What is The Popular Press?

Contents

• definitions of media language associated with newspapers
• codes and conventions
• areas of study
• classroom activities
• front page examples
• front page quiz
• news values
• regulation
• institutions
• representations
• audiences
• politics and the popular press

The Popular Press refers to mass circulation national newspapers, targeted at the popular end of the market. This includes The Sun, The Daily Mirror, The Daily...

What is News?

News is an integral part of daily life. We use news to frame our daily events. A plane crashes at Heathrow, in a remarkably short space of time everyone knows about it. We might wake up to it in the morning on the radio or TV. We may go to sleep with it, and we may hear it during the day, or see a live TV screen with rolling news. We may read a newspaper. At its heart, news is about people doing things. People’s activity is...

Associated Resources

MEST2 Coursework Overview 2011-12.ppt

All teacher-assessed marks to be returned to AQA by 10 January 2012 or 15 May 2012

Link: AQA MEST2 Briefs

Brief Two | Regional Newspapers

A regional newspaper is about to run a month long campaign promoting local sports. The newspaper has an online presence and is keen to use its website as a focus for information, as well as featuring a range of sports related features in its print...

Rupert Murdoch is probably the most remarkable media executive the world has even seen. He built his empire from his father’s newspapers in Australia to being one of the biggest in the world. His foresight, and strength of character, has led to revolutions in the production of newspapers, in Britain, and an immensely successful satellite television network. He did this through being a risk-taking entrepreneur who ruthlessly pursued his own...

When presented with the failings of their initial investigation the two top policemen in the Met didn’t resign immediately. However, it then came to light that an ex-NOTW deputy editor, Neil Wallis, had been hired by the police force as a PR-adviser whilst it was investigating the phone hacking. This embarrassing revelation (though they denied that Wallis had had anything to do with the investigation) led to their resignations.

Andy Hayman...

After the revelations that Milly Dowler’s phone had been hacked in 2002, it became public knowledge that phone hacking, at NOTW, had been going on for many years before 2006, when its royal reporter, Clive Goodman, and the private detective he’d used, Glenn Mulcaire, were arrested and sent to jail for hacking phones belonging to the royal family. Andy Coulson, the editor, had resigned in 2007, though he said that he was unaware of the...

Definition: Media Plurality

In a democracy it is important that people have access to a range of viewpoints in order to make informed decisions. This range (plurality) is a number of media organisations supplying news from different perspectives (see The Guardian’s editorial on the danger to media plurality if News Corporation had been able to own BSkyB outright:...

Definition: Convergence

Where a device can be used to access a variety of media texts. Because new media technologies (a phrase that is becoming old fashioned) are all digitally based, the medium of a text is irrelevant so, for example, an iPad can show films and television programmes; allow you to read books, magazines and newspapers; listen to podcasts and music and so on. Old media technologies would have required a film projector and a...

Fox News was launched in 1996 and is now the most-watched cable news channel in America eclipsing CNN, which pioneered the 24-hour rolling news format. In Britain broadcasters have to present the news in an unbiased fashion. In effect, this means anchors read the news in a more-or-less neutral fashion and contentious stories are presented as having at least two points of view. In America there is no such requirement.

Fox uses a different...

As a free market capitalist, Rupert Murdoch often eulogises the way competition between companies stimulates innovation and profitability (see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PybFaMCn2qM). In 1989 he gave the keynote MacTaggart lecture at the Edinburgh International Television Festival, where he argued for ‘freedom and choice, rather than regulation and scarcity’ (quoted in Keane 1991: 53). He insisted:

that market competition is the key...

The link between politicians and Murdoch was emphasised in 1995 when the new leader of the Labour Party, Tony Blair, flew to Australia to address executives of News Corporation. By the General Election, two years later, the Murdoch newspapers had switched their support from the Conservatives to Labour. However, it’s quite possible that the newspapers would have supported Labour without Blair courting them, as it was highly likely that Labour...

As noted above, the Press has an important function, as the fourth estate, in holding politicians, in particular, to account. Businesses, too, can find their conduct investigated, such as the famous Sunday Times investigation, in the 1970s, into Thalidomide, a tranquilliser drug that was found to cause birth defects. However, not all investigative journalism is in the public interest.

Under Murdoch’s influence the tabloid press had...

It is a measure of Murdoch’s foresight that he had purchased a satellite television station in 1983. This enabled his company to beat the British Satellite Broadcasting, a consortium consisting of established British media companies (Granada Television, Pearson, Virgin and Anglia Television) in launching the first non-terrestrial station in Britain. Murdoch has always enjoyed taking on the Establishment, whose vested interests always opposed...

London’s Fleet Street has long been synonymous with the national press because many newspapers were based in its locality. In 1986 Murdoch moved the printing of his newspapers, virtually overnight, from the centre of London to Wapping, in the East End. In doing so he circumvented the power of the print unions who had resisted technological change:

It is rare in history to be able to identify the precise date of a turning point. In the case...

Definition: Synergy

The concept that businesses in a corporation can be integrated in such a way that they are more than the sum of their parts; this can be achieved through exploiting properties in different media and cross-promotion. For example, Viacom’s popular Rugrats (1991-2004) cartoon ran on its Nickleodeon television channel and its Paramount Pictures produced the film versions (1998, 2000 and 2003), which could be advertised on its...

In a democracy it is recognised that those who represent the people must be held to account. The 18th century Parliamentarian, Edmund Burke, called newspapers the ‘Fourth Estate’ (after the Courts, Religion and Parliament) and they had a crucial role in ensuring that those in power didn’t abuse it. It is also recognised that the owners of news media may also gain too much influence so:

American and European policymakers and legislators...

Rupert Murdoch, who owned newspapers in Australia, took control of NOTW in 1969 after a battle with Robert Maxwell, who was also trying to buy the newspaper. William Shawcross, in his biography of Murdoch, summarised the conclusion of the deal:

It was a bruising battle in which almost everyone had lost something… Only Murdoch had won – he now had a beachhead in one of the most important publishing centres of the world. For him it was a...

The Rise (and Fall?) of Rupert Murdoch

‘I’ve been telling students for the past 20 years that concentration of ownership in the media is a bad thing, but then who gives any credibility to a Mickey Mouse subject like media studies?’ Patrick Russell (letter to The Guardian, 20 July 2011)

You may have seen on the news, in July 2011, a wizened 80-year old being attacked with a paper plate full of shaving foam at a Parliamentary hearing; if...

The Rise (and Fall?) of Rupert Murdoch

‘I’ve been telling students for the past 20 years that concentration of ownership in the media is a bad thing, but then who gives any credibility to a Mickey Mouse subject like media studies?’ Patrick Russell (letter to The Guardian, 20 July 2011)

1. Introduction

2. Murdoch Enters the British Newspaper Market

3. Murdoch Buys Times Newspapers: The Failure of Regulation?

4. Murdoch Goes to...

Traditionally The Labour Party have been firmly on the left and have branded themselves in red whereas The Conservative Party have been firmly on the right have and have branded themselves in blue. However, since New Labour (Tony Blair) the Labour Party have adopted to a more central position whilst...

Vertical Integration

Commercial institutions try to combat the power of the BBC by becoming larger and creating vertical integration. This is where an institution has shares or owns each part of the production and distribution process. For example: Warner Bros Entertainment calls itself a fully integrated broad based entertainment company which owns film studios and the means to distribute the films as well as some of the cinemas in which they...

First News | News Analysis + Production Skills.ppt

Additional Resources

OCR Nationals Level 2 Overview

Rupert Murdoch, the man we love to hate, is the Chairman & Chief Executive Officer of the global media empire News Corporation often known as News Corp. It is the world’s third-largest media conglomerate behind The Walt Disney Company and Time Warner. 

News Corporation is a publicly traded company listed on the US NASDAQ, with secondary listings on the Australian Securities Exchange.  At present, News Corporation is headquartered at 1211...

Click on the link below to find out more about The Birth of Video Journalism, Video Journalists (VJs) & Channel One (C1).

http://viewmagazine.tv/videojos.html

A Suggested Scheme of Work

This scheme of work is not in any way prescriptive, it is simply offered as a possible way in. It should be adapted and moulded to fit particular teachers, students and resources.

Exam

The 2010 Controlled Test is 50% of the total marks for the GCSE.
The Popular Press refers to mass circulation national newspapers, targeted at the popular end of the market including The Sun, The Daily Mirror, The Daily Express, The...

These quizzes are best viewed in Firefox.

Firefox is an excellent alternative to Internet Explorer which is available free for both PCs and Macs.

These quizzes are best viewed in Firefox.

Firefox is an excellent alternative to Internet Explorer which is available free for both PCs and Macs.

Newspaper Checklist.doc

Q Magazine was launched by EMAP in 1986. With Dave Hepworth and Mark Ellen as editors, it was very much a grown up version of Smash Hits.

When discussing the legacy of EMAP in the transformation of the mores of the music press in the 1980s it should be mentioned that the legacy of Q has been considered in much more detail than that of Smash Hits.  Eamonn Forde has written extensively on the role of Q in establishing the ‘monoglottic’...

In Term 2, we introduce the students to Newspaper and the students are required to demonstrate their knowledge and understanding by producing a newspaper or examples of key content.

Every sixth lesson the students sit a formal assessment and are awarded a National Curriculum level using our tailor-made assessment structure.

The skills are introduced by class demonstration, student mirroring the activity on their work stations and the key...

Digital Spy.co.uk Good site for latest entertainment and media news.

Media Guardian An excellent source of current information on Media, New Media and Jobs in the Media.

New Teaching Pack for Students Launched

Sky News is launching a new classroom pack designed to be a study aid to media students and teachers in schools and colleges across the UK.


The pack, launched online and sent out to all the educational facilities teaching media courses in 2008/09, is designed with 14-18...

British Newspaper Links

Newspaper Marketing Agency Ad campaigns and image archives

Newspaper Templates for Production Coursework

Sunday Newspaper Links

The Wapping Years & The Sun by The Guardian

Newspapers are commercial enterprises owned by commercial institutions. The Times for example is owned by the global company News Corporation which also owns Sky television. Most companies who own newspapers are also present in other media fields.

Newspapers are less regulated than broadcasters are, but must still obey the laws of the land such as libel (they cannot tell destructive lies about a person), and contempt of court (they cannot...

We still get most of our news from the...

Pre-Production and Planning for a Local Newspaper

Some ideas for teaching of this unit based on pre-production being a new local newspaper for 11-16 year olds.

AO1 Develop basic specific skills to use in text/visual based and audio/audio visual products

Two Text Visual Skills

Using Word write a 150 word leader for a newspaper story on a local story for a local paper that would appeal to a target audience of 11-16 (teacher and students to...

Name:

Pre-Production and Planning for a Music Magazine

The Brief

Concept

For this unit you are part of a multi-skilled team that plans to make a music related magazine for young adults aged 18 years and upwards. You will also need to advertise this magazine on radio, the internet and on TV - learning audio, visual and audio-visual skills. It will need to be heavy on visuals, glossy, and a midway price so that it is affordable by the target...