Timed Essay 5

Explain how political contexts influence individual producers within the newspaper industry.  Refer to The Guardian (left) and the Daily Mail (right) to support your answer.

In this essay, I will explain how political contexts influence producers within the newspaper industry using The Guardian and the Daily Mail as examples

The Guardian is a left-wing newspaper formally owned by the British company, Scott Trust Limited but now owned by the Guardian Media Group and the Daily Mail is a right-wing newspaper owned by Jonathan Harmsworth and the Daily Mail and General Trust. The majority of newspapers are right-wing which fits with the dominant ideology as the party in power recently has been right-wing. All newspapers will be somewhat biased towards the political side of the spectrum they promote, whether it be right-wing or left-wing. The political positioning of these newspapers can cause marginalized groups to be presented in a harmful, stereotypical or just generally negative way. Usually, right-wing newspapers are the ones that tend to marginalise minority groups. This can be seen specifically in an issue of the Daily Mail in which the headline on the front cover read, “GAGGING OF MOTHER FORCED TO HAND BABY TO GAY DAD”. The Daily Mail uses words such as “forced” to make it sound like it is a bad thing that the gay dad has the child now. It marginalises the gay community by inferring that gay people are not fit to be parents and presents them in a negative manner. People that read a right/left wing newspaper are likely going to cultivate the political opinions of that newspaper over time and they will therefore start to share the same views. These newspapers have the power to influence their audiences and the right-wing newspapers tend to do this in a negative way and have a sort of power without responsibility whilst left-wing newspapers tend to influence people more positively. Reception theory can also apply here as if someone who shares right-wing ideologies reads a left-wing newspaper like The Guardian, they are going to take an oppositional reading to it but if they read a right-wing newspaper like the Daily Mail, they will take a preferred reading to it.

There will always be the topic of right-wing vs left-wing and with newspapers it is no different. Right-wing newspapers will frequently attack the left-wing ideologies and agendas and left-wing newspapers will attack the right-wing ideologies and agendas. An example of the right and left-wing papers attacking each other is the 8^th June 2017 editions of the Daily Mail and Daily Mirror, which is another left-wing newspaper. The right-wing Daily Mail presents an image of Theresa May celebrating on the front cover with the headline “LET’S REIGNITE BRITISH SPIRIT”, presenting Theresa May and the Conservative party in a positive light whilst at the same time, the left-wing Daily Mirror uses an unflattering image of Theresa May with the headline “LIES, DAMNED LIES AND THERESA MAY”, presenting the Conservative party negatively. Right-wing newspapers tend to focus on money above all else as well as looking after themselves. The idea of right-wing newspapers marginalising minority groups comes from as most right-wing supporters being middle class, middle aged, white and male which is the dominant ideology. They will quite often take an “us vs them” approach to their stories, creating xenophobia that the readers will also cultivate. Left-wing newspapers focus on human interest above all else and are typically humanitarian. This means the stories they publish will typically be more inclusive of all genders, races, sexualities etc. Left-wing newspapers promote news values such as human interest and close to home whilst right-wing newspapers focus more on the conflict and consonance, meaning they will run stories that are expected of them and they will not change their views.

In conclusion, the political views of newspapers will influence the types of stories they post, the news values they stand by as well as their target audience. Right-wing newspapers will usually be more interested in the money, power and spreading hate whilst the left-wing newspapers will take into account the human interest and are generally more inclusive, aiming for a wider audience than just the usual white, middle class, middle aged groups and straying away from the dominant ideology.