Source A and Source B cover the same news event from two different sources, one tabloid cover and one broadsheet cover.
How do these covers use codes and conventions to convey viewpoints and ideologies?
In your answer you must:
- explain how newspaper covers, use genre conventions to convey viewpoints and ideologies,
- analyse the way that meaning is constructed in these two newspaper covers,
- make judgements and reach conclusions about how far the sources construct viewpoints and ideologies.
15 Marks (25 minutes)
SOURCE A: THE GUARDIAN NOV 25 2021
SOURCE B: THE DAILY EXPRESS NOV 25 2021
STEP 1:
Read through the two sources and decide what message's they are presenting:
- The Guardian is presenting the viewpoint that...
- The Daily Express is presenting the viewpoint that...
STEP 2:
Consider how this relates to the ideological background of the paper:
- This is in keeping with the inclusionary left-wing ideology of the Guardian.
- This is in keeping with the nationalistic right-wing ideology of the Daily Express.
STEP 4:
Read through the two sources again, identifying generic conventions. Consider:
- Images and Anchoring text
- Headlines and Sub headlines - including Typography and Language choices.
- Anything else - including:
layout and design, gatekeeping (what else is on the cover?), standfirst, copy, pull quotes etc.
STEP 4:
Choose one or more of the conventions you have noticed and write a paragraph in which you
i) Identify a convention that is either used or broken.
ii) Analyse/Interpret the way that the convention is being used to express a viewpoint.
iii) Link this to the ideological position held by the newspaper/audience.
For example:
The Guardian follows the convention of using an engaging image to capture the attention of the reader, with anchoring text to explain what is being shown in the image. The anchoring text, is conventional because it encodes a dispassionate message, avoiding any hyperbole or emotive language. This is in keeping with The Guardian's reputation for unbiased reporting. However, we could argue that the image is unconventional as it is far more emotive, picturing a desperate mother carrying one child and dragging another behind her, her facial expression clearly selected to show her discomfort and effort and framed in the centre of the image for greatest impact. While the Guardian wishes to maintain its reputation for unbiased reporting, it also has a reputation for left-wing messaging and for protecting/defending marginalised people. This may be why the image selected attempts to elicit sympathy for the migrant and also why the Guardian choose to frame her as a refugee. This viewpoint is encoded using a pull quotation which dominates the central column of the page. The quotation reads: "Now is the time to end the cruel tactic of seeking to push away those who seek safety here." The quotation uses far more emotive language, the phrase "cruel tactic" connoting deliberate and organised inflicting of suffering on people who "seek safety." Again. the use of the pull quote is a convention of The Guardian cover and allows them to encode a countertypical representation of illegal migrants showing a mother and two children and framing them as refugees, while still maintaining its journalistic distance from the subject. This viewpoint aligns with the left wing inclusionary ideological position that readers expect from The Guardian.
STEP 5:
i) Identify a convention that is either used or broken.
ii) Analyse/Interpret the way that the convention is being used to express a viewpoint.
iii) Link this to the ideological position held by the newspaper/audience.
The Guardian is attempting to encode a sympathetic viewpoint, representing the migrants as refugees who need our support, which is in keeping with the inclusionary and internationalist ideological position taken by the newspaper and its left wing readership. Conversely, The Daily Express is encoding the viewpoint that the migrants are the victims of dangerous criminal smuggling gangs and that the French authorities are derelict in their duty to protect them, which is in keeping with the right wing values of Law and Order, nationalism and ethnocentrism.
ReplyDeleteSource A and B are in opposition with each other. The guardian is a left-wing broadsheet whose main ideological positions are centred towards, internationalism, inclusion and multiculturalism. Opposingly the tabloid daily express is a right-wing publication that is focused on Law and order, nationalism and exclusion. These ideological standpoints can be clearly seen within the language used when talking about the same piece of media.
ReplyDeleteThe Guardian displays a sympathetic viewpoint referring to them as ’refugees” in need of aid whereas the express not only blames France for the loss of lives but creates inflammatory language towards “smugglers” and the French police.
DeleteThe Daily Express maintains the views of their right-wing nationalistic background by painting the migrants as a liability to the people of Britain, exposing them to crime through the 'smugglers' taking advantage of the migrants. They hold the French police accountable for the influx of migrants and smugglers, showing their ethnocentric values and non-globalist approach to news, encouraging the enforcement of law and order through support of the government's 'crackdowns'. Compared to this, the Guardian uses sympathetic language to rouse support and sympathy for the migrants and this 'tragedy', aligning with their left-wing globalist beliefs and humanitarian convictions. They attempt a more nuanced outlook on the incident through the use of quotation, an expectation from the reputation of the Guardian being a sophisticated broadsheet for an educated liberal audience.
ReplyDeleteSources A and B both provide news on the same story of migrants making dangerous crossings in the channel. Source A, The Guardian, gives a left-wing approach to the situation by showing values of internationalism, inclusivity and globalism. The front page creates a sympathetic approach to the migrants and describes the situation as a ‘tragedy’ which ‘claimed lives’. Source B, The Daily Express, provides a different viewpoint by sharing a more right-wing ideological perspective. The Daily Express invalidate any emotions towards the migrants to share ethnocentric, exclusionary and nationalistic ideas by focusing on the ‘smuggling gangs’ and the effectiveness of the French police.
ReplyDeleteThe Guardian and the Daily Express have two opposing views of the migrant crossing that took place. The Guardian has a much more sympathetic view towards the incident. They sympathize with the migrants and feel that they should have a safer way to travel across to England. This in keeps with the Guardian’s left-wing, inclusionary and humanitarian outlook. The Daily Express on the other hand shows that instead of viewing the people crossing as migrants, but instead they see them as illegal immigrants. They also see them as victims of both the French police and of the smugglers who took them across. This links into the Daily Express’ more nationalistic, right-wing outlook and their strict feelings towards proper law and order.
ReplyDeleteThe guardian conveys more of a sympathetic viewpoint for viewers towards the 'refugees', as the cover is unbiased and inclusionary, it presents the migrants need help and are not safe. This keeps in line with their left wing ideology. However, the daily express presents a biased opinion towards the 'illegal immigrants', this keeps in line with their right wing ideology as they believe that the illegal immigrants are victims of the 'smugglers that are getting away with murder'.
ReplyDeleteThe Guardian is attempting to encode a sympathetic viewpoint, representing the migrants as refugees who need our support, and framing the Conservative government as partly responsible for the tragedy. This is in keeping with the inclusionary and internationalist ideological position taken by the newspaper and its left wing readership. Conversely, The Daily Express is encoding the viewpoint that the migrants themselves are illegal invaders, but also the victims of dangerous criminal smuggling gangs, while the French authorities are derelict in their duty to protect them. This is in keeping with the right wing values of Law and Order, nationalism and ethnocentrism.
ReplyDeleteThe Guardian and the Daily Mail both cover the same story on their front cover, however, The Guardian takes a more sympathetic viewpoint to the story as they show strong values of internationalism and left-wing views. Alternatively, the Daily Mail instantly show their right-wing, nationalistic views and see the refugees as 'illegal immigrants,' instead of humans who are victims of an awful tragedy, which is what The Guardian is portraying through their cover.
ReplyDeleteThe Guardian attempts to present the story as a tragedy placing the blame on the negligence of the government this is demonstrated by the choice of image showing primarily women and children making it appear as if the refugees are families looking for a home. The choice to have the border force with their backs turned presents them as cold and distant to the situation as an extension of the government's feelings towards the refugees in line with its inclusionary left-wing views. In direct contrast to this The Daily Express frames the migrants as an invasion force and blames the deaths on the French this is shown by the image chosen presenting the French authorities not intervening whilst the boat which is taken in a way that looks organized and the group appears to be primarily adult men this is in line with the papers traditional, ethnocentric or nationalistic views.
ReplyDeleteThe Guardian tries to portray their outlook as a more sympathetic view on the 'refugees'. The cover is unbiased and their story written is trying to show that the refugees are not safe. The Daily Express has an opposing view and their views are more right winged. They try and dispose of any emotions the readers may have towards the migrants and they focus on the 'smuggling gangs' and talking about the French Police instead of focusing on what England is doing. Their views are more nationalistic compared to The Guardian is more inclusivity.
ReplyDeleteSource A and B both present the same situation but with opposing viewpoints and ideologies. In source A we can see that The Guardian has a more sympathetic view towards the migrants, setting them up for the reader as refugees. This conveys The Guardian’s inclusionary and internationalist view as they are accepting of the situation. In contrast, Source B criminalises the migrants and criticizes the French authority for standing back, conveying the Daily Express’ exclusionary and nationalistic view.
ReplyDeleteIn the Guardian’s cover, they show a close-up of a few of the people being referred to in the article, creating a connection between the reader and the migrants to make the reader feel sympathy towards them. Also, by referring to the migrants as ‘refugees’ the Guardian shows them in a positive light and as something to not be afraid of. This aligns with their left-wing and globalist ideology as they’re accepting of the migrants. On the other hand, the Daily Express uses an extreme long shot to make the people less personable and look more criminal especially with the police car in the background. They also referred to the migrants as smugglers, continuing the idea of what they’re doing is illegal. This aligns with their right-wing and ethnocentric ideology, going against what we see in the Guardian’s cover.
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ReplyDeleteThe Guardian are showing a story of a tragedy with ‘refugees’, which shows their viewpoint is that they are sympathetic to the migrants, and which is denoted by the title of the paper, and backed up by the photo, which has a person in the centre of the photo, who is evidently distressed as she carries two young children. This links in with social justice as on the cover it says that “Now is the time to end the cruel tactic of seeking to punish or push away those who seek safety here” this also links with multiculturism, as it shows that the paper believes that the migrants should be allowed to come over to the country, as it is safer than where they have come from.
The daily express follows the conventions of using a provocative, emotive image to create an emotional response from the reader. With the large banner headline, in keeping with the codes of a tabloid, grabs the reader’s attention and uses sensational language “murder’ being the key attention grabber. This displays the convention that tabloid have a subjective bias to events. However, the image breaks some of the conventions, with the image not being the main focus of the page, but the image does still in keep with conventions being a proactive image using a photo of police and people in action ready to move into the sea from the beach, the image is clearly selected to provoke readers into believing the police didn’t try to do anything and just watched them go. The anchoring text also helps to in keep its conventions with the most notable anchoring text displaying “French police do nothing as another dinghy sets off for the UK” this anchoring text explains what is happening within the image and shows that the tabloid continues to use their right-wing ideology of nationalism and holds the French police ‘accountable’. The second anchoring text further emphasises their dislike for the French police by using a secondary colour bring attention to the idea that the French police are useless and do not care about the murders the smugglers are committing. Further nailing down on their nationalistic ideologies. The secondary banner headline “31 migrants drown in deadliest day for channel crossing” is less in keeping with conventions, being objective rather than subjective and displaying little emotive language. This can show the idea that the Daily express does believe the migrants deserve sympathy and that they were victims of murders from the smugglers and indirectly the French Police. This viewpoint continues to encode the Daily express within their right-wing ideologies not only displaying nationalism but also holding police accountable perpetuating their law and order ideals.
ReplyDelete(more than 10 mins) The Daily Express uses the convention of having three images on their cover (with two being at the top and one on the left side/bottom corner), positioned with the Z rule. The Z rule draws the viewers initial attention of images to the top left where a nice image of Kate Middleton, the princess of Wales, has been selected, this reinstates the Express’ conservative values of support around the Royal Family as a right wing and nationalist publication whilst creating messaging of the high class we should hold Kate in.
ReplyDeleteThe readers eyes arrive last to the image of migrants moving a dinghy into the water as a police car sits behind them, but not actually interfering. The picture’s position on the layout of the page may suggest the slight lack of importance these people have as humans towards the typical right-wing middle-aged audience. This image allows them to create messaging around the French police’s lack of action towards stopping the migrants, their audience would support these negative connotations towards channel crossings by crossing and also those allowing them.
The top two stories follow the conventions by using large, bold typography that sits over half of the relating image, with tabloid conventions of sensationalist language and presentation, “KATE IN A CLASS OF HER OWN” has a messaging of Kate being in her own league and how no one else is at her level.
The story surrounding the migrants initially draws you to the subhead line, breaking conventions from other covers where a copy/standfirst is used instead for the context of the bottom image. The text confirms the blame and negativity to mostly be going towards the French authorities, creating messaging that they have lacked responsibility and “do nothing” to stop these people who end up getting others ‘murdered’ by “smugglers”. The nationalist attitude of the paper would support this, believing Britain is an elite nation compared to any other country. The anchoring text relating to this image, “French police sit in their car as migrants launch yet another boat”, is bold but sitting in the top corner when they wouldn’t normally be used at all at the bottom, breaking conventions. This messaging around the crossings creates a sense of frustration of how many boats there have been with the language “yet another”.
The guardian uses an engaging, large image to capture the attention of the reader, the text above the image explains what is shown in the image. The prominent image of the refugees, including women and children in life jackets being assisted by police, conveys a sense of urgency and sympathy. This aligns with the guardians convention of humanising global issues, this helps provide a narrative that underscores the tragedy and emotional impact of the event. The image is trying to make us feel sympathetic towards the 'refugees', however it does not do this directly by telling us; the image is strategically placed underneath the headline. specifically underneath the word refugee, helping to reinforce the importance of this situation as it draws the focus to the human element of the crisis.
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ReplyDeleteThe Daily Express uses typical tabloid newspaper conventions to present a biased and dramatic news story. The Daily Express does this using a medium sized image at the bottom of the page and anchoring text which gives a biased viewpoint. This keeps with the typical convention of tabloid newspapers having a biased opinion. The image is of migrants getting in to a dingy and the French police watch them. The Daily Express are a right-wing newspaper which supports nationalism and encourages law and order; therefore, creating a negative view of both the migrants and the French police. The image chosen would have been used so that the audience would create negative opinions towards them. Negativity is seen as one of the news values to order to create an interesting news story that people will want to read. In the anchoring text, it says: ‘French police sit in their car as migrants launch yet another boat’. This blames the French police for being lazy and ignorant to the situation which the Daily Express want to do because of their nationalistic values. The use of ‘yet another boat’ suggests that the French police normally do this, making the readers think that the British police are better. Both the image and the anchoring text, present negative connotations of the migrants and French police to keep with their right-wing ideological opinions.
ReplyDeleteThe Daily Express are a right wing tabloid and, against common conventions of image-dominated covers, contain their main story image to the lower third of the page to the right, with two examples of anchoring text over the image. The Express attempts to encode a representation of the French police as the real cause of the immigrant crisis discussed, ignoring the migrants for the most part and focusing on reinforcing the nationalistic views of the Express’ reader base and their British pride and sense of superiority. The anchoring text scapegoats the French police as the cause of this crisis: “French police do nothing as another dinghy sets off for UK”, using the word ‘another’ to identify the severity of the problem and unambiguous language of ‘do nothing’ to condemn the police and create a representation of uselessness and blame. The featuring of an organized and vast fleet of migrants setting sail in the image, spreading from left to right, shows the scale of these ‘smugglers’ helping migrants enter the UK, with the police car being described by the other anchoring text as “JUST WATCHING”, conventional use of dramatized language and typography, in this case capitalization, helps involve the reader in the story and tells the reader they should be outraged on this fact. Conventionally, the image is intended to encode the views of the tabloid but unconventionally, the image is not dominating the cover and is used to reinforce the headline’s point.
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ReplyDeleteThe Daily Express breaks the usual convention of tabloids by using a dominating image that spans the page. Instead, the Daily Express uses a smaller image in the bottom corner to allow the reader’s attention to be focused mainly on the banner headline covering the story. The image at the bottom shows a boat being hurriedly carried away by refugees and a police car in the background doing nothing to stop them. The image could be seen as being emotive (which in keeps with the tabloids' conventions surrounding images) and seems to be against the power that the French police have and are not using. The police are being held accountable for the tragedy the story is covering and this in keeps with the Daily Express’ right-wing nationalistic view being against the French police and condemning them for the events that happened. The anchoring text at the bottom of the image shows the Express’s right-wing views again as it states, “another dinghy” and also in the text at the top of the image they state that the migrants launch “yet another boat” showing that the boats seem to be never-ending, and makes the Daily Mail seem almost annoyed at the sheer amount of boats.
ReplyDeleteThe Daily Express uses an image which shows a group of refugees departing France and heading for safety in England. We cannot see their expressions in the photo, we cannot see how they are reacting to their situation but we can only make assumptions. They are presenting the refugees as 'smugglers' and are expressing their views that they are 'illegal.' Therefore, they do not use an image that would make readers sympathetic towards them and are using the image to anger readers and spread their right-wing views on the situation at hand. The anchor text is also limited, due to the size of the image, as a result we are forced to make an assumption about how the newspaper feel towards the story using the headline and image.
ReplyDeleteThe Daily express immediately captures the audience with something which is unconventional with the white on black text which is unconventional across most newspapers, and the Daily express, this could be to grab the reader's attention, as well as also giving the paper a darker feel to it, which links in with the upsetting and hard news they are reporting on. Another convention not used is the close up on peoples faces for the image, especially on women and children, this could be because the Guardians viewpoint disagrees with immigrants and would not want to generate sympathy for them. Another thing the Daily Express has done different to normal, and is therefore unconventional, is the red banner used above the headline, the colour red is probably used to symbolise danger and a sense of urgency towards the immigrants, and the Daily Express have done this to make the immigrants seem like the danger and that they need to be stopped.
ReplyDeleteThe daily express uses a large emotive headline. This is conventional tabloid papers and presents the papers with right wing views of law and order. The image only taking up a small part of the page breaks conventions for tabloids however isn't unconventional for the express as it often tries to present itself as a broadsheet paper the smaller image is likely there to give more space to the headline highlighting the word murder as a way of subconsciously linking crime to immigration in the minds of the readers. The image feels distant and emotionless framing the refugees as less human. The anchoring text that is unconventionality lacking emotion and humor that is normally found in tabloid anchoring text (likely due to the serious and tragic nature of the story) blames the French authorities for not stopping the boat. This is consistent with the papers' nationalistic and exclusionary views as express readers likely blame the French for a large proportion of their problems. All through this cover the daily express clearly demonstrates its far right and nationalistic views aligning with that readers would expect from the paper. The daily express uses a large emotive headline. This is conventional tabloid papers and presents the papers with right wing views of law and order. The image only taking up a small part of the page breaks conventions for tabloids however isn't unconventional for the express as it often tries to present itself as a broadsheet paper the smaller image is likely there to give more space to the headline highlighting the word murder as a way of subconsciously linking crime to immigration in the minds of the readers. The image feels distant and emotionless framing the refugees as less human. The anchoring text that is unconventionality lacking emotion and humor that is normally found in tabloid anchoring text (likely due to the serious and tragic nature of the story) blames the French authorities for not stopping the boat. This is consistent with the papers' nationalistic and exclusionary views as express readers likely blame the French for a large proportion of their problems. All through this cover the daily express clearly demonstrates its far right and nationalistic views aligning with that readers would expect from the paper.
ReplyDeleteThe Daily Express uses the convention of a bold, capitalised headline with sensationalised language, using words like ‘smugglers’ and ‘murder’ to grab the readers attention. They are not being sympathetic towards the migrants associating them with crime. They conventionally use this type of language to project their bias on this event which keeps with their subjective viewpoint. They also break a convention by having the headline as the main focus of the page and in white font on a black background which make the situation seem more serious. The Daily Express uses the convention of having a provocative image on the page to create an emotional response from the reader. However, the image is not the main focus of the page. The image and anchoring text focus on the ignorance of the French police which expresses the Daily Express’ dislike for foreign authorities conveying their nationalistic right-wing ideology.
ReplyDeleteThe Daily Express uses typical tabloid conventions to present as a biased news story for dramatic effect. The Daily Express uses an image of medium size at the third lower of the page on the right, with anchoring text which gives a biased viewpoint. This is in line with the typical conventions of tabloid newspapers having a biased viewpoint. The Daily Express main image they use is of a boat and people being carried away by refugees and the police doing nothing to stop them leaving France. The Daily Express are right winged newspaper which supports nationalism therefore creating a negative view of the migrants and the French police. The image could be seen as emotive and that The Daily Express are trying to show that the police should be held accountable for the tragedy, this is in line with the Daily Express' right winged ideological views.
ReplyDeleteThe Daily Express follows the tabloid convention of using a banner headline to draw the reader’s attention, alongside some anchoring text to explain the image. However, the use of a quote from the PM is rather unconventional for a headline and it signifies the importance of the story by using an authority figure’s quote that aligns with the viewpoint of the article. Another convention of tabloids used is casual or informal wording for the headline and steadfast, using emotive language to create ideas of anger at the smugglers and French police for allowing this to happen. This is especially shown when saying the police ‘do nothing’ about the dinghy setting off to the UK connoting inadequacy and carelessness and it aligns with the Daily Express’ right wing exclusionary ideology with them being against migrants coming to the UK. Finally, the Daily Express convention of using red to connote importance of certain stories is use on the subheading explaining the context of the article could also be read as anger at it being allowed to happen or potentially danger relating to crossing the channel, possibly attempting to scare away other migrants thereby aligning with their right-wing and nationalistic viewpoints.
ReplyDeleteThe Daily Express follows tabloid conventions by using a banner headline with capitalised font, declaring that the “smugglers” are “getting away with murder” suggesting that they are perhaps dangerous and a negative influence. This is strongly in keeping with the ethnocentric values and nationalistic approach, which are strongly followed by the Daily Express. Furthermore, the unconventional use of white font on a black background holds sinister and ominous connotations, further reinforcing the ideology that these migrants are a potentially dangerous, illegal group. This viewpoint is following the right-wing nationalistic values of the tabloid. A biased viewpoint is presented as the image selected shows a group of young men, organised in a regimental fashion that leads the viewers into believing that they are invasive. This is in keeping with the exclusionary viewpoint of the newspaper, that is demonising the traditionally marginalised group of migrants.
ReplyDeleteThe Daily Express breaks the convention of a dominating image on their tabloid cover by instead, placing a smaller image on the bottom third column, to the right. Including the anchoring text over the image, it shows the French police in the background, while in the foreground, the migrants setting off to sea on the dingy. The text alludes to the tabloid paper's nationalistic ideology with the Daily Express conveying right-wing bias. The lack of empathy in the typography illustrates their 'law and order' ideology where the French police 'do nothing' as the migrants flee to England. This would be in keeping with their news value convention of negativity 'if it bleeds it leads.' The photo being to the side encourages the readers to focus on their bold, bigger, capitalized headline. The convention of a headline is subverted in this cover, as instead of it spanning the page, it's a banner headline.
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