The Tabloid World: Morality, Ethics and the Decline of the News
The current advertising climate in news media exemplifies the interdependence of advertising and journalism in selling the news. Many factors play a part in maintaining the advertising-journalism relationship, however, commercialisation is the most significant as it has the most definitive role. To thoroughly understand this concept one must interpret the paradigm that exists between journalism, news media and the advertising industry. It’s also important to see how a current example, being the ‘Tabloid Delivery’ commercial (The Daily Telegraph, 2012), fits into this role and illustrates the concept of commercialisation. Looking ahead, the impacts of the commercialisation by advertisement on the news media industry and on journalism are also poignant to examine as they will shape its future growth.
Journalism, news media and the advertising industry share a delicate symbiosis in order to sell the news effectively. There’s a dependence that exists within this group that the commercialisation of the news media industry has made prominent. In essence, the press was unable to maintain independence because no one was willing to pay for it (Oliver, 2014). These elements are unequivocally related and can be viewed as such by seeing the direct correlation between the decline of newspaper circulations (Roy Morgan Research, 2014) and the reduction in advertisement revenue (Pew Research Centre, 2014). The news media industry and the advertising industry are both businesses and journalism as well as brands are the products they try to sell. What effects one does effect the other in this model. In order to capitalise on this, journalism had to step back from focusing on ‘quality’ news in order to be more profitable and sustainable for the future of the industry (The McKinsey Quarterly, 2005). Tabloidisation rose from the ashes of a flailing news industry, giving audiences sexy, sensationalist, scare headline filled and scandalous news (Yorgo, 1997). News that appealed to the masses and returned stabilising profit margins (Jurkowitz, 2013). Tabloids were an essential step in combining the industries and solidifying a place in the market, gathering the advertising industry and the journalism industry into a productive union. This union allowed the news to be sold in a way that was both advantageous for advertisers marketing their products and journalists delivering the news.
Contemporary news media advertisements reflect how the industry sells the news through their obligatory partnerships. An example of this is the Daily Telegraph’s 2012 commercial Telegraph Delivery published in Sydney, NSW. This commercial made as broad a statement as possible in an effort to attract customers who will sustain their business model through paper sales as well as brand awareness. Not only was news sold in the advertisement but it was sold in conjunction with “sport, entertainment, photos, reviews, recipes, gossip, guides and more”. News isn’t able to be sold as a single entity anymore (Simon, 2008). The Daily Telegraph were capitalising on a market audience that is becoming saturated with popular culture through the development of mass communication technologies (McNair, 2006). The moving image has become the most dominant form of communication and advertisements are utilising this to be able to spread their message deeper into the public sphere than ever before. This is how popular opinion trickled into news media, communication technologies and brought personal issues into the postmodern public sphere (Lumby, 1999). The focus on things that accompany news in the advertisement, things that are linked with popular opinion, are an example of how the public now selects the news. It’s up to the attention of people to decide what information is appropriate to be placed into the zeitgeist (Jarvis, 2013) and this is shown by the content selected to appear in the advertisements and in fact most advertisements at the current time. In the current climate Telegraph Delivery exemplifies role of advertising in the news media industry but it doesn’t extend to levels that some corporations are going to with sexist and misogynistic news that exploit women (Cochrane, 2014) or the exploitation of disastrous events (Freeman-Greene, 2011). Contemporary advertising illustrates the ways in which journalism and advertising interact with society in selling the news.
The commercialisation of news media has had a lasting effect on journalism as an industry, bringing with it innovations in advertisement and a new style of presenting the news. The profits that advertisements gave news organisations shouldn’t be seen as corporate shackles but rather as a means of freeing that industry to become independent and mostly self-sustaining (Curran, 2012). It was a positive sign that the press could maintain a more objectively controlled grasp on their content and it was the public that made the demand for a ‘popular press’. Popular opinion became more influential than fact (Lumby, 1999) and the public were more appreciative of the interpretation of facts than having to decipher them themselves. This is what is known as the decline of the news, the decrease in the standards of journalism (Harrington, 2008). It brought with it news that sells but news that wasn’t ‘hard’, however the industry was able to use this as a way of maintaining quality broadsheet mediums through the profits they accumulated from their tabloid counterparts. This emerging platform allowed room for consumers and holders of capital to face each other and voice their opinions (Lumby, 1999). It was the origin of many civil rights movements and organisations benefitting the public and it essentially made it possible for the public to feel like they were part of the product, part of the news. News media moving into the commercial arena was an innovative venture creating many opportunities for the journalism and advertising dynamic to explore when selling the news.
Journalism, news media and the advertising industry are business constructs and they rely on a steady income to survive and thrive. Advertising plays a key role in the relationship and allows the other elements to be able to produce relevant content in their given contexts. The alliance of these groups is clearly the cornerstone of advertising in journalism. As this relationship has progressed into the future it’s easy to see how contemporary advertising exemplifies how news media has been commercialised for a modern audience. There are lasting and interconnected effects of this commercialisation within the news media and advertising paradigm and they plot the course of this relationship for the future. Ultimately, the current state of advertising in the journalism-news media world reflects a harmonious interdependence whilst attempting to sell the news.
Harrison Johnstone 