Next step.

Now that I have completed my first ancillary text, I am going to start my second one, which is to make a homepage and two hyperlinked pages for the newspaper website.
Before I start making my website I am going to research some local newspaper websites to see what they include, so I can get an idea of what I am going to include. Things that I am looking for in the research are: what kinds of stories they feature, how they present their stories, e.g. what type of font they use, how big the font is, what colours the website has.
I am also going to look for what catagories are used on the websites, and from this I can refer back to my questionnaire to see if the results are similar to different local newspaper websites.

My Final Newspaper Poster

This is my final Newpaper poster that i have completed.
I have used Microsoft word to produce it, I have also used 'dafont' on the internet to find the right text to use for the writing.
Similarly, whilst looking up different newspaper posters, i have used the idea of having a header and footer to make it look more effective.
Newspaper posters grab the readers attention by being bold and simple, so i have used these ideas within my poster by having the font size quite big for the masthead and a smaller but still quite a large font for the catchy headline.

Research into Newspaper Posters

I have been looking around on google to find some images on what newspaper posters look like. I have found one that I am going to use as a template for my newspaper poster.
This poster is a great example for a local poster as it has an advantage of being very simple which makes it stand so people who walk past will see the poster, and if they are interested in reading about a local event they will want to read more.

Questionnaire follow on..

following on from my first questionnaire with students, i have done the same questionnaire but to adults. i have chosen adults to answer my questionnaire this time because i might give me another variety of answers, and this means i can also compare the two questionnaires.

I found that nearly all of the people that answered my questionnaire expected 19-45 year olds to read newspapers, but also most of their second choice was 46-90 year olds.

10/12 adults said that they read local newspapers. The two most popular are The Sun and The Halstead Gazette. This may be due to The Sun being less detailed and less time consuming, and The Halstead Gazette being easier to read, but also its local, so they will be interested to read about whats been happening in their local area.

On the other hand, 2/12 said they didn't read newspapers, and the reasons for this are: They are boring and too depressing to read.

Finally, the most popular name for a local newspaper in the adult questionnaire is 'The Hedingham Angel'
Due to 'Hedingham Angel' having more popularity than the 'Yeldham Moon' form the other questionnaire, it is my final choice of the name for my local newspaper.

Starting the poster.

In todays lesson, I have looked into different farm shop pictures and used them for my poster. this is so that when the local community see the poster, they can recognise who the story is about. I then picked out parts from the draft of my main story, to have a local heading for my poster. Hopefully the heading that I have chosen will interest the people who pass by as it quite catchy and people may want to know more about the story, so they buy the newspaper.
However, I am still working on my newspaper poster, as i need to use the graphs i have for the quesitonnaires to identify which name i use for my local newspaper.

Graphs showing my results

My Results

My first questionnaire for the local newspaper was answered by students in the sixth form at my school, who are aged between 16 and 17.
I found that nearly all of them expected people around the ages of 46-90 to read local newspapers. This may be because older people may have lived in a certain place for a long time and want to know whats happening in their area, whereas, younger people arent really interested in that, they are more interested in the world of celebrities.

I found that 6/12 students read newspapers, the two most popular are the Suffolk Press and The Sun. This may be due to students enjoying the gossip about celebrities, or being interested in how their local football team played at the weekend.
Other newspapers that were read by students were: Sudbury Mercury, The Indepepndant, East Anglian, The Daily Mail, The Mirror, Mail On Sunday and The Haverhill Echo.

On the other hand, 6/12 students said they dont read local newspapers. Some reasons given for this are: boring, time consuming, too much writing, nothing they find in them are interesting and they arent very exciting.

Finally, the most popular name that was chosen for a local newspaper by the students was The Yeldham Moon.
This may be due to Great Yeldham being the local area and thats what caught their eye, or they just liked the name.

• For my second Questionnaire, I am going to give this out to an older age range to see what they answer about local newspapers and then compare the two results to identify what are the similarities and differences.

My Questionnaire

I have chosen to do a questionnaire for my research, this will be answered by random people around the school. I have chosen this location to do my questionnaire as it is the local area and it is where my newspapers may be read. I can also find out what they think about the local newspapers in their area, to identify what they like and dislike about them.


Questionnaire about local newspapers

Circle your chosen answers, you can choose more than one answer if you wish to do so.
1. What age range would you expect to read a local newspaper?
- 5-10
- 11-18
- 19-45
- 46 +

2. What sections would you find in a local newspaper?
- Sport
- Leisure
- Letters page
- Puzzles
- Celebrities
- Local News
Other Please State ______________________________________

3, What colours would be included in a local newspaper?
- Black
- White
- Blue
- Red
- Green
Other Please State. ___________________________

4. Do you read newspapers?
- Yes
- No


5. If you answered yes to question 4, what newspaper do you read?

____________________________________________________________

6. If you answered no to question 4, what is your reason?

____________________________________________________________

7. What name do you prefer for a Local Newspaper?
- The Yeldham Moon
- The Hedingham Angel
- The Daily Moon
- The Blossom Gazette
Other (Please state) _______________________

8. What type of sports would you find in the sport section?
- Football
- Cricket
- Rugby
- Hockey
- Types of racing
Other Please State ____________________

9. If you have ever read a Local Newspaper, what do you like about them?

______________________________________________________________

Venns diagram for 3 types of Newspapers.

In my Venns diagram i have written about 3 different newspapers, these are: Tabloid, Broadsheet and Local. This is because i can identify what are the similarities and differences between them are as its easier to understand. I can also see what types of things i can include in my Local newspaper that are also used in broadsheet and Tabloid newspapers.

There are some differences in the 3 newspapers that are shown in the diagram, for example, Broadsheets are written in a more formal way and mostly talk about International politics, Tabloids are mostly about celebrities and the main headlines of the news on television. Finally, Local newspapers only talk about local news in that local area, and include local advertisements.

On the other hand, some of the similarities are: All of the newspapers will include sport, advertisments and news.

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.