The Media Studies student with a basic knowledge of how audiences consume media texts will tell you all about the famed Hypodermic Needle Model. This was a theory that came into prominence in the 1920s that suggested audiences passively digest information without question. As this era ushered in the use of propaganda by the Soviets and later the Nazis, it was more or less accepted that people could be manipulated into thinking what the ‘powers-that-be’ wanted them to believe.
Tag Archives | Ferguson
His And Her Dark Materials: The Mind Games Of Samantha Brick & Alex Ferguson
It was a very rare public show of emotion from Sir Alex Ferguson last Monday night. With his side having all but sealed the three points against a stubborn Blackburn, the old curmudgeon pumped both fists in a victorious gesture of defiance towards the visiting support. It was in that moment that it became clear that the latest threat to his supremacy at the game’s zenith had been vanquished should the remainder of the season conclude with Manchester United sweeping all before them. Manchester City had blown it. And he didn’t have to break sweat.
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Mutiny At Stamford Bridge: The Downfall Of Villas-Boas
In the space of seven days, two Russians have asserted their authority with characteristic ruthlessness. In Moscow, Vladimir Putin is currently snuffing out any dissent that has arisen from his contested election victory last Sunday. Meanwhile, in the borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, Roman Abramovich yet again demonstrated that his willingness to abandon his managerial appointments in favour of a dressing room dominated by preening egos is probably the greatest hindrance to Chelsea’s long-term future at the English game’s summit.
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What’s The Point Of Scottish Football?
The ignominy of seeing one of Britain’s biggest and most successful clubs this week finally accepting the grim reality of administration was one thing. Glasgow Rangers’ humiliation however, paled in comparison when the disparity that exists within Scottish football became glaringly apparent when the club had ten points deducted for its failure to balance the books. The upshot of this was in many respects the biggest indictment of football north of the border. Rangers were left trailing archrivals Celtic by fourteen points but nevertheless maintaining a nine point cushion of comfort from third placed Motherwell. The remainder of the season will inevitably be just a dull procession.
In Defence Of Luis Suarez by Rachael Singh
Like him or not, Luis Suarez has been the most talked about and divisive character of the season. I had my say a few weeks ago, but Dispatches is nothing if not fair. As this week the law is under the microscope on here, Liverpool fan Rachael Singh pleads the case for the defence. Take cover.
Liverpool Football Club, 1892 – 2012 – An Obituary
Some time this year.
The world of football was in mourning last night as the lights were finally extinguished on an institution that had influenced and shaped much of the footballing landscape of the last century. Liverpool Football Club, arguably the greatest club side ever to grace Britain, if not Europe, was terminated after nearly two decades of serial decline.
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Playing The Race Card: Suarez, Solidarity And 1973
So, the frivolities of the festive period will soon be over and left to recede into the vagaries of our collective memory. Once we unglue the sleep from our bleary, alcohol-ravaged eyes, 2012 will loom on the horizon. And what will we see? The dawn of a magnificent era of enlightenment, where men and women of all creeds and colours cavort in daffodil-covered fields, making coffee-coloured children from rainbow-coloured melting pots and supping the ambrosia of the gods? If only. Because like Sam Tyler in Life On Mars, I feel I’ve had an accident and woken up in 1973.
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An Old Trafford Christmas Carol
It’s coming up to the two hundredth anniversary of Charles Dickens’ birth and it’s nearly Christmas. So this year’s Christmas Dispatch was easy. Say hello, to a famous old curmudgeon…
As the dying embers of the fire crackled and hissed, Ebenezer Ferguson clasped his gnarled hands around a flagon of whiskey and took another sip. Pinched of cheek and red of nose, he sat awaiting the fast-approaching hour of twelve; the night before Christmas morn. An hour before he had received a visitation from a spectre. His former partner, Brian Kiddisworth had miraculously emerged from an ethereal dimension to reproach and warn him to mend the error of his ways. Kiddisworth had betrayed his mentor years previously and the two men had not exchanged a passing pleasantry for the remainder of Kiddisworth’s time on Earth. Ebenezer Ferguson had cared not a jot. He had become hardened of heart and allowed personal feuds to destroy what aspects of humanity still remained within him.
The ‘Conquest’ Of Happiness
I felt sorry for Arsene Wenger as his Arsenal side went down to a revitalised Liverpool last Saturday.
There. I said it. A Spurs fan admitting to an empathetic feeling towards an individual and a team he is meant to hate unquestionably and without reason. Some might take issue to such a ‘radical’ concept (and believe me they have) but there was something of the tragic seeing the rain-soaked Wenger, head in hands, looking down at the ground as the Emirates Stadium erupted into a chorus of blood-curdling boos. Immediately after the game, the social media networks went into overdrive with an assortment of rational and irrational sub-debates about whether his presence at the forefront of Arsenal’s regeneration as a footballing force to be reckoned with, had finally run its course.
I Heart Manchester United: A Confession
Picture the scene. The Champions League Final, 1999. Reading University Student Union Bar. My future wife and best friend have just witnessed Teddy Sheringham’s last-gasp equaliser against Bayern Munich and she’s dancing on the sticky, alcohol-sodden floor whilst he’s lying on a pew in disbelief. Cue Solksjaer and we all know what happened next.
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In Defence Of Luis Suarez by Rachael Singh
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What’s The Point Of Scottish Football?
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Captain Caveman: The De-evolution of John Terry
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Alan Davies Is Here All Week
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Liverpool Football Club, 1892 – 2012 – An Obituary
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