Language and the Media Flashcards
Bias
inclination or prejudice for or against one person or group, especially in a way considered to be unfair.
Representation
the description or portrayal of someone or something in a particular way.
Sensationalise
(especially of a newspaper) present information about (something) in a sensational way.
Broadsheet newspapers?
The Guardian
The Times
The Independent
The Telegraph
The Observer
Tabloid newspapers?
The Sun
The Mirror
The Daily Mail
The Daily Express
The Daily Mirror
The Daily Star
What is ideology?
System pf ideas and ideals, especially one which forms the basis of economic or political theory.
What do text producers do with ideology?
Will be representing a set of beliefs that they are attempting to put what they see as the ideal reader so that a way of thinking about the wired is shared.
How does language and ideology integrate?
Language is intimately involved in the creation and reinforcement of ideological ways of thinking. Ideologies come to us largely through the language we meet and use in our everyday lives.
Not surprisingly, the language of societies institutions can often be shown to work to uphold the dominant ideologies that reinforce aspects of the status quo.
Give examples of how a text producer uses ideology.
The front pages of newspapers could be said to show an ‘ideological use of language’ because they take for granted that the ideas purveyed are those that are ‘natural’ and ‘common sense’ such that anyone who chooses to disagree would feel an outsider from the mainstream.
Headlines work to influence the readers to accept the editorial viewpoint.
An important point to understand is that these writers of newspaper articles and news stories are professional writers employed by a particular organisation whose role is to make profit rather than purvey the truth.
What is Hall’s Reception Theory?
Ttheory suggests that audiences are not all passive victims of ideology.
Hall’s theory suggests that our experiences, social status, age, culture, gender and personal beliefs will impact the way we interpret a text. Thus meaning we may all receive a text differently.
He suggests media texts are encoded with the ideologies of the text producers and are decoded once we interpret them as an audience.
However, by using recognised codes and conventions, and by drawing upon audience expectations, the producers can position the audience and thus create a certain amount of agreement on what the code means. This is known as a preferred reading.
For example, a right wing newspaper will publish a story in support of a Conservative politician ensuring the ideological view is accepted.
What are the 3 stages to Hall’s theory?
He came up with a model suggesting three ways in which we might read a media text:
The dominant reading: The reader fully accepts the preferred reading; the audience will read the text the way the author intended them to, so that the code seems natural and transparent.
E.g. watching a party political broadcast and agreeing with the points made.
The oppositional reading: The reader’s social position places them in an oppositional relation to the dominant code; they reject the reading.
E.g. watching a party political broadcast but totally rejecting and actively opposing the views in it.
The negotiated reading: The reader partly believes the code and broadly accepts the preferred reading but sometimes modifies it in a way which reflects their own position, experiences and interests.
E.g. neither agreeing or disagreeing with the party political broadcast.
Look at NOTES on Althusser (strangled his wife)
Message: Direct meaning
Code: The ideology behind the direct meaning
What us Propp’s Narrative Theory?
Propp’s Narrative Theory recognises 7 character ‘types’:
The hero (AKA victim/seeker/winner), reacts to the donor, weds the princess.
The villain (struggles against the hero).
- The donor (prepares the hero or gives the hero some magical object).
The (magical) helper (helps the hero in the quest).
The princess (person the hero marries, often sought for during the narrative).
The false hero (perceived as good character in beginning but emerges as evil).
The dispatcher (character who makes the lack known and sends the hero off
Media Studies - Propp’s Character The
What is Narrative? Is it only in non-fiction?
There is a misconception that narrative is only found in non-fiction stories. However, narratives (often famous ones) are used in news stories and adverts commonly to reinforce ideologies or stereotypes.
A cue (a word or visual) causes the implied reader to fill in the remainder of the narrative. In many of the mini-narratives in adverts, the product or brand becomes the archetypal ‘helper’ of the narrative’s ‘hero’ (i.e. the product’s consumer) that helps them to overcome the ‘villain’.
Herman and Chomsky’s Model: Profit:
The news outlet must cater for the financial interest of their owners; if they don’t make money, they’ll go bust.
