The document discusses representation and issues in media texts. It provides examples of political ideologies from socialist to nationalist that can influence media representations. It also discusses news values that influence what stories are covered, such as negativity, familiarity, and featuring elites. Modes of address are the ways media speaks to its target audience to encourage identification. Body image is given as an issue represented across media from magazines to documentaries, with unrealistic perfection portrayed in some outlets and awareness-raising in others. Events that could be analyzed include the 2014 UK floods and Oscar Pistorius murder trial coverage across different media texts.

1. Events and Issues
Representation

2. Events
You will need TWO examples of events
• Contemporary Events (within 18months)
• Specifically discussing how different media
texts (e.g. newspaper story/TV coverage)
cover that same event

3. Events
• How has the EVENT been REpresented
– Language
– Mode of address
– Anchorage
– Technical codes
– Visual codes
– Audio codes
– Use of images

4. Events
• The construction of the representation
– Whose viewpoint is being shown
• The process of selection
– What has been selected and why?
• The audience who will consume the text
– Some newspapers like particular celebrities

5. Political Ideology

6. Socialist/ Left-Wing
Rights for workers and
minorities are key.
Believe the rich
benefit from
exploiting the poor
and that this system
should end. Pro
revolution.
Liberal
Pretty middle of the
road. Tend to offer
the most
unbiased, objective
perspective.
Believe it is important
to represent people
from all minority
groups and countries.
Conservative /
Right of middle
Uphold traditional
values about
Britishness, class,
gender etc.: anti-
Labour and Lib Dems.
Don’t like Britain being
part of EU.
Wary of immigration.
Pro-Capitalist.
Nationalist / Right-
Wing
Incredibly patriotic.
Dislike change – highly
supportive of
traditional values:
anti-abortion, anti-
same sex marriage,
heavily opposed to
immigration. Believe
Britain should be
Britain for (White)
British people.
Socialist Worker
Morning Star
Daily Mail
The Sun
Daily Telegraph
Financial Times
The Voice
Independent
Guardian The Mirror
The Metro
Evening Standard Daily Stari
The Times

7. News Values
• In 1965, media researchers Galtung & Ruge
analysed international news stories to find
common attributes.
• They identified a list of news values common
across news bulletins and newspapers.

8. News Values
• Negativity – bad news is good news!
• Familiarity – local news is most relevant!
• Immediacy – new News is News!
• Continuity – people want to find out more about things in the public eye.
They want updates on existing News stories.
• Amplification – Is it a big event? Involves lots of people? Plane crash kills
one or Plane crash destroys city – what’s more exciting?
• Unambiguity – Is it clear an definite?
• Uniqueness - ‘Man Bites Dog’ is more exciting that ‘dog bites man’.
• Simplicity – a simple story is easier to read.
• Personalisation – human interest draws on heart-strings.
• Predictability – did people think there would be a riot and there was?
People love knowing they were right!
• Unexpectedness – Surprise!
• Elite Nations / People – Celebs, Royals, US and UK.

9. Task
Look at the following media texts in your groups and
answer the following:
Who is audience for each one?
Who is in control of the text? Whose ideas and values are
expressed through the representations?
What mode of address is being used?
What ideologies / messages might be contained within
the representation?
How does this event show NATIONAL IDENTITY?

10. Mode of Address
• ‘Mode of address’ refers to the way in which a
media text ‘speaks’ to it’s target audience in
order to encourage them to identify with it.
• Newspapers often construct their
presentation to reflect what they imagine is
the typical identity of their readers.

11. Mode of Address
• The way a media text ‘speaks to’ its audience can
depend on various assumptions the producers make
about the people watching; what type of people are
they e.g. old, young, etc.? Who does the text want to
attract? What is the relationship between the
audience and text – e.g. is the programme intended to
be funny, serious, informative, emotionally
moving, etc.? Furthermore, the mode of address it
uses may lead audience members to assume a
particular attitude towards the text, such as paying
attention, taking it seriously or light-hearted
entertainment.

12. Mode of Address
• What mode of address do you think The Sun
uses?
• Use the handout to help you to complete the
next task.

13. Narrative
• Construction
• Structure
• Key codes such as action and enigma

16. The Sun’s Target Audience
• Male - heavy coverage of sport, particularly football; page 3 and
other “sexist” portrayals of women). There is some content that is
‘woman friendly’ (celebrity content).
• 16+ - simplistic coverage, celebrity content, titillating stories.
• White British– possible negative representations of ethnic
minorities, xenophobic? or nationalistic attitude? Patriotic stories.
• Working Class/C2DE – price (40p), very little serious political
coverage, focus on show business/sensational stories, 20%of the
paper about sport with an emphasis on football, the size is
convenient.
• Fairly right wing political views (political content).
• Value and Attitudes: ‘Mainstreamers’, ‘Strugglers’ and ‘Resigned’.
Illustrated through advertising.

19. Current Events
• What events have occurred over the last
18months that you could use as case studies
in the exam?

20. Events
14 February 2013: Oscar Pistorius is charged with murder. The South African athlete is charged with the fatal shooting
of his girlfriend, model Reeva Steenkamp, in an incident in his home in Pretoria. Murder trial in March 2014
8 April: Baroness Thatcher, prime minister from 1979 to 1990, dies aged 87 following a stroke. The UK’s only woman
prime minister, Lady Thatcher won three general elections as Conservative leader.
22 May: Lee Rigby, a Drummer of the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers, is killed near the Royal Artillery Barracks in Woolwich,
southeast London. He is knocked down with a car, then attacked with knives and cleavers in an attempt to decapitate
him. His two assailants, Michael Adebolajo and Michael Adebowale, are wounded by police gunfire before being
arrested. Murder trial in March 2014
28 October: The biggest trial into phone hacking allegedly conducted by the now-defunct News of the World begins at
the Old Bailey in London. Rebekah Brooks and Andy Coulson, former editors of the tabloid, are among the eight
defendants, who are charged with a range of offences including conspiring to access voicemail messages illegally.
2014
- Floods in Britain
- Winter Olympics
- Russia / Ukraine crisis

21. The Floods
Feb 2014

22. TASK
You will need TWO examples of Contemporary Events (within 18months) from
different media texts (e.g. newspaper story/TV coverage)
When discussing events in the exam you MUST use and reference SPECIFIC
examples, e.g. The Sun represented the Royal wedding as…whereas PBS news…
Find and comment on 2 examples of events on your blog. Discuss the following:
• Who is audience for each one?
• Who is in control of the text? Whose ideas and values are expressed through the
representations?
• What mode of address is being used?
• What ideologies / messages might be contained within the representation?

23. Issues
• The media construct representations of issues
and indeed may be partly responsible for
creating the issue itself.

24. Body image and beauty
• We have become a society obsessed with the
way we look and what constitutes beauty.
• The definition of what is considered beautiful
has narrowed and focuses solely on being
white, thin and perfectly formed.
• The image of body image is represented
across a range of media texts including.

25. Unrealistic images of
perfection for both men
and women in magazines

26. Gossip magazines
where imperfections
in the bodies of
celebrities are
highlighted and
ridiculed

27. Documentaries raising awareness of the issue

28. Newspaper images of
catwalk models that
are a size zero

29. Media articles
commenting on the
concern of the beauty
cult that means only
thin is beautiful

30. Advertisements
for products that
aim to make us
more beautiful
less wrinkled and
more flawless

31. Body Image
• Body image as an issue is represented across a
range of media texts
• How the image is represented depends on the
audience
• In magazines women are sold an idealised
version of themselves and aspire to attain the
unobtainable

32. Body Image
• Some programmes tackle the problem of body
image from a range of points of view
• It may be through plastic surgery or general
dissatisfaction with body size
• Most of these programmes are aimed at a
female audience

35. Heat magazine
Constant focus on body image
Male gaze
Women are judged by men
Focuses on imperfections
Questioning women to be unhappy
Take heart that celebrities have
similar issues