Explain how the political context in which newspapers are

produced, influences their ownership and regulation. Refer to Daily

Mail and the Guardian in your answer:
Free press is press that is not controlled or changed by the government in
political matters. Free press allows the readers to be informed more
accurately, allowing them to form their own opinions and ideas. For a
democracy, as long as financial support is available, anyone could make their
own newspaper with their own political views and opinions.
Two of the most popular and circulated newspapers in the UK are the Guardian
and the Daily Mail. The Daily mail is owned by the General trust, Lord
Rothermere. It started in 1896 with a circulation of 1425700 copies annually.
The Guardian was first published in 1821 and is owned by the Scott trust and
has a circulation of 146766 copies annually. The Daily Mail is targeting older
age groups, 45 and upwards, mainly right wing and conservative views
however the Guardian is targeting the younger age groups with a left win,
more liberal political bias. They both have very different target audiences, the
daily mail has many people from the older age groups, with a large percentage
of female and working class readers, with a heavily conservative view matching
the political bias. The guardian targets the younger age ranges, who are
educated and tend to be in middle class. They usually live in cities and tend to
have more liberal views.
Brexit was a very controversial topic to strike the headlines, being the
withdrawal of United Kingdom from the European Union, which we have been
part of for 40 years, making the split a huge deal. The daily mail were
supporting of this decision with their conservative views, having the post Brexit
headline of “We’re Out!” using simplistic terms to express their views. This
gives the impression that daily mails views shows the event as straight forward
and not contentious. The guardian’s views being liberal, were against Brexit
and wanted it to be reconsidered. The main view was that Brexit had not been
thought through and was being rushed.
The PCC, press complaints commission, was a voluntary regulatory body set up
to protect the public from invasions of privacy, but after the News of the World
has hacked into Milly Dowler’s phone, who was declared missing, and
tampered with consequential information, the Leverson Inquiry was created by
the government to give even more protection of people and regulating the
press. Currently we have 2 bodies that regulate the press, IPSO and Impress,
both having the same regulations as the Leverson inquiry. The press can
choose which ever regulatory body they feel will be least restricting on their
political views of their newspapers. This however can cause controversy as
some of the public may be at risk of invasion on a smaller scale depending of
the regulation that they decide to follow.