Events and Issues

Representation

Events
You will need TWO examples of events
Contemporary Events Specifically
discussing how different media texts
(e.g. newspaper story/TV coverage)
cover that same event

Events
How has the EVENT been
REpresented
Language
Mode of address
Anchorage
Technical codes
Visual codes
Audio codes
Use of images

Events
The construction of the
representation
Whose viewpoint is being shown

The process of selection

What has been selected and why?

The audience who will consume the

text
Some newspapers like particular
celebrities

Political Ideology

News Values
In 1965, media researchers Galtung
& Ruge analysed international news
stories to find common attributes.
They identified a list of news values
common across news bulletins and
newspapers.

News Values

Negativity bad news is good news!

Familiarity local news is most relevant!
Immediacy new News is News!
Continuity people want to find out more about things in
the public eye. They want updates on existing News stories.
Amplification Is it a big event? Involves lots of people?
Plane crash kills one or Plane crash destroys city whats
more exciting?
Unambiguity Is it clear an definite?
Uniqueness - Man Bites Dog is more exciting that dog
bites man.
Simplicity a simple story is easier to read.
Personalisation human interest draws on heart-strings.
Predictability did people think there would be a riot and
there was? People love knowing they were right!
Unexpectedness Surprise!
Elite Nations / People Celebs, Royals, US and UK.

Task
Look at the following media texts in your groups
and answer the following:
Who is audience for each one?
Who is in control of the text? Whose ideas and
values are expressed through the
representations?
What mode of address is being used?
What ideologies / messages might be contained
within the representation?
How does this event show NATIONAL IDENTITY?

Mode of Address
Mode of address refers to the way
in which a media text speaks to its
target audience in order to
encourage them to identify with it.
Newspapers often construct their
presentation to reflect what they
imagine is the typical identity of their
readers.

Mode of Address
The way a media text speaks to its
audience can depend on various
assumptions the producers make about the
people watching; what type of people are
they e.g. old, young, etc.? Who does the
text want to attract? What is the
relationship between the audience and text
e.g. is the programme intended to be
funny, serious, informative, emotionally
moving, etc.? Furthermore, the mode of
address it uses may lead audience members
to assume a particular attitude towards the
text, such as paying attention, taking it
seriously or light-hearted entertainment.

Narrative
Construction
Structure
Key codes such as action and enigma

What are we studying today?

What do all these things have in
common?

What would you like to know about

media representation of events?

Representation of Events
Focus on the representation of TWO
events
From at least two different media texts
Enables you to demonstrate an
understanding how events are
represented across media.

Events - definition
Event = something that occurs or is about
to occur and is of interest to an audience.
Events come in a range of shapes and
forms and can be local, national or
international.
E.g. the Royal Wedding, the Olympic Games
or a pop festival. International events may
include wars and global recession.
Think of five current events you could
explore?

Ideology, News Values &

Bias
The ideology of the text in which the
event features right-wing or leftwing newspaper? Royalist or antiroyalist?
Is it clear what the text says about
the event?
Is there evidence of bias in the
representation how do the visual,
sound and linguistic codes
achieve this?

News Values
In 1965, media researchers Galtung &
Ruge analysed international news stories to
find out what factors they had in common,
and what factors placed them at the top of
the news agenda worldwide. They came up
with the following list of news values. - a
kind of scoring system - a story which
scores highly on each value is certain to
come at the start of a TV news bulletin, or
make the front page of a newspaper.
Journalists and editors also draw heavily on
their experience - of what an audience
expects, of what stories have had a major
impact on public consciousness in the past,
of what is important - and each news

Looking at the list why might the

London riots feature on the front
page?
List..

What's the Angle (News Bias)?

Each news story is reported from a particular angle or
slant. This may be one of the news values listed above, or
it may be political or personal, depending on the
journalist's (or the publication they work for's) beliefs.
The main ways in which to influence a news story are;
Selection/omission
Placement
Headline
Photo, Caption, Camera Angles
Names & Titles (ie how you describe a person)
Statistics
Use of source
Tone, or mode of address

Definitions
Left wing (liberal):
emphasises the role of the community (we're
all in it together), supports cultural diversity,
supports higher taxation and more
government intervention to ensure equality
and equal access to provisions.
Right wing (conservative):
emphasises the role of the individual (every
man for himself), supports traditional values,
supports lower taxation and a 'stripped-down'
welfare state.

Which political leaning?

Socialist/ LeftWing
Rights for workers
and minorities are
key.
Believe the rich
benefit from
exploiting the
poor and that this
system should
end. Pro
revolution.
Morning Star
Socialist Worker

Liberal
Pretty middle of
the road. Tend to
offer the most
unbiased,
objective
perspective.
Believe it is
important to
represent people
from all minority
groups and
countries.
The Voice
Independent
Guardian

Conservative /
Right of
middle

Nationalist /
Right-Wing

Incredibly
patriotic. Dislike
Uphold traditional change highly
values about
supportive of
Britishness, class, traditional values:
gender etc.: antianti-abortion,
Labour and Lib
anti-same sex
Dems.
marriage, heavily
Dont like Britain
opposed to
being part of EU.
immigration.
Wary of
Believe Britain
immigration.
should be Britain
Pro-Capitalist.
for Daily
(White)Mail
British
Daily Telegraph
people.

The Sun
Financial Times
The Mirror
The Metro

i Evening Standard

Daily Star
The Times

Intertextuali
ty

The London Riots

What do you know?

Read background

 Coverage of the events drastically

differed according to the political
ideology of the commentator. Leftleaning journalists focussed on rising
social inequality in Britain (largely due
to government cuts and budgets, which
seemed to favour the wealthy) and
institutional racism within the police
force, pointing out historical evidence of
rioting when inequality is at its highest.
Right-leaning journalists focussed on
the rise of antisocial and countercultural attitudes, which has led to such
widespread criminality.

The Daily Mail/ The

Guardian
Each group to analyse the front page of
newspaper in hoe the event is
represented.
Visual codes Masthead, image
Language
Tone and political bias angry?, left
wing view?
Audience appeals to?
Dominant and Oppositional
Readings

HW - The Daily Mail/ The

Guardian
Analyse the front page of newspaper
in hoe the event is represented.

Visual codes Masthead, image

Language
Tone and political bias angry?, left wing view?
Audience appeals to?
Dominant and Oppositional Readings
News Values and Narrative Theories

5 mins to discuss you findings report back

How did political bias

affect the coverage?
Left Wing

Right wing

TV coverage- News
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=
aHun58mz3vI

Darcus Howe on London Riots

(ABC TV)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_
iNrhtJ6Zmo

Unlike BBC, ABC did not censor Darcus' Riots commentry and gave him a
chance to comment on the BBC incident.
Darcus didn't complain when BBC presenter Fiona Armstrong
(mis)introduced him twice as "Marcus Dowe" but got annoyed when she
tried to censor him and was finally outraged when she accused him of
criminal activity in the past. The BBC later published a formal apology
online http://www.bbc.co.uk/complaints/conte...
What you see is an extract from the weekly SBS broadcast of Foreign
Correspondent. This report was broadcast on 11-08-30 entitled "Storming
High Street".which, although it featured Andrew Fowler interviewing Darcus
(from Croydon, a southern suburb), mainly focussed on the riots experience
of Ealing (A western suburb).
You can watch the full episode (at slightly lower resolution compared to my
youtube clip) at http://www.abc.net.au/foreign/content...
The BBC did invite him back for a debate the same evening of the
embarassing episode, this time with an ex-Tory debate but it turned out
lame IMHO http://youtu.be/718J9oIUTWo

Left or Right?
ABC news (Left leaning Darcus Howe
Interview) is a left wing network,
where Fox news is the polar opposite
being right wing.

 The television news coverage seemed to be

focused on providing dramatic and shocking
footage (or moments of disequilibrium), providing
intense experiences for audiences (Dyer), as well
as 'water-cooler' moments, where people could
talk about the events they have seen reported.
From Sky to the BBC, we could clearly see the use
of elliptical editing, where disorder or conflict
was readily relayed to the audience. The general
tone of these pieces were sombre, condemning
the acts of the rioters - usually communicated
through the dramatic non-diegetic music and
choice of interviewees.
It was also clear that there was a tendency to
give priority to the police and government's
viewpoint over that of the rioters. However,
people who did support the looting often came

Inarticulate and
Misguided Youth
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H
jWifAuTwJg
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-14458
424

Fox News examples Riots

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=
CjZ3nq82O20
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=
rpyKMDDMq_Y
https://
www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEBVUH
LclBE

How is the event presented?

Language - Critical? Adulatory?

Mode of address?
Anchorage?
Use of images?

Who owns fox?

Media ownership &

Institutions
Who owns what we watch,
read and buy?

k_langton@btopenworld.com - December 2009

INSTITUTIONS
The Key Concept of INSTITUTIONS in
Media Studies is about ownership
and control.
When studying the Popular Press, we
need to look at OWNERSHIP of
newspapers and how that might
affect content.
Think about how owing a newspaper
might leads to abuses of power.
k_langton@btopenworld.com
December 2009

Ownership of the Press

The freedom of the Press is usually taken
to be a sign of a democratic country.
In dictatorships the Press, Radio , TV are
usually the first things to be seized by
those newly in control as it means that
they can control what is being broadcast.
The UK is rare in having a newspaper
industry that is largely free from
Government interference.
k_langton@btopenworld.com December 2009

The UK Press
The UK is also unusual in having so
many national daily newspapers.
Many countries have lots of
newspapers, but they are often
regional or only weekly publications.
In the UK people can read basically
the same newspaper from Penzance
in Cornwall to Aberdeen in Scotland.
k_langton@btopenworld.com December 2009

Ownership
Although we say that UK newspapers
are free they are mostly owned by
a small number of companies.
Consider what effect this may have
on the opinions of newspaper
readers:
Political opinions / support for political
parties
Opinions on key issues immigration,
war, taxes
Opinions on
other issues
celebrities,
k_langton@btopenworld.com
December 2009
TV shows, etc.

UK National daily
newspapers
TITLE
OWNERSHIP

CIRCULATION
(c. Sept. 2009) (%
y/y)

The Sun

News International

3,080,000 (-2%)

Daily Mirror & Daily

Record (Scotland)

Trinity Mirror Group

1,307,000 +342,000
(-10%)

Daily Mail

Associated
Newspapers

2,160,000 (-4%)

Daily Express

Northern & Shell

712,000 (-4%)

The Star

Northern & Shell

864,000 (+18%)

News of the World

News International

3,129,000 (-3%)

The Times

News International

572,000 (-10%)

The Daily Telegraph

Telegraph Media
Group

770,000 (-6%)

The Guardian
Financial Times

Guardian Media
Group
k_langton@btopenworld.com
December 2009

Pearson PLC

312,000 (-10%)
56,000 (-5%)

Political Support
TITLE

POLITICAL
SUPPORT?

POLITICAL BIAS?

Conservative Party

Centre Right

Labour Party

Centre Left

Daily Mail

Conservative Party

Very Right

Daily Express

Conservative Party

Right

Conservative Party?

Right?

News of the World

Conservative Party

Right

The Times

Conservative Party

Centre Right

The Daily Telegraph

Conservative Party

Very Right

Labour / Liberal
Democrats

Centre Left

The Sun
Daily Mirror & Daily
Record (Scotland)

The Star

The Guardian
Financial Times

k_langton@btopenworld.com December 2009

Centre / Traditionally
Right

 Daily Mail and General Trust plc is a

British media conglomerate. It has
interests in newspapers, television
and radio. The company has
extensive activities based outside
the UK, through DMG World Events
and DMG Information

 Northern & Shellis a

Britishpublishingandtelevisiongroup.
Launched and founded in December 1974
and currently owned byRichard Desmond,
it publishes the Daily Express,Sunday
Express,Daily StarandDaily Star Sunday,
and the magazinesOK!,New!,Star, and
TV Pick Magazine. Northern & Shell also
owned three entertainmenttelevision
channels:Channel 5,5*and5USA. The
company also ownsPortland TV,[1]which
owns theadultTV channels;Television
X,Red Hot TV, and others.

Political Support
The Sun has become the most important
opinion former in recent years and its support
for one or another political party has often been
very influential.
Traditionally The Sun supported the Labour
Party, but decided in the 1980s that it liked the
politics of Margaret Thatcher and so threw its
support behind the Conservatives.
When Tony Blair became leader of the Labour
Party, The Sun decided that they would support
him.
Recently, The Sun has announced that it will be
supporting David Camerons Conservative Party
in the forthcoming election and has already
begun a campaign
against Prime Minister
k_langton@btopenworld.com Gordon Brown.December 2009

The Sun in the Elections

k_langton@btopenworld.com December 2009

The Sun changes Party

k_langton@btopenworld.com December 2009

Who checks what they

print?
The Press Complaints Commission
(PCC) tries to make sure that
newspapers follow their Code of
Conduct, but critics say that the PCC
has no teeth.
Code of Conduct an agreement
amongst the newspaper Editors to
follow certain rules about accuracy,
privacy, information gathering or
reporting on children or law cases.
OFCOM is the Governments own
body for regulating the media in
k_langton@btopenworld.com - December 2009

Why should we care?

We tend to forget how important the
press is in the way that it shapes
peoples opinions.
Traditionally every broadsheet
newspaper sold will be read by THREE
people. Every tabloid newspaper will be
read by FIVE people do the maths!
Every day the owner of New
International has the opportunity to get
his message across to MORE THAN 17
MILLION readers! Just in the UK.
If you owned a newspaper, could you
resist telling people your opinions?
k_langton@btopenworld.com December 2009

What do you know about

Rupert Murdoch?
Research

k_langton@btopenworld.com December 2009

Construction
Events in media representations are
constructed they are mediated by
editors, journalists, graphic
designers, photographers.
A football cup final will have lots of
camera positioning producers will
decide where the camera is pointing
and which is to be used. Music, slow
motion, and video filters can
enhance the images and make the
players seem heroic and

Selection
Whatever is chosen means other
things are omitted.
Someone makes that decision who?
Why?
If a peaceful student march has a
brief skirmish between one or two
protestors and the police how
might A) a student newspaper think
about it B) A right-wing tabloid?

Focus
Headlines and images will direct our
response to certain aspects of the
text and push us towards
assumptions and conclusions about
the event concerned.
Who is interviewed? Who is not?
Who is invited to commentate?

Audience
Opinion leaders? Do they influence
how audiences think or feel about an
event? Two step flow theory
The audience themselves types of
reading? Stuart Hall? encoding/
decoding preferred, negotiated and
oppositional readings.

Consider how these two texts have

represented this event.

The Suns Target Audience

Male - heavy coverage of sport, particularly football;
page 3 and other sexist portrayals of women).
There is some content that is woman friendly
(celebrity content).
16+ - simplistic coverage, celebrity content, titillating
stories.
White British possible negative representations of
ethnic minorities, xenophobic? or nationalistic
attitude? Patriotic stories.
Working Class/C2DE price (40p), very little serious
political coverage, focus on show business/sensational
stories, 20%of the paper about sport with an emphasis
on football, the size is convenient.
Fairly right wing political views (political content).
Value and Attitudes: Mainstreamers, Strugglers and
Resigned. Illustrated through advertising.

Current Events
What events have occurred over the
last 18months that you could use as
case studies in the exam?

Events
14 February 2013: Oscar Pistorius is charged with murder. The South African
athlete is charged with the fatal shooting of his girlfriend, model Reeva
Steenkamp, in an incident in his home in Pretoria. Murder trial in March 2014
8 April: Baroness Thatcher, prime minister from 1979 to 1990, dies aged 87
following a stroke. The UKs only woman prime minister, Lady Thatcher won
three general elections as Conservative leader.
22 May: Lee Rigby, a Drummer of the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers, is killed
near the Royal Artillery Barracks in Woolwich, southeast London. He is knocked
down with a car, then attacked with knives and cleavers in an attempt to
decapitate him. His two assailants, Michael Adebolajo and Michael Adebowale,
are wounded by police gunfire before being arrested. Murder trial in March
2014
28 October: The biggest trial into phone hacking allegedly conducted by the
now-defunct News of the World begins at the Old Bailey in London. Rebekah
Brooks and Andy Coulson, former editors of the tabloid, are among the eight
defendants, who are charged with a range of offences including conspiring to
access voicemail messages illegally.

2014

- Floods in Britain
- Winter Olympics
- Russia / Ukraine crisis

The Floods
Feb 2014

TASK
You will need TWO examples of Contemporary Events (within
18months) from different media texts (e.g. newspaper
story/TV coverage)
When discussing events in the exam you MUST use and
reference SPECIFIC examples, e.g. The Sun represented the
Royal wedding aswhereas PBS news
Find and comment on 2 examples of events . Discuss
the following:
Who is audience for each one?
Who is in control of the text? Whose ideas and values
are expressed through the representations?
What mode of address is being used?
What ideologies / messages might be contained within
the representation?