Task 2: Research

The Daily Mirror is a British national daily tabloid newspaper which was founded in 1903. It is owned by parent company Reach plc (previously called Trinity Mirror). From 1985 to 1987, and from 1997 to 2002, the title on its masthead was simply The Mirror, not Daily. The newspaper is the fifth-most-circulated daily newspaper in the UK with over 500,000 copies.

History

The paper was original launched on 2 November 1903 by Alfred Harmsworth as a newspaper for women, run by women. The newspaper was intended to mirror the feminine life. The paper costs just one penny, which was equivalent to around 44p in our modern currency. After success was not immediate, in 1904, Harmsworth decided to turn the paper into a "pictorial newspaper" and give it a wider and more broad focus, aiming at both men and women. Hamilton Fyfe was appointed as editor and all of the female journalists working on the paper were fired. By issue 269, circulation of the newspaper had grown to 200,000 and it was very successful. The newspaper focused a lot on photographs and even dropped the price to half a penny.

By the mid 20th century, the Mirror had become the United Kingdom’s best-selling daily tabloid newspaper, mostly due to the mass working class readership it had and still does have.

Online Presence & Appeals

The Daily Mirror boasts an extremely successful online presence with its website Mirror.co.uk. The site is an easy-to-navigate, quick way to access the top stories of the day or week. The paper also has platforms on multiple social media networks such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram with a combined following of approximately 4.5 million users. These platforms, although sometimes used as a quick way to convey main news headlines, the majority of the time they are used to share smaller, sometimes more light hearted news stories. This way of presenting the news has many appeals. It's modern, on-the-go and allows the readers to engage with the story through sharing and commenting.

Ideological Concerns

The Daily Mirror describes itself as being "to the left of the middle" in regards to its political alignment. The paper has backed the Labour party in every UK election since 1945.

To many, The Mirror is known for its strong social conscience. After the disaster of the Titanic and the death of thousands, the paper led the campaign for there to be more lifeboats on ships. Moreover, the paper has fought alongside families of the 96 victims of the Hillsborough Disaster to help them get justice and campaigned against the ivory trade and seal clubbing, helping to create the World Wildlife Fund. The Daily Mirror also campaigned for a change in organ donation law on organ donation, saving a potential 500 lives per year.

In addition, the paper holds the annual "Pride of Britain Awards", celebrating the ordinary people of this country who have achieved extraordinary things. This reflects the very best of the Mirror and its values.

News Values

The newspaper is a 'red top', stereotypically meaning that they tend to place some focus on lighthearted celebrity news and wit, in contrast to more 'traditional' broadsheet papers who tend to deliver the news in a more serious tone. With this, stories involving elite people and personality are likely to be of importance to the paper. For example, Meghan Markle is among the celebrities who are very often featured in the publication. Furthermore, the newspaper, like all sources of news, enjoy having an exclusive story to share with its readers. From exclusive interviews, images to polls, The Daily Mirror is known to slap an 'EXCLUSIVE" sign on everything that it can.

How is The Mirror typically Tabloid

Tabloid journalism puts emphasis on such topics as sensational crime stories, astrology, celebrity gossip and television. The Daily mirror is typical of this in many ways especially through its use of language. The paper will use puns such as "My bride and joy", slang such as "Tory Cronies" and also colloquial alliteration such as "Sneaky sneaky". The articles also tend to present the shocking information to the reader first, in order to entice them to read the rest of the article as apposed to broadsheet papers who tend to present the information differently.