British Media n The Power of the Media n British Media as the Fourth Pillar of Government n The Concentration of Power n BBC n ITV n Recent Trends n The Americanization of British Media

The Impact of the Various Media n Decoding the message –Visual Images n Still images n Moving images –Aural messages n Drama series--Dicky, Dick, Dickens –Written messages

Can the Media Manipulate n Visual manipulation –Subliminal affect –Fantasy creation n Aural manipulation –Music and consumer behavior n Written manipulation –Loaded vocabulary

The Power of the Press n The 4th Pillar of Government –Providing information –Raising political issues--Setting the agenda –Watchdoging and investigative journalism n Characterizing a “good” newspaper –What should a “good newspaper contain? –Balance vs. Bias

The British Press n Qualities--The Times, The Guardian, The Independent, The Observer, The Telegraph –Content –Format n Mid market: Daily Mirror, Express n The Populars--The Sun, Daily Mail –Content –Format

The Press & Political Leanings n The Qualities –The Times: moderately conservative –The Observer: social-democratic –The Independent: Center-left –The Guardian: left wing –The Telegraph: Conservative

The Press & Political Leanings n The Mid Market –Daily Mail: Conservative –Daily Express: Conservative n The Populars –Sun: From Thatcher to Blair; populistic and chauvinistic –Daily Mirror: Liberal and supports Labour

The Press and EU n Mid market and the Populars are anti EU n The Times, Telegraph and The Observer express some skepticism over loss of sovereignty but are not as one-sided as the Populars and mid-market which are EU sceptics n The Guardian and Independent are more balanced in their view.

The British Press--4th Pillar? n Circulation vs. Quality: Inversely proportional –Infotainment n Official Secrets Act, 1911 –Prevents the divulging of information that could harm national security--exploited by political powers? n Lack of transparency in British politics n The mediafication of politics

The British Press n The tabloids –The populars n The Sun, The Mirror and Daily Star –Sensationalist, scandals, sports and celebrities. –The largest circulation –Mid-market n The Daily Mail and Express –A similar coverage, but somewhat more news

The British Press: Trends n Fear of decline –The electronic media—internet –Decline in advertising revenues –Concentration of ownership reduces the diversity of views and limits political debate –Decline of journalistic standards and a tendency toward a more tabloid orientation of the qualities to gain readers n Increased owner pressure on the journalists—especially in Murdoch owned newspapers

The Concentration of Power in British Media n Rupert Murdoch--The Times, The Sun, BskyB, Star TV, Fox TV, 20th Century Fox, TV Guide, HarperCollins Publishers, & New York Post n Conservative tendency with media conglomerates –Broadcast conservative views –What is news and who decides?

The British Press: Trends n Decline in circulation –Especially Sunday editions which is the edition people had the most time to read and be informed. n Introduction of on-line editions –Real time news, but limited debate and editorial points of view n Quality newspapers publishing tabloid format editions n A decline in the number of people reading newspapers daily. 52% of the these readers get their new from other sources such as TV and internet.

Decline in Circulation n Nationally for 2009: -4.2%, but even more significant the qualities are declining even more. –Guardian: - 15% –Independent: - 7.2% –The Times: - 9.4% –The Financial Times: -9.2%

Decline in Circulation n The decline is across the board with even the tabloids declining –Compare the figures in your book with today: n Sun: 3.5 million to 3.0 n Daily Mirror: 2.2 million to 1.4 million n The Daily Star is the only newspaper to increase its circulation—up 15.3%

The Impact of Declining Circulation n Newspaper sales in terms of income are not the major issue –Daily Star increased its circulation by reducing its cost from 35 p to 25 p. –The loss is in advertising. n What happens if quality newspapers disappear?

British TV--BBC n Financing –Non-commercial, license financed –£130/household/year n Levied on BBC TV but covers all programs both ITV and BBC radio –Reissued for the next ten years n Everyone must pay the license fee n There was talk of making TV subscription based n This means that BBC will have financing for at least 10 more years.

The Digital Revolution and British Media n The internet: 70.9% of all Britons use the internet regularly. n The DR gives rapid & easy access to news and entertainment. Real time access which the traditional media cannot. –Example: note all the features of a cell phone

The Impact of Internet n Freedom –You can get the information and entertainment when you want it. –Customer run media—a revolution n What do you want? Who should choose? n The impact of customer run media? n Internet shopping—the fate of commerce

The Digital Revolution and British Media n Interactivity—the digital media puts the audience in the center and makes the media user controlled. Users are becoming players. n Facebook and social networks—young people are drawn away from the traditional media. n Facebook as a political tool.

The BBC Dilemma n Non-commercial vs. ITV (commercial) –“BBC should provide television that the people should want to watch.”—a former governor at BBC –Does ITV provide the programs that people “want to watch” or that they are conditioned to want to watch? n BBC is caught between wanting to maintain their standards and their audience at the same time.

BBC’s Challenges n Reaching an inter-active audience –”Have Your Say”—a program where the audience participates –Blogging –Instant viewer feedback in political debates –Talent development –Streaming

BBC’s Challenges n What BBC does well (news and dramas) may be less and less popular with younger audiences. –Should BBC be concerned about audience size or quality? n The digital age challenge –There is a media soup out there and audiences are drawn away.

Meeting the Challenge of the Digial Reality n Audience contributions n Streaming n Entertainment—reaching a younger audience while not pandering to it. n Converting audiences to participators n Digital curriculum—education programs for the classroom

Meeting the Challenge of the Digial Reality n A new offering for year olds n User-generated content where ever possible n BBC Future Media & Technology –Has initiated services such as i Player & bbc.co.uk for mobile, n What BBC will not do which ITV does –Gaming channel & Film channgel

Programming: Meeting the Audience BBC 1—36 % viewer rating --a more general appeal—tries to reach a broad segment Drama, soaps and entertainment BBC 2—6% --special interest programming --aims at special interest (gardening, redecorating, cooking. BBC 3—target group is year olds --more radical and innovative --If the programs succeed, they are moved to BBC 2 BBC 4—high arts—ballet, classical music, theatre --Miniscule audience

Recent Trends: Competition and its Impact –BBC should provide the television that people should want to watch” n 20% of the programming is devoted to news and current events. n However, this is no longer completely possible. –Commercial (ITV) has changed BBC’s attitude to the public. n BBC can no longer dictate taste n The greater the choice, the more emphasis on entertainment and the smaller the market for more serious programs n ITV soaps and comedies challenge the traditional more serious news, documentary, high culture, arts orientation of BBC. n BBC has to meet the market with BBC 3 & 4.

British TV--ITV n Commercial –Popular while maintaining quality n Up until recently, BBC has set the standards n However, the market is becoming a more decisive factor. n ITV is gaining market shares over BBC –26% of the viewing market. –New concession laws n The concession goes to the highest bidder n Find a successful formula and reproduce it. –Less willing to take risks. Bottom line thinking –ITV has systematically lobbied to remove local programming requirements saying that TV should be governed by free market principles.

Channel 4 n Publicly owned and its board is appointed by Ofcom (the state watchdog agency to insure quality and content) n Financed by advertising n Produces programs of high quality, especially documentaries and public affairs programs.

Dumbing Down? n What is the impact of a free market system? –The more choice, the harder it is for more challenging programs to survive. –Recent developments--Americanization? n “Big Brother” and voyeurism n Pandering to base interests?

Recent Reality Shows n Space Cadet—a hoax where contestants believe they are being trained for a space voyage which they “take.” n I’m a Celebrity—celebrity contestants surviving in the Australian rainforest n The Apprentice—candidates competing for a top job. n The Fame Academy—mediocre artists are trained to become top stars which they don’t become. n Living with the Natives—actually wound up killing four Peruvian natives.

Internet and the Media n What percentage of your media time is spent on Internet? n What do Internet activities consist of? n Extrapolate the trend –What will happen to newspapers and magazines in your future?

The Media 2050 n In groups of four, create a media scenario. –What will TV be like? –Will there be any bookstores? –Will there be any cinemas? –How will you shop? –How will you get your news? –How will you inter-relate? Will we have a virtual world?