Case Studies: Madeline McCann VS Shannon Matthews

·         Find examples of language used in each of the pieces to describe the parents of both children. How does this language differ? What are the messages and values on social class? (10 marks)

In the first case study, the mother of Madeline McCann is described as “traumatised” after losing her daughter, making the reader feel a sense of sympathy towards Kate McCann (the mother of Madeline McCann) and the rest of the family. Contrary to this, Shannon Matthews’ abduction is described as “alleged” and the investigators are “suspicious of her mother. There seems to be a difference in the way these two mothers are treated by investigators, once showing sympathy and remorse whilst the other is suspicion and a lack of trust. This may perhaps be a result of their backgrounds and social classes. Madeline McCann’s family come from a middle or upper middle class family with parents having reputable careers. The family's social grade may be either an A or a B. This contrasts the way Shannon Matthews' family was seen and treated, as her mother was known to have had multiple partners with the majority of her children having different families, she is not generally someone who can be seen as trusting. The family's social grade is E as they claim benefits, a form of welfare received from the government. The state of her family and their attitude post Shannon's alleged abduction did not fit with how a family would typically react to such an incident. Perhaps the higher social classes that demand a certain amount of respect would give off the impression that they are trustworthy, unlike those who belong in the lower social classes who are stereotyped as being scammers, thieves, deadbeats etc. are not to be trusted and everything they say should be taken with a grain of salt. 

• Analyse the choice of pictures used in terms of framing, shot type and mise en scene. Compare their representations of the social class of the two families. (10 marks)

The image used to show the McCanns is a shot of the mother playing with one of the twins, Madeline's younger sibling, perhaps to enforce the mothers desire to bond with her children after losing one, protecting them from an incident to happen again. The use of a direct long shot allows the audience to view the child and the mother, also allowing the audience to assume an age for the child, showing how precious it is. The image shows the two on a slide, perhaps in a park signifying childhood, something that was taken away from Madeline as she was abducted from her parents. The image in the second case study shows one of Shannon Matthews' mother and one of Shannon Matthews herself. The two close ups appear to show similarities between the mother and daughter as well as displaying their emotions. This may be to shock the audience as the case study mentions the arrest of Shannon's mother for staging Shannon's abduction with the possibility of receiving money. The shock to the audience would be how a mother could be so cruel as to take advantage of her child for the sake of wealth. 

• Hall notes that representation is “contested”, in particular the representation of those with less power in society.  He argues that news coverage can be hierarchical.  To what extent is this evident from the two readings? Make reference to Hall’s theory of representation in your answer. (10 marks)

Looking at the two case studies, it is clear that those with different levels of power in society are represented differently in the media.

Newspaper Front Page

Write For The Guardian

Anonymous student leaking private information across college

Newspaper Template

News Values Essay

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/nov/13/george-hw-bush-allegedly-touched-16-year-old-woman-inappropriately

The Guardian have published a news story that focuses a former president of the United States, George W. Bush sexually harassing a sixteen year old woman. This news story has a link to the news values summarised by Galtung and Ruge

A news value that the news story is linked to is frequency: the amount of coverage on that news story. Since the news story is fairly new the story isn't recurring on websites, newspapers or on television. There is however still a likelihood that The Guardian will revisit this news story or something linked to it, perhaps as an update. Another news value connected to The Guardian's news story is Threshold: the amount of coverage the story is receiving. The news story was not only covered by The Guardian but also The New York Post, Daily Mail and USA Today, exemplifying how much the western world prioritises western news even if it may not seem very important when compared to situations and events happening in the 'East'. Since the news story covers events happening to a former president the proximity is in the United States, a western country which is also the primary target audience for this news story. The news story is very pessimistic, viewing George W. Bush in a negative fashion which can be damaging to his reputation but is what can intrigue the audience. The technique of negativity is used to try and draw in the target audience. With the news consistently reporting on politicians and government related news, a news story on the former president can seem quite predictable, even though the news story may lack importance compared to other potential stories. There has not been much continuity on the news story for a few reasons being its relevance, importance or the audience's lack of interest. Although the heading of the news story makes it seem like the incident is quite recent, the article later reveals that this is information on events that had happened over a decade ago. Perhaps this misleading has led to the audience disapproving of continuity  due to their irritation of the original article. Since this news article was found online its composition differs from a physical newspaper composition. The article has its own page which consists of a heading at the top, followed by an image beneath it, after which comes the article itself with advertisement and links to social media on both sides. The personalisation of the article is simple and professional as most articles on The Guardian tend to be. Theme colours that identify the newspaper institution are also included on the online page which is a dark blue colour.

The article itself seems to hold little importance in current day society however The Guardian's odd choice to publish it nevertheless supports the ideology which the media industry is influenced by being otherness. Otherness in the news industry subjugates the importance of events happening in 'eastern countries' in favour of a story that 'hits close to home'; a story that the audience can relate to or empathise with as it is within a society or culture that they feel familiar with. To exemplify this, many terror attacks occur in third world or war-torn countries however it is very unlikely that the incident would make it to the front page of the news or be first news story online or on television however if that same terror attack were to happen in a first world country, a country where the society mirrors our own, (a western country) the incident would inevitably be broadcasted and published globally with constant updates and support from much of the audience with a great sense of sympathy and remorse. This form of otherness shows how ignorant society can be and how the media is able benefit from it by exposing their fears making them more ignorant by prioritising these first world countries, placing them in a loop with the media industry.

The news industry are what the audience rely on as a source of information however when the news cherry pick their potential news stories in favour of ones that they can potentially profit from rather than share news stories may actually be of use it defeats the concept of newspapers. Although that summary is an overgeneralization of newspapers as not all institutions may follow the same ideology.

Pros & Cons

Hire more journalists to cover a bigger range of events

Pros: 

- More news coverage

- Diverse content

Cons:

- Can be costly to hire more journalists.

Put more sponsored content online and in your newspapers

Pros:

- Sponsors pay institutions well to advertise their products.

Cons:

- Audiences can now easily avoid or ignore adverts from sponsors.

Sack Journalists 

Pros:

- No longer a need to pay the journalists so institution saves money

Cons:

- Less journalists to cover news stories or write articles.


Make journalists tweet more
Pros:
- Keeps the audience up to date
- Much more interactive
Cons:
- Can decrease the quality of blogs and articles that the journalists are working on.
- The tweets will eventually decrease in quality, also decreasing the audiences interest.


Increase cost of paper
Pros:
- Newspaper will generate higher revenue
Cons:
- Less sales will be made


Put up 'paywall'
Pros:
- Audience may pay for access to articles
Cons:
- Audience will look somewhere else for the article.


Ask readers to write more stories
Pros:
- Participation from audience into producing content
Cons:
- The audience will not read something that they have produced as they know what the article is about
- The audience may not be willing to do the journalists' jobs without payment


Shut down your paper (go online only)
Pros:
- Saves the newspaper money as they no longer have to invest in large amounts of print
Cons:
- There is still a sizable target audience who read physical newspapers. Shutting down the paper is a loss for the institution as they have lost a chunk of their audience.


Decrease price of newspaper (make it free)
Pros:
- May increase the audience quantity
Cons:
- Decrease in revenue from newspaper sales

Gender Essay

Essay


Advertisements can often be heavily influenced by gender differences, patriarchy and objectification. Gender is defined as the masculinity or femininity of a person's character, often something a person is able to decide, differing from a person's which is the biological identification of someone whether that be male or female. Patriarchy is a society dominated by men which is often presented in advertisements. Objectification is to demean someone and see them as an object, usually done in a sexual manner. The first advertisement has been produced by Hugo Boss, a luxury brand that produces products for both men and women however tend to appeal more towards men. The second advertisement is by Beyoncé's in which Beyoncé herself is modeling for. This advertisement appeals directly to women.

The Hugo Boss advertisement is of a man facing the audience whilst a woman is positioned behind  the man seductively facing him. The camera shot is a medium close up, displaying the man from his head to his chest and for the woman, the face as her chest is covered by the man's shoulder, implying that the man is very dominant whereas the woman is submissive to the man which shows reinforces a sense of patriarchy. The costumes worn by the models consist of suits and dresses showing the audience the importance of status which is generated through wealth. The product itself is shown on the right side of the advertisement to show the audience what the product can do for them. The lighting is brighter in the centre of the advertisement and darker in the corners. This is to establish a sense of attention and how the fragrance has made the man and woman the centre of attention. The fragrance was named "The Scent" implying a sense of perfection and being the main choice for fragrances. In the advertisement both men and women are being objectified in a subtle manner as to the audience they can appear to be pleasing to view without blatantly sexualising them. The advertisement embraces the stereotype that men are dominant through the positioning of the models. The man is placed ahead of the the woman, identifying him as a leader whilst the woman is behind the man, establishing her as a follower however in this case it seems as though she is seduced by the man which also embraces objectification of men and women.

The fragrance by Beyoncé consists of Beyoncé being presented to the audience in hyper sexualised manner, holding on to neon poles. The advertisement uses a medium long shot to display Beyoncé's body to the audience. This initially appears to be extremely objectifying to women as it makes them out to be figures for men to gaze at. Beyoncé wears a revealing silk dress in the advertisement to make herself appear more glamorous, linking to the purpose of the product which makes the user's scent much more glamorous. The product is shown on the left side of the advertisement so that the audience are aware of what the producers are attempting to advertise. The lighting focuses primarily on Beyoncé with a glow of light coming from behind her, implying to the audience that the product will leave you glowing. There is also significantly more lighting on Beyoncé's breasts and hips which reinforce gender stereotypes being that women exist to serve men. The slogan however contrasts with the gender stereotypes and objectification in the advertisement as it reads "Feel The Power" suggesting that the advertisement and product were created with the intention of empowering women. This could be justified by implying that men fall prey to a woman's seduction, allowing women to discreetly manipulate and control men. The slogan contrasting with an initial interpretation of the advertisement indicates that the advertisement does not challenge patriarchy but rather takes advantage of it through the use of seduction and objectification. 

The two advertisements embrace gender stereotypes and take advantage of them within a consumerist society that the audience live in. The ideologies of the advertisements are still quite prevalent across the advertising industry as it is heavily influential and the controversy that it can create can be beneficial as it spreads the advertisements to the a larger audience group. Attempts to challenge gender stereotypes have been successful as the ASA & UN have banned certain advertisements due to their extreme gender stereotyping and objectification.