Representation in print media

Representation

Print based media has a great influence on people’s opinions and views of the different aspects of our society. It can give people biased and negative attitudes towards certain people or groups, as well as positive attitudes to people or things that may not necessarily deserve it.

Newspapers, posters, magazines and newsletters can all change people’s opinions and shape the world we live in to their liking. Many would say that they do this for their own figures and their own money income. For example, The Sun previously printed topless ladies on every page 3 of their daily tabloid. These girls were undoubtedly beautiful, which then caused younger girls and even easily influenced women to want to ‘be like them’ in a sense. This obviously lead to them buying products and putting more money into the cash flow. These weren’t the only people that were targeted by this segment, however. Of course, a lot of men liked this and it would have become somewhat of an obsession for perverts or sick people to continue buying this newspaper just to see women who were desperate for money earn it in one of the most self-disrespectful ways possible.

The Sun is one of many newspapers that are notoriously known for advertising fake news and discriminating against certain groups. Shockingly, The Sun is the second most read newspaper in the UK with its readership figures revealing that over twenty-six million people read it monthly. The Sun recently asked its readers:” Does Britain have a Muslim problem?” This is quite clearly a racist remark against Muslims. It sounds like a big mystery as to why this evil media outlet is one of the most popular ones in the country, but most people in the country are naïve and will buy it regardless of what is in it. This may be because the headlines are controversial and they get ‘baited in’.

Typically, print based media texts represent the world how they want to. For example, they could present it negatively by saying that one particular race or group is a massive problem with discriminating propaganda. On the other hand, they could portray the world as an amazing place with beautiful people and amazing products. Either way, they get what they want and neither are accurate. The Sun is owned by an old, rich white man named Rupert Murdoch. Of course, he is the one to put the naked women on page three, and at the same time implement his views to brainwash the general public.

In the 2017 general election, the Tories won more seats than the Labour party and formed a coalition with the DUP to remain in power. The majority of the big print media outlets are all run by right-wing people. There is a relation to the outcome of the general election just by these newspapers as so many people still think that if they read something from an outlet like The Sun, it must be true. By no means is it wrong to have right-wing views or even to express them, but to attempt to brainwash vulnerable people with those views by telling them that they are true is wrong.

The media can also portray substances or unhealthy lifestyle choices to its viewers too. An example of this is the advertisement of betting websites. These are mainly seen in the sport section of newspapers or magazines as they know that a lot of people who bet or would bet are football fans. Gambling can obviously be a serious issue for some people and for them, this would be like waving a beer in the face of an alcoholic. The media portrays alcohol as a good thing too. In fact, it tells people to go and buy alcohol by showing the best angles of the bottle, describing a certain taste or falsely advertising other things about it. Personally, I think it is ridiculous that this is allowed to continue.

The representation of women in the media seems to be on a positive up rise now, but in previous years, women were presented as sex icons. Newspapers and other forms of print media outlets did this by (as previously mentioned) only showing attractive women (who do not look like that when they wake up in the morning) and objectifying the gender by showing them in sexually provoking clothes like just underwear or even nothing at all. In 2010, ninety-eight percent of the sport section in newspapers was about men with women barely getting into the section at all. Fortunately, this is getting better now as media campaigns have been set up to show younger women that they can be like this too.

Overall, the media has too big of a power than they should have, and the representation of anything in the media is however they want it to be and nothing more.