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

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• 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.