Representation and Political Ideology

To what extent do the elements of media language used in Sources A and B convey different values, attitudes and beliefs about the world?

In your answer you must:

• Analyse the ways in which media language has been used in combination in Sources A and B to convey values, attitudes and beliefs about the world.
• Refer to relevant contexts and academic ideas and arguments in your analysis.
• Draw judgements and conclusions in relation to the question.

The Daily Mail cover conveys right-wing political ideas as exemplified through the use of negative language in relation to the Syrian Refugees. The bold, capitalised main headline contains the negative collective noun 'swarm' which has connotations of pests such as wasps. It suggests there is an infestation that needs to be removed, this is a common far right viewpoint on the refugee situation and clearly shows the paper's affiliation with the right on the political spectrum. In the summary of the story above the images the verb 'seize' is used when talking about the refugees. This likens them to criminals rather than the victims of way that have been forced to flee their country, like they are. There is a use of the noun 'migrants' rather than refugees. This word has a large stigma around it, much like immigrants, and has negative connotations rather than ones that convey helplessness and a need for a new start. This word will have been chosen in order to maintain the negative connotations when discussing this group of people that wish to enter the country. It also victimises the conservative Prime Minister at the time (David Cameron), by using language such as 'attacked'. However, because this is a tabloid it would be expected that his first name or a nickname would be used rather then a formal surname. This may be because The Daily Mail were not big supporters of David Cameron and his more centrist conservatism. They prefer more right-wing ideology. On the main images on the cover there is a red banner in each location, this colour is not seen elsewhere on the cover and may have been used as red is synonymous with danger and will draw more attention to the images which criticise refugees. There is little copy to accompany the cover article which is conventional of tabloid newspapers. They tend to focus more on sensationalising the story and trying to make it stand out as much as possible so that the consumer will have to purchase the paper to receive the whole story.

The Guardian cover has a much more left-wing and socialist stance than The Daily Mail. This is conveyed through language in the headline such as: 'shocking', 'cruel', and 'crisis' all of these words suggest that the refugees are in need of help and we as a country should offer them this. The word 'refugee' is also used over migrants like The Mail chose. This in itself shows the whole political stance of the paper. The use of the proper noun 'Europe' rather than UK shows that the paper sees the whole of Europe as needing to work together to sort out this problem and puts the blame for the problem on all of the countries. It creates a sense of community and working together rather than isolating individual places and putting or accepting all of the blame. The main visual image on the cover is emotive and creates a sense of emotion to help. The image is of a child being carried by a man (possibly his father) onto the shore after arriving by boat. This shows the reality and the tragic consequences that will continue to happen if Europe do not start to accept refugees and help them. Unlike The Mail there is lots of copy on the cover because The Guardian is a broadsheet and this is conventional. Broadsheets do not tend to be emotive but rather objective. However, left-wing politics mean topics like helping refugees are strongly supported and so this is conveyed in the cover of this issue.