Analysis Of The Ponytail Scandal

Throughout time certain stories have identified a number of ways in which certain news stories is manipulated by journalists to emphasise and alter meaning and perception. The majority of journalists today do frame their stories in ways that can mislead their audiences. However, often journalists employ frames without consciously knowing it. Therefore, it is important to note whether the way in which stories were produced had the effect of misleading audiences. A news item that illustrates how audiences are misled is the Ponytail Scandal. This essay will firstly describe the story in brief and the content analysis of framing, then it will examine the importance of why journalists produce the effect of misleading audiences. This story will be …show more content…
However, it fails to represent or misrepresents those ideas and values as it can pose an ideological threat to dominant groups. Furthermore, people need to understand the ways in which journalists manage the processes through which information is gathered and transformed into news. As these pressures are encouraging journalists worldwide to follow familiar patterns of news making. There are particular strengths and weaknesses in news coverage as most framing is for effect rather than ulterior motives. Few journalists nowadays do consider audience effects when they are writing, other than prohibitions. However, in some cases framing can be utterly damaging. To describe this particular term “a frame is what unifies information into a package that can influence audiences” From this statement made by Tewksbury and Scheufele it seems to suggest that the information within news stories can reinforce the link. But in a sense it seems to rely on frames to build the associations. From this, news stories with frames can have a huge influence on a citizen’s behaviour, attitudes and/or beliefs. News stories such as the one above that are about events and political issues do tend to contain both information and frames. Framing of stories can be intentionally misleading towards a certain audience as it has the ability to shape and frame people’s understanding of a certain person and/or policy. The Ponytail Scandal is a prime example of this concept as it shapes people’s perception on the Prime Minister John Key. Frames work by making some bits of information or knowledge more salient. Thus, whether journalists intentionally frame a story or not they do not tell the people what to think, but rather they do tell them what to think about. Therefore, a frame is not just a story; it is what they the journalists leave out. Some framing of some stories can affect the