Newspapers: Daily Mail case study

Newspapers: Daily Mail case study

The Daily Mail is our first newspaper CSP and a hugely influential voice in British media.

We need to study the newspaper from the perspective of audience and industries, linking what we've already learned about the newspaper industry and journalism.

Notes from the lesson

The Daily Mail is a ‘black top’ or mid-market tabloid newspaper. It is the second most popular daily national newspaper after the Sun.

The Daily Mail was most successful in the early 2000s with more than 2m copies sold daily. It is now down to 1.2m but still influential.

The paper offers a mix of hard and soft news. It is socially, economically and politically conservative and backs the Conservative Party in politics.

The Daily Mail: ownership and editorial

The Daily Mail is owned by the Daily Mail and General Trust (DMGT). Its chairman is Jonathan Harmsworth, 4th Viscount Rothermere, whose great-grandfather was a co-founder of the newspaper. 

From 1992 until Autumn 2018, the editor was Paul Dacre – a hugely controversial and influential voice in the UK newspaper industry. The new editor is Geordie Greig who moved over from the Mail on Sunday. The paper is already showing signs of softening its pro-Brexit position under Greig’s leadership – a significant change for readers.

The Daily Mail: influence and accuracy
Even with falling circulation, the front cover of the Daily Mail can set the news agenda and dictate what broadcast media lead on – such as the influential BBC Radio 4 Today programme or Newsnight on BBC2. This is why newspapers are still seen as having a disproportionate influence despite falling sales.

In February 2017, the Daily Mail was labelled ‘generally unreliable’ by Wikipedia editors, discouraging people from using the Mail as a source. The Daily Mail responded by saying it had only been adjudicated ‘inaccurate’ twice by IPSO – but how effective is IPSO?

Audience 

The Daily Mail readership key details:

• Average age of 58
• Almost half of its readers are over 65 and only 14% of the paper’s readers are under 34 
• The Daily Mail is the only newspaper to have more female readers than male (52% - 48%)
• Two thirds of the readership are ABC1 so middle class. Seen as ‘voice of middle England’

Daily Mail: Friday 21 September 

Our chosen edition of the Daily Mail to use as our CSP is Friday 21 September. Consider the following in your analysis:

Media language
Page design, font, text, images, conventions, hard news/soft news, news values.

Narrative
Selection of news: is there an ongoing narrative? How is narrative created by the paper to engage an audience?

Representations
Are any stereotypes reinforced? Is the audience positioned to respond to the story in a certain way?



Daily Mail case study: Blog tasks

Work through the following tasks to complete your case study on the Daily Mail and specifically the 21 September edition of the newspaper. 

Daily Mail analysis: Friday 21 September

Use your notes from the lesson to answer the following questions.

1) What are the front page stories on the 21 September edition of the Daily Mail?
"Meghan's adoring look for Doria that says: Mum's now one of The Firm, too"

"FURIOUS MAY: WE'RE READY TO WALK AWAY"

2) From your analysis in class, what other stories and topics are covered in this edition of the Daily Mail? You should address the following pages:
The edition covers soft news such as a story about the actress Keeley, with other instances of soft news. It also has some hard news about Theresa May and her recent decisions.

3) Media language: Write an analysis of the construction of the Daily Mail homepage: Page design, font, text, images, conventions, hard news/soft news, news values etc.

The pages are separated into to two parts a soft news story and a hard news story. i think this was done to show that daily mail can talk about both sides of media  both types of news which welcomes a wider audience. The use of sanserif and serif fonts suggests which stories are more important. For example, the story with Theresa May is more important as its about brexit and the decisions she makes will greatly impact us. The other story is about the new member to the royal family,  Megan Markle. This isn't that serious and therefore it has a sans serif font. The writing is quite bold and big so it can get our attention and this is also the same for the image. The news values accosted with the front page is elite people and nations and familiarity.

4) Narrative: How is narrative used in this edition of the Daily Mail? Look at the selection of news: is there an ongoing narrative? How is narrative created by the paper to engage an audience?
Meghan Markle is presented very positively by the paper as she's a young black woman who has become a part of the monarchy and was able to over come critique. This shows the new progressive Daily Mail and how it arguably maybe becoming more left leaning as the years go on. Theresa May is also presented positively by the paper as a strong female leader.

5) Representations: Are any stereotypes reinforced? Is the audience positioned to respond to the stories in a certain way? You should focus on the Brexit and NHS stories (front page, p6-7, p10) as a minimum here.
the daily mail supports Brexit and Theresa Mays fight for it as she tries to secure a deal. The daily mail shows us this by the way she is presented in the paper with such positive attributes and bravery. 

The daily mail is quick to critique the NHS for being unreliable and poorly organised which is done in a rather brief and non-detailed way to possibly shows a biased opinion and possibly because there's not much evidence to support their critique.



Factsheet 175 - Case Study: The Daily Mail (Part 1)

Read Media Factsheet 175: Case Study: The Daily Mail (Part 1) and complete the following questions/tasks. Our Media Factsheet archive is on the Media Shared drive: M:\Resources\A Level\Media Factsheets

1) What is the history of the Daily Mail?
The Daily Mail is a British daily middle-market tabloid newspaper published in London. Founded in 1896, it is the United Kingdom's second-biggest-selling daily newspaper after The Sun. Its sister paper The Mail on Sunday was launched in 1982, while Scottish and Irish editions of the daily paper were launched in 1947 and 2006 respectively. Content from the paper appears on the MailOnline website, although the website is managed separately and has its own editor.

2) What news content features in the Daily Mail?
Daily Mail includes instances of both hard and soft news such as politics, controversy and current affairs, but also has a fair share of soft news where it'd talk about possibly the private life of celebrities or other stories about British TV such as The Bake Off.

3) What is the Daily Mail’s mode of address? 
Their mode of address is very direct, and focuses mainly the female demographic as that's the majority.

4) What techniques of persuasion does the Daily Mail use to attract and retain readers?
Daily Mail uses techniques such as Practical techniques like Longevity which uses nostalgia to appeal to an older audience. Emotional techniques such as Repetition which reinforces ideas and opinions, and finally Association Techniques such as humour. 

5) What is the Daily Mail’s editorial stance?
The Daily Mail is overwhelmingly right wing, this is supported by a poll where 81% of people say it's right wing and 44% say it's very right wing 

6) Read this YouGov article on British newspapers and their political stance. Where does the Daily Mail fit in the overall picture of UK newspapers? 
The paper is incredibly right wing.

7) What is the Daily Mail’s view of the BBC? What are the possible reasons for this?
They are somewhat supportive due to similar demographics but they have opposing political views.

8) What controversies have followed Mail columnist Richard Littlejohn? You will need to research this beyond the factsheet.

In December 2010, Littlejohn satirised an incident in which a 20-year-old man with cerebral palsy, Jody McIntyre, complained of mistreatment by police at a protest. Littlejohn argued that the young man involved should not have attended the protest, and compared him to Andy Pipkin from Little Britain. This prompted 500 complaints to the Press Complaints Commission.



Factsheet 177 - Case Study: The Daily Mail (Part 2)

Now read Media Factsheet 177: Case Study: The Daily Mail (Part 2) and complete the following questions/tasks.

1) How did the launch of the Daily Mail change the UK newspaper industry?
The daily mail introduced the idea of 'bitesize' news.

2) What is the inverted pyramid of journalism and why was it important in the way the Daily Mail presented news?
The pyramid was designed to make sure that the most important stories were included and definitely shown in the papers so that the public wouldn't miss out of them.

3) What company owns the Daily Mail? What other newspapers, websites and brands do they own?
The Daily Mail is owned by DMGT (Daily Mail and General Trust) who also own the Metro, Mail Today and Mail on Sunday as well as others.

4) Between 1992 and 2018 the Daily Mail editor was Paul Dacre. What does the extract from Dacre’s speech on the freedom of the press tell us about his ideological position?
He is supportive of the idea to publicly shame those who have done wrong as a form of punishment

5) What is Dacre’s view on BBC news?
He was once supportive of the BBC but now says that they have too much power and a line must be drawn to avoid news becoming partisan.

6) Look at the right-hand side of page 4. Why is the editor of a newspaper so important?
The editor's role is vital as they determine how a page is laid out and what stories are included so their political views should match the same political views as the readers.

7) Why did Guardian journalist Tim Adams describe Dacre as the most dangerous man in Britain? What example stories does Adams refer to?
Because of the impact the media had during the Brexit election and how the media was able to persuade enough people to vote.

8) How does the Daily Mail cover the issue of immigration? What representations are created in this coverage?
The Daily Mail is explicitly against the idea of immigration and blames that same issue as being the root of others such as the housing crisis.

9) How did the Daily Mail cover the murder of MP Jo Cox?
They didn't deem is as news worthy enough, and included in on page 29 showing that it's less important than other stories.

10) What was Dacre’s position on Brexit?
He believes that leaving the EU is the correct move