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Summary: Misrepresentations

Decent Essays

Introduction: The smell of a new newspaper, the weight of it as you settle down to read and the way its words inform you of the world's happenings, these are only a few of the reasons why people continue to buy print media. Unfortunately, many articles now contain misrepresentations, for example in the article Baby Found Crying After Hour Locked in A Bus written by Hanna Sbeghen, childcare workers are showcased as undertrained, incapable and inattentive to their jobs and positions the reader to accept this misrepresentation of untrustworthy supervision in childcare. Found on page 10 of the Courier Mail, this article tells the tale of an 18-month-old girl who was left on a bus after being picked up by the Goodstart Early Learning Centre in Parkwood. …show more content…

With this specific audience in mind, the journalist has constructed an article with the purpose of informing parents about the risks of childcare workers and their inattentiveness, especially when Lisa states, "The same driver comes every day and Violet is her only pickup." A second purpose found in the text is the call for action for childcares to improve procedures if similar accidents ever occur and not label them in an “… incident report … as an accident or injury”. This action taken by the childcare further supports the journalist’s misrepresentation and alludes to the belief that childcare’s worry more about their reputation than the children. The journalist has used specific quotes from Lisa to support her support her misrepresentation and to create three readings throughout the …show more content…

Colloquial language is used throughout the article especially in Lisa’s interview to create a relatability to the audience with words such as, “… I went into a complete panic attack.” The use of everyday language positions the reader to be able to see themselves in the same situation and worry about the security of their children. The silencing of childcare workers is also used to stop the audience from viewing the incident from a different perspective because while the event is extremely ill-fated, the reader is not aware of events leading up to the event which could have influenced the result. This silencing positions the reader to further accept the misrepresentation and to not think about a second perspective. The image taken by Richard Gosling in the article has been placed to be one of the main focal points with a caption expressing, “DEHYDRATED: Lisa Easton’s daughter Violet was left in a hot bus.” Along with the image and caption, the visual layout consisting of an enlarged heading and by-line, and the breakout quote, “I left Violet on the bus for a long time. I’m sorry.” Affects the way the audience accepts or rejects the dominant reading. The enlarged emotive language in the by-line, heading and breakout quote and the usage of the photograph and caption, persuade the reader to focus on the emotions and effect of this

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