Construction of Consensus through the Media

Everyday media has a way of highlighting particular issues very saliently in order to construct our consensus as the readers or viewers of the news. The way in which broadcasters are able to construct our consensus is through the selection of words and selection of what they feel would command our attention as the public. In other words, they attempt to construct the public interest.

For example, let’s look at a recent story written about a 15 year old South African boy (Shaun Van Straaten), who died in hospital caused by a fire at his home in the UK, after his mother’s ex-boyfriend set himself a light. We are presented with the headline “SA boy dies in UK after 'human fireball'” (news24), the selection of the words “human fireball” is attempted to capture our interest as we generally do not associate “fireballs” with human beings, thus achieving the public interest simply by using two outstanding words as indicated.

According to news24 the boys mother (Jone) and her ex-boyfriend’s (David Pott’s) relationship was apparently “stormy” and police had reportedly been called to the house on several occasions. Again, in terms of selection of words, the term “stormy” contributes to our consensus, constructing the motives behind David Pott’s self burning tragedy.

I’ve noticed how the specific article constructs views of the people surrounding this family; however there are no views or comments coming directly from the mouths of the victims of the fire. For example, Neighbors said they had woken to screaming and the sound of smashing glass (news24).

 This shows that the agenda of the specific article is not aimed at looking at the insights of the victims of the fire, but rather constructing an image of the effect, the surroundings and the actions. These aspects are constructed in such a way that it grabs our interest as the public. However we have the ability to either look at it subjectively or objectively.

Reference:

http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/SA-boy-dies-in-UK-after-human-fireball-20110922