Newspaper
Print Covers: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/gallery/2016/jun/24/newspapers-brexit-front-pages-eu
TV
News Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WaCrbwtr1zk
Different platforms of journalism present
the news in a number of different ways. To identify some real examples of this
I’m going to analyse three different types of sources, firstly a print
newspapers front cover; secondly an exclusively online source, and thirdly a TV
news programme. These all have different conventions but do share some
similarities. All will share the same story; the reaction of the nation the day
after the result of the Brexit referendum was decided.
The
front cover I will be looking at is that of the Daily Mails, published on the
24th of the June 2016. Straight away we can see the image and
headline, both with biased connotations. They image is made large and the
caption bold in an attempt to grab the reader’s attention, making it the focal
point of the cover and a way for the Daily Mail to push their biased view
further (as you will not have to read the actual newspaper to know what they
think). Emotions of joy and relief are communicated to the reader through the
image of an ecstatic Nigel Farage. The crowded room we see him in shares this
feeling (as we can see in their facial expressions), sending the message to the
reader that the result is what many wanted, with their happy expressions giving
the impression that the nation has made the right decision. Now back to the
headline which is finished off with an exclamation point to hone in on their
excitement and relief. It reads as if they’ve just escaped something that has
been holding them back for years. We see this imagery being reinforced in the
sub-headline stating “After 43 years UK freed from shackles of EU”. This gives
the impression to the reader that the EU was a burden to Britain, further
pushing their political agenda. Using the word “shackles” creates an extremely
negative metaphor that shows their bias as it portrays and connotes ideas of
being locked up against free will. Negative language continues to be used, with
the splash below using the “revolt” to refer to what pushed the side of
‘leaving’ to victory. The word revolt refers to action being took against an
established ruler or government, often in a violent manner which implies that
those who are established rulers have done something wrong, to disgruntle those
who have decided to take part in the revolt. Therefore, you could say the Daily
Mail are trying to push their readers to agree with the idea (and now reality)
of leaving, claiming it was the ‘peoples’ decision and not the governments, so
as the reader is part of the ‘people’, they should be as thrilled as they are.
Due
to Brexit being the large issue it is, every news outlet was talking about it,
including online ones. My example of this is Huffington Post, as an online news
platform, it provides the news in a more multi-media way. For example, it
inserted a video at the top of the article which showed clips of people on the
streets of different European countries to give an impression to the reader of what
other people thought of the vote. The video is 46 seconds long, this is
significant because of the way media is becoming consumed, especially online.
Many readers don’t want to commit long periods of time to news consumption
anymore (especially not to one single article) so need content to be quick and
engaging, two qualities a video can provide. Embedded tweets also add to the
multi-media side of the article by showing ‘Google Trends’ statistics. For
example, it tells the reader about how there had been a 680% increase in
searches of “Move to Gibraltar” after the EU referendum polls closed. This is a
fact used to interest the reader and to inform them about the reactions of the
public. An important interactive element of an online article is its link to
social media. This is mostly done through a comments section and sharing. This
Huffington Post article is no exception, with an embedded Facebook comment
section that allows readers to discuss between each other about what they think
of the topic and the article. This makes the article interactive for the reader
and allows the writer and the Huffington Post itself to see qualitative
feedback. Sharing of the article can be done easily using the icons at the top
of the article to take you to the post construction part of the social media
chosen by the user, with the link to the article already written in. The easy
process encourages users to take part, which means more exposure for the
Huffington Post.
Finally,
TV news also covered Brexit. I have chosen to look at Good Morning Britain on
ITV and quickly into their coverage, we see they’re slightly more informal than
other outlets such as the BBC with GMBs headline being “bid to save Dave”. Here
they have shortened David to Dave in order for the headline to rhyme and for
comical effect (as Dave sounds like how his mother would refer to him). Due to
David Cameron’s actions before the referendum, the result of it did not help
him in the position he held (as Prime Minister) so therefore meant people took
him less seriously, this goes hand in hand with the decision to refer to him as
Dave as if that word was used by his opponent in the working environment he may
have been disgruntled. GMB also use a lot of visuals such as videos and
graphics to present their news as this is can engage viewers, especially those
who class themselves as ‘visual learners’. They do this as they have to appeal
to the whole nation, giving them a large pool of potential viewers. By making
their content as easy to understand as possible (using less speech and more
graphics) but also challenging viewers by telling them to tweet them, they can
successfully appeal to a great deal. Another point I’d like to make is
regarding the studio and the delivery of the content. Both of these things are
very Americanised to possibly appeal to a much larger, international audience
that views this as a more familiar news programme.
