Newspapers - Representation and Realism

L10 - Representation: Selection and Combination

L11 - Realism and Constructing Reality

• Much of what will be discussed in this section has already been studied elsewhere on the course.
• Paper 1+2=140 marks. News is 45 marks of this. 

Recap - Media Language Theorists

Structuralism - Levi-Strauss

Postmodernism - Baudrillard

Narratology - Todorov

Genre Theory - Steve Neale

Semiotics - Barthes

Representation: Selection and Combination

Newspapers SELECT which events, issues, individuals and social  groups they will represent and which ones they will ignore. This influences our view of the world. 

Biases of representation are caused by the application of news values which include bias towards powerful people, celebrities and entertainment, and events or issues already in the news. 

Different newspapers have their own agendas. 

Newspapers combine representations to create a view of the world. Many newspapers have a strong ethos which means a fairly consistent world view will be presented. 

How would you describe The Guardian and the Daily Mail’s world view? 

The Guardian World View:

• The Guardian supports LIBERAL, PROGRESSIVE VALUES.

‘After working at the Guardian for two decades, I feel I know instinctively why it exists. Most of our journalists and our readers do, too – it’s something to do with holding power to account, and upholding liberal values. We know what defines a Guardian story, what feels like a Guardian perspective, what makes something “very Guardian” (for better and for worse).’

The Guardian Editor-in-Chief: Katharine Viner, 2017

• Internationalist - rather than suspicion regarding other countries and religions, The Guardian is curious and supportive. 
• The Guardian consciously SELECTS topics that criticize racism and prejudice and actively seek out stories from British Muslims regarding their experience of Ramadan. 
• Look at the image in the bottom right, the combination of the headline regarding racism within the American Healthcare system and the image of people of ethnic minorities queuing (for what we are led to believe is healthcare) builds up the picture of injustice. 

The Daily Mail World View:

• The Daily Mail supports a FREE MARKET ECONOMY, and BRITISH TRADITIONS such as the ROYAL FAMILY, the CHURCH, the ARMY and DEMOCRACY.  

"We will be a friend of the people, to Middle Britain and our loyal readers. They and we cherish our extraordinary national character for its resilience, tolerance, generosity and humour…

"While we are a paper that applauds economic success and is pro-business, on behalf of our readers we will fight and make sure we do, that business leaders, union leaders, politicians, public figures - and judges - are held to account, to serve their customers, members, voters and the public.

"Our readers value – as you know as creators of the paper – aspiration and inspiration. They want fairness and value for money. I recognise and am pleased that we are an intensely patriotic paper and believe fervently in our country with England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland united."

Daily Mail Editor-in-Chief: Geordie Greig, 2018- speech to his staff when starting as editor. 

• Paul Dacre was the editor of the Daily Mail for 26 years until 2018. He was very pro-Brexit and often used a very strong, unrelenting tone. He was replaced by Geordie Grieg. 
• Viscount Rothermere, the paper’s owner, is understood to have made the decision because Mr Dacre’s increasingly angry Brexit stance – including a front page accusing high court judges of being “enemies of the people” – was embarrassing him.
• Nationalist - accusatory tone used when exploring how different countries will ‘spy’ on citizens when easing the Lockdown. 
• This also links to the strong democratic values which the Daily Mail heralds as being integral to British life. Therefore, the idea of being watched and monitored by the state goes against the values that the many Daily Mail reader’s may strongly believe in. 
• The selection of these stories increases debate about the validity of surveillance (on a day when the App to track Covid-19 is trialed in a part of Britain). 
• The combination of words such as ‘spy’ and ‘secrecy’ and technology such as phones and cameras raises suspicion. 

News: Realism and Constructing Reality

• The ideal: news will be truthful and only contain facts!
• The reality: boundaries are blurred and ‘fake news’ has become prevalent in today’s news- especially online. 

Content should be separated into two distinct sections: NEWS and EDITORIAL. 

NEWS = Factual

EDITORIAL = Opinion

Differing Realities: The Guardian and Daily Mail

We would expect The Guardian and the Daily Mail to construct different versions of reality, within the constraints of the news of the day, to match the different world views. These might be expressed as binary oppositions, as used by Levi-Strauss.

• The Guardian is more questioning than the Daily Mail. 
• The Daily Mail often presents dominant ideologies whereas The Guardian promotes negotiated ideologies.  

Narrative and Reality

• Narrative is important in the construction of reality. 
• The world of ‘spin doctors’ (definition: a person responsible for ensuring that others interpret an event from a particular point of view) is to create a suitable narrative around news events.
• Spin doctors and editors will manipulate the narrative to create interest for the reader. This may distort reality in order to provide the required narrative structure (see Todorov’s theory).