NEWSPAPERS

• Sans-serif header - targeted towards lower/working class 
• "Corrie" slang term for soap opera - assumptions the audience are British 
• Conventional header, subheadings, images - stereotypical newspaper front cover
• Trump on front cover, most people will disagree with his views - causes a stir
• Joking about Trump, mocking - lightheartedly treats serious issues
• Lots of images - assuming working class has short attention span

Advantages to newspapers by demonstrating particular political/ ideological bias;

• control - inspires people to carry out actions (ideologies are a system of power)
• money - audiences will be attracted to that newspaper if they agree with the ideologies 
• support - to gain support of a political party (e.g. columns by politicians), and sources of information 

BROADSHEET VS TABLOID

BROADSHEET

• contains "actual news", more reliable 
• things the audience should know
• larger
• less images
• require the audience to have higher literacy skills
• front looks more like an inside page
• lots more words 
• more expensive, demonstrates wealth and social class of audience

TABLOID

• things the audience cares about
• "hot press"
• smaller, quicker to read, targeted towards working class
• splash on front page, grabs attention
• red top, easily distinguished 
• lots of newspaper conventions (e.g. large headlines) 
• literacy level under GCSE level
• contains puzzles, advertised on front
• cheap, aimed for working class

POLYSEMY  multiple meanings, producers typically attempt to avoid polysemic readings (process of forcing an audience in to a particular reading is called ANCHORING)

ANCHORAGE  the 'fixing' of a particular meaning to a media text, often through the use of captions

THE SUN

• right wing/ conservative 
• broadsheet
• mise en scene, in a bin, fish bone, flies- he is rubbish as a politician and will ruin Britain if he is elected
• "we've" - referring to audience who share the same ideologies (positioning audience in direct mode of address)
• photoshop, stock images - low skilled editing
• "terrorist's friend" - 'why would you vote for him?' 
• bullet points - gets across key information that audience needs to know
• deliberately offensive ("Jezza") - blunt, trying hard to make him look bad

MORNING STAR

• left wing/ labour 
• broadsheet 
• more positive
• also used bullet points - gets across key information that audience needs to know
• "save our NHS" - like a 'hero', "our" creates sense of belonging 
• effortless, thumbs up - doesn't do much to make him look good, 'why would you not vote for him?'

BIAS  favour one opinion over another

AGENDA  trying to bring up a specific topic (trying to do something with that opinion)

• bias through selection and omission
• bias through placement
• bias by headline
• bias by photos/captions and camera angles
• bias through use of names and titles
• bias through statistics and crowd counts
• bias by source control
• bias through word choice and tone

BIAS AND CONSTRUCTING REPRESENTATIONS

Daily Mirror Front Cover - Thursday, November 10th, 2016

Daily Mirror Article - Thursday, November 10th, 2016

• Masthead
• Headline - "they" meaning America, target audience is British
• Splash
• Caption
• Folio
• Lead story

Politically bias against Trump (left wing), through image and caption. The gesture of The Statue of Liberty shows she is ashamed. The mise en scene (storm in the sky) is a proairetic code because it suggests something bad will happen, such as war. America is being represented negatively, because the cover is desaturated; it suggests that the ideology of the producer is that they don't agree with the people in America who voted Trump.

• Pull quote                 
• Body text
• Byline
• Stand first
• Centre spread
• Splash
• Page numbers
• Headline

One intended audience response to this is 

anger. The image is constructing a representation of the type of people who voted for Trump. Hilary Clinton is represented to look powerful and respectful, because of the gesture of her head help high. The image is a low angle shot to emphasize her dominance. The difference between Trump and Clinton is shown through the binary opposition of them being different sides of the spread, and it shows whether each party is left or right wing. 

The Times Front and Back Cover - Thursday, November 10th, 2016

Fist is a symbol of unity and flag is symbol of Patriotism. Newspaper is right wing but may not be as sure on this view as Trump because they try to reassure their audience by saying "You will be so proud of your President"; this is repeated to make it sound like a command.

• Page spread
• Splash
• Pull quote
• Masthead
• Lead story
• Barcode

THE STUDY OF REPRESENTATION LOOKS AT;1) the GROUP, PLACE or ISSUE on which a media text is focusing on
2) the TECHNICAL DEVICES the media text uses in order to present these groups or issues
3) the MESSAGE about the group or issue being created within the text
4) the IMPACT of this message on the target audience (top marks)

KEY WORDS

Barcode  - Used to scan the newspaper when purchasing. It is an optical, machine-readable, representation of data and contains information such as price

Body Text - Also known as copy. Written material that makes up the main part of an article

Byline - The line above the story, which gives the author’s name and sometimes their job and location

Caption - Brief text underneath an image describing the photograph or graphic

Centre Spread - A photograph, often in full colour, that runs across the middle two pages

Classified Ad - An advertisement that uses only text, as opposed to a display ad, which also incorporates graphics

Edition - Some newspapers print several of these every night, these are versions with some changes and maybe additional late stories

Folio - Top label for the whole page. Can relate to the area covered in the paper for example, National or a big news topic such as Social Media, Syria

Gutter - The blank space between margins of facing pages of a publication or the blank space between columns of text

Headline - A phrase that summarises the main point of the article. Usually in large print and a different style to catch the attention of the reader

Lead Story - Main story, usually a splash

Main Image - Dominant picture, often filling much of the front cover

Masthead - Title of the newspaper displayed on the front page

Page furniture - Everything on a page except pictures or text of stories

Page Numbers - A system of organisation within the magazine. Helps the audience find what they want to read

Pull Quote - Something taken from within an article, usually said by the person in the main image

Skyline - An information panel on the front page that tells the reader about other stories in the paper to tempt them inside

Stand First - Block of text that introduces the story, normally in a different style to the body text and headline

Standalone - Picture story that can exist on its own or on a front page leading to a story inside

Target Audience - People who the newspaper aims to sell to

SIDEBAR OF SHAME

• target audience of Daily Mail Online is heterosexual women
• "The business woman" - not sexualised or objectified, recognised as a successful woman, not stereotypical way that women are represented 
• "maintained her modesty" - not trying to focus on her body, avoiding sexual lexis
• "sparkling image", "stunning", "the mother of two"- positive language, not trying to shame women, target audience won't feel uncomfortable
• barely any mention of what her body shape looks like - not inviting the target audience to focus on her body, producer is not trying to cultivate the idea that women need to have these bodies

LISBET VAN ZOONEN

FEMINIST THEORY

• The idea that gender is constructed through discourse, and that it's meaning varies according to cultural and historical context.
• The idea that the display of women's bodies as objects to be looked at is a core element of western patriarchal culture.
• The idea that in mainstream culture the visual and narrative codes that are used to construct the male body as spectacle differ from those used to objectify the female body.
• 
  

WHY DO PRODUCERS USE REPRESENTATION?

• To get their ideologies across
• To target a specific audience
• To manipulate the audience (Cultivation Theory)
• To entertain 

example exam questions

• In what ways can [media products] incorporate viewpoints and ideologies? component 1, section A
• Explore how audiences can respond to and interpret the ideological perspectives of [media products]? component 1, section B

1. POINT which links to question asked
2. MEDIA LANGUAGE that supports your point
3. ARGUMENT or DEEPER ANALYSIS of this point
4. THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVE which confirms your point (not always needed)

Baby Hammer Attack Story

 

• The Times
•  "allegedly" and "suggests" - don't confirm anything
• policeman walking into house - proairetic code that investigations about to begin, also hermeneutic because you don't know the whole story
• mentions race of couple - confirms they are different, could be to do with ideologies of the newspaper 

• The Daily Mirror
• "hammer attack" - sounds like it's from a horror movie
• photo of couple with happy gestures  - connotes love, at equilibrium 
• toddler's facial expression looks worried - audience feels sympathy
• audience positioned close to child - feel attached to the child and more sad about the death (negotiated reading could be that we are positioned as killer, so we feel guilt)
• girl's face is blurred - dead toddler 'ceases to exist' now dead
• man isn't stereotypically British 
• "I think he had mental problems" - othering (making someone seem unappealing by making them different)
• left wing newspaper - not mentioning ethnicity, leads it to audience's interpretation
• still at disequilibrium

The Today Show, Radio 4

• Before the story (headlines) - Trump and America, Brexit and UK, (all political) 
• Radio equivalent of broadsheet newspaper, requires previous knowledge
• Middle-class, south of England accent - middle class, intelligent target audience 
• Briefly mentions the story - most important subjects to producers involve politics (ideologies)
• No mention of weapon - not definite a hammer was used
• Focused on what the man was charged with, instead of discussing the details of crime - more political 
• No mention of ethnicity (apart from name) 

•  Entertainment value - audience gets an insight into an investigation, which is referential to crime dramas or horror films
•  From 1968, opening up an old case, audience wants to know what's changed 
• Ideological viewpoints - states facts, not opinions of producer
• Graphic information "smashed his head into a fireplace" - makes the audience feel angry towards killer 
• Financial reasons - older audience may remember when the story was first published and want to find out what happened 
• No formal lexis, wide audience reach

CULTURAL CAPITAL  the cultural resources of an individual, for example knowledge, qualifications, art, customs and taste 
Cultural Capital is a form of hegemony.

How does this show that The Daily Mirror is a working class newspaper?

• 65p - affordable
• sans-serif font - easy to read, audience may be travelling to work
• "tram crash" - about public transport, higher class won't care about it as much
• "What have they done?" -  anti-trump, leftwing (traditionally more working class)
• lack of serious information - requires only GCSE level of education 
• "what it means for you" - direct address, comforts audience, includes them within politics (where they may have felt excluded from it)

Self-fulfilling prophecy - if you keep telling someone something, they will start believing it (e.g. if you call someone stupid, they will eventually believe it)  

• The Daily Mirror uses restrictive lexis, which is a form of hegemony and anchorage, because people will believe that is as much as they can understand

CLAY SHIRKY

END OF AUDIENCE

Audiences are no longer passive (controlled), they interact with media products in an increasingly complex variety of ways