It is not often a source that we will use, given its use of topless models, and generally questionable values on issues of race, gender and sexuality, but today we shall look at a very specific feature in
The S*n, the UK's biggest-selling paper and one that once boasted after a general election,
It Was the Sun Wot Won It.
Owned by billionaire Rupert Murdoch, who operates a global media empire, the paper took the unusual step of beating the political parties to the punch and issuing its own 'manifesto' (details of what it would do, the policies it would follow, if elected to government).
Your quickfire challenge will be to:
- Scan through the 'Sunifesto' below
- Pick one or more policies that you strongly dis/agree with
- Come up with your own wording for a policy/policies
- Prepare a short summary of WHY this should be supported (look for newspaper articles on this policy area, find quotes, points, statistics...)
- If you can, think of one argument AGAINST (maybe using the same research) and state why this should not put people off
- Pick two UK national daily newspapers, and come up with a headline for each of them if they were writing about your 'minifesto' ideas. Tabloid headlines can be short and informal, featuring a pun or play on words, broadsheet headlines might more formal and longer. There would be a difference between the left-wing papers (Mirror, Guardian) and the right-wing papers (all the rest, bar the Indie/i, which is 'centrist' or fairly neutral). The S*n is very right-wing, its Sunifesto is classic right-wing thinking.
You can find more information and background on
this post, written for A-Level Media students, but the Sunifesto is copied in below (just click read more or on the title of this post).