Representation: Using stereotypes to create meaning for audiences.

Portraying politicans as weak shows a clear move away from a major political ideology. The coverage of Teresa May is often more overtly critical on a day-to-day basis, but here the papers turned on Cameron following the referendum vote.

In fact, politicians seem to be attacked in the newspapers quite openly with unflattering key images which criticise them personally and try to show them as weak. Click on the image below to find out more:



Using stereotypes ( a kind of code for how society view groups of people) means newspapers can create satire or other key messages. Read through the handout on gender and think about how Teresa May is treated by the press.

Task: 
1. Find a selection of newspaper front pages that depict her and decide how she is being represented using stereotypes relating to masculine and feminine stereotypes. Outline these on your blog with some explanation. Can you use any of the ideas and academic arguments in your analysis?


EXT: If you have completed this task, you can look at the Mirror front cover above and expand your answer. How is the editor is using language and images to represent her?

2. Look at your essay based on patriarchy and DIRT a paragraph to try and add some of what we have revised today. Below are some of the key ideas you could have included:

Both images have been selected to emphasise the Prime Minister’s vulnerability and, in the Sun, tearfulness.

• This can be read, from Van Zoonen’s point of view, as confirming the patriarchal ideology of male power in that the story has extra news value precisely because it contradicts the dominant stereotypes of masculinity and leadership.
• A woman is only present in these images as the man’s partner, confirming Van Zoonen’s analysis of patriarchal assumptions about female roles – she is there to be looked at as a ‘dutiful wife’.
• The fact that Cameron’s resignation dominates the front pages reinforces the message that Westminster politics takes precedence over other events, reinforcing the patriarchal assumption that the public realm of stereotypically masculine activity and leadership is more important than the private realm of stereotypically feminine nurturing.
• The political context of the seismic impact of Brexit is reflected in these representations.