Ideology & Discourse: News and Politics

Ideology & Discourse: News/Politics

Lucy Matheson & Kirsty Johnstone

Crimewatch

Semiotics

"Takes the view that signs can be organized within various media, to form texts that can convey some kind of meaning." (O'niell, 2008: 2)

Propp & Todrov

Equilibrium

• Reality is a system of signs
• Ferdinand de Saussure
• Signifier and Signified
• Syntagms: combinations of signs put together to create a meaningful whole
• Paradigms: all the signs that could be used in a text to construct meaning
• Syntagmatic choice
• Paradigmatic choice

New Equilibrium

Disequilibrium

• Equilibrium, Disequilibrium, New Equilibrium
• Narrative, Hero, Villain
• Madeleine McCann story still in disequilibrium
• Trying to find new equilibrium

Todrovs Theory

Task

BBC News at 10

ITV News

http://bobnational.net/programme.php?clip=178428&view=flash_player

Approaches to Media Discourse

http://bobnational.net/programme.php?clip=178827&view=flash_player

Linguistic/Sociolinguistic

Grammar/Language

International News

Introduction

Conversation

Audience kept in the picture

Semiotic

Linguistic & Visual

(Fairclough.1995.p21-22)

News Values

• Madeleine McCann
• BBC, ITV, AL JAZEERA
• News values
• Discourse & Ideology Analysis

Al Jazeera

• News corps dictate what is 'important.'
• Represent themselves as "self evidently dispassionate windows on the world."
• ..."Corporate media version of the world" (Cromwell&Edwards.2006)

Branson and Stafford (2010)

Why?

http://bobnational.net/programme.php?clip=179245&view=flash_player

A child goes missing in the UK every 3 minutes... That's over 140,000 a year- CEOP

• Frequency - How sudden
• Proximity - How far
• Predictability - How likely
• Narrativisation- How good a story
• Visual Imperatives - How dramatic a picture

McCanns affluent, middle class with money?

Galtung and Ruge 1965

What makes a story newsworthy?

The story was relatable to families worldwide?

Composition

Predictability

Continuity

Relevance

Elite Nations

Elite Peoples

Timeliness

Simplification

Negativity

Unexpectedness

Broadcast Discourse

" A discourse role is a specific repertoire of discourse practices that have become normative." (Montgomery.2007.p35)

Timeline

E.g. Presenters- They assert but rarely comment or speculate

2007

2011

Madeleine goes missing.

Portuguese police suspect parents.

Scotland Yard launch investigation after McCanns appeal to PM

David Cameron.

2013

2008

Case closed. McCanns dropped as suspects.

E-fits released by Scotland Yard. Crucial change to the timeline of events released and reconstruction shown on Crimewatch.

Linguistic Ranking

CODE X : 'Sexist, multi-ethic lads 'slang'

CODE Y: 'Lexically richer, more logical - Better suited for more wider communication within a policy than... '

Bibliography

Conclusion

CODE Z: 'Dialect'

There are many discourse strands attatched to the Madeleine McCann case.

The ideological importance of the story varies across different countries, channels and mediums.

"Result of specific social, political, cultural and economic conditions."

(Johnson&Milani:2010.p4)

Branston, G. Stafford, R. (2010). The Media Student's Book . 5th ed. Oxon: Routledge. p42-64.

Cromwell, D. Edwards, D (2006). Guardians of Power- The Myth of the Liberal Media' . London: Pluto Press. p1-2.

Fairclough, N (1995). Media Discourse . New York : Oxford University Press. p21-23.

Johnson, S. Milani, T (2010). Language Ideologies & Media Discourse: Texts, Practices, Politics. London: Continnum International . p4.

O'niell, S. (2008). Interactive media: the semiotics of embodied interaction. London: Springer.

Allen, V. "Madeleine McCann dead abduction faked say portugese police". Mail Online. Web. 13 Jan 2010. <http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1242716/Madeleine-McCann-dead-abduction-faked-say-Portuguese-police.html>.

BBC. "'Blood clue' in Madeleine inquiry". BBC News. Web. 7 Aug 2007. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6934322.stm>.

BBC. "Madeleine police chief removed". BBC News. Web. 3 Oct 2007. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7024934.stm>.

CEOP. (2012). A child goes missing in the UK every 3 minutes.... Available: http://www.ceop.police.uk/Media-Centre/Press-releases/2012/A-child-goes-missing-in-the-UK-every-3-minutes/. Last accessed 18th Oct 2013.

We hope this presentation has been helpful in helping you to identify them.

Thanks for listening!

Any questions?