The Times - Language and Representations

 Language

1) What is the main story on the front cover of the Times CSP edition and why does it appeal to Times readers?

The Times tends to attract an audience that is older and more traditional, so the stories are targeted towards these values and beliefs to target their specific audience

2) How is the presentation of this story different to how the Daily Mirror presents it? 

 The Times observes more traditional codes and conventions than the Daily Mirror, with less direct address and a more formal, authoritative tone as if giving the reader less active participation and more passive access to information

3) How is the Times front page designed to reflect broadsheet newspaper conventions?

The Times uses some layout design techniques to attract its audience  such as sell lines, kickers, pugs. There are usually not as many as The Mirror

4) How can you tell the inside pages of the Times are a broadsheet newspaper? 

• These pages partially take the side of the Conservative MPs, presenting them as somewhat heroic rather than calling for the likes of Vennells to be held accountable

5) What does a close analysis of the news stories in the Times CSP edition suggest about the Times's political beliefs?

The Times generally supports the right wing Conservative Party and is against the more left wing Labour Party. The newspaper will often act as a voice for the establishment (the wealthy and powerful) and will not support anything that threatens major changes to the status quo (how things currently are). This can be found in the front cover of the Times we need to study as the newspaper is not supporting the individuals that lost millions as a result of the scandal

Representations

1) How does the Times represent the Post Office workers and Fujitsu in the CSP pages?

The Times doesn't have much representation of the Post Office workers themselves, with the newspaper focusing more on who is to blame for the scandal itself occurring. The IT experts, however, are presented as being guilty and shameful - the paparazzi image of Gareth Jenkins helps exemplify this due to its secretive connotations, redirecting blame from Fujitsu onto the IT experts instead. This presents a lack of focus on Fujitsu who have government ties and contracts, instead giving Gareth Jenkins and Anne Chambers as a targe for people's hatred.

2) What representation of the Conservative Party can be found in the CSP pages of the Times?

The Conservative Party is perhaps represented as being heroic and helpful through the heading of "MPs could pass emergency law to quash postmasters' convictions" alleviating blame and hatred from the Conservative Party by painting them as heroes, preparing to save those who lost money from the scandal. Moreover, in the bottom half of the paper below the subheading "Vennells faces..." the newspaper mentions the Lib Dems (Liberal Democrats) Party, shifting blame to the opposing side as the scandal began under a coalition government, not under exclusive conservative rule. The usage of the colour blue at the top also reinforces their connection to the conservative party as it matches their colour scheme.

3) Consider the subheading about Vennells "Vennells faces call..." - How does this newspaper present her involvement in this story? 

The subheading "Vennells faces call to return £2.2m bonuses as well as CBE" illustrates the Times taking an objective stance - there is no call to action from the newspaper to rescind her role as the Times isn't saying she should relinquish her CBE herself. This, therefore, presents her as having a small amount of involvement in the story, suggesting that she may have perhaps been wrongly dragged into the scandal through the fact that the text uses the conjunction "as well as," with the written code highlighting that it is a potentially unfair amount for her to give up (through the tedious repetition of "as" in "as well as").

4) What representation of Fujitsu can be found in the CSP pages of the Times? What does The Times journalist think of Fujitsu and Horizon's role in this scandal? 

There is overall a lack of focus on Fujitsu's role in the scandal as the newspaper focuses much more on the "IT experts" instead, painting them as the villain (Propp's Character Theory), shifting blame away from them and moving it onto the IT workers instead. The Times journalist perhaps thinks that Fujitsu was not to blame for the scandal as they had no control over what happened - the IT experts should have called out the bug and fixed it themselves (instead of relying on the company that actually owns it).

5) What opinion would Times readers be likely to have about Vennells, the Post Office workers and Fujitsu from reading these pages?

Concerning Paula Vennells, Times readers would likely have a positive opinion of her considering the shifting of blame from her onto the IT workers - the subheading "Vennells faces calls... " solidifies this idea that Vennells herself had almost no involvement in the scandal, and that expecting her to give up her CBE is far too harsh of a punishment. As the Times has given her a platform to speak through the caption on the cover image where she apologises from the scandal, Times readers may view her situation as being unfortunate and may feel sympathetic for her more than the subpostmasters themselves through the preferred reading pushed forward by the Times newspaper themselves.

Concerning Fujitsu, the Times overall has a lack of focus on the company, instead focusing more on the legal process the case took and shifting blame onto IT workers. Therefore, Times readers would view them as not being responsible for the scandal. Instead, readers would be much harsher on the IT workers through the subheading of them "kn[owing] about secret bugs in the system" alongside the paparazzi photo, painting them as being the true villains (Propp's Character Theory) behind the Post Office Scandal instead.