Wednesday 8th September 2010: Research into Local/National Newspapers- Compare & Contrast

For the research if my newspapers, I am going to be looking at newspapers from my local area, as well as other areas, and using scans to analyse them, Looking at different layouts, mastheads, etc. I will also be looking at the content, Whether or not the newspaper has included international news, or just news from around the area, whether or not there is advertisements, etc. The scans are from local newspapers "The Daily Post" and "Daily News".

The Daily Mail is a daily newspaper that is from the North Wales Region.

The Date and Price are featured underneath the Masthead, as well as the Sub-title.

As you can see here, this newspaper has been printed in Colour, the Masthead in Blue, with the Welsh Dragon in the centre. It is in Sans-Serif, as is the rest of the headlines and sub-headlines on the page.

The front page is split up into 3 sections: The Main Headline (bottom), and two Sub-headlines that are placed at the top.

The Main headline shows some of the article, then procides to say "FULL STORY- P5". This is to attract the audience to the main headline,giving them half of the story, therefore they will buy the newspaper to read the rest

Underneath the short, Main Headline, the sub heading is featured, which is smaller, giving more detail to the main header.

The page also features colour pictures, one in every section, to go into the storys in more detail.

The news in this newspaper is just from that specific area. It may feature world-wide news inside, but on the cover the news is only related to the area it sells in.

The pictures on this newspaper are of local people (the two pictures at the top) with their own story, a Man, who sadly died in a sporting event, and a woman who was related to a victim of violent crime. The third picture, which is part of the main headline, is of a local area where a tragedy has happened. By putting a picture of the area where a story has happened, it will attract the target audience (local people) to read the newspaper, as they may live or know the area where this has happened.

This is a small town, local newspaper that covers a small area, therefore the audience can relate to what is being reported, whether they know people in the news, or were apart of the story, or just want to know about the news in their area.


Although this is still a local newspaper, the news on the page is worldwide, whereas the news on the previous newspaper was just local.

The cover for this newspaper shows just one story. Although it is specific to the place it is sold it, It is world wide news, that everyone knows about. It is also a Splash, as it is the main headline.

The masthead is alot like the previous one, with the emblem in the middle. It is in Serif writing, in Black, which is different to the previous local paper.

The rest of the writing on the page is in Sans-Serif, which is the same as the previous local newspaper, as all of the writing on that was Sans-Serif.

This story is clearly important to the place it is sold. The paper has dedicated the front page to this one story. It is specifically talking about the man on the cover.

As apposed to writing half of the story on the front page, the paper has just written the headline and then written "SEE PAGES 4-7 & EDITORIAL".

The black background seems to be a representation of evil, as usually the writing is in black, the background in white. The newspaper has clearly stated that this man is evil, with the headline it has used, so the black background is a representation and symbol of this.

Again, in comparision to the previous newspaper, the date, price and Sub-title of the newspaper are featured underneath the masthead.

The picture here has been used to grab attention, as the newspaper has shown that the man on the page is an important figure to the news at that time.

Monday 5th July 2010: Questionnaire Results

After collecting my data via. Facebook, I made graphs for each of the questions. Here I have evaluated each graph and the answers I received.

Question 1

As you can see here, the highest amount of people is 6 out of 10. This means that 6 out of the 10 people asked never buy there Local Newspaper. This could mean that their Local Newspaper is free, as some are. The rest of the numbers are low. Could this possibly be because the news in Local

Newspapers don't feature news that the age group

find interesting? If local teens were featured

in Local Newspapers more, would they buy it ?

Question 2

This graph shows the type of news reported in Local Newspapers. As you can see, the most news reported is Success. I would like to incorporate Success into my newspaper, as I think it is a positive thing to be looking at in Local

Community's, when someone achieves something never before done by someone in the area.

Question 3

This graph shows the answers to "Do you think Local Newspapers Offer news for a wide range of Ages?". As you can see, the majority of the people answered No. This could be because the people asked were 14-21 year olds, therefore what is in the news may not appeal to them.

Question 4

6 people believed their local area was seen in the right light, whereas 4 didn't . This could be because the people asked were all from different areas, and could have different opinions.

Question 5

This question I think is important to the age group I asked. The age group I asked were either in school/university or been in school/university, therefore they would know if the schools in their local area had been featured in newspapers.

Question 6

Lastly I asked if they were happy with the service provided by their Local newspaper. 8 out of 10 people said they were happy. 2 people said they weren't. This could be because the news being reported wasn't what the age group questioned was looking for.

Friday 2nd July 2010: Research using Questionnaire

Questionnaire

Here I have prepared a questionnaire, researching into the type of news people see in their local newspapers. I have tried to base the questionnaire on the news I want to feature in my local newspaper. I will turn my answers into graphs to represent my findings. My Target Audience for the questionnaire is 14-25 year olds. This is because I think my main story will involve a high school student. To distribute my questionnaire, I plan on using Facebook. I think this is a good way to reach the target audience and easier for them to fill it out. It will make it a quicker and easier process for me also, to have all the information stored, therefore I won't have to transfer any over from paper to the computer. I will ask 10 people. My results and graphs will be shown on the next post.

____________________________________________________________________

Local Newspaper Questionnaire

1) How often do you buy your local town newspaper?

-everyday

-1-3 days of the week

-3-7 days of the week

2) What kind of news do you think your local paper features most?

-business news

-crime in the area

-local sport

-local success

-other______________

3) Do you think your newspaper offers news for a wide range of ages?

-Yes

-No

4) Do you think the local newspaper sees your local area in the right light? (For example; Are some areas represented in a bad way, crime, etc)

-Yes

-No

5) Does your newspaper recieve news on local schools?

-yes

-no

6) Lastly, are you happy with the service your local newspaper provides?

-yes

-no

Thank you for completing this questionnaire

____________________________________________________________________

Monday 28th June 2010: Codes & Conventions Of Local/National Newspapers

Here I have a image of a local newspaper in my area. I am going to be looking at the Codes and Conventions of local newspapers/newspapers in general. Newspaper Codes & Conventions are the points that create a typical newspaper look, for example, the 'Red Top' newspapers are the newspapers that feature the name of the newspaper in a red box at the top, with the date, and Price underneath. Examples of 'Red Tops' are The Sun, The Mirror, and the Daily Star. These types of newspapers feature celebrity news, as well as some International news. There is also the 'Broadsheet' newspaper. These are usually the middle-upper class stereotypical newspapers that feature world news, with financial and business news. Examples of these newspapers are The Times, The Observer, and The Guardian.

Codes and Conventions of Newspapers

• Masthead, usually in colour for local newspapers, for example the Echo is in red, The Daily Post is in blue, unlike broadsheet newspapers like the Times, or The Mail, which are in Black.


• Seperated into sections, main headline, bold, big writing, then other headlines that are smaller, around the page, with some pictures.


• Banner underneath the Masthead, with Date/Price/Area Sold written in.


• First sentance of the Main headline article in Bold. then normal, then "continued on Page.." etc.


• The Main headline is a big story, to draw attention to the Audience. The headline is local news (like the whole newspaper) and includes news that is dramatic and unexpected in the area, so it is attracting local area readers.


• Byline is the line that is underneath the article that has been written, that states the name of the writer.
  

Local Newspaper Codes & Conventions

Local newspaper Codes & Conventions are mostly the same as the previous list of Codes and Conventions.

• An Advertisement Section, usually including Cars, Items people are selling. As well as Houses for Rent/Sale in that specific Area

• Local Stories (as well as national stories)

• Local Sports, usually located on the back pages, featuring Local Team News. Along with some National Sporting News.

• Birthday/Obituary Section for Local people.

Tuesday 22nd June 2010: Brief

I have decided on the Brief I am going to do for this peice of coursework, and that is:

The First two pages of a new local newspaper, together with two of the three options:

• A Poster for the newspaper*
• A Radio Advertisement for the newspaper*
• Two hyperlinked pages from the paper's website

*- These are the two options that I have chosen for my coursework, along with the first two pages of the newspaper.

The mediums for my chosen Brief are Audio and Print, and I will require audio equiptment for the Radio Advertistment. The purpose for the Newspaper is to bring news to people. In this case,It is local news, and therefore I am going to create a newspaper that will attract locals from a town/community. I will write about my target audience further in my Research/Planning. The Newspaper will include things that are affecting locals in a town or community.

I will be doing my work in this order:

• Local Newspaper Work
• Poster for Local Newspaper (A3)
• Radio Advertisement

I will be using this blog throughout all of my work, As I have experience using a blogger from last year. My photographs, Sketches, and any other work will be scanned and put onto here.

The two pages that I will be creating for the Local Newspaper are going to be the Front page, and an Article Page.