Source A
Source B
Question 1: 10 Mark Question - 15 minutes - 300 - 450 words
Analyse the different social and cultural representations in Sources A and B.
Apply Hall’s theory of representation in your answer.
Points from Hall (NOT ALL WILL BE APPLICABLE):
- Hall points out that there is no 'true' meaning, but that a representation can generate many meanings.
- Hall theorises that meaning is constituted by what is present, what is absent and what is different.
- Hall implicates the audience in creating meaning.
- Hall explains that power (hegemony) tries to fix representation in a preferred meaning through stereotyping.
Example Paragraph:
Hall implicates the audience in the construction of meaning through representation. Both texts construct different preferred meanings around the representation of Theresa May, due to the ideology of their target audience. The Mirror targets left wing Labour voters. It has selected a candid image of May with a grotesque facial expression, anchored by the headline Lies, Damned Lies and Teresa May. This representation positions the audience to find May physically and morally repulsive. Conversely, The Daily Mail, targets right wing Conservative voters using a candid image of May surrounded by supporters, smiling, arms outstretched, with the anchoring headline reading 'Let's Reignite British Spirit.' This connotes the idea that May is accessible and worthy of respect. Hall's theory helps us to acknowledge the diversity of audience ideology in shaping the preferred meaning. As a society shaped by liberal democratic culture, British people accept freedom of the press to either praise or criticise leading political figures.
Other British cultural values/ideologies:
- The importance of voting in a liberal democracy.
- Patriotism
- Traditionalism - An Englishman's home is his castle
- Freedom of the individual
- Emancipation of Women / Valuing of women as leaders
Layout-
ReplyDeleteMasthead (each has individual style i.e. modern, bold, serif, sans serif etc)
Headline
Strapline (beneath headline)
Columns
Standfirst- first paragraph of main paragraph
Captions
Image-
Posed vs candid- representation i.e. celebrities, politicians etc
Paparazzi vs professional
Artistic/ edited
Colour-
Black/white for main body, red/yellow for urgent pieces
Language-
Quotes (Pullquote)
Splash (lead story)
Informal language (often used in headline for shock factor/humour/ belittle subject i.e. use first name of prominent figures)
Dramatization/ Glorification of events
Puns (often outrageous or out of the ordinary to get the attention of the audience)
Narrative-
Opinion Section
Brand Identity
Tipping off sections (does the brand rely/trust readers)
Political bias (leans into it or denies it)
Mast head – name of newspaper
ReplyDeletePug – advert usually in top corner
Headline – title of article
Subheadings – short explanation of article
Body text – main text
Strapline – short explanation of article
Splash – main story, usually news headline
Ears – spaces either side of the masthead. Can be used for ads
Standfirst – large bold first paragraph of main text to catch attention
Off lead – second most important story
Frame – boarder around a story
Caption – anchorage to help deliver preferred reading of image
Banner – section stretching across top of page. For promotions
Puff – colourful shape to encourage purchase
By-line – a line naming the writer of an article
Date and edition – date of publication and newspaper number
Incentives – encourages purchase
Leader – lead story for front page
Cross reference – links to continued story inside paper
Slogan – key phrase to identify newspaper
Layout - Tends to have a balance in favour of images, with large headlines dominating the page.
Image - tend to be lurid, and support lead story.
Colour - Colour images, Text is usually black, but may be red.
Typography - Headlines in bold. Typography in Masthead reflects brand identity (e.g. Daily Mail - Traditional)
Language - Tends to be lurid, Uses direct mode of address.
Brand Identity - Tends to have social/political bias.
Representation - Elite persons, generally celebrity and sports people.
Narrative - Subjective/Biased Content
Layout
ReplyDeleteTends to have a balance in favour of images, with large headlines dominating the page. The body text is limited in comparison to broadsheets in order to be simplified for their target demographic. Most news stories are organised in an inverted pyramid structure with the most important stories at the beginning and less important towards the end to engage the reader.
Image
Images tend to be lurid, and support lead story. A typical convention of tabloids is that the image occupies a lot of space on the cover. This is to amplify the reader’s opinion on the story it is representing as well as act as a supplement for the story and provide visual interest.
Colour
Colour images, Text is usually black, but may be red. Gutters are the blank spaces between margins of facing pages/blank space between columns of which there is a balance between that and text.
Typography
Headlines are the largest piece of text on the front cover, aside from the masthead. They are bold and used to give a title to the article to encourage the readers to engage. The typography in masthead, for example sans serif bold in ‘The Sun’ is very simple to make it more memorable and associative to their brand identity.
Language
Tends to be lurid, Uses direct mode of address. Informal/formal language register: formal used in broadsheet to communicate with complex language, informal used in tabloid to communicate with simple language.
Brand Identity
Some tabloids employ a pug, an advertisement in the top right corner. This is because the target demographic of tabloids would likely have a lower income and are more likely to be enticed by promotions than those readers of a broadsheet.Tends to have social/political bias.
Representation
Elite persons, generally celebrity and sports people. However, the presentation of these elite people is completely underpinned by the individual tabloid’s ideologies or editorial stances e.g The Guardian seen as most left-wing British paper.
Narrative
Subjective/Biased Content. Some feature editorials, which are opinion pieces written by the newspaper's editorial board which could have the potential to influence the readers into sharing a viewpoint. Some will also have opinion columns, written by outside contributors, in order to cover as many perspectives as possible and make their viewpoint convincing.
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ReplyDeleteembarrassing
Delete1. Masthead: Presented on the highest section of the first page of the tabloid that gives the title and details of ownership, the different news category’s and subscription rates etc.
ReplyDelete2. Pull quote: A key phrase or quotation taken from the main article
3. Stand-first: An introductory paragraph in an article that is printed in a larger or bolder font which summarises the article
4. Advertisements: the amount of advertisements can give am Intel on whenever the newspaper has a high number of readers
5. Splash – main story, usually news headline
Masthead: Title of the newspaper
ReplyDeleteSplash: The splash is the main story that is situated on the front of the page, in this case the splash is "a house benefit for a king" its the main story that is likely to be the selling point of the newspaper, it will usually be head line news etc.
Standfirst: The introductory paragraph in an article, printed in large or bolder type or in capitals, which summarise the article.
Offlead: Second most important story.
Byline: A line naming the writer of an article.
Masthead: the name of the newspaper (each has its own specific
ReplyDeletestyle)
Strapline: adds on extra information to the headline
Puff: incentive to buy the newspaper or magazine It is normally inside a colourful but simple circle or rectangle.
Pug: is an advertisement usually found in the top right corners of tabloid newspapers
Language: shorter sentences and paragraphs - basic vocabulary - reports are sensationalised using emotive language they may focus more on celebrities and gossip e.g. The Sun, The Daily Mirror
Newspaper codes and conventions:
ReplyDeleteLayout - the layout of a news website tends to have mixture of pictures and large headlines dominating the page. The most important and interesting stories typically go at the start of the website and the less interesting stories go further down the website to keep people on the website for as long as possible.
Image – on many news websites the images are quite large and bold. Pictures are more eye catching and provide a needed visual interest.
Colour – the text is usually black but, in some cases, when there is a link there can be a little coloured box around the text to create some contrast on the page and catch the audience's attention. This is tactical strategy.
Typography – Headlines have a significant role on a news website which is to engage the audience onto the story. Daily Mail Script is a modern calligraphy design, including Regular. This font is casual and beautiful with swash while being easy to remember.
Representation – usually there is a picture of a well know sportsman or celebrity. The presentation of these people is underpinned by the persons ideologies.
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ReplyDeleteHeadline- The headline is the title of an article, and aside from the masthead, it occupies the most amount of space on the front page. Since it typically features headline news, it is the subject matter that readers are most engaged in. This is straightforward and attention-grabbing for readers because it is bold and usually uses a sans serif font.
ReplyDeletePhotograph- The main image that appears on the front cover of a tabloid newspaper is always important since it can affect the readership and how they feel about a certain news article.
Caption- A caption is the typed language that appears beneath an image to explain what the image is and what it represents. It may also include a credit to the photographer.
Body Text- The body text is the primary bulk text on the cover or in an article. It is limited in a tabloid because the DE categories make up most of its readership, making tabloids simpler and more visually appealing. A broadsheet would have more body text.
Cross Head- A cross head is a subheading that appears in the body of the story. It is instructive for the audience, serves as a selling point, and provides a concise summary of what is in the main text.
Layout-Big mastheads to portray title normally in a bold font with a colour coordinated background. Big images are used to cover about a third of the screen with simple laid out text for their target demographic to understand. And a big headline which dominates the screen.
ReplyDeleteImage-A big image is used to cover the page and is used to back up the main story of the article, exaggerating the story. Most of the images are edited.
Brand identity- Brand is highlighted throughout and represents political views either agreeing or undermining them. Heavy advertisement is used.
Representation- The main story is mainly about a big name/celebrity.
Colour- Most of the colours are similar throughout to represent brand identity. Text is usually black or red.
Layout
ReplyDeleteName of newspaper conglomerate at the top with news stories underneath, bringing attention to the branding of the newspaper before the reader can even see what the stories are.
Image
Bright pictures, contrasted by black writing. Makes the whole front cover seem important and attention-grabbing.
Colour
Images are full of colour or black and white.
Typography
The font reflects the brands identity; if it is traditional they often have serif font whereas a more modern paper usually has sans serif, possibly more colourful writing.
Language
Editors ensure to use specific wording to grab your attention often risking interpreting it incorrectly.
Brand Identity
Newspapers use their front cover to show their political biases, and beliefs. If they disagree with a certain politician they often use candid photos which are unflattering and show them as being stupid, whereas if they agree with the politician then they show them in powerful positions, often with people praising them.
Representation
Newspapers mostly include celebrities or wealthy people on their front covers, however if they are making a political statement they often use pictures of working class, or people in poverty on their front covers.
Narrative
Many newspapers are biased to either left-wing or right-wing beliefs however some are believed to be more central.
Here are a couple of links that you might find helpful:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/zy4rfrd/revision/1
This first is a good guide to the terminology used to describe the different parts of the newspaper.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/zps4qty/revision/1
This second is simple because it is a GCSE level revision guide. But the content works perfectly well and all you would need to do is to analyse at A Level standard to lift the quality of the content.
Layout
ReplyDeleteThe layout of the newspaper front cover usually has a balance between the images and the information at hand, furthermore there is also large headlines dominating the page if the event is important enough (usually political news). The more interesting of news is portrayed as the majority of the page and sometimes there are small less interesting day-to-day stories spread on the page. Relatively big images are used to cover the front page of the paper sometimes being a 1/3 to maybe the full page at times, it is also reinforced with the simple text that is for their target audience.
Image
The images used are usually bright and lurid meaning this will help support the main story on the headline and capture the persons attention. A typically used convention of tabloids in the industry is that, as mentioned before, the image of the main story/headlines consumes a lot of space on the cover. This is to further strengthen the reader’s interest and opinion on the matter at hand while also creating a visual interest for the story rather than it being text by itself.
Colour
Images are full with a range of colours, the text used is usually black and sometimes is usually red if it is ‘breaking news’ or just to point out a topic. Sometimes there is a link there can be a little coloured box around the text to create some contrast on the page and there are gutters/spaces between the columns that create space between the text and make it much easier to read due to the short five or six lines of words.
Typography
Headlines are by far the largest text on the front cover of newspapers (mastheads are also up there). Usually they are bold text is used to emphasize something strongly, whether it is a something to do with politics or day-to-day things, so this gives more encouragement and interest to the readers and the target audience. For example, the masthead of The Sun, which is in sans serif bold, makes it simple to read and help build their brand identity by showing that facts as they are.
Narrative
This is mostly subjective and biased content. Some newspapers feature editorial boards which can have potential influence on the readers into sharing their perspective on the matter. From what I’ve seen some will also have outside contributors writing into the paper, this helps further portray more perspectives as possible to make their perspective/viewpoint more interesting and convincing.