Newspaper representation plan

Question: Analyse the representations in sources A and B. Use Gilroy’s ideas in your answer [10] (15 minutes) 

1. The Daily Express 

• The daily express belongs to the genre of a mid-market tabloid newspaper meaning that it has the conventions of both a tabloid and broadsheet newspaper in the size of a tabloid. 
• They have a right-wing conservative politics view meaning that their opinions are mainly focused on capitalism and prefer private ownership. This would help gain their target audience who have the same views as them.  They claim that they produce truthful news with dignity in both their print and online newspaper editions, as well as standing up for Britain. 
• 57% of their audience  come from ABC1 categories while 55% are C1C2 adults. and the average age being 59. This target audience will usually have  similar opinions on right wing views on controversial topics such as rights and social stability. Currently, the circulation for the daily express is 302,690 (October 2019). 

2. The Guardian 

•  The guardian was traditionally a broadsheet newspaper, but changed to compact in 2018, meaning it is a tabloid size to save printing costs however it still has the general conventions of a broadsheet newspaper. 
• The guardians opinions and views are left-wing labour party views so they support socialism and equality within the social hierarchy. It is owned by the Scotts trust to secure the financial and editorial independence of the guardian and protect the freedom of journalists. The guardian strongly believes in liberal opinions  and that they should provide their readers with true, quality content. 
• The guardian target an educated, middle class and left learning 18+ audience demographic (ABC1) who believe in socialist views, reform and freedom, A study that the Guardian produced in 2005 showed that 80% of their readers supported the left wing views. At the moment, their circulation is at 126,879 (February 2020). 

How is migration presented in these two front covers? 

Daily Express

The Guardian

Negative-  they are discriminating migrants from coming into the country. The language they use I.e stop creates a us vs them divide.  They do have a stereotypical representation that Migrants are taking over our jobs in the UK and “invading” our country.  The splash text is big and bold meaning it can be seen as ‘over exaggerated’ but they are also trying to make their statement and try to catch the readers eye.  Readers might respond in different ways, for example, their target audience will have a preferred reading as they are loyal to the newspaper and follow it, plus the daily express have right wing views which are typically anti-immigrant however critics might oppose it as it is seen as being anti-immigrant and harsh.

It is positive because it is saying that children are able to come here to escape the crisis going on in Calais, but it includes negative opinions from authorities.  The image used is to show the emotion and real life circumstance of the migrant crisis happening in the EU. The headline is also smaller to draw more attention to the article- wants to raise awareness.  It doesn’t have a stereotypical representation because they know that it is a social issue and they support the idea of saving the migrant crisis.   Readers will respond positively because of the way they have portrayed the article makes it seem emotional and sympathetic so people will feel the need to help- left wing readers support immigration

Gilroy's theory- post colonialism

• I think Gilroys idea about post colonialism is presented in the front covers: On the daily express, they are portraying racial and harsh ethnicity views towards migrants, even in a post colonial society, which is wrong and shouldn't be happening. This is shown in the splash but also the main image on the front cover doesn't have anything to do with the migrant crisis, showing that they don't appreciate it or show any real efforts towards it, instead they are discriminating it.
• The Guardian on the other hand is supporting Gilroys theory about discrimination in  modern day society and the layout of the front cover deeply represents this. For example, the amount of detail put into the writing shows the great efforts they have gone through to highlight the story and show whats right and whats wrong. The image they have chosen seems like it has been specifically chosen to portray Gilroys theory as it presents the suffering through the use of the close up of the migrants face showing emotion. The other articles are also smaller than the main one which makes the main article stand out even more, contrasted to Daily express where it looks like there are two main articles.

Plan:

Intro: Outline differences and similarities of the newspapers and highlight the genre conventions of the different types; ownership, opinions/values and their audience.

Write a few lines on Source A and talk about how the media language constructs representations and link to the theorist- this could be ownership, audience, value, layout etc

Do same with source B

Conclusion: say how media language constructs representations and what effect does it give to its target audience as well as summarising the theorist.