Further Textual Analysis - Althusser

In this analysis Althusser's 'The power of the mass media resides in their ability to place a subject' shall be used in relation to the News mass media representation of the British police force.

With most news people meet during their time, it in essence gives an opinion on a particular subject no matter what story is present. The news controls what people see on a particular subject and have the ability to control and change the public opinion to their own whims. As with this contemporary BBC news article on a call for a fresh enquiry into the 80's Miners Strikes the media uses specific language and fact-backed opinion to sway the public view on the matter. The content of the piece for a fresh enquiry into the behaviour of officers during the time period and their supposed brutality towards protestors over the country. When a step is taken back from the news article it can be analysed that the police's part in the protests might actually have been that bad considering the vast majority of people would not have been there to witness these events. If the media was to have presented the police in a much better manner and they weren't seen as a 'political army' they would have been backed by the public more and the populous would have seen the protests in a light where they might have been against the protestors. Althusser's theory is evident in this article with the police being portrayed in the more villain like role with their mis deeds against the miners strikes protestors.