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The real world of the newspaper industry:
a case study of the online version of The Guardian
Watching the revolution If you’re following OCR’s AS Media Studies
course this year, then you will have the option of writing about newspapers in Section B of the exam (Unit G322: Key Media Concepts). This article looks at the exam’s requirements and presents a case study of the online version of The Guardian. As the newspaper industry is changing rapidly, this should provide a starting point for your own research, so that you can develop an individual case study to wow your examiner. There’s no need to reproduce the specification
here, but it’s worth highlighting some key points. You only get 45 minutes to answer a question that is general enough to cover not just newspapers but five other media areas. Your answer can’t be vague though – you are expected to write about a ‘specific online version of a national/local newspaper’ and be prepared to discuss production, distribution, marketing and exchange, and audience consumption (including your own experiences). The context for your case study is ‘the contemporary newspaper market in the UK and the ways in which technology is helping to make newspapers more efficient and competitive despite dwindling audiences.’ That phrase ‘dwindling audiences’ may make
Whichever spec you’re studying for, the newspaper industry can give you invaluable insights into the ways new technologies and e-media are changing how we consume news, and the economics of global media production. And in this comprehensive analysis of The Guardian, Neil Paddison offers you the essential case study.
6 MediaMagazine | December 2009 | english and media centre
newspapers sound like yesterday’s Media Studies, but what is happening in the industry reflects a global revolution in the way information is gathered, processed, then sold by media institutions to audiences all over the world. When Sir Martin Sorrell, chief executive of
advertising agency WPP says: I don’t think newspapers will die because they are the best way, or one of the best ways along with TV, of reaching large sections of the population1 it’s clear that newspapers are not going to disappear overnight. However, WPP’s ‘pre-tax profits plunged 47% to £179m in the first six months of 2009’, so advertisers are facing tough times as well2
. Whether our newspapers can
adapt to the changing media landscape remains to be seen; but there’s certainly never been a better time to watch the newspaper industry…
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