News: Representation: Selection & Combination

Newspapers SELECT which events, issues, individuals and social groups they will represent and which ones they will ignore. This influences our view of the world.

Biases of representation are caused by the application of news values which include bias towards powerful people, celebrities and entertainment, and events or issues already in the news.
Different newspapers have their own agendas.

Newspapers combine representations to create a view of the world. Many newspapers have a strong ethos which means a fairly consistent world view will be presented.

How would you describe The Guardian and the Daily Mail's world view?

The Guardian

The Scott Trust, who owns the Guardian, stated a very clear purpose when it was established in 1936: "to secure the financial and editorial independence of the Guardian in perpetuity and to safeguard the journalistic freedom and liberal values of the Guardian free from commercial or political interference."

Journalist, Katherine Viner states in one of the Guardian's articles, that she instinctively understands why the Guardian exists: it is to do with 'upholding liberal values'.

• The Guardian consciously selects topics that criticise racism and prejudice and actively seek out stories from British Muslims regarding their experience of Ramadan.
• Internationalist - rather than suspicion regarding other countries and religions, The Guardian is curious and supportive.

The Daily Mail

The Daily Mail supports a FREE MARKET ECONOMY, and British traditions such as the Royal Family, the church, the army and democracy.

"While we are a paper that applauds economic success and is pro-business, on behalf of our readers we will fight and make sure we do, that business leaders, union leaders, politicians, public figures - and judges - are held to account, to serve their customers, members, voters and the public." - Daily Mail Editor-in-Chief, Geordie Greig, 2018, speech to his staff when starting as editor.

Paul Dacre was the editor of the Daily Mail for 26 years until 2018. H e was very pro-Brexit and often used a very strong, unrelenting tone. He was replaced by Geordie Greig.

Viscount Rothermere, the paper's owner is understood to have made a decision because Dacre's increasingly angry Brexit stance - including a front page accusing high court judges of being "enemies of the people" - was embarrassing him.

• Nationalist - accusatory tone used when exploring how different countries will 'spy' on citizens when easing the Lockdown.
• This also links to the strong democratic values which the Daily Mail heralds as being integral to British life. Therefore, the idea of being watched and monitored by the state goes against the values that the many Daily Mail reader's may strongly believe in.

News: Realism and Constructing Reality

The ideal: news will be truthful and only contain facts.

The reality: boundaries are blurred and 'fake news' has become prevalent in today's news - especially online.

Content should be separated into two distinct sections: NEWS and EDITORIAL.

While News is Factual, Editorial is Opinion.

Differing Realities: The Guardian & Daily Mail

We would expect The Guardian and the Daily Mail to construct different versions of reality, within the constraints of the news of the day, to match the different world views.

These might be expressed as binary oppositions, as used by Levi-Strauss. 

Daily Mail Reality	Guardian Reality
Many problems are caused by the ruling liberal elites and the nanny state	Many problems are caused by uncontrollable free markets
Problems are best solved by allowing the free market to operate and minimising bureaucratic interference	Problems are best solved by public control in the public interest
We should look after our own people before we look after foreigners	As a rich country we have a duty to help others in the world, for example, providing vaccines for poorer countries
Ordinary people are rightly proud to be British	Some patriotism is associated with xenophobia and racism; we should be both internationalist and proud to be British
We should respect great British institutions such as the monarchy	We should recognise where institutions need to improve
Catching criminals is more important than protecting human rights	Protecting human rights is the cornerstone of a free society
Brexit is a fantastic opportunity	Brexit is a disaster

The Guardian is more questioning than the Daily Mail. The Daily Mail often presents dominant ideologies whereas The Guardian promotes negotiated ideologies.

Narrative and Reality

• Narrative is important in the construction of reality.
• The world of 'spin doctors' (a person responsible for ensuring that others interpret an event from a particular point of view) is to create a suitable narrative around news events.
• Spin doctors and editors will manipulate the narrative to create interest for the reader. This may distort reality in order to provide the required narrative structure.