Practise Question- Explain how the political context in which newspapers are produced, influences and ownership and regulation. Refer to The Guardian and The Daily Mail newspapers you have studied to support your answer. (10 Marks)

The Daily Mail is a right-wing paper meaning it supports the Conservative party which contrasts The Guardian which is a left-wing Labour supporting paper. Consequently, this affects the stories and the way they publish them in their newspapers. For example, The headline of The Guardian when talking about Brexit was: 'May urged to set out her changes to the backstop'. This headline surrounds the Prime minster at the time and mildly suggests that she needs to show the country what she is doing which could connotate that she isn't doing a fast enough job, therefore showing The Guardian to be critical of the conservative party. The Daily Mail's headline for this story is: 'In talks at last. Mrs May and man who refused to meet her'. The man they are referring to in the headline is Jeremy Corbyn who is leader of the Labour party. The newspaper's use of the noun 'man' instead of naming Jeremy Corbyn suggests that they don't class him as a valid person, which therefore shows The Daily Mail to be critising the Labour party. The use of each papers criticing the opposing political parties shows how their political leaning affects the way the stories are published in each paper.

Due to the papers being associated with supporting opposing political parties, this leads to some stories becoming more prominent in one of the papers and may be less prominent in the other. For example there was a story in The Guardian with the headline: 'Labour MP Paula Sherriff: Boris Johnson dismissed me as a hysterical female'. This story was in The Guardian but didn't appear in The Daily Mail which may be because The Daily Mail is a conservative supporting newspaper so din't want any criticism of the party to be featured in their paper as their readers won't like this. The story in which the Guardian is running links to the Feminist Theory by Van Zoonen as it shows a hierarchy of men and women with men higher than women. It suggests that Johnson abused his status in the hierarchy and used this against the woman- showing the power men have versus women which Van Zoonen talks about in her theory. The Labour-supporting readers who will read the Guardian will be angry with this story as they oppose the Conservative party and this will feed into their dislike for the party, which shows how the paper's political leaning affects what content it produces.

Free Press is being able to express opinions not restricted by the government. It is important to have free press in order to increase democracy. The Daily Mail owns 24% of the UK newspaper market challenging the nation of free press as the paper is a conservative supporting paper which causes them to be mindful of what they produce as they need to keep the government happy due to the Conservative party is currently in power. The Guardian is a Labour supporting paper therefore is able to have more free press as the labour party isn't currently in power. Their use of free press is shown in the story with the headline 'Raising hopes and denying gropes'. The story is about an allegation surrounding Prime minister Boris Johnson and goes on to heavily criticise him. This shows how their political leaning affects the stories they produce.

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