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 main story on the front cover is the Fujitsu Post Office scandal, where thousands of innocent subpostmasters (people who operate independent branches of the Post Office) were wrongly prosecuted for false financial issues created by Horizon, an IT system owned by the company Fujitsu. This would appeal to Times readers as it is hard news - it is closely involved with politics and business due to Fujitsu being a company and also Simon Blagden's (ex-chief of the company) ties to the Conservative party.
2) How is the presentation of this story different to how the Daily Mirror presents it?
The presentation is different as the "retired IT experts" are painted as the villain instead of Fujitsu themselves, with the paparazzi photo of Gareth Jenkins beside the anchorage text of them knowing about "secret bugs in the system." Conversely, the Daily Mirror presents Fujitsu themselves as the villain, utilising a smug central image of Simon Blagden with negative connotations to reinforce this idea. However, both newspapers present the victims of the scandal as unfortunate, innocent people.
3) How is the Times front page designed to reflect broadsheet newspaper conventions?
The Times reflects broadsheet conventions through its lack of colour scheme, with it mostly being black and white (besides the images). Moreover, the headline of "Post Office chief to give up her CBE over scandal" is extremely impartial and shows almost no bias, reflecting the formal, objective tone of most broadsheet newspapers. The front cover is also comprised mostly of text, with only three images (two silhouettes and one central image), further mirroring broadsheets which often have a higher text to image ratio. The masthead is also in serif font, paralleling broadsheet newspapers which often represent themselves as being educated and informative by using serif fonts. Therefore, the Times is an extremely conventional broadsheet newspaper.
4) How can you tell the inside pages of the Times are a broadsheet newspaper?
The inside pages of the Times are easily seen as being a broadsheet newspaper as there is a higher text to image ratio, and a lack of a colour scheme if the images are ignored. This reflects broadsheets which similarly have a small amount of images and almost no colour scheme, as they often aim to present themselves as being more informative and high-brow.
5) What does a close analysis of the news stories in the Times CSP edition suggest about the Times's political beliefs?
The choice of news stories suggests that the Times is a right-leaning newspaper (although they market themselves as being entirely unbiased), as Fujitsu is not presented as the villain - this is seen through the use of impartial language in the headline on the front cover ("Post Office chief to give up her CBE over scandal"), implying that the newspaper does not condemn the Post Office for the scandal, instead seeing it as not being their fault as the focus is put on the repercussions experienced by Paula Vennells, rather than the hugely negative impact on innocent subpostmasters. Moreover, this idea is exemplified through the newspaper's choice of language in the anchorage text in the inside cover ("Retired IT experts 'knew about secret bugs in the system'"), which implies that the entire Post Office scandal was the fault of IT experts who did not fix the issue, solidified through the paparazzi photo of Gareth Jenkins that has secretive connotations through body language, implying that the IT experts are guilty instead of Fujitsu themselves - the company who actually owned the IT system in the first place.
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.
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