Question 3

Using your own detailed examples, discuss the representation of contemporary issues in the media.  

A detailed example of a representation of contemporary issues in the media is the story which the BBC news online posted about a young woman name Chanelle Higging who was left for dead after she was involved in a hit and run where the car mounted on the pavement hitting her and her best friend in West Norwood in May 2016.  She was left paralyzed and has minimal upper body movement and has to use a wheel chair. This article highlights the danger that can be apposed to those who drive whist using a mobile phone and not concentrating on the road. The BBC has presented this article in a way to make the audience feel sympathetic for Ms. Higging and enlighten others of the severe implications that it can cause. Throughout the media real life events are used to show the different issues that is going on in society not only in peoples everyday lives but also in things like the health care. An example of this is when The Mirror on the 4th of March posted an article about a woman, Mandy Park, who begged more than 100 times in the space of 9 days for help for her daughter Hannah who suffered from mental health and was suicidal but was dismissed by the mental heath workers.  The Mirror states In the UK the number of ­women taking their own lives has grown steadily since 2011. But while mental health issues make up 23 per cent of contact with the NHS, it received only 13 per cent of the funding. And since 2011 the number of beds for mental health patients has fallen by 8 per cent. Last month Mandy, a former ­support worker for deaf children, was awarded £260,000 in an ­out-of-court medical negligence settlement from Southern Health Trust. This shows the lack of help that many people with mental health gets especially women, as a result of the many take their lives, many head of government and right wing people are trying to make the NHS private which means they work to portray the NHS in a negative way which will influence the readers to think that it is bad agree to make it private. One issue in the media today is the representation of women within social media. On a majority women are preserved to have slim bodies, long hair, perfect skin which makes those who are reading magazines feel insecure about themselves and try to aspire to look like them.  Many young teenage girls feel that they should change the way they look in order for them to fulfill the view that the media has on how girls should look, the media is controlled by the dominant ideology who show the things that they find attractive and want people to look like. A famous example of this is the OK magazine who often sexualize woman who try to suggest that females are worthless and nothing but sexual objects. This would have a negative impact on the audience as following the hyperdermic needle theory, the information may be injected into them causing them to feel less confident within themselves. As social media and technology plays a big part in todays society it is hard for women to escape these 'rules' of the standards of women.