Representation of Events
Focus on the representation of TWO events
From at least two different media texts
Enables you to demonstrate an understanding how events are represented across media.
Events - definition Event = something that occurs or is about
to occur and is of interest to an audience. Events come in a range of shapes and
forms and can be local, national or international.
E.g. the Royal Wedding, the Olympic Games or a pop festival. International events may include wars and global recession.
Think of five current events you could explore?
Ideology The ideology of the text in which the event
features – right-wing or left-wing newspaper? Royalist or anti-royalist?
Is it clear what the text says about the event?
Is there evidence of bias in the representation – how do the visual, sound and linguistic codes achieve this?
Intertextuality
How is the event presented?
Language - Critical? Adulatory? Mode of address? Anchorage? Use of images?
Construction Events in media representations are
constructed – they are ‘mediated’ by editors, journalists, graphic designers, photographers.
A football cup final will have lots of camera positioning – producers will decide where the camera is pointing and which is to be used. Music, slow motion, and video filters can enhance the images and make the players seem heroic and superhuman.
Selection Whatever is chosen means other things
are omitted. Someone makes that decision – who?
Why? If a peaceful student march has a brief
skirmish between one or two protestors and the police – how might A) a student newspaper think about it B) A right-wing tabloid?
Focus Headlines and images will direct our
response to certain aspects of the text and push us towards assumptions and conclusions about the event concerned.
Who is interviewed? Who is not? Who is invited to commentate?
Audience Opinion leaders? Do they influence how
audiences think or feel about an event? The audience themselves – types of
reading? Hall?
Consider how these two texts have represented this event.
Consider how this text has represented the event.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-13246058
The fashion perspective
The celebrity perspective
The local perspective
The UK Riots
6th – 9th August 2011
The Facts
• Police action was blamed for the initial riot, and the subsequent police reaction was criticised as being neither appropriate nor sufficiently effective.
• The riots have generated significant ongoing debate among political, social and academic figures about the causes and context in which they happened.
Broadcast News Coverage of the Riots
• When TV was covering the riots on a round-the-clock basis, it seemed as always with rolling news that they were desperately trying to keep talking about it all the time too.
• An endless search for 'experts' (anyone with an opinion) took place and reporters were constantly trying to explain and pin down the meaning of the riots.
Broadcast News Coverage of the Riots
• 'Community leaders' and politicians were called upon to 'condemn' the riots
• and particularly shocking footage was repeated endlessly.
• But whenever someone spoke from outside this consensus , however, they tended to be dismissed or even insulted.
BBC News Coverage
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=biJgILxGK0o
• The writer Darcus Howe offers his explanation and rather than listen to what he says, the newsreader keeps interrupting him and misrepresenting his views.
• She also gets his name wrong and accuses him of having been a rioter.
• It backfires as he tells her what he thinks of her. Later the BBC had to apologise.
• Interestingly, the clip has had almost five million views since.
Newsnight (BBC 2)• As endless 'experts' were brought out during the
week, Newsnight hit probably the lowest point by inviting David Starkey, the historian who had become a household name earlier in the year for his appearance on Jamie's Dream School, onto a panel to give his verdict.
• This raised a lot of questions about what constitutes an expert, as his area is Tudor History. Clearly he was on to say something controversial, which he duly did.
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=gU5TcTSa9kk
Newsnight (BBC 2)• Starkey complained afterwards that the other panellists kept
interrupting him and that he was bullied.
• I find it very hard to make that reading as he seemed determined to shout down anything they might say.
• The BBC were told that OFCOM would take no action against them for allowing Starkey's racist views as it was felt that the presenter and panellists challenged him sufficiently,
• though Owen Jones, the author trying to get a word in, disagreed, calling OFCOM "toothless..by failing to tackle the out-and-out racism of a discredited historian".
SKY News Coverage
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=b4BWT_W0zX8
Newspaper Coverage of the Riots A look at the front pages during the week
of the riots gives an overview of the way the story was told.
As the disturbances on Saturday night happened after the Sunday papers had gone to press, the first opportunities for the front pages did not come till Monday.
This is one reason that rolling news on TV and the instant coverage from social media was so important. here are some of Monday's front pages:
Newspaper Coverage of the Riots
The Mirror and The Guardian go with the image of the burning furniture store in Tottenham,
whilst the Sun suggests those involved may be of primary school age.
The Telegraph takes the looting angle, with an emphasis almost on the comedy of it (a reference to British 'carry on.'. films) which of course defines the riots in terms of greed rather than anger and had already gained widespread coverage in this footage from Sky News:
