The UK MEDIA

Britain comes third after the Japanese and Swedes with a large daily readership. The press is not state-controlled or linked financially to any political party or union. However, the majority of papers are right-wing and are outspoken in their support of the Conservative party.

The newspapers in the UK are dominated by the national papers rather than regional papers. These papers cover national and international stories. The main regional papers are The Herald and The Scotsman for Scotland and The Western Mail for Wales. Britain also has a tradition of reading Sunday newspapers rather than weekly magazines for an overview of current issues. There is a local press in the UK, but it is less widely read. News magazines are less popular, although Time and Newsweek (both American) are available.

There are two sorts of newspaper in Britain, broadsheet and tabloid (the paper size of these papers is half that of the broadsheets). There is also a perceived difference in quality between the two. The tabloids are typically more popular. They focus on scandal, gossip and sensation, their articles are shorter and there is less in-depth analysis of issues. The broadsheets are more serious in tone and cover issues in much greater detail. They have increased in size, often coming with a second, supplementary section which is tabloid in size and often devoted to a particular subject area (the arts, business, IT). Competition is fierce in the UK market, and few subjects are considered off-limits, especially to the tabloids. The debate on press freedom – for example, in covering the royal family and any photographs used – is in full flow and still unresolved.

Both the British and American press are independent but are often owned by large media corporations, such as Rupert Murdoch’s News International in Britain. In America, as in Britain, there is a distinction between tabloid (USA Today) and broadsheet (The New York Times), and major American quality papers tend to be left of centre. The New York Times is highly-respected and the most distributed, but The Washington Post is the one that best records Government decisions. The Los Angeles Times and The Miami Herald are two other important regional papers, but every city of any size has its own newspaper.

There is a lively magazine market in the UK. There are hundreds of magazines devoted to individual interests (Computing, Gardening, Sport) as well as more general magazines. Women’s magazines (Cosmopolitan, Marie Claire, New Woman) have been popular for many years, containing a mix of fashion and beauty items along with reports on news stories and issues that affect women. A relatively recent phenomenon has been the rise of the man's magazine (FHM, Loaded, GQ). These are less serious in tone than their female counterparts, normally containing a mix of the outrageous and the bizarre.