Newspapers: 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?

The top five stories from 14/12/18:

1) Theresa May and the 'no deal' Brexit - Hard News
2) British Holidaymakers will be charged 7 euros to visit EU - Hard News
3) Theresa May and the backstop - Hard News
4) Richard LittleJohn: Fifty shades of may - Soft News
5) Simon Cowell's girlfriend looks at her own photo on mail online on holiday - soft news 

2) What celebrity content is featured?

- Lauren spotted checking out her holiday snaps ( this story is featured twice)
- Sir Paul McCartney's London mansion is broken into 
- Kylie Jenner in see-through dress 

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

I think the section on the right called "Don't Miss" features examples of clickbait as they force the reader to click on the story to read on. The headlines always reveal what the story is about and therefore leads people to click on the stories to get more details. 

The right-hand bar (‘sidebar of shame’) means an endless supply of celebrity gossip available on every page. This creates clickbait within the site itself.

4) To what extent do the stories you have found on MailOnline reflect the values and ideologies of the Daily Mail newspaper?

I think that the stories on MailOnline to some extent reflect the ideologies of the Daily Mail Newspaper. The tone of the stories about Theresa May seem to suggest that they are mocking her and her capabilities of being the Prime Minister. This tends to reflect a left wing ideology for example the first main story on Mail Online is about Theresa May being humiliated and sent 'packing' by the EU. 

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?

Diversion: there is an endless amount of stories featured on MailOnline giving the reader a variety of stories to read from. 

Surveillance: readers are able to learn new things from the wide range of stories featured on Mail Online. It helps the readers improve their general knowledge and understand what is going on around the world and in their local areas. 


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?

He suggests that there is no transition or difference between the two platforms. He states that the ideologies, content and views are similar and basically the same with a few small differences. 

2) How does Preston summarise other newspaper websites?

He states: "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." 

He suggests that the online news websites will be the memory of what print news used to be like. 

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 think the Daily Mail and Mail Online both have the same world view as they feature the same sort of content and reflect the same sort of views. The most significant difference would be that Mail Online is appeared to be more clickbaity and features a lot more soft news than the newspaper. 

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

I believe that they will end up closing as the newspaper has a much older and conservative demographic meaning that younger generations are not likely to read the print version. The younger generation are likely to read the Mail Online version where there is endless content and a wider range is featured.

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 intervenes when the state powerfully limits or enables the diversity of voices and views in the press, through its power to regulate, deregulate or subsidise the media.
• The economic field refers to commercial influences that encompass elements such  as concentration of ownership; profit pressures relating to types of ownership; type of funding (such as advertising or paying audiences); and level and intensity of market competition.
• The journalistic field refers to assumptions that have emerged over time about what constitutes ‘news’, and about the purpose of journalism; practices of news gathering and sourcing; norms of objectivity and impartiality – the ethics and practice of journalism
that contribute to the news ecology in any one place at any one moment in time.

2) What is ‘churnalism’ and does MailOnline provide examples of this kind of news gathering?

Churnalism is the practice of cut-and-pasting news from unattributed rewrites of press agency or public relations material. 

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

MailOnline does not do this, it does not serve the public as they provide soft news such as celebrity gossip.

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

Infotainment is broadcast material which is intended both to entertain and to inform. Mail Online is guilty of relying on this content. They provide entertainment news which isn't really important. However, they do provide some hard news but in a small amount. 

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

Most recently the notion of media freedom has been applied to information pluralism on the
internet, and claimed as a democratic gain. In this debate, access to the internet (both for producers and users) is seen as the means to democracy and freedom of communication. Information pluralism: Pluralism is the recognition and affirmation of 
diversity within a political body, which permits the peaceful coexistence of different
interests, convictions and lifestyles. It is the theory that political power in society does not lie with the electorate but is distributed between a wide number of groups. I believe that major media conglomerates still dominate over audiences as people would never be able to reach the readership that Mail Online has. 

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?

Curran and Seaton consider the relationship of mass media power to society, and how control is exercised. They argue that newspapers have to reflect the needs and desires (interests) of the reader in order to maintain circulation and readership. They suggest that anyone can should be able to set up a newspaper through a participatory approach and that newspapers should maintain a liberal ideology. However, the assumption that anyone is free to establish a paper is an illusion because the press has been industrialised; ‘ordinary people’ would require substantial capital to establish a paper. The Internet has lowered these entry costs, however the “the list of the ten most-visited sites is dominated by large news organisations like BBC News, the Guardian, The Times, The Sun and Telegraph.” This would suggest that the individual may have the access to resources, but they will have difficulty reaching an audience without the power of the mass media industries

Power Without Responsibility, Curran & Seaton, 2010 

Key Quotes: 

• “The freedom to publish in the free market ensures that the press reflects a wide range of opinions and interests in society. If a viewpoint is missing in the press, this is only because it lacks a sufficient following to sustain it in the marketplace.”
• “The free market makes the press a representative institution… newspapers and magazines are to respond to the concerns of their readers if they are to stay in business.”
• “The broad shape and nature of the press is ultimately determined by no one but its readers.” (John Whale)
• “Some liberal theorists view the market as an analogue of the electoral process. They claim that newspapers submit themselves to public judgement every time they go on sale…consequently, newspapers are closer to the people than are their elected representatives.”
•  “The press is the people’s watchdog, scrutinizing the actions of government and holding the country’s rulers to account.”

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

Most British press was bought up in the 1960s and 1970s by conglomerates. The press has become a subsidiary of these companies.

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

 The press has become a subsidiary of these companies, and this harms theri independence. Rupert Murdoch in 2003 strongly wanted a war with Iraq and it is no coincidence that all of his 175 newspapers around the world that he owns supported this view in their articles. Obviously the owner and editor of the paper will have a huge influence with what and how the content is shown. 

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

"We are […] in the middle of a perfect storm of horrifically rising newsprint prices, disappearing classified revenues, diminishing display advertising, the rise of cannibalistic and parasitic Internet sites, the ubiquity of the frees and, now, most worryingly of all, readerships […] who have less and less disposable income to spend on newspapers.” (Dacre, 2008)

They invested heavily in a digital content for the paper. Mail online is now the most visited English Language website in the world with approximaltely 15 million unique visitors to the site per day. 

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

Producers provide the content, but the articles shown on the homepage are based on what has a high "click-count." Therefore, these stories are likely to be read by thousands of consumers; thus allowing them to have discussions with each other in the comments section.

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

The digital Daily Mail publishes around 1000 stories, but 10,000 pictures. The fact that there are so many pictures compared to stories illustrates how heavily MailOnline rely on visuals to tell their stories and attract an audience.

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

Clarke explains that “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?

Clarke edits the news stories on the homepage in order to respond to the number of likes and dislikes on stories. If a story has become popular, Clarke will move this story to the homepage so that it generates more views and clicks for the website.

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

The stories with the most clicks are shown on the homepage, this story would be more visible to readers as it is on the homepage and would continue to have a high click count. 

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 that to some extent, it is good that consumers have control over what is shown on the homepage. It plays on the idea of mass communication and the concept of the MailOnline site creating the opportunity for people to have conversations/a say in what is shown. However, this would mean that the important stories are sent to the bottom and people wouldn't really notice the more hard news.