News Agenda

This module has been about news agenda, which is looking at what news is, and how it is used to make a profit. This involves looking at the relationship between the producer and the consumer, otherwise known as the audience, as these are the people who pay journalists wages. Mass media has a large influence on their audience by their choice of stories which are considered as “newsworthy” and how they are presented. Without an audience, there would be no journalism industry, which is why publishers compete with each other, in a bid to reach a more extensive audience, and thus make more money. However, no single publication can appeal to people of all genders, ages, classes etc, especially with regard to differences in political opinion. Therefore, publications tend to focus on a specific audience. For example, the Sun does not appeal to the same audience that the Independent appeals to.
Audiences are categorised using a demographic classification known as ABC1/C2DE:
A: Upper middle class, such as professionals, those in higher managerial positions etcB: Middle class, including those in intermediate managerial positions.
C1: Lower middle class, for example, supervisors, clerical or managerial workers.
C2: Skilled working class
D: Working class such as semi or unskilled manual workers
E: Unemployed, also including those on benefits and pensioners.
The newspaper I have been analysing is the Daily Star, founded in 1978. This is a tabloid newspaper, otherwise known as a “red-top, with a circulation of 768,543. This paper is owned by Richard Desmond, and published by Northern and Shell media, who also publish the Daily Express. This is why certain issues of the newspaper show a partnership between the papers. An example of this is the Sunday Star on November 8th, which advertised the Sunday Express for a cheaper price.
The political view of this paper is right-wing, dealing with issues such as asylum seekers and anti-social behaviour. However, most of the stories featured in this newspaper are celebrity stories, sport, news, gossip or about popular TV shows such as reality TV and soap operas. This is because they are the things most likely to appeal to their target audience, which are male 19-35 year olds, of the C2DE demographic category.
Other regular features of this paper are topless models (a key indicator of the target audience), gossip columns, and reviews on latest television and music, a forum of readers letters, and a strip cartoon called “Beau Peep”.
The radio station I have been analysing is BBC Radio 3. This station was first aired in 1967 as part of the BBC, and is licensed in London. The BBC do not have a specific political viewpoint, however has been criticised in the past for having a left-wing bias. Unlike the Daily Star, this station is aimed at both males and females, aged 50+, of the ABC1 category. Statistics over the last 3 years have shown that BBC Radio 3 is listened to by 4% of the population, bearing in mind the population increases every year, so although the percentage remains the same, the number of listeners is increasing. Average listening hours has also remained at 6 per quarter over the last 3 years. The station features many programmes throughout the day, specialising in classical, jazz and world music, as well as drama, culture and arts. I chose to analyse the news bulletin featured at the beginning of the Breakfast show, which runs from 7-10am. The news featured is generally regarding breaking news, world news, the NHS, war, government and politics, unlike the Daily Star, who base their news around celebrities.