News Articles - Historical to Cotemporary Comparison

What alters the views of the police from within this medium over long time periods tends to focus upon the release of new evidence on a particular matter or an event that relates to one previously. Examples of this would be the release of new evidence suggesting the police were to blame for the events that unfolded at Hillsborough on the fateful day in 1989, new reports allowed the public blame to be shifted from the innocent Liverpool fc fans to the Police that were found out to be covering up the events.

The reputation and presentation of the police to the public eye can be totally turned by the change that can can occur within the press. Newspapers and News agencies are, especially modern day, are the forefront of knowledge and understanding, making people aware of situations and playing heavily on altering the views of citizens on particular events. Whenever electons for prime minister are held it can be easy to see where news agencies stand with parties so different views and opinions will always be expressed. With the Hillsborough disaster in 1989 'The Sun' newspaper essentially sided with the authorities by falsely accusing the Liverpool fans of being abusive and causing the disaster. This view supporting the police and authorities therefore reflecting public opinion more positively towards them which in turn is key for the police because it says public thinking to supporting and backing their arguements, thats why the press is extremely important in motivating people to think in a particular given way.

With the control this particular medium has over public opinion people tend to believe what they read therefore when the reports pointed towards the police being to blame for Hillsborough there was public outcry for these men to be brought to criminal justice because the public had read about these changes in their newspapers. The press is extremely important for in a way keeping the views of the people under control and support particular views or methods, thats why when controversial issues do occur it is harder to control opinion because people have more fanatical and strong views on a given issue. The police being presented in a positive light is extremely important for them and a connection is always needed between them and the people.

Hillsborough Disaster - Historical Textual Analysis

The text article to the left is in fact the highly controversial newspaper released the day after Hillsborough, The Sun which reported that the police were abused in their attempts to help those in trouble and dying during the disaster.  This newspaper was actually boycotted by newsagents all over Liverpool at the time to show respect towards those involved in the disaster but also in the strong, now-correct view that this is clearly not what happened and the blame for the entire event was shifted onto the innocent people at the match when actually as known now the police were to blame for not officiating the crowd and numbers in the stadium correctly.

The bold, strong language used for the bullet points of the article really make the ideas appear as if fact and that it is disgraceful that the 'brave cops' were beaten and bullied for trying to help friends and family of in trouble. 'Some fans urinated on the brave cops' and 'Some fans beat up PC giving kiss of life' would present to a reader without any knowledge of what really happened a very positive message of the way the police dealt with the event after it had happened with assisting in the resuscitation of some people and helping to get those out who may have been in shock and needing help to get away from the devastation. This article would clearly have shown the police force in a good light after Hillsborough especially after the 'Operation Countryman' reports that had been revealed a few years before. The role the police really played was clearly covered up because the government would have known that the police standing with the people would have been horribly low with the harsh difficulties the force was facing throughout that decade and the British people would have been hugely criticism of any move the police would make in the future, they would no longer be trusted.

TV Drama - Historical to Contemporary Comparison

Clearly changes in uniform for the police comes into place over the time period but the basics do remain the same, there has been further female integration in the workplace over the last century but what has changed drastically the WAY in which the Police have been viewed by the public and the difficulties that have had to be faced.

From the times of Dixon of Dock Green and the police officers being a much more close knit, community supporting friendly group with only the best, honest working man intentions in mind the police have changed hugely into the modern day The Bill style force that have to overcome terrors and issues which trouble the most emotionally hardened people and huge criticism for not fulfilling their obliged duty from time to time as with the April Jones case of 2012. The police now face masses of scrutiny all over the planet, not just the UK. But since the times of Dixon's simple crime prevention and patrolling police do face much stiffer issues with modern society in their defence. The furthering of technology in any job can help and hinder equally with some people gaining easier access to things, even smaller issues such as music on-line which is illegally downloaded and even redistributed at times. The modern police job description would certainly involve dealing with much more variation compared to that of the 50's and 60's. In assisting the amount of crime that does go on, the economic climate never manages to help keep down crime levels. Modern prosperity is suffering even at this very moment and this affects most people in all areas. People become more desperate when money is minimal and someone cannot afford to feed their family, people turn to risking taking some food from a shop or robbing a shop, not that it is moral but it becomes necessary to some to survive. These kinds of ideas do reflect on the view of modern police because they are seen as the first line of defence against this, with it happening frequently not every crime can be prevented or dealt with because the force is smaller and there are more issues. With criticism and scrutiny that does come their way officers have to at times watch their own backs in many cases especially since renewed doubts since the Hillsborough re-done report. These modern, gritty issues were reflected fairly often within The Bill before it stopped and it showed the increasingly difficult crimes and moral decisions that need to made by the police.

Miners Strikes 1984/5 - Further Textual Analysis

As known from the time period, the police forces over the country faced heavy criticism for their actions during the 1984/5 strikes over the conditions of UK miners. The idea that the police force was becoming corrupted and political during the eighties was noticeable with the Miners strikes, Hillsborough later in the decade and 'operation Countryman' proving that the Metropolitan police in particular were extremely corrupted by powerful criminals during the late 70's and early 80's.

With this backdrop to the image and the strikes that were occurring as Operation Countryman was being finalised and published this straight away informs us that the Police were in the middle of a period of high scrutiny and lacking support from the people. As the image presents a group of officers detaining protesters and arresting them this would show that the men are just doing their job and arresting people as officers have to do even now. What changes the context and the way the image is being interpreted by the audience is that these arrested men most probably committed no crime that would cause for punishment, they were protesting, as most miners and their families did at the time to get their view across. When this comes into the context the image is viewed differently and the police are seen more dominantly as the 'bad guys', the 'political army' just serving to every whim of the government even if not morally right such as arresting innocent civilians. These events all over the country led to many arrests to which no person ever faced conviction because they had not committed any proven criminal act, they most probably held up signs and walked in the streets with hundreds to thousands of others in the same position.

With the police serving the government and not supporting the miners arguments this lowered the police standing with workers and citizens  this coupled with operation countryman had revealed to the people that the police weren't just other working people, they were involved in much larger issues and many dealt with corruption. With the now known cover up of Hillsborough coming later on in the decade the police standing dropped dramatically and respect and support of them dropped as well.

Hillsborough - Further Textual Analysis

This BBC news report from late 2012 focuses upon retelling the events of the disaster and what came through matter of reports and courts cases leading up to the fresh enquiry in late 2012, the time this article was released. "The authorities' response to the disaster was slow and badly co-ordinated." This quote from the article sums up the response from the police who were numerous in the ground on the day and that this simple fact was recognised at the time of the disaster. At the time it was said that rescue teams of fire-fighters and so on could not enter the ground due to "crowd trouble", to further enforce this point made The Sun newspaper at the time published an article now ironically called the truth in which it describes disgusting actions from the fans against the police and other teams of people trying to assist. What can be understood from the unfolding of events at the time is that the police were viewed as just doing their duty and trying to help but the Liverpool fans did not allow this and abused them also. This, with the released press articles as well represented the police in a positive light over the event for doing the best they could with a bad situation and successfully revealed that the Liverpool fans were the ones at fault. This became the cover up story that remained in place for around twenty five years.

There were inquests into the disaster in 1991 and 2012 which gradually revealed and criticised the police for the part they played in the event and recognised finally in 2012 that there was a police cover up of the event in which statements from officers had been altered to reflect a negative light onto the Liverpool fans. This clearly opened up the gates to a huge amount of criticism towards the police in general and the South Yorkshire branch in particular, criminal cases were called against those involved at the time. Theses happening again since the cases for manslaughter against two officers in the 1990's that had no end results.

This final revealing of what really happened at Hillsborough clearly gave a sigh of relief for the families that had been hard done by for two and a half decades after having lost loved ones and friends. The police force over the nation suffering heavy criticism and apologies were given from near enough every level of the hierarchy from the Prime Minister to chief constables and other high up officers, the leading officer in South Yorkshire was forced into retirement through the 2012 cases to show further respect towards the people who's lives had been ruined. What was also suspected at a later time was that officers from the time would have to face some form of court case and conviction for essentially criminal acts. 


This second article from the Liverpool Echo is again another contemporary one that focuses around the events of Hillsborough in 1989. This is just a smaller story on an event that triggered some outrage from the centre of all the happenings in Liverpool. A person had decided to rant about how bad people from Liverpool are and that the video he had recorded and posted also contained disturbing views towards the events that occurred at Hillsborough. The article having been released in much later 2012 (Dec 29th) means that this was made after the fresh inquests into what truly happened at Hillsborough so the subject had again become extremely sensitive and the police knew this. In light of again the police showing respect to the families of those lost and dealing with the emotional subject with discipline the man was arrested for the video he had made at a very sensitive time over Hillsborough. 

This article allows the police to shed a bit more justice for the families of Hillsborough through knowing that anyone that disrespects what happened will certainly be punished and that with the police in a way being in debt to these people and being sorry for what happened should take harsh action on what happened. If this digital attack would have occurred a couple of years ago the offender may have been more let off with their rant but he chose a sensitive time, and a time the police were taking much stick and having to in a way dig themselves out of a big hole.

Heartbeat - Further Textual Analysis

Heartbeat, fairly similarly to Dixon of Dock Green follows a small rural community police force that only has a small number of officers to patrol and maintain law and order in a Yorkshire county in the sixties, similar to Dixon. This programme is set in the same time period as Dixon, the sixties, the supposed 'golden age' of policing in this country. What this presents is another place to make comparisons with Dixon, similarly the lives of the officers are very entwined with the people who live within the small towns and villages  everyone knows the officers by name and they are recognised as ordinary people with normal lives outside of the force. This show also frequently presents the audience the men in their everyday lives and dealing with the small or sometimes larger issues that occur needing the police involvement. The image that can be seen to the left comes from a later episode from the series more contemporary works, the situation the officers are in shows that things do get out of hand from time to time with the two armed men keeping the officers as what seems to be hostages. The idea this links to is that Heartbeat started out as a historical programme to today's understanding, following the simple everyday lives of the officers like Dixon but with the ever changing modern view of the police and the ever increasing demand for more excitement and higher rating reviews would most probably push the creators enough to slightly corporates more action packed episodes just to keep people happy, but these may not have been entirely representative of the time.

The image to the right does well to sum up Heartbeat, the quiet, desolate rural setting which make up most areas patrolled by the known 'A-10 Golden Flash' motorbike and the basic forms of communication to the station representing the time in which the show is set. It is true that during the sixties the best way for many officers in the large rural areas to get around was on motorbike and it was much better (and faster) mode of transport for an officer or two if crime ever needed preventing. Heartbeat reflects the view that was taken over police at the time  and the officers still being everyday members of society and attached to the people, a view much less apparent with the modern times and officers all over facing corruption, cover ups, and committing crimes themselves all appoint to a much more gritty, dark negative view of police compared to Heartbeat and Dixon of Dock Green. The Bill is the closest to being the most realistic with it primarily being a contemporary cover of the current police force serving the nation.

The Bill - Further Textual Analysis

The Bill out of my chosen texts is the most contemporary and compared to Dixon of Dock Green follows a much more gritty, modern realistic tone with modern society issues such as in the image with that seems to be a young person about to jump off the edge of a building. The officers in the still can clearly be seen doing their job with the second officer holding back a group of people to maintain calm and safety over the issue, the first officer trying to convince the person about what they are considering doing will not have a good outcome.
Even though the officers are doing their job what is presented through this situation is that modern times bring much more difficult challenges for them to deal with psychologically and physically which have an impact on what the force do and what they themselves suffer in the line of duty. A situation of this level of trauma would never appear in an episode of Dixon of Dock Green which presented the much more peaceful, simple 'golden age' for the police.

Due to the inability to deal with many of these traumatic situations in the modern age the force also receives much more criticism from the public over why they failed to save loved ones etc. Examples of this kind of issue can be the recent April Jones dissaperence in Wales in which the police force has come under scrutiny for having not acted on the issue well enough and local searches proving more effective until the police sorted themselves out and got involved. Also with an issue like this, it would be hard to predict something like this happening so the media can very regular share far too much blame of the police force, they are still normal working people with a high demand job.

Similar to one of the screenshots previously looked at from Dixon of Dock Green this shows a more social aspect of the officers. The Dixon image presented a more informal, laid back form of meeting that may have still centred around their work due to still being in uniform just like The Bill image to the left. The background to the image is a canteen that resides within a police station these officers can be seen in a more formal lunch place having what looks to be more like a discussion over a particular issue with the authoritativeness of the finger pointing towards the table. This can also present the idea that officers can find it extremely hard to separate their social and working lives. A similarity to the Dixon meeting image is the presence of a female police offircer, what can be known is that throughout the twentieth century, women in the workplace was a huge issue and feminism came about in strong tides forcing equality and equal rights in every situation including male dominated jobs such as the police. This seems to be a situation that would have much backfire if used awkwardly in a programme such as The Bill therefore, just like Dixon of Dock Green it is a more serious issue that is kept under wraps. Some TV Dramas based themselves on this issue of women in a male dominated police force such as Gentle Touch and Juliet Bravo.

Dixon of Dock Green - Further Textual Analysis

With the time that Dixon was around being the 'golden age' of policing in this country there was no real friction  between the population and the police force that simply did it's job of supporting the community and preventing and resolving criminal issues. This 'respect' shown towards the police of the time can be shown through the way the children in the image are looking up to Dixon signifying an admiration for the man that keeps them safe, also leading children to want to follow the route of becoming an officer of the law. The backdrop to the image is clearly a residential street with the visible row of houses with the group of young kids playing outsides houses that must be their parents. That leads to the point of the officer making a patrol along a given route for the safety and protection of the community, with local officers and people often tightly formed groups of people including the officers would create a safe, well-rounded community. The kind of street patrol with groups of kids hanging around from these modern times, in comparison, would reveal a different kind of image due to the negativity the police force faces frequently in this day and age and the groups of kids would most probably be causing some form of public disturbance as most media tends to reveal now. That kind of image would happen to relate much more closely to another of my TV Drama texts, The Bill.

Even when considering the programme itself to be set in a relatively peaceful and good time for policing the shot used for this screenshot creates the sense of pride, safety and well being due to the tall stance of the officer walking past the children who also are positioned to stand and look amazed at the sight of the 'man who keeps them safe' and from harm due to crime.

The background behind the origin of the image also is it coming from BBC News being used in an article to compare the days of Dixon to that of nowadays. The news story focussed of the stabbing of a thirty-six year old police officer.

This second still from Dixon of Dock Green reveals the more social side that is presented through the programme which also reflects the attitude of the time that police officers bid not have much to do and were seen more as ordinary working people as oppose to the modern 'political army'. The background for the scene seems to be some form of house pointing out the possibility of it being a social gathering at someone's house. Even if that would not be the case this scene with multiple officers stood around with hands on hips and no helmets on reflects a more laid back atmosphere to whatever is going on here. These elements also linking to this again being, and the programme showing that this is the 'golden age' for policing.

News/Newspaper Texts for Analysis

Miners Strikes and Hillsborough 'Orgreave' Enquire

The news article released in October 2012 focuses on the discovery of South Yorkshire Police cover ups at the Orgreave coke works and five years later at the Hillsborough disaster. The source originates from BBC News reporters so maintains no known form of bias against or for the police because the corporation is an independent body with high levels success and impartiality in their reporting for which they have only ever received very little criticism over the years.

How this recent particular article represents the police force is generally categorised as a 'negative' one. With the source the issue is that it deals with cases that existed around twenty five and thirty years ago, this means that the issues are of a historical context and anyone that was involved at the time may have now moved into others areas or be retired elderly people by now. The article delves into the polices' part in the striking and how many officers managed to get away without punishment back then. Adding to the negativity created around the police at the time was that to protect themselves from harsh criticism and potential unemployment, statements from many officers were made as a batch and officers that were involved in court all supported that it was the faults of the strikers solely to anything that occurred  This similarity also took place five years later with the Hillsborough disaster which is also a focal point in the history of the police and particularly South Yorkshire police.

As known through more recent reports discovered the police 'cover up' at Hillsborough was discovered and many officers from the time faced persecution and as another result the families of the ninety six who died found their justice that they had felt hard done by with for the last twenty five years. In an inadvertent way the contemporary police forces now are getting much criticism over the matters but it is arguable that there were not there and had no knowledge of what was going on. On the other hand they could have told to also keep the cover up going as time passed since the event.

In general analysis of how the police force look in the light of the event was not a positive one due to the immoral and near illegal cover up of these serious events in which many lives were lost. Even the actions of those officers nearly thirty years ago has backfired to nowadays to create a new negative image that the police are seen in especially with this being a big problem at the moment.