The Guardian CSP

The Guardian newspaper and website analysis

Use your own purchased copy plus the notable front pages above to answer the following questions - bullet points/note form is fine. 

1) What are the most significant front page headlines seen in the Guardian in recent years?

'Tariff turmoil wipes millions off the global market'

'Half a million to strike as unions warn talks are ‘going backwards’

2) Ideology and audience: What ideologies are present in the Guardian? Is the audience positioned to respond to stories in a certain way?

The newspaper has a liberal focus, often tackling subjects like human rights, social justice, and climate change. it positions its audience to take in their information as truthful and important as they have an empathise on investigative journalism that supports their work to be factual.

3) How do the Guardian editions/stories you have studied reflect British culture and society?

The Guardian talks a lot about its culture and society by writing on stories to do with hard news. This includes politics or anything British people need to be aware of in their country.

Now visit the Guardian newspaper website and look at a few stories before answering these questions:

1) What are the top stories? Are they examples of soft news or hard news? 

Almost all the stories shown are hard news including things like politics, economic affairs, businesses. There a few soft news stories like mentions on the TV show White Lotus.

2) To what extent do the stories you have found on the website reflect the values and ideologies of the Guardian?

Although they have these values of bringing honest information to their loyal readers, there is a sense of bias seen where they write their articles to seem on one side especially when it comes about parliament distributions, the government or even war.

3) Think about audience appeal and gratifications: what would an audience enjoy about the Guardian newspaper website?

Audience gain surveillance from this information as they are learning which could also become an entertainment as reading is somewhat distracting s well as informative. Maybe even personal relationship with the stories or people who are being written about in the article.

The Guardian newspaper Factsheet

Read Media Factsheet #257 The Guardian Newspaper. You can access it from our Media Factsheet archive on the Media Shared drive or download it here via Google using your school login details. Answer the following questions:

1) Who owns the Guardian and what is their ownership designed to achieve? 

The Guardian was founded by John Edward Taylor forming this newspaper to hold government to account. It is now owned by The Media Group Limited where this Trust created “secure the financial and editorial independence of The Guardian” and to “safeguard the journalistic freedom and liberal values” of the paper from “commercial or political interference.”

2) How is the Guardian regulated? Note its very unusual regulatory approach and give examples where you can. 

The Guardian is not regulated by IPSO but instead is the only British national daily newspaper to

employ an internal ombudsman (called the “readers’ editor”) to handle complaints and corrections. they examine their own behaviour as a company and have sometimes been criticised

for their coverage for example, the Israeli/Palestinian conflict,

3) Pick out some key statistics on the Guardian's audience (see beginning of page 2).

-86% ABC1

-Fifty-four percent of The Guardian readers are male

-average age of the print reader is 54

-interested in left-leaning politics and social issues, mainly social progressives [reformers] psychographic

-circulation for the newspaper is 3.2 million monthly

-digital readership is 18.4 million

4) What are the institutional values of the Guardian? What does it stand for?   

The institutional values are that it delivers fearless investigative journalism, they are free from political or commercial influence and they values determined the story they choose.

5) How is the Guardian's international audience described? See the end of page 2 and pick out some more useful statistics here about their audience .

The international audience profile is seen as:

• 79% men / 21% women

• 66% are daily visitors to the site

• More than 1 in 4 are C-Suite or director level

6) Now look at page 3 of the factsheet and the Guardian online. Select a few examples of the different sections of the website and copy them here. 

• Culture 

• Lifestyle

• Opinion

• From the UK

7) What different international editions of the Guardian's website are available and what example stories are provided as examples of this?

The UK April 29th edition about resignation of the BBC Chair Richard Sharp, who allegedly

provided a “secret” £800,000 loan to former Prime Minister Boris Johnson. The April 29th US edition leads with a story about Florida’s Republican Governor Ron DeSantis and his time as a lawyer for the state in Guantanamo Bay, the prison for suspected terrorists.

8) What is the Guardian's funding model? Do you think it is sustainable? 

Its a way to fund the journalism through moves like digital subscription or even advertisements. I believe its sustainable as the subscription to the Guardian makes up more than the advertising revenue which shows how this funding model is working.

9) What is the Cotton Capital Commission and how does it link to the Guardian's values and ideologies?

Its a newspaper article about their founder J. E. Taylor, and other businessmen. It wrote how it had found that their founder and others had links to the slave trade, and some of that money was used to found the paper. This did not align with their core values, so they dedicated a series of articles to this.

10) What audience and industry theories could be applied to the Guardian? How? 

Blumer and Katz/ gratifications-  surveillance, and entertainment. Some aspects could show personal identity with similar groups, and shared values. 

Media Magazine articles

Media Magazine has two excellent features on our newspaper CSPs - a focus on Guardian front pages and a comparison of how the Guardian and Daily Mail cover the same story in different ways. You need to read both articles - MM78 (page 12) and MM87 (page 20) - our Media Magazine archive is here. Answer the following questions:

MM78 - The Guardian

1) What are the Pandora Papers and how does the story fit with the Guardian's ethos, values and ideologies?  

The Pandora Papers refer to secret documents about the financial dealings of the world’s rich and powerful. It aligns with their values of being a serious newspaper by being truthful and loyal to their readers through their investigative journalism.

2) Pick out all the key statistics and quotes from the section on the Guardian's funding model. In particular, the fall in paper readership, the rise in digital readership and the number of contributors  paying to support the journalism. 

In July 2021 sales were an average of 105,135 copies per day which was down from 248,775 in 10 years. Online readership was 3.5 million per day with 129 million monthly visits with an ongoing financial support from 1 million readers.

3) What does it mean when it says the Guardian frames regular payments from readers as a "philanthropic act". 

The wording and this name makes it appear like people who pay are supporting free press and information available globally and to those who cant afford it.

4) What is the Scott Trust and do you think it is a sustainable model for newspaper ownership in the future? 

Its shares that were put into a Scott Trust where it operated for profit. All the money would eventually go back to newspapers to ensure editors interests remain free from commercial pressure. I believe this model is somewhat sustainable for the future as newspapers slowly become forgotten or pushed aside, they'll need money to survive and stay truthful instead of being used to promote advertisements.

5) Why is the Guardian criticised as hypocritical? Give some specific examples here.

The Guardian is another wealthy company that is supported from the back from global leaders and billionaires who hide how they secretly shuffle money. From where they call for a fairer more equal society within a capitalistic structure, holding moral high grounds against people in middle or low income forced to engage.

MM87 - The Daily Mail and the Guardian front page analysis

1) What are the stories featured on the Guardian and Daily Mail on November 10, 2023? 

The stories feature the Palestine israel conflict as the israel bombing of Gaza lead to one of the largest pro-Palestine march in London.

2) How do they reflect the values and ideologies of the two newspapers?

The newspapers show a bit of hypocrisy as they form away from the truth.

3) Why does the writer suggest the front-page images on both papers might be exploitative? Do you agree? 

The front pages of both newspapers featured female victimhood rather than recognising that people of both sexes and of all ages were kidnapped and that men too would have been at the same demonstration. They exploit gender stereotypes that they as newspapers are suppose to subvert.

4) What else does the writer suggest regarding the Daily Mail's front-page image of murdered teacher Ashling Murphy? 

It writes how The Daily Mail is using this as their front page to make money. They do this by not selling the newspaper where the teacher dies making it a curious editor edition to feature a non British murder story.

5) How does the rest of the Guardian's front page (features on Yoko Ono and Todd Haynes) reflect the values and ideologies of Guardian readers?    

It features two artists Yoko Ono and Todd Haynes associated with peace movement and gender politics.