7/12/23

 Industry theorists-

Power and media industries- Curran and Seaton- The media industry is controlled by a small number of companies primarily driven by the logic of profit and domination

Regulation- Sonia Livingstone and Peter Lunt- Transformation in the production distribution and marketing of digital media, have placed traditional media restrictions a risk

Cultural industries- David Hesmondhalgh- Companies try to minimise risk and maximise audiences through vertical and horizontal integration.

Possible exam question- Explore how The Daily Mirror/ The Times positions it audience. Refer to a print edition to support your response.

Positioning- Where an audience is placed by a media product

Stuart Hall -Reception theory: Preferred reading, Oppositional reading, Negotiated reading, Anchorage, Positioning. 

The Daily Mirror positions its audience as lower earning and working class. This is constructed through the anchorage of the colour red, which suggests the importance to the audience.

The Lexis '£220' is potentially worrying to the target audience, working class people. This is further anchored through the particularly large bold typeface of the headline, which once more positions the audience in a forceful and direct mode of address. This is typical of a tabloid newspaper.

However also dedicates a significant amount of space to soft news, the reference to pop singer Louise , a 90s pop star, clearly indicates the newspaper is targeting a middle aged and working class target audience.

The layout favours images and includes very little text. However images focus on the hegemonically attractive middle aged singer , who is wearing a revealing outfit, positioning the audience as a heterosexual man. This is highly conventional of media products especially mainstream newspapers.

A story about a serial killer and police misconduct is sidelined, because the murders happened almost a decade ago. This demonstrates the news values of the newspaper, and suggests that audiences favour only the mot recent news. 

Middle class audiences may well be put off by the lack of formality. However newspapers work by targeting a very specific audience.

Explore how the needs of audiences are met by the newspaper industry.

• Escapism
• Excitement 
• Entertainment 
• Information 
• Sexual Gratification 
• Identification
• Modes of address and lexis 
• Drama 
• FOMO 
• Reflection 
• Self expression/Personal identity