PAPER 1 Section B
Q1 – 2 marks
What is meant by media convergence?
This can often be classed as the coming together of new technologies to create new ways of engaging or experiencing the media, such as being able to view video content, playing music or creating recordings just using a smartphone.
Q2 – 9 marks
How is The Times newspaper constructed to appeal to its target audience, as opposed to The Daily Mirror?
PAMCO tells us that the average daily adult reach of The Times is approximately 400,000. This can be compared to the Daily Mirror which averages almost 600,000-700,000 readers daily. The biggest average circulation for UK newspapers is currently The Sun, with around 1.5m daily.
The Times has an entirely different stylistic approach to its content, compared to that of the Mirror.
Analysis of its demographic suggests a high percentage of ABC1 adults (Almost ¾ of its total readership), compared to that of the Mirror whose highest demographic extends significantly into the ABC1C2 , C1 and C2 (adults) categories.
This suggests a differing professional readership for The Times of professional, higher managerial or intermediate managerial.
The Mirror draws more from the Supervisory, clerical or skilled manual workers categories.
The pleasures offered to the reader of The Times compared to that of the Mirror are based on the content and tone of stories on many occasions. While it is not at all inconceivable that both newspapers will, of course, cover the same story, the manner in which they are presented to the readership will differ significantly.
The Times offers a more academic, detailed, literate and sophisticated take on news stories. The Daily Mirror, in contrast, will often be more immediate, less verbose and more straightforwardly basic in tone, layout and content,…
