Newspaper Analysis - The Guardian

The front page for The Guardian's 10th November 2016 issue presents vastly different ideologies to that of The Times' issue on the same date. Despite subtle hints of irony or satire, The Times mostly takes a neutral standpoint on Trump and his victory, whilst The Guardian clearly takes an oppositional standpoint. This can be seen with the pessimistic anchorage of 'will he destroy America' and the blunt headline of 'Trump wins. Now the world waits'. The preferred reading of this front page is to be fearful of Trump. Overall, this front cover presents a completely negative portrayal of Trump, from the aforementioned copy to the unflattering picture. This helps to fit in with The Guardian's more liberal, left-leaning ideologies that the paper is known for. Like all media texts, the cover also presents many codes and binary opposition that help to drive meaning. A key enigma code of the cover is the question 'will he destroy America', playing on the natural fears of the reader and forcing them to read further into the paper to be able to find the answer. An action code presented is that of 'Trump wins' as it immediately tells the reader what has happened and what the text is about. Trump himself can be seen as a referential code, as many people link Trump to sexism, racism and incompetence in general due to some of his remarks and statements. This leads to the automatic assumption of negativity in some people which allows for them to take The Guardian's preferred reading. There is only one clear representation on the front page; that of Trump himself. On the page, the pessimistic and negative copy matched with the unflattering image of America’s President creates a negative representation of Trump and the result that links in with the liberal ideologies of the Guardian. This representation is the polar opposite to how Trump is represented on the front cover of the Times. This representation was less critical of Trump and encouraged it’s audience to have their own opinion on the issue.