Constructed Media:

"Media has an agenda and is completely biased."

A wide range of daily or weekly news tends to be negative or bad news. Whereas the spread of good or positive news doesn’t occur very often. This tends to lead to worry or moral panic which causes viewers to watch more of the news to keep updated. Sometimes news doesn't always tell the whole story and can be selective when choosing what information to miss out or include. Media usually post or promote things that usually help them self or can benefit them in some sort of way.

"Media is objective, not biased and has a duty to report what is factually happening."

However, some opinions may be that media must report and spread the truth in incidents like daily or weekly news. The only agenda that media has is to spread the truth and range of information. Some issues may be seen as biased but if the information is true then it is not a form of any miscommunication. For example, journalists have created a code of ethics in order to keep what they write to be honest and not biased.

Is this biased?

In this newspaper article from The Daily Mail is portraying a very positive opinion towards immigrants being allowed into the UK, but a negative opinion towards the people that believe we shouldn’t all be treated equally. The Daily Mail is a centre/left-wing broadsheet newspaper which shows the opinion of parties like the labour party. This newspaper could be considered biased as it is almost applying for sympathy towards the immigrants that aren’t allowed to enter the UK.

Is this biased?

However, this newspaper article from The Sun is almost proposing a threat to be strongly against immigration and letting immigrants into the UK ‘or else’. The Sun is a tabloid newspaper that presents the right-wing perspective on this situation. This article is to be considered very biased due to the very opinionated headline that convinces most readers to be against immigration.

HOW MEXICANS ARE REPRESENTED BY DONALD TRUMP VS BARACK OBAMA:

Trying to build walls...

Donald Trump expresses his opinion quite often about how he sees Mexicans. This is usually the assumption that all Mexicans are 'rapists', 'criminals', 'drug dealers/somehow involved with drugs' and genuinely bad people. He tends to express his fear of unemployment and over population occurring in America. Trump's audience is mainly aimed at the small minded, middle aged/old and white raced people.

Trying to build bridges...

However, Barack Obama positively shares his views on Mexicans as a 'partnership of equals' and them having a 'unified relationship'. He also greatly appreciates their cultural heritage and sees and presents them as all good people, not following other stereotypes. He strongly gives more than one perspective giving people the choice to believe in what they think is right. Obama's audience is mainly seen as open minded, younger generation and all raced people.

Media are not windows on reality or mirrors of society. They are carefully constructed products. From newspapers to nature shows, media producers actively select and construct particular images of the world.
A media literate person is aware that many decisions go into every media product, and that even the most realistic images represent someone’s interpretation of reality.
Moreover, a truly media literate person can produce media as well, thereby offering their own construction of reality.
All media messages are constructed, meaning that all media messages have been assembled by someone. That “someone” could be a single person, or it could be a large organization.

The messages and values embedded in this piece of media are those of the people who created it.
In photographs, the photographer's own vision of what he/she wants to show within the frame demonstrates his/her own values and beliefs.

Conventions of a Tabloid Newspaper:

Short text
Bright colours
Celebrity gossip
Informal mode
Smaller than broadsheets
Not serious
Less detailed
Paparazzi
Big Picture

Signifier – another word for the sign itself: the image, word, etc.,

Signified – this refers to the meaning associated with the signifier.

Denotation – the actual meaning of the sign

Connotation – the additional meanings that attach to the sign and are socially or culturally developed and accepted.

They are made by a producer
They have a specific intention to create a certain meaning
The Producer aims for the audience to interpret and accept the meaning unquestioningly
Producers use different elements /conventions of media language to construct meanings.

Interpreting the images and text are key elements for analysing the meaning of media.
Producers such as the Sun, Mail, Guardian, Telegraph and Mirror are designed to target an audience such as Left wing and right-wing readers. Political Bias is something you need to check when analysing newspapers.

This tabloid newspaper represents the idea of Jeremy Corbyn and his ideas/views being so terrible that he has been chucked away along with what he thinks. As well as a very negative campaign against voting for labour in the political world. The Sun is a right-wing newspaper which presents a Capitalist mind-set viewing and presenting this situation. This being the reason to why the labour party and ‘hard-left extremists’ being portrayed in such a negative light.

However, the headline of this newspaper has a short and catchy tone as it has created a pun within his last name; “COR-BIN”. Due to tabloid newspapers usually having sort and less detailed title, with a nice big picture that tells most of the story. They have put the title ‘DON’T CHUCK BRITAIN IN THE… COR-BIN’ in much larger text to bring immediate attention onto the joke they are making about him.

There is a sense of comedy when referring to Jeremy as “jezza” as they are showing very little signs of respect when nicknaming him. Newspapers are typically black and white, however this article has quite several features of red that creates connotations to anger that the public may be feeling towards Jeremy Corbyn. The constant jokes being made throughout this article may be related to the idea of voting labour would be one big joke in my opinion of someone with a strong capitalist mind-set.

There are several pieces of eaten and dirty food that has been thrown away alongside with Corbyn. Both the eaten apple and fish bones both represent the idea of used and chewed food no longer being needed after they have done what they were supposed to do, much like how the labour party is being treated. In the main image Corbyn is not looking at the reader which implies that he is not paying attention to the effect he causes in so many lives and his little care for the public.

There is also a sense of Jeremy Corbyn making a sarcastic face in the mode of address, almost as if he is saying “oops!” showing his little amount of care towards what happens to the public once again. To the side of the newspaper there is serif font that has created a list of all what Jeremy Corbyn stands for and everything he did wrong. These being the reason why Britain would like to chuck him in the bin.

The stand first/copy gives a blurb-like piece of information about the following article that the reader could then move on to read. There are numbers of the writing that is in bold to highlight the important/interesting information.

In this modern magazine, Jeremy Corbyn has been represented in a very positive light. It has been presented in a left-wing perspective similar to the Socialist mind-set. This magazine is GQ- Gentlemen’s Quarterly which is a magazine that presents respectable gentlemen. However, Jeremy Corbyn being the so called ‘gentleman’ featured on the front cover will certainly be seen positively as well as causing conflicted opinions.

In the main image is standing up tall with his arms crossed. This body language could be very intimidating whilst he appears to think he is higher and more powerful than others. Also, the mode of address presents Corbyn to have a subtle smirk across his face. There are many aspects of the colour red within some of the text and his tie that strongly contrasts with the dark navy suit and the blank, white background. This contrast could symbolise the different opinions/views on Jeremy Corbyn and what he stands for.

The headline reads ‘Jeremy Corbyn’s hostile takeover’ to indicate just how much power he appears to have. Along with the headline and the line that reads ’50 best dressed men’ both titles are printed in serif font. Due to the magazine naming Jeremy Corbyn as one of the ’50 best dresses men’ shows how much respect he receives. However, there is also some writing on the magazine that is written in san-serif font on other issues that don’t seem to stand out as much as the other headlines.