...Med 6 Practice Essay...

Using a comparison of two texts as a starting point, consider the issue and debates that they raise

The two texts that are being compared is the home page of ‘The Sun’ posted Friday, 4th April, a British Tabloid newspaper owned by News Corp and the BBC News report about the Tiananmen Square massacre, first broadcast on BBC1 on 04-06-89. ‘The Sun’ online homepage lists all news stories, gossip, pictures, articles and other entertainment news which are hard and soft news. The online newspaper aims to attract contemporary audience. The BBC Report about Tiananmen Square massacre aims to educate and inform the audience about the event in 1989.

Both texts The Sun online and BBC News report centre on the same narrative which is news. The Sun online, illustrates latest news headlines on its homepage, covering hard news and mostly soft news, however The Sun homepage only shows western stories, showing that it is US and UK Centric, focusing more on the western world. By looking at the homepage we do not see any other world news. On other hand the BBC news report is showing us the world news which is hard news, this shows how globalised the media has become.

BBC is serious about news, where they always Inform, Educate and entertain (Reithian values) BBC provides a wide range of news stories, covering all worldwide issues and events; this shows how Globalisation has become important in the world. Mclluhan’s theory on ‘The global village’ states that the media is able to show events and issues from around the world, therefore BBC have adapted themselves to this theory. This would make BBC more competitive as The Sun does not provide much of the world news. The news clip is considered as hard news where it educates and informs the audience about the Massacre in Tiananmen, as this is being reported from the other side of the world, this shows how BBC is concerned about international issues. On the other hand The Sun provides more Soft news where they focus mainly only on the cult of celebrity as a narrative is being created of celebrities issue by issue, however they also show national stories such as a farmer marrying a goat. Linking this to audience we presumably say that the audience back in the 1989 for the BBC news report would have been middle and upper class. However The Sun aims to attract working class citizens, but as this is a online version of the newspaper we would say that the audience would be more contemporary, so this could mean that the print media is attracting the working class, but the online version would be attracting teenagers or office workers who would be checking during their lunch times.

Furthermore Print media is a currently in decline since the last decade, as we now have online newspapers, radio and new media such as mobile phones where you can get news updates sent straight to the phone. Therefore Rupert Murdoch had decided to launch an online version so he can compete against other institutions such as BBC news online and be able to a wider audience, who can view the online version from anywhere from the world.

The main contrast which is seen is that the BBC news report has been reported by a female correspondent over in China, this implies that the women is educated, professional and independant. Nevertheless, by looking at The Sun homepage we see females being objectified and under represented through the Page 3 links and the web player of scantily clad models from page 3. This highlights that BBC is representing women in a fair way by portraying them being resourceful and this was during the late 80s, this represents BBC as liberal. Whereas in The Sun homepage, women are being objectified though such stories as Jordan dressed in a tight mermaid suit. Although The Sun’s editor is a female, women are still being placed on page 3; this is because gate-keeping is all assigned by Rupert Murdoch himself. The editor allows these kinds of pictures to appear as this will increase readership, which will grow newspaper sales. Plus audience expectations need to be met who are primarily the white van men and like to see topless women. However this is not shocking, as The Sun is infamous for its Page 3 since the birth of the paper, this is also supports Laura Mulveys theory that women are the subject of the male gaze.

The news report shows the political protests in China during the late 1980s, yet we can link this to current issues in Tibet, where people are protesting again on the political corruption. This shows China in an unstable position as there politics are not in control and this is causing havoc and is mis-representing the country. Also the news report is being told from a white Caucasian female correspondent and she is describing the situation in her own words, rather from an actual citizen who would know more about this situation, we can say that it is hegemonic, as the news report is feeding us ideologies because the audience don’t know what is happening, so we are being injected with ideologies from a white person, which is hegemonic reading. However according to today’s society, United Kingdom has become more ethnically diverse and because of multi-culturalism we would not have seen this kind of news report today on TV as it would have been offensive.

Although the BBC news report discusses on a major issue in China back in 1989, The Sun newspaper focuses on many different news stories centred mainly on celebrities (soft news) and big local news stories. These sensationalised news headlines on the sun’s homepage create moral panics in the country such as ‘Teenage Worries about drugs’. Whereas the BBC has serious dedicated news focusing on political and economical issues (hard news) and be updating news every hour just for the audience who are willing to be informed.