A Sensational Example

"This structure (Given/New) is ideological in the sense that it may not correspond to what is the case either for the consumer of the image or layout: the important point is that the information is presented as though it had that status or value for the reader, and that readers have to read it within that structure, even if that valuation may then be rejected by a particular reader"(187).

In keeping with this political observation by the authors, I have included here some magazine layouts reporting on the progress of the OJ Simpson investigation. As you will note, in both layouts, OJ is featured on the right side and therefore "contestable" position, opposite the left side--the "given" information which is a photo of the victim, and the evidence compiled by the prosecution, respectively. Regardless of one's opinion regarding the trial (and its conclusions), we must observe the pattern of Given/New at work here in these depictions of the OJ Simpson trial. They are remarkably in sync with what Kress and van Leeuwen posit.

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