Media Blog EP: November 2009

Research for Newspaper Posters

For the newspaper poster/advert I am going to make, I have been reasearching national newspapers adverts. The ones I have found so far are:

Generic conventions:

-1 Main image
-Not a lot of text
-Involves the newspapers website
-Eyecatching
-Tells you what is unique about the newspaper
-'Value for money' is a technique used to sell the paper
-General tone is serious
-Pronouns to involve the audience
-Name of the newspaper
-Isn't gender or age specific

Something that I've found is that there is a basic formula needed when it comes to advertising, as the whole point is for your product to get noticed, and if it looks similar to everything else then it blends in and goes unnoticed, which completely defeats the point. It is also best if the poster is non gender-specific, doesn't include people and isn't age specific.

Newspaper website

I have decided that I will use Microsoft Office Live as the host of my website for the newspaper. I created sites with Google Sites and Weebly, but these proved to be too simplistic-looking for what I would like. My newspaper website domain is :
http://www.theharrogategazetteweekly.web.officelive.com/

Before I actually created the website, I made fake adverts for the website to make it seem more authentic;

I created this in Microsoft Word by creating a heart shape with the 'Shapes' tool, then including text into it, then I retrieved an image from Clip Art on Microsoft Word and placed it next to the heart, then created a fake website name.

This was created in a similar way by first of all using the Shapes tool on Microsoft word, then adding Word Art and text, then including Clip Art from Microsoft Word.

I created this image by first of all taking an image of a newspaper (it wasn't local, but because I was not focusing on the actual content of the newspaper because it was just a background I didn't think it should matter) then cropping it and putting a border round it. Then, for the 'More' button i used the Shapes tool on Microsoft Word and made a rectangle then included an arrow from Clip Art and added text to it. Finally, I added Word Art on top of the image.

A few of these 'advert's were inspired by images that are already on the Harrogate Advertisers website:

Comparison of newspaper and web page

The Main story is reproduced exactly as the newspaper but it includes an opportunity to comment on the article.
On the web page there is a feature about a horror film that isn't included in the newspaper.
In the web page, there is an update on a previous article which wrote about preparations for a rugby match, which was included in the newspaper. The updated article is about the outcome of the match.
There is a repetition of what's on at the cinema during the week.
On the web page there is obviously more detail about the newspaper, and there are archives of older articles.
Theres a whole block of interactive features which let you either express your viewpoint on a topical issue or vote for an award or entering competitions.
The main articles on the website change regularly, unlike the newspaper which cannot be changed

Cohesive devices of the Harrogate Advertiser newspaper and website

The first cohesive device that you notice when going onto the Harrogate advertiser website is that the font and colour schemes follow the same rules as the paper.
The articles shown on the homepage of the Harrogate Advertiser web page are generally the same as in the newspaper
There is also a hyperlink to an article with the heading "Harrogate News", to further confirm that it is local.

website for the Harrogate Advertiser - http://www.harrogateadvertiser.net/

Newspaper website conventions

I am now to produce a website for my newspaper. To help with research and to find generic conventions of a local newspaper website, I have looked at other webites and listed to generic conventions I found;

Advertisements
Links/hyperlinks
List of articles within the newspaper of that week
House style
Ability to interact with the newspaper, with forums
Time and date
Scrolling text e.g. current daily news
Weather in the local area
Links to specific article areas e.g. sport
Search boxes
Pictures included with articles
'Sign in' and 'Register' options

The websites I looked at were:
Newcastle journal
North Wales Weekly News
Harrogate Advertiser

I was originally also going to look at my other local newspaper websites such as Knaresborough Post, Ripon Gazette and Yorkshire Post, but as all of these are produced by the same publicator, Ackrill Media Group, they all look relatively similar, so therefore they wouldn't be ideal to look at generic conventions, so I widened my search.

Table of articles

This is a table of all my articles within the front page and second page, who the article is aimed at, whether it has a photo, and what the news value(s) is.

Contacts pages for proof that I took my own photos

The reason I chose this picture over all of the others is because the middle part was in focus, so I cropped it so that the focus was mainly on that.

The reason I chose this image is because it is a close-up, and she looks happy.

I chose this image for the stationary shop advert because I think pencils represent stationary well, and it was the best composition of the set.

I chose this image for the advert of the cupcake shop because the composition was the best out of the rest of the pictures

I chose these three photos because they had the best compositin, weren't blured, and had the best light

This photo was chosen because it was the only one that wasn't blurred

I chose this photo because people were doing the best poses in it

This photo was chosen because I thought it represented Knaresborough well

The reason I chose this picture for the advert is because the advert in question was about selling a house, and this image includes all of the house.

The Finished Product

Audience feedback for front page:

Holly Bellerby - "Though the general look of the front page is good, there are just a few too many white spaces on the page, and the advert might be too big. On the plus side, the quality of pictures and articles are very high."

Aneysha Wakelin - "I think this front page is fantastic and the articles really give it a local feel. One criticism I would have though would be that the main pictures have no people in them, which you usually find in local newspapers."

Audience feedback for second page:
Erica Hodgson - "This is professional looking, and the only criticism I would give is that there are no people in the pictures"
Tiffany Jackson - "I think this is good, as the layout is similar to that of a proper local newspaper, and the adverts look great."

Articles on the second page

Harrogate Grammar Reveals new £300,000 extension
THIS week, Harrogate Grammar schools canteen extension was finally finished. Building work went on for around 4 months, with most of the work being done during the schools' summer holiday.
The extension, named ’The Hub’, was created to make room for the ever-expanding number of students taking school lunches, as well as the increase in the school population. It provides an additional seating space for another 200 students, and will hopefully reduce the queues within school. The unusual name of The Hub was given because everyone is hoping it will become the heart of the school.
Mr Steven Howell, the schools business manager, said “We’re all really pleased with how The Hub has turned out; it means that not only will it reduce queues at lunchtime, but also it is a new place for sixth formers to work quietly in, as well as providing a larger amount of room for staff meetings.”
As well as this, year 10 students expressed delight at the schools new facility saying that it will definitely encourage them to use the schools meal service as it makes eating a much more pleasurable and sociable experience.
Head teacher Mr Richard Sheriff, had this to say “The students at Harrogate Grammar are very privileged to have this facility available to them, and this is just the start of expansion work at the school. Contractors are due to begin work in a week’s time on an extension to the sixth form block.” So far, profits at the canteen are significantly up as students have reacted very positively to the new facility.

Comedy festival begins
LAST Monday saw the first Harrogate Comedy Festival kick off with John Bishop starting the entertainment at the Harrogate Theatre. Bishop, 42, treated the audience to a hilarious night of comedy taken from his award-nominated Edinburgh Fringe show. His performance at Harrogate marked the start of a whirlwind 70-date tour . The show started off with Bishop getting to know the crowd through light hearted exchanges with the braver members of the audience, and Bishop himself finding out about Knaresborough ‘crag rats’. With a slightly free formed first half, what followed was a more structured – but equally as funny – second half, when Bishop laid bare all of his worries about middle-aged life such as when its wrong to still be wearing white trainers, his sons not liking him, and finally reaching the age when Elvis died. What many found about John Bishop is his fantastic ability to talk to people of all ages, as the audience was a huge mixture of different ages, ranging from 17-70! There wasn’t a dull moment during his routine, the audience was left howling with laughter, and the Gazette wishes Bishop the best of luck with his comedy career.

Race For Life donations
ORGANISERS from the Race For Life events are still asking for donations to be sent through, so that Harrogate’s £150,000 target. Around 70% of people have sent their completed forms in.

Second Car Flips
YET another car has flipped over onto its side after leaving Waitrose Car Park this month. The family, who were in a Vauxhall Zafira, hit the bollard outside Waitrose and proceeded to flip over. This is a repeat of an incident which happened on the 8th September involving a Renault Clio. Luckily in both cases, the drivers were unharmed.

Harrogate's fat cats
IN a recent survey, it was found that Harrogate has Yorkshires biggest population of overweight cats. The survey found out that out of the 70% of Harrogate citizens who own cats, around 65% ofthose are too overweight to be considered healthy. This is incredibly worrying for pet owners, as the risk of a cat developing health problems such as diabetes and cancer is increased. The cost implications of this are dire because (besides the extra food costs!) as we all know, vets fees are on the up. Aneysha Wakelin, 34, told the Gazette “I’m really worried about this, my cat Sooty is three times the weight he should be, and I simply can’t afford to go to the vets to get him checked up on all the time”.
Experts simply cannot understand why it is Harrogate that is the worst offender, but vet Fiona Reaney had this advice to share; “If you find your cat is overweight, try putting them on a dry food diet – as this is much better for them – and make sure you don’t give them more food than they actually need". If residents of Harrogate listen to this advice, hopefully we should see a vast improvement to our cats.