The Manchester Arena Bombing was an unexpected act of terrorism which took place at Manchester Arena on the 22rd May, 2017, as people were beginning to exit from an Ariana Grande concert. The incident claimed the lives of 23 people with around 1,000 casualties.
The first constructed representation I'm going to refer to comes from The Sun and the front page cover to their edition from the 24th May, 2017, a mere two days after the attack. The cover focuses primarily on the evil intentions of the attack and a consequence that happened as a result. The article features the copy "jihadi" with no source/evidence to support this claim, relying on the false stereotype that all Muslim advocates are all extremists. The use of the stereotype has been generated to express the values The Sun ideologically hold, showing they don't have any respect for the Muslim community and see them as a threat to our society, killing innocent lives. The main ideology of the article also coincides with another stereotype used here, that victims of these extreme acts of terrorism should be looked at with respect and sorrow. Richard Dyer would argue the reason for this stereotypes existence here is for a shortcut to meaning. The article does this with the bold copy that simply reads, "PURE" and "Evil," arguing these two people are morally different and through the iconography of the over-saturation and filter on the victims image, they should be seen as innocent as good/potential lives were taken from us. This representation would be viewed more hegemonic as the ideologies presented here align with the right-wing views of The Sun's audience, the simplification of the copies complex ideas allows the news chains audience to view this without questioning it, due to how simple it has been made "clear."
The next constructed representation comes from The Guardians front page article. The cover is more focused on detailing what actually happened with an affectionate representation of the victims and community who were affected as well. Whilst the article has relied on stereotyping victims of any attack on this scale to a key few positive characteristics which can seen in the iconography of them both smiling, as well as only focusing on the youngest who were killed, seen also through the copy talking about this, it can still be viewed as a nuanced and rather respectable stereotype and representation of them both. Dyer would argue this was done as a way of referring to the world, in order to spread the more socially aware view that these people had potential lives and without any reason, this was stripped away from them. Through the iconography of the photograph near the bottom of the article, we can see people mourning the losses as they hold signs reading, " I love Manchester." This could be seen as pluralistic as it shows people being involved by showing their respect, which reinforces the central ideology of the article, that the attacks had a grander impact on society, not just those who were there.
The final constructed representation comes from this tweet of support from the nearby community where the attack took place, although there were many other tweets reminiscent to this. Similar to the iconography in the previous article, the copy which states this person lives "5 mins away from the arena" on a large scale positively represents the city of Manchester and this country as a whole, as it shows people coming together to support one another even if people didn't attend the concert, also showing how everyone was affected in some way or another. The tweet could be seen as pluralistic because of the single #RoomForHashtag and also the +800 retweets and +1000 likes, showing as a country, we knew what our primary focus was, and this was by helping those who were injured or needed somewhere to rest.
Additionally, we know this representation of the Manchester community was done factually with respect rather than being used as for example a shortcut to meaning through events such as the One Love Concert shortly after the attacks, with those affected uniting and showing their courage to stand together rather than facing defeat. The positive representations of the Manchester community helped stabilise the Bee symbol as an emblem of hope and disregard for these acts of terrorism which could be seen as pluralistic because of the symbol being shared to many shortly after what happened showing the communities resilience even after such a vile event occurred
.
Comments