Week 12-Adverts

 This week I have been looking specifically  at adverts. Throughout my research I found out that there are specificadverts used in local newspapers and national newspaper. National newspapers normally use adverts such as bank, perfume, Thomsons holiday and many more whereas local newspapers have adverts on houses on sale in the area etc. Below are pictures of adverts I have researched which I would be using as a guide to help me create my own adverts using photoshop to manipulate the pictures and put the ad together.

This is a moodboared of the adverts I have been researching, this gave me a clearer understanding of the different layouts present in adverts and the diverse colours used inorder to grab the audience attention.

WEEK 11- Decondtructing my own newspaper

Below are print screens of my newspaper that I constructed using In design. I created this spider diagram using microsoft office.

In constructing my newspapers,I used the column grids provided by in design to ensure I don't place things outside the A3 paper and also to give me accurate amount of space between my text. I deconstructed my newspaper as shown below, this helped me know whether or not I was following media conventions and helped me know what I've missed out and what media conventions I have challenged.

 

WEEK 10- My headlines

This week i have been reading a lot of local newspaper articles. I have been reading articles specifically based on crime, because that is the genre I intend to write about for my front page. I noticed that newspaper journalist write in simple sentences and do not use complicated words yet manage to keep their register formal to emphasize on the seriousness of the article.   I have been looking at headlines and the ways in which journalist grab the audience with their headlines. I noticed the use of pun, alliteration, rhyme and simply short sentences or even a single word written in bold fonts, are used to grab the audience attention.
These are examples of headline I looked at, which helped me formulate my own.

 

"THE LAST LAP"

This was an article about the council wanting to close down  a strip club. Notice the use of alliteration and also the play on word.  Most strip clubs are full of lap dancers and it is the only club left. So the headline corresponded well with the article.

^{"RIVAL GANG WARS IS GOING UP THE HILL"}

I really liked the idea of using a pun in my headline so I decided to do the same. My article is about a gang war which happened in Beulah Hill, can u see the link?

^{"HOUSE PRICES ON THE RISE"}

I also liked the effect in which a rhyme has on a headline, not only does it attract the audience but it functions like a slogan and stays in the minds of the reader

"TERRIFYING TREND OF GUN CRIME"

This is one headline I got from the Internet; the use of alliteration “T” engages the audience.

^{"FAR FROM A FATHER FIGURE"}

^{"CROYDON’S   CULTURAL DAY"}

I also did the same with the articles in my inside page.  Although they were short they still gave the reader a general idea of what the story is about. This is what I found out from most headlines, they a short, punchy yet informative enough.

WEEK 9- Font types

In terms of the type of font used for newspaper headlines, I found out that most newspapers use San Serif and Serif when writing their headline. The font of the newspaper is what makes or breaks the layout of a newspaper as I have discovered. I have experimented with fonts on In design I noticed that some long headlines such as mine looked out of place and made my newspaper look more like a poster as said by many of my class mates done a newspaper. So to give my newspaper the authentic look, I MIGHT be using fonts similar to Serif or San Serif depending on what I feel looks presentable.  So I will not write my headline using French Script all throughout because it is not effective and not suitable for my target audience especially the elderly who may have problems with their sight as it would be difficult for them to read. As shown below using Serif and French Script.

They both read headline but one is obviously much easier to identify what it reads. The Serif font used I feel embraces and invites the readers to read the newspaper whereas the French Script typography makes the target audience just scan or even glance at the newspaper. Don’t get me wrong here, I’m not saying French Script is not a good font to used but it’s not suitable in terms of nameplate. However it can be used in articles to emphasise on a point or make it stand out.

For my newspaper, I decided to challenge the normal

Conventions and use Lucida Bright, as I wanted to highlight the fact that

There are other fonts which can also have the same effect.

Presentation feedback

This is a print screen of my presentation,which I used Microsoft powerpoint to put together. I spoke about the research and design I’ve been getting involved in, I received some feed-back from my teacher who summed it up by saying I was “knowledgeable about my aims and objectives of the project” I was “Excellent- clear/cogent, clearly done a lot of work and knows what she is working towards” and finally she thought my presentation contained “very good information” I am quite happy with the feedback I was given and  hope to sort out my critique which was to take my pictures.

WEEK 8- Other Newspaper Layouts

Ive been looking at different layouts for my second page this week and i have researches and deconstructed a few. Below are the ones i have been looking at. I looked at double pages from different local newspapers because they are all local newspapers so they follow similar conventions. I used the Internet to accumulate all these different layouts

For the first one, I liked the way there is a balance between the pictures and the text. For the second one i liked the way the advert is colorful so it immediately draws the audience attention to it. The advert on the  page tones the serious articles on the 2nd page and this was really effective. The third advert has a large picture which dominates the page.

Below are the layouts of inside pages, I drew and scanned unto the computer using the scanner. I may consider using. The layout I really like is the one with the red border. I like this because it is very diverse in terms of what it offers to the audience. On the left hand I have incorporated a sub headline along with an article which correlates with the picture.  I then have the main story on the inside page which also have pictures. Finally I have incorporated the latest weather forecast news because I felt it would appeal to my target audience and would add a balance to the newspaper so instead of it being just about stories, adverts and upcoming events, it can inform the readers about the weather. A topic that spoken a lot about by strangers etc.

WEEK 7 - The Article

This week I have been thinking about my article and headline i will be giving to  it. Before i did so, i researched about the type of headlines used. Throughout my research i learnt the recipe for making the best headline.
Lets start with the obvious one! It must correlate with your article.
It has to be snappy, short and aprubt.
Add things such as puns, alliterations to headlines to make them stand out and attract the audience.
These are a few examples i got from local newspapers.
"THE LAST LAP" this was about the council wanting to close down strip clubs. Notice the use of alliteration to grab the audience attention.
"GUILTY" The simplicity of this drew me a lot. It was just one word but had a great impact on me. It was about four people who killed a store boss/ manager.
"DOC OP DASH" I was drawn due to the way they shorten words to make it fast to read and this had an impact on the actual story which is about a doctor who was "dashed" to the hospital to be operated on due to the snow. They shortened the doctor to Doc  and the Operate to Op to emphasise on the way they rushed to take the doctor to the hospital.
"BACK HIM OR SACK HIM" The use of Rhyme  grabs the audience attention

Looking specifically at Crime, these are the headlines I researched from both national and local newspaper, i chose this because I feel with the story i have chosen, they all use similar conventions and i would have a wider knowledge thus giving me more  choices as to what type of headline  i would like and what i would like it to convey to my target audience.
"SHOT DEAD ON THE DOOR STEP"
"LONDON'S MURDER COUNT REACHES 90" I really liked this headline because of the facts and figures incorporated into it. This shows the whole purpose of newspaper, to inform us and in my own personal opinion educate us about where we live.

 So with all this knowledge i began to create!
 I chose the Headline
"THE INCREASE IN POSTCODE WARS"
"RISE IN RIVAL GANG WARS"
"RIVAL GANG WAR IS GOING UP THE HILL"
I have decided to use "Rival Gang war is going up the hill" because I felt it correlated well with the article I will be writing and the picture I have taken.  It also used  a pun which engaged the audience more.

WEEK 6- The Namplate

This was the first nameplate I produced before researching about my Local newspapers.  I decided to have a teaser at the side of my nameplate because i liked the idea of giving the readers a taste if what will be in the newspaper and i feel the position in which i placed it (near the nameplate) would attract people to buy the newspaper. After my research I noticed that the name of my newspaper alone was not appropriate as it would be difficult to identify by my target audience. Along with this, i noticed the colour red and black was very strong on the readers eyes and was not very welcoming in terms of who it is aimed at. I aim to attract parents and elderly people and the colour red has negative connotations such as danger and although it's very bright and so will grab their immediate attention it is not very friendly. Not only that but the colour red does not represent Croydon.  So i will defiantly be changing this.

Above is a print screen of my nameplate i produced on Adobe Indesign after my research. I prefer the nameplate better than the previous one i did because it appears more friendly. As you can see I changed the name of my newspaper to Croydon Times this i felt again was better that Bombay Times because it was easy to identify and reflected the normal conventions of local newspapers. All local newspapers have the name of the borough or Area somewhere on their nameplate example Hackney Gazette, South London Press, Croydon Guardian and I felt following this convention will help in the success of my newspaper. I spaced out the Croydon Times because I wanted my nameplate to take up the whole section  i have dedicated to it  and then added a black outline as it stood out more and I felt this would attract the audience more. Although throughout my research i found out that the price of most local newspapers where around £0.00-£0.40p i still chose to make my newspaper £0.50p because i felt those prices where cheap and wanted to challenge the media conventions. The font i used for this was Times New Roman, i used this because I felt it was simple and would attract my audience.

Above is a print screen of my nameplate which i produced using Adobe Indesign. Although i was satisfied with my previous nameplate, I felt it wasn't attractive enough. I liked the fact that it was simplistic and this was the style i was going for and still is going for, I felt it needed something because it was too plain and there was too much space. So keeping the name of my newspaper, i decided to produce another nameplate using the same software (In design) but this time referring to my questionnaire for guidance. My questionnaire showed that 26 people were attracted to nameplates that used different font sizes for each part of the name. So i began designing my nameplate that i felt would be suitable and attractive to my target audience. I chose the font Lucida Bright because I felt it was more appropriate, easy to read and clear thus grabbing my audience attention. I stuck with the colour blue but this time went for a darker blue because through out my research i noticed that both Croydon Guardian and Croydon Advertiser used these colours, along with this I felt blue is a colour that represented Croydon and also the Whitgift centre, the shopping centre which Croydon is known for is written in blue so i felt the colour resembled this. I then added a stripe and a block of light blue on the nameplate which I placed behind the name of the newspaper, i did this because the name of the newspaper was in a darker blue which i felt looked dull by itself. So this triggered me to add a brighter  blue along with this in order for my nameplate to stand out. This looked friendly and welcoming thus attracting my target audience. Along with this it took care of the empty gaps which was there before I added it in as shown below.  The simplicity and the balance of the bright and dull colours ensured that it wasn't too heavy on the eyes of the readers. Also I changed the price of my newspaper this was due to the results of my questionnaire which showed 16 people wanted it for 20p where sold. I also added a website in which they can go on for a soft copy of the newspaper.



Above is a table which I constructed using PowerPoint to show how my nameplate follows and challenges media conventions. 

WEEK 5- Questionnaire

I created a questionnaire asking 40 local people in Croydon between the ages of 16 and 50 a few questions about local newspapers. I chose 40 because I felt I would gain a wide range of answers  thus making my results more accurate.

The results I got from my questionnaire show that most people would like me to name my newspaper as Times Croydon and the reason being that they are fed-up of the “second name” of every local Newspaper being either gazette,  or press and thought having it as Croydon made the newspaper different and stand out from others.  also the name Times was different and felt they would be attracted to a local newspaper which didn’t follow such conventions. One person said, “ I like the name "Times Croydon" because it reminds me of the national paper The Times and I felt because it did so it would attract a wider range of audience, so not only elderly people and parents  and working class adults would be reading it but also business people, people who run a business company thus meaning the newspaper could be funded or even consume money by advertising the company in the paper. After hearing this comment, i was desperate to name my newspaper Times Croydon because I felt the influence of The Times on this paper will heighten its prestige and so it will not be viewed as any normal local newspaper.

The results I gained from this question surprised me because throughout my research I noticed that most newspapers were free. Croydon Guardian for example, the newspaper that I have been deconstructing very carefully due to the fact that we have many things in common from similar target audience to the area in which it’s set in, doesn’t sell the newspaper. It is delivered to all houses in the borough, however it is sold for 40p in newsagents. I was surprised that they didn’t want to pay 40p for the newspaper but rather wanted it to be distributed for free but sold for 20p at newsagents. This was because they felt that because it was a new local newspaper it should be sold for 20p because national newspaper such as The Sun is sold for 20-, so why should they spend 40p for a new local newspaper. Also they felt the cheaper the newspaper the more people would buy it thus promoting consumerism. However I felt for the majority of things it has inside it, it should be for 30p. 

I was not happy with the results I got for this because as you can see most people chose for  the nameplate to be written in different sizes. I didn’t like this because I felt although it followed the conventions of “Croydon Guardian” I felt it stopped me from showing off my creativity skills. But you know, the customer is always right. Despite this issue I would stick with this choice because I feel if the nameplate is simple as suggested, it would bring more attention to the article, which is what am obviously using to sell the newspaper.  So in some aspects this was the right choice.

As you can see most people chose blue and white, I was exceptionally happy with this choice because I also wanted to use blue for the nameplate and as the color scheme of this newspaper because not only is it the color used in Croydon Guardian but because the whitgift centre, the main attraction in Croydon is written in blue.

Most of my readers chose for the front page to have a major headline accompanied by the image and article, and also a teaser and an advert. I almost suspected they would choose this because that was what I myself would also like to see on a front page of a newspaper.  I was surprised to see that they wanted to see an advert at the front page despite the whole idea that adverts just take up valuable space on a front page; similarly I felt the same way when they said they wanted a teaser. I feel this was because they wanted a little taste of what was going to be inside the newspaper before they spend 20p on it which is quite fair actually. Along with this, they all wanted an equal amount of writing and pictures on the page. I was going to do this regardless because I feel it gives a balance to the page and attracts the readers more. This is because if there’s too much pictures they will feel as though they are not getting enough for their money and if it is too much writing, it will be heavy on the eyes meaning they won’t bother reading it at all.

I used Microsoft word to put my questionnaire together and then after collecting the results of my questionnaire, i used excel to put the results in the graph. This made it easier for me to accumulate information from it much quicker. As i am more of a visual person.

WEEK 4- Local Newspaper Brainstorm

Above are print screens of  the deconstruction I did of two local newspapers, This gave me a clearer understanding of the differences and similarities local newspapers have depending on what borough or area it focuses on.

Then...

I did a brainstorm on what local newspapers have in them in order to give me a rough understanding on what to incorporate into my own newspaper. Through this task, I thought about how i can challenge and follow the conventions of a local newspaper. The one thing that struck me to defiantly have in my newspaper is a teaser. I liked the idea of giving the readers a taster of what will be in the newspaper as i feel this alone can easily encourage them to read the newspaper. This also gave me a rough idea of how i would like to present certain features on my front page. The media technology i used for the creation of this brainstorm is Microsoft word.