You can find the ‘print edition’ we are studying today by clicking here
Note - this exact question came up in 2021!
Underline the key terms
Explain how social and cultural circumstances affect audience interpretations of newspaper content. Refer to a print edition of the Daily Mirror to support your points [10]
Knee jerk reaction
The socio cultural circumstances of an audience massively affects their interpretation
Social and cultural circumstances refer to a range of different factors, including class, ethnicity, age, religion, sexuality, political ideology, upbringing, level of education and so on.
Plan
Cultivation
Reception theory
Preferred
Negotiated
Oppositional
Media effects
Pick and mix theory
Intertextuality
Identity
Main image
Copy
Informal mode of address
Lexis
Representation
Working class
Fandom
(Postcolonial theory - representation of POC)
Captions, context and anchorage
(van zoonen and feminist theory)
Demographics/psychographics
Brand identity
conventions
Introduction
DAC - definition, argument, context
Social and cultural circumstances refer to the different ways that audiences can be categorised. Different audiences can interpret media products in different ways. Staart Hall argued that audiences can decode the ideological perspective of the producer based on their own socio-political upbringing. I shall argue that circumstances greatly affect audience interpretation. To explore this, I shall refer to the December 30th 2022 edition of the Daily Mirror, a UK tabloid that appeals to a working class UK left wing audience.
Paragraphs
PEA - Point, evidence, argument
Paragraph examples/discussion/etc here
The huge main central front page image of Pele reinforces not only the importance of Pele but also what he represents. As a working class representation of a man of colour, Pele will appeal to older, working class football fans and audience members of colour who will take pleasure seeing a diverse and complicated representation
The headline ‘the best’ presents an overwhelmingly positive mode of address that uses hyperbolic language to construct an exciting and inclusive mode of address. A simple, straightforward, basic and informal use of lexis is used to appeal to the working class target audience of the newspaper, which reinforces the ideological representation that working class people lack education.
The semantic field and symbolic references to holiness and divinity construct Pele not as a mortal human, but almost godlike in his qualities. One preferred reading of this would be to agree with the superlative language the notion of Pele being a ‘god’. However, an oppositional reading by a religious audience might be to interpret this representation as blasphemous and inappropriate. This is an excellent example of the newspaper appealing to a British target audience, who more recently are less likely to identify as being religious.
Lexis of ‘Vlad’s 70 missile blitz on Ukraine’ presents a colloquial mode of address through the use of lexis. The term ‘Vlad’ is deliberately disrespectful, and reinforces the ideological assumption that the working class audience will agree with this informal mode of address. Additionally the term ‘blitz’ has intertextual connotations, and makes reference to a British war event. This allows the British target audience to relate to a foreign conflict.
The conflation of China with the coronavirus cultivates a simple and stereotypical representation of a complicated geopolitical situation. The article presents a simple straightforward ideology that is easy to understand for a working class target audience.
News values dictate who or what is more important in each edition of a newspaper. Pele’s death is represented as being more important than Vivian Westwood’s simply because as a famous footballer, he will resonate more with the male middle aged working class target audience. However, a negotiated reading of this newspaper may involve a female secondary target audience choosing to engage with the story on Westwood, and this reflects that fact that different audiences can engage with newspapers in different ways
The use of soft news, making reference to reality shows such as ‘strictly’ appeals to a stereotypical working class audience who may be less engaged with hard politics. By focusing on soft news, the mirror ensures its working class target audience are less engaged with serious news, and perpetuates and cultivates an ideological perspective that working class people are too uneducated to engage with serious politics. If the audience are engaged with soft news then they are more likely to buy the mirror every day
However, the mirror is highly critical of the conservative government, and presents stories about the cost of living crisis which not only are relatable to the working class target audience, but also serve to criticise the conservative party