Mail Online Case Study

1) What are the top five stories? Are they examples of soft news or hard news?

• Leicester City fans gather to mourn (hard)
• Hero policeman who desperately tried to smash the windows of Leicester helicopter (hard)
• Robin Thicke picture exclusive (soft)
• Samantha Cameron opens up about her Number 10 wardrobe malfunctions (soft)
• Coldest October days for a decade as arctic blast brings snow (hard)

2) What celebrity content is featured?

• Samantha Cameron wardrobe malfunctions.
• Robin Thicke - Star's pregnant girlfriend.
• Owner of Leicester City Football Club.

3) What examples of ‘clickbait’ can you find?

• Nicole Scherzinger sets the record straight over THAT muttering to Tess Daly on Strictly (and it's NOT what everyone thinks)
• Teenager warns of a 'drink spiking epidemic' after finding a blue 'sleeping' pill at the bottom of her glass on a night out 

4) To what extent do the stories you have found on MailOnline reflect the values and ideologies of the Daily Mail newspaper?
I found that the MailOnline doesn't reflect the values and ideologies of the Daily Mail as they both share quite different stories. The MailOnline publishes much more soft news content involving a lot of celebrity stories, and lifestyle tips. There is much more "click-bait" on the MailOnline, whereas the Daily Mail covers more hard news stories such as Brexit negotiations.

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?
The MailOnline is one of the most visited newspaper websites as it has a lot of clickbait content. It has "endless scroll" with an almost never ending amount of content. It takes a large amount of scrolling on the mice before reaching the bottom. This whole page is filled with catchy headlines and images which will entice the reader. Because of how many stories there are, readers end up on the site for a long time. This largely contributes to how the MailOnline generates clicks and how it is has become the most visited UK newspaper website.

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?

“Has nothing to do with the Daily Mail, but works for Mail Online – a totally separate entity that has its own publisher, its own readership, different content and a very different world view”

2) How does Preston summarise other newspaper websites?

“The Sun’s website is pure Bun. The Mirror’s is a sprightly extrapolation of the print version. Both are forerunners of what may transpire if print dies a lingering death and all we have left is the online memory. That’s transition, the supposed formula for eternal journalistic life.”

3) How many readers does the online-only Independent now boast?

19 million readers.

4) Do you feel the Daily Mail and MailOnline have a different ‘world view’?

I feel that they do haview as they both focus on different things. MailOnline seem to have a focus on the entertainment industry, trying to entertain the audience rather than inform them on current affairs whereas the Daily Mail have much more focus on the politics and hard news affairs within the world. The MailOnline doesn't seem to impose an ideology like Daily Mail who clearly show their right wing mentality through the way they publish articles. However, MailOnline may not show content which allows political orientation.

5) Do you see a future for the paper version of the Daily Mail or will it eventually close like the Independent?

I think the Daily Mail may eventually close because the newspaper industry is declining as a whole as less people are buying newspapers each year. 

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?

Political, Economic and Journalistic.
2) What is ‘churnalism’ and does MailOnline provide examples of this kind of news gathering?

The cutting and pasting of unattributed rewrites of press agency or public relation materials.

3) Fenton argues that news should serve the public and help democracy. Does MailOnline do this?

The Daily Mail does do this as they post news stories which appeal to the audience. The main headlines are selected by the audience as the most clicked story ends up higher on the page, however this doesnt help democracy.

4) What is infotainment? Is MailOnline guilty of relying on this kind of content?

5) Has the internet empowered audiences or is it still dominated by the major media conglomerates? How does MailOnline fit into this?

I think the internet has empowered audiences as it has given them a platform which they can discuss and debate stories freely and find like minded people. The internet has further improved freedom of speech and has allowed the audiences more opportunity  to express their opinions.

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?

The newspaper industry is believed to say to reflect desires and interests of readers to maintain its readership and they suggest that the mass media and newspaper industry should have a liberal ideology because newspapers are wielded as propaganda tools to have an influence on individuals.

2) Curran and Seaton acknowledge that media ownership in the UK is dominated by what kind of company?

Dominated by powerful individuals who own nearly 51% of the market in newspapers. An example of this is Rupert Murdoch.

3) What does the factsheet suggest regarding newspaper ownership and influence over society?

Owners of newspapers can influence their newspapers with their ideologies and beliefs. An example given is Rupert Murdoch who was pro-war with Iran and as a result, his 175 newspapers supported his belief in their articles.

4) Why did the Daily Mail invest heavily in developing MailOnline in the 2000s?

The Daily Mail invested heavily into the MailOnline as they were aware of the growing interest in digital content and the potential decline in newspaper readership. The Daily Mail believed that their presence online was the way forward.

5) How does MailOnline reflect the idea of newspapers ‘as conversation’?

The reflection of conversation in a newspaper is believed to be direct and immediate making it seem like a conversation building a relationship with the editor and reader.

6) How many stories and pictures are published on MailOnline?

1000 stories and 10000 pictures.

7) How does original MailOnline editor Martin Clarke explain the success of the website?

“The reason MailOnline has become a success is because we cover the waterfront. It’s all the news you need to know, all the news you wanna know. The big stories. The lighter stories. The completely amazing stories"

8) What does it mean when it says readers are in control of digital content?

This means that the audience are in control of what media they choose to consume and what articles appeal to them. Because of this, clickbait has a large influence on people as people are more likely to read a news story which is much "lighter" rather than an important topic such as Brexit.

9) How is the priority for stories on the homepage established on MailOnline?

The audience control what is on the homepage of the MailOnline. Which ever story has the most amount of clicks is put onto the front page of the MailOnline.

10) What is your view of ‘clicks’ driving the news agenda? Should we be worried that readers are now ‘in control of digital content’?

I think clicks is a bad way of deciding which news stories should go on the homepage as people need to see hard news affairs in order to stay informed on the world. People much rather see "cats on treadmills" rather than negotiations on Brexit and how wars are affecting economy.