Curran and Seaton present the view that a free press relies on a free market where individual newspapers can compete through their political stances and points of view. Analyse the ways that the i attempts to establish a distinctive identity within this free market. To what extent has this been successful?
According to Curran and Seaton's Power and Industry theory, newspapers should be liberal and anyone should be able to make one compete with media products. The owners may impose their unique perspectives and political views on their newspapers, which is evident in the i’s attempt to create much more distinctive features in comparison to other traditional titles in the marketplace.
The I newspaper was originally launched as a sister paper to The Independent but has quite different and positive characteristics compared to its parent paper. The i has a moderate stance and is not biased towards any particular political party, unlike the Independent since it has been seen as leaning to the left-wing of the political spectrum and occasionally called out for emphasizing too much on views rather than news. The other newspapers are either leaning towards the left or right, which may cause an imbalance in the diversity between different points of view. The I paper, on the other hand, offer opinions from both parties, along with a moderate tone of voice. An example of the I's centre political stance is the article about the boost of Britain’s economy due to the Brexit deal and how companies must cope with this disruption. To balance the article, the editors provide both opinions of Brexit and consider the advantages and disadvantages of leaving the EU. While delivering the news, the editors remain a neutral language and point of view since they did not specifically emphasize the pros nor cons of Brexit to stir the readers’ emotions but considered both sides of the argument with a similar amount of information. Therefore, it can be seen that the I newspaper has a completely moderate perspective which makes it stand out from other newspapers, where the ownership heavily influences the paper’s political stance and viewpoints.
Moreover, the i cares about the audience by paying attention to the quality and content, as well as ensuring that the audience will be informed with accurate and truthful facts and information. The editors pay attention to the news quality as they mainly report about significant issues that are recently happening in the UK and other countries. The paper is quite different from the mainstream media since the top articles are often about politics, economics, and current social issues regarding gender equality and women rights. For instance, due to the Covid outbreak, the I editors prioritize up-to-date news about this problem, including the vaccine effectiveness, lockdown restrictions, the number of people recovering or dying from the virus. They also report about the effects and consequences of the Covid pandemic to the economy, physical and mental health of UK and global citizens. For example, the article "Covid lockdown a year on things will never be the same again" stated that everyday life will never quite be the same again as the health emergency fades and is replaced by a period of profound economic uncertainty. Unlike some popular newspapers such as The Daily Mail, in which it focuses on irrelevant and unimportant ‘news’ such as celebrity scandals with Saweetie, an American rapper being cheated on and the Royal Family with the interview between Oprah Winfrey and Megan Markle and Prince Harry about racism.
All in all, the i is a unique and independent newspaper and its values make the paper different from others. It provides the audience members with meaningful and open-minded points of view on various news values to those found in the mainstream media. Despite the fact that the newspaper is owned by DMGT, one of the largest conglomerates and has the power to shape people's ideologies, the i is not blinded by money and stays true to its brand identity.
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