newspapers Q9

‘The representations featured in the online observer reflect its values and beliefs.’ Discuss how far you agree with this statement?

The observer and the guardian are known for being supportive of the left side of the political scale and therefore many of their articles are likely to support the social liberals. We can see they take politics very seriously through the amount of articles they have on their homepage about it. This shows they have a ‘hard news’ priority. For example, the top story – represented by it being the biggest on the screen – is about Theresa May and Brexit.

We can also see another one of the observer’s values and beliefs through the featured articles. The Observer intends to reflect today’s modernity and diversity through the news regarding international relations. It mentions ‘Mrs Obama’ as well as ‘us immigration’ and ‘Saudi dissidents’ on their homepage. This shows they have intentions of mentioning countries other than England and even countries outside of Europe – not insular but inclusive.

Additionally, they show, not only their interest in diversity of other countries but also the way they value ethnicity as well as age by references. For example, on the homepage they have an article dedicated to ‘Jamal Khashoggi’ which represents reflection of ethnical diversity. They also mention the health of children through a 'salt' in food article which shows they not only worry about the future of the country within politics, but the future of health as well. This reflects their values and beliefs. 

Through use of diversity in many areas as well as a lot of emphasis on political topics such as Brexit, I agree that the online observer reflects its values and beliefs through its features.