lundi 21 mars 2011
Semiotic analysis (3)
The Sun front cover was published on 4 May 1982, as a reaction to the Argentinean cruiser, “General Belgrano”, destructed by a British submarine during the Falklands war. This publication had notorious effects, due to the audacity of its headlines : the main word, in huge eye-catching letters is « GOTCHA ». The expression denotes a familiar repartee used to express the British status as victors. Its mocking connotation contrasts with the seriousness of the situation. 323 Argentinean soldiers died when the boat sunk in this period of the war, and The Sun used a gaming expression to mean: they deserved it.
Pictures on the front page show the two sunk and crippled Argentinean boats; as photographs they seem neutral. But the captions prove the subjective approach of the newspaper : «An Argie petrol boat like this one was sunk by missiles from Royal Navy helicopters after first opening fire on our lads (an emotive word expressing affection, comradeship or familiarity). » and « The Argie cruiser General Belgrano… put out of action by Tigerfish torpedoes from our super nuclear sub Conqueror ». The front cover is full of linguistic codes, aiming to clearly proclaim British patriotism victorious over the Argentinean Forces. The use of « Argie » as « Argentinean » adopts a well-known way of referring to the enemy in time of war : choosing a mocking abbreviation « to reinforce a patriotic feeling of national superiority » (Leggett, 2005, l. 18).
The first sentence is a good example of the British ideology about this situation and of the cultural prejudices they had towards the Argentinean people : “The NAVY had the Argies on their knees last night after a devastating double punch.” It ideally explains their perfect victorious face to the Argie enemy, the end of a brave battle by a well-done final shot.
Every element is obviously included to make the reader feel proud of what happened, proud to be the victor and British. This newspaper, one of the most famous in the country, was one of the most widely read British newspapers. The use of “our lads”, “our super nuclear sub Conqueror”, “Gotcha”, all these terms refer to the whole one nation united behind one big cause. The popular readership shares the pride; they are members of the winning team.
¶ 17:12
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