Newspapers & Politics

Comparing representations from the Daily Express and Guardian articles

Look again at the two articles.

What similarities and differences are there in the way they represent

• young people?
• the events of the previous night?

Relate these findings to the key questions about representation, especially 3 & 5:

5 things to do with representations

1. recognise that all texts make representations
2. deconstruct representations to understand the process by which they are constructed
3. question the values, points of view and ideologies of those who made the representation
4. evaluate the realism / accuracy / truth of any representation
5. explore the reading that the text would like its audience to make, and the different readings that they might make, depending on their values, points of view and ideologies

Guardian article - riots - 09.08.11

london-riots-escalate-police-battle

Analyse the language of the Guardian article.
As with the Express article, look for the ways in which it describes young people and the events of the previous day.

• Copy a selection of evidence and
• comment on how the words construct a particular representation.

Another feature of this article to deconstruct is the references made to the case of Mark Duggan, whose shooting by police in Tottenham led to a protest there, which then escalated into the first disturbances. Make a note of

• how this is referred to
• how many times
• where in the article these references come

Then write a comment on The Guardian's apparent perspective on the riots and on the case of Mark Duggan.

Daily Express article - riots - 09.08.11

Read the Daily Express article at Flaming-morons

Select examples of the newspaper's reporting of events that illustrate the representations being made of young people and the events of 08.08.11.

Read the readers' comments beneath the article.

Select some examples that represent Daily Express readers (or specifically those Express readers who are bothered to comment on articles on the paper's website).

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And for fun, understand the following T-shirt design from RedMolotov.

Just to prove that you should deconstruct all representations, think how the T-shirt design constructs representations of Express readers, the values of the people making the representation, and different readings that could be made of it.