Here’s the simple challenge, with £50 to charity of your choice on offer to the first person.
Find me a story in a mainstream media outlet about exam results in the UK this year.
Oh, and it has to have at least one photo.
Oh, and the photo(s) have to be of photogenic boys, not girls.
After all, there are plenty of such stories illustrated just with photos of girls, so there’s bound to be plenty that’s just illustrated with boys, isn’t there?
Tally ho etc.
(Update: and yes, I mean the UK)
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http://www.independent.co.uk/student/into-university/clearing/learning-process-advice-services-provided-by-ucas-2048767.html
Does this count? This is difficult!
http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2010/aug/17/a-levels-a-grade-universities
does he count as photogenic?
How about http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/education/pass-rate-for-scots-highers-rises-to-a-new-high-1.1045986
I think this is a male hand: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-10859102
Jamie: not really a story about exam results.
David: I’ll be harsh and say know. Had he been smiling…
Dave: so close, but there’s a woman in the photo…
Anthony: ooh, sneeky – but it is indeed a male hand by the looks of it. So name a charity…
Anthony may I suggest York and District Mind as a good charity to support if you haven’t thought of a different one! Mike
.@markpack offered a reward to find some young men getting A level grades http://bit.ly/bdBZkc
RT @markpack: ALERT! ALERT! Man spotted taking A level last year http://bit.ly/affaqz (via commenter Kim at http://bit.ly/aw9v7D)
RT @DrEvanHarris: A £50 prize elicited finding of a tiny number of boys with A level success http://bit.ly/bxSRLp See entries in comment …
RT @DrEvanHarris: A £50 prize elicited finding of a tiny number of boys with A level success http://bit.ly/bxSRLp See entries in comment …
Found one! A real, genuine, actual one!
http://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/news/galleries/alevels/view/gallery_105690.A_level_results_day/
Kim, that one says it’s from “10:36am Fri 21 Aug 09″ so fails the “this year” requirement.
Sorry! Was the wrong link…
*THIS*
http://www.nwemail.co.uk/home/students-collect-a-level-results-today-1.747753?referrerPath=home
?!?
RT @DrEvanHarris: A £50 prize elicited finding of a tiny number of boys with A level success http://bit.ly/bxSRLp See entries in comment …
@Kim however, it is a write up about what happened a year after he got his results – so photo may well be from last year as well (interesting the journalist is female).
http://www.burnham-on-sea.com/news/2010/a-level-results-19-08-10.php
5 boys, 1 picture?
Ah, good point.
Well, then there is this:
http://www.ilfordrecorder.co.uk/content/redbridge/recorder/news/story.aspx?brand=RECOnline&category=newsIlford&tBrand=northlondon24&tCategory=newsilford&itemid=WeED18%20Aug%202010%2009%3A17%3A57%3A023
Boys, this year, results.
Result?!?
That photo’s terribly small. But, squinting a lot, I think I can declare that all the boys are photogenic.
If only the pic was a lot bigger… But so far that’s the winner.
This one is clearer, and his is a boy
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1257269/Ten-year-old-genius-celebrates-achieving-second-A-level-passing-maths-A.html
But… well… it’s the DailyMail…
The Newcastle Evening Chronicle has a lad on the front page (4A*s and an A) but then undoes that sterling work with five pictures of girls inside. They haven’t posted the photos on the web yet but the story is here:
http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/north-east-news/evening-chronicle-news/2010/08/19/students-across-north-east-opening-a-level-results-72703-27094415/
Correction -inside has four photos of girls and one of another lad (apologies to him).
Can you tell me why ‘photgenic’ is a requirement? I’m not even sure what it means.
http://www.ilfordrecorder.co.uk/content/redbridge/recorder/news/story.aspx?brand=RECOnline&category=newsIlford&tBrand=northlondon24&tCategory=newsilford&itemid=WeED19%20Aug%202010%2011%3A51%3A03%3A717
Today’s news & picture
Excellent idea BTW Mark – is media bias on the curriculum?
Jeremy: for a definition see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photogenic As to why? Well that’s because the very widely used media cliché is to use photos of photogenic women (only) in illustrating A level results.
As for clichés – here’s a round-up from last year:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/gallery/2009/aug/21/national-newspapers-newspapers
In keeping with the theme:
http://www.uel.ac.uk/development/donate/index.htm
Where is my feedback on my photo please
This site provides a lot of research material. If you want I will find time to undertake a full review and analysis
http://sexyalevels.tumblr.com/
RT @DrEvanHarris: A £50 prize elicited finding of a tiny number of boys with A level success http://bit.ly/bxSRLp See entries in comment …
Mark: I think that’s only Wikipedia’s definition. It’s a pretty subjective term. My problem with it is that you seem to be suggesting that photogenic boys would be OK. Either you think ‘the media’ should use nice-looking people to illustrate stories or you don’t. I can’t work out which.
Jeremy: ah, in that case that’s because you’re looking for the wrong thing in my post. It’s about the media’s gender choices when it comes to photos at exam time rather than any of the many other issues around media choices and clichés.
I wasn’t ‘looking for’ anything. I just think this whole debate is flawed. If you’re looking for cliches you’ll find them, that’s the nature of cliches. The fact is, there *are* pictures of boys too, as the above posts demonstrate, you’re just ignoring them because they don’t fit in with the argument. So who’s won the £50?
Jeremy: I’m not ignoring them, but making the point how rare they are. In fact, the Guardian today used a photo of four boys – but blogged in jest about how it was making media history in doing so, illustrating how they too recognise that the gender balance of photos doesn’t reflect the gender balance of those taking or passing the exams.
As for winner – see my comment near top of the thread.
Media show imbalance in gender choice of pictures – next thing they’ll be putting photos of topless girls in the papers for blokes to gawp at.
But thanks for the debate. I guess I’m just a bit grumpy and taking it all too seriously – and sorry I didn’t spot the winner earlier. My fault.
@robscott33 @gomarciego http://t.co/7QNDwRu