Bias and Misrepresentation in the UK Print Press

8/3/2019 Bias and Misrepresentation in the UK Print Press

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Bias and Misrepresentation in the UK Print PresSteve Brewe

Access to HE Media StudieApril 201


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Contents

Title Page (1)

Contents Page (2)

1. Introduction and Report Overview (3)1.1 Key Terms

1.2 A Background of the Daily Mail

2. Proposed Timetable (5)

3. Analysis of Sources (6)3.1 Tabloid Watch

3.2 The Press Gazette

3.3 The Mail Classified

4. Methodology (7)

5. Synthesis (8)5.1 Examples of Gatekeeping

5.2 Ghosts Exist?5.3 Terrorist Towers Overlooking Military Base in Sandhurst

5.4 Immigrants Raping and Pillaging British Swans5.5 Who Reads the Daily Mail?

6. Evaluation (16)

7. Bibliography (17)


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1. Introduction and Report Overview

It is becoming evermore apparent that some news publications attempt to cultivate a set of beliefsamong audiences that may not necessarily correlate to reality. This report looks at UK publications,

specifically the Daily Mail, and sets out evidence to show how it misrepresents ideologies and expressesbias towards a dominant ideology. I have analysed recent articles in the Daily Mail, highlighting those

that lack reliability or attempt to persuade readers to a particular viewpoint with news stories posing as

factual, unbiased reports.

1.1 Key Terms

Gatekeeping: A role played by news corporations in deciding which stories should be published and,

perhaps more importantly, which stories should be kept quiet. The editor of a newspaper has the finalsay on the stories that will be published, and the owner of the publication will undoubtedly share hisviews, as the owner is responsible for appointing the editor and can fire him or her if there is any

disagreement.

Demonisation discourse: According to the report The British Media and Muslim Representation: The

Ideology of Demonisation by the Islamic Human Rights Commission20, Demonisation discourse is baseon malicious dishonesty, hypocrisy and fantasy. Here a camera could, by reproducing some elements oreality reproduce an (un)reality according to a film script or the agenda of a screenwriter and or a

director. Demonisation discourse of representation explains a process of destroying a reality.

Religiophobia and ethnophobia in general and Islamophobia in particular are obvious results ofdemonisation discourse in representing other religions and ethnic groups as a phobic enemy.Sometimes Islamophobia is articulated when one is demonised by both religion and ethnicity. As a resu

there is double disadvantage with e.g. someone of say, Pakistani, Iranian or Iraqi origin is discriminatedboth the basis of their ethnicity and at the same time for being Muslim. Conversely advantage or

privilege can work on a twofold level with one being both white European and non-Muslim.

Hegemony: According to Marxist philosopher Antonio Gramsci21, a culturally diverse society can beruled primarily by the dominant social class, where the ideas that form basis of the dominant ideology

come to be known as the norm for all of society, whilst other ideologies are viewed as alternative.

Pluralism: The acceptance of diversity and multi-culturalism, showing no preference for any oneideology in particular. The BBC strives to be a pluralist organisation, remaining neutral and respecting aideologies equally.

Ethnocentricity: According to The British Media and Muslim Representation: The Ideology of

Demonisation20 report, ethnocentric discourse focuses on self, group or a nation. For example, whena British person says We are British, he or she may be working to form a bond with other British peopl

that excludes anyone who is not British. Those that arent with us are on the outside.

1.2 A Background of The Daily Mail

The Mail was founded by Alfred Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Northcliffes in 1896. Jonathan Harmsworth,

4th Viscount Rothermere, is now the chairman and controlling shareholder. He is worth 1021,000,000and a keen supporter of the Conservatives. He chooses the editor of the Daily Mail, and recently


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commented22 on its agenda, declaring that Paul Dacre, current editor of the Daily Mail, can set theagenda, and that he would only replace him if circulation fell. Perhaps this doesnt mean much, since

circulation is likely to fall if the papers agenda suddenly changed.

The Mail is the second most circulated newspaper in the UK, after The Sun. It was reported by the PresGazette23 on January 15th 2010 that the Daily Mail and the Daily Star were the only national newspaperto increase in circulation in 2009.


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2. Proposed Timetable

Week 1: Analyse articles in the Daily Mail print issue and saving any that appear suspect.

Week 2: Analyse online articles, possibly using search terms based on common themes from the article

in the print edition, again saving any articles suspected of misleading or misrepresenting the reader.

Week 3: Research the background of each article further, interpret the point it is trying to make and thvalidity of this point in light of evidence.

Week 4: Organise notes, research and sources.

Week 5: Complete analysis sheet on three specific sources, assessing their usefulness against certain

criteria.

Week 6: Plan an essay between 1200 and 1400 words on a title agreed with Michael relevant to my

research, and incorporating the material you have found this should include citations in the text and afull bibliography.

Week 7: Write the essay.

Week 8: Plan a detailed evaluation of the whole process, covering in particular methods of research andthe effectiveness of the research timetable I set myself.

Week 9: Write evaluation.


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3. Analysis of Sources

3.1 Tabloid Watch - A blog written by an anonymous person in the UK known as MacGuffin, writing

daily reports on inaccuracies and biased or false stories printed in the UK press.

While the author of the source is anonymous, he is merely highlighting mistakes of the press while

providing clear evidence of this, often citing other sources, which tend to be the original articles inquestion or an official body involved in the article.

He usually only needs to explain one important fact that makes either the headline or the entire storyincorrect, or he points out how the paper has put certain information at the end of a story knowing the

reader isnt likely to reach that far in the article, due to the inverted pyramid, and would be mislead.

The objectivity may be questionable since the authors cynicism is obvious and may cause bias against

the tabloid press.

Tabloid Watch has been reporting daily on the UK press since February 2009. All of his articles are

available and contain searchable keywords such as Daily Mail and the names of columnists with areputation for their opinions. Sources are accessible and clearly linked at relevant points in the articles.

This is secondary data, as MacGuffin has already compiled the sources and presented a case formisrepresentation.

3.2 The Press Gazette - A British media magazine, established in 1965, dedicated to news aboutjournalism and the print press.

Previously owned by Matthew Freud, son-in-law of Rupert Murdoch but now owned by Mike Danson,who also owns the New Statesman, a left wing political magazine. The information I have taken from

the Press Gazette has been readership facts and figures that cant really be subjective, and its doubtfuthey are inaccurate, but unless they have been dramatically exaggerated, slight discrepancies would nochange the conclusion taken from this source.

This source provided data on levels of press readership and annual increases in circulation. This is asecondary source; other researchers have gathered this data.

3.3 The Mail Classified - A division of the Daily Mail responsible for advertising revenue. On theirwebsite they provide data and statistics about newspapers so that potential clients can compare the

Daily Mail while deciding whether or not to pay them to advertise for them based on who will see their

advertisements.

There are obviously strong implications for bias here as the agenda of this organisation is to make theDaily Mail look like an ideal place to advertise. However it has taken the date from the NationalReadership Survey, which is an independent research organisation.

This source tells us the age, level of income and social class of the people who read the Daily Mail and

compares this to the other newspapers in the UK. Again, this is a secondary source as the NRS hasperformed the survey.


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4. Methodology

This report is does not set out to highlight too much quantitative data, such as the frequency of key

terms such as Muslim or Immigrant in news articles, however this data would be useful in reportingmisrepresentation and bias in the media. The key aim of this report is to identify common themes withitopical news stories that promote a continuous agenda, that of a dominant ideology within the UK

media. The research for this is based to a large extent on the Tabloid Watch blog, the author of whichclearly presents findings of errors and bias in the media using articles from such publications as the

Daily Mail, comparing them with the BBC or providing evidence that reveals the article to be misleading

I have included in this report some recent examples from the last two or three months of such

comparisons between articles that appear in the Daily Mail and those of other news mediums, such asthe BBC and local newspapers. I have also provided demographics to illustrate the age and social classof Daily Mail readers to give an idea of who holds these ideologies.


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5. Synthesis/Analysis

5.1 Examples of Gatekeeping

An example of how gatekeeping maintains the interests and agendas of a dominant ideology, thedesecration of 20 Muslim graves was reported on by the BBC1 in October, but it was notreported on at

all by the Mail, or any of the tabloid press. This happened around the same time the English DefenceLeague were planning protests in Manchester against an Islamic invasion2, something that might well

encourage acts of vandalism against Muslims, therefore reporting on this could implicate themselves aswell as encourage sympathy for Muslims. The Mail did report on the vandalism of war memorials in thenorth of France3 one month prior to this, however.

Another example is the reporting of a white man, Ian Davison, found guilty of preparing for acts ofterrorism by the BBC4, also ignored by the Mail with the exception of an article5 about him when he wa

arrested in June. This compares with the coverage of the far less dangerous but Muslim KamelBourgass6, who actually had no means to do any real damage, just a plan that could never really workand yet media coverage of this story was rife.

Theres an agenda behind highlighting stories involving Muslims far more than [stories] with people fromother religions. Why, for example, were terrorists Terrance Gavan7, Neil Lewington8and Ian Davison9

given far, far less coverage in the tabloid newspapers than the case of a Muslim woman who wascleared of failing to pass on information that would be useful in preventing an act of terrorism?

- Tabloid Watch

5.2 Ghosts Exist?

As noted by Tabloid Watch10, on the 23rd February, the Mail published an article11 on their website abou

a photograph that was taken of a school being demolished that appeared to show a ghost of a boystanding watching the demolition.

The Mails image caption: Ex pupil? The boy in the image appears to be around eight and is wearing a dark top and cap

The article is suggesting that ghosts exist and that the demolition of this school is a great tragedy thatwould cause the appearance of such a thing. They also say The image of the young boy is

exceptionally clear, but the builder insists he has not altered the picture in any way. They donknow there is an iPhone App12 that allows users to impose the exact same imageof the boy in thisarticle onto any photo.


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5.3 Terrorist Towers Overlooking Military Base in Sandhurst

On the 21st February it was reported by the Mail and the News of the World that plans to build amosque with two 100ft tall towers next to Sandhurst military base had raised concerns with the Ministry

of Defence over security as the base could easily be overlooked.

However, according to the BBC13, these concerns were settled when it was discovered that nobody

would actually be able to access these towers, therefore the base cannot be overlooked from them and

there isnt actually an issue, as confirmed by the Ministry of Defence when it gave permission for theconstruction to go ahead.

When covering this story, the Mail omittedthis vital piece of information14 that would have eliminatedthe possibility of readers coming to the conclusion that Muslims were setting up bases near our militar

in order aid them in their terrorism effort, and included the following quotes:

Yesterday an Army source said: 'This has gone right to the top of the chain of command.

'There is very real concern that if this thing gets built then soldiers could be put at risk.

'It is outrageous to even think that the officers of the future would have to watch their backs while theyare still in training.'

Because it has gone right to the top of the chain of command, it is something extremelyimportant and worth panicking about.

Very real concern emphasising that everyone needs to be very worried. Rather than calling it a mosque, it is referred to as this thing. This is derogatory, pejorative

language that separates the army source from Islamic culture.

Use of the word outrageous to further emphasis drama, while implying to the point of almoststatingthat Muslims are naturally a threat to the army.

The group wants to demolish a listed Victorian school building in use as a mosque at the centre andreplace it with a sprawling Saudi Arabian-style building.

This runs parallel with the ghost story that evokes a nostalgic air of tragedy to the idea of a Victorianbuilding being demolished to be replaced with something more modern and efficient. Only in this story

is being replaced with a sprawling Saudi Arabian-style building. Sprawling is a particularly negative

word to use, evoking a negative reaction in the reader, and Saudi Arabian is just not as British as theVictorian building its replacing. It has connotations of British culture being invaded by Muslims andmakes for a perfect piece to be let through the gate by the Daily Mail as gatekeepers of information inthe media age.

Alan Kirkland, a local campaigner, said: 'Local people are simply flabbergasted that 100ft high minaretcan be built right next to the Royal Military Academy.

'There is obviously a security risk and there is no way that it should be built.'


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The Mails choice of sources are anonymous and may well carry no authority on the subject whatsoever

yet they form the basis of the story. Here, a local campaigner has said that all local people are simplyflabbergasted that a Mosque could be built next to a military base. The only reason people would be

flabbergasted at this is if they think Muslims are terrorists, which many do thanks to a conceptcultivated by the British media due to a lack of understanding of Islamic culture.

The most important thing to note, however, is their simple omission of the fact that the MoD dismissed

the concerns because there is no access to the minarets, and therefore no problem. This is purely medhype without any foundation in reality with the intention of cultivating Islamophobia amongst readers.

5.4 Immigrants Raping and Pillaging British Swans

In another article15, the Mail blames swan poaching on immigrants. The headline and first half of thestory is based on the views of an angry fisherman, and consists almost entirely of anti-immigration,scaremongering rhetoric, including the following quotes:

Peterborough is said to be the fastest growing multi-ethnic community in provincial Britain.

Three years ago the East of England Regional Assembly estimated there were 16,000 EasternEuropeans living in the city - one in ten of the population.

This figure did not take into account the number of illegal workers attracted to the agricultural heartlanwhere fruit and vegetable picking is one of the main sources of employment.

What is the relevance of this image of homeless people in an article about swans that have been poached by unknown

culprits?

The Mail has put Europeans into the same category as illegal workers, despite the fact that holders of

European passports are legally entitled to live and work in the UK, so the figure was never going to takillegal workers into account. This encourages the reader to regard Polish immigrants as law-breakerswho have bypassed the system and migrated here illegally.

Although this appears to be an article about swan poaching, its clearly an immigration story. The mostrelevant facts regarding the incident appear at the end of the article. According to the inverted


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pyramid, the most interesting or newsworthy information should appear at the top as the readergradually stops reading once they get the gist of the story. This quote from the head bailiff of the

Peterborough and District Angling Association nullifies the entire story, and so it appears at the bottom,We have found nets and long lines set up but it is hard to find the culprits. Nobody has actually

been caught. Five Polish men were found fishing there illegally, that is fishing a few days after thepermitted time period, likely a simple misunderstanding of the licensing dates, but they werent brutallykilling swans as the Mail has linked them to being guilty of. Furthermore, the local paper that reported

on the story16 made no mention of immigrants whatsoever, as that was a story about swans being

brutally killed, not immigration.

The resulting effect on readers of the Mail that make their way onto the website is clear from thecomments that appear beneath this story, and the number of positive ratings each one has received byother readers that concur. Some examples:

5.5 Who Reads the Daily Mail?

According to the Press Gazzette19, the Daily Mail managed a 0.17 per cent hike in circulation to

2,113,134 in 2009. But it has increased its free bulk circulation, delivered to places like hotels andairports, from 100,591 the previous year to 128,139.


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National newspaper circulations for December 2009 (source ABC) with percentage change year on year

Dailies:

Daily Mirror 1,225,502 -9.01Daily Record 314,753 -9.87Daily Star 784,958 8.17

The Sun 2,862,935 -1.25

Daily Express 677,750 -6.94Daily Mail 2,113,134 0.17

The Daily Telegraph 703,249 -9.37Financial Times 400,827 -6.46The Herald 55,811 -7.91

The Guardian 300,540 -12.38The Independent 186,940 -6.64The Scotsman 44,972 -6.11The Times 521,535 -13.22Racing Post 56,245 -7.23

According to the Mail Classified17 website, owned by the Daily Mail and used to promote advertising witthe publication, the following demographics apply:

Figure 1: Average age of readership17.


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Figure 2: National circulation17.

Figure 3: National readership among adults17.


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social grade social status occupation

A upper middle class higher managerial, administrative or professional

B middle class intermediate managerial, administrative or professional

C1 lower middle classsupervisory or clerical, junior managerial, administrative or

professional

C2 skilled working class skilled manual workers

D working class semi and unskilled manual workers

E those at lowest level of subsistencestate pensioners or widows (no other earner), casual or lowest

grade workers

Figure 4: Social grade key18

Figure 5: Readership among upper middle class, middle class and lower middle class adults17.


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Figure 6: Readership among upper middle class and middle class adults17.

These figures show the readership of the Daily Mail is largely middle aged to elderly, middle to upperclass people, reflected in the newspapers anti-progressive stance and forced nostalgia for past eras.


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6. Evaluation

It is clear to see from the findings in this report that an agenda is behind every story published. Not allnewspapers merely report what is going on in the world; they are filtered by the opinions, biases and

subjectivities of the journalists writing in them, in coherence with the editors, who chose only the storiethat adhere to the ideologies of the owner or owners of the publication.

It is unclear if the desecration of Muslim graves in Manchester went unreported to avoid incriminatingthe media in cultivating the hate that caused such a crime, or if doing so would be counter productive ithe effort to demonise Muslims. Furthermore, reporting on plans to build a large mosque close to amilitary base with such needless defensive and fearful discourse is akin to raising an alarm tellingreaders to watch their backs.

With seemingly less serious implications, the Daily Mail seriously suggest that ghosts are real. This newarticle is based solely on an image submitted by a random, unnamed person and exemplifies the

reliability of the Daily Mails sources. Using such anonymous sources, journalists can report the opinionsof anybody within a factual news article and proceed to communicate any message they choose.

Finally, in a prime example of demonisation discourse, the Daily Mail has taken a story about swansbeing attacked in Peterborough by as yet unknown culprits from a local newspaper, combined it withdetails of Polish men fishing in a local river shortly after the dates they were actually allowed to fish

there (dubbing it illegal poaching) and added statistics on the level of immigration in the area. Theresult is a report thats only purpose seems to be to evoke hatred for immigrants, particularly Eastern

European ones, and does so extremely effectively, as demonstrated by the comments beneath thearticle on the Daily Mail website.

This report has successfully given a slight insight into the underhanded methods newspapers use topush their owners agendas. With further research, analysis and press examples across a wider range o

organisations, such as Fox News in the USA and other UK publications, a greater understanding of thesmethods and agendas could be achieved.

The proposed timetable wasnt followed exactly, but provided a good foundation to get started with my

research, and strictly following my initial plan would have negatively affected the quality of this report.


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7. Bibliography

1. BBC News, 2nd October 2009, Muslim Graves Smashed by Vandals, BBC News,http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/manchester/8287929.stm, accessed 22nd April 2010.

2. English Defence League, 10th October 2009, EDL website,

http://www.englishdefenceleague.org/index.php?option=com_jevents&task=icalrepeat.detailevid=9&Itemid=124&year=2009&month=10&day=10&title=manchester-10th-october-2009&uid=669e65dd5fd1826e6d6338a0d8ea8a30&catids=59, accessed 22nd April 2010.

3. Peter Allen, The Daily Mail, 5th September 2009,http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1211154/French-World-War-I-graves-desecrated-neo-Nazis-protected-infra-red-cameras.html, accessed 22nd April 2010.

4. BBC News, 8th March 2010, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/wear/8556059.stm, accesse22nd April 2010.

5. Paul Sims, The Daily Mail, 6th June 2009, http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1191148/Police-smash-global-plot-poison-non-whites-lethal-toxin.html, accessed 22ndApril 2010.

6. John Lettice, 14th April 2005, The Register,http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/04/14/wood_green_ricin_case/, accessed 22nd April 2010

7. MacGuffin, 21st January 2010, Tabloid Watch, http://tabloid-watch.blogspot.com/2010/01/myleene-twitter-racists-and-terrorists.html, accessed 22ndApril 2010.

8. Anonymous, July 15th 2009, Septicisle, http://www.septicisle.info/2009/07/neo-nazi-threat.html, accessed 22nd April 2010.

9. MacGuffin, 18th March 2010, Tabloid Watch, http://tabloid-watch.blogspot.com/2010/03/churnalism-terrorism-and-alcoholism.html, accessed 22nd Apr2010.

10. MacGuffin, 2nd March 2010, Tabloid Watch, http://tabloid-watch.blogspot.com/2010/03/only-scary-thing-is-how-this-stuff-gets.html, accessed 22ndApril.

11. The Daily Mail, 23rd February 2010, http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1253073/Does-spooky-image-ghost-boy-watching-builders-demolish-old-school.html,accessed 22nd April 2010.

12. Apple iPhone App Store, 15th January, http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ghost-capture/id349479650, accessed 22nd April 2010.


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13. BBC News, 23rd February 2010,http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/surrey/hi/people_and_places/religion_and_ethics/newsid_8529000/8529388.stm, accessed 22nd April 2010.

14. The Daily Mail, 22nd February 2010, http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1252636/Defence-chiefs-fight-plans-build-giant-mosque-overlooking-Sandhurst.html,accessed 22nd April 2010.

15. Andrew Levy, 24th

March 2010, The Daily Mail http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1260031/Immigrants-blamed-rape-river-swans-mutilated-fish-stocks-down.html, accessed22nd April 2010.

16. Adam Uren, 22nd March 2010, Peterborough Today,http://www.peterboroughtoday.co.uk/news/features/fury_as_swans_brutally_killed_1_36743, accessed 22nd April 2010.

17. National Readership Survey, January June 2009,http://www.mailclassified.co.uk/circulation_readership.html, accessed 22nd April 2010.

18. Business Balls, 2009, http://www.businessballs.com/demographicsclassifications.htm, accessed22nd April 2010.

19. Dominic Ponsford, 15th January 2010, Press Gazette,http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/story.asp?storycode=44909, accessed 22nd April 2010.

20. Saied R. Ameli, Syed Mohammed Marandi, Sameera Ahmed, Seyfeddin Kara and Arzu Merali, 16February 2007, http://www.ihrc.org.uk/show.php?id=2493, accessed 29th April 2010.

21. Dominic Mastroianni, 2002, Dept. of English, Emory Universityhttp://www.english.emory.edu/Bahri/hegemony.html, accessed 29th April 2010.

22. Dan Sabbagh, 21st May 2008, The Times Online,http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/media/article3971966.ece,accessed 22nd April 2010.

23. Dominic Ponsford, 15th January 2010, Press Gazette,http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=1&storycode=44909&c=1, accessed22nd April 2010.

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