timed essay question 5

 

Explain how different newspaper audiences might interpret the same content in different ways. Refer to the front covers below to support your answer.

Newspapers base their stories off their political beliefs which means that a newspaper which has right-wing views will most likely have a right-wing audience. For example, the political position of the Daily Mail is right-wing, which is contrasted by the Mirror who write their stories based off their left-wing views. 

The Daily Mail's cover tell audiences straight away that they're a right-wing newspaper, as they have Theresa May on the cover looking as if she's in the middle of a speech, which shows power and strength. Just by doing this, audiences are able  to tell this is a right-wing focused newspaper and are in full support of the Governments decisions. The news values on this cover consist of threshold as its a big UK election, elite persons and nations as the cover talks about the UK government and the 'Brussels plotter's', negativity and meaningfulness, as this story effects people but in a negative way. The media language on this cover is also important in appealing to a right-wing audience as they will be very interested in the fate of their country and what their government is doing to effect this. This is shown in the large text on the cover reading 'Hands off our election', this suggests that there is tension between the UK and Europe and that the government believes they are trying to effect the outcome of this election. This use of binary opposition on the cover is presented by UK government being represented as the good and then Europe as bad, as the newspaper has named them 'Brussel's plotter's'. The Daily Mail, has done this to emphasize the point that they have complete trust in what the government is doing and is writing stories from this view point to appeal to their target audience who are white, male , middle-class, middle aged and they have strong right-wing views. However, the way political opinions are presented is completely different. 

In the Mirror cover it once again focuses on a big political event and tension between nations, however this time its different as political opinions are as prominent on this cover as, right-wing and left-wing audiences will have the same opinion as their country is fighting against a common enemy, this links to reception theory as audiences wont have an oppositional or a preferred reading of this cover in particular. The news values on this cover are the same as the ones on the Daily Mail cover consisting of threshold, elite persons and nations, negativity and meaningfulness. The media language on this cover is different as by them just having one large word taking up the majority of the cover reading 'WAR', will immediately grab any reader attention as it includes them and their country. All audiences will interoperate this cover in similar ways as they all have the common ground of one common enemy. The usual audience for the Mirror is white, male, middle/lower-class, middle aged and will have left-wing views. However, for this newspaper in particular the Mirror haven't aimed this story at a particular audience but to everyone as it is talking about a global issue that effects a lot of people. On the cover we are also shown a small image on the cover of the president of the untied states at the time, and this will also help to indicate to the audience what the meaning behind 'WAR' is, he also isn't being presented in a negative way which would would usually see when a right-wing politician is being mentioned in a left-wing newspaper, so this further tells us that the cover is targeted towards everyone. 

The contrast between the two covers can show that even if a newspaper has strong left/right-wing views, when there is a common threat that effects multiple countries, basing the story off of political views isn't always used in newspapers. Overall, audiences interoperate newspapers differently based off of their political views, so the way in which newspapers write their stories will appeal to different audiences nd their political positions. this links to the cultivation theory as people will only read a particular newspaper if it agrees with the values they hold themselves. each newspaper will cater to their own audience in particular and will write stories that will fit with their audiences ideologies.