A Star response to the following questions:
What are gatekeepers in the newspaper industry? (1 mark)
Briefly explain what is meant by anchorage. (2 marks)
Explain How Regulation Impacts the Newspaper Industry. Refer To the Daily Mirror in Your Answer (10)
Discuss the impact of ownership on ne...
Paper 1, Section B
NEWSPAPER INDUSTRY QUESTIONS: SET 2
1. What are gatekeepers in the newspaper industry? (1 mark)
Gatekeepers are those responsible for validating and deciding the most appropriate stories for the ideology
of the newspaper ‘through the gate’. They may be the owner, editor or senior journalist.
2. Briefly explain what is meant by anchorage. (2 marks)
An anchorage is the words that accompany an image that contributes to the meaning associated with an
image. An image with an anchor is a closed text as the audience are given the preferred reading, but an
image without an anchor is an open text allowing the audience to interpret the image.
3. Explain How Regulation Impacts the Newspaper Industry. Refer To the Daily Mirror in Your Answer (10)
The Daily Mirror is a tabloid newspaper regulated by IPSO (Independent Press Standards Organisation) which
was established in 2014 as an option of press regulation. However, there are no legal requirements for
newspapers to be a part of IPSO as it is not backed by the government, hence some newspapers such as The
Guardian have remained self-regulatory due to concerns surrounding press freedom. However, due to the
impact of the phone-hacking scandal in 2011, which was the revelation that mobile phones were accessed
and hacked by news journalists, Reach Plc and the newspaper industry are facing harsher regulatory rules. In
response to the phone-hacking scandal, the ‘Hacked Off’ campaign was founded in 2011 that proposed for
greater regulation and accountability to rebuild trust in news organisations. The campaign gained significant
awareness as it was fronted by celebrities such as Hugh Grant who was a victim of the phone-hacking
scandal by the Mirror Group Newspapers. Accordingly, in 2012, the Leveson Inquiry was launched in
response to the phone-hacking scandal and recommended a more rigorous form of press regulation which
was not welcomed by many in the industry, including the Daily Mirror, due to a fear of a loss of press
freedom. As a result, this reflects how the impact of regulation in the newspaper industry has placed
increasing pressure on conglomerates, such as Reach Plc, to adhere to the stricter regulations established by
the Leveson Inquiry.
IPSO is anti-Leveson in its approach which allows for greater press independence as they can publish content
without the censorship of the government. However, the Daily Mirror relies on the role of gatekeepers who
validate the most appropriate news for the ideology of the newspaper. This means that gatekeepers are
bound by regulations and ethics established by ISPO within the editor’s code of practice which set out rules
newspapers must abide by including issues such as accuracy and privacy. This means that the emergence of
IPSO as a regulatory board decreased the democratic freedom of the press to an extent, however, since IPSO
is anti-Leveson in its approach, calls for wider regulation within the industry led to the establishment of
Impress in 2016. Impress is the first officially recognised press regulator granted a royal charter. However,
Impress is fully compliant in terms of the Levenson Inquiry, hence, most newspapers have remained
members of IPSO as they gain more journalistic freedom. Concerning this, Livingstone and Lunt would
suggest that this demonstrates that the Daily Mirror faces challenges between ensuring that they are
regulated effectively to protect the public from harmful materials whilst certifying press freedom.
However, the rise of convergent media has placed traditional approaches to media regulation at risk, for
example, the accessibility of social media has led to an increase of user-generated content via convergent
media platforms. Although this allows audiences to become active prosumers, this has placed a significant
challenge on regulation as this can lead to the dissemination of fake news stories as there is no responsibility
for validating the stories. For example, the Daily Mirror enables audiences to submit stories through the ‘Got
a story?’ section on their website, demonstrating the ease in which audiences can become producers of the
news. However, this may be challenging to regulate as audiences are not bound by regulations, hence
attempts to validate content relies on bots and algorithms. Consequently, Livingstone and Lunt may imply
that the rise of digitally convergent technologies has placed traditional approaches to media at regulation at
risk as it is challenging to moderate.
4. Discuss the impact of ownership on newspapers. Refer to the Times in your response (12)
The Times is a broadsheet newspaper that is part of the Times Newspaper Group, a subsidiary of News UK
which is a spin-off of the American multi-media conglomerate News Corp. News Corp is a vertically and
horizontally integrated conglomerate owned by Rupert Murdoch due to its interest in both publishing such
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