and red, to portray their campaign. The colour red connotates with blood, danger, action. It symbolises action and is linked to anger. Red is a very emotionally intense colour, it has very high visibility, so it is good at catching people's attention. The colour red, brings text and images to the foreground, meaning that it will be the first thing that an observer will look at. The colour black connotates with fear, grief, aggression and mystery. Black is a good contrasting colour, as it contrasts with any colour. When combined with red, which is a powerful colour, it also gives a very aggressive colour scheme. The advertisers might have used the colour black to show the seriousness of the campaign. The reader can also see how serious the campaign is by the facial expressions of the actors. The colour white is also used, the colour white makes people feel safe, so the advertisers are trying to show that if people donate money to the charity, then those people will be helping others feel safe. Each poster shows a different challenge that can affect the security of people's homes when personal situations change, such as losing a job and the impact of paying off debts. The poster is urging people to seek help early, because a lot of things can happen that will affect them badly. 

Media Representation: Unseen Advertisement

Shelter vs Amnesty International 



One similarity is that both posters are charities and they are trying to warn people and they are trying to help people. Another similarity is that they both use he colour red. Red is the colour of blood and it is associated with rage, danger and wrath. It is an intense colour that is packed with emotions such as anger and violence. The amnesty international poster uses barb wire to show that there is a lot of war and conflict in the world, that people feel imprisoned or are imprisoned. Amnesty is trying to stop this by showing that if people donate money then they can stop the cruelty and violence, hence why there is barb wire and a hand which is trying to cut it. One difference is that, the Shelter poster's purpose is to help those people who have lost their homes to find shelter quickly. Whereas the amnesty international poster's purpose is to stop cruelty and violence in the world.

Old Spice Analysis

The poster itself is directed to men, because it says " smell like a man, man". Even though the product is for men, the video campaign itself is directed to women. It is shown that 70% of women purchase men toiletries, instead of women toiletries. The product is shown as an oyster that has two tickets inside it, then it turns into diamonds, then it shows the actual product. It says that anything is possible when your man smells like Old Spice instead of a lady. Which suggests that the campaign is trying to make women buy the product for themselves, instead of buying it for men. The campaign shows an attractive man, telling the female audience that if they purchase the product, their man would be able to smell like him 

Analysing Lucozade's Advertisement

They have put a blue background because the colour of the drink is blue. Also when people think of the colour blue, they think about the sky, water and stability. Water represents that the drink is refreshing and that it will keep you hydrated and help maintain endurance performance. The background shows two shades of blues, there is a light blue, which connotes with health and a dark blue which connotes with power. The advertisers show that the drink does not only keep you hydrated, but its good for your health and it gives you a lot of power. The yellow in the poster represents the energy that generates in your muscles when you have a drink of lucozade. The yellow is very effective for attracting attention, that is why it is used to highlight the most important elements of the poster. The yellow on the poster is associated with freshness, to show that the drink is fresh. The dark navy blue that is used for the font, connotes with power and seriousness. 
The background of the poster goes from dark to light, then you can see that there is light on most part of Gareth Bale's face but then there is not that much light on the right side of his face. 
'In a different league'→ this might mean something about football, because Gareth Bale is a well known footballer. So it can be taking about the Premier League or the Championship League. So the advertisers may suggesting that if you drink the lucozade drink then you will be in some type of special league.