Lesson 12 - Media Contexts

Industry (economic)

• How is The Guardian owned and funded?
• Fully owned by Scott Trust Limited.
• Today, 55% of The Guardian revenue comes from digital sources.
• How is the Daily Mail owned and funded?
• Owned by Viscount Rothermere
• MailOnline is free and funded through advertisements.The Daily Mail Saturday print edition costs £1.

Newspapers are different from other industries in that they are not usually profitable, but are seen as a means of gaining political and social influence. This means they are more likely than other media forms to be owned by rich individuals rather than conglomerates. News businesses - such as those that own the Mail and Guardian – tend to specialise in newspaper (and sometimes magazine) publishing rather than a range of media. While there are recently started internet-only news providers such as Buzzfeed, traditional newspapers and broadcasters such as the BBC dominate online news by the power of their authoritative brands. The contrasting ownership models of the Guardian (via a trust) and the Mail and their differing ethos.

Comparison of traditional print funding models - advertising and cover prices.

Diversified sources of funding for online and print news - paywalls, subscriptions, advertising, events, sales, sponsored material, etc.

Consumerism.(social, cultural, economic and political)

• Treating audiences of lifestyle content in newspapers such as the Guardian and Mail.
• The celebration of celebrity culture as a lure to fickle consumers, particularly in online editions of newspapers, such as Mail Online.
• The representation of audiences themselves, whether by letters to the editor in the print editions, or comments in the online editions and social media, or articles about readers in the membership section of the Guardian.

Celebrity Culture (social, cultural and sometimes political)

• Celebrity culture affects the representation in newspapers by enabling coverage of celebrities, celebrity events and celebrity politicians such as Donald Trump, Boris Johnson ad Vladimir Putin.
• Celebrities, including those from show business and the monarchy, feature heavily in the Mail Online, especially in the 'sidebar of shame.'
• We have seen that this links to consumerism. The prevalence of celebrity culture often links to more sales so is a quick, and lazy, way to drive up sales.

Multiculturalism (social and cultural context)

• Representations of Black and minority ethnic (BAME) people have become more varied and less focused on their race in modern media. This is the positive influence of multiculturalism.
• However, writers such as Gilroy and bell hooks point out that racism is far from eradicated and assumptions of white superiority persist within the modern world.

Feminism (social, cultural and political)

• Any example of deliberately avoiding stereotyping or covering feminist issues may be seen as evidence of the influence of this context.
• The coverage of female leaders such as Angela Merkel and Nicola Sturgeon is also useful to explore. 
• On the other hand, feminists such as Van Zoonen and hooks argue that patriarchy persists in the modern world and that sexism is far from eradicated.