Introduction to THE TIMES and constructing representations

Introduction to THE TIMES and constructing representations

Ideology in newspapers is all about control and power. The producer will not need to carry out actions themselves, their ideas will inspire the target audience to do it themselves.

Hegemony - Controlling people through ideas not force.

Having an ideology mean you can attract more of your target audience = make more money.

Assumptions on peoples' class can be made from what newspapers they read, and their political beliefs.

It can gain you support from a political party, however they cannot pay you. They may write a column for a producer, and then the producer will have a source and news before other newspapers.

The media manipulates the people, our ideas are challenged.

Tabloid Vs Broadsheet

A Tabloid is more dramatic and casual in it's tone and contains a brighter masthead and the colour scheme of the front page is more bold and demanding. It contains more gossip than a tabloid than a broadsheet that contains "actual" news. The front cover of a broadsheet looks more like an inside page, it contains information that you need to know about, other than a tabloid which is stuff that you just want to know about.

A tabloid's format is physically much smaller than a broadsheet,the difference is not as big now, however pre 2003 it was not like this. The audience for The Daily Mirror is working class as it contains less information and therefore takes less time to read, as typically this audience has less time.

Tabloids focus on gossip rather than facts, there are more pictures and have a splash - of which often takes up the entire front cover. The headline is a lot bigger on The Daily Mirror as it is more eye catching to a audience that typically has a short attention span. It also means that a higher literacy level is needed in order to read a broadsheet than a tabloid. (The Guardian Post-GCSE english level vs The Daily Mirror Less than GCSE english level). A broadsheet contains more information than a tabloid of which reflects the target audience, in addition to this a broadsheet costs a lot more,considering it is a daily occurrence.

POLYSEMY

Not everything has a single meaning, it has multiple meanings.

Newspapers typically attempt to avoid polysemic readings. The process of forcing an audience in to a particular reading is called anchoring. Anchorage is the fixing of a particular meaning to a media text, often through the use of captions.

Newspapers do not want us to have an oppositional reading.

Anchoring

The  clenched fist is symbolic of power, strength and resilience. it could also represent hope and unity. It suggests that you should be on their side, that society should not be austere. The liberating caption of patriotism suggest we should fee empowered by them. However the fist could be symbolic of the Nazi salute, of which has connotations of hatred.

The Sun VS Morning Star

 This Edition of The Sun has the splash taking over the entirety of the first page of which puts emphasis on the importance of the story. It looks higher budget than the Morning Star one as it has more going on. The Sun's edition is more offensive of which shocks people into buying it and in turn gets people talking about it. The Sun is obviously against labour and its being offensive against him where as the Morning Star is for Corbyn, but doesn't make it as obvious. In the Sun newspaper the producer has represented to be rubbish alongside hie policies and if he is voted in or country will be in trouble. The mise-en-scene of Corbyn in the bin represents him as trash. it suggests that the audience should have the ideology that the Tories are the ones who should be in power. The statement is very leading "we've had enough." They both use bullet points to anchor their audience. The image of Jeremy Corbyn on The Sun would have taken no more than 20 mins on PhotoShop, he is supposed to look shady. The Sun is trying very hard to make a 'hatchet-job' of Jeremy Corbyn.

Bias and Agenda

Bias is that you favour one opinion over another.

Agenda is is trying to bring up a certain topic.

How to asses Bias:

Headlines, photos, captions, camera angles, names and titles, placement, statistics and crowd counts, selection and omission, source control, word choice and tone.