Steve Neale : Genre Theory

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to see how The Guardian has evolved over time.

Tuesday, 27 March 2018

Steve Neale : Genre Theory

CLICK HERE

to see how The Guardian has evolved over time.

 

Steve Neale theorised that films carry similar codes and conventions which enables us to categorise them into genres, such as Action, Horror or Sci-fi. This idiom is also supported within other media forms such as print newspapers. Tabloid and Broadsheet newspapers both include codes and conventions which are typical throughout all their issues. These are conventions such as the Masthead, Skyline, Headlines, Issue number, the date, photos and captions. 

Symbolic codes are also repeated too, through aspects such as the colour schemes within the newspaper. These codes and conventions are not fixed, as they can change as technology advances over time. Historically colour was a code and convention that would not be seen on newspapers because printing technology was not advanced enough to allow colour print. This is an example of codes and conventions may adapt to technology whilst still being referred to a particular genre. 

Often these codes and conventions are challenged, the broadsheet newspaper titled 'i' proves this in many ways. For example, its a fraction of the typical price of a broadsheet newspaper at only 60p, and its Masthead is also on the side of the from page rather than in a large rectangle towards the top of the page. 

Power and Media Industries

Media Coalition reform- “who owns the media?”:

The Media Reform Coalition was set up in September 2011 to manage the contribution by political society groups, academics and media campaigners to debates over media regulation, ownership and democracy in the response to the phone hacking scandal that occurred in relation to the News of The World newspaper. The Media Reform represents an independent alliance of individuals committed to maximising the public interest in media communications. It works with partner groups and supporting individuals to produce research and to organise campaigning activities aimed at creating a media system that operates in the public interest.

On November 12^th, 2015, the Media Reform Coalition released a 20-page report titled ‘Who owns the UK media?’. This report supports the Curran and Seaton theory called ‘Power and Media Industries’. The Curran and Seaton theory gives a political and economic approach to the media. It purely argues that there the patterns of ownership control are the most significant factors in how the media operates. Media industries follow the normal capitalist pattern of increasing concentration of ownership in fewer and fewer hands. This leads to a narrowing of the range of opinions represented and a pursuit of profit at the expense of quality or creativity. The media and coalition report also relates to the Marxism theory, another political and economic based theory developed by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. This theory presents the idea that capitalists (those with monopolies or duopolies) that own large media companies, have the ability to influence or determine the political life of the public.

These theories are represented through the statistics stated within the ‘Who owns the UK media?’ report. For example, just two companies, Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp UK and Lord Rothermere’s Daily Mail Group, control nearly 60% of national newspaper circulation.

With online and mobile readers included, the data does not alter much, with a small total of five major companies accounting for 80% of all audience consumption, online and offline. Only 3 big companies control 71% of the national newspaper market; The Sun and Times owner called News UK, Daily Mail Publisher called DMGT (Daily Mail and General Trust) and Daily Mirror’s owner Trinity Mirror. Despite being smaller businesses, the capitalist theme is even continued over major regional newspapers groups, 6 main companies are responsible for 81% of them and 56 publishers accounting for the remaining 19%. Even the biggest telecommunications company- Sky is controlled by News UK owner, Rupert Murdoch, so these monopolies consist of more than one form of media.

The biggest broadcaster in terms of revenue, by some distance, is Sky. The BBC is the largest of the public service broadcasters with £5.1bn, of which around £3.7bn is provided by the licence fee. While the majority of these broadcasters are owned either by UK-based companies or are publicly owned in the case of the BBC and Channel Four, there is growing infringement of large US-based corporations into UK Television ownership. Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox (2014 revenue: $31.8bn) owns 39.1% of Sky plc (previously BskyB), and, having previously wanted to buy the remaining share, is reported to be preparing a second bid for full ownership. Virgin Media has been purchased by Liberty Global (2014 revenue: $18.2bn), while Channel 5 is now owned by Viacom International, a subsidiary of Viacom (2013 revenue: $13.8bn).

There are multiple issues with the concentration of ownership being in fewer and fewer hands, the first point being a rise in generic political opinions. The fact that the newspapers are owned by a minority of people, means there will be commonality of similar argument and political beliefs and the readers won’t challenge these opinions, because in reality they cant. If the audience decides it wants to read another newspaper to get a different view, chances are it will be owned by the same capitalist company. This is similar to the cultivation theory, the way we vote in elections/referendums will be massively dependant on the newspapers we are exposed to, and if the majority have the same opinion this will somewhat challenge the way our society thinks, because the majority of people's ideas and beliefs will be the same. Another similar situation to this, is that an individual may decide to go to Thorpe park, because “it is better than Alton Towers”, but in reality they are both owned by Merlin Entertainments (along with 30 other major attractions across the UK), so no matter which theme park they decide to go to, the business benefits.

Print vs. Online News

An advantage for The Daily Mail online is that I believe it is more appealing to the younger generation, and not only does this adjust the newspaper’s target demographic, but it means the readership is much larger and varied than what it would be if The Daily Mail only continued to offer a print version of the news. A massive difference between the two versions of the news is the ability the consumers have to interact with the news online. Readers can comment their opinions directly onto articles for the rest of the world to see, whilst they can also share content via a range of media platforms. It appears that as technology advances more and more, traditional items like print newspapers become a ‘thing of the past’ and the main reason for this, is that its quick and easy to access. For example, if you’re running late work and you want to take a look at the news, you’re probably not going to make a trip to the local newsagents to buy the newspaper when you can look at the online edition on your mobile phone in a few seconds. In this fast-paced world, people don’t want to spend time rooting through a print newspaper to find a specific article when they can search for and find it online in a matter of seconds. The biggest benefit for the consumers is the difference in the price tag when it comes to The Daily Mail online and its print edition. Although the price of a print newspaper is small, is likely one of the biggest reasons for its decline. Many people don’t see the point in buying a print newspaper if they believe they can get all the news they need online for free. Some might say that declining circulation doesn’t matter since print newspapers still receive advertisement revenue. There is also no limit to space when it comes to running a website, so this benefits The Daily Mail because it means it can anchor its articles with multiple images and videos without stressing about shortage of space. I prefer the idea of watching a video to just viewing multiple photographs as it quicker to understand the situation and appoints us as a viewer with key evidence of the narrative in question.

On the other hand, there are also a number of benefits to obtaining news via print editions too, but in my opinion, print newspapers lack behind when comparing them to the online news. The main advantage being that some people prefer to have the feeling of a newspaper in their hands, because the physicality of reading a newspaper is like a tradition or even part of a daily routine to some. Not only can you hold a print edition in your hand when you first get it, but you can also save it back to look at any time; like a memoir or antique in years to come because a  print newspaper is everlasting and unchanging, whereas articles can be hidden away on an online website in a matter of a few days- or even hours. If it is a busy news day and content online is already overflowing, some smaller news items may never make it on the web, leaving online readers slightly less informed than print readers. If a newspaper releases a special print publication outside of its regular edition- for example, an edition specifically highlighting an upcoming election and its candidates- this content often does not make it online. Sometimes online editions will even leave out content from the print newspaper’s regular edition.