Timed Essay Question 5

Explain how different newspaper audiences might interpret the same content in different ways. Refer to the front covers below to support your answer.

All newspapers have a political positioning and bias. The Mirror is a left-wing newspaper, and The Daily Mail is a right-wing newspaper. The politics of newspapers means that they will present the same stories in different ways, and people will not buy a newspaper if they don’t agree with the POV of the newspaper.

Different newspaper audiences will interpret the same content in different ways due to how the stories are presented in different ways by the newspapers. For example, The Daily Mail front cover uses binary opposition (us vs them) between the UK and Europe. It portrays the UK as good and Europe as evil plotters, which would appeal to right wing ideology, encouraging right wing audiences to buy the newspaper. Furthermore, right-wing publications do not aim to appeal to a left-wing audience, which links in with reception theory, and how a preferred reading of this cover would be their right-wing audience. Also, the ideology of Europe being bad and the UK being good fits into a right-wing mindset of the UK being a superior nation in the world, and other countries being lesser then them, when this is not in fact true as whilst the UK is a very well-off country, it is in no way superior as it still has a lot of problems that should be focused on, such as homelessness, instead of a rift between the conservative party ideology, and the rest of Europe.

The Mirror primarily appeals to a left-wing audience; however, the cover uses binary opposition between us vs a common enemy of ‘a new deadly enemy’ between the left-wing and right-wing. The cover presents the idea of being against ideology that is against western culture and causes the specific front cover to appeal to a wider audience. It’s encouraging the audience to put their political views aside and promotes western ideology instead of political ideology as the enemy is against the west. This links into cultivation theory as the exposure to this viewpoint across a lengthened period of time can cause internalisation, and the audience could be influenced by the media product which could lead to copycat behaviour. Furthermore, if ideologies were put aside in this sense, the success of the article would likely be higher as the focus would be on a collective view, rather than a one-sided one such as what the Daily Mail was proposing.

If the audience read either newspaper without a political alignment then they would likely absorb the views that are presented on the front covers, or in the articles. The audience response to said articles would be by people who agree with the alignment of the newspaper. The Daily Mail cultivates anti-European attitude, whereas The Mirror cultivates pro-western attitude, and prioritises promoting western culture (semi-nationalism) over their left-wing ideology. On the other hand, The Daily Mail prioritises promoting their nationalist right-wing ideology, which links into the theory of power in the media as media can influence and/or control the public opinion and should reflect the interests of the audience that they are trying to appeal to. So, whilst the Daily Mail is using their power to appeal to one primary audience of the right-wing, the Mirror is trying to appeal to a wider audience by using their power to create a cultivated viewpoint, and thus gain different interpretations of their article, whilst also bringing in more people to read it.

In conclusion, different newspaper audiences interpret the same situations and articles in different ways dependent on their political alignment and personal beliefs, and often these will be cultivated by newspapers to try and gain a wider audience, or use their power in the media to sway the viewpoint of people and cultivate their interests.