Abstract
According to former MP William Hague, Britain 'has a great and vibrant tradition of a free and pluralist press and media, rich in its diversity and opinions.'(Hague; 2000). It is true that in the past decades, the British newspaper market has always been referred to as being effervescent and a model of what the press should be like, if it is to match the idea of pluralism, or the view that society is complex and formed of competing groups of interest, though none of which have constant predominance or influence on the others. This view, adapted to the press industry, would induce that the British newspaper market is autonomous and independent from the state. However, it should be contrasted, as it ignores certain relationships that can exist between the media and centers of influence as well as interest groups in the British society. This is why we need to study in what aspects can the British newspaper market be seen as pluralist, regarding its structure in the industry, the process in which it is produced and its effect on the audience. In a second argument, however, we will contrast this view of the press market and the pluralist assumption that British newspapers are free from influence in a capitalist society such as Britain, according to the radical or Marxist approach of the British newspaper industry, in order to determine how the extent to which it corresponds to the model of a free press is limited, in terms of its structure as a market, the line of attack it embeds in the production of its papers and the effects such a prejudiced market can have on the economical, social and political aspects of the press and the society as a whole.
