The Madeleine McCann and Shannon Matthews Task
Q1:
The endings of sentences such as '' said Mr McCann tearfully.'', ''she can no longer bear to use her camera.'', etc. and a lot of quotations from the victims in the first article are used to make us feel sympathetic towards the family. You can argue that is due to the fact that the family of Madeleine McCann is from the upper middle class. That may also be because of the fact that they would get a child psychologist or even the fact that the MCcanns had private conversations with the British Chancellor.
On the other hand we have the article about the kidnapping of Shannon Matthews, which is way more like a reportage and summary of the events that had happened,''Shannon failed to return from school after her swimming lesson on Feb 19'', ''Shannon failed to return from school after her a swimming lesson on February 19 '',etc. ,there's no emotive language put into it.
A news value that is used in the stories is probably negativity. Clearly ,as we can see ,usually news with a sad ending end up having the largest coverage. This news value largely applies to the first story due to the fact that the case stays unresolved and Madeleine is not found.
Q2:
The pictures of Shannon and her mother look ridicoulous compared to that of Madeleine McCann and her daughter. The picture of Karen Matthews is form her arrest whils the McCann picture is an image of a mother and daughter playing andc having fun together. As I mentioned earlier that may be due to the social class of the families. Kate being depicted as a loving and caring mother and on the other hand ,Karen depicted as a criminal.Both shots of the Matthews are close ones, whilst the McCann one is at mid-range.
Q3:
To some extent the representation of both families is hierarchical. True, the upper middle-class family is depicted as a loving and caring one. A family that needs support through the tough times they are going through. They recieve benefit as I mentioned earlier in Q1, benefits the Matthews family did not receive. Hall notes that representation is about the many meanings generated of the article. What is present, abscent or different. He was mainly interested in the representation of "the other", since he himself, had gone through such experience in the Oxford university. A thing that is abscent in the Matthews story is personification ,which is clearly present in the McCann story.
Q4:
You can argue that the dominant meaning of the Daily Telegraph is that the upper middle-class family is more important than the lower class one.The two families are represented differently because of their differences in the social hierarchy. The McCann family being depicted as a loving and caring family, getting described with a lot of emotion, etc. and the Matthews family described with no emotive language. Hall mentions that the dominant position is when the audience accepts the ideological assumptions behind the message. But I would have to take the negotiated one. I think that the different social classes are represented sometimes in media. A reason for the Matthews family, in particular Karen Matthews, the mother, being misrepresented is because she is a criminal. She is a criminal and a cruel one actually. She was fine with putting her own daughter through drugging and hiding just for the sake of getting money. I think that the representation of Karen Matthews is justified, due to the fact that she has comitted an atrocious crime against her daughter.
The endings of sentences such as '' said Mr McCann tearfully.'', ''she can no longer bear to use her camera.'', etc. and a lot of quotations from the victims in the first article are used to make us feel sympathetic towards the family. You can argue that is due to the fact that the family of Madeleine McCann is from the upper middle class. That may also be because of the fact that they would get a child psychologist or even the fact that the MCcanns had private conversations with the British Chancellor.
On the other hand we have the article about the kidnapping of Shannon Matthews, which is way more like a reportage and summary of the events that had happened,''Shannon failed to return from school after her swimming lesson on Feb 19'', ''Shannon failed to return from school after her a swimming lesson on February 19 '',etc. ,there's no emotive language put into it.
A news value that is used in the stories is probably negativity. Clearly ,as we can see ,usually news with a sad ending end up having the largest coverage. This news value largely applies to the first story due to the fact that the case stays unresolved and Madeleine is not found.
Q2:
The pictures of Shannon and her mother look ridicoulous compared to that of Madeleine McCann and her daughter. The picture of Karen Matthews is form her arrest whils the McCann picture is an image of a mother and daughter playing andc having fun together. As I mentioned earlier that may be due to the social class of the families. Kate being depicted as a loving and caring mother and on the other hand ,Karen depicted as a criminal.Both shots of the Matthews are close ones, whilst the McCann one is at mid-range.
Q3:
To some extent the representation of both families is hierarchical. True, the upper middle-class family is depicted as a loving and caring one. A family that needs support through the tough times they are going through. They recieve benefit as I mentioned earlier in Q1, benefits the Matthews family did not receive. Hall notes that representation is about the many meanings generated of the article. What is present, abscent or different. He was mainly interested in the representation of "the other", since he himself, had gone through such experience in the Oxford university. A thing that is abscent in the Matthews story is personification ,which is clearly present in the McCann story.
Q4:
You can argue that the dominant meaning of the Daily Telegraph is that the upper middle-class family is more important than the lower class one.The two families are represented differently because of their differences in the social hierarchy. The McCann family being depicted as a loving and caring family, getting described with a lot of emotion, etc. and the Matthews family described with no emotive language. Hall mentions that the dominant position is when the audience accepts the ideological assumptions behind the message. But I would have to take the negotiated one. I think that the different social classes are represented sometimes in media. A reason for the Matthews family, in particular Karen Matthews, the mother, being misrepresented is because she is a criminal. She is a criminal and a cruel one actually. She was fine with putting her own daughter through drugging and hiding just for the sake of getting money. I think that the representation of Karen Matthews is justified, due to the fact that she has comitted an atrocious crime against her daughter.
Some intelligent answers Stanimir. You are starting to use media examples and your analysis of the language and images used uncovers some representations. You don't always write in sufficient detail abotu the representation of the working classes, nor are you always clear at linking social hierarchy to the (positive) representation of the McCanns. However you understand the theories well and I would agree with your negotiated position. V
ReplyDelete