Daily Mail and Mail Online CSP: Blog tasks

 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?

Brexit, Buckingham Palace, Boris Johnson (Conservative Party Leader), Royal family (Camilla and Queen Elizabeth). 

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

Some dominant ideologies that are presented in front of the Daily Mail is that it is heavily right winged. This is because of the continuous repetition of talking about Brexit and showing pictures of Boris Johnson who back then was the leader of the conservative party. The audience are positioned to respond to the stories shown especially on the front page of the Daily Mail in a positive way as they keep talking about how the UK will be better off without Brexit and how it is a 'new beginning'. 

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

The Daily Mail reflects British culture and society to be something you should be proud of. This is because within their pages they talk about and show pictures of people cheering and waving flags around of how they want to leave Brexit and how their wishes have come true making this a very special moment in British 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?

* The 1% Club viewers are horrified by Lee Mack's 'brutal and insensitive' remark about contestant's appearance - Soft news

* Grinning Prince Andrew surprises onlookers as disgraced Duke appears at Windsor Easter Service attended by King Charles, Queen Camilla and other Royals - Hard news. 

* Jamie Borthwick's ex-girlfriend claims Strictly star cheated on her during his time on the show - following sex toy scandal - Soft news. 

* The Apprentice winner Dean Franklin 'faces huge fine in rogue trader probe' after air-con firm is accused of missing key licence - Soft news. 

* 'There was a wall of silence': The bishop who brought down the Archbishop of Canterbury reveals how she 'looked into the abyss' of child abuse in the Church - Hard news. 

Some examples of 'clickbaits' that are shown on the MailOnline are links to products of Amazon and Gambling links. 

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

The stories on the MailOnline are completely different to the stories you would see in the Daily Mail. This is because in the MailOnline it mainly focuses on celebrity lives and gossip and talks about more light heated matters of what they are doing and are up to. However in the Daily Mail they talk about more serious matters such as politics and what's going on in parliament, 

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?

It offers many different forms of diversion as there are a lot of different news stories on many different people and celebrities that can keep a person engaged and entertained for a long time. In addition I feel like the MailOnline offers personal identity to some of the stories they talk about on their website such as weight loss hacks that ordinary people could self relate to and be interested in reading about that. 


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?

The news content that is generally featured in the Daily Mail is a combination of serious journalism and entertainment. 

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

The Daily Mail's mode of address is aimed at women so the language and discursive strategies are ones more likely to appeal to preferred female audience.

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

Techniques of persuasion that the Daily Mail uses to attract and retain readers are split into 3 areas. Practical techniques include: bribery (offering rewards/ coupons/ incentives), Emotional techniques include:

exaggeration or hyperbole (taking a fact or statistic and blowing it out of proportion) and Associations techniques include: celebrity endorsement; experts (having an expert to appeal to the logical brain helps to convince consumers).

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

The Daily Mail's editorial stance is as follows from a recent YouGov poll (Feb 20-22, 2017), of those questioned “81% considered the [Daily Mail] to be right-wing to one degree or another” with 44% considering it as “very right-wing”. This is because the Daily Mail's political stance is traditionally Conservative, having supported the party in all recent general elections. The paper is also known for criticism of the Labour party, and in particular the current leader Jeremy Corbyn (correct as of January 2018). So much so, that during the 2015 general election, The Daily Mail advocated readers in some constituencies to vote UKIP (as the main challenger to the Labour Party). The paper is often critical of the BBC, seeing it as an institution biased to the left.

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? 

The Daily Mail fits in the overall picture of UK newspapers of it having the highest number (44%) of it being right winged out of all the newspapers that were asked. This shows that even with this being the most read newspaper in the whole of Britain it is considered very right winged with it also having one of the lowest numbers of supporting the left wing Labour party side (3%). 

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?

The launch of the Daily Mail changed the UK newspaper industry as the Daily Mail employed shorter bite-size boxes of information seen in the magazine-style digests, such as Tit-Bits (1881). This meant that news was presented in shorter articles with clear headlines. This allowed the Daily Mail to increase their volume of sales, and then offer an affordable cover price for the lower middle-class readership. This layout appealed to their readership, but also to advertisers who provided a large chunk of revenue. As the advertisements took a fair proportion of the space, the news content that arrived in the Daily Mail newsroom had to be internally edited to fit the space available. This gave way to a new style and tone of news across the entire paper and led to the use of the Inverted Pyramid method. This method, was used in newspapers as it offered effective communication of the news. This increased the popularity of the paper, as the middle class engaged with the new style of journalism. As a result, the Daily Mail is targeting specific social classes of readers, and this could be exploited by advertisers. And so, the relationship between advertisers and newspapers began.

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

The Daily Mail is owned by the British Media company DMGT (Daily Mail and General Trust plc). Other newspapers, websites and brands that they own are the Daily Mail brand online (MailOnline), which “attracts more readers around the world than any other English language newspaper website.” Other websites and newspapers they own are Mail on Sunday, Jobsite, This is Money, Mail Plus and Metro. 

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

Dacre's ideological positions and his views on the BBC is that it has crippled commercial radio and is distorting the free market for internet newspapers. Dacre believes that the BBC is too left winged as is taking over and control of its rights and destroying free and open debate in Britain. 

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

Tim Adams described Dacre as the most dangerous man in Britain as he believes if Paul could he would "tow England out into the middle of the Atlantic". Some of the example stories that Adam refers to are the immigration narratives of how he wants to keep the immigrants out of our country and keep the rapists and serial killers away from the UK. 

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

The Daily Mail deals with the coverage of the issues of immigration as a negative thing. This is because the Daily Mail labels immigrants as bad and dangerous people in society and that they are coming to the UK 'to get away from a crime or felony that they have committed elsewhere'. Some of the key representations that are shown from this are the “one-legged Albanian double killer” Saliman Barci in Northolt. Though Albania (where the killer claims to come from) is not a member of the EU, and it is not clear how leaving will do anything to prevent their arrival in Britain, the implication is clear.

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?

Curran and Seaton suggest regarding the newspaper industry and society that newspapers have to reflect the needs and desires (interests) of the reader in order to maintain circulation and readership.

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

The Daily Mail’s circulation reached 1 million then the national dailies gained a readership in the working classes. The growth of the press as a mass medium was accompanied by increased concentration of ownership. The more their newspaper grew with readers the more they were able to influence society. 

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

The Daily Mail invests heavily in the development for the MailOnline in the 2000s as a way to to address the

declining readership of the print Daily Mail. The MailOnline is read by more young people than ever before with it being the most visited English-language website in the world, with approximately 15 million unique visitors to the site per day.

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

MailOnline offers a direct, immediate and ongoing conversation with the reader. The relationship then develops between editor and reader, as the editor can respond to reader likes or dislikes (much like a DJ might in a club). Clarke constantly edits the homepage so, unlike the print Daily Mail, content is tweaked to appeal to the widest readership and encourage the highest clicks. Clarke’s team are able to see how many people are reading a story an any one time, and respond accordingly.

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

The digital Daily Mail publishes around 1000 stories, but 10,000 pictures.

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

The MailOnline editor Martin Clarke explains the success of the website "...is because we cover the waterfront. It’s all the news you need to know, all the news you wanna know. The big stories. The lighter stories...". Clarke says that in order to keep your readers engaged you need to make sure you provide them with news that they will want to read and not notice the time passing by. You want to make sure your readers are as gripped and invested into the story as you were whilst writing it for them. 

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

Clarke says, “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 stories that are on the homepage are there because they have a high click count; lots of people in the last 5 minutes read these stories so it’s highly likely that new readers arriving at MailOnline will want to read these as well.

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

I feel like the views of 'clicks' are interesting as I feel like it is more beneficial than damaging by giving readers the power and control of the digital content. This is because traditionally writers and editors of newspapers would write up and sell their stories to the public and if the public did not enjoy reading it or liked it then they could complain but that whole process of complaining and getting somewhere with it was long and time consuming. Now, with the readers being able to control what they read or view due to the highest clicks is actually quite useful as the MailOnline or other newspapers that have an online edition of their newspaper can view statically what gets the most views or 'clicks' which then allows them to have some sort of a path and guide into what the majority of the public will want the news to be about. This is why the MailOnline have done so well in maintaining and keeping their readers engaged with their stories by finding stories and giving them what they want.