Sign O The Times

Abstract

Sign o The Times is an archival, curatorial, and educational tool that was created for the function of examining the reporting of worldly events covered by The New York Times over the twenty years of reporting between the September 11th attacks on the World Trade Centre (colloquially known as 9/11) and the Covid-19 Pandemic. The tool is comprised of curated articles and examines how the representation changes over the news cycle of an event by selecting articles based on set time intervals from the proximity of the event. By comparing these articles directly, the difference in reporting becomes clear to see how The New York Times evolved from publishing articles that may misrepresent the issues being discussed, however, are written in language that does not include the opinion of the journalist, versus articles that state all the facts as to not misrepresent the issue, however, are written with heavy author bias as to sway the perspectives of the audiences. Using theories from Stuart Hall’s Encoding/Decoding Theory, Lawrence Grossberg’s MediaMaking: Mass Media in a Popular Culture, and Caroline Fisher’s The Advocacy Continuum, in tandem with textual analyses of the articles published, work to create assertions regarding how these media representations function, and tracks the evolution of the reporting styles.

The project is composed of a website with the selection of articles chosen and their analyses, and this accompanying paper. Website can be found at www.signothetimes.weebly.com