Paper 1 Section B
35 minutes
Question 3
a) Who regulates newspapers in the UK? [1]
b) Who owns and publishes the Sun Newspaper? What else is owned by this organisation? [2]
c) What is meant by the term ‘commodification’? [1]
d) What challenges has the newspaper industry faced over the last decade and how has it begun to evolve? Use your knowledge of The Sun newspaper to respond. [12]
Indicative content
- a) IPSO – The Independent Press Standards Organisation
- b) Rupert Murdoch heads News Corp. which runs the subsidiary News UK, which publishes the title. News Corp currently owns the Wall St Journal and Harper Collins. Murdoch, via 21st Century Fox, also has a controlling stake in Sky TV and Fox News
- c) Commodification is the envisioning of journalism as more of a ‘for profit’ enterprise, wherein titles are increasingly seen as predominantly advertising platforms.
- d) Candidates may discuss elements of the following concepts:
- Traditional newspaper formats had become increasingly anachronistic in favour of the convergence suggested by digital technologies and the evolving taste of audiences for mobile platforms.
- As the new technologies of smart phones, tablets, laptops and wi/fi/internet streaming began to become more prevalent, cheaper, user friendly and technologically advanced, traditional print newspaper consumers demonstrated a preference at times to consume the news digitally rather than the historic print method.
- Paywalls simply prevented the free dissemination of online content. As the new technologies evolved, the newspaper industry saw a divergence from the traditional over the counter paper model and a move towards a paid for by subscribers website model.
- As industries transitioned towards the digital economy, staffing structures…
