Media on My Mind!

The Daily Mail and The Guardian seem to be just another option of newspaper in the shop, but little do you know that they are owned some of the most influential people in modern media.

Jonathan Harmsworth, 4th Viscount Rothermere inherited his newspaper and Media empire from his great-grandfather. Chairman of DMG Media (Daily Mail General Media), he is the basis of a major conglomerate which includes many companies such as: The Daily Mail, Mail on Sunday, MailOnline, and Metro. DMG Media is known for its vast branches into many areas of the media, as well as its use of Vertical Integration - this means that they control two or more aspects of the manufacturing of the product. In DMG's case they control everything from the research to the printing press.

This may just seem like some uninteresting facts, but when you step back and look at the larger picture, you will realise that by doing this DMG have complete control on how they manipulate stories to interest the reader. Therefore, they can control how you as a reader think. This method of using the media has been the cause of riots, rebellions, and wars, for instance: World War 2. Not so uninteresting now is it?

Its not just DMG, Scott Trust Limited (or Scott Trust) is a British company that owns The Guardian Media Group/The Guardian, The Observer, as well as other media businesses in the UK. The Trust has had a female chair in the past and generally has a more liberal stance compared to The Daily Mail; however, it still follows the same Vertical Integration method of supplying a product. Similarly, The Guardian has a different viewpoint to The Observer, this shows how, despite the two different companies being owned by the same people and printing the same events, the conglomerate can manipulate the text to create a different perspective on the same thing.

To conclude, through the use of Vertical Integration these two conglomerates have managed to make their way to the top of the media food chain by manipulating the way we as readers think.