NEWSPAPER
HISTORY/TIMELINE
OWNERSHIP
KEY POINTS - The point of IPSO is to be 'just enough' to prevent audience from protesting, and therefore forcing a statutory regulator.
THEORISTS
Chomsky
KEY INFO
Link to IPSO no fines for 5 years
6 right-wing, 2 left-wing papers
22/04/21
'Populars' (tabloid + mid-market are called populars) - simplistic binary of newspaper types -
Opposite is quality/broadsheet
Called popular because they are high in circulation (physical copies sold)
Tabloid also called red top (literally have red masthead)
Contains soft news (celeb gossip)
Opposite is info about politics and hard affairs
Mid-market - in the middle with complexity of language
Tabloidisation aka dumbing down (simplifying content in an attempt to expand audience)
Times, Guardian have switched to tabloid size (partial tabloidisation) - encouraged a shortening of articles
All quality papers have sports coverage (soft news) - all have significant chunk of celeb news
Still big different between red-top and broadsheet, however all have dumbed down
Rupert Murdoch purchased left wing 'the sun' - to boost its sales, he launched page 3 (1969)
Other red-tops followed - mid-markets didn't
1980s newspaper called Daily Sport - essentially a porn paper
Murdoch has large control and ownership - he owns the biggest selling red-top, owns biggest selling broadsheet, only 8 national daily paid-for newspapers - he owns 2 (CHOMSKY - CONCENTRATION OF OWNERSHIP - PROPAGANDA MODEL, 5 FILTERS - MEDIA ARE MEANT TO EXIST TO SERVE PEOPLE IN A DEMOCRACY - MEDIA EXISTS TO REINFORCE THE WEALTH) - 5 FILTERS MEANS OF REMOVING COUNTERHEGEMONIC CONTENT THAT ARE CRITICAL OF THE WEALTHY AND POWERFUL - WHILE EVERYONE ASSUMES A FREE PRESS IS BASIC REQUIREMENT, DON'T OPERATE TO KEEO US INFORMED, KEEPS UP IGNORANT -companies or billionaire like Murdoch - big 3 and big 5 demonstrates Chomsky's point, concentration of ownership, excessive control)
Reach PLC owns 3 newspapers (Mirror, Star, Express) that are daily paid-for
2 conglomerates own 5 out of 8
(+ Daily Mail ownership owns Metro)
this is failure of press regulation! - press regulation does not consider concentration of ownership
Ben Bagdikian - THE MEDIA MONOPOLY - capitalism leads to monopoly, state regulation required - without regulation, inevitable trend towards monopoly (OfCom regulates TV, radio and internet providers and part of its job is to check on and prevent concentration of ownership - Sky cannot buy ITV - if Murdoch wanted to buy Telegraph, there is nothing stopping him - second royal commission of press (RCP) one the press lead to a legal requirement for gov to allow it - if daily express was being sold, can't happen util gov can say that's acceptable - however government has never rejected a request (useless)
IPSO - Independent Press Standards Organisation - took over PCC in 2012 (press complaints commission), who took over the PC in 1991, who took over GCP in 1963 - GCP were launched in 1953 - was no reg from 1694 to 1953
IPSO - self-regulated and voluntary
Independent (online only), guardian and Financial Times all refuse to sign up to IPSO
running costs are around 100m pounds - only available to huge conglomerate
the i was a simplistic version of independent (have since separated, the I still circulates)
no warning or fine or removing license for IPSO, contrasting TV et
OfCom - Quango (quasi-autonomous non-governmental organisation) and statutory
not always good - no freedom of speech - still end up with not free press
23/04/21
https://www.media-diversity.org/press-harassment-ipsos-ineffectiveness-and-why-were-no-closer-to-fixing-it/
Caroline Flack
The Sun article 'Flacks Bedroom Bloodbath' - potentially illegal picture, press can't take picture form police, image of blood on bed
Leveson Inquiry:
Was intended to have 3 stages
2 stage was to investigate improper links between police and politicians and press - conservative (right-wing) Prime minister David Cameron blocked this from happening despite every other UK party wanting it to happen
That would've explored cases like the 2019 Sun front page ''Flacks Bedroom Bloodbath' potentially illegal picture, press can't take picture form police, image of blood on bed - mysterious sourced police image of bed in question
Leveson Inquiry set up because PCC was a failure - this instigated the transition from PCC to IPSO
This was all launched by Milly Dowler
She was kidnapped and killed - but Journalists had hacked her phone and parents thought she was still alive
ISP condemned the Guardian for publishing stories on phone hacking.
RICHARD DESMOND - withdrew daily express and daily star from the PCC
public interest defences
put a camera in bedroom, going through rubbish, and intercepting mail, but are able to show they are doing it because I am powerful figure and am engaged with corruption, it is justifiable (allowed to preach privacy laws) - e.g boris johnson investigation
Murdoch manipulates this, as he claims he publishes what is of the publics interest
Ipso accepted bullying of her - didn't regulate the negative comments on her
The sun had 99 articles on Caroline Flack before she died (biggest selling paper) in 6 months
6 right-wing, 2 left-wing papers
no IPSO reaction
- Accuracy
- Privacy
- Harassment
- Intrusion into grief or shock
- Reporting Suicide
- Children
- Children in sex cases
- Hospitals
- Reporting of Crime
- Clandestine devices and subterfuge
- Victims of sexual assault
- Discrimination
- Financial journalism
- Confidential sources
- Witness payments in criminal trials
- Payments to criminals
- The Public Interest
burrowes notes (his blog link)
Watershed
Royal Commission on the Press is not an organisation
Right-wing parties cover government regulation of business as interfering with free market
Statutory (enforced by law) - Newspaper reg don't want it
They have successfully campaigned against any attempt to bring in statutory reg
Democracy doesn't exist without a free press
Legitimate argument - however, ignores how week self-regulated voluntary IPSO + overwhelming right-wing bias
The concentration of ownership - this is a problem due to the lack of a strong regulator
Statutory reg for the press - sale of a newspaper title had to be passed by the government and legal requirement that government must agree to the sale of any newspaper
there have been 3 RCP's - too sensitive for politic l parties to propose reg for the newspaper industry - a neutral non-political investigation researching press that could be harming democracy
1947, RCP1 launched
1953, GCP formed (press regulator) in response to government threatening statutory reg
a huge problem of right-wing bias and concentration of ownership overall - proposed that a regulator be created
1961, RCP2 launched because it wasn't working - this worked - they enforced 'sale of a newspaper title had to be passed by the government and legal requirement that government must agree to the sale of any newspaper' in 1968
Press council (PC) formed in 1963
Ineffective - government have never said no
example - Richard desmond bought star and express, ethics
1970's
MP's picked up on how bad things were - both failed to earn enough votes
they wanted to introduce statutory reg
as a result, RCP3
1974 (70's) - 3rd Royal commission of the press launched - no outcome from this
despite strong recommendations from RCP3, it stayed the same
1977, weak labour government, rcp thought it was in the governments interest to enforce a statutory reg - government rejected it
1980's - lord Calcutt - Calcutt committee - similar to RCP - NOT LINKED TO POLITICS - same thing happened
They launched new regulator - PCC - Calcutt reviewed it after 18 months, said it wasn't working - similar to Leveson case
1991 PCC
This review was in 1993, a very weak conservative gov at the time, John Major did nothing because they would have lost right-wing support and faced daily negative press coverage
TV and Press are not allowed to be biased
Consistent successful strategy - relaunching, there have been changes by each new reg, however, all 4 crucially ignore ownership and political bias. Therefore nobody is considering those issues.
'ITS THE SUN WOT WON IT" - Murdoch boasting about how his coverage swung the election - undermining democracy
'MELLOR MADE LOVE IN A CHELSEA STRIP'+ 'TOE JOB TO NO JOB' Media regulator - lost his job after powerful press posted this articles the press is drinking in the last chance saloon
5/05/21
Eilish - Mail is in the top 10 worldwide readerships, younger audience
Someone launches attack article on Eilish, Teen girl made a point of covering her body - her decision to end that absolute policy is interpreted as 'selling out' by the daily mail
give Bhad Bhabie example - twitter post 'since you guys have been asking for 3 years' the day she turned 18, released an OnlyFans, made $1m
give Britney spears example - sexualised 'virginity
sidebar of shame - notorious (clickbait) very successful strategy
the bulk of this focuses on the female body using terms like 'flaunts' to interpret shots focused on cleavage
it has popularised concepts such as sideboob and paparazzi behaviour (more associated with red tops) noticeably upskirt pictures
DAILY MAIL HYPOCRITES - shame celebrities 'showcasing cleavage', proceed to include multiple revealing images in the article
Their business model is to rely on online readership, which is dependent on sexualised clickbait - given the level of Eilish's success (a good example being the recording of the bond theme tune and annual vanity fair interviews) she clearly has a mainstream sizeable adult audience so the accusation of a commercial sell-out seems dubious at best and hypocritical
LOOK FOR FAN EVIDENCE
eilish case study
similarities between her and 1D - artists grow up
Bechdel test
Janet Jackson nipplegate
CLAUSE 12 - DISCRIMINATION
Chomsky argues free press reinforces the powerful
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