NEWSPAPERS PAPER 1 SECTION A: MIRROR AND TIMES KEY TEXT FRONT COVER / ARTICLE ANALYSIS

These newspapers which are The Times and Daily Mirror have articles about Brexit on the front cover. Brexit was the UK holding a referendum of whether it should stay in the EU or leave, it ended up with 51.89% of voters voted to leave the EU. The UK left the EU on 31 January 2020. Until the transition period ends which is 31 December 2020, the UK wont change anything meaning they will still have to comply with all the EU rules. Theresa May planned a Brexit deal which didn't go too well in the UK parliament as it votes were 391 votes to 242 and she tried again but the same thing happened. If the vote did succeed, then the UK would've started preparing for leave on the 29 March, much more happened but that's the summary of main events of Brexit.

The Times and Daily Mirror magazine was both published on 13 of March so the news about Brexit is very Immediate meaning that it was very recent news then so it would be great for being on the front cover as not many people would of known about what is going on before reading. Brexit obviously effects Britain so this news is culturally close to us which is Familiarity, this is another good reason for this being on the front cover because people want to know how it might effect them as they live in the UK, if it was news about another country where it doesn't effect or relate the UK at all then know one would really want to know so it would b bad for front page news but maybe on another page. Amplitude and Elite Nations and People is the next reason for another reason for why Brexit is good on the front page is that it is a very important event which includes many important people on deciding what happens and all citizens of the UK, it is a big event as it would change the UK drastically depending on the vote. Also having Theresa May on the front cover is good as she was the Prime Minister of UK at the time, means that she is important and means the event is big if the Prime Minister is involved. In some people's eyes this could be good news of Theresa's plans failing but others it could be bad news, bad news usually is better to have on the front cover as its more important to know.

The Newspaper Industry

What are the reasons that newspaper circulation is in decline ?

As technology evolves, more and more people are using technology to do things more quickly and/or efficiently and leaves the companies that didn't use technology behind. Daily newspapers used to be very popular until the rise of e-media news services which are newspapers online, for customers this is great as it is better for it to online but for newspaper companies this is bad as customers wont buy there newspapers anymore.

What has been the response of The Times and other newspapers to try and maintain profits and audiences ? 

Newspaper companies are in competition with one another to ensure that people are consuming their products so they can make money from advertising to keep their company up and running. Over the last decade they have lost 2.25 million readers since the rise of e-media news services which means less money for them, and for them to stay profitable then they cut staff, close offices and especially for local papers they might have to get rid of titles. The Times needed to stay in the competition so to make more money, they put the news behind a paywall to stay profitable, you can still see news on their website but it isn't all the news you would get like on a newspaper so if you want a digital newspaper then you will have to pay for a subscription.

PAPER 1 SECTION B THE TIMES : Research and key questions

Research The Times newspaper and answer the following questions. The best place to start with this research is newscorp.com. 

1. Who owns News Corp? 

The Walt Disney Company

2.What other companies belong to News Corp? 

The News Corp UK are also with News Corp Australia but also Dow Jones, New York Post, HarperCollins Publishers, Storyful and Move. 

3. Do News Corp own any other newspapers? 

 They own The Sun, The Times, The Sunday Times, Press Association and The TLS. Also own numerous stuff on television, internet, advertising, branding & tech, radio, magazines, books and more.

4. What ways can audiences access this newspaper? 

You can get a digital version with a subscription or get it delivered to your house, The Times also has an app to read newspapers offline if downloaded

5. Visit the website of some of the newspapers News Corp owns ( including The Times )and read some of their articles. What political agenda do they hold? 

The Times seems to be with the Conservative Party and so does every other newspaper and magazine owned by News Corp is supporting Conservative party too.

6.Is all of the news content on The Times website freely accessible ?  Why not ?
No because as time goes by, more and more people are using technology to read newspapers so they have made people have to buy newspapers online or have a subscription but you can still get it delivered to you physically but its more popular now to do it online. The only free news content is on their website.

 7. Who is the intended readership (audience) for The Times. You must consider the demographic profile and the psychographic profile. 

The Times target audience is largely middle class, with close to 10.4 million of their readers classified as ABC1 according to the NRS social grade system.

PAPER1 SECTION B THE MIRROR Research and key questions

 Research The Daily Mirror newspaper and answer the following questions.
 The best place to start with this research is reachplc.com
 1. Who owns Reach Plc? 
Nicholas Prettejohn and Jim Mullen

2. What other newspapers and media products do Reach Plc own?
Sunday Mirror, The Sunday People, Daily Express, Sunday Express, Daily Star, Daily Sunday and Scottish newspapers called Daily Record and Sunday Mail and OK! are the national print brands, Reach PLC have many more products like digital brands other print brands

 3. What ways can audiences access this newspaper?

The audience can go on their website to see recent news, can also get their app where you can get the newspaper digitally for free for 2 months and then a subscription will start or have a subscription to have Daily Mirror delivered to your address

4. Visit the website of some of the other  newspapers Reach Plc owns and read some of their articles. What political agenda or bias do they hold?

Daily Mirror has a political alignment of Labour and so is Daily Record and so is every single newspaper they produce is also Labour so Reach PLC has a political agenda for Labour

5. Who is the intended readership (audience) for The Daily Mirror. You must consider the demographic profile and the psychographic profile.

The Daily Mirror's target audience, according to NRS and ABC data is predominantly C2DE, over 35 and are working class Labour supporters.

Section B Newspaper

The Times is a daily national British newspaper which is based in London They started in 1785 but with the name The Daily Universal Register and then adopted its current name in 1788. It has a daily circulation of 417,298 in January 2019. The Mirror or better known as The Daily Mirror is also a daily national British newspaper that was founded in 1903, it has a daily print circulation of 716,923 in December 2016.

Tabloids are often considered to be less serious as it has small pages, short articles and lots of photographs. The Mirror is a tabloid, The Mirror has a red top tabloid format.

The other known format is broadsheet which is the largest newspaper format and is characterised by long vertical pages. The Times is a broadsheet, which is a compact broadsheet format.

The Mirror is owned by  company Reach plc. which is also a British newspaper, magazine and a digital publisher and own Sunday Mirror, The Sunday People, Daily Express, Sunday Express, Daily Star, Daily Sunday and Scottish newspapers called Daily Record and Sunday Mail and OK! The key people of Reach plc. is Nicholas Prettejohn and Jim Mullen.

The Times is owned by News UK which is a British newspaper and owned subsidiary of the American mass media conglomerate News Corp. They also own The Sunday Times and The Sun, its former publications include Today, News of the World and The London Paper newspaper. The key people of News UK is Rupert Murdoch, James Murdoch and Rebekah Brooks.

Both, Reach plc. and News UK are big companies that own many different newspapers and has a very powerful effect on everyone as they are basically everywhere and can express their sides of everything. Curran and Seaton's theory supports this as it's the media being controlled by a few of the most powerful and popular companies and the limitation of the concentration on to the media only causes a lack of variation, quality and creativity meaning that if we had a bigger variety of companies, we would have more of a variety in texts.

The Mirror originally pitched the middle class reader however it was converted to a working class newspaper in 1934 to reach a larger audience. The Mirror has constantly being supporting Labour Party since the 1945 general election. The Labour Party is a centre left political party and they believe in working within the established systems to improve social justice. As a centre left political party, on cases like Brexit they would believe and give reasons to leave the EU and as they are very powerful and have a big audience, they can easily change a vote of every individual person reading The Mirror newspaper's. Another point is immigration, 

Magazine Double Page Spread Article

PAPER 1 Section B exam questions

a) What is meant by a mainstream film ? [2]

A mainstream film is a film which is made by a major film company and costs a lot.

 b) Briefly explain what a media conglomerate is. [2]

A company that owns numerous companies involved in mass media enterprises.

 c) Explain two features of independent film production. Refer briefly to  I, Daniel Blake to support your   points. [6]

One feature of an independent film is that they have a low budget and aren't supported by any major film studios for funding, their production value is low like the least amount locations and not expensive actors. Another feature is that they get many small film studios to help fund for the film because they are small studios that don't have much money so they have to ask multiple studios until they get their budget, using other small studios to fund keeps the film independent as its not helped by a major film studio.

 In Question 3(d) you will be rewarded for drawing together knowledge and understanding from across your full course of study, including different areas of the theoretical framework and media contexts.

 d) Explain how economic contexts shape mainstream films. Refer to Black Panther  to support your points. [15]

Economic contexts will always shape mainstream films and these are a few points on why. First of all, funding is one of the economic contexts that will change any film as if an independent industry was making a film, it is harder for them to be funded as they don have a good reputation or popular enough to be funded. On the other hand, Black Panther is made from a major film industry so it is easier to be funded as Marvel is known for successful films and are very popular for their superhero franchise compared to other independent industries and its a problem in the film industry where Marvel are dominating the industry with all these successful films whereas independent industries struggle to be funded. This is linking to ownership, how a film is good or not depending on who made it, usually mainstream industries are more successful on their films as there more popular. Just like Black Panther, it was successful mostly because of the reason it was made by Marvel however, Marvel's reputation has gone up as they are owned by Disney who are also very popular. Disney are really trying to maximise their audience with using vertical and horizontal integration meaning that they own similar companies like Disney but they also own other variety of companies that aren't so similar but is a very good way at becoming very popular, this helped Black Panther on its success as it expanded the variety of viewers of the film. This is supported by David Hesmondhalgh's theory that the largest companies or conglomerates now operate across a number of different cultural industries to maximise their audience.