Constructing Representations

A newspaper has an ideology because in most cases, having an ideology rather than being neutral means that the newspaper will attract their target audience. They also have ideologies because they want to try to manipulate their audiences, and ideology is a system of control or power. It is also part of your identity, because if you carry around a certain paper it makes your identity. Another thing that ideologies are good for is that newspapers will get the support of certain political parties.

TABLOID VS BROADSHEET

• Contains more gossip/celebrity news
• Contains more images
• Contains things you care about but you don't really need to know
• Much smaller size
• Aimed at the working classes so that they can just flick through the paper without having to pay much attention
• Has a Red Top, which is a stereotypical name for tabloids as most have an easily distinguishable red top/title
• Has a much bigger headline
• It is a much cheaper newspaper

• Contains more 'Proper' news which would appeal to middle class people
• Contains more political information
• More 'hard' news
• Contains news that people need more
• It is much larger in size
• Contains more wordy articles
• Has less images
• Focusses on factual news
• Sometimes named "serious press"
• Requires more literacy skills because there are more paragraphs and less pictures
• Cover has stories which start on the front page
• More extensive

POLYSEMY/POLYSEMIC - this means that something has got more than one meaning, and is a                                                        word to describe something which has multiple meanings. 

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

When looking at the image on the board, the first things I though about were power, strength, anger, and also unity. Another thing the image could represent are hope. However, the caption "Anti-Austerity demonstrators depend on Parliament" and this then shows that the people are angry, that they don't want something to happen. Another caption, "Liberated citizens cheer on their American Benefactors" and this shows happiness and patriotism. When the caption, "Neo-Nazi demonstrators protest free speech" and by using this caption it makes us dislike the people in the image.  The real caption was actually that "Deaf protestors in DC demand the right to work" and this shows us that the photographs represent unity as well as passion for what they want.

     

       VS.

THE SUN -

• They think Corbyn is literally rubbish, as the mise-en-scene is of a dustbin
• They don't support the Labour Party
• The bullet point list looks quite long, and therefore this means that it looks like theres a lot more problems with him
• The use of the word "we've" positions the audience via mode of address, brings audience and editors together

MORNING STAR - 

• They are a red paper, and the Labour Party uses red and therefore could show their support
• The bullet points are very positive, and show equality
• The photo used has him with a thumbs up, and shows positivity
• Very simple, as though he's simply a nice person and people don't need persuading that he is

If you are biased, this means that you lean towards a certain opinion. An agenda is a set goal or a set opinion on something, where you try to do something with you opinions (doing something for a reason).

A way we can assess bias is through Discourse Analysis. This includes:

• 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
• Word choice and tone