The Paradise Papers Case Study

The Paradise Papers story coverage

 Between the two front pages their is a distinct difference in the language used to portray the queens image. The Guardian (on the left) being a left wing news media coverage have a critical outline upon the image of the monarchy. However The Daily Mail has a right wing coverage supporting the monarch portraying the queen as a victim being forced into making an offshore account, they do this by using the word 'dragged'. 

Daily Mail 

Media Audience:

• Being a controversial topic between capitalist and socialist views the subject is purely aimed at a older uneducated audience. This is portrayed with colloquialism language used (Slang/Simplified English) to appeal to this audience. Examples of this is the language used, 'dragged' and 'row' making it a forced situation. 

• Audience positioning is used within the news headline front page coverage so as the target audience read this a particular biased opinion is adopted. Those who support the monarchy like this capitalist paper depict the queen as a victim so will make the audience feel sympathy towards the queens current situation. 

• As a tabloid during down text by simplifying language in the headline text and content to attract a whole wide target audience. 

Media language:

• Ideology is used with the word 'dragged' making it sound like she was forced and had no choice. 
• A biased opinion is used. Being a capitalist paper they are in favour over the political power, representation and reputation.

Media Representation:

• Other than the main article of the Queen there is another main eye catching story on the cover which is about a main character in the hit TV series Stranger Things, the cover shows a character called eleven who is a fan favourite, the story reads 'Bournemouth schoolgirl, 13, worth £5m' this shows how differently both these women are represented. 

Media Industries:

• The media industry of the Daily Mail is that the Queen haven't done anything wrong and that they are making her out to be not be capable of doing something like this. This is because of capitalism and that she has done nothing wrong.

 The Guardian:

Media Audiences:

The reason for The Guardian making it look like the Queen is in the wrong is because they are trying to appeal to a left wing socialist audience, so their readers would love to read something the shows negativity on capitalism.

Media Language:

The colour yellow is used so much because it links all the 'Paradise Papers together, this way The Guardian readers will see the colour yellow on the cover and know what to expect to read, but this could also attract other readers to have a look at the cover as yellow isn't really used much in newspaper covers.

Media Representation:

In  this cover it represents the Queen as 'exploiting the poor' as it was found out that she had an offshore account which means she doesn't have to pay any tax which means some jobs wont get as much money as they should be getting. It also represents capitalist as two faced as the Queen seems like she loves the country and will do any thing to support it yet she is also exploiting it behind everyone's backs.

Media Industries:

Compared to The Daily Mail, The Guardian who is left wing, and would want to make the queen look like she is 'exploiting the poor' because they don't want a dictatorship.

• Write up a description of the main differences between the two front pages from The Guardian and The Daily Mail, looking at both conventions and how the stories have been presented to the reader.

As The Guardian is a broadsheet and The Daily Mail is a tabloid just by looking at their covers you can see how differently they lay it out. The first obvious thing about The Guardians cover is that they make the Queen much more visible so its the first thing their readers will see, like they are shaming her, but to highlight it even more they highlight it in yellow, when people stop and read the title they will see the words 'exploiting the poor' and will want to buy the paper and see what she has done. The Daily Mail take almost the opposite approach as they use the word 'dragged' and don't even put a picture of her on the cover, instead they add a picture on the right side of the cover showing a  well-known actor Millie Bobby Brown who plays Eleven from the popular series Stranger Things. Another clear way each newspaper attends to their readers is the language they use, The Guardian uses longer words and has a bigger vocabulary as their audience is going to be more educated compared to the readers of the Daily Mail.

• Write a paragraph outlining why you think the Guardian created a series of news articles looking at the same issue and how that may reflect the newspapers political ideology and news values.

The Guardian does not move onto other stories as quickly as the Daily Mail as they know that their readers are more likely to want to know more facts and details about what happened rather than their opinions, and as the Guardian is left wing, they may want to focus on the big stories that involve the left wing more than other stories that are not as important. They also write more articles on this one subject as it may start to be at the front of their readers minds and the opinions that they put in the articles could start to become those of the readers as well, this is called the Cultivation Theory.

• Look at the Mirror, The Daily Telegraph, Daily Express and the Independent online newspaper and consider what you learn about these two publications from their versions of the story and the front page conventions.

The minority of the other newspapers didn't show much bias towards the story, whilst the Guardian and The Daily Mail showed their strong opinions as seen through the headline that they gave the stories, this is because the other newspapers tend to be less influenced by their political stance, so people may be more likely to read the articles from these non biased newspapers, as they will not be subject to having their opinions changed through the cultivation theory.

• Look at the online versions of these stories via Mail Online and The Guardian website. Compare and contrast their coverage. Use the sites to find out as much as you can about the story, so you fully understand it. What other media elements do the two websites provide readers (e.g.: audio or video clips, hyperlinks to other sites or connected stories).

The Guardian and The Daily Mail both have their articles in good detail on their websites, but they also have videos and links... . The Guardian keeps using the colour yellow through the articles about the 'Paradise papers', which makes them easy to recognize when people are walking pas. The Guardian has covered this article in more detail than the Daily Mail as it appeals to their left wing audience, on the other hand the Daily Mail may not have written about it if they didn't have to, but as the story was important they did write about but with a more right wing stance. 

• Look at social media sites and explain how you think they encourage readers to interact with the story.

Most newspapers have Twitter account to attract a younger audience, they have links to their online newspaper to get more people to visit their website. As the newspaper company know they will be speaking to a younger audience when on Twitter they have more light hearted articles that aren't sad or too political, an example of this is the Daily Mail, as you can see below they have a link to their website to an article that talks about a hippopotamus that seems to has a moustache, this will be funny to the people who read it and want to click the link.