Newspapers - Applying the Theorists

Todorv: Narratology

What elements of narrative does the front page create? Does it set up an equilibrium or a disequilibrium or both?

This theory is largely created for 'stories' so is LIMITED when exploring Newspaper single front pages. However, narratives ARE created within Newspaper front pages and the various elements of media language often work together to create a 'narrative' that suits the newspaper's ideologies and viewpoints.

Currently, The Guardian is criticising the current government and Boris Johnson in line with their liberal, left-wing viewpoint.

Tzvetan Todorov believes that every narrative has the same five stages to it, based around the main character:

• Equilibrium - the main character's life is balanced and normal. there have been no disruptions to the main character's life...yet.
• Disruption - the main character's life has suddenly been disrupted, shattering their previous equilibrium.
• Recognition - the main character now begins to realise that their situation has changed...and not for the better.
• Repair - the main character now sets out to 'right the wrongs' and repair their situation, so that life can be as good as it was originally (equilibrium).
• New Equilibrium - the main character has worked through the problems and as a result, have gained back their equilibrium. However, they have grown from their experience. Life is now better than it was at the beginning of the narrative.

Examples:

The Daily Telegraph

• This front page of The Telegraph uses largely repair and offers a new equilibrium as it offers a largely positive representation of the day's news.
• The disruption in all news at the moment is Covid-19. This almost acts like a character who behaves as the villain who has disrupted the equilibrium that existed before. It has shattered normality and this provides a base for the narratives that built on most of the current newspaper front papers.
• Boris Johnson's illness acts as an additional disruption that disturbed the equilibrium of his leadership of the first few weeks of the crisis. the headline 'Johnson back at the controls on Monday' provides repair and also hints at a new equilibrium. The Telegraph plays with the ideas that Johnson can return and repair the 'unrest over the extent of lockdown'.
• Other examples of narrative devices used to structure this front page are further repair and new equilibrium stages highlighting just how positive this front page is.
• The offleads both offer repair and hint at the potential of a new equilibrium. 'Testing will be offered to 10m key workers and their families' is a solution to a problem and suggest s hope for an escape strategy from lockdown. The offlead next to this also offers repair; help to those parents struggling through homeschooling.

The Times

• Much like in The Telegraph, the disruption is Covid-19. But unlike that cover, this cover presents a negative impression and introduces additional disruptions. 
• The heading of 'Sturgeon heaps pressure on No 10 over virus plan' further emphasises the stress that the world is under due to Covid-19 and that it is affecting the process of overcoming it. The paper hints that Sturgeon's actions are an attempt at repairing the situation.
• The racial comment that 'black people are dying to CV-19 at twice the rate of whites' is extremely controversial and only increases the scale of the disruption. It suggests that the villain that is Covid-19 does not transcend racism, personifying its effect. this sub-heading paired with the lack of representation on this cover (only white people) suggests that the paper's intentions are not positive.

The Daily Mirror

• In keeping with the 'theme', the main disruption of this cover is the topic of Covid-19, as suggested through the skyline of 'coronavirus crisis'. Despite this, much like the Telegraph, this paper focuses on the positives surrounding the crisis and thus shows a repair and offers a new equilibrium.  
• The cover is heavily image-based, with the main images all indicating towards a repair and possible new equilibrium - 'grateful Britain' refers to the thanks that civilians give to the key workers of the NHS by applauding their hard work. This represents their thanks to the repair taking place, as well as the repair of giving those workers tests for coronavirus.
• The new equilibrium is offered through the positive cover and reference to multiple significant, happy stories that are taking place in spite of the coronavirus.

Baudrillard: Postmodernism

Key Ideas:

• The image is the reflection of a basic reality
• The image masks a basic reality
• The image masks the absence of a basic reality (plays at being an appearance)
• The image bears no relation to any reality, it is purely a simulation and becomes a hyperreality

Modernism

• Modernism as a movement grew from the ruins of WWI and WWII and a hope for a better future
• Modernism was about faith and optimism:
• Faith in people
• Faith institutions - religion, the law, family
• Faith that things will get better - careers, economic status, romance : Through education, social class could be a thing of the past. The Modern era is meritocracy (We succeed through earning our way, not because of who we know or to whom we are related)
• Faith in new technology and industry : Machinery and technology made life easier, less laborious and information was at our fingertips - The World Wide Web
• Faith in the opportunities that Globalisation offered previously gated countries/communities to become interconnected : The EU was a product of Modernism

Applying Baudrillard

• The reality = LIFE!
• The image masks a basic reality = Slice of Life Vloggers create YT videos of their day-to-day life
• The image masks an absence of reality = these vloggers are manufacturing a certain image, often promoting products and managed by a third party
• The image replaces reality to form a hyperreality = Nosedive (Black Mirror) and Pls Like (BBC3), a TV Drama and a Mocumentary representing slice of life vlogging/social media which in itself is a representation...a copy of a copy...

ACCORDING TO BAUDRILLARD, in postmodern culture, society has lost all contact with the real world. The lines between 'created' and 'reality' are becoming blurred. We reproduce reality. Everything is a copy of a copy of a copy. All texts draw influence from texts that have gone before.

Newspaper Industry

• The news in an ideal world reports on current affairs in a balanced, unbiased way
• We know this to be false - newspapers are often politically motivated and are constructing a ‘version’ of the truth
• This plays into the notion of ‘Grand Narratives’ that newspapers conform to - UK news will play to the notion that Brexit is leading the country downhill, that the government is in internal chaos and our economy will suffer as a consequence - if you read certain newspapers
• Equally - Theresa May is a strong female Prime Minister striving for the best deal for the United Kingdom having responded to what the majority of the voters opted for - to leave the EU

Postmodernism

• Modernism as a movement grew from the ruins of WWI and WWII and a hope for a better future
• Modernism was about faith and optimism:
• Faith in people
• Faith institutions - religion, the law, family
• Loss of Faith that things will get better - careers, economic status, romance : Acknowledgement of capitalism - Greed is Good! We live in an increasingly consumerist society
• Loss of Faith in new technology and industry : We have so many tens, hundreds of ‘Friends’ on Facebook - how many of them do we actually speak to in a week? Are we actually more alone now than before?
• Loss of Faith in the opportunities that Globalisation offered previously gated countries/communities to become interconnected : BREXIT!

Baudrillard and LFTVD

• Baudrillard argued that postmodern society is organised around ‘simulation’- the play of images and signs. Differences of gender, class, politics and culture are dissolving in a world of simulation in which individuals construct their identities. 
• The new world of hyperreality consists of simulations that no longer have to refer to anything real, but to one another. 
• Any media product adds to hyperreality, so to this extent it is not really significant what the product contains. 
• CRITIC: High level theory- doesn’t relate specifically to LFTVD. Also, the world has changed-1980s. 

Plurality and Intertextuality

Postmodernism allows for cognitive dissonance - the ability to hold two contradictory beliefs or understandings. Postmodernism allows for playfulness, parody and self-referentialism.

Types of Postmodernism

• Parody - a comical imitation, a simplification of core elements of a genre/text
• Bricolage - borrowing from the ‘debris’ of other texts to create something new
• Intertextuality - meaning is given to a text by it referencing, knowingly, other texts
• Pastiche - A light-hearted, tongue in cheek imitation of another’s style. Different to parody as it is usually good natured and respectful

postmodernism - a broad movement that developed in the mid- to late 20th century across philosophy, the arts, architecture, and criticism, marking a departure from modernism. The term has been more generally applied to describe a historical era said to follow after modernity and the tendencies of this era.

simulacra - an image or representation of someone or something.

hyper-reality - an inability of consciousness to distinguish reality from a simulation of reality, especially in technologically advanced postmodern societies.

intertextuality - the relationship between texts, especially literary ones.

Levi-Strauss: Structuralism

How do the media use Structuralism to construct meaning and ideological beliefs? 

It is reasonably simple to understand how meaning is created through binary oppositions. For example, the opposition of life and death is particularly prevalent in the reporting of the current crisis.

Examples:

The Metro

• Our understanding of this front page of the Metro (owned by DMGT- Daily Mail General Trust) could be said to be supported by the binary opposition of government power vs. the ordinary citizen. 
• The layout of the front page supports this binary opposition; placing an image of Boris Johnson alongside an image of nurses during the minutes silence for NHS workers who have lost their lives due to the Corona Virus. He is facing inwards so that he is looking towards the nurses which emphasises a feeling of respect. This has an ideological significance because the binary opposition of government vs. the ordinary citizen could have been used to create conflict but has instead been used to suggest that people in power are showing deference and respect to nurses. Therefore, this supports the ideological values of the Metro which do not seem to question authority but support them and present them in a positive slant.  

The Sun

• Binary oppositions:
• Celebs/authority vs ordinary citizen -1
• Trivial/gossip vs serious - 2
• 1) The layout of the front page supports this binary opposition; placing a red carpet image of Michelle Keegan alongside the Headline of 'Testing! Testing! Testing!' in regards to the key workers who are able to get tested for coronavirus. She is facing away from the headline which suggests the lack of connection between the two pieces. This opposition demonstrates The Sun's style of portraying a sensationalized version of current events alongside the emphasis on entertainment and celebrity gossip.
• As a right wing, conservative government paper, the portrayal of authority and the government should be very positive. This is proven to be true due to the Headline and the image of Matt Hancock (the Health Secretary for the government) pair together to deliver good news on the epidemic.
• 2) The trivial sub-headline of 'lockdown locks' paired with the serious main headline of 'Testing! Testing! Testing!' creates this binary opposition. As a tabloid, this demonstrates their different ideologies of producing an entertaining, gossip-filled paper as well as a personal point of view of recent events. 

Neale: Genre Theory

As we have already discussed in this unit, the modern British Press has become increasingly hybridised. Newspapers that were traditional ‘broadsheets’ or ‘quality newspapers contain more crossover aspects than ever before to appeal to a broader audience in challenging times for the print media industry. 

A very conventional broadsheet /quality newspaper - The Financial Times

• Broadsheet sized
• It contains largely financial stories that appeal to a very niche audience

(notice the very large ‘Chopard’ advertisement in the bottom right hand corner. Nothing to do with genre theory but clear evidence of the need for newspapers to fund via alternative streams of revenue) 

A very conventional tabloid/red-top newspaper - Daily Star

• Nonsensical stories unrelated to the days’ actual news. 
• Sexualisation of women. 
• Colloquial/working class language ‘2-pint ration’ 
• Very limited copy 
• Liberal use of colour. 
• Play on language ‘Helena’s bloomin’ great’ 

The newspapers we study for our case study are possibly the most hybridised. 

The Guardian is still classed as a ‘quality newspaper’ but is now sometimes classed as being in tabloid format. It has several elements of the tabloids such as use of colour and less serious stories such as ‘How to isolate with flatmates’ as seen on the front page on the next slide.  

The Daily Mail is classed as a ‘middle-market’ newspaper but is never classed as a broadsheet or quality newspaper. However, you can see it is world’s away from The Sun and the Daily Star on the next page. It presents news in a reasonably serious manner and does often contain some copy and facts.

Look at the front pages on the next slide and remind yourself of Neale’s genre theory and how this can be applied to newspapers. 

Remember that this theory is limited when applying it to newspapers as it was designed for the study of film and was not designed for the application to newspapers. 

Barthes: Semiotics

How does the Daily Mail front page construct meaning through signification (signs and symbols)? 

You could discuss: 

• The symbol of the face-mask and the PPE.
• The symbolism of the colour blue 
• The naturalisation of the myth of the ‘young, female, white (blond) nurse’. As we well know, much of the NHS workforce are from ethnic minorities. Why have they chosen to encourage this naturalisation of the public’s image of what a nurse looks like? 
• The construction of a ‘war’. The use of war rhetoric has been used consistently throughout the crisis by the media and the government so this idea has become naturalised to the public.