THE STORY OF NEWS: RESEARCH by Alexandra Masters

THE STORY OF NEWS: TOMOR ROW’S CHAPTER RESEARCH

FIGURE ONE: Guardian Rolls, London 2014 [own photograph]

ALEX ANDR A MASTERS N0393173 FASH30002

------------------------------------------------------THE STORY OF NEWS: TOMOR ROWS CHAPTER RESEARCH

-------------------------------------------------------An exploration of how in contemporary society the newspaper can promote seeking knowledge through communicating information and news stories in a visually arresting and fashionable way.

--------------------------------------------------------Tomorrows Chapter tackles three core areas regarding the newspaper industry: the changing role of data, the complex relations of news and society, and the fragile state of the news industry today, therefore the need for re-thinking. From this in-depth and critical research, a newspaper will be composed for contemporary society unrestricted by the conventions of yesterday.

Throughout the research, there will be reflection as well as prediction due to the nature of an industry conceived in the 15th century. Finally, primary research is of upmost importance, both in carrying a 35mm film camera at all times and talking directly to experts and interested citizens.

--------------------------------------------------------WORD COUNT: 2, 162

-------------------------------------------------------Before the research unfolds it is worth hypothesising that THE NEWSPAPERS TODAY OFFER DISJOINTED CONTENT IN THE SAME ARCHAIC FORMAT, BOTH IN REPORTAGE AND DESIGN. TODAY, THERE IS A NEED FOR A COHERENT NEWSPAPER THAT SERVES SOCIETY AS THE PAMPHLET ONCE DID - WITH A BEGINNING, A MIDDLE AND AN END.

-------------------------------------------------------4

-------------------------------------------------------p.47 FROM RAGS, TO PULP, TO SCREENS: REVISITED Conclusion:

-------------------------------------------------------p.37 RADICAL THINKING IN INFINITE DIMENSIONS Research:

-------------------------------------------------------p.25 THE ESSENTIAL INTELLECTUAL OPIUM OF THE MODERN WORLD Research:

-------------------------------------------------------p.15 THE TWENTY-FOUR HOUR BANQUET OF DATA Research:

-------------------------------------------------------p.11 FROM RAGS, TO PULP, TO SCREENS Introduction:

-------------------------------------------------------p.7 A N OV E RV I EW O F I N T E N T IO N S Methodology

FIGURE TWO: Newsagent, London 2014 [own photograph]

THE ESSEN TI A L I N TELLECTUA L OPIUM OF THE MODER N WOR LD

Concerns itself with the role of news, and the need for substance and an understanding of wider spheres than our own in society. Philosopher Alain du Botton published a book The News: A Users Manual in February 2014 in which Botton explores the role of news and how it needs to change for tomorrow. Botton also delivered a sermon with the School of Life wherein he spoke of the news today, and why it is necessary. As well as philosophical reasons, in this section diagrams will be necessary to explore political, economic, social and technological influences of the news in the modern world. Most aptly put by Andrew Marr [2014], this chapter looks at how the news acts as a ‘battered mirror of the times’.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

An exploration of new information culture and a look at how news has changed with the advent of new technologies and globalisation. The most relevant things to comment on would be the ‘24-hour’ news banquet’ [Marr, 2014] that is the news via digital platforms and the revolution of the hyperlink. The hyperlink has been exasperated by diluting news into ‘sugar’ via Instagram [Lewis, 2014]. There is a constant need engrained in society to feel informed, and connected at all times. Key books, such as Being Digital and The Invention of News will inform the section. Commentary will also look into the publishing industry and the news industry as a whole. Consumer culture will be examined and how media platforms have influenced the industry.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

THE TWENTY-FOUR HOUR BANQUET OF DATA

R ADICAL THINKING IN INFINITE DIMENSIONS

Looks forward to the change in news and the timeliness of the need for innovation. It is at this point it may to necessary to challenge the meaning of the report, whilst gently introducing conversations that were held with experts with regards to the state of the industry. Mark Porter’s reinvention of the Guardian and Patrick Burgoyne’s approach to Creative Review’s editorial will inform the section from first-hand discussions. The two books that were published in February 2014 [The News: A Users Manual and The Invention of News] have created a lot of conversation around the subject at the beginning of the year, which will be referred to. Other cultural discourses will also be referred to in how they influence out approach.

‘It is so lumpen, so sad that nobody has shown them (the young ) that opening up a newspaper is the key to looking classy and smart. Never mind the bronze-plated stuff about the role of the press in a democracy – a newspaper, kiddo, is about style. Whether you’re sitting or standing, indoors or out, leaning against a hitching

FIGURE THREE: The Rest is Noise [New Statesman, 7-13 February 2014 p. 48]

post or planting your brogans on a desk, a newspaper gives you a whole rich vocabulary of gestureâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Garrison Keillor (2007)

FIGURE FOUR: Magazine Bundles, London 2014 [own photograph]

-------------------------------------------------------

FROM RAGS, TO PULP, TO SCREENS -------------------------------------------------------

FIGURE FIVE: PRESS, PRESS, London 2014 [own photograph]

The Gazette, a single sheet broadsheet paper, was the only paper published in England for fourteen years (Pettegree 2014 p.233). The idea that we could rely on one source to acquire news today is inconceivable. The Gazette served a society of active citizens, as opposed to mindless shoppers (Marr 2014 p.28); a society that would read, understand and engage with ink-covered atoms of news. It was all society had to understand the surrounding world - unlike today. Today, far from information on mulch, we enter a complex multimedia age (Pettegree 2014 p.1). The way we consume, communicate and promote information is changing; the distinctions between mediums in today’s visual landscape are dissolving (Staples 2002 p.151). Dissolving so that publishing and the wider spheres that surround have transferred from products to services, from newspapers to news organizations (Franchi 2014 p.166). This has caused a necessary focus on the way content is cooked and presented whilst surrounded by a disorientating plethora of data (Franchi 2014 p.76). Within this data filled world the newspaper is a unique, finite and ephemeral platform for communication, which has the potential to offer real value to the readers mental substance and physical appearance. In the words of author Garrison Keillor (2007), the newspaper ‘gives you a whole rich vocabulary of gesture’. It is nonetheless increasingly overlooked when compared with the immediacy of digital platforms. It is since the birth of digital that society is more informed than ever (Marr 2014 p.28), but information has never been so undervalued. THE FUTURE REQUIRES NEW WAYS TO EFFECTIVELY COMMUNICATE AND PROMOTE THE SEEKING OF INFORMATION, AND THE UNDERSTANDING OF IT.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY

FIGURE SIX: More Rolls Than a News Factory, London 2014 [own photograph]

-------------------------------------------------------

THE TWENTY-FOUR HOUR BANQUET OF DATA -------------------------------------------------------

FIGURE SEVEN: Paper Rhythms, London 2014 [own photograph]

FIGURE EIGHT: Sea of Selfies, London 2014 [own photograph]

FIGURE NINE: Sea of Screens, London 2014 [own photograph]

A culture of knowledge has developed with apps like Instagram offering fifteen-second news bulletins, and the Daily Mail’s ‘side bar of shame’ – much explored by philosopher Alain de Botton (2014) (see page 4 within CASE STUDIES). This babyish news consumption sits within a twenty-four hour news banquet (Marr 2014 p.27). An infinite landscape defined by a lack of definition: a blurring of the edges: an infiniteness of space and time: possibilities: scrolls: clicks: searches: data. This vast landscape of data permitted the formation of horizontal channels (Franchi 2013 p.17). Where previously a vertical hierarchy placed an elite few in a position to decide and distribute data, now the information landscape is entirely devoid of barriers of publication (Helfand 2002 p.102). More widely, the infrastructure of globalisation surrounding the banquet allows for global conversation, which along with the algorithms of Facebook creates global networks (Alderson 2014). The serendipity of such sites makes them alluring, though dangerous, for they breakdown news whereby users only consume the knowledge of their friends (Zuckerman 2010). To expand upon Helen Lewis’ argument regarding bite-size news (Today Programme 2014), a little bit of sugar on top of your porridge is fine, but if you only consume sugar it is damaging. This sugary breed of news acts on ‘clicktivism’ with instant gratification (Cowley 2014 p.5), but thereafter encourages complacency and narcissism – FIGURE EIGHT demonstrates such effects. Across the board, websites and social media sites are attempting to dominate as a source of information - all chasing mass traffic. The newspapers attempt to keepup by producing their own ways to share content. Doing so across social media, utilising the speed of digital, they come close to providing as personalised news as is possible. This atomisation of news changes the focus to scrolling through articles, as opposed to a single product. Nicholas Neroponte’s (1995 p.153) ideas of ‘trained butlers’ delivering personalised ‘Daily Me’ news information, is currently selfnavigated through the news’ atomisation into articles. The newspaper is desperately trying to understand the changing consumer with infinite offerings of data, where tangible products made of paper are mutating into intangible services for knowledge (Franchi 2013 p.19).

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

NEWS IS BEING BROKEN DOWN INTO BITS AND CONSUMED LIKE SUGAR (Today Programme 2014).

FIGURE TEN: Wardour News and Creative Review, London 2014 [own photograph]

These relentless speculations of a digital future are perhaps ignoring social and human values. Patrick Burgoyne (2014), editor of Creative Review, advocated the value of print over digital traffic. Burgoyne (2014) stressed the importance of the readers willingness to pay to be part of a community - a sea of people that have a relationship to a distinct editorial point of view. Creative Review has around 6,500 print subscribers and 30,000 looking at the magazine online. If chasing traffic, online seems to be the successful platform, however, clicks are not connections. The subscribers are who matter Burgoyne (2014) explained, as they will ensure that the publication is financially viable in the future. From a business perspective, it is wiser to look after the few willing to invest, as the monetary income from online hits is also minimal compared with print. Burgoyne (2014) echoed Murdoch in saying that news is no longer reliant on ink on paper. News is whatever we want it to be. We have seen the transition from an industrial to an information age, and we are now in a post-information age (Negroponte 1995 p.163). WE HAVE A PLETHORA OF DATA, NOW IT IS A MATTER OF DISCOVERING HOW BEST TO COOK AND PRESENT IT.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rupert Murdoch said in 2006 that “a new generation of media consumers has risen demanding content delivered when they want it, how they want it, and very much as they want it”. He continued, “I think in the future that newsprint and ink will be just one of many channels for our readers. Content is being repurposed to suit the needs of a contemporary audience” (Franchi 2013 p.140). The newspaper survives in its offering of wider context, but the hyperlink to the knowledge society is what the printing press was to the Victorians (Marr 2014 p.27): quick, digestible news prevails. However, the vast amount of information available across digital channels means information is less valuable in its atomised state. It is the editing and production of an attractive and desirable service for the end user that is of superior value (Meyer 2004 p. 230).

â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;On the way back from the chain supermarket where they shop, though it closed down the local grocer and pays slave wages, with new bags though they should take old bags,

FIGURE ELEVEN: Psycho, King and John, Nottingham 2014 [own photograph]

leaving with broccoli from Kenya and tomatoes from Chile and unfair coffee and sugary crap and the wrong ne ws pape r.â&#x20AC;&#x2122;

(Smith 2012.p.80)

â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;The conventional media apparatus seems to be disorientated. It arose under c u l t u r a l , economic and social c o n d i t i o n s that were quite different from current ones, and all it can do to overcome its disorientation is study the changes currently underway and seek to understand how it can a d apt .â&#x20AC;&#x2122; (Franchi, 2013 p.17)

-------------------------------------------------------

THE ESSENTIAL INTELLECTUAL OPIUM OF THE MODER N WOR LD -------------------------------------------------------

FIGURE TWELVE: Observer [Changing Newspaper 1972 p. 173]

plentiful, though lacking in context – needs to inform the relentless redesigning of newspapers. Newspaper design is more than ‘sugar coating’ the surface, as the content affects our perception of the world (Mukarovsky 1970 p.23), and the paper externalises the intellectual aspirations and political persuasions of the reader. Mark Porter (2014), who famously redesigned The Guardian in 2005, said plainly that although designers such as himself have been hired to revamp the veneer of the paper, the content, therefore the information consumed, is in the same archaic format as that of previous centuries. (FIGURE TWELVE doesn’t look as archaic as one would expect.) Such schizophrenic content means that news is failing us (Marr 2014 p.24) if the ideological notion is true, that an informed society makes a better society (Botton 2014). In a democratic society, like most in the Western world, citizens are encouraged to engage with politics. Therefore we need the news to communicate information to us. But when the burgeoning of news reportage took place centuries ago, the chasing of mass readerships began between the national papers, thus forming a relationship between the news and the entertainment industry (Pettegree, 2014 p.6). Selling papers was placed above selling knowledge. A contemporary reaction to this (featured in FIGURE EIGHT) is an event called Sunday Papers Live, held in London, that encourages conversation alongside performances and talks on current events of both a political and cultural nature. It is an innovative way of communicating news to a contemporary and interested audience - page 8 of CASE STUDIES analysis this in more depth.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

THE DECREASED VALUE OF INFORMATION –

FIGURE THIRTEEN: Changing Newspaper [Changing Newspaper 1972 p. 178]

News today faces new challenges concerning society, where ultimately editorial designers have become behavioural scientists (Norman 2010). In an organisational structure of interaction, experience and services, the designer/ behavioural scientist considers society’s needs, wants, clicks and reads. FIGURE FOURTEEN lists wider influences that are affecting the newspaper, and therefore supports the need for a change in approaches to their design. News is essential, but in a society made up of individuals influenced by different information coming from ever-increasing sources (Meyer 2004 p.5) it is a case of understanding the needs of a particular segment of society.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Entertainment for the masses can be found in the tabloids; the newspapers most loyal to ‘false alarm theory’ (Frost 2003 p.52). Such sensationalist reportage sells the most papers – value: zero, clicks: eternal. These tabloids, filled with the most nonsensical and alarming content, see the highest readerships in England. In February 2014 the Sun, on average, sold 2,048,977 daily papers, whereas The Guardian sold 196,425 (Guardian). All papers offer a bias of sorts, but tabloid reportage seems to guide mass society with articles such as The Sun’s ‘Monster who ate new-born babies head’ (Cutts 2014) and The Mail’s ‘Jailed: Tattooed mother who bit chunk from woman’s ear then spat it on to dance floor because she was so furious that a UB40 record was turned off at pub disco’ (Williams 2014). A society guided by false alarms cannot be intellectually stable (Orwell 1946 p.33). This may provoke ideas that society is nasty, however, Botton (2014 p.81) argues that it is not that we are shallow or inherently evil, but that ‘the news is not being presented in a compelling enough way’. It could be argued that it is not just the presentation of news that is causing the problem, but also that, as a result of the disintegration of a vertical hierarchy of information, there is less regulation of what is valuable news.

POLITICAL

ECONOMIC ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1. COPYRIGHT was always the ‘bone-marrow of western intellectual tradition’, but now the web is throwing writers of all kinds into unknown territory (McCrum 2014 p.24). Regulation of publishing has diminished, which makes it hard to monetize, but equally self-published novels such as ‘50 Shades of Grey’ have allowed unknown writers to reach heights never possible before.

1. 83% of people in the world live in SOCIETIES WITHOUT INDEPENDENT PRESS (Zuckerman 2010) – the facts we are presented with are greatly skewed by external forces of power. 2. Political affairs are generally offered as AN ASSAULT OF FACTS WITH COMPLEX CONTENT. Unless it concerns the reader directly, most look for an easy, trivial story about sex, or violence (Marr 2014 p.24). The politically concerned account for a small amount of population - The newspaper sales demonstrate this (ABC: National daily newspapers, February 2014 via Guardian).

2. There have been constant tests about HOW TO MONETISE DIGITAL paywalls have not worked - ‘In 2010 Rupert Murdoch decided to try it with the London Times, by introducing a fee for accessing the newspaper’s website. In three weeks the site lost 90% of its readers’ – (Franchi 2013 p.20)

3. ‘THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS GENUINELY NONPOLITICAL LITERATURE, and least of all in an age like our own, when fears, hatreds, and loyalties of a directly political kind are near the surface of everyone’s consciousness’ (Orwell 1946 p.31) – Writing, journalistic or not will offer some form of political persuasion. The newspaper will always be the most affected.

3. THE DAILY MAIL is the newspaper that is successful both in online traffic and newspaper sales – 11,768,620 online (ABC: newspaper traffic Jan 2014 via Guardian) and 1,727,118 daily newspaper sales (ABC: National daily newspapers, February 2014 via Guardian).

4. The POLITICAL SLANT – or bias is what differentiates one newspaper from another (Franchi 2013 p. 117).

4. Readers are aware that INFORMATION IS FREE ONLINE, therefore of the two core incomes for newspapers (readers and advertisers), means the reason for readers to purchase information they already know within the newspaper is undermined. This threatens the ties with advertisers’ as newspapers need commercial value. (Based on a self-initiated survey where 79% of 42 participants said it was the reason they didn’t purchase a newspaper)

5. ‘Well, CORPORATIONS AND POLITICIANS ARE WHAT FEED THE NEWSPAPER, that’s the whole gangsta, the robber, baron of the way the world works in democratic society.’ (Paul, 2014) 6. The escalating commercial takeover of everyday life is causing talks about the ‘DEPOLITICIZATION’ OF SOCIETY’ – people are frustrated by the disjuncture between presentation and reality in politics’ (Bierut 2002 p. 17) – the newspaper is closely associated with politics, and therefore the increasing distance of society and politics adds to the newspapers fragility.

FIGURE FOURTEEN: P.E.S.T influences of the newspaper [own diagram]

5. There is a strong focus on UK, USA, China and the Middle-East because they are big economies – but there are OPPORTUNITIES IN OTHER PLACES too (Porter 2014). Particularly in Italy, there is a ‘passionate young audience’. 6. ‘The more a newspaper stretches its readability to reach a BROAD AUDIENCE, the more it charges per thousand for its advertising’ (Meyer 2004 p.122) – There are great financial benefits acknowledged by the news industry of being broad and sensationalist with content – but the damage in the quality of reporting needs to be acknowledged.

TECHNOLOGICAL

1. GENERATION-Y ARE DISENFRANCHISED by the news today (The Media Show 2014) – the future is fragile if future generations are distrusting of the current media – a non-monopoly news platform may be the answer. Vice is making interesting moves.

1. The Internet makes the world ‘better’ by being more DEMOCRATIC AND MERITOCRATIC (Franchi 2013 p.17), which for the news, allows talent to prevail over monopoly.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

SOCIAL

2. The buzzword has become ‘DISCOVERABILITY’ (The Bottom Line 2013) – with such a plethora of data online and so many options – how does any form of publication get discovered?

2. ‘COSMOPOLITINESS’ is the degree to which an individual is orientated outside his social system’ (Rogers, 2003) – newspapers with global content are more like to sell within cities where the environment is cosmopolitan and secular. 3. Generalist news organizations are trying to OFFER EVERYTHING AT ONCE: information, opinion, videos, paper, tweets, memes, features – the imperative to have a distinctive voice is particularly hard (Leslie 2014)

3. IBM retail regards the “CONSUMER WITH THEIR MOBILE PHONE” as one measurable instrument. Essentially, our lives are constantly connected by hand-held devices that can get any information we desire in seconds (Schwartz 2011 p.11) – which questions the need for a paper platform to communicate data, if that is its sole purpose.

4. The role of the ‘IMPERIAL EDITOR’ is being questioned (Leslie 2014). Data now provides the information about what is ‘important’, which has completely thrown the hierarchy of the value of information.

4. MOORE’S LAW bases itself under the rapid acceleration of chips. This speed of change is leading to religious emotions in tech circles that devote utopian ideas of the future to technological advance (Lanier 2013 p.7).

5. There is a sense within the online sphere, and therefore society that EVERYONE HAS A VOICE and can have their say. This has mutated to social networking sites, below the line comments and a focus on personalisation. (Burgoyne 2014).

5. ‘SILICON VALLEY CULTURE’ (Lanier 2013 p.9) is affecting every industry – a digitally focused tunnel vision of the future. 6. The newspaper has forever chased TRAFFIC (Hutt 1973 p.53) to build the largest readership, however the Internet now beats them all. For breaking news, Twitter now acts as the key platform.

6. SOCIETY EXPECTS TO BE ENTERTAINED all the time – newspapers long, but disjointed format to too much effort in a world full of distractions and mindless scrolling (Howard 2005 p. 36)

7. The newspaper still seems to be creating REPLICAS OF THEIR CONTENT ONLINE – this is shooting the newspaper in the foot and encouraging its redundancy (Franchi 2013 p.143)

7. Within Maslow’s hierarchy, (1943) the core element is ‘DESIRE’ within a consumerist society – where does desire lie when concerning the newspaper? Newspaper may look today at becoming more aspirational.

8. THE HYPERLINK is an easy and serendipitous innovation – now considered the ‘printing press’ of today’s knowledge economy (Marr 2014 p.27)

8.. MOST PUBLICATIONS ARE AN EXTENSION OF THE PR INDUSTRY – encouraging trivial content (Porter 2013)

9. The suggestions that reading on the web by most is actually ‘SKIMMING’ (Rashbass 2012) – hence moves by publications such as the Economist to focus online as a place for discussion, and print for reflection (Burgoyne 2014).

10. A SMALL BITE of interesting news is more interesting and demands less of you, it produces shallow knowledge – the internet is breeding this kind of news consumption (Today Programme 2014)

W ---------------------

---------------TANK

ANOTHER-----------

--HOLE&CORNER

WIRED------------

------------CEREAL

----NICHE----

--WONDERLAND

WALLPAPER -------

VOGUE ------------

------------------GQ

----SPECIFIC----

HELLO! ------------

ZOO------------------

-----------GRAZIA

----RADIO TIMES

----MASS----

--------------BLUES

MOJO--------------

NME----------------

----------------POP

----MUSIC----

THE SUN ------------

TELEGRAPH--------

--INDEPENDENT

----NEWS---FINANCIAL TIM. FIGURE FIFTEEN: Societies Hierachy of Information, London 2014 [own photograph]

Our news is always a kind of battered mirror of the times and so, today, it is heavily biased towards consumerist obsessions – which included celebrities used to sell as commodities, and a somewhat babyish fascination with our own health.

Marr’s observations of mass societal interest can be seen in FIGURE FIFTEEN, which immediately visualises that the consumer magazines have been placed central to the eye-line whilst the newspapers sit at the bottom. Within newspapers, The Sun may have questionable approaches to news reportage, but the figures demonstrate that they ‘know thy audience’ - they know their (consumerist) society (Lessin 2014). However, to create a newspaper that newsagents want to place with a stronger position on the news stand and TO PROMOTE KNOWLEDGE IN MORE CREATIVE WAYS WOULD BE TO INCREASE THE PERCEIVED VALUE OF INFORMATION BY SOCIETY, AND THEREFORE PROMPT MOVES AWAY FROM THE SUN.

------------------------------------------------------------------

Andrew Marr (2014 p.28) describes the relationship of news and society most appropriately:

‘You have to ask, why is this in the world? That is the key with any publication. If you don’t’ know the need, you’re not going to be successful, simple as that’ (Alderson 2014)

FIGURE SIXTEEN: Culture of Opinion [The Invention of News, 2014 p. 262]

FIGURE SEVENTEEN: PAPER HOLD, London 2014 [own photograph]

-------------------------------------------------------

R ADICAL THINKING IN INFINITE DIMENSIONS -------------------------------------------------------

FIGURE EIGHTEEN: SAPPHIRES NEWSAGENT, London 2014 [own photograph]

(Franchi 2013 p.227).

Regarding content, it is now with inevitable regularity that one picks up the paper to think, in the words of Burgoyne (2014), ‘already read that, already read that, already read that’. Herein lies the problem with the dailies in particular – the newspaper will never be the source of breaking news again. The recent approach of other areas of publication, such as arts magazine Creative Review (Burgoyne 2014), has been to utilise digital by posting articles immediately online and encouraging comment, and then to use print for long-reads and reflection. Using the volume of comments to guide the printed matter is a traffic-concerned method, but only one way to approach tackling the contemporary consumer. Essentially, Burgoyne is still engaged in ‘number chasing’ despite his scepticism of it. A Generation-Y focused news platform, Vice News, has offered ideas for future approaches to communicating news. Its founder, Shane Smith, explained that the generation of focus [18-34] are ‘coming into their own politically, and with purchasing power’ (The Media Show 2014). Smith’s approach to a contemporary news service is digitally focused, with video material that aims to be a fusion of MTV and CNN. Where once newspapers were restricted by the industrial revolution (Franchi 2014 p.144), today there is no reason not to create a tailored format with a radical approach to suit the chosen audience. Such flexible structures are the future, (Franchi 2014 p.46) and with the hyperlink the system has been atomised so that the reader may choose one article to read - perhaps like visiting a gallery to analyse a single painting - as opposed to navigating through the whole curated space.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

RETHINKING IS NEEDED, NOT A FACELIFT - COSMETIC SURGERY HAS NOT GOT RESULTS

FIGURE NINETEEN: Guardian Print Centre, London 2014 [own photographs]

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Beam me up, Scottyâ&#x20AC;? is a wonderful dream, but not likely to come true for several centuries. Until then you will have to rely on FedEx, bicycles and sneakers to get your atoms from one place to another. (Negroponte 1995 p. 12)

FIGURE TWENTY: The Influence Model [The Vanishing Newspaper 2004 p.7]

The manual process of printing a newspaper, though costly, is still where the money lies (Porter 2014), as FIGURE TWENTY demonstrates. The 1978 Jurgensmeyer Model (Meyer 2004 p.7) displays the commercial and societal influences that will always heavily control the production of newspapers. As well as this, the model also produces a visual of the immense resources involved with printing a newspaper, which provides ‘economic justification for excellence in journalism’ (Meyer 2004 p.7). When observing the machinery of The Guardian Print Centre, (displayed in FIGURE NINETEEN) the manual nature of print is apparent. The Guardian has experimented with different approaches to innovate print, as explained in FIGURE TWENTY-ONE and on page 12 of CASE STUDIES. Porter (2014), responsible for the Guardian’s design as it stands, also experimented post-Berliner with a paper called ‘News Night’ where instead of covering everything, the paper would focus on several stories – ‘but in the end, they felt that there wasn’t an appetite for it’. Within the monopoly newspapers there is a need to keep investors happy, advertisers happy and existing readers happy. As Generation-Y matures and digital evolves, the newspaper must move the focus away from monopoly to more creative methods of communicating information– as is much acknowledged. This does not have to mean the end of print if the value of all three intersections affecting it web, publishing and tablets are understood (Franchi 2013 p.140). Understanding each method of communicating information for its own merits is key for the future. TO FOCUS ON PRINT AND ITS AESTHETIC VALUE AS AN ASPIRATIONAL TOOL TO ENHANCE ONES STYLE, RATHER THAN TO COMPETE WITH DIGITAL, HAS THE POTENTIAL TO BENEFIT BOTH THE INDIVIDUAL AND THE SEGMENT OF SOCIETY IT SERVES.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Society sits in purgatory, in a transition between generations, as was explored in Murdoch’s 2006 speech (Franchi 2013 p.140). The baby boomers still cling to conventional platforms, whilst Generation-Y mature in a digitally complex world (Meyer 2004 p.17). This generational replacement needs to be acknowledged, though restricting news to screens would be to ignore the value of print. One often unacknowledged value that the newspaper can offer, that digital cannot, is as an external statement (Smith 2014 p.27). The newspaper in the readers clutches can be an ostensible sign of intelligence and style; there is a space for a focus on atoms as opposed to bits.

‘We were the first national newspaper to print using more than 4 colours’ (Fishman 2014) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

‘Our innovation last year was what we call a bookmark, which is a half page advert... The bookmark is the idea that there is something revealed underneath’ (Fishman 2014) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

FIGURE TWENTY-ONE: Guardian Experimentation, London 2014 [own photographs]

‘We tried printing on brown packaging paper. On our trial we sent some copies out and got a job from Saga and we ran it with the Guardian’ ---------------------------------------------------------------------------

(Fishman 2014) -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

‘We’ve also tried printing on translucent paper. We did a trial for the Guardian. The editors of the Guardian don’t like change though, so rejected it. Other companies did like it - we even received orders’

(Fishman 2014) --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

FIGURE TWENTY-TWO: Rejected, London 2014 [own photographs]

-------------------------------------------------------

FROM RAGS, TO PULP, TO SCREENS REVISITED ------------------------------------------------------THE NEWSPAPER HAS DEVELOPED FROM RAGS, TO PULP, TO SCREENS, but the role of news has not changed. It is not a matter of berating the current newspapers, but of seeking new ways to promote and communicate valuable information to society. Botton (2014) has said that empathy is stirred into action by a discipline we call art. Art makes big and important ideas more powerful â&#x20AC;&#x201C; a good picture is a bearer of new information. It advances the state of knowledge. In applying an artistic and fashionable eye, the value of knowledge can be promoted though a new newspaper. PROMOTING KNOWLEDGE THROUGH STYLE.

f l our i sh

‘… y o u o p e n i t w i t h a and a

r ippl e

of newsprint, your buoyant self-confidence evident in the way you turn the pages with a snap of the wrist, taking in the gray matter swiftly, your eyes dancing ov e r t h e w o r l d’s s o r row s and moving on, crinkling the page,

FIGURE TWENTY-THREE: Ripple, Crinkle, Snap, London 2014 [own photograph]

snapping it, rolling it, fol ding the paper in halves and quarters, tu cking it under the arm o r t a p p i n g i t ag ai n s t t h e p a l mâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; (Garrison Keillor 2007)

--------------------------------------------------------------------

ALREADY READ THAT ALREADY READ THAT ALREADY READ THAT ----------------------------------------------------------------------