Semiotic Analysis - Portfolio Task 3

Write a 300-400 word semiotic analysis of this Sun front cover. Make sure that your analysis highlights all of the key signifiers, and what they denote and connote. Also, try to highlight any examples of myth that you can see- what ideologies or cultural prejudices are naturalised by the text?. Also, pay attention to paradigmatic and syntagmatic structures and suggest how these shape our reading. Try to outline who the text is trying to communicate, and what cultural codes it relies on to do this. Pay attention to the interrelation of text and image. Pay close attention to the language used in both headline and text.

This newspaper is aimed at the working class, which you can tell by the price of the paper (14p then which would be about 5p now) and the way its written. When you first look at this Sun front cover your eyes are automatically drawn to the title 'GOTCHA' and then to the images of the ships. 'Gotcha' is a word associated with child play (e.g. games of tig), which straight away takes away the seriousness of the situation like the war is a game which england is winning. The images of the ships are meaningless without the text as Barthes said. The text that catches your eye under the text are short and simple, the words, 'sunk' and 'crippled', these word combined witht the images make the reader feel like our country is victorious and strong. The childlike way of talking continues into the text with shortening of''Argentinians' to 'Argies'. This is a derogatory term and to see it used in a newspaper is quite shocking nowadays. This made the reader feel that 'Argies' was the correct term to use in referring to 'Argentinians' and there was nothing wrong with it.
Also now looking at the other article on this page you can see how they differ. The main article, like I have said is written childishly about us having a lead in the war the article does not let us think about the seriousness of the situation. The second article 'Union boycotts war' is written as if this matter is more serious matter, yet in comparison its not.