It is interesting to look at how the Press is today. The current Scottish situation has generally the same trends for its papers as the English do. We have seen that earlier newspapers revenue was made from the selling price of the paper and advertising. This is still true to some extent today as most papers will charge to purchase but there is a heavier reliance on the advertising income. Now that there are far more newspapers to cater to different markets, this means that advertisers are able to target their audience better and so higher prices can be charged as a result. However, nowadays there are some papers such as the Metro that are free to the consumer and gain their whole revenue from advertising. This may have implications for people no longer paying for papers in the future.
History of the Press
It’s most common for us to associate press with newspapers, magazines and articles of a literature origin. The history of Scottish press is much like the history of press elsewhere in the world for the times and there’s no real difference in how the process developed.
It was the Chinese who came up with the idea of producing “prints” which were done with basic inks and paper. This meant that the idea of producing one copy of a print could be mass produced and many copies of the same print could be made-giving birth to the idea of “press” as we know it today;
“The news-gathering business generally, or all the people involved in gathering and reporting on the news, especially journalists working on newspapers”.
We’ll all remember from 1st year I’m sure the invention of the movable printing press coined by Gutenburg in the 1450’s which ultimately unleashed accessibility of printing and press on a global scale, and Scotland was no exception to the numerous countries utilizing the new invention.
In contrast to the past, the Scottish press of present times can now be represented in newspaper form as traditionally practiced and in radio and television form with the invention of new technology and broadening horizons in the last 50-60 years.
The 1700’s saw the release and success of the first daily newspaper, the Daily Cournat, which brought important and urgent news to communities who previously had no way of hearing news bar word of mouth.
Many smaller Scottish publications began popping up across the country, following in the same footsteps as the Daily Courant, but never really competing and breaking past the boarder, unlike the wider distributed English papers.
As the Scottish press industry was fairly independent and small, it could thrive quite sufficiently as a relatively “small scale operation”, however with the development and changing ways of how the public accessed their press, there was more demand and competition for papers to stay ahead and on top.
If we consider readership, this was at one time an elitist thing as not all audiences could be reached by the press due to illiteracy and limits in technology. Nowadays, papers are cheap to buy and there are many titles to choose from ranging from broadsheets to tabloids, to local papers. This means the readership is now hugely broadened. However, this does not mean that everyone buys a paper. There are other ways to get our news. The greatest example being the internet. We no longer have to go out and pay for our news when it is one click away and free. This has implications for newspapers as is evident in the overall trend of decline. We have seen that year on year circulation of papers is constantly decreasing. This clip of Rupert Murdoch shows what the media mogul thinks will be the future of newspapers.
In a bid to move forward with the times, one large “umbrella” was formed to house and publish most of Scotland’s press as well at our television output, magazine production and news broadcasting.
The Scottish Media Group was born in 1997 and comprises of the former company known as Scottish Television plc, Gateway studios in Edinburgh and Cowcadden Studios, and most recently Caledonian Publishing, responsible for publishing the magazine supplement available with the Sunday Herald.
The concept of editionising, meaning taking an English title and creating a Scottish version has grown hugely. This has had implications for the actual Scottish papers. In terms of the tabloid sector, Scottish papers have seen a decline of 43% whilst the English ones have seen an increase of 30% in circulation. English titles now account for 55% of daily sales and 44% of Sunday sales. Whilst on the other hand, the Scottish broadsheets such as the herald and p and j have seen a decline in sales of 30%. From this, we can see that the successful papers in Scotland are the editionised versions. Papers such as the Scottish sun, Scottish news of the world and Sunday times Scotland are all selling significantly more than they did 40 years ago. So why do you think the editionised versions are more popular than Scottish newspapers? It may be down to cheaper prices, wider coverage of issues (more resources for editionised papers), more emphasis on sport pages and the fact that there is “Scottish” in the title.
But Scottish press and the contents published within it must appeal to a Scottish market in order for it to outsell or even compete with its competition south of the boarder. Many publications do this through relatable stories, historical relevance of Scotland and identifiable language. A study at Leeds University illustrates how Scottish papers appeal to their Scottish target market through Scottish identity and how this has changed over a 10 year period.
Dr Fiona Douglas examined the use of a selection of 440 Scottish words and their use in Scottish newspaper press. Words such as ‘bairn’ or ‘wean’ (child), ‘bonnie’(pretty/attractive) and ‘wee’ (small) were among the 440 and have long been used in Scottish press reflecting their widespread use in Scottish society and culture.
Amid her findings, it was noted that the tabloid “Daily Record” had become ‘more Scottish’ having upped the usage of these words between 1995 and 2005. In comparison indigenous broadsheet titles “The Herald” and “The Scotsman” are becoming ‘less Scottish’ having slashed the usage of the words over the same time period.
And Scottish editions of two UK papers “the Scottish Sun” and “The Times” have dramatically increased the number of Scots words they use suggesting their emphasising their Scottish-ness to appeal to readers.
But as numbers drop steadily, this has implications for Scotland and Britain as a whole. Not only will we lose a platform for discussing politics but we also lose legal distinctiveness. Journalism provides us with a way to enter in detailed discussion on issues that TV doesn’t have time for. For politics we will also lose out on reporting perspectives and propaganda. Also, can we rely on the journalism on the internet? These days anyone can be a reporter. Although it may seem inevitable that papers may one day be wiped out, there is no substitute for good journalism.
As we are always considering Scottish identity in this class and have only seen this through film so far, it is important to see how the press can communicate this also. This leads us onto exploring the content of today’s Scottish press and how it represents a Scottish identity for its readers. Here are two examples, they show us an insight into the kinds of identities a number of papers, Scottish and none, represent us as.
The first example is Andy Murray. His rise to the current position of World No.4 in Tennis has been intensely covered over many mediums.
Coverage in Scottish press - The Daily Record released a story in 2009 just before the Wimbledon tournament was about to start about whether fans viewed Murray Scottish or British. The poll was running at 84% for British just after he had won the queens club tournament. However, bookmakers who were taking bets on the poll commented that they “still believe the English will ditch him quicker than you could deep fry a mars bar should he fail to live up to his billing as 3rd seed”.
They also stated that “Middle England has taken a while to warm to Andy but if he serves up a wimbledon win, they’ll consider him as British as the Union Jack. An early exit and they’ll consider him Scottish again. Whos to say Scottish fans wont vote to keep him for their own.” More comments such as “should he suffer an embarrassing early exit, he will suddenly become as Scottish as haggis.”
Very similar comments can be found in a times article after this years Australian Open. “Every time he lost, he could be consigned to the dank, sub-racist compartment that concluded that he was not really a British hero, merely a Scottish loser.” This pattern is repeated in other papers too.
What identity does this give us?
It shows us that no matter what, Scotland will always be proud, likened to loyalty of tartan army? – patriotic stereotype? They don’t ditch him when hes losing. The comparisons to haggis are showing that these are things Scotland is identified with by others, not to mention the deep fried mars bars too. So like the discourses of tartanty, kailyardism and clydesidism, we are referring to them in press too.
The second example is of a male Glaswegians bravery. The terrorists attacks on Glasgow Airport in 2007 made news not just for the destruction it caused but of John Smeatons actions of taking down the terrorist.
The sun commented on this by saying “only in Glasgow would a suicide bomber get a boot between the legs”. “A call to donate 1,000 pints to the baggage handler has been easily met” “He has done more for Scotland’s image than 100 marketing campaigns.”
The New York times coverage on the story focused on perceptions of Smeaton by saying “With a heavy local accent, strong chin, close-cropped hair and ample doses of machismo, Mr. Smeaton started off his story with a sequence fit for an action hero before the climactic fight.”
The times described his as a Scottish hero in the mould of William Wallace.
“Smeats you are the greatest, right up there with the Proclaimers”
“Mr Smeaton's "have-a-go" attitude was typical of the Glaswegian spirit”
Scotlands identity in this example is likened to that of the classic hero stereotyped in Braveheart. This can be linked to David McCrones stateless nation analysis of Scotlands identity being prone to myths and legends about itself because it lacks the formal state autonomy. This is emphasizing its separation from the rest of Britain, like differentiating itself. There is also stereotypical reference to drinking. It also shows the identity of a region, in this case Glasgow.
Although we have only covered a very small portion of Scottish press, from these examples we can see that Scottish identity in press is very stereotypical, quite like that of the 3 discourses we have seen in earlier films. These appear in both non-scottish and Scottish press. Does this show that we like the stereotypes associated with us if we continue to refer to them?
And in a changing climate and with less attention being paid by some papers to keeping the Scottish flavour in papers and the press alive, is Scottish press a dying trade, destine to merge with English run papers and ultimately loosing it’s unique identity altogether?
(Here is a copy of the Powerpoint we did on this topic -
It is interesting to look at how the Press is today. The current Scottish situation has generally the same trends for its papers as the English do. We have seen that earlier newspapers revenue was made from the selling price of the paper and advertising. This is still true to some extent today as most papers will charge to purchase but there is a heavier reliance on the advertising income. Now that there are far more newspapers to cater to different markets, this means that advertisers are able to target their audience better and so higher prices can be charged as a result. However, nowadays there are some papers such as the Metro that are free to the consumer and gain their whole revenue from advertising. This may have implications for people no longer paying for papers in the future.
History of the Press
It’s most common for us to associate press with newspapers, magazines and articles of a literature origin. The history of Scottish press is much like the history of press elsewhere in the world for the times and there’s no real difference in how the process developed.
It was the Chinese who came up with the idea of producing “prints” which were done with basic inks and paper. This meant that the idea of producing one copy of a print could be mass produced and many copies of the same print could be made-giving birth to the idea of “press” as we know it today;
“The news-gathering business generally, or all the people involved in gathering and reporting on the news, especially journalists working on newspapers”.
We’ll all remember from 1st year I’m sure the invention of the movable printing press coined by Gutenburg in the 1450’s which ultimately unleashed accessibility of printing and press on a global scale, and Scotland was no exception to the numerous countries utilizing the new invention.
In contrast to the past, the Scottish press of present times can now be represented in newspaper form as traditionally practiced and in radio and television form with the invention of new technology and broadening horizons in the last 50-60 years.
The 1700’s saw the release and success of the first daily newspaper, the Daily Cournat, which brought important and urgent news to communities who previously had no way of hearing news bar word of mouth.
Many smaller Scottish publications began popping up across the country, following in the same footsteps as the Daily Courant, but never really competing and breaking past the boarder, unlike the wider distributed English papers.
As the Scottish press industry was fairly independent and small, it could thrive quite sufficiently as a relatively “small scale operation”, however with the development and changing ways of how the public accessed their press, there was more demand and competition for papers to stay ahead and on top.
If we consider readership, this was at one time an elitist thing as not all audiences could be reached by the press due to illiteracy and limits in technology. Nowadays, papers are cheap to buy and there are many titles to choose from ranging from broadsheets to tabloids, to local papers. This means the readership is now hugely broadened. However, this does not mean that everyone buys a paper. There are other ways to get our news. The greatest example being the internet. We no longer have to go out and pay for our news when it is one click away and free. This has implications for newspapers as is evident in the overall trend of decline. We have seen that year on year circulation of papers is constantly decreasing. This clip of Rupert Murdoch shows what the media mogul thinks will be the future of newspapers.
In a bid to move forward with the times, one large “umbrella” was formed to house and publish most of Scotland’s press as well at our television output, magazine production and news broadcasting.
The Scottish Media Group was born in 1997 and comprises of the former company known as Scottish Television plc, Gateway studios in Edinburgh and Cowcadden Studios, and most recently Caledonian Publishing, responsible for publishing the magazine supplement available with the Sunday Herald.
The concept of editionising, meaning taking an English title and creating a Scottish version has grown hugely. This has had implications for the actual Scottish papers. In terms of the tabloid sector, Scottish papers have seen a decline of 43% whilst the English ones have seen an increase of 30% in circulation. English titles now account for 55% of daily sales and 44% of Sunday sales. Whilst on the other hand, the Scottish broadsheets such as the herald and p and j have seen a decline in sales of 30%. From this, we can see that the successful papers in Scotland are the editionised versions. Papers such as the Scottish sun, Scottish news of the world and Sunday times Scotland are all selling significantly more than they did 40 years ago. So why do you think the editionised versions are more popular than Scottish newspapers? It may be down to cheaper prices, wider coverage of issues (more resources for editionised papers), more emphasis on sport pages and the fact that there is “Scottish” in the title.
But Scottish press and the contents published within it must appeal to a Scottish market in order for it to outsell or even compete with its competition south of the boarder. Many publications do this through relatable stories, historical relevance of Scotland and identifiable language. A study at Leeds University illustrates how Scottish papers appeal to their Scottish target market through Scottish identity and how this has changed over a 10 year period.
Dr Fiona Douglas examined the use of a selection of 440 Scottish words and their use in Scottish newspaper press. Words such as ‘bairn’ or ‘wean’ (child), ‘bonnie’(pretty/attractive) and ‘wee’ (small) were among the 440 and have long been used in Scottish press reflecting their widespread use in Scottish society and culture.
Amid her findings, it was noted that the tabloid “Daily Record” had become ‘more Scottish’ having upped the usage of these words between 1995 and 2005. In comparison indigenous broadsheet titles “The Herald” and “The Scotsman” are becoming ‘less Scottish’ having slashed the usage of the words over the same time period.
And Scottish editions of two UK papers “the Scottish Sun” and “The Times” have dramatically increased the number of Scots words they use suggesting their emphasising their Scottish-ness to appeal to readers.
But as numbers drop steadily, this has implications for Scotland and Britain as a whole. Not only will we lose a platform for discussing politics but we also lose legal distinctiveness. Journalism provides us with a way to enter in detailed discussion on issues that TV doesn’t have time for. For politics we will also lose out on reporting perspectives and propaganda. Also, can we rely on the journalism on the internet? These days anyone can be a reporter. Although it may seem inevitable that papers may one day be wiped out, there is no substitute for good journalism.
As we are always considering Scottish identity in this class and have only seen this through film so far, it is important to see how the press can communicate this also. This leads us onto exploring the content of today’s Scottish press and how it represents a Scottish identity for its readers. Here are two examples, they show us an insight into the kinds of identities a number of papers, Scottish and none, represent us as.
The first example is Andy Murray. His rise to the current position of World No.4 in Tennis has been intensely covered over many mediums.
Coverage in Scottish press - The Daily Record released a story in 2009 just before the Wimbledon tournament was about to start about whether fans viewed Murray Scottish or British. The poll was running at 84% for British just after he had won the queens club tournament. However, bookmakers who were taking bets on the poll commented that they
“still believe the English will ditch him quicker than you could deep fry a mars bar should he fail to live up to his billing as 3rd seed”.
They also stated that
“Middle England has taken a while to warm to Andy but if he serves up a wimbledon win, they’ll consider him as British as the Union Jack. An early exit and they’ll consider him Scottish again. Whos to say Scottish fans wont vote to keep him for their own.”
More comments such as
“should he suffer an embarrassing early exit, he will suddenly become as Scottish as haggis.”
Very similar comments can be found in a times article after this years Australian Open.
“Every time he lost, he could be consigned to the dank, sub-racist compartment that concluded that he was not really a British hero, merely a Scottish loser.”
This pattern is repeated in other papers too.
What identity does this give us?
It shows us that no matter what, Scotland will always be proud, likened to loyalty of tartan army? – patriotic stereotype? They don’t ditch him when hes losing. The comparisons to haggis are showing that these are things Scotland is identified with by others, not to mention the deep fried mars bars too. So like the discourses of tartanty, kailyardism and clydesidism, we are referring to them in press too.
The second example is of a male Glaswegians bravery. The terrorists attacks on Glasgow Airport in 2007 made news not just for the destruction it caused but of John Smeatons actions of taking down the terrorist.
The sun commented on this by saying
“only in Glasgow would a suicide bomber get a boot between the legs”.
“A call to donate 1,000 pints to the baggage handler has been easily met”
“He has done more for Scotland’s image than 100 marketing campaigns.”
He was labeled “A new Braveheart” in Britain’s Daily Mail, “The Pride of Scotland” in the Independent and, more soberly, “an unlikely folk hero” all the way across the pond in The Journal.
The New York times coverage on the story focused on perceptions of Smeaton by saying “With a heavy local accent, strong chin, close-cropped hair and ample doses of machismo, Mr. Smeaton started off his story with a sequence fit for an action hero before the climactic fight.”
The times described his as a Scottish hero in the mould of William Wallace.
“Smeats you are the greatest, right up there with the Proclaimers”
“Mr Smeaton's "have-a-go" attitude was typical of the Glaswegian spirit”
Scotlands identity in this example is likened to that of the classic hero stereotyped in Braveheart. This can be linked to David McCrones stateless nation analysis of Scotlands identity being prone to myths and legends about itself because it lacks the formal state autonomy. This is emphasizing its separation from the rest of Britain, like differentiating itself. There is also stereotypical reference to drinking. It also shows the identity of a region, in this case Glasgow.
Although we have only covered a very small portion of Scottish press, from these examples we can see that Scottish identity in press is very stereotypical, quite like that of the 3 discourses we have seen in earlier films. These appear in both non-scottish and Scottish press. Does this show that we like the stereotypes associated with us if we continue to refer to them?
And in a changing climate and with less attention being paid by some papers to keeping the Scottish flavour in papers and the press alive, is Scottish press a dying trade, destine to merge with English run papers and ultimately loosing it’s unique identity altogether?
(Here is a copy of the Powerpoint we did on this topic -