British Press

Best Selling UK Newspapers

This graph is based on how many

papers are sold monthly. From this
graph we can see that the top 3
newspapers that was sold between
2016-2017 was The Daily Mail (
most sold), The Sun ( 2nd) and The
Guardian. The bottom 3 was The
Times, Daily Star, Daily Record.
 Top 10 Sale figures monthly

1. The top selling was Daily Mail – 14, 322 sold

2. The Sun – 12,982
3. The Guardian – 9,978
4. The Daily Telegraph - 9,807
5. Daily Mirror – 8, 725
6. Daily Express – 6,835
7. The Times – 6,099
8. Daily Star- 3,617
9. Daily Record- 1,617
Left Wing and Right Wing

Left wing = the radical, reforming, or socialist section of a

political party or system.
Right wing = the conservative or reactionary section of a
political party or system.
From this we can see that certain Newspapers will be
biased to left wing or right wing which could make the
information people read ‘buttered up’
 Owners of the Newspapers
• The Sun and The Times – Rupert Murdoch – conservative
• The Daily Mail and Metro – Lord Rothermore – conservative
• The Mirror and The Daily Mirror– Trinity Mirror – labour
• The Guardian – Scott Trust – liberal democrats
• Daily Express and Daily Star - Richard Desmond – conservative
 Opinion and Bias
• Owen Jones = “ largely run by a very small group of very right-wing media moguls
who defend the status quo of which they are part. If you are on the Left and want to
change society, the media will always come and get you.” – saying that the media is run
by mainly the right wing but a tight and small group. Therefore, it is very bias.
• ‘The personal ideology of people has relatively little impact on perception of
newspapers’- this means that if a person is right wing they will buy a right wing paper and
if they are left wing they will buy a left wing paper.
• Bias cannot be escaped. All media is influenced by something or someone. All news stories
are influenced by the attitudes and background of its interviews, writers, photographs and
editors. However, not all bias is deliberate.
 Types of Bias
• Bias through selection and omission
The editor can express bias by choosing not to use or not to use specific news items. Or some details can be
ignored or not spoken. It is difficult to detect as if you do not know its there how do you look for it.
• Bias Through placement
Readers of papers judge first page stories to be more significant than those buried in the back. Television and
radio casts run the most important stories first and leave the less significant for later. Where a story is placed it
will influence the readers views on how important the topic is.
• Bias by headline
Most people scan the headlines of a newspaper when walking past. They are the most read part of the paper as
they can summarize as well as present carefully hidden prejudices. They convey excitement where little exsists
and can express approval or condemnation
 Types of Bias Continued
• Bias by photos, captions and camera angles
Some pictures flatter a person and others can make a person look awful. A paper can influence opinion by
choosing certain photos; for example, a candidate for an election. If they are poor pictures with a funny angle
the candidate will seem as bad but if they are good photos and good angles then the candidate will seem really
good. On television the choice of visual images can be very important. The captions newspapers run below the
photos are also key.
• Bias through use of names and titles
News media will use certain words to describe a person, place or events. For example a person can be referred
to as a terrorist or a freedom fighter depending on the view of the newspaper
• Bias though statistics and crowd counts
They will make a disaster seem more drastic so therefore worthy of reading about. Numbers can be inflated
such as “100 injured in a air crash” compared to “ minor injuries in air crash”
 Types of Bias Continued
• Bias by Source Control
To detect bias people need to consider where the information came from. If
data is coming from conservative party then the information will be influenced
and biased towards conservative views. Or was the information from eye
witness, if so how true is it.
• Word Choice and Tone
• The use of positive or negative words or words with a particular connotation
can strongly influence the reader or viewer.
 Subtitles Analysing newspapers
the difference between the two, is the daily mail, is focusing on the police and what
language their mistakes were where as the guardian was focusing on London as a whole and
Title tells
suggests how it was affected
people the riot
is in London
the police and the
didn’t take subtitles show
it seriously they are from
Birmingham
enough

Picture
shows
tragedy
Picture of person shows criminality and
and that the riot is dangerous. Criminality is
chaos. Headline shows the are mad at shown as his face and hands are hidden
the police and suggests the riot which shows he doesn’t want to be
is not just in London identified
 Analysing Newspapers Continued:

The use of word

The subtitle and ‘attack’ has a
headline is negative influence
influencing a on the reader as it
is an aggressive
positive image. word.
‘released from the
shackles’
Picture shows Nigel
embraces the fact celebrating which relates Shows David is
that brexit is a to the people who agree against brexit –
good thing and with brexit and are also
relates to the
celebrating
England is now people who are
free also against it
 Stuart hall
• Encoding/decoding, hall proposed a model of mass communication that highlights
the importance of active interpretation with relevant codes.
Hall’s model
• Moment of encoding, when the ‘institutional practices and organizational
conditions and practises of production take place
• Moment of text: ‘ the symbolic construction. Arrangement, and perhaps
performance. The form and content of what is published or broadcast’
• Moment of decoding: ‘ the moment of reception or consumption’
 Fake news

• Fake news is stories that has been manipulated to entice the audience to read
– or to make a situation worst or better than it is
• The writers purpose is to attract the reader to read their article and for them
to share it so other people read it. They can do this by having a eye catching
headline such as ‘ catch carnie if you can! Homeland star Claire Danes
displays her fit figure in tight exercise gear as she sweats it out during a
gruelling run- - this is eye catching as they have mentioned a famous actress
and have mentioned what she is doing so people interested in her will read
their article.
Fake news Continued:

Here are some headlines from websites and the read

number was reactions and how many people felt it
was true. The reason why people may believe it is
true is because they are relating to topics that are true
or similar to on going topics. Furthermore, the use of
language isn’t aggressive or over the top which can
make a person feel it is true as the headline doesn’t
seem exaggerated.
 Cultivation theory – historical background
• The idea that the media enforces your idea over time – people that read newspapers will read a newspaper
that agrees with their opinion
• In 1950s the television became life of the US
• The widespread influence of the TV became a concern for many scholars and policy makers- influenced the
theory
• Gerbner said TV is a “social agent” which means it’s a platform for messages to be received and sent –
nowadays that is social media
• Main argument – ‘ the more we live with TV, the more invisible it becomes’ (chandler 1995) – watching TV
changes the viewers attitudes rather than behaviour.
• The exposure of television overtime will shape viewers perception of reality
• Having long term effects which are small, gradual, indirect but significant
 Cultivation theory continued:
• 2 order effects
1. First order effects: general beliefs about the world day
2. Second order effects: specific attitudes and judgments
• This divides viewers into 2 levels: light viewers and heavy viewers
Heavy Viewers
• Young people
• Those watching TV more than 4 hours a day
• Being effected by Mean World Syndrome – they see the world as a nastier and more violent than what it really is
• Less selective in what they view
• More likely to be involved in violence
They are more fearful about life ( worried about walking alone at night, overestimating the size of law, distrust in people etc)
however they re unaware of the influence that TV exposure is having on them
 Newspaper articles
This article is cultivation as it
would reinforce an audience
that is British and hates ISIS.
This is because it is aimed at a
British person being attacked
and killed by ISIS
Different take on
immigration-usually
negative - showing how
the immigrants are so
desperate that they are
risking their lives and
their children's lives to
leave their own country.
This would reinforce
peoples ideas who want
to help immigrants.
 History of newspapers
• Phone hacking scandal - The News International phone-hacking scandal is a controversy involving the now
defunct News of the world and other British newspapers published by News International, a subsidiary of News
Corporation. Employees of the newspaper were accused of engaging in Phone Hacking, police bribery, and exercising
improper influence in the pursuit of stories. Whilst investigations conducted from 2005 to 2007 appeared to show that the
paper's phone hacking activities were limited to celebrities, politicians, and members of the British Royal Family

• Licensing act 1662 – Act of the Parliament of England(14 Car. II. c. 33)It was repealed by the Statute Law
Revision Act 1863. The Act was originally limited to two years. The provisions as to importation of books, the
appointment of licensers, and the number of printers and founders were practically re-enactments of the similar
provisions in an order of the Star Chmaber of 1637. Printing presses were not to be set up without notice to the
stationer’s company. A king's messenger had power by warrant of the king or a secretary of state to enter and
search for unlicensed presses and printing. Severe penalties by fine and imprisonment were denounced against
offenders. The act was successively renewed up to 1679.
 History of Newspaper continued:
• Tax on Newspapers - A tax was first imposed on British newspapers in 1712. The tax was gradually
increased until in 1815 it had reached 4d. a copy. As few people could afford to pay 6d. or 7d. for a newspaper, the
tax restricted the circulation of most of these journals to people with fairly high incomes

• The observer -The Observer is a British newspaper published on Sundays. In the same place on the political
spectrum as its sister papers The Guardian and The Guardian Weekly, whose parent company Guardian Media
Group Limited acquired it in 1993, it takes a social liberal or social democratic line on most issues.

• Reduction of the stamp tax in 1836 - In the House of Commons, John Roebuck led the
campaign against taxes on newspapers. In 1836 the campaigners had their first success when the 4d. Tax on
newspapers was reduced to 1d. The same year Parliament agreed to remove the tax on pamphlets.
 History of Newspaper continued:
• Golden age of newspaper publication - The Golden Age was a free local newspaper first published on the
15th of September 1860. The paper was established by local proprietor and former Methodist minister John Gale.
In the opening editorial on page 2 of the first edition, the editors promised to provide unbiased political
commentary on the activities of both local and colonial parliamentary, judicial and police courts declaring the paper
to be 'uninfluenced by fear or favour'. Refusing to adopt the middle ground in its commentary, the editors
acknowledged that views expressed may be divisive, however, the readership was assured the '...single aim will at all
times be, - THE ADVANCEMENT OF THE PUBLIC GOOD‘
• The press council - A Britih voluntary press organisation founded under threat of statutory regulation as the
General Council in 1953, with a non-binding regulatory framework. Through most of its history the Council was
funded by newspaper proprietors, with the stated aim of maintaining high standards of ethics in journalism. The
General Council was reformed as the Press Council in 1962, with 20 per cent lay members. In 1980 the National;
Union of Journalists withdrew from membership. In 1991, the Press Council was replaced by the Press Complaint
Commission
• Decline in newspaper circulation - The decline of newspapers has been widely debated, as the industry has
faced dropping newsprint prices, slumping ad sales, the loss of much classified advertising and precipitous drops in
circulation. In recent years the number of newspapers slated for closure, bankruptcy or severe cutbacks has risen,
especially in the United States, where the industry has shed a fifth of its journalists since 2001. Revenue has plunged
while competition from Internet media has squeezed older print publishers.