Brit help needed
Nov. 17th, 2003 12:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
resonantNeeded: Some discussion on the personalities of British news/entertainment publications.
You know how the New York Times is a middle-aged, well-educated white guy in a suit who votes Democrat, and the New Yorker is the same guy only he's gay and probably Jewish, and the Wall Street Journal is the same guy only his suit's more expensive and he votes republican?
And Ladies Home Journal is a frumpy middle-aged woman with a teddy bear embroidered on her sweatshirt, sniffling over a sad story of a cute preschooler overcoming some tragic diseease?
Whereas Cosmopolitan is a woman poured into clothes seven years too young for her (which is fine, because she claims to be seven years younger than she is), cackling over the tale of some other woman who slept with her boss until he promoted her, then took dramatic and hideous revenge on his wife for calling her a bitch at the company Christmas party?
What I need is that kind of profile on some British publications. Newspapers, magazines. High-profile TV and radio shows would be fine, too.
(This is for a HP story, in case you're wondering.)
You know how the New York Times is a middle-aged, well-educated white guy in a suit who votes Democrat, and the New Yorker is the same guy only he's gay and probably Jewish, and the Wall Street Journal is the same guy only his suit's more expensive and he votes republican?
And Ladies Home Journal is a frumpy middle-aged woman with a teddy bear embroidered on her sweatshirt, sniffling over a sad story of a cute preschooler overcoming some tragic diseease?
Whereas Cosmopolitan is a woman poured into clothes seven years too young for her (which is fine, because she claims to be seven years younger than she is), cackling over the tale of some other woman who slept with her boss until he promoted her, then took dramatic and hideous revenge on his wife for calling her a bitch at the company Christmas party?
What I need is that kind of profile on some British publications. Newspapers, magazines. High-profile TV and radio shows would be fine, too.
(This is for a HP story, in case you're wondering.)
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(no subject)
Date: 11/17/03 02:32 pm (UTC)The Sun still sells the most (about 1m copies) but its circulation is falling. Owned by
the devilRupert Murdoch.Celeb-driven, loves royal stories, vicars and tarts, tends to mock anything European. Extremely vulgar, often funny, if reprehensible. When the Potter books begin it was at the very end of its "glory days".
Typical headlines: [On European Union, under Jacques Delors] "Up yours, Delors"; "Freddie Starr Ate my Hamster; [Of the Argentinians, during the Falklands War] "Stick it up your junta"
The Daily Mirror, like The Sun, only slightly tamer, selling fewer and a fair bit further left. Loves royal scoops and celebs caught with their trousers down. I could imagine Hagrid reading the magical equivalent of The Mirror.
Daily Star, now a wank mag with a bit of news thrown in, these days but if you take Potter canon as beginning in 1990, it was much like The Mirror
The Daily Sport is like a cross between Penthouse and the National Enquirer. My favourite headlines from it include "The Virgin Mary Built Our Shed", "Double Decker Bus Found On Moon" and "My Son Was Turned Into A Fishfinger". Read by "lads"
2) The midmarkets
Daily Mail. Totally a Vernon Dursley paper. Owned by Lord Rothermere, politically powerful in Middle England because it reflects their prejudices back at them, sells about 2m, *brilliantly* put-together and marketed, much as I dislike it. Read by a *lot* of women, despite the fact that its attitude to women is that they can never be slim enough, young enough or quiet enough. It dislikes asylum seekers, benefits claimants, "the underclass", Europeans, wishywashy pinko liberals, the BBC and The Guardian.
The Express. Was once much bigger than The Daily Mail, now read by older lower-middle-class people. Mildly conservative. Rumours of its closure have been floating around for years
3) The broadsheets
The Times. Read by people who *want* to run the country, accountants, upper management, upper government workers, and some of those who do run the country. Right-wing. Was the paper of record in this country but has sadly lost its authoritative presence since it was bought by Murdoch. Good foreign coverage.
The Daily Telegraph. Run by the people who own the land. Right-wing, high Tory, wealthy with a conscience and a bloody good paper, but its age-profile is a worry, as its readership skews old.
The Independent. Aimed to be just that, but has been in circulation trouble. Tends to be liberal but less left-leaning than the Guardian. (Also less pretentious) Was the paper where Bridget Jones started as a weekly newspaper column)
The Guardian, which is the only truly independent newspaper in the main market, as it's owned by a trust whose only aim is to perpetuate the Guardian and its liberal, campaigning agenda. Nicknamed The Grauniad for its dodgy typesetting. Makes more of its money than any other newspaper from recruitment ads -- has a huge readership in the media, academia, social work, local government work and particularly education because of it. Its news coverage is skewed towards those subjects. The Grangers probably read it. I should also add that Julie Burchill is the most downloaded page on the Guardian website, a fact which greatly pains them *g*
(no subject)
Date: 11/17/03 02:33 pm (UTC)News of the World (AKA News of the Screws) The Sun on Sunday.
The Sunday People --> The Mirror on a Sunday
Sunday Times/Sunday Telegraph/Mail on Sunday/Sunday Express (see above, but on Sunday)
The Observer ---> The Guardian on Sunday, but a slightly less liberal agenda
Some big-selling magazines here are Hello! (Spanish celeb hagiography, probably read by Petunia in the hairdressers), its rival OK!, which is a downmarket version of Hello!, the Radio Times (TV listings mag owned by the BBC), Woman's Own (which is recipes, tips for dealing with recalcitrant children and true-life heartache, might be a guilty pleasure of Mrs Weasley's if she read muggle publications); People's Friend (stories and tips for the over-60s)
Rich country dwellers read Horse and Hound, Country Life
Londoners read Time Out, a listings magazine which is aiming for the young, hip and rich of the capital
Teenagers might read Smash Hits, Just 17 (girl's mag popular in 1980s, little sister version of Cosmo). Dean, keen for news about West Ham, might read the football mag Shoot!
TV shows:
Depends on when you're talking about. Our TV has changed massively in the past decade.
Crimewatch, Channel 4 News (best of the news programmes, IMO) BBC 6 o'clock news; ITV News At 10, Newsnight (very serious current affairs programme, much watched by politicos), Grandstand (Sports on Saturday) Match of the Day (Football coverage until 2000)
Soaps: British soaps are more respectable than US soaps and can often be beautifully written in their own soapy way. They also get miles more viewers than almost anything else.
1) Coronation Street. Set in a Salford backstreet. Said to be the Queen's favourite programme (along with Channel 4 Racing).
The funniest of the soaps because it cultivates characters who teeter on the edge of caricature without tipping into ridiculousness, though it's mostly about scams and infidelity. At its very best, it's as if Terry Pratchett wrote soap opera.
2) EastEnders. Set in the East End of London, known for being gritty and realistic (in inverted commas) and dealing with ripped-from-the-headlines issues.
Tends to wrestle with Corrie for top ratings and its viewership skews younger
3) Emmerdale. Set in Yorkshire village. Used to be about farming folk, now is more about infidelity and is trying to attract a younger audience.
4) Brookside. Went off-air this month but was Channel 4's biggest rated programme for a long time when it tried to out-grit EastEnders with murders and gangsters in Liverpool.
5) Hollyoaks Set in Chester, it is a soap for teenagers about teenagers. Tends to deal with pregnancy, drugs and learning to pass your driving test.
ABC figures
Date: 11/17/03 05:08 pm (UTC)The Sun - 3.5 million copies daily
The Mirror - 2.1 million
The Star - 691,000
The Sport - no figures availables but lotsa big tits, guv'nor
The Mail - 2.4 million
The Express - 946,000
The Times - 700,000
The Torygraph - 1 million
The Grauniad - 397,000
The Indie - 226,000
The FT - 475,000
You should mention that the Mirror is left-wing -- opposed the war in Iraq, etc. -- and that the Express is now pathetically owned by a porn-mag baron.
And then there are the Sundays, which are separate staffs but belong each to a group also publishing a daily. The News of the World ( circ. 4 million) is the sister paper to the Sun; the Sunday Mirror (1.8 million) sister to the Daily M, The Sunday People (would it be sister to the Star? I forget, anyway, 1.3 million); The Mail on Sunday (2.4 million), the Sunday Express (915,000); the Sunday Times (1.4 million), the Sunday Torygraph (780,000), the Observer (sister to the Grauniad, 450,000), the Indie on Sunday (230,000).
And the reason why all these newspapers sell so many copies is that they are extremely entertaining, all of them in their varied styles. Having had Japanese newspapers (who enjoy the same kinds of circulations) translated to me, I can now safely say the British press is world champion on how to make good newspapers, each with their own brief.
(Being French, I can get away with saying it, too...)
(no subject)
Date: 12/18/03 11:51 am (UTC)