The interplay between newspaper content and audience reaction to the divorce issue in Malta

Abstract

This dissertation is going to analyse the relationship between the media producers and the audience. According to some, the media is a way to manipulate people. Newspapers are a useful for the media producers as a tool to manipulate others. The media producers try to make the news interesting to attract the attention of the audience. This dissertation is going to examine a digital newspaper the 'Times of Malta' at a time when the divorce issue was discussed in Malta in 2010 and 2011. In the analysis I observed how the news is going to be perceived by the media and what methods and text to the media producers use to make a subject more interesting. I will also examine what issues are coming up by the media. The audience are also going to be analysed. Their comments attached to the articles are going to be examined to see the amount of people they comment, the gender differences when commenting and if the audience are raising issues of their own or are just commenting on issues that are in the media. In this dissertation I will see if the media is influencing the people, or vice versa.