Survey (Market research)

I need to find some stories locally and to do this I needed to find out just what young people; a primary target audience to me, wanted to see and read within the paper. I conducted a survey on Survey Monkey, giving participants options as to what kind of stories they would like to see and read within my newspaper. Because I wanted to give my newspaper a young target audience, I gave the survey to the young people from my class, whose ages range from 17-18, an age I would be happy to target at.

There was no gender or age bias in my survey, as half the participants were male and half were female.

 

Similarly, all participants voted as being 15-24, an important age range for advertising media texts to, because they are ultimately the future of journalism. As I have mentioned, because the ages were the same, I can infer that young people in general want to see the stories that were voted for.

As we can see, a surprising amount of people have voted for political stories to go into my newspaper, with four out of 10 people declaring an interest. Naturally, I will include political stories into my newspaper, as things like the budget cuts, new laws etc affect us all.
Somewhat more surprisingly is that nobody voted for sports stories to go into my newspaper. This could work to my advantage, because having small sports stories within the first three pages of a newspaper is unconventional, thus going against the conventions of real media texts and potentially upsetting an audience.

Conversely, technology was the most popular choice by my peers, which I could have guessed beforehand given the amount of technology and technology change we have grown up with throughout the '90s and the '00s. Secondly, one would expect a media class who are engaging in new media appliances and texts every week to want to read about new technologies; perhaps more so than, say a history class, so I need to be careful when generalising my sample to all young people. Despite this, I will include technology stories and integrate my newspaper with popular websites such as Facebook and Twitter to engage with a younger target audience.
Another expected front-runner is music news stories. Music is a big part of everybody's lives, again especially for a creative media class. I am hoping to write up about local bands within my allocated three pages.

Other popular choices were food stories, which could be tricky to add in on a local scale, and weather stories, which we know to be essential to all news outlets, especially given the British and indeed Cornish obsession with the weather!

It was interesting that local celebrities was only selected by 10% of people, as I made the decision to abandon a tabloid style for my newspaper and instead go with a traditional broadsheet style of reporting. This survey, along with my previous one from the beginning shows me that either young people are caring less and less about celebrities, or there are no Cornish celebrities to talk about that they are interested in.

I have learnt a great deal from this survey; and now have a better idea of what to put into my newspaper and what to leave out. At the end of the day, if people are not wanting to read excessive amounts of sport (albeit if it was at the back of the newspaper which I am not actually producing), or science stories, then the consumer is right and focusing on those stories would be a risk, especially if this is the launch of a new newspaper. Similarly, popular stories like technology stories and music need to be included in detail, as that seems to be where there is a lot of interest.

News Update

News 1:

JK Rowling

This week's Leveson inquiry into the phone hackings of celebrities and crime victims has prompted many to again call for a regulated press. Stars such as Sienna Miller, JK Rowling, Hugh Grant and Steve Coogan, as well as murder victim family the Dowlers, and kidnapping victims the McCanns spoke about their experiences after journalists unethically hacked phones and gained stories via unlawful means. This is relevant to my work, because when I come to collect stories for my own newspaper I will need to be ethical and follow the law, even if my paper will not be published. I will follow the PCC guidelines previously posted and respect the privacy of people involved in my stories.


News 2:

Just a bit more background on newspapers in general, and I found that the Liverpool Daily Post will become a weekly publication after new year, citing 'redundancies' at Trinity News Group (who own the Daily Mail) for the change. Just another example of how the economic climate is affecting all areas of industry.

Article analysis

To get to grips with article analysis, something I have not got a long track record of though enjoy, I have analysed two of the same article but from different newspaper websites. This is to get my head around different writing styles and techniques, as well as devices newspapers use to incorporate this into a technological way online. I decided to look at a story that recently broke about a chap who swung a cat, got caught on CCTV and turned himself in. I looked at The Daily Mail and The Sun's versions of the story and decided to analyse them.

The Sun - http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/3929321/Cat-swing-suspect-hands-himself-in.html
  Hitting you at a first glance of the page is the big picture of the actual incident, which captures the short moment of the long video in which the cat is being swung perilously close to a metal bar, highlighting the potential seriousness of the action. This crafty use of images in terms of graphology is both sensationalised reporting, as it accents the very worst moment of the crime, yet informative as it again saves the reader from having to scroll down to view an image.   Moving on to the lexical choices explored by The Sun’s article, and it is clear to see it is written just as one would expect from this newspaper.  Google’s definition of the word ‘yob,’ which the youth involved is described as within the article, is ‘A rude, noisy and aggressive young man.’ Without forgetting the seriousness of the incident itself, perhaps calling somebody who we only actually know to have committed one offence which may have been in the heat of the moment a ‘yob’ could be seen as unjust. We do not know that the man is indeed rude or noisy; suggesting perhaps a stereotypical tabloid sensationalised noun-come-label which is placed on the suspect, who, it should be noted, has not at the time of writing been proven guilty to any crime despite handing himself in.   As we move further down the article into the first few paragraphs, more sensationalised language is used, such as in ‘brute,’ ‘terrified,’ and ‘appalled.’ To get the reader on the side of the newspaper using this clever strong emotive language is a good selling technique for the paper, as it almost sycophantically begs the consumer to take sides against the man. This is enforced through the next picture, taken from a social networking website showing him shocking a “spliff-like cig.” From what was likely to be a gallery of hundreds of pictures to choose from, The Sun has chosen to use the most negative picture imaginable to represent him with.   Further with the emotive style language used in this article, the cat’s name is mentioned and it is said that the cat is ‘too scared to go out,’ almost personifying it. Again, the newspaper would want to use this to create sympathy for the cat and take a side against the man. This is very much a tabloid technique, as broadsheet newspapers do not often report in this kind of campaigning way. Other strong words that are used include ‘smashed,’ ‘barbaric’ and ‘attack’ – all having the semantic field of violence, war and criminal activity. The journalist then goes on to find it sufficient to mention the suspect’s half brother slaughtered a baby; piling even more hatred onto this man, who, lets not forget  - merely swung a cat in a street.

Daily Mail - http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2059495/Police-identify-suspect-swung-cat-tail-Ramsgate.html

  It is apparent on first look at the Daily Mail article that it meets the conventions associated with the tabloid press in terms of graphology. Its article is laid out in an easy to read manner, with a big unmissable bold-typeface headline in two parts. It is separated with a colon so it reads easier and is perhaps more understandable for readers with a younger reading age, again fitting in with stereotypes of a tabloid audience; one I will look to avoid when making my own newspaper.  Underneath this, there are four bullet points outlining the main features of the article, which will either entice the reader or give them the information they require so they can continue browsing the website quickly. A lot of broadsheet newspapers’ websites use this format; a strategy The Mail appear to use to liken themselves to more serious reporters of news. Like the main headline here, the bullet points below it are in a bolder font, which make it even easier to read. This, too ties in with the Daily Mail and the general tabloid press’s audience of lower social groupings, and people with less interest in reading a lot of text.

  In the article itself, there are clear signs of exaggerated lexical choices, as we would expect from this newspaper. Like in The Sun’s article, the man is referred to as a yob, having only been known to commit this one crime. From the word go, whether he is a yob or not, the reader is under the impression that the man in question is not a nice person; and we are given little chance to mould our own opinions on him throughout the article.

The way that the article initially presents itself to new readers is also demeaning towards the suspect, using the words ‘Face of the yob who swung a cat by its tail:’ almost reminiscent of ‘wanted’ posters, shaming the man involved. This would not be seen in a broadsheet newspaper, who tend to report more objectively and without bias.

In relation to his earlier life, there is an interesting paragraph with quotes from other members of his community about how he is a ‘troublemaker.’ He is also described using the adjective ‘jobless;’ something that is frowned upon for a 20-year-old in our society, and this is backed up by The Daily Mail’s constant urge to display an ersatz sense of disgust. This again attempts to get the reader fully onto the side of the newspaper in a bid to increase customer satisfaction; typical tabloid behaviour, but one that can be reproduced and developed for my own cause.

Despite the Mail’s article is comparatively long, there is a smaller section than on The Sun on the story of his half brother murdering a baby, such behaviour I would distance myself from when creating my own product. The suspect’s upbringing and lack of mother and discipline from his father has come under attack in the article by The Daily Mail, something which brings back memories from August, when several Mail articles and reader’s comments would claim primary reasons for the riots and anarchy across Britain were down to a lacking of a father figure in their youth.

Throughout, the name of the cat ‘Mowgli’ is constantly used, a opposed to using a pronoun such as ‘it’ or ‘the cat,’ giving the reader a connection to the cat. It is also referred to as ‘recovering,’ personifying it, so the reader feels sorrier for the cat, and more disgusted at the acts of the man. Also used is the phrase that the cat’s head was ‘perilously close to being smashed,’ adding to the emotive language littered through the article to get the reader thinking in the way the newspaper wants them to think. But the article uses exaggerated and emotive word choices the whole way through, with the verb ‘shocked,’ the adjective ‘cruel’ and describes the man as a ‘tearaway who had gone off the rails.’

Names

When mind-mapping names, I will need to follow the conventions of other newspapers and regional newspapers.

Papers often have one or two word titles, often giving an insight or philosophical take on the newspaper, which can be delved into in terms of connotations.
Popular tabloids 'The Sun' and 'The Star,' seem to connote the same thing and this is the idea that they are all-seeing, and look down on us. They can use their perceived 'all seeing, all knowing' nature to give an account of information from the viewpoint of someone perhaps watching on and making comment. The two papers' names also inhibit ideas about shedding light on the situation, again linking to making comment on news, which is supposedly what tabloid newspapers do.

Other interesting newspaper names include 'The Guardian,' which suggests the paper will keep you safe and/or informed, and its sister paper 'The Observer,' whose name infers the newspaper merely observes and reports, giving the audience the idea the information it distributes is valid and quality news.

Some names are indicative of a paper's political slant; 'The Independent' is a good example of this, as its connotes the newspaper doesn't hold any political bias, whereas some establishments may lean to the left or right of the political spectrum. This allows the reader to believe they are reading impartial information, unlike their stereotypes of tabloid style newspapers, something they will likely choose to avoid.
The prefix 'on Sunday' or 'Saturday' is indicative of the unconventional day in which it is published.

With regards to local newspapers, the name of the region is in the newspaper name 99% of the time, giving a clear indication as to where the newspaper is based. Some examples of this are the Cornish Guardian and the Western Morning news.

I will need to think carefully about what the name for my own newspaper will be, as first impressions are always important and conversely, people can often read too much into a name.

News update: NRS - Print still in favour with today’s tech generation (June 2011)

I found this article while searching online for audience profiling information and found it fascinating.

http://www.nrs.co.uk/news.html

Currently the latest news story on what is presumably a badly maintained National Readership Survey website from June 2011, Katherine Page reports that people have not given up on print productions such as newspapers and magazines, even though material that could be found inside these productions can be located online more easily and often cheaper.

The NRS identified 6.4 million people who they classed as 'technophiles,' who used a lot of technology. They observed that technophiles are young people earning more than the average wage, and had a span of up to 25 newspapers and magazines, compared to an average of 17.

Smartphone users were found to be avid consumers of broadsheet papers such as the FT and the Independent, and "the 2.3 million technophiles aged 15-24 are ‘average issue readers’ of eight different newspapers and magazines in print, compared to the all-adult average of seven titles," seemingly busting the idea that young people do all their news reading online and in front of the TV.

For the newspaper industry, this will be somewhat of a relief, as it battles to keep its audience when so many other platforms make it easier to consume news, however online news flaws in the same way that iBooks and the Kindle have not flourished, and that is the lack of tangible object. There is a definite underlying satisfaction of the feel of the paper, as well as the layout of books, newspapers and magazines, and this could be what keeps the print industry alive. We are in an age where newspapers are trying to make themselves reader friendly and more appealing to want to pick up and read, with the Times transforming into a smaller 'compact' layout and the rise of the 'i' branch of the Independent, a newspaper which has had huge success.

Uses and Gratifications Theory

The Uses and Gratifications Theory asks why people use use media, and specifically, different types of media. This is useful when aiming your product at different audiences, because if we can better understand why somebody might consume a media text, we can better aim our own new texts at certain audiences.

The theory was conceived in the 1960s, and was developed further in 1794 by Blumler & Katz, who outlined some possible reasons why somebody might consume a text, and these are:

• Diversion from everyday problems
• Personal relationships and emotional interactions (soap operas are a good example of this)
• Personal identity and constructing an identity through emulating behaviours, values and beliefs of characters
• Surveillance, or gathering information via informational programs such as the news and holiday programs.

In terms of newspapers, the uses and gratifications theory is relevant because people are interested in being 'nosey' in society, keeping an eye on events around the world, and in their own communities, and wanting to be up to date. This sells newspapers every day, and is an integral part of the news industry as a whole.

Denis McQuail expanded on the idea further, by putting forward an even more detailed breakdown on audience motives;

• Information
• Finding out relevant events and conditions in immediate surroundings and the world (this suggests, like Blumler and Katz, that people are interested in what is happening around them),
• Seeking advice, as in informational texts like brochures,
• Satisfying curiosity,
• Learning (documentaries are a good example of this),
• Gaining a sense of security through knowledge.

The sense of security which is mentioned is important when selling newspapers, because people think that if they read information from the newspaper they trust, they can feel safer in the knowledge they have gained; another important part in selling newspapers and the longevity of the printed news and its audience over time. 

• Personal Identity
• Finding reinforcement for personal values, such as seeing celebrities and newspapers meet your beliefs to create a bond between the consumer and the media itself,
• Finding models of behaviour, such as subcultural, religious and political trends being emulated by consumers, and creating your own identity from this.
• Identifying with people like celebrities, like David Beckham, who an audience may look up to, and make them feel like they can associate themselves with them,
• Gaining insight into oneself.

In terms of newspapers, an audience may find themselves wanting to find models of behaviour, and meeting those values shared amongst a wider audience, feeling part of a group, thus increasing the gratification of the consumer.

• Integrating and Social Interaction
• Gaining insight into circumstances of others; social empathy,
• Identifying with others and gaining a sense of belonging, (linking in with my last point about shared beliefs),
• Finding a basis for conversation and social interaction; people can use media texts to interact with other people, both through their shared interests and through the media itself, like online and through texting,
• Having a substitute for real-life companionship,
• Helping to carry out social roles,
• Enabling one to connect with family, friends and society.

The media is a good foundation stone for relationships and social integration in terms of common interests, as well as applying the knowledge learned from, eg newspapers for conversational use. 

• Entertainment
• Escaping, or being diverted from problems; this can be a reason for why anybody enjoys anything, such as sport, gaming, reading news, or watching a film,
• Relaxing,
• Getting intrinsic cultural or aesthetic enjoyment,
• Filling time,
• Emotional release,
• Sexual arousal.

In terms of newspapers again, the reason for consuming a newspaper could be because they already associate the idea of sitting down with a newspaper with the enjoyment of relaxing, or escaping every day life, or filling time.

Learning iWeb

For one of my auxiliary tasks, I will have to create a website for my newspaper, and to do this I had to gain knowledge and experience of a piece of software which will allow me to create it. Due to the nature of the equipment we have in college (Apple Macs), we have the iWeb software available to us in all lessons, and during extra-curricular time as well. Because of these factors, I chose iWeb over Adobe Dreamweaver, which I actually had some practice in from GCSE ICT. Also, I felt that I could use iWeb to create a more professional standard product, both using the layouts suggested inside the program and the more sophisticated tools that iWeb offered. I took to iWeb for some creative experimentation, basing my ideas on the days news, as reported by The Guardian (above).

Having looked at some of the styles iWeb offered, I found the best one that would suit a newspaper style website. I chose the 'blog' template, which looked as though it fitted my genre. Others I had looked at looked more like they should be for personal blogs or websites, such as these

The layout I decided to use was a blog layout presumably aimed at people using it for holiday entries, however it was perfect for my practice using the product. Taking into consideration it was just a practice session, with the aid of my teachers, peers and internet guides, I played around with what I had, adding in satirical stories as well as those I had found from the internet. I learnt how to add in text properly, using the 'new blog' feature, how to delete items that I didn't want, change text that was there, insert my own images, and had a better idea of how the layouts worked on iWeb as they differ greatly from any Adobe or Microsoft product I had ever used. One thing I found difficult was that the built in layouts were restricting in that I could not change the colours of the backgrounds or alter the layout from its set position. Despite this, I was happy with what I had achieved, and I now feel in a better position for moving onto actually creating my website; safe in the knowledge I can make a product that looks good and is efficient in a small amount of time.
The most valuable lesson I had learnt from my experience was the aspect of saving my document, as on College Macs, you need to find a 'domain' file once you have saved it in order to enable editing next time around, however I shut down my computer without thinking and the file was lost. Thankfully I was not half way through working on my final piece!

Initial thoughts - Newspaper

I have been having some initial thoughts in terms of how I want to lay out my newspaper, as well as what I want to include in it.

• Because my newspaper needs to be local, I will base it in Cornwall, maybe even just North Cornwall or the Bodmin area. This way I can more easily get stories in more detail, as I don't have a team of journalists like big newspaper companies do.
• If I based it around Cornwall, I could attain my news stories via the county website and interviewing people.
• The fact I can drive and have a car will assist me in this as I will not be restricted to where I can go out and take primary images, information and interviews.
• In terms of my style of newspaper, I want to meet conventions of local newspapers by making it broadsheet, but at the same time I want to make it smaller as a compact paper, much like i newspaper and how The Times is now since it moved from pure broadsheet to compact.
• Within my newspaper, I will need to be current and up to date in terms of technology use, as this is an area I feel local newspapers do not explore enough. With this young generation being the most actively involved in technology, it is critical that I can tap into this to pick up a younger audience.
• I want a younger audience so I could write for them and aim my stories at them. Similarly, I think there is a gap in the market, especially in Cornwall, for a regional newspaper that would appeal to young people. While I do not want to use colours, immature fonts and pictures to lure in a young audience (this does not work anyway!), or base my whole paper around news for young people, I want it to appeal in the same way that internet news websites do. To do this, I will need to quote technology such as Twitter, give news on technology, such as how it will effect people from Cornwall.