May 26 2013

Tabloid Watch

I have just come across an excellent blog named Tabloid Watch. The site keeps an eye on the discrepancies within the UK media and highlights any misreporting. For example:

The Sun’s front page makes it very clear – the Duchess of Cambridge was handed a teddy bear and said:

“Thank you, I will take that for my d…for my baby”

The same quote was used elsewhere.

Two days later and the Mail published a follow-up:

She didn’t? With the help of a video of the incident, the Mail reveals that she actually said:

“Is this for us? Awww, thank you so much, it’s [very] very sweet of you”

In other words: not much like what was originally reported. Curiously, this didn’t make the front pages.

Meanwhile, in other ‘pregnancy news’, the Daily Star ran the headline ‘Mystery of ‘pregnant’ star Cheryl Cole’ on its front page on Saturday.

Here’s what happened: a pregnant woman went to see Cheryl Cole in concert. ‘So nice to see lovely @CherylCole’, she tweeted. Cheryl replied: ‘Nice to see you too, you look amazing pregnant’.

The ‘mystery’ is that anyone thought this meant Cheryl was pregnant, or that this was worthy of a place on the front page of a paper.

May 2 2013

The Sun tells readers to “think for themselves”!

In a break from tradition, The Sun newspaper, (owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp.) has claimed that it is not supporting any political party in the upcoming UK elections. This is surprising news because the newspaper has been vehement in supporting both New Labour and the Conservative Party in the past.The current Conservative Prime Minister, David Cameron will be very downbeat about the news as the Sun is Britain’s most popular newspaper and therefore it is likely to have a substantial influence on a number of their readership. The blow is even stronger considering that the newspaper led with a very supportive front page during the most recent national election.

Have a look at the following gallery to get an idea about how vociferous the Sun usually is and how fickle their loyalty is. For example, see how the paper announced that it backed New Labour’s P.M candidate, Tony Blair but then proceeded to renounce him later on during his term as leader. Many commentators question the motives of the newspaper with many pointing an accusatory finger at the owner, Rupert Murdoch who is said to use the paper as a way of furthering his many business interests (leverage). Murdoch claims that these claims are “myths” however:

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2012/04/25/rupert-murdoch-at-leveson-day-one-tony-blair-gordon-brown-david-cameron-phone-hacking_n_1451987.html

http://annenberg.usc.edu/Faculty/Communication%20and%20Journalism/~/media/InternationalSociology.ashx (page 505)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/feb/20/murdochs-politics-david-mcknight-review

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Apr 22 2013

Theory Videos on DC Media Youtube

Don’t forget to watch the theory videos on the Doha College Media Studies Youtube channel – here are some examples:

Oct 20 2012

Politics in the Social Media Age: Insights From Joe Lockhart

A useful article for Year 10 students (news) and Year 13 students (new media):

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/craig-kanalley/politics-social-media-age_b_1989858.html?utm_hp_ref=media&ir=Media

Jul 31 2012

Newspaper sales up after opening ceremony

Newspapers enjoyed increased sales the day after the olympics with News International’s ‘The Time’s’ witnessing the highest increase with sales rising by 100,000. The Guardian sales rose by 5%, the Daily Express, 3.5% and Daily Star 4%.

The olympics reaches massive audiences with the opening ceremony being watched by a peak of 26.9 million in the UK alone.

Jun 28 2012

The slow death of print news?

News that Express newspapers recorded an operating loss of £1.1m last year compared with a £335,000 profit in 2010 perhaps is another sign of the terminal decline of print news. Owner, Richard Desmond, attributed the loss to a 25% increase in newsprint costs, which accounted for additional expenditure of £10.5m. These losses still came despite a 7% increase in turnover, up by £14.6m to £228.7m, by reducing the level of its cover price reductions on the Daily Star and choking off the voucher offers on the Daily and Sunday Express.

Estimated newspaper publishing market decline in OECD countries, 2007-2009 (in per cent) – Figure 2 in study

Contribution of advertising and copy sales to paid-for daily newspaper revenues (Figure 12 in report), in per cent, 2008 or latest year available

However, despite the doom and gloom, the world’s ultimate value investor – Warren Buffett – has apparently decided that there’s untapped value in newspapers. His Berkshire Hathaway has purchased 63 of them, along with a 3% stake in Lee Enterprises, and Buffett says he plans to buy more.

May 2 2012

Top 10 News Censors

From The Guardian:

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said in a report on Wednesday that 10 countries stood out as censors for barring international media, putting “dictatorial controls” on domestic media and imposing other restrictions:

The top ten: Eritrea, North Korea, Syria, Iran, Equatorial Guinea, Uzbekistan, Burma, Saudi Arabia, Cuba, Belarus.

http://www.cpj.org/reports/2012/05/10-most-censored-countries.php

Jan 16 2012

More Bad News for News International

Since the closure of The News of the World (News Corp), other Sunday newspaper titles have profited. Five rival tabloids – the Daily Star Sunday, Sunday Express, People, Sunday Mirror and the Mail on Sunday – added 1,865,242 copies to their combined sales, according to a comparison of the Audit Bureau of Circulation figures for June and July 2011.

At a time when newspaper sales are often declining, this is a massive boost for these four newspapers.