Lecture 1 – Film and Network – Is technology changing due to social status or is it the other way around?

The first lecture of Semester 2, the last semester I must add in which we do HCJ *sad face*, we were introduced, well informed more about, to the changes that the introduction of television and film had on journalism and how it has helped it develop into what we know it as today.

As we learnt from previous lectures, Newspapers began with the Gutenberg Press. It’s safe to say that with the help of advances in technology, printing of documentation is a lot easier than it used to be when the Gutenberg pressing system was the only method of printing. The basic layout of newspapers; Big Bold Title, possible headlining picture, catchy by line etc, have all stayed pretty similar to how they were in the 1950’s. 

As you can see from these pictures not a lot has changed. But one thing I have learned from reading the tabloid newspapers that when a story is particularly serious, or “juicy gossip” in most cases from The Sun, the headline takes up a lot of, if not all like in the above picture, of the front page. These papers as we’ve learned previously were conceived from the American-Style ‘Picture Papers’. These picture papers were the nearest thing to television in the 1930’s, before it was invented; they were the people’s way of seeing the world. Following the end of the Second World War there was a huge baby boom in England and by the late 50’s and 60’s this generation of youngsters were in their teenage years. Britain during the 50’s and 60’s was very affluent with full employment across the country and the introduction of the welfare state meant that every citizen was entitled to free healthcare and education.. This however wasn't the biggest point of impact however was in the introduction of Television.

A huge impact on the sales of Newspapers was at the height of the ‘Baby Boom’. But when television was broadcast in 1958 the ‘Baby Boomer Parents’ would be in there late thirty’s/early forty’s, making them a loyal audience to the Newspaper but The Mirror, the biggest paper at the time, didn’t think about the Boomers themselves, they were in their teens and television was a very attractive concept to them. And why wouldn’t it be attractive to them, it carried programming like Coronation Street, they are very appealing to teens, well, the ridiculous ones.ITV also brought a new technique that hadn’t been previously explored, ITV contained advertisement breaks which allowed companies to advertise their products to the younger generation who had disposable income, unlike their parents who suffered the hardships of the war. This allowed advertisers who had previously only been able to advertise to a newspaper audience to reach out to a wider target audience on the small screen. Also because of television, particularly the political side of it, caused the journey of the enlightenment to come to an end. 

Rupert Murdoch, as we know is one of the most well known tycoon of the 20^th and the 21^st century, began his British newspaper empire in the late 1960’s when he bought The Sun and The Mirror in an attempt to persuade young people to stop watching television and pick up a newspaper. He re-launched The Sun as a modern newspaper for the younger generation by including a free pop out magazine containing gossip, horoscopes and the sports results. This became a major part of the newspaper and magazines were also included inside the newspaper. Unfortunately, as we saw not long ago in the news, The Daily Mail was closed down due to the phone hacking scandal and became a Sunday Only newspaper. But during its time, sales of the newspaper increased and so did Murdoch’s empire. Currently, he is the owner of News Corporation and Twentieth Century Fox Broadcast Company.