Mirror Money Article Analysis

Analyse how Text B uses language to create meanings and representations.

Student response text B is a website from the newspaper 'the Mirror' which is about how boys are nearly spending as much money as girls on proms and how this is becoming an excessive, unhealthy amount for one night that is seen to be over in a blink of an eye. Therefore, the purpose of the article is to inform readers, more specifically parents of teenagers leaving school, that children most particularly 'image-conscious teenage lads' are being pressured into spending more money to improve looks. This is because proms in today's society seem to be becoming a much bigger deal, when all they really are is a one night, dressy occasion that takes months in advance to prepare for and generally just causes havoc in most people's eyes. A malarkey. Therefore, the purpose of the article is established through the title 'MONEY' and subheading 'Advice you can count on' at the beginning, as the main topic is based around how much people are truly spending on proms. The verb 'count' in this simple sentence also develops a pun which could give the reader the impression of an informal tone being created, as they could be trying to make it sound humorous.  An affordance of this is that graphology has been used, to portray the word 'Advice' in a bigger black font at the beginning of the article, therefore it immediately clears up that advice is the main thing the site has to offer, and that it is something you can count on meaning it is all truthful and reliable as it is coming from a legitimate newspaper article. The multiple statistics and figures used throughout also support this as it provides us with even more factual information, such as 'spending 24% more on their outfit a year ago' has been repeated twice to establish how ludicrous people are becoming with prom prices. Although a constraint of the article could be that we don't know how truly reliable it could be, despite how accurate the article is made out to look like, for example the writer may have twisted things to make it seem more relatable to readers.

The fact that the text's mode is a newspaper article could weaken the relationship between the writer and the reader. However, almost straight away synthetic personalisation saves this through the imperative; 'stories we think you'll love'. This is as the collective pronoun 'we' immediately brings it together and the personal pronoun 'you'll' gives it a direct address, engaging the reader one on one. Furthermore, the convincing statistic 'Debenhams spokesman Ed Watson said:' further represents the text as more reliable and shows authority as he states "The amount a guy will spend on getting prom-ready is now close to rivalling a girl." This evokes a gender stereotype as the spokesman is practically naming prom as a girl's thing, and the verb 'rivalling girls' suggests a sense of conflict. Another is then later on made 'with the precision of a would be bride' to again suggest that prom's are only a big fuss for girls as they plan for it as if it is their wedding day. Also, the fact he names it as 'prom fever' is almost like he's judging the 'obsession' young teens have for looking and dressing up all fancy for their one special night, as the writer uses a compound adjective 'prom obsessed teenage girls' to describe them which not only plays into stereotypes but supports the judgemental tone throughout representing the subject as overall ridiculous.

However, hyperlinks which include related content that is adult focused are used at the side of the page to represent the audience as sensible spenders. Therefore metaphorical and active verbs such as 'rocketing', 'snowballing' and 'soaring' demonstrate the increase in prices and represent proms as too extravagant for an audience on a modest income.

Overall, text B represents school proms as being something too much of an issue in this generation, especially through the semantic field used in the article 'stretch limos, designer frocks, suits and expensive accessories' describing proms only as an overpriced excuse for teenagers following the American trend, and that too many young people are being pressured into spending a significant amount of money on proms which is rapidly increasing as boys are nearly spending as much as girls.