Explore how audiences can respond to and interpret the ideological perspectives of newspapers?
Stuart Hall's theory of representation can be used to answer this by looking at how the producer's ideology can be decoded by the audience, the different readings from the audience; the oppositional reading with those who don't relate to the story and therefore may disagree with it, and then the negotiated reading in which the audience may relate to the media product however disagree with how it comes across to the audience. For example, The Times' front cover from a couple of years ago is polysemic, this is because it shows Trump looking proud and powerful with him holding his fist to the air, bringing connotations of freedom and strength; in which the audience may see the spread image biased towards Trump as well as the huge American flag behind the two figures suggesting patriotism and that he will have a large, positive impact on America. However the polysemy comes by how you interpret the front cover as the pull quote 'You will be so proud of your president, you will be so proud' which reinforces his ego as well as possibly making the reader feel uncomfortable due to the fact it feels as if it's being forced upon the audience. This links to how audiences can respond and interpret the ideological perspectives of the newspapers because it shows how they have multiple readings and that it's just how the audience sees the news stories, and how their personal views can affect how they interpret it.
Intertextuality is also important in helping the audience interpret the ideological perspectives of newspapers. Intertextuality is typically used in tabloid papers because of how it could be seen as informal, going against the whole tone of broadsheet papers. An example of intertextuality could be seen in the Daily Mirrors front cover of Trump's success with the elections, showing the statue of liberty weeping with a dark and gloomy setting, giving off connotations of a post-apocalyptic future; maybe implying Trump being in the White House will cause such tragic events such as 9/11 which can also be seen through the front cover with the smoke in the background, clearly a tragic world-known event. The use of sans-serif font has a hermeneutic connotation for the audience, with it being formal and blunt, further suggesting Trump will lack formallity. Hall's theory of reception can be used again here to see that the dominant reading from the front cover is clearly anti-Trump and that him being in power will lead to horrible futures; a negotiated reading of Trump being in power will not end well but not to the extent of the world coming to an end as we know it. The oppositional reading would be from people who favour Trump over his opposition which most likely isn't many people due to the fact the Daily Mirror is aimed at the working class in Britain, with not many people over here liking him as a person or a politician, again leading to it's all down to how the reader interprets the newspapers over their own personal views but for the majority of the time the newspaper's producer would have anchored their ideology within the news story through the headline, masthead, pull quote, etc.
Often newspapers use human interest stories to entertain the reader, stories that won't affect the audience in anyway but cause the reader to react in such way to entertain them. This is a common method of including multiple readings within a story, the majority of the time it uses your social and political backgrounds to determine how you feel about the news story. For example a right wing conservative may feel differently to a news story about a child gone missing in an area known for crime in comparison to someone in the working class who opposes their beliefs. Furthermore, the newspapers allow this to happen for one simple reason, profit. Allowing the audience to interpret the newspapers however they like could mean a wider audience
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