Timed Essay Question 5

Timed Essay Question 5 Explain how political contexts influence individual producers within the newspaper industry. Refer to The Guardian and the Daily Mail to support your answer. In this essay; I will be discussing how owners of various newspaper companies within the industry have the power to influence the audience, through the way they represent events and social groups within their newspapers. Newspaper owners can promote their views and the ideology which they support via stories within their newspapers. By promoting these ideologies in a positive light, they can influence the readers into believing in the views and ideologies which they support and portray in the stories. This is an example of the media effects theory, which is the idea that the media acts as a ‘hypodermic syringe’, and instantly changes the views of the reader to support the text. However, this is assuming that everyone is the same and shares the same identity (including their upbringing, friends, and the media they have been exposed too). The owners of newspapers in Britain are predominantly white, middle-aged, middle class males who are politically positioned on the right-wing and believe in the dominant ideology. As a result; right wing papers (such as the Daily Mail) are hostile to certain social groups. For example, the example below reinforces the idea that the Daily Mail portray a dominant ideology, and firmly believe in a heterosexual ideological society. The phrase, ‘Gagging of mother forced to hand baby to gay dad’ is representing the homosexual social group in a negative way and is implying that the mother should not be giving away the child. The majority of the Daily Mail readers will also have similar views to this, and will take a preferred reading to the text, hence why they purchase the daily mail. The writers of the newspaper know that the audience will agree and have the power to further influence their views on a subject like this. The daily mail also conveys social groups in negative ways by portraying individuals in a negative light. For example; they portray Meghan Markle in a negative way in the daily mail, and she is seen as the villain, whilst the royal family are portrayed as the good side. They convey Meghan as the villain through the use of binary opposition, this creates two sides, where one is seen as the good, whilst the other is the ‘evil’. The readers will agree with the idea that Meghan is the ‘villain’ due to their views on her race and the social group she falls upon. This also creates a narrative within the newspaper cover (Todov’s narrative theory), by creating a narrative the readers will position themselves on a side and believe in their ideology even more. Due to their strong thoughts and views on these stories, and by taking a side, the audience will also share and talk about the stories on other platforms such as twitter, reddit etc. Others with the same views as these people will also speak about and agree with the story, which helps the newspapers views reach an even bigger audience and influence their views (end of audience). On the other hand; The Guardian portray a left-leaning ideology, due to the owners having views which support the left-wing. There are very few newspapers within the UK which support the left due to the owners of these companies, which makes The Guardian different from most newspapers. The Guardian challenges the right-wing, dominant ideology and will promote and portray social groups in positive ways, which the right-wing would promote in negative ways e.g. Black/Asian/homosexual social groups. For example, The Guardian front cover below represents the black people of Mugabe as powerful and independent, as it states they ‘relinquish power’ and the image shows they are proud. This challenges post-colonial theory, as they are conveying those of the black ethnicity as powerful within the media. On the other hand, the right-wing newspapers, such as the Daily Mail would portray the black ethnicity as insignificant to the white/British, so the Daily Mail reinforces post-colonial theory. As a result, The Guardian (left-wing) portray those of other ethnicities and beliefs in a positive light and sympathises with other social groups. They also promote democracy, therefore those that believe in democracy and support the left-wing will choose to read this newspaper as it will support their views and ideology. In conclusion, newspapers represent different ideologies and viewpoints depending on their ownership, and the identity of these owners. An owner who supports the right-wing (such as the Daily Mail) will portray social groups within this side in a positive way but will portray opposing social groups in a negative way. Whereas an owner who supports the left-wing (such as The Guardian) will portray other social groups in a positive way and show the sympathy towards humans. Newspapers can convey bias messages and ideologies due to the freedom in the press and society in this generation, however left-wing companies are heavily outnumbered by the number of right-wing companies, therefore the right-wing gets much more coverage in the media.