Audience
1) What is the Daily Mirror's audience? List the key statistics here.
The Daily Mirror's audience is comprised of mostly older people, with almost half of their audience being aged over 65 years old. Most readers are of NRS social grades C1, C2 or DE, making them mostly working class. They are likely to be in the Struggler, Resigned or Mainstreamer groups in Young and Rubicam's Psychographics.
2) Why do the Mirror stories on the CSP pages appeal to the Daily Mirror audience?
The CSP's stories concerning the Post Office scandal might appeal to Daily Mirror audiences as it affects an extremely large percentage of them, given that most of the Daily Mirror's audience is working class and so will be affected by Post Office issues. Members of the audience in the psychographic group of the Struggler are also likely to be affected by the scandal. Furthermore, the Daily Mirror's audience is mostly comprised of politically left-leaning people, who are more likely to engage with the Post Office scandal story given that it is closely tied to the Conservative Party in the UK.
3) Why might a reader enjoy the Daily Mirror? Use Blumler & Katz Uses and Gratifications theory to add detail to your answer.
A reader might enjoy the Daily Mirror as it provides information, through keeping audiences up to date on current events, world affairs and the opinions of people around them. Moreover, the Daily Mirror also provides readers with diversion / entertainment, as it is a tabloid and so often covers soft news such as celebrity gossip, providing readers with a sense of escapism for the struggles they face in life. Finally, a reader may enjoy the Daily Mirror due to their personal identity or personal relationships: a reader may be politically aligned with the Daily Mirror's progressive ethos, or they may trust the journalist / writer behind the newspaper issues that they read.
4) Why are print newspapers generally read by older audiences?
Print newspapers are generally read by older audiences as they are typically less familiar with technology and the internet, and will use newspapers as a means of keeping up to date with the world around them. Younger generations who are born into an already technologically-dense world are often more familiar with the internet and will therefore use it for news over physical print media.
5) How are the CSP pages constructed to appeal to Daily Mirror readers? Think about text and selection of images.
The CSP pages are constructed to appeal to Daily Mirror readers as they utilise a scandal-based main splash head to entice and attract their audience, alongside a large main image of the company name Fujitsu to encourage those already familiar with the scandal to read the newspaper. This main image immediately paints Fujitsu as the villain (Propp's Character Theory), attracting the Daily Mirror's working class audience who will side with the subpostmasters affected by the Post Office scandal.
Industries
1) What company owns the Daily Mirror and why are they struggling?
The Daily Mirror is owned by Reach PLC, formerly known as Trinity Mirror from 1999 - 2018, a British newspaper, magazine and digital publisher who owns and published over 240 regional newspapers, in addition the Daily Mirror, Sunday Mirror, etc. They are struggling due to the general decrease in popularity of print media, as a result of the growth of the internet and its accessibility and cost-free nature in comparison to newspapers. This decline has led to a drastic decrease in circulation, from over 3 million a day in 1990 to around 200,000 a day in recent times.
2) Who was the Daily Mirror editor between 2018 and 2024 and what was the Partygate scandal that the Daily Mirror exposed?
The editor Alison Phillips, who was the Daily Mirror's first female editor since 1903, was announced to be leaving the newspaper after more budget cuts at Reach. She wrote the Partygate scandal that brought down the Prime Minister Boris Johnson, a scandal where parties took place in 10 Downing Street despite restrictions placed during lockdown.
3) What is the Daily Mirror's circulation? How many papers did the Daily Mirror used to sell back in the 1990s?
The Daily Mirror's circulation now is 200,000 a day, despite previously being over 3 million a day in 1990.
4) How has the Daily Mirror reacted to the decline in print sales and the growth of the internet?
The Daily Mirror reacted to the decline in print sales by creating the mirror.co.uk website, alongside social media accounts on major sites. This means that the Daily Mirror synchronises itself across print, desktop and mobile platforms, providing their online content for free (without a paywall) - this allows them to make money from advertising, despite this being a very small amount of money. Furthermore, the Daily Mirror now creates news-based content that updates regularly and is shared on social media channels, including a wide variety of video content which encourages audience engagement.
5) List five of Galtung & Ruge's News Values and explain how they link to the stories in our CSP edition of the Daily Mirror.
- Immediacy: Links to the Daily Mirror being a newspaper published everyday
- Amplitude: The extremely large amount of people affected by the Post Office scandal
- Familiarity: The scandal occurs in Britain and affects people within the country
- Continuity: This scandal has shown in the news before, but has been re-covered
- Negativity: The Post Office scandal is an extremely negative story, engaging audiences
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