Sales of the UK's most read tabloid fall to their lowest level for over 30 years.
It has been revealed this month that, for the first time since 1974, sales of Britain's biggest selling red-top, the Sun, have fallen below the three million mark.
Times may be a changing at Murdoch's News Corporation, but the lads favourite still outsells the Independent and the Guardian ten fold - Why?
The Sun's high celebrity content, tit bits, and lowly cover price are, of course, part of the reason why tabloid sales top the broadsheets daily, but could the Sun be appealing to some more basic human needs?
Part of the explanation for this disparity could be explained by the relationship that has developed between the Tabloids and the public.
As a result of an increasingly fragmented British society the human need to be part of a wider community is not being satisfied. In the absence of a more neighbourly society people are turning to the Tabloids to feel part of something communal, somewhere where their views can be represented and shared.
Classical economics, dependent on people competing not co-operating, has socially disenfranchised the public leaving them feeling insecure and isolated. The relative success of the Tabloid Press in attracting literally millions more readers than the Qualities may be explained by their ability to fulfill its readers need to belong.
It could be argued that the Tabloids are providing the public with a public sphere in which they can be heard. There is a danger, however, that the need of the populous to belong is being exploited by the Tabloids for profit.
If the media’s primary function is to make money for its shareholders then the Tabloids will need to combine the satisfaction of its readers needs with its own wider economic interest.
In the absence of a co-operative and socially inclusive society the Tabloid Press effectively seduce a fragmented, needy and disparate people into its fold.
As a consequence of the human need to belong a symbiosis has developed between the Tabloids and the people and as long as the state fails to provide this function for its people the Sun should continue to out-sell the Guardian and the Independent.
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