blog task 3 - SEMIOTIC ANALYSIS
This cover page from the Sun newspaper was published during the Falklands war. The first thing that jumps out of the page is the bold headline reading 'GOTCHA'. The editors have used a very informal approach to this headline with making it stand out by increasing the point size and using no punctuation, all this makes the heading very paradigmatic. When reading this I imagine a working class male southerner shouting it in a hooliganistic manner. This definitely sets a very patriotic tone for the whole article and conveys a very positive message to the population of Britain, as the word "GOTCHA" signifies that we have the enemy within our grasp and that we are now the empowering force, we are winning. This headline denotes the words 'got you' into slang that is on a more personal level with the reader and this connotates a more friendly feeling to the article.
They have now engaged the reader in this friendly and open strategy and then they read 'our lads sink gunboat and hole cruiser'. This suggests that 'our lads' have probably killed a whole lot of people, but with the way it has been stated it makes it alright. Again with the friendly use of slang, the Sun is speaking at the level of the target audience and are assuring them that we are winning. This sub-heading is perceived in a light hearted manner and is kind of poking fun at war and making it into a joke.
Words like 'wallop' and 'double punch' also do this. This style of language is used within comic books to illustrate the sounds that the superhero's strikes make to apprehend their enemies. It can easily be said that this is used as propaganda to give the 'lads' who are fighting a superhero image and that what they are doing is acceptable. This language goes hand in hand with the image of the troop with the text 'BATTLES FOR THE ISLANDS'. This image looks like some kind of movie poster or a cover of a book and connotates a false sense of a happy ending to the story, as the readers are not at the battle front and can only experience the war from what they read in newspapers.
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