Contents

1. Product Research- research of existing local newspapers- what types of news stories they contain, and how much of each section, for example how much space is given to local news stories, how much to showbiz stories and the sport section. I will analyze how the news articles are structured and how they are written, e.g what language is used and how it is used.

2. Audience research- I will produce a questionaire that will ask people what type of stories they expect in a local newspaper, how often they read them if ever, and how the expect the newspapers to be presented like.

3. Analyse existing posters which advertise newspapers, see how they are structured.

4. Listen to existing radio advertisements, and see what a newspaper advertisement should contain.

Audience research

I have done a questionaire, which asks people how often they read local newspapers, and if so what they will expect in them, and the feedback i have recieved will be very helpful towards creating my own product, these are the results that i have found-

I have found that the Advertiser could be made a lot better if it had a lot less advertisements, and a lot more actual news stories and features, as people would find it much more readable if the newspaper had more features to read in it, and the main audience for this are people aged around 50/60, as these people have more free time on their hands, and also there is evidence of them being more inclined to read these newspapers, as certain features in this have much more contributions from older people than younger people.

And for the Daily Echo, i have also found that the audience for this seem to be around the 30/40/50 age range, as younger people don't seem to have time to read newspapers in general, they are just not interested in local affairs, or just aren't really that bothered either way but won;t go to the trouble of buying and reading newspapers in particualr the Daily Echo.

I have also found, that when asking people what they immediately think of when they hear/see 'The Daily Shot' what first comes into their head, and i have found that the vast majority think of a gun shot when they first hear the word 'shot' , whereas for me i think of a shot in sport, for example a football shot or a basketball shot, and also this could be intepreted as a shot/injection of news

Research into ancillary texts

These newspaper posters are once again set out in a very typical English newspaper advertisement style layout, with the headline in big bold black with lexical choices made by the producers to try and attract their target audience, with the newspaper companies name in the masthead position. The headlines on this poster are both to do with cats, and how they are 'killers' of a sort. Once the reader sees the word 'Cat' immediately their mind softens and the word 'kill' isn't quite so powerful anymore, as of course if it was a human being accused as being a killer, then we enter a totally different mindset as it is always a lot worse if a fellow human being has killed someone/something. So we almost approach this poster and the newspaper itself in a more joking manner, as we would laugh at what they have done instead of feeling angry, as cats are pets to us and looked upon mainly as being cute and beings that can't be held responsible for any wrong doings as they are just cats. Also the poster on the left has a picture above the headline, which you do not often see on these posters, and an image on this is used because the headline is also not big/long enough to cover the whole poster, and also as the onlooker will get a feel for what the newspaper will actually be about and images can draw even more people in as it is more visual and adds an extra dimension to the poster while also giving the onlooker more knowledge about the featured story in the newspaper.        

This newspaper advertisment is of a local paper which is reporting on things being destroyed by local students. Instead of a more hard hitting story, for example someone dying, this is of something which you would expect to find in a local newspaper, as this sort of news would never make the national newspapers. This is set out in the typical manner in which these posters are usually set out in, with the bold headline in the center of the poster, and with the name of the newspaper (masthead) at the top. However, unlike some other stereotypical papers, at the bottom of the poster there is another mini advertisement, with half of a front page of the newspaper shown with text to go with it (News, stories, events catering to all your local needs),which i think looks out of place, and the onlooker will not notice this as the bold headline is what draws you to this poster. So i think that this bit of the poster is included to at least give another dimension. The headline on this poster (Edgbarrow's destroyed by it's own students) is reasonably eyecatching, and as soon as you see 'Destroyed' (which is immediately the first word you take note of) you want to see what has happened, and also it says that it has been been destroyed by students, which makes you think of students and also teenagers in a bad light and fits the stereotype of them being 'yobs' and commiting antisocial behaviour, and also who are supposed to be mature, as 'students' makes you think of more mature people who are choosing to study rather than 'pupils' who have to study whether they want to or not, so we look down on these 'students' and immedaitely think of the stereotypical teenager in their late teens (lazy, rough, and ruins good things that they are given).        

1. I have been researching into newspaper advertising posters, and I have found that they always have a typical layout of a newspaper poster, a white background, and with the masterhead of the newspaper covering the top part of the poster, and with the main headline in bold black writing, which immedately grabs the attention of a passer by. The design is very simple, but very effective, as their is not anything to take away the on-lookers attention when they see this, they will immediatetly be drawn to the text, and also to the masterhead to see who publishes/sells this newspaper, so i find this poster very effective. If this text had more text and pictures, it would make the poster not effective at all, because it would over shadow the main bold text that stands out well without any other text/pictures. This poster follows the codes and conventions of a newspaper advertising posters, and if it went against the codes and conventions, it would not be so effective in attracting people to purchase their newspaper.

This is a different kind of newspaper poster, and in my opinion it is just as effective in attracting it's target audience. Instead of the typical newspaper advertising poster, which is solely black and white with only text and no images, whereas this image has a image as the centre of the poster and it is the thing which will grab the onlookers attention first rather than text.
                                                     The image is also quite startling and will definetly make the onlooker want to take a closer look, as the image of 2 men kissing each other is quite shocking and is deemed as wrong and immoral even in this day and age. There is text to accompaay this image right above it, and this is effective as it is short, sharp and to the point.
                                                     The image is very different, and the fact that is white man kissing a black man is quite shocking as the skin colours directly conflict each other and although is nowhere near as bad or big anymore, i still think that it is quite shocking/surprising to see a black and white man kissing each other and you immediately want to see what it about and read this, and see what this is about (this headline is in reference to the 2008 American elections-the battle between Barack Obama and John McCain).
                                                     I also think it is also making a play on the images with the black and white hands together which shows togetherness and unity, whereas this image is all about the opposite, as the black and white man in this image are fighting against each other for power and who is better than each other (also is the black race better than the white race, so it is in stark contrast to the other pictures that show unity between black and white people).                            
                                           The masterhead is in yellow and this is effective as it stands out well from the rest of the front cover as the background colour behind this is black so the yellow is reasonably effective. Also the front cover has plenty of different colours on it, rather than the typical newspaper poster which is not very colourful and bland to look at while it is still as effective and still as eyecatching, they are just both very different styles but both equally effective in reaching out to their respective target audiences.
                                          Also the second advertising poster is Italian, and this shows how different the English and Italian cultures are, as the Italian poster is much more vibrant compared to the English poster which is quite bland and boring in comparison to the Italian poster, but still, no less effective, just a big difference is how the ideas are presented and this shows how different the cultures are.


















Radio Advertisements-  I have researched into existing radio advertisements, and I have found that these advertisements often have some sort of jingle to make their advertisement stand out from the rest, making it original, and to make sure that the listener will take note of the product that is being advertised, and eventually make them want to purchase the product. They must be very different to other rival advertisements as of course they are very capable of overshadowing others. These advertisements always include a story line i have found, and i have also personally listened to some radio avertisements, and they always seem to have sime sort of story to keep the listener listening and engaged, whereas if they are boring the the listener will automatically switch off and not pay attention. The jingle is of course very important, as if the jingle is very catchy, then this will obviously make the reader remember it more and of course the product that goes with it, and word of mouth will also come into play, if the listener then goes and tells their friend about what they heard on the radio and the product that was being advertised, then this will increase the popularity of the product and therefore increase sales as people are drawn in my this advert.

Below is an example of a radio advetisement website which has samples of radio advertisements on it and they are a company for people to go to them and advertise their product through their company. This shows how they work and also how they are produced and also how they are specifically targeted to their target audience and successful they are in taking in sales from after the people have listened to the advertisement and then it will tell us how effective they are in pulling in sales and if people really like what is beng advertised then they will go and search what the product does and if they will be useful to them.

'Babble-On represents and licenses production music from hundreds of different production music libraries, covering an inordinate amount of themes and styles. We're constantly receiving shipments of new discs and libraries to keep things current and interesting. If there's a musical genre you can think of, or an artist you need to match, it's a pretty safe bet that we'll have more than a few choices for you to sample. Many of our production music libraries are in our Soundminer audio file database - so, with the simple troll and click of a trackball, we can get you achingly close to that Yanni/Oasis/Jay-Z mash-up your bank client just "has to have."

Want to hear what's new? We typically post a sampling of newly arrived production music on our Babble-Blog. Look for the posts called “Dropping In'. This shows that the production company are good in attracting people to produce advertisements with them as it is made to be very attractive, with the offers of being able to offer production music of high quality e.g 'close to that Yanni/Oasis/Jay-Z', so the audience will want to produce a radio advertisment with them.       

Things that are important while producing/planning a radio advertisement. 

Every radio buy must begin with a clear understanding of the listeners you want to reach. Write a one-sentence target audience profile based on the demographics of your prospects. This should include their age, gender, where they live and other factors, such as household income. Then share this information with the sales reps from the stations you're considering. They'll tell you what percentage of their stations' listeners match these demographics and at what times of the day or during which programming you'll reach your best prospects.

There also may be qualitative characteristics of your ideal prospects you should consider when making your radio buy. A restaurant owner, for example, would look for a radio station whose listeners dine out frequently. The radio station sales reps have access to both qualitative and quantitative information concerning their listeners and should be able to give you customized proposals that include schedules with ratings breakdowns. They should also provide signal coverage maps that show precisely where their stations are heard


How radio advertisements are produced:

A well-produced radio spot can inspire the imagination like nothing else. Without a video aspect, the listener's mind is free to wander--to conjure up splendid and impossible scenarios to hold their interest, make them laugh, and, most of all, to pay attention! People listening to radio are usually doing something else at the same time--driving, working in the home or at the office, or exercising--so they don't necessarily hear every word in a commercial. It has to be good!
Obviously your production will need to be done at one of the stations you will be using. But once you have tried the production at a few stations and you feel comfortable with the quality of one particular station, use that production facility for as much of your work as you can.
Generally, you will be running a 60-second spot. This gives you plenty of time to get your business name and location in at least three times. The name and location of your business should be mentioned at least twice in a 30-second ad and three times in a 60-second ad.
Since radio production is so inexpensive and often free, you don't have to be worried about changing your ad often. You can therefore be very specific with each script and make the ad generic or dedicate it to a special sale or promotional event. If you are having a sale, give price and item (jargon for "mention specific products and prices"), a percentage off, or a specific brand being sold at a discounted price.
One of the wonderful things about radio production is that you have the option of having each station you use produce its own version of the same script. This saves you talent fees and the cost of dubs. The message will be the same--but the delivery will end up being very different, unless you give instructions that will standardize the spots.
Standardizing is very important, because you want people to know they are hearing a commercial for the same businesses when they hear slightly altered versions on different stations.
To standardize the sound of the spots done on different stations:

• Request a female or male voice on all spots.
• Request the same music.
• Spell out the kind of energy you want put into the voice ("energetic read" or "laid-back, casual read").

This way, each audience will hear the same words and receive the same message at little or no production cost to you. While it may be more appealing to have the same exact commercial on all stations, new businesses do not always have funds to pay even for the modest cost of radio production. And in that case it is smarter to put whatever money you have into the frequency of the schedule and run a basic but informative ad. However, if you can manage the cost of having one commercial produced (including talent fee and the cost of copies to give to other stations you are using), it's a plus to have the same commercial running on all stations.
Use 60-second ads when:

• Your message is complex. Better to write a 60 that makes your message clear than a 30 that leaves doubts and questions.
• You need to include specific details to help persuade. Specifics are always more believable than generalities. Close the loophole. Answer the question lurking in the listener's mind. But don't bore your audience by answering questions no one was asking.
• You're in a business category that's new and not easily understood. If you need to create the realization of need before you can sell your solution, it can easily take 60 seconds.
• You need to "baffle them with bull." If you sell a generic commodity, and your strategy is for people to buy from you simply because they like you better, you're going to need a world-class creative team. These ads are, without question, the hardest of all ads to write. But they can also be the most entertaining. These are the times when your production people can shine like the sun. Inspire them but don't instruct them. Buy them food, give them praise, and remind them that they're geniuses and that yes, everyone misunderstands them but you. Production people live to create ads like these, but you've got to give them time, encouragement and freedom. Use 30-second ads when:
  
  • Your product or service category is clearly understood and you're making an easy-to-understand offer. Say it plain. Say it straight. Eliminate all but the most essential adjectives and adverbs. Replace clichés and predictable phrases with unanticipated wording. Focus on verbs and use as many as possible. Make one point per ad, but make it powerfully in the script. Whatever you do, don't write a weak message and then try to compensate for it with powerful delivery (vocal inflection, dramatic music, sound effects.) The '70s are over.
  Use 15-second ads when:
  
  • You have an incredibly powerful, simple message. Don't screw it up by blah, blah, blahing for 30 seconds when you can say it more powerfully in 15. Sadly, many ad writers fall into the trap described so eloquently by
  •  French philosopher and mathematician Blaise Pascal: "I have made this letter longer than usual because I lack the time to make it shorter." At least 25 percent of the 30-second ads on most stations would really work better as 15s. But most stations aren't willing to sell 15-second ads at a price that makes them attractive. Even more difficult is training ad writers how to uncover the vital, core message that can be powerfully communicated in 15 short seconds. Tight, powerful ads are hard to write, but definitely worth the effort.
  • You're in a business category in which no one advertises but you. When path dominance has been acquiesced to you by your competitors and simple name recognition will likely be enough to make customers think of your name when they need what you sell, don't be an idiot-buy 15-second ads and mentions. Use mentions when:
    
    • You sell a commodity in a crowded marketplace and your strategy is to go for top-of-mind awareness.
    • You merely want to add additional frequency to a schedule that is delivering barely sufficient frequency of your 30- or 60-second message. But don't fool yourself by calculating a TAPSCAN reach and frequency analysis that lumps the mentions into the same schedule as the 30s and/or 60s. The schedule of the full-length ad must deliver sufficient frequency on its own. Mentions are merely gravy for these schedules. Like gravy, they're really not worth much when there's insufficient meat on the plate.
    The most common mistake is allowing the ad budget to dictate the length of your ad. Never try to squeak by with 15s and mentions when you really need 30s and 60s. Reduce the number of people you're reaching instead of cutting the length of your ad, or buy a less expensive time of day or from a smaller station. Always make your message exactly as long as it needs to be.

This is all showing how radio advertisements are produced, the processes the companies go through to come up with their final product that is targeted at their target audience, and why they make certain choices in their creation proccesses to achieve what they have had in mind when they set their plans out.

Also with radio advertisements, the tone of voice means a lot. For example if the tone of voice is welcoming and gentle, the listener is much more likely to take note of what is being said, and is much more likely to buy/make use of the service that is being advertised, than say if the voice was sharp and aggressive sounding.

Research into my main product.

1. The Advertiser- I have researched into existing local newspapers, and I first researched into the Advertiser which is delievered weekly on a Thursday in the local area. This local paper has a lot of advertisements, and the primary aim for this newspaper is to advertise things, such as houses on the market, local businesses and local services. There is alos a section at the back for local residents to write in with a stroy that they want to share, and personally I think this is a very good idea as it gives a good opportunity to see and read local people's opinions on what is going on and what changes are proposed for example, and we the reader can engage with what them and decide for ourselves whether our opinion conflicts with theires or not. This newspaper is mainly aimed towards people who are looking for homes on the market for example, and looking for services to suit their needs. It is not geared towards people who want to read a newspaper for news, as this is primarily a good advertising opportunity for people who want to advertise their products/homes/business to their specific local audience. The masterhead is displayed across the top of the front cover, and the colour of this is red, which does stand out from the white background, and also this follows the codes and conventions of a normal newspaper masterhead, as you can find that a lot of newspaper masterheads are in red, for example 'The Sun' and 'The News Of The World' both have this, and it is effective in grabbing the audiences attention, as they are both very popular national newspapers. However unlike the mainstream national papers, this is a free paper, and in free papers there are certain preconceptions we have, for example, the amount of space that is taken up by advertising, and the general lack of quality from the stories that are printed. To an extent, this newspaper, goes along with these expectations that we have before we pick it up to read, with big advertisments taking up large amounts of room, and the stories being quite dull and not very interesting (which is also down to personal opinion), for example a story called 'Shortcut for buses opened by athlete', which is just a story about an athlete opening a shortcut for buses, which in my opinion, is not very interesting and dull, and would never make a normal national newspaper as this is nowehere near interesting enough. Also the audience that will be most attracted to reading this newspaper i have found out will be more older around 40/50/60, and we can see evidence of this asin the dating section, nearly all of the people that are aged 60plus (image below)

2. The Daily Echo (Bournemouth)- This newspaper is a typical local newspaper, it has lots of local news stories that will interest the local audience as this is it's primary purpose. The main headline on the front page is usually a big accident for example that has occured  recently, for example a big car accident, or when a local soldier who fights in the Army and has died. The audience is quite likely to know someone who has been involved in an incident that has ben published, or maybe participated in something local, and the reader will feel close to the newspaper because of this, and they will be able to relate to the stories a lot more than say a national newspaper, as things in a local newspaper will obviously be more relevant to the reader. The layout is very typical of a newspaper and follows the code of conventions of a newspaper, with the masterhead in the to left hand corner and the layout of the ariticles is what we would expect. The masthead is cleraly displayed acroos the top of the newspaper, and the name 'Daily Echo' is widely known and as soon as people see this then it is very familiar to them, and also the reader feels very safe and happy with this paper, they know what stories to expect, as the content in these papers is very much the same but just different content, for example a story about someone that has serious health problems but are complaining about the NHS service, and this story could be repeated a number of times. As previously stated, i have stated that the target audience for this newspaper is of course the local residents, but also, i have found out in my audience research that the majority of readers seem to be of an age around 30/40/50, as i haven;t found any people that are aged around 16-21 that are even interested in reading this newspaper, or any newspaper in fact. The reasons can be cited as that they are just not interested in local affairs, it is not 'cool' to be seen reading a newspaper or just that their lives are too busy to have time for newspapers.

I went about contacting this paper, asking for information about how the edittors and reporters go about choosing what stories they want in the paper and the proccesses they go through. Unfortunately they were unwilling to disclose anything without me working for them in someway, and this was not convienient for me at the time.

The frequency of an event will also affect how it gets reported. For example, a murder take very little time, and their meaning is very quickly arrived at, and therefore their frequency fits very well into daily newspapers and news programmes. Other topics, such as social, cultural and economic trends take much longer to unfold, and therefore take a lot longer to unfold and become meaningful. The threshold of an event is when the event is decided whether it is worthy of being reported, and what part of the newspaper it will fall in (for example headline, small column story), or also if it won't be reported at all. Meaningfulness is another theory that will decide what/how a news story/event will be reported. For example, if something happened in the local proximity, then the event will be most likely reported on, as the audience will be more attracted to read/buy the newspaper, as it effects them in a more direct way. Also, if you live in a Western country, then Western stories will be given priority over Eastern stories, as westerners will be much more interested in reading western stories than eastern stories just for the fact that they live in a western country. This same model can be applied to local newspapers, as stories about the region you live in will have priority over stories from a region that you don't live in (for example stories about Yorkshire when you live in Dorset), again just because you live in your county and stories about another county are not as important or engaging. This also comes under the model of relevance, which sorts out if a certain story is relevant or not and therefore whether it should be reported on or not. For example a story which occurs in an Asian country for example, will become worthy of being reported on if it directly affects the home culture, in the form of something important like a 'threat'. And also Western journalists are fascinated with the eastern culture and their customs and beliefs and often in the western press, they are reported on as being weird, and generally being presented in a negative manner. Also, if a certain story is covering a long time period, it will be reported on over a period of time, to keep the audience informed. If a event contains a reference to an elite person, for example a head of state/president/prime minister, then the event is much more likely to be reported on, and their actions are assumed as being more important and consequential as they affect our lives and they are famous people in a lot of power, what they do will effect us, and also if they do something wrong and make a mistake, then this is percieved as being more serious and they are made to look like complete idiots and failures at their jobs as they are very important people and high up in society, and therefore they should not make mistakes, especially mistakes that cause a lot of negative happenings and very bad things occur for the public as a result of the mistake of the person who is supposedly in a lot of power.
                                                        
For a effective newspaper to work, then certain threshold must be in it, to decide what stories need to be in a newspaper, and what stories don't, what are important, and which are not. This comes from Galtang and Rouge's news values, which includes news threshold. The newspapers have to decide what will sell best to their target audience, and how they will go about trageting their audience. For a local newspaper, stories about local people getting into serious accidents, they will be most probably be one of the top stories in the newspaper, because they will directly affect someone reading it, and more people will be affected because they could know that person in someway, and also stories like that will sell a lot more newspapers, than what has aheadline about for example a cat being stuck up a tree or something. Having said that, there are stories and main headlines when an animal gets stuck up a tree or injures themselves in someway, as people like to read heartning stories like that, that don't invlove humans, but of course, the main sellers will be about big local events invloving humans. Nationwide stories will be treated with less importance, as if the reader wnated to read about these, then they have plently of nationwide newspaper to buy, and they will not attract readers to a local newspaper to buy, but however they do have some nationwide stories in them, but they always affect us readers in the locak area someway, for example the current government making severe cuts, this is a story that will be reported in all major nationwide newspaper, but because it will affect everyone, it is reported, and the story is made very specific to the local area also to give it a local newspaper story feel to it.  Sport is also a big thing in local newspaper, readers like to see how their local sports teams and sportsmen/women are getting along, men and women alike, but prodominently this is more suited to males, and for this the sport news will again be kept local as this is all what local newspaper reader will be interested rather than the bigger nationwide news, which readers can find in the big newspapers.

Research into existing news stories that i could incorporate ideas in for my own

A news story that involves a person who lives locally and they have had something terrible happen to them (e.g. being killed in an attack/accident), this will be one of the main headlines for obvious reasons, as in a local newspaper, the reader has a good chance of being affected by this is some way, and also this will attract more readers, people who don't even buy this newspaper reguarly will buy this as it would be a big local story, and rather than a story that involves someone who doesn;t live locally, for example this is the news story that involved a young school boy from the local area :

''Family pay tribute to schoolboy Aidan O'Neill

11:49am Thursday 30th September 2010

By Juliette Astrup »

THE devastated family of Aidan O'Neill have paid tribute to their "fun, cheeky, affectionate" son.

The 12-year-old was tragically killed riding his bike across a footbridge on his way to Poole Grammar School yesterday morning.

Aidan fell from his bike after hitting a metal barrier as he cycled across a footbridge over the Dorset Way.
Speaking to the Daily Echo, Aidan's father, Steve, 50, said: "He was just such fun, he had a naturally smiley face, a very sunny disposition, he had a great capacity for empathy and always put himself in someone else's position.
"If they wanted a laugh he'd make them laugh, if they needed a cuddle he'd give him a cuddle."
Steve said Aidan loved nature, cycling, swimming and rugby. He used to go birdwatching with his grandfather, Ted Brown.
The former Canford Heath First and Oakdale Middle School pupil also loved dramatic, performing and amateur dramatics and in school plays.''


This will really grab the readers attention as it is very shocking and also tragic, and people are inclined to feel more empathy and sorrow if it is a child who has been the victim of an accident, and the techniques with how this is written really enforces the point that this is really a tragic case, for example 'tragically killed riding his bike ' which immediately makes us feel sorry inside, and also we really want to read on to see what has actually happened. This comment made by an online reader shows how this works effectively:

''I have never met Aiden, but I wept as I read this tragic story. What a beautiful, happy face, & by all accounts, a wonderfully tender, kind & gifted lad! My deepest & sincerest sympathy go to his family & no doubt 'many' friends. I cant even try to imagine how you are all feeling right now! This is saddest story I have read for a very long time!''

This is proof of how the language techniques work to make the reader feel a lot of sadness towards him and his family, and how it can affect us personally even though we may not know the person involved personally, and i think that the fact that he lives locally makes it even more sad, then a boy dying from Manchester for example.




I have researched into my own target audience for my own newspaper, and i have been asking adults only, as i believe that young people (certainly people under the age of 18) will not be reading newspapers at all generally, and if they do, i believe that they are not mature enough to understand the concepts, so this is the reasoning behind not asking younger people. I have asked people around the age of 40-45 (middle-aged), as this is the age group which will consume the most news and understand it best in my opinion. In my questionaire, a lot of my questions were about what stories the audience want to read, and what the content should be like to attract more readers, what they would like. I have found that the majority of my target audience tend to be more attracted to the stories which involve someone who lives in the local area who has been involved in something big, for example, the incident when a young boy from the local area was killed tragically on his way to school. This report/headline proved very popular with the audience, and also, reports that contains a death in it, tend to get more readers, as these stories are much more shocking, and therefore attract more attention.

Students march on Bournemouth in protest

A noisy march brought Bournemouth town centre to a standstill as students vented their anger over the proposed hike in university tuition fees.
Waving banners and chanting, around 500 young people turned out to support a national protest.

They wasted no time in voicing their opinions with a highly vocal march from Meyrick Park to Bournemouth town hall.

A small minority threatened to push down barriers placed at the end of Braidley Road and police brought in reinforcements, bringing their number to around 70.

Officers were forced to temp-orarily close off the town centre to traffic when students staged a sit-in on Commercial Road.
But the protest was largely good-humoured and peaceful and ended after two-and-a-half hours.
Inspector Wayne Knock said: “You have to strike a balance between people’s right to protest and keeping order without overreacting and I think we achieved that.”

Here is an example of a second news story that has been reported in a local newspaper. The report is covering students who have been protesting about the latest changes to do with university to be implemented by the government. This story would have been very popular with local readers as this involves the local area heavily and this will also attract a much wider audience as many younger readers will be much more interested to read this article as it could directly affect them in the long term and also it involves young people and once you find out that people your age are involved your interest increases immediately.  Also the actions of the people involved are directly against the government, and at the moment people like to be against the government, so this will also increase interest as this backs up the point of view of the reader, and people like to have the government as the enemy, as this makes them feel as though their opinion is correct and backs them up. Also the government are seen as the enemy as the working/lower classes, and the majority of people who will but this newspaper and take a lot of interest in reading it are likely to be working class of lower class in society, and also these sort of people will take more interest, as the news topic will affect them a lot more, as they have less money than the more wealthy people as the more wealthy people will not be as badly affected as they won't have much of a problem paying these extra tuition fees that this topic is about, as the lesser off people will be much more directly affected.

LATEST: Lyndhurst murder victim named

12:00pm Sunday 13th March 2011

• Print
• Email
• Share

• By Steven Smith »

A MAN who was stabbed to death in Lyndhurst has been named as Paul Steven Pass.

Mr Pass, who was known as Steve, was 54, unemployed and single with no children, said Hampshire Police.
In a statement, his parents Eric and Jean said: “Steve was a very much loved son and losing him in such tragic circumstances is devastating to us.”
A post mortem carried out on Saturday found that Mr Pass died from a single stab wound.
On Saturday, a man appeared in court charged with murder following the discovery Mr Pass at a house near Lyndhurst police station last Thursday evening.
Michael Hanlon, 52, of no fixed address, was remanded in custody by magistrates in Southampton to appear at Winchester Crown Court on Tuesday (March 15).
Police called to the property in Foldsgate Close at 7pm on Thursday found the body of Mr Pass, who had died during an incident on the premises.

Initial ideas for my ancillary texts

Taking into account what i have researched into existing radio advertisements and existing newspaper posters, i have now come up with ideas that i can now use for my own newspaper, and i have some ideas about the first ancillary text i will design, which is a newspaper advertising poster. Having analysed some existing texts, i have found that these posters are always very 'to the point' and they are very plain but in my opinion very effective. For example the example that i have analysed in my research 'Daily Record-Brown Baby Dead', there is just a white background, with the direct contrast of the black text against the white background, which of course works very well as it stands out, so the passer buy cannot miss it, and the headline is short, snappy and catchy, which again will catch the passer by's attention, and if the headline is desgined well enough, then there is a very good chance of a sale, which of course is the goal for the business. And for my own poster, i have decided to do the same thing, i will use white background, whit the direct contrast to go with it, which i am very sure will work effectively and will grab the attention of people, it works for existing newspapers and it will work fine for mine as well, so i have decided to follw the commom codes and conventions for a newspaper poster. I will also make my headline very to the point and try to grab people's attention, as headlines have to be very to the point, dramatic words like 'disaster', 'tragedy' and 'horror' really help in attracting people, as the reader will think that something terrible could have happened invloving someone that they know/have known, so this is effective. Also i have looked at another newspaper poster but it is set out/designed in a totally different way, as instead of being bland and just having black text with a white background this has a big picture in the middle which captures the onlookers attention, and it has a blue background instead of just a white background and there are a lot of different and bright colours which is in total contrast to the English newspaper poster and this shows how different the Italian culture (where this poster comes from) and the English cultures are. Personally i prefer the way the Italian newspaper is set out and designed as it is more diverse and more attractive to look at but also the English poster catches your eye and you notice the headline much more than on the other poster as the bold black text works well against the white background so all you notice is the headline, but with the Italian poster you first notice the picture rather than the headline. So for my newspaper poster i am going to try to incorporate ideas from both posters, as the I think that the English poster is more effective in attracting people to buy the magazine as the design is more eyecatching because of the direct contrasts of the colours, while the Italian poster is still effective as it is also very eyecatching but because of there being so many different colours the message that the poster is trying to deliver gets lost in my opinion and therefore isn't as effective at conveying the message that the poster has and the English poster is very direct and to the point which i will try and incorporate with the attractiveness of the Italian poster.

Here are a few templates for my own newspaper poster (please note that these are nowhere finished these are just ideas of headlines and my layout) and for the moment i have chosen to go with the English layout and presentation as i think it works best, it is more direct and to the point, and also this way of  producing a newspaper advertising poster is very effective i think as this gives you an opportunity to use short sharp and to the point lexical choices for example 'Tragedy' which makes the incident seem/feel more dramatic and serious.

These protoypes show the stages that i have been through to reach my final design for my poster, from the layout to the way the headline is structured and presented to the audience. This shows that i have thoughfully thought through the designing process of my product, and how i have arrived at what i have now for my final product.

My radio advertisement will feature a loud, snappy sound that will make the listeners take notice of what this particular advertisement is advertising, and eventually want to buy the product. For example, to make sure that the listeners actually take notice of what is being advertised, i will include a loud gun shot type sound effect (and this newspaper is called the 'Daily Shot' so this is associated with the sound of a gun shot which will again help the listeners associate this with something which is associated with the product) to make sure that the audience will immediately sit up and take notice of what this advertisement is about, and it will also feature a 'jingle' at the end, so the listeners can associate this product with something, and music helps people remember things, and we associate things with the music which we heard at the time.

Initial ideas for my own product

From looking at existing news stories, i can gather ideas for what to write about in my own newspaper stories, how to structure them and what lexical choices i will have to make, and language features, and how to lay my newspaper out, how to structure it.

I have found that the stories have to be put into a heirachy, of what will be most important and attractive to the reader, what will sell most papers of course, and what will jump out the the reader/audience most when they first see the front page and what will make them want to buy the paper. Stories which are about people that the readers will probably know, then immediately they will be drawn to the paper and want to read about the story itself, which will mean that they will need to buy the paper which will increase sales, so these techniques are effective.

For my own newspaper, i have taken all the ideas that i have seen and analysed, and i will incorporate them into my own product, while still keeping my newspaper original. For my ancillary texts, which are a newspaper poster and a newspaper radio advertisement. I have also researched into existing posters and radio advertisements, and i have taken into account how they are designed and the content in them, while still i will keep my products original.

The first ideas i have had for my own stories to go in my newspaper are-

A story involving a young child who is known by a lot of people and well respected parents, involved in a road accident. This kind of story always draws people in to buy a newspaper, as people will feel empathy for the child and his parents, and will be affected more especially if they knew anyone involved personally, which is quite likely as it is a local newspaper.

For sections in my local newspaper, I will definetly include a section on local sport, as without doubt there will be a lot of interest in local sport, from especially men, who tend to be more interested in more sporting things for example football. The achievements of local sportsmen/women will be of great interest to local residents, as this will make locals feel proud of their acheivements, as they could have known them personally, and just the fact that they originate from the local area will make people feel more proud of where they live themselves.
                              I will also include a section on local advertisements from local businesses,  which while it will not particuarly attract more readers, it is a good chance for local businesses to promote themselves as readers will come across their adverts and hopefully for the business, they will decide to take interest into their product and of course eventually buy something/become involved. Also a smaller section on more wider range news, national news would be a good thing to include. Again this would attract more readers, as if there is more national news to go with local interest, then i believe that this would attract more widespread readers, as if some people are not very interested in local events and news, then the more national news will attract them to buy this as well.
                                              I will also include a section on showbiz, as this will attract a wider audience, most likely to be female, as generally showbiz news, which includes a lot of gossip, relationship rumous, and feuds e.t.c, and this will get more readers to buy my newspaper, and it is a widens my target audience, as my newspaper will include sections which are more geared to the male audience for example sport news (and generally these sections are very appealing to the male audience rather than the female audience (this goes with the traditonal stereotype, which is often true.
                                                                         Also i will include an opportunity for readers to write in expressing their views on a certain subject, which is good as it gives more of a personal touch to the newspaper and it's quite attractive for the readers as they can have their own say and opinion on things, which will again attract more readers in my opinion. These sections in my newspaper attract and reach out to a wide audience, and my newspaper will be very diverse which will help in reaching out to more people and this in turn will increase sales/profit, and the popularity of my newspaper, and word of mouth will help also, if the people who read it really like it, then they will hopefully mention it to their friend who may consume another newspaper, and they can then switch newspaper loyalty.



I have decided that for my main headline and main news story, i have decided with a story about a young child, who has been involved in a tragic and fatal accident, which is a complete accident, and has happened while she was with her parents but while chasing after the dog she fell into the river, and the parents were walking up ahead and didn't notice until it was too late. This is a good idea i feel, as i can see this attracting a lot of readers and also from a lot of people who don't read newspapers on the whole, as there is a good chance they will be affected in someway, and even if they are not, they will feel extra empathy I feel as the story is local and affects the local area directly and they may have a friend who has been more severly affected by what has happened.

I have also decided that for my newspaper name, i am going to call it 'The Daily Shot', as i feel that this is sharp, direct, and very much to the point, and i am confident that my audience will feel the same as i do, and i think that the name is apporpriate. The only problem could be that people may only associate this with sport, football especially, but while of course sport will be included in my newspaper, i do not want to cut my target audience down (as without trying to be too stereotypical more men will be interested in football/sport than men and this cold affect the sales/popularity of my newspaper but i am still confident then people will still be attracted to buying this) but i am confident that this will not harm the chances of people wanting to buy my newspaper.

 

I have alsobeen developing my final product, and here are some of the stages that i ahve/am going through to get to the finished product:

This is how i am designing how to layout my newspaper front cover

This is another example of how i have gone through different stages and tried different things

And this is another example of how i am coming to decide what and how i want my final product to look like

This shows more developments as i was getting towards deciding how i wanted my newspaper to look like

Final Creations

This is my newspaper poster. I have decided to make the headline 'GIRL,3,IN RIVER TRAGEDY' as i believe this delivers the main story well and is very 'punchy' in ths sense of that when you read this it is very short, to the point and matter of fact, which works really well for this as this is something which would be displayed outside a corner shop for example, and passers by would just get a glance of what this poster says, and the word 'tragedy' stands out well and is effective as it is a very dramatic word so this will immediately get people interested, and want to take more notic and a closer look. Also the words 'girl, 6' is a very effective way to structure this sentence as it is quite shocking to see quite a young child involved in a serious incident and this will make people feel even more inclined to read and buy the newspaper as this is powerful in the emotive sense.

In my opinion, the layout and design of my newspaper double spread is very effective, as there is 'no messing about', everything is laid out very clearly, and the readers can see immediately what the stories are about and what content there is in there. For example, the headline is displayed very clearly, and this continues from the front page of the newspaper.

Evaluation questions

1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge codes and conventions of real media texts?
            Newspaper poster- My newspaper poster follows and agrees with many conventions of a typical English poster, which has a very white and clear background, which therefore makes the black bold text stand out even more which is very effective in getting the message across to the audience/people who read this. Also, the masthead is very clear and the reader knows what this newspaper is called and what they will/want to buy.
          My main product-newspaper-my newspaper follows the codes and conventions of local newspapers. To produce my local newspaper effectively, i researched many different existing local newspapers, for example 'The Daily Echo' and 'The Advertiser', and from these i have learnt many different things that i have incorporated into my own product, for example i have learnt how to target my audience effectively, for example what language to use, how to use it and how to lay out my sentence structure to make it all flow together well for the audience to read and for the poster to work effectively. I have chosen to follow the typical codes and conventions, because these are very effective in drawing their audience and despite the new technology coming in, newspapers are still popular and still going. Also, the images on the text can really entice the onlooker, or put them off, and through my research into existing local newspapers, i have found that when they use more hard-hitting images, for example the bruised and beaten up face of someone who has been attacked by another person, this can entice readers as they feel shocked/alarmed when they see this image, and therefore they will want to see and read what this is about, and they feel sorry for the person who has been attacked and so they will want to empathise with the victim in question. I also did audience research to see what types of stories and sections they would like to see in a local newspaper, and in general i found that people liked/preffered lots of different sections, from serious stories/articles, to more lighthearted/heartwarming stories that can involve animals who have saved the day somehow, or some sort of funny story. They also like to have a section in which readers can write in and express their views on certain topics. This all fits in with the genre conventions of a local newspaper, as serious news should of course be included, but also as it is a local newspaper, they should have more community orientated articles and sections included, for example the write in sections for readers, and also the articles about animals doing great/cute things.
                 Radio advertisment- for my radio advertisment, i have researched into many different existing radio advertisement for newspapers, and i have found that there are certain conventions for a radio advertisement. For example, you will find that the vast majority of these advetisements have some sort of jingle to accompany the advert, and this is effective as this really helps the listeners to remember what the advertisement is about and all together makes it much more memorable, and this really helps with trying to sell the product in question. Also, there are no visual aspects of a radio advertisment, so the things that the audience hear must remain in their minds, so that they will then want to buy the product that is being advertised, and also that it stands out from the rest, and to help it stand out from the rest. An example of the radio advertisments that i have researched into is the Daily Express, which has a memorable jingle to it, that the audience will associate with this newspaper, and also, the tune has a moving/fast feel to it, which matches up with the name of the newspaper in question, so this makes the advertisment even more effective. So for my radio advertisment i will


2. How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
                    My newspaper combines well with my ancillary texts as my ancillary texts are advertising my main product and therefore they are all linked together well. For example. my newspaper poster is directly advertising my main product, my newspaper, and i believe the combination is effective as the headline which is on the newspaper poster is also the headline on the main newspaper, so therefore it is very clear for readers what the main story in the newspaper will be about, and this makes the advertising techniques effective. Also, with the radio advertisement, this is also advertising my newspaper, but instead of advertising the main headline, this will just say the name of the newspaper, as in my opinion this is a much more effective way of getting through to the audience, as they will not remember a long sequenced advertisement, and a short, sharp and effective advertisement will be much more effective because of this. Also, people tend to remember these kind of things better if they are short sharp and effective as there is no time for them to lose concentration while listening, as people can lose interest in an advertisement that goes on too long, and then the meaning and point is lost, and therefore is not effective in attracting the listeners to buy the product, as of course this is the goal of all the advertisements is to gain more customers as a result of these advertisements.

3. What have you learned from your audience research?

From my research that i have undertook, i have learnt many things that my audience want and expect from/in a local newspaper, and also how they would like me to go about producing my final product. For example, from my audience research, i have learnt that my audience would like my newspaper to include a news story that doesn't include something dreadful happening, so on the double spread of my newspaper that i created, i decided to include an article that is more uplifting 'TOWN WIN SEMI FINAL', which will give most of the local readers pleasure and pride in knowing that their local team is performing well . Gnerally from my audience research, i learnt that the majority of teenages, people around my age, were not interested in newspapers at all, and would not read or buy one out of choice. So i decided to change my intended audience, and target the more middle aged generation in society, as they seemed to be the ones who were/are more likely to purchase and read a newspaper. So this is effective in drawing in more people to buy my newspaper. Also from my audience research, i have learnt that many people who listen to the radio, they pay much more attention to advertisements that have a very catchy jingle to them, so they can instantly recognise what advert is being advertised, and that will be more attracted to buy it. A contemporary example of a radio advertisement that people are remembering for whatever reason, is the 'GoCompare' adverts, which are on Television as well. These advertisements are often repeated by people who listen to these, and this is proof of just how effectives these type of adverts can be.






4. How did you use media technologies in the constructon, research,planning and evaluation stages?

In the construction process, i used media technologies to create my final media products, for example for the photos that are on my newspaper, i had used a camera from my iphone and the camera is of good resolution, which ensures that the photos are of good enough quality for my newspaper, and that the right message gets conveyed across. For example, if the photo was of bad quality, then it wouldn't be effective in drawing it's audience, and it would be sending out the wrong message to my audience. For my research and planning, i used a publisher program to produce my prototypes of my newspaper poster, the newspaper itself, and how everything should be laid out. This was effective, as i could change things around easily, and i could also get good ideas that i could use for my final newspaper product and my ancillary texts. However for my final newspaper and first two pages of the newspaper, i found a program on the internet, that i found a lot more useful to produce my products on, and also a lot more effective,as it has made my products look a lot more professional, and realistic, and therefore more attractive to my audience, and much more effective for me, as it will sell more newspapers. I used the same program, to evaluate my final products, and how effective they are. For my radio advertisement, i typed the script up on a word program, and actually produced the final product on my iphone, which has the capability to record things like this, and then transfer them to a computer. For the music that goes with this radio advertisement, i used a keyboard that i have, which has certain tunes on it that i could use for my radio advertisement, and i found this very useful and effective, and catchy 'jingles' are always very effective in ensuring that the listener remembers the particular advertisement and will tempt them into buying the product that is being advertised. And for the evaluation stage, i also found this useful, as i could go over what i had produced effectively, and it was very simple to do so, using the same program that i had used to produce it orignally.