Link between tasks-

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

A roving reporter from The Suffolk Standard caught up with the new papers editor to bring you, the reader an insight into the decision making behind the paper

Q. What is typical of a local newspaper?

A. Well when you examine lots of different local newspapers from across the UK it is clear that a local newspaper concentrates on stories that concern the local area and its community. So it was clear in the creation of our new paper that this was key to its success.

In a way we didn’t want to cause confusion amongst the target audience, therefore we used a stereotypical layout, columns that are present in every type of newspaper, and bold headlines and sub headings to attract the attention of the reader.

Q .We noticed that nearly every article has an accompanying image, is this typical of a local newspaper?

A. When looking at other local newspapers not every article has an accompanying image, however we decided it would be a good way to draw in the reader’s attention. In a way this has moved away from the conventional local newspaper, the images are bright which adds some colour and also attracts the reader to the accompanying article.

Q. Did you try and move away from the stereotypical local newspaper in any way?

A. Sort of, although most local newspapers use a colour scheme, we tried to make the paper more eye catching and use the vibrant green more than you see in most papers. We felt as a team this could draw in a younger audience, moving away from the bog standard black and white newspaper.

Another feature of the newspaper we felt moved it away from what is typical is the use of the contents bar on the first page. Although this was present in some of the local newspapers it was not in all, this makes the newspaper organised and allows the reader to find their way around in a sense, all in all making their reading experience that bit more pleasant.

Q. How have you tried to attract the reader to your paper?

A. The audience for a local newspaper tends to be generally people that live in the local area, often they are of mixed ages, although you would typically expect the main basis of readership to be over 16s. Therefore articles have been aimed at this age group, however in an attempt to attract the entire local area we decided to include stories that may appeal to the younger reader, and also introduce chances for them to get involved, for example ‘young photographer of the year’.

Q. How did you decide on the stories for this week’s newspaper?

A. Primarily, the articles are placed in order of importance, but as a general rule as long as the stories are relevant and contain information the local people will be interested in they are place in. Sometimes people see the stories as not news worthy, however they do fulfil the primary purpose of a local newspaper and support what is typical.

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

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Website Print Screens-

I have used a similar layout of both of the hyperlinked pages i have created. I felt this layout was clear and meant the pages were linked and, it was clear to the audience that they were linked to the newspaper. I have also used the same green colour scheme throughout the tasks in order to create a 'house style' which created brand recognition.

Finished Newspaper-

This is the first two pages of a newspaper that i have created. I have tried to use green throughout the pages in order to make the newspaper look realistic and corporate. I have tried to use a serif font throughout which is typical of existing local newspapers. This font is also used within the body of text for the stroies. I analysed other newspapers and was able to see a particular layout for the first page of any newspaper. This page often has a side bar on the left including a contents, a weather forecast and contact information for the newspaper.

I chose to include three stories on this first page. Two seperate short stories, and then the remainder of the story that was shown on the cover of the newspaper. I have also incorporated images into this page as it makes it more appealing to the audience. Although not every story in a newspaper has an accompanying image, i felt it made the page look more attractive and broke up the extensive amount of text. Importantly i have accompanied every image with a caption to ensure its purpose is clear.

I have based the two hyperlinked pages for my website on the layout of this page. i have tried to keep the layout as having 3 columns in order to make it look professional and corporate. I have also continued to use the green colour scheme present in all other aspects of the coursework.

I tried to find a html code that would create the weather section (shown above on the right) however i couldn't get it to work as well so instead i decided to use a comments section so the user can give feedback, which is sometimes the main appeal of a website.

As well as this i used a scrolling section for the main body of text. This is because i couldn't get all of the text into one section of the website, however i also felt it looked professional and enabled me to keep to the three column layout.