Medua guardian story :)

Amnesty International is launching a new ad featuring a hard-hitting torture scene showing simulated "waterboarding" in a campaign to outlaw the controversial interrogation practice.
The ad, created by advertising agency Drugstore, is set to run in cinemas nationwide from May 9 and is being released online this week.
Amnesty's 90-second film, called Stuff of Life, opens in slow motion with stylish shots of crystal-clear water and an upbeat soundtrack in the style of a typical mineral-water TV ad.
However, after lulling viewers the ad transforms into an interrogation room where a man is strapped to a table being subjected to waterboarding. Waterboarding involves first tying detainees to a board face-up and tilted backwards, then pouring water over the face and into breathing passages to simulate drowning.
"For a few seconds our film-makers did this for real, they poured water up the nose and into the mouth of someone who was pinned down with his head tilted back," said Sara McNeice, campaign manager at Amnesty International UK.
"Even for those few seconds it is horrifying to watch. The reality, in a secret prison with no one to stop it, is much, much worse."
The launch of the ad, which Amnesty International has dubbed "the film the CIA doesn't want you to see", follows the publishing of a book called Torture Team, which claims to shed light on interrogation techniques used in places such as Guantanamo Bay.
Author Philippe Sands, a professor of law at University College London, alleges that interrogation techniques developed at Guantánamo were inspired by the extreme exploits of Jack Bauer, played by actor Kiefer Sutherland, in the American TV series 24.
The campaign is part of Amnesty International UK's "unsubscribe" initiative launched in October last year that aims to gather support for human rights in the era of the "war on terror".
Amnesty's ad has been created in conjunction with post-production company DarkFibre Films and visual effects company Prime Focus London.
The cinema campaign will break in 50 Picturehouse cinema screens nationwide from May 9.

basically the advert itself is advertising the chairty showing the forms of torture that certain people have to have. the advert was not faked. the individual may ave been an actor but he was actually waterboarded.
im sure ofcom will receive a complaint here and there about this. but whats most is important is that they get the message across rite?!?!

WC(shep) timeline 2000

2000
18th july 2000--BIG BROTHER launch,now extremely succesful
1st august 2000-- ITN news channel launched
13th novemebr 2000-- george bush is president
14th june 2001--wimbledon interactive for viewers
11th september 2001-- world trade center attack
12th september 2001--the blue planet returns with david attenborough
6th october 2001--pop idol launches beomes v successful spin offs include american idol and x factor
2nd march 2002--BBC four launches
31st may 2002-- 17th football world cup!
20th novemer 2002--first live autopsy shown on channel 4
7th january 2003-- wife swap--so successful has 4 series
12th january 2003-- the salon launches
20th march 2003--U.S missiles hit baghdad
16th september 2003--little britain starts
28th january 2004-- hutton report published
2004--hells kitchen and strictly come dancing start..celebrity endorsed partially reality tv shows
21st september 2004-- secret policeman documentary goes undercover in manchester plice force.
26th december 2004--TSUNAMI takes place kills hundreds of thousands
30th january 2005-- iraqi elections--shia's come first
5th january 2005-- desperate housewives begins--- new sex in the city 4.8 million viewers

WC(shep)timeline 1990

1990
29th april 1990-- BSB launches has financial difficulties...merges with sky TV 2nd november 1990
22nd november 1990-- margerat thatcher steps dwn
7th february 1992--EU union is signed...put in place in 1993
1st january 1993--czechslovakia splits into czech republic and slovakia
1st october 1993--QVC launched first shopping channel
29th june 1995--gaytime tv launched for gays and lesbians
4TH FEBRUARY 1996--GM food launched--tomato puree.
2th september 1996--changing rooms
23rd november 1996 --the simpsons on BBC
30th march 1997--channel 5 launches
1st may 1997-- tony blair wins election
23rd march 1998--jrry springer comes to ITV
27th march 1998--viagra goes on sale becomes the fastest selling drug
7th december 1998-- ITV 2 LAUNCHES
5th march 1999--itv news at ten last broadcast
21st september 1999-- walking with dinosaurs-technology advances
11th august 1999--total eclipse
1nd november 1999-cameras fixed in the hosue of commons

WC(shep)timeline 1980

1980
25th February 1980-- yes minister- sketch, margerat thatcher in there herself
5th march 1980--JR shot...conspiracy bbc news report
30th august 1980--british female cops distinctively seen on BBC
17th june 1980-- nuclear missiles located is announced-- not exactly the best idea in the world ! !
21st november 1980-- children in need launched
29th July 1981--princess diana and prince charles get married, aired on TV.
25th November 1981-- brixton riots...ethnic minority issues
2nd april 1982-- falklands war starts(argentinians invade falkland islands) 655 british soldiers killed, 255 argentinians
2nd november 1982-- channel 4 launched
5th march 1984 --- miners strike
16th october 1984-- the bill launched
25h october 1984--Michael buerk does news reports from ethiopia
19th february 1985-- eastenders launched
11th march 1985-- gorbachev becomes soviet union leader
28th april 1986--chernobyl accident, killed 10,000 people 3.5 million people ill, spread as far as the U.K
6th june 1986-- documentary on AIDS dont die of ignorance.
27th october 1986--daytime tv reduces ceefax
6th september 1986--casualty starts(holby city 1999)
26th february 1987--female priests exist
12th october 1987--kilroy begins very contraversial
5th february 1989--sky launches first satelitte dish
9th november 1989-- berlin wall is broken down

WC(shep) timeline 1970

1970
10th January 1971-- open university first BBC broadcast
15th February 1971-- british shilling removed, replaced by the pence system
30th january 1972-- bloody sunday, peaceful civil rights march british troopers open fire, kill 14 irish people, and stated they were snipers, but apparantly they were innocent. investigation is on going.
4th april 1972-- first newsround broadcast
4th January 1973-- ceefax (teletext) was invented, still popular!
8th january 1973-- president nixon involved in the bugging of the democratic party HQ!
2nd december 1974-- muhammed ali on parkinsons show for the second time!
17th december 1975-- "the naked civil servant" tells the true life story of persecuted homosexual Quentin Crisp..defining moment of gays portrayed in the media.
29th January 1976--jeremy thorpe affair- MP jeremy acused of killing a man who he had a homosexual relationship!
1st december 1976-- sex pistols member says the f word on daytime television live. they get dropped fromtheir record label the producer gets sacked, riot!
6th june 1977-- queens silver jubilee
3rd november 1978--delia smith's cookery course. feminist movement at that time.
18th november 1978-- jonestown massacre in guyana, 900 killed followers of reverend Jim Jones. poisened juice used to murder them
3rd may 1979-- margerat thatcher wins election first female prime minister of the U.K
2nd september 1979-- subtitles begins
25th september 1979-- question time because- educational programme

WC(shep) timeline 1960

1960s,

9th december 1960-- Coronation street launch. now the longest running soap drama.
25th december 1960-- queen pre-records her first christmas message, it used to be live.
12th april 1961-- first man to go into space Yuri Gagarin
29th april 1961-- ITV goes southwest and scotland
1st october 1961-- songs of praise first broadcast(religious views)
5th Augsut 1962-- marilyn monroe found dead
24th september 1962-- university challenge(educational programme)
22nd november 1963-- JFK assasinated
20th April 1964-- launch of BBC 2, distrupted by power failure.
12th June 1964-- nelson mandela caught
22nd august 1964-- match of the day launch
24th january 1965-- winston churchill funeral broadcasted on BBC and ITV
OCTOBER 1965-- thunderbirds are go! and the magic roundabout.
21 april 1966-- houses of parliament first broadcast.
30th July 1966-- engalnd v germany england wins 4-2 at Wembley
3rd July 1967-- news at ten 1/2 hour on ITV with 2 news readers like how htey do in the U.S.A
3rd december 1967-- first heart transplant successful!
3rd may 1968-- french students protest against closure of the citys university, thousands arrested.
20th july 1969-- neil armstrong first man to walk on the moon, broadcasted across the USA.

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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