MASS MEDIA IN GREAT BRITAIN

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Wales

Wales has one daily morning newspaper, the “Western Mail”, published in Gardiff, with a circulation of 76,200 throughout Wales. In north Wales “the Daily Post”, published in Liverpool, gives wide coverage to events in the area. “Wales on Sunday”, published in Cardiff, has a circulation of 53,100. Evening papers published in Wales are the “South Wales Echo”, Cardiff; the “South Wales Argus”, Newport; “The South Wales Evening Post”, Swansea;

The weekly press (82 publications) includes English-language papers, some of which carry articles in Welsh; bilingual papers; and Welsh-language papers. Welsh community newspapers receive an annual grant as part of the Government’s wider financial support for the Welsh language.

Scotland

Scotland has six morning, six evening and four Sunday newspapers. Local weekly newspapers number 115. The daily morning papers, with circulations of between 85,900 and 740,000, are “The Scotsman”; the “Herald”; the “Daily Record”. The daily evening papers have circulations in the range of 10,400 to 164,330 and are the ”Evening News” of Edinburgh, Glasgow’s Evening Times, Dundee’s “Evening Telegraph”, Aberdeen’s “Evening Express”, the “Greenock Telegraph”

The Sunday papers are the “Sunday Mail”, the “Sunday Post” , the “Scottish Sunday Express (printed in Manchester) as well as quality broadsheet paper.

Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland has two morning newspapers, one evening and three Sunday papers, all published in Belfast with circulations ranging from 20,000 to 170, 567. They are the “News Letter”, the “Sunday News”, the “Sunday World”. There are bout 45 weekly papers.

Most local daily papers belong to one or other of the bog press empires, which leave their local editors to decide editorial policy. Mostly they try to avoid any appearance of regular partisanship, giving equal weight to each major political party. They give heavy weight to local news and defend local interests and local industries.

The total circulation of all provincial daily newspapers, morning and evening together, is around eight million: about half as great as that of the national papers. In spite of this, some provincial papers are quite prosperous. They do not need their own foreign correspondents; they receive massive local advertising, particularly about things for sale.

The truly local papers are weekly. They are not taken very seriously, being mostly bought for the useful information contained in their advertisements. But for a foreign visitor wishing to learn something of the flavour of a local community, the weekly local paper can be useful. Some of these papers are now given away, not sold out but supported by the advertising.

The four most famous provincial newspapers are “The Scotsman” (Edinburg), the “Glasgow herald”, the “Yorkshire Post” (Leeds) and the “Belfast Telegraph”, which present national as well as local news. Apart from these there are many other daily, evening and weekly papers published in cities and smaller towns. The present local news and are supported by local advertisements.

The Weekly, Periodical and Daily Press

Good English writing is often to be found in the weekly political and literary journals, all based in London, all with nationwide circulations in the tens of thousands. “The Economist”, founded in 1841, probably has no equal everywhere. It has a coloured cover and a few photographs inside, so that it look like “Time” or “Newsweek”, but its reports have more depth and breadth than any these. It covers world affair, and even its American section is more informative about America than its American equivalents. Although by no means “popular”, it is vigorous in its comments, and deserves the respect in which it is generally held. “Spectator” is a weekly journal of opinion. It regularly contains well-written articles, often politically slanted. It devotes nearly half its space to literature and the arts.

Glossy weekly or monthly illustrated magazines cater either for women or for any of a thousand special interests. Almost all are based in London, with national circulations, and the women’s magazines sell millions of copies. These, along with commercial television, are the great educators of demand for the new and better goods offered by the modern consumer society. In any big newsagent’s shop the long rows of brightly covered magazines seem to go on for ever; beyond the large variety of appeals to women and teenage girls come those concerned with yachting, tennis, model railways, gardening and cars. For every activity there is a magazine, supported mainly by its advertisers, and from time to time the police brings a pile of pornographic magazines to local magistrates, who have the difficult task of deciding whether they are sufficiently offensive to be banned.

These specialist magazines are not cheap. They live on an infinite variety of taste, curiosity and interest. Their production, week by week and month by month, represents a fabulous amount of effort and of felled trees. Television has not killed the desire to read.

The best-known among the British national weekly newspapers are as follows.

“The Times” (1785) is called the paper of the Establishment. “The Times” has three weekly supplements, all appeared and sold separately. The Literary Supplement” is devoted almost entirely to book reviews, and covers all kinds of new literature. It makes good use of academic contributors, and has at last, unlike “The Economist”, abandoned its old tradition of anonymous reviews. “New Scientist” published by the company which owns the “Daily Mirror”, has good and serious articles about scientific research, often written by academics yet useful for the general reader. This paper is most famous of all British newspapers. Politically it is independent, but is generally inclined to be sympathetic to the Conservative Party. It is not a government organ, though very often its leading articles may be written after private consultation with people in the Government. It has a reputation for extreme caution, though it has always been a symbol of solidity in Britain. Its reporting is noted for reliability and completeness and especially in foreign affairs. Its reputation for reflecting or even anticipating government policy gives it an almost official tone.

The popular newspapers are now commonly called “tabloids”. This word first used for pharmaceutical substances compressed into pills. The tabloid newspapers compress the news, and are printed on small sheets of paper. They use enormous headlines for the leading items of each day, which are one day political, one day are to do with a crime, one day sport, one day some odd happening. They have their pages of political report and comment, short, often over-simplified but vigorously written and (nowadays) generally responsible. They thrive on sensational stories and excitement.

“The Guardian” (until 1959-“The Manchester Guardian”) has become a truly national paper rather than one specially connected with Manchester. In quality, style and reporting it is nearly equal with “The Times”. In politics it is described as “radical”. It was favourable to the Liberal Party and tends to be rather closer in sympathy to the Labour party than to the Conservatives. It has made great progress during the past years, particularly among the intelligent people who find “the Times” too uncritical of the Establishment.

‘The Daily Telegraph” (1855) is the quality paper with the largest circulation (1.2 million compared with “The Times’s 442 thousand and “The Guardian’s” 500 thousand). In theory it is independent, but in practice it is such caters for the educated and semi-educated business and professional classes. Being well produced and edited it is full of various information and belongs to the same class of journalism as “The Times” and “The Guardian”.