News Q2 practice question.

Sources A and B cover the same news event but are from two different newspapers. How far has the combination of elements of media language influenced meaning in the sources? In your answer you must:

• explain how the combination of elements of media language influences meaning in newspapers

• analyse how media language has been used to construct meaning in the sources



• make judgements and reach conclusions about how far the combination of elements of media language has influenced meaning in the sources. [15 marks]

PLAN:

• The Sun: right wing, conservative, popular
• The Times: centre-right wing, conservative, quality

• The Sun: informal language, more pictures, less text, individualism paper;  that each individual is acting on his or her own, making their own choices, and to the extent they interact with the rest of the group, it's as individuals. The sun is conservative, therefore would be against the idea of someone non-British in the royal family. Picture of Markle is not as enlarged, could mean they're belittling her, undermining her; "princess pushy".
• The picture of Meghan and Harry are seperate, which could signify, again, that The Sun does not welcome her into the family. 
• The Times: formal language, less pictures, more text, collectivism paper; views the group as the primary entity, with the individuals lost along the way. The Times on the other hand, is centre-right wing, so it would be in favour of the royal family; "welcome to the family", the picture of the daughter and mother is enlarged, which could mean that they're proud to welcome them into the royal family. The image is also in the centre of the paper, which means the paper wants this story to be the audiences' prime attention. 

Source A and source B cover the same story about the royal family, but are from two different newspapers; The Sun and The Times. The Sun, is a right-wing, conservative and popular newspaper, which means it covers stories like gossip and examples as such. Whereas source B, is The Times, which is also center-right, conservative, but it's a quality newspaper, which is more formal compared to popular. In terms of analysing how media language has been used to construct meaning in the sources, we can derive that from source A; The Sun, has the codes and conventions of informal language that consists of sans-serif font, such as "Princess Pushy", which conforms to the codes and conventions of a popular newspaper. Furthermore, there seems to be less text and more pictures, which again, conforms to a popular newspaper, but it could also signify that it's audience is aimed at a working class, rather than a middle class. In contrast to this, The Times has a formal use of language with the use of serif font, which could signify classiness, with less pictures and more text, which conforms to the codes and conventions of a quality paper. The use of more text and less pictures could be targeted at a middle and upper class, rather than a working class.

In terms of other use of media language and how it's been used to construct meaning in the sources, The Sun's image of Princess Meghan is seen to be small, which could connote they're belittling her, undermining her; "princess pushy", and the fact that they're conservative, they'd possibly be against someone non-British joining the royal family. In addition to this, the image of Princess Meghan and Harry are seen to be separate, which again, could mean that they're not for the idea of Princess Meghan being in the royal family. On the other hand, The Times priorities the image of both Meghan and her mother by enlarging the image and centering it in the middle, which could connote that they're proud to welcome them into the royal family, and having the image centered could signify that they want the image to capture the audiences attention. In addition to this, The Times is center-right wing, so it would be in favor of the royal family; "welcome to the family".

In making judgements and reaching conclusions about how far the combination of elements of media language has influenced meaning in the sources, both sources cover the same exact story, but from two different perspectives and from two different newspapers; The Sun, which is right wing and The Times, which is center-right wing. In analysing the different use of media language over the two sources, we can come to the conclusion that source A provides a negative view of Meghan Markle and her joining the royal family, whereas source B provides a warm and more positive view of Meghan Markle and her joining the royal family.