Historical Newspapers

Kavanah:

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The Guardian/The Observer:

• The Guardian/The Observer has consistently had a large circulation and has had a significant cultural and social influence. 
• The media language used is reflects the representations of UK National broadsheet newspapers in the 1960s. 
• The Observer was a significant and at the time, independent national newspaper. 

The newspaper industry in 1960s:

- Newspaper production by large organisations

- Issues of ownership

- Issues of control

- Issues of funding 

Social, Cultural, Historical and Political contexts of the 1960s:

In the 1960s, most producers and readers were white males, LGBT (male) producers did not go public and LGBT audiences would not expected to be celebrated or discussed by the mainstream media.

LGBT stories were VERY limited due to the closeted lifestyle by individuals/communities.

Newspapers in the 1960’s did not report so much on female or ethnic minority political leaders, especially as there we so few.

Celebrity culture did exist, but far less so than today.

Stories featured more hard news than soft news.

Consumerism (advertising to encourage people to buy things) was beginning to develop in the 1960s, therefore newspapers did not carry much lifestyle/marketing content.

Rapid social change was a major issue in 1960. Younger generations were demanding freedom (legalising homosexuality, making divorce and contraception available, legalising abortions, allowing more sexual content on the mass media). This was the complete opposite of the older generation therefore these social issues drove newspaper stories.

The 1960s newspapers were political opinion-formers and carried lots of political content. There was no 24 hour news, so this was one of the only ways for audiences to access political news. 

Key areas of the historical covers:

Media Representation:

The domination of public life ruled by men influencing representation. Only one-woman politician is named in all three front covers.

The influence of changes to gender roles in the 1960s reflected in the report on divorce reform – ‘lawyers will urge divorce by consent’ (from a commission staffed only by men).

The ‘police will appease marchers’ headline reflects the rise of protests by young people in the 1960s.

The representation of black power protests and of a ‘mixed marriage’ reflecting changing attitudes to race and ethnicity.

Cold war attitudes reflected in the prevalence of spy stories such as Blake’s prison escape.

The ‘Jobs direction if prices and pay plan fails’ headline reflects the political context of much greater state intervention in the economy in the (pre-Thatcher) 1960s.

Media Language:

Greater deference in the 1960s influencing more formal attitudes and language when referring to politicians such as ‘Mr Wilson’.

Lower cultural expectations of newspapers allowing poor quality printing and reproduction of photographs. (no colour printers)

The lesser development of consumerism influencing less self-promotion on the newspaper front pages and a layout dominated by hard news copy.

Exam questions:

Explain how political or historical contexts influenced the representations in newspapers from the 1960s such as The Observer. Refer to examples from the set newspapers you
have studied in your answer. [10] JUNE 2024

Explain how media contexts influenced two changes in the front pages of The Observer 
between the 1960s and now. Refer to the set products you have studied in your answer. 

[10] JUNE 2023

One cultural context that links to one of the observer covers from 1966 concerns technology. The cover is printed in black and white and the quality of photographs are very poor by today's standards. This reflects the context of 1960's because printing and photography technology was limited in those days. Images were low quality, black and white, and expensive to produce because colour printers didn't exist on a wide spread scale and if they printed all copies in colour it would cost a lot of money. Comparing this to newspaper covers today most are printed in colour.... 

LGBT