Explain how the political context in which newspapers are produced, influences their ownership and regulation.

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You need to prepare notes today in order to answer this next exam-style question. Read this post carefully and plan your answer, looking carefully at your own blog to find evidence relating to The Daily Mail and The Guardian newspapers.



Explain how the political context in which newspapers are produced, influences their ownership and regulation. Refer to The Guardian and The Daily Mail newspapers you have studied to support your answer.
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 This question is asking you to demonstrate your knowledge and understanding of contexts of media and their influence on media products and processes. You need to outline your knowledge of the political contexts that newspaper editors work in and how that might influence the kind of news products they produce. This question is focused on press freedom and regulation.

Watch this CNN news clip from 2012 which covers how media owner Rupert Murdoch was called to give evidence as part of the Leveson Inquiry. Peter Jukes, the writer being interviewed, outlines the pressure of protecting press freedom against the need for regulation to stop rich individuals owning too much power in a democratic society.

Task: Answer these questions below to help you plan what you might include in your answer. If you are struggling to answer any of them, move on to the next one. We will come back to these in our next lesson, giving you an opportunity to improve your answers.


  1. Explain the political significance of the concept of 'press freedom' and its relationship to representative democracy. Why do you think freedom of the press is important? How much influence do you think the government should have about the things reported in the UK press?
  2. How are newspapers regulated and why do you think this is necessary? Can you refer to an academic idea we have studied in class? 
  3. What examples of editorialised content would not fit 'impartial' television news (e.g. social or political opinion) from The Guardian and The Daily Mail print or online editions.
  4. What examples of ownership models, e.g. The Guardian’s trust ownership and The Daily Mail’s proprietor model, could show the opportunities offered by the latter model for control by ‘press barons’.
  5. How much power does the press have to shape political debate, e.g. the influence of proprietors on politicians to support policies promoting cross-media ownership or holding back from regulation.
  6. Explain the political affiliations of the two newspapers, e.g. The Daily Mail as a right wing newspaper is partly defined by its support for the Conservative party, The Guardian as a centre-left newspaper is partly defined by its support for Labour or the Liberal Democrats, and how this is clear from an example you have studied.


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