BBC REPORT AND SUN WEBSITE ESSAY

"Using the comparison of these two texts as your starting point, explore the media issues and debates which they raise."
BBC homepage
form & function-->
website aim to attract audiences from just print paper, allowing a diverse range of consumers.
similarities & differences key concepts (MIGRAIN)-->
MEDIA LANGUAGE
colours--> used red and white making a big statement,
typography-->sans serif(without flicks) allows a bold typeface, stands out and is bulky, almost representing the audience, also in itlaics, white background predominantly red/black font.
images-->medium sized, does not take up all page, but consist of celebrities not much political agenda. sports/showbiz
INSTITUTION
THE SUN News Group Newspapers Limited
also own the times, sunday times, news of the world, the london paper, page3.com, the times litery supplement

GENRE
Newspaper, informational, gossip, sports related, and political, keep consumers informed about things happening in the world.

REPRESENTATION
women--> negative, portrays women as sex objects.top story consists of madonna dressed provocatively
seperate section for females , titled WOMAN to address the female audience.

AUDIENCE
"the white van man"-->typical class c2, d, e males, who are interested in sports such as football, but not too much into politics. specifically for this website, focuses on teenagers, has a special section of agony aunt for teens low disposable income

NARRATIVE
N/A

theory issues & debates
Representation of women
wider contexts (SHEP)

BBC news report-->1989
amateur video voice over or white british female, formal language
story is international affects the world, has political agenda behind it, massacre started because of government issues. almost a story being told.

ESSAY

The Sun’s website and the BBC report from 1989, both focus on news for the consumers, but their audiences are very different. Both texts aim to inform the general public and new information, but they both exist in different decades.

The BBC news report was shown on Television in 1989, whereas the compared text is The Sun's website homepage from 2008. These two texts both revolve around the news but are portrayed through different types of media.

Firstly the colour difference between the two media is quite big. The fact that in 1989, technology was not in its advance stages therefore the quality of the news report is quite bland. It consists of darker dull colours, which isn’t intriguing for the audience. However the report was recorded in the dark in the night, whilst the bombings took place. It portrayed a realistic image of what was happening. The story focused on an international issue that would affect a lot of people around the world, therefore the story was also able to appeal to a much larger audience, than usual. People who may be culturally or relatively affected by the story would also take interest in listening to it.

In terms of institutions, BBC itself focuses on hard news which affects people nationally and internationally. It revolves around political issues because this is what their niche audience requires. BBC’s audience consists of intellectual males and females situated in socio economic group C and above. Whereas The Sun’s general audience consists of individuals from class C2 and lower, specifically men. This is because The Sun aims to attract “the white van man” this phrase is used to describe the unskilled individual men who enjoy the objectification of women (especially with the page 3 feature) and do not feel politics is of much importance. Therefore The Sun focuses on soft news, about celebrities, and smaller humorous issues. For the website, specifically it targets a younger age range, as it also has a special feature for teenagers and “agony aunt” columns just for teenagers. It also has a big feature at the top which consisted of Madonna. It seems as though Madonna is the biggest story to be told, whereas BBC would beg to differ.

However both texts aim to fulfill the audiences’ needs by letting them know what’s happening around the world. Although they do this, they focus on totally different issues. The fact that these two texts are from two different decades allows a lot of differences to occur.

The news report was covered by a white British female. This shows that other ethnic minorities were underrepresented, whereas The Sun is now able to provide some sort of justice. There are now news reporters with different ethnic background. This shows that the differences between the years these two texts were broadcasted / published, is able to represent the community of Britain at that time. The BBC was able to portray other ethnicities as “villains” as stated by Propp’s narrative characters. The news report showed the public of China but they were seen almost as terrorists, and the news report was able to create a sense of moral panic within the British audience. To see this massacre start because of government issues, the British public could have felt a sense of fear, especially towards people of other ethnicities.

The Sun’s website is covered with pictures of celebrities as if they were the most important thing happening on the planet right now. The website can be viewed from all around the world, which means that the sun’s readership has enlarged; therefore they may look into stories which can be recognized by everyone. Celebrities are known all around the world, so they can be a starting point, but the whole page is surrounded by celeb gossip. Other political issues are not raised on the home page.

Apart from this, the sun has also differentiated between its audiences. They have separated males from females, as they have a complete separate section for females. This shows that the homepage it self and probably the rest of the website targets young males, due to the use of technology etc, but there is one section targeted at females. The sun’s mass audience therefore consists of men.

Furthermore, the use of colours by the Sun’s homepage are the same as their newspaper, this is probably kept the same so that it is easily recognizable and is established by the audience. Once they see the homepage they should know what is expected of it as they should be able to understand that the website will cover the stories that the actual paper covers. Therefore it is easier for the sun to be able to target their primary audience range.

In terms of news values, Galtung and Ruge have stated 12 points of which newspapers and news programme situate their stories around. The sun conforms to most of these values, such as unexpectedness, continuity and other more general broad values such as frequency, unambiguity etc. for the sun, news is something either related to sport, objectification of women, celebrity gossip, or something completely unexpected, whereas the BBC takes the news very seriously and focuses on hard news, and serious issues which affect the world. To a certain extent, The Sun may be “dumbing down” its audience to allow them not to think, and take the news as a form of entertainment.

Overall, both texts raise different issues and debates in two different time spans, the BBC report raises cultural differences in the British community, and the Sun’s website is able to raise issues about the objectification of women, and what the news should really stand for. Both texts are arguable of being biased to a certain extent, and this would be because of the gatekeepers of these texts.

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