OCR AS Media Studies - Revision guide for Newspaper unit

1. AS Media Studies
Revision Resource
2014
NEW
SPAPERS
NETHERHALL SCHOOL CAMBRIDGE

2. The Syllabus
Section B: Institutions and Audiences
Candidates should be prepared to understand and discuss
the processes of production,
distribution, marketing and exchange as they relate to con-
temporary media institutions, as well as the nature of audi-
ence consumption and the relationships between audi-
ences and institutions. In addition, candidates should be
familiar with:
•
the issues raised by media ownership in contemporary
media practice;
•
the importance of cross media convergence and syn-
ergy in production, distribution and marketing;
•
the technologies that have been introduced in recent
years at the levels of production, distribution, market-
ing and exchange;
•
the significance of proliferation in hardware and con-
tent for institutions and audiences;
•
the importance of technological convergence for insti-
tutions and audiences;
•
the issues raised in the targeting of national and local
audiences (specifically, British) by international or
global institutions;
•
the ways in which the candidates’ own experiences of
media consumption illustrate wider patterns and
trends of audience behaviour.
This unit should be approached through contemporary ex-
amples in the form of case studies based upon one of the
specified media areas. Examples may include the follow-
ing:
Newspapers
A study of the contemporary newspaper market in the UK
and the ways in which technology is helping to make
newspapers more efficient and competitive despite dwin-
dling audiences. This should be accompanied by study of a
specific online version of a national/local newspaper and
the issues that are raised for the production, distribution
and consumption of news.
Key elements
Remember
• Definitions
• Technical terms
• Your personal experience
• New technology

3. Key terms
Convergence
Hardware and software coming together
across media, and companies coming to-
gether across similar boundaries. to make
the distinction between different types of
media and different media industries in-
creasingly difficult
Examples of convergence
Newspapers like
The Guardian and
the BBC. The
Guardian published
papers (ink-on-
dead-tree model)
and was the first to
go online. The
BBC was a broad-
caster with heavy
interest in news
and now has a news
website and email news service very similar
to Guardian and others.
Other Key Definitions
ABC = Audit Bureau of Circulation - gathers circulation figures of magazines and newspapers,
primarily for advertisers but also used by students and researchers.
Audience - collective group of people reading or receiving andy media text.
Circulation - the number of copies sold or distributed of a newspaper or magazine.
Reach - the readership of a newspaper or magazine - must be at least as many as the circulation,
and important number for advertisers
Media Studies 2.0/Web 2.0 - the second phase of media/web where the focus has shifted from
the audience receiving information and services to people creating and sharing material.
Web 3.0 - the present phase often called the intelligent web, where it reacts to your online behav-
iour to supply appropriate content based on this behaviour.

4. The Newspaper Industry
Represents 75-80%
of income (not profit)
Increasing use of internet and
satellite technology to send news
Direct from laptop to
page - no more phone in
Eco issues
Time consuming = 12
hour press to table
Very expensive to build
and run
Road to regional warehouse
Van to newsagent
Small boy on bike to customer
Audience needs
•Accurate trustworthy information
•In a form they are happy with - right amount of detail
•Up to the minute not up to date - constant update
•Able to be customised to their needs - remember how little of the newspaper you wanted
•Cheap - remember the web is normally free - How to make money from online news is a
key issue
•Increasing numbers of Digital Citizens - permanently connected and online
•Multimedia - sound and video
•Blogging/interaction to make the audience feel included - User Generated Content

5. Newspaper data
Key statistics
Total circulation Feb 2014 is 7.62 million copies from 8.24 in Feb 2013, a drop of 617,513
copies per day overall = 7.5%
In 2011circulation was 9.71 million and in 2010 1o.22 million. The fall has been at or
around half a million copies per day as each year passes.
See next page for 2004 data - make comparisons and do the calculation
Fall since 2004 is 38%
= Audit Bureau of Circulation
Best
Worst
7,622,887 8,240,400
Make you own notes here
12,305,07

6. Newspaper ownership
Look at the other media related businesses they are involved in e.g. How News
International/Murdoch owns a part of Pearson who own publishing, TV and radio,
and who in turn own part of BSkyB. (Lord) Northcliffe own Mail and 18% of ITN,
and part of Reuters (one of the biggest News Agencies). Richard Desmond owns
Channel 5, Penthouse, various “adult” tv channels, top shelf mens magazines,
12,305,07 12,686,42 A fall of 381,347 = 3% year on year

7. A global newspaper?
A candidate for a global newspaper?
Published in 24 cities worldwide.
Why is this a success?
It is the newspaper for the global banking and business sector and covers a large range of interna-
tional issues - it is not really a classic newspaper, more of a specialist magazine for the global finance
industry and for banking

9. It is impossible to predict the
future, but at this rate of de-
cline there will come a point in
the future when circulation
has fallen so far that continu-
ing publication makes no
business sense. Many local
newspapers have closed in
recent years. If the publish-
ers have not found a viable
alternative business model,
maybe charging for internet
content, the future of news-
papers in the medium term is
The decline of Newspapers in the UK
These high end quality
newspapers have lost
half their circulation in
12 years and the rate of
decline is speeding up
Sunday and weekday newspapers have roughly
the same circulation.
Only 30% of households take a newspaper now
from 60% in 2000.
At this rate of decline, no households will take a
newspaper in another 13 years i.e. around 2025
unless papers stop publication before then and
they become uneconomic.

10. Newspaper models
Traditional - Ink-on-dead-trees - portable
ADVANTAGE - QUICK NAVIGATION
DISADVANTAGE - MUST BE CONNECTED
Quick navigation (2 click rule) and
can be seached.
Check out the BBC News website -
is it similar?

11. •Register online and receive
• an up to the minute email
which links to the website
which itself is continuously
updated. The Telegraph
post twice per day
•the content can be cus-
tomised according to the
individuals wishes. In-
creasingly Web 3.0 will
have an influence
•You can determine at
what time the email is sent
•The BBC have a very
similar service
•Note adverts
•If you charge you loose
readers
•If you do not charge you
loose money
•Often has embedded
video content
Most newspapers have something similar and many are formatted for phones and
for tablets. You MUST be familiar with at least 1 online service
Note

12. Online but downloadable Times which is subscription only and produces a “pdf like”
file with embedded video and audio. The big subject for discussion is if other newspa-
pers are giving free access to their websites (applies to BBC also), would anyone pay
around 50p per day (around half the paper cover price) to obtain it on line to use off
line. However this is the only digital newspaper model which can be downloaded and
used off line.
Excerpt from Times article March 2010
Note that there has been much discussion about pricing and charging. It is done for specialist infor-
mation services but not for a mass consumption product like The Times. The owners are trying to
suggest that there will be added features if you subscribe.

13. The Daily
Launched 2010 by News International
US Daily newspaper
iPad version only
14c per day
Subscription is available
from iTunes and has it’s own
app. A real example of con-
vergence - a news organisa-
tion not only producing a
product for the digital age,
but using the same distribu-
tion method as music,
games and TV/films
Update December 2012 -
The Daily closes having
never got close to pre-
dicted sales, and after in-
curring major losses
Check out
The Huffington Post as a
digital only newspaper
and free

14. The Huffington Post started life as a news and current affairs blog in New York. It exp[anded
to cover more of the USA, and following it’s purchase by AOL for $315, it introduced a UK edi-
tion in 2011 and has since expanded to many other local editions. The Huff uses lots of ama-
teur contributors and has relatively few journalists. It relies on other news soy=rces to provide
content alongside the blog like entries. Their cost structure is very cheap and content is
shared between editions. It uses multimedia platforms - email, Facebook, etc

15. Huffington Post uses multimedia
Website
Facebook
Email editorial
Email index to website
Facebook interest pages

16. The Digital Alternatives
Up-to-the-minute, not just up-to-date
ABCe - Audit Bureau of eCirculation measures web traffic
In February 2010, ABCe was launched, and for the first time it is possible to
measure number of visitors to a news site.
Mail Online was the most popular in January, with 2.16 million browsers per day
(compared with 2.1 million circulation of paper copies). Most importantly this is a
13.5% month on month increase, and a 57% year on year increase.
The Guardian, the biggest newspaper website had 1.9 million browsers per day
(far in excess of it’s 284,000 daily circulation). Like the Guardian, the telegraph
posted 1.7 million visitors to it’s site, vs circulation of 685.000/day. The Sun on-
line came in 4th at 1.3 million is the only major where paper circulation, at 2.9
million, greatly exceeds the web visitors.
The major increase in web activity was driven by many late breaking stories, in-
cluding iPad launch, the John Terry affair, Jonathan Ross’ departure from the
BBC and Tony Blair at the Chilcott enquiry. This reinforces the point that the
audience want up-to-the-minute news, not up-to-date news.
BBC On line
The BBC has one of the biggest and wide ranging websites, and has its own
news gathering organisation, including BBC News24, Radio and network news.
It therefore generates audio, video and written news material, which it distributes
via broadcasting, it’s main core business, and increasingly vis the net. This is a
great example of convergence. When EYJAFLALLAJOKULL the Icelandic vol-
cano blew in April, it generated 5.5 million online viewers in one day - audiences
wanting specific authoritative up-to-the-moment information. The appeal of the
BBC is the ability to embed audio and video footage and link to other background
information. The BBC have also encouraged feedback from visitors.
Web 2.0
Web 2.0 refers the the second generation of the web when it has become 2-
way. The web is no longer a method of receiving information, as in a website.
Increasingly the web is interactive, with the audience using the web to commu-
nicate, and to contribute. This includes the way that we are permanently con-
nected via our smart phones, the social networking sites like Facebook, and
the ease with which we can blog etc.. As the audiences get to expect interactiv-
ity, the traditional newspaper becomes more outdated and potentially doomed.

17. The New Business Model
This article discusses how Murdoch views
the future, whereby consumers pay to ac-
cess digital news. He has for a long time
suggested that the world will adopt the
tablet/iPad model as the preferred viewing
platform
Daily Mail the most visited website
This article gives The Mail Online the market
leadership of all with 39 million viewers per
month vs around 60 million/month buying the
ink on dead tree version, and the owners, As-
sociated Newspapers say they have no plans
to charge for it.

18. Advertising
=75-80% of newspaper revenue NOT profit)
Different newspapers attract different
age groups and social classes
Monthly readership
Weekly readership
Daily readership

19. Up to the recession, advertising
spend in newspapers was fairly
constant.
Cost of big advertising campaign
Opportunities to see

20. News Agencies
News Agencies collect news and informa-
tion and supply them to newspapers.
Reuters is the best known and probably the
biggest. It has an excellent reputation, and
was the first agency to report the recent
plane crash when the president of Poland
was killed.

21. Famous Quotes
Lord Leverhulme, founder of Unilever, consumer
conglomerate
“I know half the money I spend on advertising is
wasted, The trouble is I don’t know which half”
Chief Exec of Manchester Media - previously Manchester Evening News
“I know that MM will be here and in the information business in 10 years
time. I just don’t know what it will look like as a business”
Rupert Murdoch Chairman of
News International, owner of
among others, The Sun, The
News Of the World, The Times,
The Wall Street Journal.
“The world is changing and
newspapers have to adapt”
Sir Martin Sorrell, Chief Executive of
WPP, the largest media communica-
tions (advertising and PR) company
in the world.
“I don’t think newspapers will die”
Roy Greenslade, writer, Irish Times
“These professional news “hubs” will work in
concert with, for want of a better term, amateur
journalists. Call it participation or collaboration
or, to borrow a term coined by Alan Rusbridger,
the editor of the Guardian , mutualisation. It is
how news gathering is already developing and,
in 10 years that will have become the norm.”

22. The Exam
Examination lasts 2 hours
INCLUDING 30 minutes
viewing time. Therefore
each written question has a
time allocation of 45 min-
utes, and are worth 50
marks each
Remember the question will be very general as it must be able to be answered with
reference to any of the above case studies.
It will involve the relationship between Audiences and Institutions. Do not be
tempted to answer the question from another topic. You may however, for exam-
ple, refer to the radio as a news source in competition with the newspapers.

23. Jan 2009
Past paper questions
June 2009
Jan 2011
June 2010
Jan 2012
Jan 2010
June 2011
June 2012
Jan 2013

24. The Mark Scheme
Note the details below
Explanation/Analysis = 20 marks
Use of Examples = 20 marks
Use of Terminology = 10 marks
You must use detailed examples from Newspapers
Note - although no actual marks allo-
cated, the examiner is looking for a
well written answer with good English
to charaterise the different levels
C

25. Planning your answer
Develop your own planning techniques
An obvious options are to use a mind map. Place the key words
from the question in the middle and label the key elements of the
answer (from the mark scheme) at main branches.
If you prefer to work in a linear fashion, use bullet points, perhaps
under different headings.
The Opening Paragraph
Students often find the opening paragraph the most difficult. Advice
includes reword the question and include a definition. In this question
it may be possible to pre-plan an opening paragraph. The following
might be used for the above question.
The relationship between audiences who consume media output and
the institutions who create the output has never been as complex as it
is today. As new technologies enable the audiences to access media
output in ever more ways. Technological convergence - the term used
to describe how technologies are becoming ever closer and are com-
bining in new and ever more complex ways, is a driving force behind
the changes. I will explore this issue with reference to the newspaper
industry.