learner response

1) Type up your feedback in full (you don't need to write the mark and grade if you want to keep this confidential).

www: at the very end of Q5 you start making some valid points about the state of the news industry but until this there is little to credit. The best that can be said is this tells you exactly where you stand if you don't complete the blog work or revise sufficiently

Ebi: you need to revise the whole topic: so many basic errors on regulation, pluralism, the i and confusing the daily mail + online.

As a result of the lack of work/revision, you don't have nearly enough to write. Q3, for example, needs at least 3 paragraphs covering quality, clarity, independence.2) Read the whole mark scheme for this assessment carefully. Identify three potential points that you could have made in your Question 3 answer - the i newspaper standing for "quality, clarity and independence".


  • clarity is achieved through clean design- like a website, image heavy with stories short to digest within the daily commute.
  • successful on its own terms- providing a print product that has remarkably succeeded in the digital age since launch in 2010. it remains profitable now it is owned by Johnston Press. 
  • unsuccessful: Launched by Russian billionaire Alexander Lebedev so question mark over true independence.

3) Now use the mark scheme to identify three potential points that you could have made in your Question 4 answer - arguments against statutory regulation of the newspaper industry.


  • The importance of a free press is essential to a healthy democracy. Government influence over the newspaper industry is a corruption of that democratic ideal. Would the i be free to describe Theresa May’s “Salzburg disaster” (front page, 21 September) if the government had influence over the press?
  • Newspapers must be free to pursue investigative journalism – Clay Shirky describes news as a “social good” that is so vital to democracy.
  • The phone-hacking scandal that sparked the Leveson Inquiry was covered by the criminal law – the police should be the only regulators for the newspaper industry. Similarly, libel laws exist to protect victims of press intrusion and people like Chris Jefferies (wrongly accused of murder) were compensated financially.
  • As an example, the Daily Mail is famous for its ‘Murderers’ headline, naming those accused of the racist murder of Stephen Lawrence – and challenging the accused to sue them for libel if they wished.


4) Now use the mark scheme to identify three potential points that you could have made in your Question 5 answer - whether the pluralist model allows the newspaper industry to operate effectively.


The importance of a free press is essential to a healthy democracy. Government influence over the newspaper industry is a corruption of that democratic ideal. Would the i be free to describe Theresa May’s “Salzburg disaster” (front page, 21 September) if government had influence over the press?

Newspapers must be free to pursue investigative journalism – Clay Shirky describes news as a “social good” that is so vital to democracy.
The phone hacking scandal that sparked the Leveson Inquiry was covered by criminal law – the police should be the only regulators for the newspaper industry. Similarly, libel laws exist to protect victims of press intrusion and people like Chris Jefferies (wrongly accused of murder) were compensated financially.

As an example, the Daily Mail is famous for its ‘Murderers’ headline, naming those accused of the racist murder of Stephen Lawrence – and challenging the accused to sue them for libel if they wished.


5) Finally, look over your mark, teacher comments and the mark scheme - plus your answers to the task above - to write a complete essay plan for Question 5. 

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