The dark blue banner of 'The Observer' connotes a modern and sophisticated feel to the tabloid as a whole, especially when used with the font 'Sans Serif' which appears formal yet modern- suggesting new and exclusive news. There is pink and blue in sections which may be more alluring to certain genders, the pink to women, and blue to men - which is mainly noticeable in the sports section with the majority of the headlines being blue. However the colour of the separate boxes for 'Food and Lifestyle' , are gender neutral and could be engaging to older ages, especially with the titles of 'Wines for a family gathering'.
Articles skewed towards male audiences will usually be located in the sport section because of the positive reports about their nations sports team that the audience will most probably support - which men are usually most linked to. This appeals to the audience because of their personal identity and values. With the headline reading 'Return of Vunipola will give England confidence' , paired with a strong photo of a glorious run of a rugby player, we can only assume after seeing just the headline that the subject of the article will be flattering and biased to the home side (England), to encourage a reader to come back in want of the patriotic praise they will receive from the sport articles. The term 'Courage' and 'England' used in the same sentence will also increase the chances of the reader thinking of their nation as courageous. Sport, society and politic news and opinions will lead the reader into thinking they are members of a common culture, and in hope to feel more accepted and normal they will come back for more information they can agree with.
'Can I forgive the man who raped me?' is an eye catching bold headline which will draw in the reader because of their desire to know what is going on in the world. The headline is a question which makes direct conversation with the reader, instantly drawing them in. A hard news story on a delicate topic such as rape will open the reader's eyes to different view points, which is a thing a lot of readers are curious about, especially with harsh topics like rape when we are addressed with the first person, hinting at personal experience.
Q.8 : 3 marks out of 5
ReplyDelete1. You need to adjust the expression 'biased articles' and write 'articles skewed towards male audiences' (if that is what you think).
2.You pick up on the patriotic, confident, even bullish language
and you make a useful observation taken from the support material on how language can make readers feel part of a community
3. Sensible thoughts on the second article. Look at the type of language to get more marks. For instance, you could say that this makes a direct appeal to audiences for engagement, as it is a question. You could think that it is quite provocative a topic. It is certainly a human interest story.
3. How would you say the photographs communicate?
Responses should analyse use of media language to create meaning such as:
ReplyDelete• use of a dark blue colour for the header to connote serious, sober, objective news
• use of a limited colour pallet – house colours of royal blue and a wine purple – suggest an organised and formal paper
• a bold, sans-serif, white on blue mostly lower case font for the title connotes a modern and confident paper
• use of a serif typeface for the headings connotes formality and objectivity
• the highly ordered layout of the home page, use of white as a background, and fairly limited use of photographs and graphics minimises visual clutter and connotes seriousness and objectivity
• the language use includes both personal and third person statements but creates an overall objective mode of address