TV News: representation and bias

1. Sky News has decided to broadcast the events from the police officer's perspective.
2. In this broadcast, the police are represented as the victims of violence and outrage. They are shown as being very helpless and to be maintaining their respected reputation. It also show the police to be peacemakers not instigators.
3. In this broadcast, young people are presented as rowdy and reckless people who are reeking havoc on innocent officers and members of the public and destroying the streets of London for no apparent reason. Young people are shown to be the instigators, and are shown to be using the death of Mark Dougan as an excuse to steal and behave anti-socially.
4. Images and pictures of burning buses and police cars have been selected to accompany the story also videos of people stealing from shops and throwing stones and other objects at the police officers however there is no footage of the officers retaliating or causing any harm to the rioters. This paints young people in a negative way and gives the audience the idea that the rioters are at fault.
5. The reporter explains how the police "struggled to take control" which tells the audience that the situation got out of hand and that the police were trying their best to calm the rioters but to no avail.
6. The aspect that has been chosen as the most important and appears at the very start of the story is that 8 police officers have been injured which indicates that Sky News has decided that the most important piece of information was that the police officers got hurt, they made no references to the safety or injuries to the young people.
7. The narrative of the story is the police are the heroes who are trying to stop the villains, the rioters, there is a disequilibrium where the streets of Tottenham gets wrecked. This narrative is interesting and captivating as it involves real life heroes and villains which will engage audiences.
8. Todorov's theory of equilibrium can be applied to this news story because there is a state of equilibrium when everything is calm and in order then the rioters cause a disruption of the equilibrium by looting and setting things on fire. The police's arrival shows a recognition of the disequilibrium however there is no new equilibrium shown in the report as the problem does not seem resolved.
9. The police are the heroes who are trying to stop the villains, the rioters.
10. Citizen journalism could be used to show the police fighting back or instigating the stand off which would change the entire story.