News Values

Both of the texts have a purpose to entertain their target audience. As the texts are both print newspaper texts, they follow the typical codes and conventions of any print newspaper. The ‘Daily Star’ and ‘Daily Mail’ both have a purpose to entertain and inform their target audiences in a different way to one another.

The Daily mail is recognised as a well established traditional institution. The serif font, in a sophisticated black colour, shows the audience how the newspaper is well known for dealing with serious issues. As the newspaper is targeted at people from elite backgrounds, it deals with very serious economic issues. Contrastingly the ‘Daily Star’ has a masthead titled out in sans serif font, showing that it is not that seriously known for dealing with issues as the ‘Daily Mail.’ The red colour in the masthead connotes a sense of danger and matching with the main title of ‘Racist Big Bro Faces Chop’ supports how it is full of dangerous gossip.

Both texts have a focus on the Shilpa Shetty, Big brother story line, but in two totally different ways. The first text (Daily Mail) deals with the economic climate and the financial state of Britain at the moment, and then goes onto the Shilpa Shetty tale as a following second story. By the sophistication of the well known institution, using figures to tell the story enhances the fact that it has a more intellectual approach on the story. Subsequently, the ‘Daily Star’ pursues to show their informal approach by throwing around accusations of big brother being ‘racist’ when actually it was the contestants being racist. In order to attract a wide target audience, the daily star focuses on the racist headline to gain a wide majority of readership from its audiences.

The logical ‘Daily Mail’ newspaper is targeted at people from a social class of B/C1/C2 which empowers how it is strictly all facts and figures, holding the serious information which will appeal to its target audience. The ‘Daily Star’ has a different approach due to the fact that it is not taken into account as serious as the ‘daily mail’ would be by its audience. The statements made against big brother in the headlines of the newspaper, show how the ‘Daily Star’ have made their own final choice on what they want to think of Big Brother, which could be considered as being biased. The facts that that is the newspaper institutions compositional view means that they are putting across the message how this is the truth and as our readers, you have to follow it as well. This makes the audience passive to what they are reading and not thinking about the statement for themselves.

Moving away from Big Brother, Shilpa Shetty, the Bollywood actress whom both newspapers have based their stories around is portrayed in two very different ways. Firstly, as both newspapers are referring to using the ‘cult of the celebrity’ approach by using an elite celebrity, the difference between the two newspapers becomes seen as acceptable based on the history of how the newspapers cover a story in the media. The negativity of Shilpa being represented in the Daily Star has nothing to do with the way she was presented in the Big Brother house. The seductive pose of her sat in a chair with her legs wide open are represented to the audience in a very different approach to the ‘Daily Mail.’

The ‘Daily Mail’ depicts Shilpa Shetty as exactly how she was when she went into the house. She is represented as a friendly woman with a warm smile; showing she must be good at heart type image. Further more, she is represented as a pure Madonna type of character. This is reflected through the way she is represented in such a delicate way in the image of the Daily Mail. On the other hand, the Daily star represents her in a totally opposite way. In this provocative pose she is portrayed as the ‘whore’ yet the big brother story is all pitched around her and the way her image is put out to the readers is not setting that much of a good example of her.

Both newspapers raise many different issues and debates in society. The fact that the daily star talks about the racism issues, goes on to show the fact that racism still exists in society today and is always targeted in the media. The different approach to the story constantly remind us the kind of society we are living in and how far we have moved from some of the radical issues we are faced with.

As Shilpa Shetty going into the Big Brother house was seen as a very successful way to gain audience viewership based on her multi cultural background, made the show even more of a high success. However, the continuous racial problems she was faced with throughout the weeks into the show, depicted Shilpa as a determined woman to fight for her right. It goes to show how people of today’s society are constantly judging another person based on their morals and beliefs, as well as cultural background. This has elements of the ‘other’ theory making Shilpa the victim as being represented as the other, all because of the colour of her skin, and the different trends people from multi cultural backgrounds are associated with.