Newspapers: MailOnline case study
MailOnline case study: Blog tasks
Work through the following tasks to complete your case study on Mail Online.
MailOnline close-textual analysis
Go to MailOnline and analyse the stories currently featured:
1) What are the top five stories? Are they examples of soft news or hard news?
Lord Sugar slams trolls as he denies being the businessman who got injunction to gag racial abuse/sexual harassment claims. - Hard news
Trump says Saudi Arabia is being treated 'guilty until proven innocent' over the disappearance of Jamal Khashoggi and compares claims to Brett Kavanaugh sex assault allegations (Hard news)
May will hold last-ditch private talks with Tusk before her make-or-break pitch for a Brexit deal amid fears summit failure could mean no deal (hard news)
Student rep sparks outrage after vowing to tear down a mural honouring those who left to fight in WWI but never returned - Soft news
2) What celebrity content is featured?
3) What examples of ‘clickbait’ can you find?
Im A Celebrity Contestants getting down to their bikini for the first time.
Rapper 6ix9ine facing charges of unlicensed firearms and robbery charges.
4) To what extent do the stories you have found on MailOnline reflect the values and ideologies of the Daily Mail newspaper?
Most stories on the side are clickbait, and focused on celebrities, whereas the one's in the middle seem to be more focused on politics.
5) Think about audience appeal and gratifications: why is MailOnline the most-read English language newspaper website in the world? How does it keep you on the site?
Every time you click on one news story, another pops up similar to the one you just read therefore the more you click the more news stories you will run into.
Guardian column: So Daily Mail and Mail Online are ‘totally separate’? It depends how you look at it by Peter Preston
Read this Guardian column by Media veteran Peter Preston on a row between the Guardian and the Mail over the controversial MailOnline (ex-) columnist Katie Hopkins. Answer the following questions:
1) Why does Preston suggest that the Daily Mail and MailOnline should be considered to be basically the same publication?
Because the ideologies and values are kept the same on the website and in the paper, the main different being the user friendly layout on the website.
2) How does Preston summarise other newspaper websites?
His opinions of other news papers is quite critical.
3) How many readers does the online-only Independent now boast?
19 Mil
4) Do you feel the Daily Mail and MailOnline have a different ‘world view’?
They are identical as it still remains and stick with the same ideologies and values.
5) Do you see a future for the paper version of the Daily Mail or will it eventually close like the Independent?
It will eventually close as print is in decline.
Media Magazine MM55: Media, Publics, Protest and Power
Media Magazine 55 has an excellent feature on power and the media. Go to our Media Magazine archive, click on MM55 and scroll to page 38 to read the article Media, Publics, Protest and Power', a summary of Media academic Natalie Fenton’s talk to the Media Magazine conference in 2015. Answer the following questions:
1) What are the three overlapping fields that have an influence on the relationship between media and democracy?
2) What is ‘churnalism’ and does MailOnline provide examples of this kind of news gathering?Churnalism - refers to the idea of "cutting and pasting" public relations material or rewrites of content - i.e. the content isn't original.
3) Fenton argues that news should serve the public and help democracy. Does MailOnline do this?
Yes because the publish stories for the public interest in many cases being hard news about current affairs and politics but also has soft news.
4) What is infotainment? Is MailOnline guilty of relying on this kind of content?
A news type which is mainly focused on surveillance.
5) Has the internet empowered audiences or is it still dominated by the major media conglomerates? How does MailOnline fit into this?
Factsheet 182 - Case Study: The Daily Mail (Part 3) Industrial Context
Finally, read Media Factsheet 182: Case Study: The Daily Mail (Part 3) Industrial Context and complete the following questions/tasks. Our Media Factsheet archive is on the Media Shared drive: M:\Resources\A Level\Media Factsheets
1) What do Curran and Seaton suggest regarding the newspaper industry and society?
Newspapers must engage in news stories that audiences will enjoy reading and catch their interest.
2) Curran and Seaton acknowledge that media ownership in the UK is dominated by what kind of company?
BBC.
3) What does the factsheet suggest regarding newspaper ownership and influence over society?
Newspapers can be used as propaganda to push forward particular political views and agendas.
4) Why did the Daily Mail invest heavily in developing MailOnline in the 2000s?
They realised that newspapers may move online.
5) How does MailOnline reflect the idea of newspapers ‘as conversation’?
Because the most popular stories tend to be on the front page and allows people to communicate in the comment section.
6) How many stories and pictures are published on MailOnline?
Around about 1000.
7) How does original MailOnline editor Martin Clarke explain the success of the website?
Because it has a mixture of hard and soft news.
8) What does it mean when it says readers are in control of digital content?
Because news story success will be based on the amount of views, likes/dislikes and comments all left by the public.9) How is the priority for stories on the homepage established on MailOnline?
Depending on views and how recent it is.
10) What is your view of ‘clicks’ driving the news agenda? Should we be worried that readers are now ‘in control of digital content’?
In my opinion yes, because this can be very easily manipulated by using click bots to make stories seem more popular.
Work through the following tasks to complete your case study on Mail Online.
MailOnline close-textual analysis
Go to MailOnline and analyse the stories currently featured:
1) What are the top five stories? Are they examples of soft news or hard news?
- Will May survive until the Budget? PM faces the toughest week after 'capitalization' in Brussels amid claims David Davis could be installed in Downing Street- Hard news
2) What celebrity content is featured?
- Blac Chyna's new whitening cream being sold in Nigeria.
- Rita Ora wore a mini skirt.
- Laura Crane from Love Island shows off her figure.
- Travis Scott meets a dying fan
3) What examples of ‘clickbait’ can you find?
Im A Celebrity Contestants getting down to their bikini for the first time.
Rapper 6ix9ine facing charges of unlicensed firearms and robbery charges.
4) To what extent do the stories you have found on MailOnline reflect the values and ideologies of the Daily Mail newspaper?
Most stories on the side are clickbait, and focused on celebrities, whereas the one's in the middle seem to be more focused on politics.
5) Think about audience appeal and gratifications: why is MailOnline the most-read English language newspaper website in the world? How does it keep you on the site?
Every time you click on one news story, another pops up similar to the one you just read therefore the more you click the more news stories you will run into.
Guardian column: So Daily Mail and Mail Online are ‘totally separate’? It depends how you look at it by Peter Preston
Read this Guardian column by Media veteran Peter Preston on a row between the Guardian and the Mail over the controversial MailOnline (ex-) columnist Katie Hopkins. Answer the following questions:
1) Why does Preston suggest that the Daily Mail and MailOnline should be considered to be basically the same publication?
Because the ideologies and values are kept the same on the website and in the paper, the main different being the user friendly layout on the website.
2) How does Preston summarise other newspaper websites?
His opinions of other news papers is quite critical.
3) How many readers does the online-only Independent now boast?
19 Mil
4) Do you feel the Daily Mail and MailOnline have a different ‘world view’?
They are identical as it still remains and stick with the same ideologies and values.
5) Do you see a future for the paper version of the Daily Mail or will it eventually close like the Independent?
It will eventually close as print is in decline.
Media Magazine MM55: Media, Publics, Protest and Power
Media Magazine 55 has an excellent feature on power and the media. Go to our Media Magazine archive, click on MM55 and scroll to page 38 to read the article Media, Publics, Protest and Power', a summary of Media academic Natalie Fenton’s talk to the Media Magazine conference in 2015. Answer the following questions:
1) What are the three overlapping fields that have an influence on the relationship between media and democracy?
- The political field - How much freedom do we have to speak? The power of the government/politics to regulate and restrict what is said/the diversity of voices in the media
- The economic field - commercial influences like ownership, profit and the intensity of market competition
- The journalistic field - what constitutes as news and the ethics of media practice
2) What is ‘churnalism’ and does MailOnline provide examples of this kind of news gathering?Churnalism - refers to the idea of "cutting and pasting" public relations material or rewrites of content - i.e. the content isn't original.
3) Fenton argues that news should serve the public and help democracy. Does MailOnline do this?
Yes because the publish stories for the public interest in many cases being hard news about current affairs and politics but also has soft news.
4) What is infotainment? Is MailOnline guilty of relying on this kind of content?
A news type which is mainly focused on surveillance.
5) Has the internet empowered audiences or is it still dominated by the major media conglomerates? How does MailOnline fit into this?
There is a pressure to continue profiting as they have before despite the decline of print medias which was their main source of revenue.
Factsheet 182 - Case Study: The Daily Mail (Part 3) Industrial Context
Finally, read Media Factsheet 182: Case Study: The Daily Mail (Part 3) Industrial Context and complete the following questions/tasks. Our Media Factsheet archive is on the Media Shared drive: M:\Resources\A Level\Media Factsheets
1) What do Curran and Seaton suggest regarding the newspaper industry and society?
Newspapers must engage in news stories that audiences will enjoy reading and catch their interest.
2) Curran and Seaton acknowledge that media ownership in the UK is dominated by what kind of company?
BBC.
3) What does the factsheet suggest regarding newspaper ownership and influence over society?
Newspapers can be used as propaganda to push forward particular political views and agendas.
4) Why did the Daily Mail invest heavily in developing MailOnline in the 2000s?
They realised that newspapers may move online.
5) How does MailOnline reflect the idea of newspapers ‘as conversation’?
Because the most popular stories tend to be on the front page and allows people to communicate in the comment section.
6) How many stories and pictures are published on MailOnline?
Around about 1000.
7) How does original MailOnline editor Martin Clarke explain the success of the website?
Because it has a mixture of hard and soft news.
8) What does it mean when it says readers are in control of digital content?
Because news story success will be based on the amount of views, likes/dislikes and comments all left by the public.9) How is the priority for stories on the homepage established on MailOnline?
Depending on views and how recent it is.
10) What is your view of ‘clicks’ driving the news agenda? Should we be worried that readers are now ‘in control of digital content’?
In my opinion yes, because this can be very easily manipulated by using click bots to make stories seem more popular.
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