Divisions between the British Tabloid and the Serious, Quality Press - Essay Example

? Divisions between the British tabloid and the ‘serious’, ‘quality’ Press Is the divide between the British tabloid and the “serious”, “quality” press narrowing? If so, why? Discuss with examples. Abstract The media and journalism industry have undergone several changes from the Victorian era in the 19th century. It is extremely different in the manner in which it is viewed and operates currently (Briggs & Burke 2005, p. 35). Media historians assert that some of the newspapers that were in high circulation during the pre- Victorian period include; the infamous Northern Star, The Weekly Police Gazette, and the Cobbett’s Twopenny Trash. In as much as these media publications have different names and are no longer in circulation; they have something in common which lacks in the current media newspapers that we have today. The old publications represented the partisan ‘radical press’ that agitated for the betterment and improvement of the society (Stephens 2006, p. 23). They influenced the beliefs and the attitudes of the working class. This is because it defined the society to be made up systems of exploitations and not as a series of disjointed events. Additionally, the radical press played a significant role in undermining the social order normative support through challenging the validity of the economic and social institutions in which the social order was based (Seymour-Ure 1991, p. 150). The radical press obtained funding from subsidies from social movements and sales it made from the circulations of the publications. This is contrary to the independent press of the recent times which obtains its funding from advertising revenues and sales of publications. Introduction Several debates revolving around the current state of British newspapers are being conducted. However, recent findings reveal that the traditional news values that dominated the media have become revolutionized and reformed (Negrine 1994, p. 87). In the recent times, the dominance of social and celebrity news, the blurring of the line separating reality shows and news, as well as the advent of civilian journalism, demonstrates that the nature of news and news values are changing; and that the traditional values of news are becoming irrelevant. It is worth noting that the old traditional news values are being replaced by the tabloid news values. These values represent the interpretive work of journalists, and they cut across the broad sectors of public life. For instance, this news revolves around crime, sports, scandals, pop culture, just to mention but a few (Hampton 2008, p. 98). On the other hand, pertinent issues such as public affairs and politics are given minimal attention. The tabloid news stories are normally personified in order to impart high emotions and sensation (Franklin 2008, p. 23). According to media historians, tabloid news values are present in the English newspapers in the recent times because of two factors, namely; media ownership and advertisements. This is because they contribute to the existent of hierarchies in the journalism profession. It is debated that there is no narrowing in the divide that exists between broadsheets and tabloid newspapers (Keeble 2008, p. 45). This is attributed to the fact that there are several changes in their features. Therefore, this paper shall seek to explicate as to whether tabloids are similar to broadsheets, as well as determine if the ‘quality press’ is concentrating primarily on issues that touch on public interests. In order to make my arguments clear, I will use examples to emphasize on my main points. Discussion Studies reveal that broadsheets newspapers undergone a tabloidization process. Tabloidization refers to the style of papers that does not pay much attention to foreign affairs and government policies. Instead, it as an entertainment-oriented style of journalism that centers on celebrity, lifestyle, crime/ scandal and entertainment (Sparks & Dahlgren 1992, p. 123). Some of the reasons of tabloidization are linked to the ownership of the media houses. Media owners are to blame for tabloidization since they give directives to journalists to give news that suits them. Influential people such as Scott Trust, Rupert Murdock, Tony O’Reilly, among others use their media houses to air issues that pleases them. In most cases, information is always manipulated in order to push for political agendas that suit the newspapers, and not the entire society. The problem always comes about in the sense that agendas of most newspapers are focused on marketing themselves, as well as their products with intentions of getting more money (Curran 2002, p. 27). In this way, they end up covering essential news that could be injurious to the reputation or the economic health of the media company. Tabloidization has depicted and differentiated itself in the manner that it lays emphasis on marketing (Berry 2008, p. 44). The media owners have created a news media that center on stories revolving around scandals, sex and Hollywood in order to push away news that may be disadvantageous to them. They are riding on the notion that sex sells, thus; they are using that to push for their interests. The term ‘broadloid’ was invented in 1995 by an editor working for the Guardian newspaper to describe broadsheet newspapers that had tabloid editorial approaches. However, both broadsheet and tabloid newspapers are difficult to differentiate. Therefore, in order to make a clear distinction between the two, Bob Franklin compared the two to his hypothesis. He found that broadsheets are degraded by eminent tabloid values that are introduced to them (Frank 1997, p. 15). According to him, broadsheets are large-formatted newspapers that are written basing on national news agenda, and are distributed to national audiences. Franklin also has a strong belief that broadsheet news values are inclined towards a mix of politics, diplomacy, war, and sports at the back pages. With this, broadsheet newspapers strive to have a wide comprehensive and in-depth coverage; using an emotionally controlled and moderate language for the middle class. Broadsheets focus on main issues or fundamental consequences of stories, and not first-hand human approach to things typical of tabloids. They are also ‘print heavy’ and not picture-oriented as tabloids. Lastly, broadsheets are not inclined towards dubious reporting practices such as paying sources for stories or door-stepping. In this way, broadsheet newspaper depicts itself as a valuable newspaper that helps in determining an individual’s status in the society. From this argument, it is evident that merging broadsheets into tabloid-style newspapers is not accepted. Sparks and Dahlgren (1992, p. 63) believe that newspapers should serve the public interest. This implies that newspapers carry the responsibilities of warning and protecting the public. Therefore, in order to fulfill this responsibility, the media should focus on publishing information that touches on the economy and the political situation of the day. This information is provided in abundance by quality press. This is a crucial aspect of the media since members of the public should know who and how their society is being run (Harcup 2004, p. 79). Having such knowledge is essential since people are empowered to make informed decisions that enable them to realize the values and norms of the society. Quality press provides knowledge to enable members of the public live lifestyles that are not complex. This enables them make quick and easy decisions when following the political and economic ideas of the day (McChesney 2000, p. 156). On the contrary, Franklin asserts that quality press has changed into the popular press through four ways. First, he asserts that broadsheets contain less news, particularly parliamentary news, foreign news, and investigative stories. Instead, they have replaced that reporting format with photographs. Secondly, broadsheets are now focused with vies and not news. This is attributed to the fact that the pages that were filled with investigative and international reporting are now used by columnists to air their opinions. Thirdly, broadsheets are allotting high news priority to stories which were disdained and dismissed to be tabloid stories. Lastly, broadsheets are adding several editorial facets which were exclusively preserved to tabloids. By making these assertions, Franklin implies that quality papers focus on public interest, but do not carry any foreign or political news while switching to tabloid format. From this claim, it is evident that he perceives broadsheets as nearly tabloid papers. Keeble (2008, p. 48) suggests that broadsheets symbolize master class journalism that is conveyed in a post-ironic and the post-modern way. These sentiments are echoed by Harcup (2004, p. 85) who believes that broadsheets are pacey, spacey, tidy, and coherent package of news that is extremely upmarket from the tabloids. This is based on the fact that broadsheets have articles which are better written, have less gossip and scandals, as well as less sensational headlines. According to Harcup, this prompted people to depend on broadsheets to acquire critical information known as ‘serious news’. While talking about tabloid newspapers; the word tabloid refers to a definite newspaper type and size. The term was introduced to newspapers the moment they started reducing the broadsheet sizes by half (Crisell 2002, p. 96). It is a fact that the new tabloids presented extremely compacted and compressed news. This was opposed to the lengthy and detailed news obtained in broadsheets. It is also worth noting that the lines between the broadsheets and tabloids have disappeared. Ian Connell argues against Spark’s and Franklin’s views. According to him, broadsheets have not degraded. In order to ascertain his claims, he says that Franklin did not exhaust his study, and that the comparison between quality and popular press was not complete. He asserts, “The misrepresentations have come up, and I believe it is because neither has compared like with like” (Connel 1998, p. 17). This assertion implies that Connell has a different interpretation regarding the tabloidization debate. While trying to figure out whether Franklin’s views are acceptable, he compares both newspapers. According to him, the two papers have some considerable amounts of truth. This is the direct opposite of what Franklin believes that the international news has disappeared from the quality press. However, Connell agree with Franklin that gossipy and sensational news appear in tabloids, but are absent in broadsheets. The key motivation mentioned for changes in the analyzed papers centers on the fact that newspaper owners use topics that interest people to make their papers appealing; thus, attracting readers. Connel (1998, p. 19) argues that some newspaper owners include tabloid values in their newspapers in order to attract readers. This may be refuted by some people since there are many people who are still interested in reading broadsheets and not tabloids. However, it is essential to note that the transformation of broadsheet newspapers gave many readers a chance to choose the content to read. On the other hand, the small format of tabloids made it convenient for many reasons to read them, and there are high chances that size plays a significant role in the term ‘broadsheet’ usage (Bromley & O’Malley 1997, p. 76). In order to sell the papers successfully, newspapers always use free subscriptions and other promotional strategies. Additionally, advertising platforms that comprise novel or expanded feature sections are also used by newspapers. Some publishers who are struggling to make a mark in the market often resort to ways that aim at increasing circulation of their publications, while at the same time reducing the costs of production (Allan 2005, p. 126). In this case, several publishers in Britain have changed their formats since they believe the new formats may attract new newspaper readers. Reports have shown that several broadsheets have recently changed their formats to tabloids, and the transformation has proved to be successful (Doyle 2002, p. 81). It is imperative to acknowledge the significance of advertising in newspaper production. This is because twenty percent of the revenues accrued by the popular press come from advertising. On the other hand, the quality press accrues sixty percent of total revenues from advertising. Several advertising agencies use broadsheets to run their adverts since they have strong convictions that the popular press normally targets the working class (McNair 2009, p. 72). Conversely, the quality papers normally target people in the middle and upper class of the society. Therefore, adverts run on tabloids are usually expensive. This implies that adverts that aim to sell luxurious goods are expensive. This is attributed to the fact that people who can afford those luxurious items read certain newspapers that the poor people do not read. This is a clear indication that demographic disparity based on income exists (Conboy 2004, p. 48). Therefore, it is correct to say that income inequality is one of the main causes of barriers between the qualities of newspapers. Corporate ownership has also played a significance role in the tabloidization process. It is a fact that all organizations are geared towards making profits. Therefore, for newspaper owners to make profits from their businesses, they rely on marketing. In this scenario, marketing is conducted through running of adverts. It is worth noting that, newspaper owners cut certain news departments and give them to advertisers (Franklin 2008, p. 60). This is because these advertisers pay them massive amounts of money. Conclusion In conclusion, it is essential to note that broadsheets have not experienced lots of change. This is because it has all the news that an individual would wish to read, all that matters is the type of news that person wants to read. It is also debatable that there is a division between broadsheet newspapers and tabloid; however, the distinction lies on the format and language use of the papers. It is difficult to understand whether the arguments brought forward were started by tabloidization; but one thing that is clear is that tabloidization exists in the British journalism industry, and it is there to stay, compete, and challenge the prosperity of British newspapers. Bibliography Allan, S., 2005. Journalism: Critical issues, Maidenhead: Open University Press. Berry, D., 2008. Journalism, ethics and society, Burlington, MA: Ashgate Pub. Briggs, A. & Burke, P., 2005. A social history of the media: From Gutenberg to the Internet, Cambridge, MA: Polity Press. Bromley, M. & O’Malley, T., 1997. A journalism reader, London: Routledge. Conboy, M., 2004. Journalism: A critical history, London: Sage Publications Ltd. Crisell, A., 2002. An introductory history of British broadcasting 2nd ed., London: Routledge. 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The British press and broadcasting since 1945, Oxford: Blackwell. Sparks, C. & Dahlgren, P., 1992. Journalism and Popular Culture, London: Sage Publications Ltd. Stephens, M., 2006. A history of news, New York, Oxford: Oxford University Press. Read More