25/01/24

 

Compare how these pages from the Daily Mail and the Daily Mirror construct versions of reality. In your answer you must: 

• consider the choices media producers make when constructing versions of reality 

• consider the similarities and differences in the representations 

• make judgements and draw conclusions about how far the representations relate to relevant media contexts. [30]

What relevant media context could you refer to?

Conservative and labour politics

Right and left  wing ideologies

Tabloids and Broadsheets 

The Covid pandemic 

Representation debates

Production context- print media: an older demographic 

Power and the media industries

Political bias

Plan

Mise-en-scene 

Serif font 

Binary opposition

Lexis

Image

Semiotic codes

Intertextuality

Masthead

Ideology

Mid-shot

Colour 

Headline

Tabloid

Anchorage

Captions 

Representations- Stuart Hall 

Representation are constructed 

Versions of reality 

Van Zoonen- Representations of women 

Newspapers use a range of techniques to construct a reality that targets and appeals to their audiences. Ultimately this is for reasons of profit and power. Representations are used to construct versions or reality, in order to present the producers ideology. In order to explore this idea, I shall refer to The Daily Mail, a right wing tabloid, and The Daily Mirror, a left wing tabloid. I shall argue that the representations constructed in these newspapers are wildly different. 

Content-

The use of the main image Daily Mirror- Bias through selection, and the  anchorage of the mise-en-scene of body language, the enormous headline, the Kier Starmer quote. Stereotypical representation. Politically biased. 

Headline- negative, short, blunt, symbolic code of ticking bomb, intertextual reference for an audience (working class) with a lower level of education, manipulation of target audience to agree with dominant ideology, reinforcing hegemonic values.