Coverage of Plain Packaging of Cigarettes Analytical Essay by shiouxyum

This essay compares two newspaper articles dated April 8, 2011, from the Herald Sun and the Age, respectively, which report on the Australian government's proposed legislation to mandate plain packaging for cigarettes by July 2012. The writer examines how the stories are communicated, using discourse analysis and political economy theory. The writer maintains that despite popular opinion about the quality of the two papers, the Herald Sun's article is more balanced and informative than The Age's article which is one-sided and quite likely influenced by the fact that The Age has received a great deal of funding, through advertising, from cigarette companies. The writer argues that the media is a powerful apparatus for persuading consumers to hold a particular view, and the media frequently proliferates information in a way that dictates mainstream opinion, rather than passively informing society. The paper includes the articles and the figures contained in them.