Mail Online Case Study
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?
- Student rep sparks outrage after vowing to tear down a mural honouring those who left to fight in WWI but never returned - Soft new
- Refugee who used her family's passports to smuggle asylum seekers into UK is spared jail time (because her actions were humanitarian) - soft news
- Gang-rape victim's final moments - Hard news
- Lord Sugar slams trolls as he denies being the businessman who got injunction to gag racial abuse/sexual harassment claims. - Hard news
-Sir Philip Green is unmasked as the mogul in Britain's #MeToo scandal - Hard news
2) What celebrity content is featured?
Kylie Jenner and Travis Scott's new mansion purchase
Jossa shows off her figure in bikini
Orlando Bloom dubs Katy Perry as "thirsty"
3) What examples of ‘clickbait’ can you find?
I think that the main forms of clickbait come in the form of celebrity news. This is typically in the right hand column of the website, separate from the main news stories on the homepage/central section of the website.
4) To what extent do the stories you have found on MailOnline reflect the values and ideologies of the Daily Mail newspaper?
The representations that they have of particular demographics reflect the typically right-wing, conservative nature of the newspaper. For example, the title of the news story surrounding the refugee who smuggled asylum seekers into the UK has quite a disapproving tone.
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?
Surveillance - reading a wide range of news allows the consumer to improve their general knowledge and cultural-capital as they would gain an insight into multiple different areas of society and what's happening in the world around them.
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 states that logically, there is no transition or difference between the two platforms. This is because fundamentally, their ideologies, world views and content is more or less the same.
2) How does Preston summarise other newspaper websites?
He has quite a critical opinion of newspaper websites. Preston believes that ultimately, newspaper websites will end up as a memory of what the print versions used to be like.
3) How many readers does the online-only Independent now boast?
19 million
Like Preston, I think that ultimately, the Daily Mail and MailOnline are pretty much the same publication; therefore, the world-view of both of these publications are the same too.
I think that the Daily Mail does have a future because older readers will continue to purchase the newspaper, and some people may prefer to have the physical copy. However, I think within the next decade (if not sooner) the Daily Mail - and other print publications.
Media Magazine MM55 Page 38: Media, Public, Protest and Power
1) What are the three overlapping fields that have an influence on the relationship between media and democracy?
The political field,the economic field and the journalistic field
2) What is ‘churnalism’ and does MailOnline provide examples of this kind of news gathering?
Refers to the idea of "cutting and pasting" public relations material or rewrites of content.
3) Fenton argues that news should serve the public and help democracy. Does MailOnline do this?
I think that MailOnline does serve the public, but only a certain percentage of the public. I think that the news stories covered and the content generally serves and appeals to an older audience, while the celebrity news seems to be targeted to the same age group, but a different psychographic group.
4) What is infotainment? Is MailOnline guilty of relying on this kind of content?
Infotainment refers to how some producers combine shallower, corporate journalism associated with the digital age (soft news) with hard news that are often sought out rigorously by journalists.
5) Has the internet empowered audiences or is it still dominated by the major media conglomerates? How does MailOnline fit into this?
I think that the internet has empowered audiences because it provides them with a liminal space where they can voice their opinions freely - e.g. the comments sections and different debates started underneath articles on the MailOnline website.
1) What do Curran and Seaton suggest regarding the newspaper industry and society?
Newspapers have to reflect the needs and desires of of the reader in order to maintain circulation and readership.
2) Curran and Seaton acknowledge that media ownership in the UK is dominated by what kind of company?
Media ownership is dominated by large news organisations like BBC News, the Guardian, The Times and The Sun.
3) What does the factsheet suggest regarding newspaper ownership and influence over society?
Newspapers can be used as a form of propaganda tool to influence audiences.
4) Why did the Daily Mail invest heavily in developing MailOnline in the 2000s?
They acknowledged the potential in moving online - enables them to push out more content and grow their audience; allowing them to become a larger business and more financially successful.
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.
6) How many stories and pictures are published on MailOnline?
Mail Online has approximately 1,000 stories.
7) How does original MailOnline editor Martin Clarke explain the success of the website?
Martin Clarke views the MailOnline website as successful, because he believes that they cover the 'waterfront'. They cover a range of news stories - from hard news like politics to more mainstream/soft news like celebrity gossip.
8) What does it mean when it says readers are in control of digital content?
Clarke constantly edits the news stories displayed on the homepage in order to respond to the number of likes/dislikes on different stories. If a story has become increasingly popular,
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 filters the most relevant stories and immediately shows them to the visitor so that they can automatically see what stories are the most viewed.
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, we should be worried as to how much control they have.
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