Tabloid Press today

Tabloids are the best selling newspapers today. The Sun is the most popular,with an average daily circulation of around 3 million. However, that slipped under to 2.99 million in January 08. The owner, Rupert Murdoch ( who also owns Sky and The Times under the News International blanket!) ordered a price drop from 35p-20p to try and get figures up again. 

Apparently Murdoch dislikes the amount of coverage of celebrity in The Sun. Read this article 

Rebekah Wade, editor of the Sun, discusses her editorial control and relationship with the owner, Murdoch. 

The Mirror ( owned by Trinity Mirror) also slipped at this time to 1.49 million copies.

This is part of world wide trend, what the future for newspapers?

Compare these figures to Broadsheets, Guardian daily circulation of 410,000 but they got 25.9 million hits to their webpage during January 08 compared to the Sun's web hits which were a third of that of the Guardians.

Look a this article

According to Tunstall (1996)

tabloids lead the way and set the news agenda that other papers follow according to their house style.

The human interest agenda is led by a downmarket tabloid exclusive

Followed by mid market dailies

The more upmarket broadsheets report on 'what the tabloids say', but with a longer, more 'worthy' angle and analysis, relating to wider media issues. 

Glossary

authorial intent- intention of writer

anchorage- including captions to cement the 'meaning' of an image or story

chequebook journalism- someone being enticed to sell their story for money

connotation- the association a word creates

defamation- attacking someones good name

gatekeeping- the decisions made be an editor about which stories to cover

graphology-the visual aspects of a text, layout and images

homonym- a word that has more than one meaning eg lighter

intertextuality- when a text refers to another text- eg Pulp Fiction ( story about Jarvis Cocker)

interpolation-how a mood is signalled and the reader dragged in

journalese- tabloid style of writing

libel- writing something that damages a subjects reputation

mode of address- the tone of voice the paper 'speaks' to its audience in

news values- what it deemed newsworthy

polyseme- a word that has closely related different meanings- head

redtops- another word for tabloids

stereotypes- socially constructed image, often used as  a shorthand

tabloid tag- colloquial phrase to describe someone. 

Analysing your tabloids

1. Count the number of features, articles and adverts in each tabloid. Work out the number of these that are to do with celebrity, calculate the percentage.

2.Look at the language that has been used to describe the celebrity. Language can be used to represent celebrities in a certain way, language can manipulate audiences to promote certain values or attitudes towards a certain celebrity.

The transmission of a message through language encodes values into the message. It has its own emotional and cultural loading. 

In their representation of celebs, tabloids often use an informal, familiar approach and 'tabloid tags'. 

Women are often referred to as 'girls'. Often women are referred to in terms of their marital status, 'police arrested the wife of...', 'Prince Charles' mistress'...

Motherhood and the role of mothers in society are often commented on. Consider the coverage of Madonna's adoption process. 

Often their behaviour is reported as being childlike, 'showed off', 'upstaged' with connotations of female rivalry. 

Where they are actiing more positively it is often against their own bodies and emotions-

'fights annorexia...', 'battles depression...'

Homosexuality is  often reported with hostility

'committed a lewd sex act...', 'caught with his pants down...' - suggests farce. 

Word choice is a powerful tool for establishing idealogical stance, beliefs and prejudices of a society can be reinforced by language use. 

Have 'tabloid tags' been used in your editions?

 These give more description about the person but also anchor the way they are being represented, eg 'sad Kerry' -refering to Kerry Katona going back into the Priory hospital. 

3. Research the readership figures for your tabloids and compare them to broadsheets, how does daily coverage compare to Sundays?

4. Look at the PCC's code of practice, how does it relate to the representation of celebs?

Headlines

Should encapsulate the story and attract the reader to the story or the paper.
They need to bear in mind the different readers and the different ways they are going to consume the publication. ( read every detail, or skim and cherry pick).
The lead story may not necessarily be such as it is the most important news item. It may be the most scandalous and the most likely to attract readers and therefore increase sales of the tabloid.

Headlines are written, not by the writer of the article but by a team of specialist writers, they use short, attention grabbing words that are often not found outside of journalese.

Techniques such as:
1. linguistic jokes or puns are frequently used as is ambiguity, homonyms ( words with more than one meaning), polysemes ( several linked meanings).
2. Intertextuality- refer to popular culture or sayings- eg 'Babes in the Woods"
3. Phonology-alliteration & similar sounding words.
4. Loaded words with emotive, strong connotations eg 'butchered'.
5. Reorganising standard order of words or missing words out.
6. Graphology- the headlines stand out more than the rest of the copy.
7. Conveying information in an economical way- who, what , where and how ( the why is dealt with in the article).

Who owns the press?

1. Find out who owns The Mirror and The Sun and what else they own.

2. The owner has the power to influence the content, political and otherwise.

What does this indicate about press freedom?
3. Do we really have a 'free press'?
4. Is it right to call them 'news' papers, what proportion of the paper is actually concerned with news?
5. Who are the gatekeepers who decide what is newsworthy for their publication.
The editorial decisions about what to include are made not only by what is deemed 'newsworthy' but what they or their owners want to divulge or exclude their readership from.
There are also ways of representing those facts to the audience, for instance and it is this that you will be concerned with in your exam.
6. Should newspapers be politically impartial? Swings in support can have a major impact on elections. In 1997, after years supporting the Conservatives, The Sun, backed Labour who went on to win the general election.

Background to Tabloid Newspapers

Newspapers are 'cultural artefacts' ( Jo Wilcock), they differ across countries and cultures and are 'idealogically loaded'- ie they reveal a lot about the society and individuals they are representing and the values and messages that are culturally loaded and shared by the audience who consume them.
They tend not to challenge the dominant idealogy of society, rather they reinforce it.

Newspapers are ephemeral- they are written daily, todays news is tomorrows chip paper. But how long do the messages and values that are represented remain with the audience?
How long does the effect on the celebrity last for?
For most readers their consumption of tabloids is a habit. They tend to consume the same paper and read at the same time of day ( commuting, tea break, lunch back, evening paper, to relax or to be informed or entertained?).
Choices are made by the audience when they make their purchase:
Newspaper or magazine? ( there are 14 national dailies to choose from).
Tabloid or broadsheet?
Sun, Mirror, Sport or Star?

How do audiences make these choices? ( 55% of UK adults read a daily)
What persuades them? Tabloids give stories about popular culture equal if not more emphasis than more serious world, political or financial stories.

What does the topic cover?

The representation of celebrities and their relationship with readers and the press.
[British Tabloid National Press]

The representation of fame and notoriety;
celebrity as the new aristocracy, royalty;
celebrities as agents of the cult of youth and beauty and sex appeal;
wealth/power;
transience, fashion;
mutual dependence of celebrities and press;
celebrity confession/secrets;
exploitation/personal privacy/public’s right to know;
representation of individuals/social groups and their values and beliefs;
readers’ aspirations and enjoyment of spectacle of celebrities’
fortunes and failures;
audience/critical interpretations.

When you are analysing your copies of tabloids, try and identify which of these issues the stories you are covering feature, it may be several of them.

What will you be asked?

The question could be focused on one or more of the following concepts: (some of these concepts are also relevant for action/adventure and new technology)
1. Language

. the language used in tabloids to produce meaning and how these languages are
combined (including written, verbal, non-verbal, visual and aural languages);

• how these languages are used to create a variety of effects on audiences and how
audiences may engage with and understand such languages in different ways;

• that media texts are organised into categories, or genres, and the codes and conventions
associated with their categories or genres;

• how technologies create particular formal possibilities and set constraints.

2. Insitution
that tabloids are the products of institutional, economic and industrial processes and
how this affects the nature of texts;
• how media texts are produced and distributed;
• how industries are related through cross media ownership and patterns of vertical
integration;
• how advances in technology affect production processes, texts and their contexts of
reception and consumption;
• how access and participation of different social groups in media production may be
circumscribed.

3. Audience
that all texts have intended audiences and how the identification of the audience for any
media text might be determined;
• how media institutions and producers research and target audiences;
• how audiences respond to representation (including self-representation) in media texts;
• to reflect upon their own role as members of audiences for their own media consumption;
• how audiences receive and consume media texts;
• the everyday use of the media made by audiences.

4. Representation

• the processes by which people, places, events, ideas, values and beliefs are represented
in the media (who is being represented, by whom and for what purpose);
• how to interrogate those representations (in terms of their realism/accuracy/truth) using
critical and analytical tools in the deconstruction of media texts;
• how to engage in the processes of representation, and self-representation, in the
construction and evaluation of media texts.

Textual Analysis Exam.

This forms 50% of your Textual Analysis examination.
This unit assesses your skills in the textual analysis of the languages and conventions

of media forms, using a short unseen extract of an action/adventure film and to assess your understanding of the concept of representation using two tabloid editions.

The examination is two hours long (including 30 minutes for viewing and making notes on the
moving image extract) and candidates are required to answer two compulsory questions.
There are two sections, you should spend 45 minutes writing for each.
• Section A
An unseen moving image extract with one compulsory question dealing with textual analysis
of technical aspects of the moving image medium.
The moving image extract will be provided by OCR with full instructions for the administration
of the examination, viewing conditions and note-making.
• Section B
One compulsory question on a comparative study of two tabloids. You must prepare this comparison in advance but you may not bring in the editions or any notes.