Daily Mail front cover plan

Aseessment 1B news - Evaluation

Daily Mail cover evaluation

1) What was the task you were given and who was your target audience?

The task we were given was to create a front page for a daily mail newspaper based on Harry and Meghan's split due to her being in an affair as revealed by her friend Miss Indiana Savannah. The target audience was demographic c2, d and e and an older age group due to the fact it was a front page for the print newspaper.

2) What research did you undertake and what did you find were some of the typical conventions of a Daily Mail front cover - layout, types of stories, fonts

I researched information about Harry and Meghan's relationship to get some background info and also researched images of recent daily mail front pages. I found that typically daily mail only use big bold headlines and no images for their main headlines and then include an advert as a banner along the top and another story along the side of the main headline, which has a small article beneath summarizing the story.

3) Which Daily Mail cover did you use as your main source? Insert. What are your observations from this source?

My observations from this source is that the offer on the advert is almost the same size as the main headline text which draws the reader in as well as the headline which is always exaggerated to generate shock value, then the side headline uses a dark background to contrast the main headline to make it stand out. The front page also uses bullet points above the main headline to summarize the story in a basic way for the reader to easily understand when passing by.

4) Which areas did you find most challenging?

I found making the headlines the most challenging as I had to find a similar font and get the text to the right size and reduce the space between the characters and paragraphing lines. Another challenging area was resizing the images to not appear stretched out and also match the overall layout of a typical daily mail front page.

5) What was you initial feedback? What did others say about your production? How successful was do you think it is?

I think my attempt was fairly successful and others thought that my cover was pretty similar to the cover I had based it upon, however the font style I had used compared to the daily mail's is slightly noticeably different and I used different adverts to match the overall theme of the main headline I was using, which therefore changed the colour scheme of my front page compared to the original.

6) Identify what went well and with hindsight what you do to improve/do differently.

I think creating and wording my headlines and articles went well as I did the appropriate research, however I would improve the front that I used and try to reduce the amount of white space on my front page as it is noticeably different compared to the original paper.

7) In the exam you will be analysing newspaper front covers. In producing this cover, are there any areas that you hadn't noticed before? What have you learn't from completing this task?

I hadn't noticed at the bottom of articles and adverts that there were phrases like 'see page five' which redirect you to another page to read the full story, as the daily mail cleverly selects dramatic snippets from the articles to put on front covers to draw the reader in, as well as carefully tailoring their adverts to match the headline on the newspaper and therefore I tried to do this on my front page.

Front Pages Representation

• Who is being represented in this image?

A lower class black teenager.

• Are you being given the stereotypical or counter typical image of the person/group. Describe the image.

In the image we are being presented the stereotypical image of the person, as they are being presented as a thug, which we can deduce from the fact that the youth is wearing a tracksuit which is a typical connotation of a 'chav', which was a term that had started to develop around 2010. Furthermore the balaclava that covers the youths face as well as the gloves also suggests this and creates fear for the audience and represents lower class, black teenagers negatively. The stereotype is also echoed in the background as there is a car on fire and blood on the road emphasizing death and destruction, emphasizing danger to the audience which also presents the person stereotypically as a thug.

• How is the representation being constructed by the media language? (camera angles, choice of images, colour, size and mise en scene etc.)

The body language and camera angle of the person suggests as it looks as if he is casually walking away from the scene. However the camera angle creates a sense of danger as its angled slightly below the figure so that they are looking down creating a sense of power, which is threatening. Furthermore the enhancement of colour for example of the flames and the blood also echoes the idea of danger and destruction and death that also scares the reader as it presents the person stereotypically as a violent character in society such as a thug. Also props like the balaclava and gloves hide the figures identity which also fears the reader and creates a sense of the unknown as he walks away from the scene with his head down, allowing the representation to present the person negatively and as a threat to society.

• How is the representation being constructed by the text (word choices, size of text and tone).

The representation is negatively constructed by the media language as the sun has chosen to use language such as "anarchy" in bold as the headline, which has a dramatic effect as they use a one word headline, this creates the idea of the representation being presented stereotypically and as a object of mass destruction, which worries the audience and has an effect of moral panic. The other headline "3rd day of mindless violence" also emphasizes the lower class nature that is connoted as "chav" and thugs as the sun use the word "mindless" which indicates low intelligence, with "violence" which continues to repeat the idea of them being reckless criminals who are careless.

• Does this representation fit the with the institutional codes and conventions? Explain your answer - think about institution, audience, tabloids/broadsheet.

This representation fits with the codes and conventions as it represents several aspects of DR CAGES, such as ethnicity, age and class, however does represent them stereotypically in a negative way, and fits the codes and conventions of a typical tabloid newspaper as big headlines of negative language is used to dramatize and exaggerate, alongside the image that covers the entire front page that includes fire and blood to emphasize danger and death.

• Who is being represented in this image?

British male Muslims.

• Are you being given the stereotypical or counter typical representation?

In this newspaper headline the audience is being displayed the stereotypical representation of Muslims, as in recent years many terror attacks from groups like Jihadis and isis as well as others have started to become a major topic in the media and in foreign affairs, which has had an effect on moral panic therefore cultivating a negative stereotype for Muslims.

• How is the representation being constructed by media language?

the representation is negatively presented by media language due to the use of images of a male Muslim wearing the stereotypical head dress of what the Taliban and Jihadis are usually seen wearing in the news on their attacks in order to cover their identity which is threatening for the audience creating a fearful effect. Language also presents Muslims negatively as the image uses dark colours which also create a dark tone for the newspaper also emphasizing the idea of danger and death especially alongside the use of props such as weapons which the "Muslim" man is seen holding which also displays violence.

• How is the representation being constructed  by media text?

The representation is being negatively constructed by media text as the headline uses a stat that suggests that the majority of Muslims support Jihadis and extremist groups that have caused a lot of upset and affected people on a personal level, which immediately has an effect on the reader due to all the terrorist events that have recently occurred. Furthermore using this as the main headline suggests that this is key information and a top story creating a sense of urgency making the audience feel danger towards Muslims alongside the statistic which will make the audience generalise all Muslims as violent people. Furthermore the technique of juxtaposition as 'sympathy' and 'Jihadis' are placed near each other also generates shock value for the audience because of the pain terrorists have caused recently like the crisis of 9/11 and the London tube bombings as well as many others, this has an effect of moral panic and makes the audience loose trust towards Muslims as their religion is horrifically stereotyped when in fact their religion is peaceful.

• Does this representation fit with the institutional codes and conventions?

This representation fits with the codes and conventions of tabloid newspapers as it uses a big bold simply phrased headline to appeal to a mass audience using the values of negativity and threshold as well as elite persons as this group is well known for negative reasons. These values help the sun fit generate shock value which is a typical feature of tabloid newspapers followed by the use of DR Cages to present the stereotype by using ethnicity and religion.

Historical context

• An act that was enforced to prevent abuse in printing revolutionary treasonable and unlicensed books and pamphlets and for regulating the printing press and other printing.

• The first bill on taxing newspapers was advocated in 1711 however didn’t follow through until 1712 and charged half a penny on papers of half a sheet or less and a penny on newspapers that ranged from over half a sheet to a single sheet in size.

• The observer is a British newspaper published on a Sunday, that is sisters with the guardian newspaper.

• After the stamp tax was increased in 1792 many radicals refused to pay and by 1836 the stamp tax had been reduced from 4d to 1d, after John Roebuck led a campaign against the payment of stamp tax.

• From the arrival of the penny papers in the 1830s to the coming of radio news around 1930, the American newspaper celebrated its Golden Age and years of greatest influence on society.

• The latest set of ABC figures for national newsprint sales confirm a long-running downward trend in the popular and mid-market sectors. They indicate just how close titles are to the brink of the cliff. The Daily Express, for example, sold an average of 391,626 copies a day in December 2016, down by 2.3% on the same month the year before. The Daily Star was down by 2.5% to 440,471. As their revenues have been squeezed, newspapers have also been increasingly overwhelmed by other media taking away not only their readers, but their principal sources of profit. Many of these 'new media' are not saddled with expensive union contracts, printing presses, delivery fleets and overhead built over decades. One estimate put the percentage of online news derived from newspapers at 80%.

• The News of the World was closed down in 2011 after its owners, Rupert Murdoch's News International, admitted the scale of hacking that had been going on, dating back many years. The company had battled against growing allegations for two years - one of its private investigators and the News of the World's royal editor were jailed in 2007 over a story gleaned from hacking. Voicemails left on Milly Dowler's phone were intercepted after she went missing. The paper's original position - that rogue staff had acted alone - could not stand. Eventually Rupert Murdoch decided he had no choice but to close the newspaper down after it emerged Milly Dowler, a teenager who was abducted and murdered, had her voicemails hacked. The Crown Prosecution Service charged two former editors - Rebekah Brooks and her successor Andy Coulson with conspiracy to intercept mobile voicemails alongside others connected to the newspaper.

• The Independent is a British online newspaper. Established in 1986 as an independent national morning newspaper published in London, it was controlled by Tony O'Reilly's Independent News & Media from 1997 until it was sold to Russian oligarch Alexander Lebedev in 2010. The last printed edition of The Independent was published Saturday 20 March 2016, leaving only its digital editions. In June 2015, it had an average daily circulation of just below 58,000, 85 per cent down from its 1990 peak, while the Sunday edition had a circulation of just over 97,000. Due to sales declining, The Independent printed its last daily title on 26th March and the last Independent on Sunday 20th March. It is now all online.

• The Press Council is a body established in the UK in 1953 to raise and maintain professional standards among journalists.

• For national newspapers the last couple of years have seemed to be a near-death experience. Paid-for circulation is in decline, but cover prices have frequently risen to mitigate the revenue loss. The vast majority of advertising revenue comes via media intermediaries. They, in theory, as the guardians of their client’s marketing/media budgets, guide the money into a relatively small proportion of the large opportunities that the internet provides. Used properly, the internet can provide excellent returns and very cost effective marketing but in many instances there is insufficient understanding of exactly what is going on. According to Ebiquity (the largest UK media auditor) 75% of the money in the marketing pot does not actually reach the publisher from an advertiser using “programmatic” or automated bid-based advertising on the internet.

 

What is IPSO?

Independent Press Standards Organisation is a newspaper organisation that regulates published newspaper content and helps to uphold professional standards of journalism and was set up in 2014 following windups of the Press Complaints Commission, which had been the main press industry regulator since 1990.