1. REPRESENTATIONS OF EVENTS
Some material that is used with this unit can be
found in the MS1 Pack: The Representation of
Regional Identity from page 22 - 49
INTRODUCTION:
An event can be anything that happens that is reported in the media. An event
could refer to a celebrity wedding, a pop festival, a crime, a big sporting event,
a natural disaster, something that happens in politics, either on a local, national
or global scale. Big events in the UK over this year: the Royal Wedding, the
tsunami in Japan, the Riots, uprisings in Syria, the 100 year anniversary of the
sinking of the Titanic… In the next few months the Olympic Games is likely to
be a significant event.
The difference between an event and an issue is that an event is likely to be a
one-off occurrence or an occurrence of limited duration, whereas an issue is
more on-going and something that is not limited to one time or place.
What would you say are the main events in the world being reported this week?
WHAT FACTORS LEAD TO EVENTS BEING REPORTED
DIFFERENTLY?
Imagine that you read two reports
about the Mudbury Pop Festival, a major
outdoor summer music festival in the
UK. Both report the same event but give
an entirely different impression! Read a
summary of both reports:

2. The Mudbury Messenger: This reports that the festival was a huge success,
attracting major acts like Green Night and Rohanna, not to mention old legends
like Bryce Sprinscene. The grounds were packed and the crowds had an
excellent time. They interview various attendees who declare that the festival
’was out of this world… totally amazing… the best ever.’ There were no delays
and the facilities were much improved with plenty of loos and lots of money
being spent on food and souvenirs, boosting the local economy. A picture was
included of smiling fans with the caption: Summer Delight. The headline for the
whole piece was Mudbury Rocks!
The Daily Snooze: this highlights the fact that, once again, a British festival is
ruined by the lousy weather and that campers were often ankle deep in mud.
They also bemoan the fact that too much of the ‘talent’ on display was American
and that food and sales goods were overpriced and the burgers, in particular
were greasy and unappetising. Those interviewed complained: ‘ we couldn’t see –
there were so many in front of us and the viewing field sloped up! The sound
production was quite poor at times and some of the acts sounded a bit half-
hearted in their performances.’ A picture was included of a camper covered in
mud, walking with an umbrella in the rain, looking miserable. The caption? Wish I
wasn’t here! The headline runs: Mudbury Rains!
What sort of things do you think have led to each paper creating a different
representation of the same event? Try and consider the process of creating the
front page, as well as other factors that may influence the final shape of the
media product.

3. Read Page 23 in your pack to see if you can add anything.
What can we learn from this about how events are represented in the media –
do we ever get a totally unbiased version or view?
When considering an event, you need to:
First of all, identify what event is being represented to us
Then identify what impression we are being given of that event – what is
being emphasised? What view are we being given?
Then consider how this impression is created – what elements of the
media language are conveying this impression to us?
Finally, you need to think about what factors govern this view of the
event – is it determined by the audience? By the institution creating the
report?
ANALYSING THE NEWS
It is possible that you could get a clip of the news or a newspaper to analyse
that will later be used to focus you on how an event is represented. Your first
task will be to view a news clipfrom the BBC News at Six to work out the key
codes and conventions that are used in news programming:
You need to think about: the type of people who appear in this type of
programme (how they dress, speak, physical appearance), the way the camera is
used, settings, the type of stories used, the structure of the programme, the
use of music, other sound elements, the use of onscreen graphics, use of colour,
type of footage used…….

4. The Conventions of News Programming

5. Now you will look at several other news clips – you will need to identify how they
vary the conventions and why:
South-East Today (regional news) Why vary the formula?
CBBCNewsround (children’s news) Why vary the formula?
E! News (News linked to an entertainment channel) Why vary the formula?

6. Some extra reading:
NEWS VALUES
In 1965, media researchers Galtung & Ruge analysed international news
stories to find out what factors they had in common, and what factors
placed them at the top of the news agenda worldwide. They came up with
the following list of news values. - a kind of scoring system - a story which
scores highly on each value is certain to come at the start of a TV news
bulletin, or make the front page of a newspaper. Journalists and editors
also draw heavily on their experience - of what an audience expects, of
what stories have had a major impact on public consciousness in the past,
of what is important - and each news organisation will have their own
system of setting a news agenda.
News Value Description
Bad news - involving death, tragedy, bankruptcy,
violence, damage, natural disasters, political upheaval
Negativity or simply extreme weather conditions - is always rated
above 'positive' stories (royal weddings, celebrations
etc)
Audiences supposedly relate more to stories that are
close to them geographically, or involve people from
Closeness to
their country, or those that are reported that way (e.g.
home
'12 Hong Kongers aboard Australia Crash Plane'). News
(Proximity)
gatekeepers must consider carefully how meaningful a
story will be to their particular audience
Newspapers are very competitive about breaking news
- about revealing stories as they happen. 24 hour news
channels such as CNN and BBC World also rate this
Recency value very highly. However, as we have seen with the
events of September 11, stories may take a while to
develop, and become coherent, so recency is not
always the best value to rate.
This is almost opposite to recency, in that stories that
have been in the public eye for some time already are
Currency deemed valuable. Therefore a story - for instance about
the abduction and murder of a child - may run for
weeks and weeks, even if nothing new really happens.
Events that are likely to have a continuing impact (a
war, a two week sports tournament) have a high value
Continuity when the story breaks, as they will develop into an on-
going narrative which will get audiences to 'tune in
tomorrow'.

7. 'Dog Bites Man' is not a story. 'Man Bites Dog' is. Any
story which covers a unique or unusual event (two-
Uniqueness
headed elephant born to Birmingham woman) has news
values
Obvious, but true. Stories which are easy to explain
('Cat stuck up tree') are preferred over stories which
Simplicity
are not (anything to do with the Balkan or Palestinian
conflicts)
Stories that centre around a particular person, because
they can be presented from a 'human interest' angle,
are beloved of newspapers, particularly if they involve a
well-known person. Some say this news value has
Personality
become distorted, and that news organisations over-
rate personality stories, particularly those involving
celebrities ('Kate Middleton Goes Shopping'). What do
you think?
Does the event match the expectations of a news
organisation and its audience? Or, has what was
expected to happen (violence at a demonstration,
Expectedness
horrific civilian casualties in a terrorist attack) actually
(Predictability)
happened? If a news story conforms to the
preconceived ideas of those covering it, then it has
expectedness as an important news value
Any story which covers an important, powerful nation
(or organisation) has greater news values than a story
Elite Nations
which covers a less important nation. The same goes
Or People
for people. Barack and Michelle Obama are newsworthy
whatever they do.
Also a major factor when setting the news agenda. If a
newspaper or news programme is the first and only
news organisation breaking a story, then they will rate
Exclusivity
that very highly. The UK Sunday papers are very fond
of exclusives, and will often break a story of national or
international importance that no one else has.
does matter when it comes to news stories. The bigger
impact a story has, the more people it affects, the more
Size
money/resources it involves, the higher its value. This
is also known as threshold
What do news values explain to us?
Have a look at the BBC News homepage and see which values are in evidence.

8. CASE STUDY 1: The Royal
Wedding
The wedding of Prince William and Kate
Middleton took place on 29th April 2011
and was an event of much significance
in the UK and world media.
TEXT A: The Official BBC coverage of the wedding
We will watch the opening ten minutes from the official DVD, covering the
build-up and departure of the Prince for Westminster Abbey. We will then
watch the arrival of Kate at the Abbey and her walk up the aisle.
You will need to record some evidence of how the BBC represents the wedding
to its viewers, using the boxes below:

9. A dignified and solemn occasion of An intimate family wedding to which
national importance we are given privileged access
A unifying event that makes everyone An event that celebrates the Best of
happy British

10. Why do you think the BBC has chosen to portray the wedding in this way?
What techniques have they used to try and make this an authoritative view/ the
official view of the wedding?
Read the Royal Wedding: BBC under attack from anti-monarchists article – what
does this suggest about how the event was represented to us?
TEXT B: Newspaper front pages 30th April 2011(Daily Express/ Daily
Mirror):
What image do these front pages create of the royal wedding? How do they
want us to see it?
What elements create this image?

13. Why do you think these papers have wanted to create this impression?
TEXT C: Lancashire Telegraph
Look at the pages from our local paper which cover the royal wedding.
What image of the event is emphasised in this paper?
Offer some evidence of what creates this image for us (try and find examples
from both the visuals and the words):
Why do you think the LET has wanted to promote this view of the Royal
Wedding?

14. TEXT D: Magazine front covers (Grazia magazine and OK magazine)
Look at these front covers in your packs – pages 48 adn 49.
Complete the table below:
How is the event being
Evidence? Why?
represented?
Grazia
OK
OVERVIEW: ROYAL WEDDING
Is any one of these representations of the event truer than the others? Are any of
them totally false?
What can we learn from this study about how an event is presented to us?

15. CASE STUDY 2: The Riots
The UK Riots occurred between the 6 and
10 August 2011 – they started in London,
triggered by the police shooting of Mark
Duggan. Rioting, looting and arson were
widespread in some London boroughs and
spread to other UK towns, including
Bristol, Birmingham and Manchester.
The Riots were widely reported in UK and
foreign media.
Front Covers of National and Regional Newspapers (Daily Mirror/
Manchester Evening News/ Daily Telegraph/ The Sun)
Look at the front covers of these newspapers – copies can be found in your
packs on pages 33 – 38.
TASK ONE: WHAT DO WE CALL THIS EVENT?
What are the most common words used to describe what happened and what
connotations do these create about the event?
How would the image created have been different had they used a term like
‘civil disturbance’, ‘protest’ , ‘unrest’ or ‘uprisings’, terms the media have used to
describe similar events in Libya, Egypt and Syria?

16. TASK TWO: WHO ARE THE RIOTERS?
From what you can see, who is being represented here as the casue of all the
trouble? Try and define this group in terms of age, gender, class, ethnicity and
any other impressions and offer evidence for your verdict.
Now read the extract from a Guardian article written in December 2011 called
Who Were the Rioters?, after the initial furore had died down.
How accurate was the picture created by these papers?

17. Look at the more recent story from 9th April 2012 about a recent jailed rioter
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/4240758/Millionaires-girl-guilty-brof-driving-riot-
yobs.html
How does this suggest original representations of the riots may have been
misleading?
Why do you think these papers may have wanted to project this image to their
readers?
TASK THREE: HOW DO WE SEE THE POLICE?
Look over the front covers (excluding the Milton Keynes Citizen) in your pack
again and comment on how they represent the police to us:

18. TASK FOUR:THE BLAME GAME – WHY DID THEY DO IT?
The papers also gave different representations of who or what was to blame.
Look at the extracts belwo and see if you can identify who or what is beign
represented as being at fault here:
Max Hastings, Daily Mail – conservative, middle-class, traditional values papers
Years of liberal(i.e. left-wing) dogma have spawned a generation of amoral,
uneducated, welfare dependent, brutalised youngsters. They are illiterate and
innumerate, beyond maybe some dexterity with computer games and BlackBerries.
They are essentially wild beasts. I use that phrase advisedly, because it seems
appropriate to young people bereft of the discipline that might make them
employable; of the conscience that distinguishes between right and wrong.
They respond only to instinctive animal impulses — to eat and drink, have sex, seize
or destroy the accessible property of others.
Their behaviour on the streets resembled that of the polar bear which attacked a
Norwegian tourist camp last week. They were doing what came naturally and, unlike
the bear, no one even shot them for it.
But it will not do for a moment to claim the rioters’ behaviour reflects deprived
circumstances or police persecution.
Of course it is true that few have jobs, learn anything useful at school, live in decent
homes, eat meals at regular hours or feel loyalty to anything beyond their local gang.
This is not, however, because they are victims of mistreatment or neglect.
It is because it is fantastically hard to help such people, young or old, without
imposing a measure of compulsion which modern society finds unacceptable. These
kids are what they are because nobody makes them be anything different or better.
Katharine Birbalsingh, British teacher and blogger, contributor to The Daily
Telegraph, conservative paper
"Completely predictable, I've been saying for months that our young people have
been completely let down by the system, particularly the education system, but also
by some of their families. ... If families are not teaching our young people the
difference between right and wrong the schools need to do it. We have had a lack of
authority ... we have been teaching them all about their rights and nothing about
their responsibilities."
"We have to recognise the problems in our schools. All of these children are in our
schools. We keep saying there is no behaviour problem, but do we really think that
children that are going around with baseball bats and setting stores alight are

19. behaving themselves? We need to establish authority. 17% of our 15-year-olds are
functionally illiterate. We need to teach them things. We're not teaching them
properly."
Tottenham resident and Conservative party member David Allan:
"Theroads to these riots have been paved by the good intentions of the British left
and the liberal establishment. I'm afraid in local and national government in
education throughout the public sector and goaded on by the media led by the
Guardian and the BBC our minority ethnic communities have been completely failed
in the last 30 years"
Peter Osborne, Telegraph (conservative paper)
I cannot accept that this is the case. Indeed, I believe that the criminality in our
streets cannot be dissociated from the moral disintegration in the highest ranks of
modern British society. The last two decades have seen a terrifying decline in
standards among the British governing elite. It has become acceptable for our
politicians to lie and to cheat. An almost universal culture of selfishness and greed
has grown up. But the rioters have this defence: they are just following the example
set by senior and respected figures in society. Let’s bear in mind that many of the
youths in our inner cities have never been trained in decent values. All they have ever
known is barbarism. Our politicians and bankers, in sharp contrast, tend to have been
to good schools and universities and to have been given every opportunity in life.
Something has gone horribly wrong in Britain. If we are ever to confront the
problems which have been exposed in the past week, it is essential to bear in mind
that they do not only exist in inner-city housing estates.
The culture of greed and impunity we are witnessing on our TV screens stretches
right up into corporate boardrooms and the Cabinet. It embraces the police and
large parts of our media. It is not just its damaged youth, but Britain itself that needs
a moral reformation.
Ken Livingstone (Red Ken), ex-mayor of London on BBC Newsnight
Ken Livingstone, suggested that austerity measures were responsible: "If you're
making massive cuts, there's always the potential for this sort of revolt against that."
Zoe Williams, The Guardian (Liberal paper)
"These are shopping riots, characterised by their consumer choices," insisted Zoe
Williams of the Guardian. She added: "This is what happens when people don't have

20. anything, when they have their noses constantly rubbed in stuff they can't afford, and
they have no reason ever to believe that they will be able to afford it."
Paul Routledge, Daily Mirror (Labour paper)
Paul Routledge of the Daily Mirror blamed "the pernicious culture of hatred around
rap music, which glorifies violence and loathing of authority (especially the police but
including parents), exalts trashy materialism and raves about drugs".
What do you feel about the reasons given for the cause of the riots? Do you
feel that any of the papers/ journalists writing in these papers are giving a
fairer/ more accurate picture than any others? Do you feel we can trust the
representation they give about why the riots happened?
What factors do you think govern the way the causes of the riots are being
represented in each paper?

21. Since most people tend to stick to one paper or news programme, does this
biased approach to news reporting pose any problems do you think?
TASK FIVE: WHO GETS A SAY HERE?
Look at whose voices are heard in TASK 4 above – whose voice seems
conspicuously absent from commentary on the event?
Look at the following extracts from Newsnight and the BBC – what do you notice
about who gets a say and who doesn’t?
Does this pose a problem?
What does it suggest about how events are represented to us?

22. TASK SIX: AN ALTERNATIVE VIEW OF THE UK RIOTS
What does the term UK Riots imply about the event?
To what extent do you think this term is justified?
Look at the front page from the Milton Keynes Citizen on page 35 of your pack –
how does it offer an alternative view of the UK Riots? Offer some evidence to
show how this is built up.
Note that at the time there were rumours of rioting in Milton Keynes:
Rumours are spreading like wildfire on social networking site Twitter that riots are breaking out
in Milton Keynes.
Some people are suggesting that the shops in Fishermead have been attacked, while others
mention that shops in Bletchley are being looted.
All these rumours are completely unfounded. Thames Valley Police has reported no
incidents in the Milton Keynes area.

23. Why do you think this local paper chose to do things differently?
OVERVIEW:
What have you learnt about the representation of events from your study of
the reporting of the UK Riots?