P1- Mirror Group vs News Corp

The Mirror Group/Trinity Mirror

• What structure does the company have?
  Trinity Mirror is a conglomerate that acts as parent company to a range of different newspapers. The CEO is named Simon Fox.
• What is their audience reach?
  They can reach audiences throughout England and Scotland using 323 newspapers. They do this via print and online news. They cover their audiences print needs by printing newspapers and distributing them throughout England and Scotland with newspapers such as the Daily Mirror. Online, Trinity Mirror has websites to make the news more accessible for their audiences and has a solid presence online through social media. For example, their newspapers have Twitter accounts with a significant following.
• What news subsidiaries do they own to demonstrate the global reach?
  To gain a global reach, they have subsidiaries that have an online presence, so that a much larger, worldwide audience can be reached. One of the largest print papers with an online presence that they own is the Daily Mirror. The Daily Mirror has averaged around 583,000 print copies in circulation per day in the UK and receives a traffic of around 12 million users per day online.

 https://www.theofficialboard.com/org-chart/trinity-mirror

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trinity_Mirror

http://www.newsworks.org.uk/Daily-Mirror

News Corp

• What structure does the company have?
  News Corp is a cross-media conglomerate that was founded by Rupert Murdoch who now controls the company as CEO and as Chairman of the Board.
• What is their audience reach?
  News Corp reach all over the world, with subsidiaries based in the UK, America, Australia and online. They provide the news via print, digital and online methods to cater for as large of an audience as possible. Their print repertoire includes newspapers such as the Times and the News York Post. Their digital platforms include Fox and online they also have a significant Twitter following and websites for each of their newspaper subsidiaries.
• What news subsidiaries do they own to demonstrate the global reach?
  News Corp is a huge multi-media conglomerate that owns companies involved in television, print media and online. In TV they have large channels such as Fox and Sky. In the UK they own newspapers such as The Times and online they own Punters.com.au, an Australian betting website.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/News_Corporation

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_assets_owned_by_News_Corp   


Summary
Both of these are large, multimedia organisations that act as gatekeepers for lots of places in the UK, America and Australia. They both do this via print, digital and online methods all receiving considerable traffic. I believe they provide news and entertainment for a range of NRS grades. The main audiences they provide for are C1, C2 and D. This is because to gain their large audiences they had to appeal to a large amount of people, to target A or B grades they would have to be less general with their news and begin to hit a niche.

P1, P2- News Providers of the World

Sources

Print-

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_newspapers_by_circulation

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_newspapers_in_the_United_Kingdom_by_circulation

TV-

http://www.adweek.com/tvnewser/basic-cable-network-ranker-august-2017/339773

https://www.statista.com/statistics/269807/leading-tv-channels-in-the-uk-by-reach/

Radio-

https://media.info/radio/data/the-most-popular-radio-stations-in-the-uk

https://media.info/radio/stations/talksport/listening-figures

Online-

http://www.ebizmba.com/articles/news-websites

P1- Gatekeepers

Gatekeepers are news agencies and distributors that act as a bridge between the news and society. These agencies/institutions get to decide what news is shown to society and which isn't. Even though this is less true in recent times with anyone having the right to publish news online via social media or blogs, the people who publish these stories do not have the size of audience or the reputation that the larger, more mainstream organisations hold. For example, the BBC is one of the largest and well trusted 'gatekeepers' in the UK.

Not only do gatekeepers decide on which news is going to be given to society, they also get to decide on how it is give. This is called 'mediating' the news, meaning the story is changed depending on the political and ethical beliefs of the organisation/institution that is publishing the story. For example, in the US, Fox News and CNN may talk about the same story. However, Fox News would spin the story in a way that is affected by their right wing beliefs. This bias would intend to show the right wing in a  positive light and possibly the left wing in a negative light. The same goes for CNN. However, instead of it showing the right wing in a good light and the lot in a bad light, it would do this the other way round. This is because of their left wing beliefs.

Gatekeepers cannot just spin stories in whatever way they like. This is because gatekeepers exist in order to protect the society that they are serving. If gatekeepers were allowed to spin a story to a ridiculous degree, this may incite rebellious acts against the other 'side'. For example, if Fox News published something that was outrageous and also inaccurate about the left wing, this may encourage the public who support the right wing to rebel and possibly break laws. This would then mean they have endangered the left wing part of society, meaning they have not done their job of protecting the whole of the society they serve.

P1- Tabloid vs Broadsheet

Daily Mirror, Jeremy Corbyn tweets fake Nye Bevin quote about the NHS: https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/jeremy-corbyn-tweets-fake-nye-10440602

Telegraph, Jeremy Corbyn tweets fake quote attributed to Nye Bevin about the NHS: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/05/17/jeremy-corbyn-tweets-fake-quote-attributed-nye-bevan-nhs/

I will be comparing how certain newspapers/websites construct articles, the websites I will be using are The Daily Mirror and The Telegraph. The Daily Mirror is a tabloid and is aimed at C2DE audiences so the wording may not be as sophisticated and possibly simple humour. Whereas The Telegraph is a broadsheet that is aimed at ABC1 so they may use more intelligent language and attempt smarter humour that could require the reader to think or refer back to another event. Both of these articles discuss Jeremy Corbyns tweet of a false Nye Bevin quote about the NHS. The quote was “The NHS will last as long as there are folk left with the faith to fight for it” and originally featured in a TV play about Nye Bevan.

First we must look at the headlines. Both of these articles extremely similar headlines and are only worded slightly differently. They both just state what has happened and do not purposely try to be either positive or negative. They simply just point out what he has done by both using the word “fake”. This is hardly surprising as this word can make articles stand out and make it seem a lot more interesting than it is. Another thing we should compare is the images used. The Daily Mirror have used a picture in which Corbyn is seen with his hands together while another member of the labour party looks at him with a confused look on his face. The Telegraph use a picture of Corbyn himself with a contemplating, yet almost confused facial expression. Both newspapers could have done this because it replicates how his followers and other Twitter users may have felt towards the false tweet. If we look at it another way, we could also say that The Daily Mirror have used a slightly worse photo of Corbyn as a way to embarrass him or for an attempt at humour. Even though it is about a rather simple subject, these articles are written slightly differently. The Telegraph takes a more positive stance on the matter by not singling Corbyn out by stating that the quote is “often shared by left-wing accounts on social media”. They also added some positive messages that the tweet received from fans such as “GO ON, JEZZA!” and “Me too Jeremy no matter what”. Here they focus on positives talking about the support he receives. The Daily Mirror have took a similar approach with them writing in a less serious way due to the subject of the article. However, they do take a more informative approach by detailing where the quote came from and telling the reader about what Corbyn and Labour have recently been pledging, such as promises to the NHS over funding and efficiency. The Daily Mirror does not appear to have a bias view on the subject in question as nothing that was written sways in any way for both political sake and in terms of humour. The Telegraph on the other hand does seem to take a slightly biased stance, with support to Corbyn showcased throughout and with them partially taking the blame off Corbyn by attributing some of the quotes’ popularity to left wing social media accounts.

Unit 7 Grading Criteria