Newspapers: Daily Mirror - Representation and Industry

Our final tasks for the Daily Mirror involve studying Representation and Industry.

Remember, this is an in-depth CSP and needs to be studied with reference to all four key concepts: Language, Representation, Industries and Audience.

Daily Mirror notes

Representation

The Daily Mirror supports the Labour Party and is against the Conservative Party. Generally, the newspaper will act as a voice for normal people and go against the rich and powerful (like Conservative politicians or 'greedy bankers').

You need to study the selected CSP pages for the Daily Mirror to see how the newspaper represents different people and groups.

Industries

The Daily Mirror is owned by Reach, which used to be called Trinity Mirror. Reach publishes over 240 regional titles in addition to the Daily Mirror and Sunday Mirror - including our local newspaper website getwestlondon.

The Daily Mirror's circulation has fallen drastically over the years from over 3 million a day in 1990 down to around 350,000 a day in 2021. Recent falls have been due to the rise of the internet which is why the Mirror's audience is much older now.

To combat falling print revenues, the The Daily Mirror has:

• Created the mirror.co.uk website and social media content such as the Daily Mirror Twitter feed.
• The move towards a multi-platform landscape means that it publishes and synchronises across its print, desktop and mobile platforms. The Daily Mirror provides this online content for free. Some newspapers (e.g. The Times) have a paywall on their online content which means that they charge subscription fees to read articles.  Free providers make money from advertising space online.
• Created a social media strategy in collaboration with the digital team to drive growth of their Twitter and Facebook profiles. 
• Create news based content that updates regularly, is shared on social media channels, includes a range of video content and encourages audience involvement. Printed newspapers cannot do this so effectively.

News values

Media theorists Galtung and Ruge defined a set of news values to explain how journalists and editors decided 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?
• Negativity: Is it bad news? Bad news tends to get more focus as it’s more sensational/ attention grabbing. 
• Balance: the story may be selected to balance other news, such as a human survival story to balance a number of stories concerning death.

Blog tasks: Daily Mirror case study

Work through the following questions to complete your work on the Daily Mirror.

Representation

1) What political party does the Daily Mirror support?

2) How does the Daily Mirror usually represent rich and powerful people?

3) How are celebrities usually presented in tabloid newspapers like the Daily Mirror? Look at the 'New Bond stars are revealed' story on the front page of the Daily Mirror.

4) How are the royal family presented in the double-page spread 'Kate told Harry to make peace... then they all met up for tea'? 

5) Why do you think the Daily Mirror represents the royal family as a 'normal' family? Why might this appeal to Daily Mirror readers?


Industries

1) What company owns the Daily Mirror?

2) What is the Daily Mirror's circulation in 2021? How many papers did the Daily Mirror used to sell back in the 1990s?

3) Why has the newspaper industry struggled in the last 20 years?

4) How has the Daily Mirror reacted to the decline in print sales and the growth of the internet?

5) List five of Galtung & Ruge's News Values and explain how they link to the stories in our CSP edition of the Daily Mirror.


Grade 8/9 extension task

The Daily Mirror's owner, Reach (then Trinity Mirror) bought control of the Express and Daily Star newspapers in 2018. Read this Guardian feature on the deal. Why did Trinity Mirror buy the papers?

You will get some lesson time to work on this case study but will need to complete it at home - due date on Google Classroom.

Newspapers: Daily Mirror - Language and Audience

Our first Newspapers CSP is the Daily Mirror.

Remember, this is an in-depth CSP and needs to be studied with reference to all four key concepts: Language, Representation, Industries and Audience.

Daily Mirror notes

Language

AQA has selected the following pages as our Daily Mirror CSP pages:

Analyse these pages and look at which stories have been selected for the newspaper and how they are constructed for their audience.

Audience

The Daily Mirror audience is older with almost half the audience aged 65+. In terms of social class, most are in the C1, C2 DE social classes. They are likely to be in the Struggler, Resigned or Mainstream psychographic groups.

Blog tasks: Daily Mirror case study

Work through the following questions to cover the Language and Audience key concepts for the Daily Mirror.

Language

1) Write the definition of the following key language for newspaper front pages (you may want to add an example for each from our Daily Mirror CSP):

Masthead:
Pug:
Splash Head:
Slogan:
Dateline:
Kicker:
Byline:
Standfirst:

2) How much does a copy of the Daily Mirror cost? (Note: the current cost is different to the CSP edition - I recommend learning both).

3) What are the main stories on the CSP edition of the Daily Mirror (see above)? Make sure you learn the headline and what the stories are about.

4) Why is the choice of news stories on the Mirror CSP front page typical of a tabloid newspaper?

5) What is the balance on the Daily Mirror front page between images, headlines and text?


Audience

1) What is the target audience for the Daily Mirror?

2) Why does the Mirror front page story appeal to the Daily Mirror audience?

3) Why might a reader enjoy the Daily Mirror? Use Blumler & Katz Uses and Gratifications theory to add detail to your answer.

4) Why are print newspapers generally read by older audiences?

5) How is the 'Wills and Harry royal rift' story on the double page spread constructed to appeal to Daily Mirror readers? 


Grade 8/9 extension tasks

Read this Guardian column on the Mirror's struggles with covering Brexit. How did the Mirror suggest people vote in the EU referendum and how did many of its working class audience actually vote?

Guardian Media critic Roy Greenslade writes about why tabloid newspapers like the Mirror are struggling to attract younger readers in this column. Make a note of some of the key statistics in this article and also what Greenslade thinks tabloids should do to stay relevant in the digital age. This column also has an excellent discussion of the Mirror's political stance which is ideal to grade 9 answers.

You will get some lesson time to work on this case study but will need to complete it at home - due date on Google Classroom.

Newspapers: Introduction

Our final in-depth exam topic is Newspapers.

Remember, as an in-depth CSP this needs to be studied with reference to all four key concepts: Language, Representation, Industries and Audience.

Introduction to newspapers - notes

GLow Words

• Left-wing (Socialist): in favour of social equality and reform. The Labour Party is considered left-wing and the Daily Mirror generally supports Labour and left-wing causes.
• Right-wing (Conservative): prefer the traditional way things are and in favour of low taxes. The Conservative Party is considered right-wing and the Times generally supports the Conservatives and right-wing causes.
• Agenda: issues brought to the attention of the people through news.
• Elitist: for the good of a few people, usually the upper classes or most educated.
• Political Bias: when an industry or media product supports a certain political view.
• Hard news: information on topics like business, politics and international affairs.
• Soft news: blurs line between information and entertainment so may be centred more on gossip, celebrities or lifestyle issues.
• Tabloid: smaller, popular and tends to focus on sensational stories and softer news. 
• Broadsheet: larger, more niche and tends to focus on serious, harder news.

Historical, social and cultural context

The ‘Press’ is a collective term for the newspaper industry.  The name comes from printing presses. 

Newspapers are still popular media products for audiences to get their news, be entertained and informed.  There are a range of national (Daily Mail), regional (Birmingham Mail) and specialist newspapers (The Racing  Post). 

Whilst still popular, since the 1950s, there has been a gradual decline in newspaper sales due to the rise of TV ownership (and news programmes) and, more recently, the growth of digital news through websites and social media.

The importance of a free press

A free press implies that journalists (those that write for newspapers) and newspaper editors can edit content free of intervention from Government influence.  

More than a third of the world’s population live in countries where there is no press freedom. Journalists are often imprisoned if they disagree with the Government, social media channels are not allowed, non-democratic countries often control access to information and employ state-run news organizations.

Tabloids and broadsheets

There are generally two classifications of newspapers – tabloids and broadsheets.

Tabloids tend to be easier to read, feature shorter articles and include more photographs. They report on major news, but also include a lot of showbiz gossip, entertainment and sport. They tend to be the better sellers. Examples include The Sun and the Daily Mirror.

Broadsheet newspapers traditionally used to be larger (printed on ‘broad sheets’) although most are the same size as tabloids now. They tend to be more serious, have smaller fonts, more advanced use of language and less photography (although they have included more over the last 20 years to be more popular). They tend to have lower circulation figures than tabloids. Examples include the Times and the Daily Telegraph.

Introduction to Newspapers: blog task

Create a new blogpost called 'Introduction to Newspapers' and answer the following questions:

1) What type of news can you typically find in a tabloid newspaper?

2) What type of news can you typically find in a broadsheet newspaper?

3) If someone is left-wing, which political party are they likely to support? Which newspaper would they be likely to read?

4) If someone is right-wing, which political party are they likely to support? Which newspaper would they be likely to read?

5) Why has there been a decline in newspaper sales in the last 20 years?

6) Why is a free press important in a democracy like the UK?

Extension: Read this BBC website report on the impact of coronavirus on the newspaper industry. 

Which newspapers have been worst hit by Covid-19? 

Which newspapers are trying to move their readers from print to digital? Why is the switch to digital attractive for newspaper companies?

Do you think newspapers will survive Covid-19? Why?

You should have lesson time to work on this but will need to finish for homework - due date on Google Classroom.