Representation and Bias

Representation and bias blog task

Watch this Sky News report from the London riots in 2011 and answer the questions below:

1) Whose perspective have Sky News used to present the story? (Clue: it’s in the opening line)

The Sky News have used a police perspective to present this story about the London Riots.They also mention that 8 policemen are in hospital which shows that they are not guilty and the young people have done all the bad.

2) How are the police represented in this coverage?

The police are represented as heroes ,this reinforces the stereotype about police being good and helpful.

3) How are young people represented in this coverage?

IN this News story,young people are represented as villains which reinforces the stereotype about young people being bad and aggressive.

4) What images and videos are selected by Sky News to accompany the story?

The videos that are selected by the Sky News are videos of the riot in which you could see young teenagers throwing petrol bombs as well as the policemen on horses.The is also a part where you can see the fire fighters trying to put out a fire.This is also a part where teenagers are throwing stones at the policemen and young teenagers stealing clothes as well as technology from shop. 

5) What choice of words is used to present this news event?
They didn't use many sophisticated words. However, they did repeat a few words such as 'young people'  which could suggest that young people played a massive role in the 2011 riots.

6) What aspect of the story is chosen as the most important detail and included at the very beginning of the report?

The most important detail of the story is that 8 policemen have been taken into hospital because they have been injured during the London Riots. 

7) How is narrative used to engage the audience with this news story?

Narrative is used to engage the audience because they use enigma codes as well as action codes to make the audience ask questions as of why it happened and why are young teenagers engaged in the riots.Also,it makes the audience wonder what the police are doing about it and how will they stop the riots.

8) How can we apply Todorov’s equilibrium theory to this coverage?
We can only apply one part of the Todorov's equilibrium because there is no balance at the beginning and there is nothing positive at the end of this coverage.The only thing that is shown in this coverage is the disequilibrium.

9) What examples of Propp’s character types can we find in this coverage? Are there heroes and villains?

The examples that we can find in this story is heroes who are the policemen trying to save the people and stop the riots.The villains that are in this story is the teenagers that are starting the riots and lighting things up.

10) How might citizen journalism have been used to provide a different angle on this story?

To provide a different angle to this story, citizen journalism clips of police officers attacking young people could have been used to make the young people look more vulnerable. They could also use citizen journalism to show that the police are to blame as well for the aggressiveness in the riots as well as for the violence and not only the young people.