Local Papers - Dead or Alive - YouTube

This YouTube hour long clip in which a group of people discuss if local newspapers really are going out of fashion and being overtaken and wiped out by national newspapers. 

This is worrying as it majorly affects my own product and if local papers are 'dying out' then my paper has no future. Even websites and iPad apps are losing views and downloads as the economy pushes prices through the roof and people would rather save the few pennies than buy virtual apps.
To bring back interest the idea of selling the paper at young people is perfect because it brings the adults of tomorrow into the company, which then means that some percentage of them will stay with the paper, and also bring their children up reading the product. This creates a future for the newspaper, something The Cornish Guardian might not have soon because they aim for working class, middle age people and not attracting the local youths, which in my view is vital. 

Research into Genre

Tabloids and Broadsheets

John Friske describes genres as “attempts to structure some order into the wider range of texts and meanings that circulate in our culture for both the convenience of both producers and consumers.” In other words, genre is simply a way of categorising products (texts) through the common codes and conventions. 

When you create your own media products for coursework or in the real world it is important to follow the codes in order to fulfil the expectations of your target audience.

Genre classifications are defined through a series of signs (visual and oral) associated with that genre. 

Audre Basin is considered the first theorist to have developed genre theory because he was the first person to explore the significant advantages of genre from an institutional perspective in the 1950s when he analysed Westerns. He concluded that, 'genres make film making more efficient (by allowing the re-using of plots, sets and the like) and more marketable (by using generic conventions as a way of ‘selling’ the film to the target audience). Genres in film therefore, were seen as more arbitrary: they originate at the level of production' .

Rick Altman argues that genres are usually defined in terms either of certain media language, for example in Westerns the semantic field would be similar to: guns, horses, wagons, towns, landscapes, stars like John Wayne and the ‘tough guy’ etc. The can also use certain ideologies and narratives. He calls the former group the semantic element and the latter the synaptic and argues that genre theory needs to keep the two separate as a means of dealing with genre progression over time and hybridity. 

British newspapers fall loosely into two categories the tabloid (which is half the size of a broadsheet) and the broadsheet itself, with tabloid newspapers tending to be quite different from broadsheets in style and content as well as in size. Primarily there are many differences between broadsheets and tabloids newspapers, such things like the layout, font, and colour… As well as in how the both of the newspapers cover the news.  If you compare two of the same stories, one from a tabloid industry and one from a broadsheet style of newspaper, you would notice that the heading or title of the story will somewhat be different. A broadsheet would be more factual and formally written compared to a Tabloid, this is because broadsheets are liable for attracting older and well-educated audiences.

Broadsheets

Broadsheet is the largest of the various newspaper formats and is characterized by long vertical pages (typically 22 inches or more). The term derives from types of popular prints usually just of a single sheet, sold on the streets and containing various types of matter, from ballads to political satire. The first broadsheet newspaper was the Dutch Courante uyt Italien, Duytslandt, &c. published in 1618. 
My own product might not be a broadsheet because they are large and therefore this has two bad points; young people will not want to carry a large paper around with them, and the cost of printing will increase dramatically. They are also known for their formality and my newspaper will most likely be placed under the informal category since this will attract more young people.

Tabloids

A tabloid is a newspaper industry term which refers to a smaller newspaper format per spread; to a weekly or semi-weekly alternative newspaper that focuses on local-interest stories and entertainment, often distributed free of charge (often in a smaller, tabloid-sized newspaper format); or to a newspaper that tends to emphasize sensational crime stories, gossip columns repeating scandalous innuendos about the personal lives of celebrities and sports stars, and other so-called "junk food news" (often in a smaller, tabloid-sized newspaper format). As the term "tabloid" has become synonymous with down-market newspapers in some areas, some papers refer to themselves as "Compact" newspapers instead.

My product will most likely be a tabloid, even though they are not known for their trustworthiness. Perhaps this is a time to show that not all newspaper are alike. Tabloids are small and easy to carry and therefore the perfect size for young people since today teenagers want everything fast and efficient. 

Synopsis for The Cloud

“The media have great influence in terms of how groups are represented and the legislation is there to ensure that individuals are not misrepresented in any way” (Hall and Holmes, 1998).

The news can reach us by many forms of media and the newspaper is one of the most popular. I have chosen to create a local newspaper for Cornwall with the target audience being young people as I feel that the local area lacks on representing youth in a positive light, and providing for their needs. It could be said that one of the main reasons young people are not trying as much nowadays is because the industries that present news constantly put them down. 

Hall (1904) stated that teenagers need excitement and if this cannot be found in legal matters then they turn to drink, drugs, and sex. The aim of my newspaper is to encourage teenagers to become part of the media again; to encourage them to think differently. It may not be as exciting as partying late on a Friday night but showing youth in a positive light will start to make the change for the better. 

The stories will be condensed apart from the main story as it is known that young people lose interest quickly. I will be following similar conventions of 3 newspapers; the i for condensing news, The Guardian for being youth friendly, and The Cornish Guardian for being local, all in all creating a hybrid newspaper designed for young people. 

The newspaper will contain adverts aimed at young people and I have considered upcoming games, local events and products, and coupons for the Eden Sessions. I will only have a few adverts in my newspaper, though I am aware that this is the main source of income. 

My poster will be innovating with colours and images, rather than just black and white text on a plain white background. It will advertise the newspaper as well as the story and attract and persuade young people to purchase the product. 

My website will follow conventions of other newspaper websites, with the masthead being in the top left, and having scroll bars where news can flash up and down constantly, giving the website an overall feel of professionalism. The stories will have a tone of informality, like the stories in the newspaper which creates an anchor for young people, and allows them to take in the information easier. 

Overall my newspaper is innovating for young people because it constantly refers back to my target audience. Representation of the primary target audience is important because it makes them aware that the newspaper will represent them and their needs. Therefore when you plan a product it is important to consider who your primary target audience is in order to get this right.

 “All media texts are re-representations of reality…they may be stereotypes or they may be complex representations but it is important to remember that they have been constructed to appeal to a particular target audience” (Hall and Holmes 1998).

New Head of PCC

This links back to my previous post about the PCC, and possibly a new future for newspapers.

Again this was taken off the BBC News website, so the language is more relxaed and the only graphology is the small image of Lord Hunt in the top right hand corner. The paragraphs are small, more like bite size chunks of information for people to read while on their lunch break, and allows for news to be digested quickly. It also allows for scan reading to be much more effective, rather than a newspaper which contains larger paragraphs in a smaller font. During my creative process I deciding on if I should use this technique or not to attract teenagers, since nowadays young people want information fast, since they are being brought up with everything being a touch of a button away.

Link to the news clip of the speech of Lord Hunt

http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_9615000/9615288.stm

Local Newspapers - What do you want out of it?

Survey Monkey about Local Newspapers

Common Conventions - Covers

Researching into common conventions of covers was a great way of gaining ideas for my own product. I also kept in mind what Csikszentmihalyi said about research; 'it results from the reaction of a system composed of three elements: a culture that contains symbolic rules, a person who brings novelty into the symbolic domain, and a field of experts who recognise and validate the innovation.'

Common Conventions of Newspaper Front Covers on Prezi

Blogging and Ethics - YouTube

“As people individually and collectively progress the web, they’re increasingly in command…this is the new consumer power. It’s not the ability to swap suppliers at the click of a mouse…It’s the power to become the supplier – in effect to become an economic power themselves” (Tapscott and Willaims 2006). 
This is a short clip from YouTube which discusses if bloggers should stick to an ethical code when writing posts. I am an avid blogger, and since I have researched into the PCC I thought that this clip was very interesting and thought provoking. 

Personally I agree with what the clip states because this stops people from posting outrageous or false accusations, which causes a lot of legal battles. 
This can relate back to creating a website for my coursework since I will be posting daily and my articles will need to keep to an ethical code.

Common Conventions - Mastheads

Before building my newspaper I needed to conduct research into similar products. Jones, 1993, said about planning and research, 'a process needed for problem solving; not a special gift enjoyed by a few but a common ability possessed by most people.'


The masthead anchors the ideologies behind the newspaper. For example The Financial Times mastheads typography is plain and bold, allowing no room for mistaking that this paper has a target audience of working to upper class people. Below I will analyse a selection of mastheads to gain some idea of my own mastheads graphology: 

The Sun uses only two colours to keep the graphology of the masthead simple but eye catching. The colour white connotes innocence while the red contrasts this since it connotes anger, passion, and danger. Perhaps the designer wanted to represent the reader by the colour white, being innocent of news, and the red to represent the paper bringing the passion to sharing news. Or perhaps there is a political ideology underling here, since red is the colour for labour. 

The typography used is bold and the 'U' and 'N' look as if they have been flipped which creates a sense of repetition and symmetry. Overall the masthead screams out at you on the front cover which is something my own masthead needs to do to attract attention from buyers. When designing my own masthead I think I might use similar typography because it does not distract the reader from the rest of the front page, but like The Suns masthead it can be easily recognised. 

This is my local paper and the masthead is massive turn off for young people. The colour black connotes seriousness and formality which means that most young people will turn away from this. Young people nowadays want news presented in an informative but informal way which is why I will be keeping this in mind when creating my own product. The typography is in old script, which screams out that this newspaper is under the prescriptivist heading, and they want to stay in the past and shy away from change. This will stop young people from buying this because teenagers want to move with the times and keep up to date with technology, unlike the Cornish Guardian. My own masthead will steer well clear of any conventions that this masthead uses. My colours will be bright and the typography will be more 'modern'. 

The 'i' masthead is interesting because the newspaper is a smaller version of the Independent, and therefore should carry the same connotations. The lettering connotes up to dateness since is links into iPods etc and therefore shows that this newspaper is keen to keep up with the on going surge of new technologies. The lower case shows that the paper isn't as formal as other papers, which is what teenagers want and therefore is very successful with its target audience. The bite-size news that is a main feature of the i newspaper  The colour red can connote danger, passion, anger, love, lust, and courage. Perhaps the paper wanted the colour red to also represent technology and up to dateness. The eagle flying across the dot carrying the scroll anchors that fact that this paper is connoted to The Independent. The block font shows that this paper is strong and unbending to conformities of other papers. My masthead could also follow these conventions.

The colour black again connotes seriousness and formality and again young people will possibly not read this paper, even though that this is free. The font however, can be said to be seen as young, and because it's bold, stands out from the front cover. This masthead is something I will be using when creating my own because I like the typography, and I think it will draw young people to read my product, though I will not use the colour black. The location 'London' is smaller than the rest of the masthead because this is a free paper given away in the streets of London. It still needs to be there however because it gives the newspaper a sense of regional identity. This is key when building my paper, though I do not think I will include 'Cornwall' in the masthead, more like a slogan.