News consolidation Homework
Plan:
- Theorists: Van zoonen, Butler, Hooks
- Representations of Meghan, The Queen, model, Amal, Jihadi Brit
- Daily Mail- Negative- saying that school girls are committing suicide as they are bullied about their appearance when a slim model is told she is fat.
- This is shown through the big headline title about the suicide rates and the sub heading about the model, alongside an image of the model, even though she is slim.
- Daily Mirror- Positive- Jihadi Brit helped Firefighters in hospital but Meghan took a £33 million plane trip
- Shown in the extra stories at the top of the page with a pictures of them. They are quite small to give the main headline more significance.
- Daily Mail- it is a mid market so it has to cover important stories as well as being humorous, therefore it appeals to a middle class audience who will have the same views as them. They are conservative so they wont='t be interested in immigration like the Daily Mirror
- Daily Mirror- a labour supporting paper who are owned by Reach PLC. They are also a tabloid so they wont cover important world issue stories like broadsheets or mid-markets. Their audience will mainly be younger and interested in gossip and celebs.
Answer:
In sources A and B, they offer different representations of femininity with Meghan and Markle and due to their genre conventions they also present different stories, to appeal to their target market and their values.
The Daily Mail is owned by News UK and is a conservative leading paper with mid market values. It needs to present real life stories but at the same time make it like a tabloid paper and contain gossip and celebrities. The Daily Mirror however, is a red top tabloid paper owned by Reach PLC. They support left-wing labour views and will have more on gossip and humour than the Daily Mail.
Feminist theories focus on the ways
gender is represented and deconstruct how ideology is embedded. Van Zoonen
argues that media text perpetuate stereotyped ideas which reinforce the
patriarchal narrative of gender.
Source A constructs a negative representation of Meghan Markle. This is shown through the use of language and the image associated with it. For example, Meghan is wearing all black, with glasses in a long shot. This image has been used to portray a 'secretive' stereotype of her and that she 'doesn't' belong to the royal family because she doesn't fit in like the others do. The negative comparison emphasizes Meghans ethnicity and foreignness. She is formally from America where she was an Actress and the use of 'Lavish trip' emphasizes that the daily mail think she is taking advantage of the royal life by flying in £33m planes. To signify this, the 'tupperware queen' makes it seem like the Queen disapproves of Meghan and that she is original to the Royal family. The layout of it- top right- suggests that its not an important story as the others and she is 'forgotten about' by a lot of people. The language of 'our' suggests othering and again, she 'doesn't belong in the UK'.
The Daily Mails audience are middle class, with more women reading it which shows they disapprove of her and will stand with the Daily Mails views.
Van Zoonen disagrees with arguments that the internet, being based on collaboration, is a technology that is true and close to women and femininity. These views are too simple and based on the idea of an essential femininity, whereas there is a rich diversity of ways that gender is articulated on the internet. This links with source A because The Daily Mail portrays a negative stereotype of Meghan when the media try and present females in a positive light.
Contrary in Source B, the Daily Mirror portray Meghan as a Positive, glamorous female. This is shown through its language of representing Meghan. The use of her name at the start, suggesting love of celebrity culture and that she is a beautiful person . The use of picture used with Meghan with a baseball cap looking at the picture and smiling portrays her as a hollywood glamour women,approachable and positive. The mid shot helps signify this as well. Even though its in the corner, it still shows the papers interest in it, but its also because its a tabloid paper. The Mirror has a more defreential and escapist approach to celebrity culture, therefore it will highlight a positive situation on individuals.
The Mirror is a left wing paper with a CD demographic so its less disapproving of Meghans lack of frugality and conformity.
Van Zoonens theory about the media portraying women as close to them etc is spproved in the Daily Mirror as they portray Meghan as a light and happy person who is famous and pretty in the celebrity industry. Also, Left wing papers tend to be more socialist etc so this could link with the positive stereotype of Meghan Markle.
Ultimatley, both papers have different values and audiences, the representations of gender are very different. Source A constructs a difficult, negative and spoilt representation of Meghan using its language features, whereas Daily Mirrors front cover is the opposite of this and they try and portray Meghan as a glamouras, Hollywood women with positive stereotypes where she has worked hard for herself. Both of their target audiences will think the same as the papers itself, creating a divided opinion for Meghan Markle.
Comments
Post a Comment