AS Media StudiesRevision Resource2010

NEWSPAPERS

NETHERHALL SCHOOL CAMBRIDGE

The Syllabus

Section B: Institutions and Audiences Candidates should be prepared to understand and discuss the processes of production, distribution, marketing and exchange as they relate to con-temporary media institutions, as well as the nature of audi-ence consumption and the relationships between audi-ences and institutions. In addition, candidates should be familiar with:

• the issues raised by media ownership in contemporary media practice;

• the importance of cross media convergence and syn-ergy in production, distribution and marketing;

• the technologies that have been introduced in recent years at the levels of production, distribution, market-ing and exchange;

• the significance of proliferation in hardware and con-tent for institutions and audiences;

• the importance of technological convergence for insti-tutions and audiences;

• the issues raised in the targeting of national and local audiences (specifically, British) by international or global institutions;

• the ways in which the candidates’ own experiences of media consumption illustrate wider patterns and trends of audience behaviour.

This unit should be approached through contemporary ex-amples in the form of case studies based upon one of the specified media areas. Examples may include the follow-ing:

Newspapers A study of the contemporary newspaper market in the UK and the ways in which technology is helping to make newspapers more efficient and competitive despite dwin-dling audiences. This should be accompanied by study of a specific online version of a national/local newspaper and the issues that are raised for the production, distribution and consumption of news.

Key elements

Remember• Definitions• Technical terms• Your personal experience• New technology

Key terms

ConvergenceHardware and software coming together across media, and companies coming to-gether across similar boundaries. to make the distinction between different types of media and different media industries in-creasingly difficult

Examples of convergenceNewspapers like The Guardian and the BBC. The Guardian published papers (ink-on-

dead-tree model) and was the first to go online. The BBc was a broadcaster with heavy interest in

Other Key DefinitionsABC = Audit Bureau of Circulation - gathers circulation figures of magazines and newspapers, primarily for advertisers but also used by students and researchers.Audience - collective group of people reading or receiving andy media text.Circulation - the number of copies sold or distributed of a newspaper or magazine.Reach - the readership of a newspaper or magazine - must be at least as many as the circulation, and important number for advertisersMedia Studies 2.0/Web 2.0 - the second phase of media/web where the focus has shifted from the audience receiving information and services to people creating and sharing material.

The Newspaper Industry

Represents 75-80% of income (not profit)

Increasing use of internet and satellite technology to send news

Direct from laptop to page - no more phone in

Eco issues Time consuming = 12 hour press to tableVery expensive to build and run

Road to regional warehouseVan to newsagentSmall boy on bike to customer

Audience needs•Accurate trustworthy information•In a form they are happy with - right amount of detail•Up to the minute not up to date - constant update•Able to be customised to their needs•Cheap - remember the web is normally free•Increasing numbers od Digital Citizens - permanently connected and online•Multimedia - sound and video•Blogging/interaction to make the audience feel included•Age considerations

Newspaper data

Key statisticsFeb 2009-Feb 2010 relative decline on average is -4.4%Comparison of 6 months Sept-Feb gives a figure of -4.2%Total circulation of all daily papers in UK Feb 2010 = 10,172,430 from 10,639,413 a drop of around 400,000 copies per dayThe Times - down 16.9% was the worst.The Star at +2.96 the best

= Audit Bureau of Circulation

Newspaper models

Traditional - Ink-on-dead-trees

Online edition of traditional model - looks very like paper copy

•Register online and receive• an up to the minute email which links to the website which itself is continuously updated.•the content can be cus-tomised according to the individuals wishes•You can determine at what time the email is sent•The BBC have a very simi-lar service•Note adverts

Online but downloadable Times which is subscription only and produces a “pdf like” file with embedded video and audio. The big subject for discussion is if other newspa-pers are giving free access to their websites (applies to BBC also), would anyone pay around 50p per day (around half the paper cover price) to obtain it on line to use off line. However this is the only digital newspaper model which can be downloaded and used off line.

Excerpt from Times article March 2010

Note that there has been much discussion about pricing and charging. It is done for specialist infor-mation services but not for a mass consumption product like The Times. The owners are trying to suggest that there will be added features if you subscribe.

The Digital AlternativesUp-to-the-minute, not just up-to-date

ABCe - Audit Bureau of eCirculation measures web trafficIn February 2010, ABCe was launched, and for the first time it is possible to measure number of visitors to a news site.Mail Online was the most popular in January, with 2.16 million browsers per day (compared with 2.1 million circulation of paper copies). Most importantly this is a 13.5% month on month increase, and a 57% year on year increase.The Guardian, the biggest newspaper website had 1.9 million browsers per day (far in excess of it’s 284,000 daily circulation). Like the Guardian, the telegraph posted 1.7 million visitors to it’s site, vs circulation of 685.000/day. The Sun on-line came in 4th at 1.3 million is the only major where paper circulation, at 2.9 million, greatly exceeds the web visitors.The major increase in web activity was driven by many late breaking stories, in-cluding iPad launch, the John Terry affair, Jonathan Ross’ departure from the BBC and Tony Blair at the Chilcott enquiry. This reinforces the point that the audience want up-to-the-minute news, not up-to-date news.

BBC On line

The BBC has one of the biggest and wide ranging websites, and has its own news gathering organisation, including BBC News24, Radio and network news. It therefore generates audio, video and written news material, which it distributes via broadcasting, it’s main core business, and increasingly vis the net. This is a great example of convergence. When EYJAFLALLAJOKULL the Icelandic vol-cano blew in April, it generated 5.5 million online viewers in one day - audiences wanting specific authoritative up-to-the-moment information. The appeal of the BBC is the ability to embed audio and video footage and link to other background information. The BBC have also encouraged feedback from visitors.

Web 2.0

Web 2.0 refers the the second generation of the web when it has become 2-way. The web is no longer a method of receiving information, as in a website. Increasingly the web is interactive, with the audience using the web to commu-nicate, and to contribute. This includes the way that we are permanently con-nected via our smart phones, the social networking sites like Facebook, and the ease with which we can blog etc.. As the audiences get to expect interactiv-ity, the traditional newspaper becomes more outdated and potentially doomed.

Advertising=75-80% of newspaper revenue NOT profit)

Different newspapers attract different age groups and social classes

Monthly readership

Weekly readership

Daily readership

Up to the recession, advertising spend in newspapers was fairly constant.

Cost of big advertising campaign

Opportunities to see

News Agencies

News Agencies collect news and informa-tion and supply them to newspapers. Reuters is the best known and probably the biggest. It has an excellent reputation, and was the first agency to report the recent plane crash when the president of Poland was killed.

Famous Quotes

Lord Leverhulme, founder of Unilever, consumer conglomerate“I know half the money I spend on advertising is wasted, The trouble is I don’t know which half”

Chief Exec of Manchester Media - previously Manchester Evening News“I know that MM will be here and in the information business in 10 years time. I just don’t know what it will look like as a business”

Rupert Murdoch Chairman of News International, owner of among others, The Sun, The News Of the World, The Times, The Wall Street Journal.“The world is changing and newspapers have to adapt”

Sir Martin Sorrell, Chief Executive of WPP, the largest media communica-tions (advertising and PR) company in the world.“I don’t think newspapers will die”

Roy Greenslade, writer, Irish Times“These professional news “hubs” will work in concert with, for want of a better term, amateur journalists. Call it participation or collaboration or, to borrow a term coined by Alan Rusbridger, the editor of the Guardian , mutualisation. It is how news gathering is already developing and, in 10 years that will have become the norm.”

The Exam

Examination lasts 2 hours INCLUDING 30 minutes viewing time. Therefore each written question has a time allocation of 45 min-utes, and are worth 50 marks each

Remember the question will be very general as it must be able to be answered with reference to any of the above case studies.It will involve the relationship between Audiences and Institutions. Do not be tempted to answer the question from another topic. You may however, for exam-ple, refer to the radio as a news source in competition with the newspapers.

The Mark Scheme

Note the details below Explanation/Analysis = 20 marksUse of Examples = 20 marksUse of Terminology = 10 marksYou must use detailed examples from Newspapers

Note - although no actual marks allo-cated, the examiner is looking for a well written answer with good English to charaterise the different levels

Planning your answer

Develop your own planning techniquesAn obvious options are to use a mind map. Place the key words from the question in the middle and label the key elements of the answer (from the mark scheme) at main branches.If you prefer to work in a linear fashion, use bullet points, perhaps under different headings.

The Opening ParagraphStudents often find the opening paragraph the most difficult. Advice includes reword the question and include a definition. In this question it may be possible to pre-plan an opening paragraph. The following might be used for the above question.

The relationship between audiences who consume media output and the institutions who create the output has never been as complex as it is today. As new technologies enable the audiences to access media output in ever more ways. Technological convergence - the term used to describe how technologies are becoming ever closer and are com-bining in new and ever more complex ways, is a driving force behind the changes. I will explore this issue with reference to the newspaper industry.