Definitions of Conventions

Newsprint: Cheap paper, used to print newspaper.

Masthead: a listing printed in all issues of a newspaper or magazine (usually on the editorial page) that gives the name of the publication and the names of the editorial staff, etc.

Pugs: these are at the top left and right-hand corners of the paper and are known as the 'ears' of the page. The prices of the paper, the logo or a promotion are positioned there. They are well placed to catch the reader's eye.

Columns: a page or text that is vertically divided; "the newspaper devoted several columns to the subject"; "the book keeper used pages that were divided into columns"

Conventions of Local Newspapers

Ive started to research what are the main conventions of Local Newspapers, and these are what i have found:

●Made of newsprint (cheap, thin paper)
●Bold, big headlines
●Masthead – name, date, price, internet address
●Images (photos)
●Weather
●Sections (business, sport)
●Columns (articles)
●Letters from readers
●Name of journalists writing the story
●Sub-headings
●Most important information first in the article
●Pugs
●Local Advertisements

Comparing Local Newspapers

In today's lesson, i compared the Suffolk Free Press and the Halstead Gazette. However, the layout and conventions are mostly the same, as they both have local news and advertisements.
I then started to think about what local advertisements and conventions i need to include that are similar to the newspapers that i have reviewed.

Annotated Newspapers

This is the annotated newspaper from one of the Halstead Gazette front pages. I have pointed out some of the main parts of this newspaper, to show what are most effective and what makes it a good front page.
For example, the big font is one of the first things someone will see when they look at the front page.

Newspapers on powerpoint

In today's lesson, i went to the library to get some local and popular newspapers. From this, i scanned all four of the front of the newspapers to my email address, which i then transferred 1 of the newspapers on to power point. This enables me to annotate the front page and pick out points which will be good to use in my work.
There are 4 local newspapers, two of the Halstead gazette and two of the Suffolk Free Press. When you look at them, you can tell that they aren't going to be as popular as newspapers such as The Sun, due to The Sun having bigger stories from around the world on the front page and about celebrities, whereas, the local newspapers only have news from around that area.
I am now starting to annotate the local newspaper, to show what they use and how they use things effectively, such as the font and the colours.

Local Newspapers

After I had researched the layouts of some popular newpapers, I then researched what local newpaper websites were like. Two of the websites I looked at were the The halstead gazette and The Haverhill Echo. When looking at the information in the Halstead Gazette, I seen that it included what people had achieved and what is going on around Halstead town. It also had a little box about the weather which gave me an idea of doing something like that on my second page. On the other hand, when I looked on the Haverhill Echo, and on the website, it didnt have top stories or news, it had different Sub-headings with different hyperlinks that were related to this sub-heading. For example, under the Sport sub-heading, it had hyperlinks to scores of what Haverhill got in different football games.

From these local newspapers, I got some ideas of what I could include in my two newspaper articles, for example, I might use the idea of the little box with the weather, but change the weather to a puzzle, or something like that.

Research

I started to research newspapers by looking at websites such as, 'The Sun' and 'The Times'. From this i identified the different hyperlinks that they used and how they layed out their pages and also what kind of information they provided. I found that The Sun focuses more on the big events that are happening on televison, for example, the world cup is the big highlight on their website page. Also, their page is quite colourful, with catchy font for people to read. Also, the pictures make the website more interesting to look at because it makes the stories more real. However,The Times is more of a formal website, which focuses on the News in the Uk and around the world, for example, BP's oil tank cargo was lost due to an accident, and the contents were all lost into the sea, this is the big story on their website. On the other hand, The Times' website lay out is quite plain as the font colour is all black, with a few pictures. It does have some color on different sub-headings but not alot for it to draw people attention.

Both of these newspapers are different from each other in terms of informtion but they have given me ideas on what i might include on the first two pages of my newspaper, such as, the diferent colours and the ways in which the fonts are used.

First Steps

In my first Media lesson, I has to choose what brief I wanted to do, I came down with two ideas which were a teaser trailer or a newspaper. I compared both of the briefs and looked up different teaser trailers and newspaper websites, from this I chose to do the first two pages of a newspaper article, with two other options which are a poster for the newspaper, and two hyperlinked pages from the papers website. The reasons why I picked this option is because, I have access to computers and printers within the school but also at home, which is an advantage because i have extra time to complete this brief. Whereas, if i had chosen the teaser trailer, it may have been difficult as i have never used dreamweaver before, and i may get a limited time time using the Macs due to the year 12 have first priority, but also, i dont have access to a mac at home, so i cant do extra work out of school.