Wednesday, April 02nd cover work-essay for 'The Sun online' homepage and BBC News report.

Text One is 'The Sun Online' homepage (07/04/08) from the internet and the function of it is to inform people of the daily news. Text Two is the BBC News report (04-06-89) about the Tiananmen Square massacre, the function of this is also informing the people about news.

The BBCs main aim is to inform, educate and entertain (Reighian). This news clip both informs and educates the audience as it is informing them of the massacre in Tiananmen square which is in a different country, therefore they do not have a great deal of insight on it. The audience are being educated about worldwide events and are learning about politics in different countries. This clip shows that the BBC considers global news as well as local. However, on The Sun homepage, this is not the case as all of the stories are either from America or Britain. This reflects the globalised world we live in today. The difference of stories in both texts reflect upon the suggested target audience. The BBC clip is considered "hard news" (Galtung and Rouge) because it is based upon a serious political story, whereas The Sun homepage is considered "soft news" as most of the stories are about celebrities. Therefore, the audience for the BBC in 1989 were presumably middle/upper class professionals, whereas the audience for The Sun homepage are probably working class.

The BBC news clip shows the political "mayhem" China was in during the 1980s. This story can be linked to current issues in China regarding Tibet which have featured on BBC news. Here, China is represented as a politically unstable and corrupt country because it is still seen as being in distress. This also represents the BBC as liberal because they are focusing on news from an LEDC Asian country, which 18 years ago was probably not seen as important as it is now, however, the BBC did regard it as an important story. Nevertheless, the victims are represented as "naive" by the BBC, this could represent the BBC as being offensive towards Chinese people, also, they would probably not be able to say this about residents of another country in today's news because it would be seen as offensive and they would receive many complaints as England is a much more multicultural country than it was in the 80s. This offensive attitude towards another country can be seen as hegemonic because the presenter is white and the BBC have been criticised as being "ridiculously white" (Greg Dyke), therefore, the audience are being injected with white ideologies. However, todays multiculturalism and acceptance of different ethnicities are reflected on The Sun homepage as there are three stories regarding black people, one is about the singer Jay-Z and the other is about footballer Rio Ferdinand and finally, there is an article about chat show host Trisha Goddard. On the other hand, even though this is showing racial equality by signifying the importance of black people today, it also supports the point that black people are portrayed as "entertainers" (Tony...).

Furthermore, representation remains an issue. On The Sun homepage, there is over representation of women. However, women are sexually objectified as there are approximately four stories regarding women,and the word "sexy" and pictures of women in lingerie. This is not surprising as The sun is infamous for their Page Three. Moreover, the owner of The Sun is Rupert Murdoch, therefore it can be seen as a hegemonic newspaper as the audience are being injected with male ideologies that women are to be looked at, reinforcing Laura Mulvey's theory that women are to be looked at by the male gaze. On the other hand, this is not the case of the BBC where the presenter is a woman, therefore she is represented as an educated, professional and independent woman as opposed to being infamous for selling her body (Jordan story from The Sun homepage) and is not sexually objectified. Again, this represents the BBC as liberal.

Whilst the BBC news clip discusses the rage in China, The Sun newspaper is still clinging on to the Diana inquest. Even though Princess Diana died twelve years ago The Sun still feel it is important to discuss her death, this could represent The Sun as patriotic because it symbolises the importance of royalty to England. This can also be supported by the fact that the main colour scheme on The Sun homepage is red and white, which are also predominant colours of the English flag. Similarly, this is also a main headline on the BBC homepage (07/04/08).

The differences between these two texts are that The Sun homepage has an advantage because it is accessible to the nation. As the internet is growing every day, almost every household has access to the internet, therefore, the headlines on The Sun homepage can be viewed 24/7 whereas the BBC news clip was aired on TV, therefore it was probably not as effective as The Sun homepage is today. However, the BBC now have a website, a text service which enables their eudience to receive texts about the main headlines (no matter what country they are in), ability to watch the news online and a BBC News channel. Therefore, the BBC are now much more effective in pleasing their audience.