Newspapers: Regulation

 

Newspapers: Regulation

The debate regarding the regulation of the newspaper industry has been one of the most controversial and important media issues of the last 10 years.

You need to understand how the newspaper industry is regulated, how some people think it should be regulated and what might happen in the future. Most importantly, you need to form your own opinion on newspaper regulation and how the industry should operate following the 2012 Leveson Inquiry.

Newspaper regulation: notes

A brief history of newspaper regulation
The newspaper industry was regulated by the Press Complaints Commission (PCC) between 1990 and 2014. It was a voluntary regulator with no legal powers and was heavily criticised for saying it found no evidence of phone hacking at the News of the World in 2007.

The PCC had a code of practice that provided guidelines for newspapers in how to report inaccuracies, crime, news stories involving children and more. However, the PCC was effectively run by the newspaper editors themselves and papers merely had to print a small apology when the regulator ruled against them.

The Leveson Inquiry 2011-12
The Leveson Inquiry in 2011-12 was a judicial public enquiry ordered by the government into the culture and ethics of the British press. This followed the revelations of the phone hacking scandal and the closure of the News of the World.

Post-Leveson: IPSO and IMPRESS
Following the Leveson report, a new press regulator was introduced: the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO). IPSO is more powerful than the PCC and can order newspapers to print apologies or corrections on the front page or fine papers. However, it crucially doesn’t act on Leveson’s key recommendation that the regulator is backed by government legislation.

Alongside IPSO, IMPRESS was also set up as an alternative regulator. This was fully compliant with Leveson – but no major newspapers have signed up with IMPRESS.

Watch the following videos on Leveson and the press regulation debate:

BBC News overview:

Newsnight debate:

Channel 4 News debate:



Read the following articles and features on the press regulation debate:

Viewpoints – Should the press be regulated? BBC website
THEOS think tank website – press regulation debate 
Guardian letters – How should the press be regulated?

Newspaper regulation: blog tasks

Task One: Media Magazine article and questions

Read the Media Magazine article: From Local Press to National Regulator in MM56 (p55). You'll find the article in our Media Magazine archive here. Once you've read the article, answer the following questions:

1) Keith Perch used to edit the Leicester Mercury. How many staff did it have at its peak and where does Perch see the paper in 10 years' time?

130 staff - he thinks that it'll be extremely hard to run print weekly because of the increasing costs, online allows for a much more cost effective method

2) How does Perch view the phone hacking scandal?

"The biggest single issue is that something
illegal was going on which obviously
should not have been, and which
wasn’t dealt with by the police, and
unfortunately the resulting actions
have been disproportionate"


He thinks we need something harsher and more impactful than regulation

3) What does IPSO stand for and how does it work?

Independant Press Standards Organisation

A newspaper has 28 days to deal with a complaint which after that point ISPO will intervene and assess if the editors code of conduct has been broken

4) What is Perch's view of newspaper ownership?

He believes there should be a wider spread of newspaper ownership so that one person's ideologies don't get spread to a majority of the country's papers

5) Do you agree with his view that broadcast news should have less regulation so that TV channels can support particular political parties or people?

TV remains the biggest source for people in the UK to get their news, even in the massive increase social media has had. Channels like the BBC are marketed to be impartial and educative - a claim that cannot be substantiated if they were to back any particular parties. Due to it's wide reach, and evidence to suggest media does influence audiences' political views, I think TV channels should remain unbiased in order to keep the ideal of democracy in tact.

Task Two: Newspaper regulation essay

Write an essay on your blog answering the following question:

What are the arguments for and against statutory regulation of the newspaper industry? 

Your answer should be at least 500 words and feature a minimum of four paragraphs. Make sure you cover both sides of the debate.

PLAN: 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/20466955

"

The government and various lobby groups have seen the Leveson Inquiry as an opportunity to maybe get hold of the media and shape it, so it suits them.

That would be a dreadful outcome - that would be like going back to Stalinism, and China and North Korea.

The great strength of this country is that we do have a free press, and we have enough laws already to deal with the illegal activities the inquiry investigated.

So we don't need any more legislation and Parliament must not be allowed - in any way - to take control of the media.

However, we do need a genuinely independent regulator, able to control newspapers when they cross the line and stray into that grey area of smear and innuendo.

The regulator should be genuinely independent of the government and the media, and have the power to both hear complaints from ordinary members of the public and act on those complaints effectively by disciplining newspapers if they transgress.

A good model for the regulator might be the Independent Police Complaints Commission which works very well."

Newspapers: The decline in print media

 

Newspapers: The decline in print media

Our final topic is newspapers: an industry that has changed hugely in the last 20 years due to the impact of the internet.

This is the final set of targeted CSPs - we will be studying Audience and Industry contexts for the Daily Mail and the 'i' newspaper. This means newspapers will come up in Paper 1, Section B of the exams. 

Notes from the lesson

In the lesson, we looked at the history of the newspaper and some key terminology we need to learn:


Newspapers: hard and soft news

Newspapers cover a range of stories that are generally divided into two categories:

Hard news: stories related to current affairs, politics, economics, wars and other serious news.

Soft news: stories related to entertainment, sport, celebrities, gossip, scandal and human interest/lifestyle topics.

Newspapers: tabloid and broadsheet

Newspapers were traditionally available in two sizes: tabloid and broadsheet. Today, most newspapers are in the smaller broadsheet size but the terms are still used to describe the style of paper:

Tabloid: focusing largely on soft news, famous examples include the Sun and the Mirror. Generally read by more working class audience. Mid-market tabloids are a middle ground between tabloid and broadsheet and include the Daily Mail. 

Broadsheet: serious newspapers that focus more on hard news. The Times, Guardian and Telegraph are all examples. 

Newspapers: sources of news

Newspapers tend to get their news content from two sources:

Journalists: newspapers employ reporters and photographers to attend events, interview people and write stories. 

News agencies: Reuters and Associated Press are examples of global news agencies that are independent institutions that employ journalists to write stories that newspapers and other media organisations can pay to use.

Increasingly in the digital age, newspapers are sourcing news from their audiences using citizen journalism. This is sometimes criticised as creating clickbait – an example of soft news aimed simply to attract online readers.

The decline of newspapers

In the last 20 years, the newspaper industry has faced a sharp decline due to the rise of the internet.

In 2003, almost 30 million newspapers were sold in the UK every day. By 2017 that was down to 12.4 million (source: Ofcom). 

Newspapers have traditionally made their money in two ways: through the cover price and by selling advertising. With so much news available for free online, audiences are not buying newspapers so both these sources of income have been decimated.

The Wall Street Journal produced a short video demonstrating how the industry has changed in the last 100 years:

Once you've learned the key terminology, watched the video and considered the decline in the industry, work through the blog tasks below.

Blog tasks: The decline in print media

Part 1: Ofcom report into news consumption 2019

Read this Ofcom 2019 report on the consumption of news in the UK. Note down the key statistics and changes that Ofcom highlight and answer the following questions (bullet points/short answers are fine):

1) Look at the key findings from the report on pages 2-3. How do UK adults generally get their news? 

TV is the most common platform for accessing international and local news, despite a decrease in use compared to 2018.

While TV remains the most-used platform for news nowadays by UK adults, usage has decreased since last year (75% vs. 79% in 2018). At the same time, use of social media for news use has gone up (49% vs. 44%).

Older adults, usually 65 and up, use TV for news. The internet is the most-used platform for news consumption among 16-24s and those from a minority ethnic background.

Fewer UK adults use BBC TV channels for news compared to last year, while more are using social media platforms.

2) Read the overall summary for adults on pages 7-8. What do you notice about the changing way adults are getting their news?

Older people aged 65+ are more likely to stick to the more traditional platforms for news, including TV, radio and print newspapers. 

Social media is increasingly being used for news nowadays (49% in 2019), and is used more than any other type of internet news source.

3) Look at the summary of platforms used on page 13. What do you notice about newspapers and how has it changed since 2018?

Newspapers is the least used news source, and has decreased in usability from 2018. (38 percent), however including online use of newspapers it increases to 49 percent.

4) Now look at the demographic summary for news platforms on page 15. What audience demographic groups (e.g. age, social class) are most and least likely to read newspapers?

ABC1, 65+, White

5) Read Section 3 on cross-platform news consumption (page 20). What newspaper brands can you find in the list of most popular news sources across platforms?

Daily mail

6) Now turn to Section 6 focusing on newspapers (page 33). How has the circulation of national newspapers decreased between 2010 and 2018?

In 2010: 21.9 million

In 2018: 10.4

7) What are the most-used newspaper titles?

Most used is daily mail (29 percent in 2019)

8) What are the most popular titles when print and online figures are combined (look at page 38)?

Also daily mail/ mail on sunday

9) How does the i compare to the Daily Mail?

10) Now study the demographic details for our two CSP newspapers on page 39. What is the breakdown of the Daily Mail audience and the i audience? What differences do you notice?

11) Read section 7 of the report: news consumption via social media (pages 40-52). Pick out three statistics from this section that you think are interesting and explain why.

12) Look at the summary of readers' attitudes for newspapers on page 76. What statements do Daily Mail readers tend to agree with?

61 percent: "Helps me make up my mind"
70 percent: "Helps me understand what's going on in the world today"
67 percent: "Offers a range of opinions" 

"Is high quality" 70 percent

"Is important to me personally" 68 percent

Part 2: Factsheet - The death of print media

Go to our Media Factsheet archive and open Factsheet 165: The death of print media. Our Media Factsheet archive is on the Media Shared drive: M:\Resources\A Level\Media Factsheets or you can find it online here - you'll need to log in using your Greenford Google login.

Read the Factsheet and complete the following questions/tasks (bullet points/short answers are fine):

1) What has happened to print media in the last 30 years?

2) Why is the Independent newspaper such a good case study for the decline in print media?

3) What was the Independent newspaper famous for?

4) What did the then-owner of the Independent, Evgeny Lebedev, say about the newspaper's digital-only future?

5) How do online newspapers make money?

6) What did the Independent's longest-serving editor Simon Kelner warn regarding the switch to digital?

7) What is the concern with fake news? What does 'post-truth' refer to?

8) What is your view on the decline in print media? Should news be free? Is it a concern that established media brands such as the Independent can no longer afford to exist as a printed newspaper?

Videogames: Introduction - Women in videogames

 

Videogames: Introduction - Women in videogames

Our final in-depth media topic is Videogames.

Our Videogames CSPs are Tomb Raider Anniversary, Metroid Prime 2: Echoes and The Sims FreePlay.

These are in-depth CSPs and need to be studied with reference to all four elements of the Theoretical Framework (Language, Representation, Industries, Audience) and all relevant contexts.

This will be tested in the Media Two exam with a 25-mark essay question.

Videogames: an introduction

The videogames industry is a huge media market – bigger than video and music combined. It is worth £3.86bn – more than double its value in 2007. Remarkably, these figures do not include mobile and free games such as Fortnite (which has over 200 million players worldwide).

With FIFA, Red Dead Redemption 2 and Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 each selling more than 1m copies, it is important to consider the influence games can have on audiences and society.

Women in videogames

The representation of women in videogames has long been considered sexist. Female characters are rarely playable and usually reinforce traditional gender stereotypes. Games that did feature female characters presented them as damsels in distress or sex objects.

Lara Croft of the Tomb Raider series is one of the most iconic characters in videogame history. But while she is a strong, independent playable character, her appearance and costume turned her into a digital sex object.  

Tropes vs Women in Video Games

Vlogger and gaming expert Anita Sarkeesian has produced two series of YouTube videos documenting the representation of women in videogames.

Vlogging as Feminist Frequency, the series are an important example of digital feminism (and a superb resource for Media students). However, as a result, she has been a target for online abuse and threats – most notably as part of the #gamergate controversy.

Women and videogames: blog tasks

Work through the following blog tasks to complete this introduction to women in videogames.

Part 1: Medium article - Is Female Representation in Video Games Finally Changing?

Read this Medium feature on whether female representation in videogames is finally changing. Answer the following questions:

1) How have women traditionally been represented in videogames?

Typically either objectified or “damsels in distress”

2) What percentage of the video game audience is female?

42% 

3) What recent games have signalled a change in the industry and what qualities do the female protagonists offer?

Recent popular games like Tomb Raider, Horizon: Zero Dawn, Uncharted: The Lost Legacy, The Last of Us, Dragon Age: Inquisition, and The Walking Dead series have female protagonists, co-protagonists or otherwise important characters.


These games each have characters who are role models for real women, because they are strong, independent, intelligent, willful and compassionate. The companies that made these games have enough money where they can take a risk like this and have it pay off.

4) Do you agree with the idea that audiences reject media products if they feel they are misrepresented within them?

There are certainly many audiences that will voice their opinions on social media regarding harmful representations in video games (and other media), so there is evidence to suggest so. The article suggests "This perpetuates a cycle of exclusion…Women don’t like to be seen as sex objects. When they don’t feel like game content positively reflects [their sex], they’re not interested.” Audiences also like to "reclaim" characters who have been misrepresented in media 

5) What does the writer suggest has changed regarding recent versions of Lara Croft and who does she credit for this development?

They wanted to create a protag audiences could identify with. "The rebooted game had to represent women in a more modern way."
They hired Rhianna Pratchett as the lead writer for the 2013 reboot.

Part 2: Tropes vs Women in Video Games – further analysis

Visit Anita Sarkeesian’s ‘Tropes vs Women in Video Games Series 2’ YouTube playlist and watch ONE other video in the series (your choice - and feel free to choose a video from season 1 if you prefer). Write a 100 word summary of the video you watch:

Title of video: 

100 word summary: 


Part 3: Anita Sarkeesian Gamespot interview

Finally, read this Gamespot interview with Anita Sarkeesian of Feminist Frequency and answer the following questions:

1) What reaction did Anita Sarkeesian receive when she published her videos on women in videogames? You can find more information on this on Sarkeesian’s Kickstarter fundraising page.

"The intimidation and harassment effort has included a torrent of misogyny and hate speech on my YouTube video, repeated vandalizing of the Wikipedia page about me, organized efforts to flag my YouTube videos as "terrorism", as well as many threatening messages sent through Twitter, Facebook, Kickstarter, email and my own website. These messages and comments have included everything from the typical sandwich and kitchen "jokes" to threats of violence, death, sexual assault and rape. All that plus an organized attempt to report this project to Kickstarter and get it banned or defunded. Thankfully, Kickstarter has been incredibly supportive in helping me deal with the harassment on their service.

The sad thing is this kind of backlash happens all the time whenever women dare to speak up about gender and video games."

2) How does Sarkeesian summarise feminism?

With a quote: "Feminism is the radical notion that women are human beings." She talks about the "straw feminist", a trope used by talk show hosts and hollywood writers, which paints all feminists as radical man haters.

3) Why do stories matter?

"Narratives have always been a core way human beings learn about, make sense of, and understand the world we live in." She believes the telling of stories has always been important in perpetuating ideas in society, both with positive values and negative stereotypes.

"media stories do have a profound effect on us, especially when messages, myths, and images are repeated over and over again", which is why she chose to look at how women are represented often in video games.
"Popular culture is like the air we all breathe. It's in everyone's interests to make sure that air is not polluted with poisonous sexism so that we don't all end up with hideous misogynist mutations growing out of the back of our collective heads."

4) How does Sarkeesian view Samus Aran and Lara Croft (the two protagonists from our upcoming CSPs)?

"Obviously, I'm in favor of more female protagonists across the board, but it has to be linked with an intentional shift away from the idea that women in games exist primarily as objects of sexual desire."
She talks about the idea of Women's bodies being a reward (like samus in her debut game) and sexualised for a male audience (tomb raider) and how these are problematic, sometimes like a "one step forward, two steps back" scenario."

5) How has the videogame landscape changed with regards to the representation of women?

They have evolved since the original Metroid Mario and Zelda games in the 80s, since we are seeing a "slightly larger" number of female characters and more protagonists. However, In the 1990s we saw the rise of the "Fighting F@#k Toy," the ubersexualized yet violent female character--and today this trope has basically become the default representation for women in much of the gaming 

industry.

She also points out how developers are pandering to nostalgic retro-style games and in doing so, reproduce the sexist themes and ideas at the expense of female representations.

6) Why are Mirror’s Edge and Portal held up as examples of more progressive representations of women?

Faith and Chell from said games are women of colour protagonists of their games without being sexualised. She also discusses how the games expanded and explored the first person shooter genre in creative ways.

7) What are the qualities that Sarkeesian lists for developers to work on creating more positive female characters?

"Some very basic things I look for in female characters are: protagonists with agency not tied directly to their sex appeal; transformative story arcs where characters are struggling with or overcoming personal flaws; and some emotional depth and expression."

8) What is the impact of the videogames industry being male-dominated?

The fact that the gaming industry has historically been and is still so male dominated does play a big role in the types of games, narratives, and characters produced. 

In addition to hiring and including more women in creative and decision-making roles, game companies need to intentionally change their male-dominated spaces and internal cultures to actually shift away from the old boys' club mentality and atmosphere

9) What did Sarkeesian hope to achieve through her ‘Tropes vs Women in Video Games’ series?

On one level, she wants to "promote media literacy and give people some tools to look critically at the games we play."

She also hoped to "clearly present the issues surrounding women's representations as a systemic problem by identifying reoccuring patterns" - these issues aren't limited to a handful of games, but are instead a large institutional problem.

10) What media debates did Sarkeesian hope to spark with her video series?

That being said, she also wants her viewers to know that you can enjoy games and also be critical of some of the harmful aspects present in them - as in, you can enjoy a game whilst critically engaging with it's problematic aspects instead of throwing the game out.

Furthermore, she wanted to continue and expand the conversation happening about women in video games. It's important that we speak out collectively and say, "It's not OK to constantly portray women as sexualized objects for male desire. We want genuine female characters!"
She wants "complex female characters because it will make games and gaming better overall, more diverse, and more innovative. Making gaming better is not just good for women and girls; it's good for people of all genders."

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 ((I am planning to do all the video game blog tasks in one go at some point...................))