article research

Researching into newspaper articles, I have come across several theories which aided my understanding of how newspaper articles are not only structured, but the relevance of their positioning in a newspaper. A particular theory a came across was ‘News Values’, which determines how much news prominence a story is given by the media outlet, leading to the attention it is given by the audience. This was proposed by Galtung and Ruge who put forward a list of 12 factors that help influence the success of a newspaper article. They proposed that the more featured they described as ‘News Values’ appeared in an article, the higher the rate of success an article would be, and can determine a popular article. For Galtung and Ruge, an article that makes it onto the front page will be an item of news packed with news values that will prove entertainment to the audience. An article with little or few news values in will result in the article being positioned somewhere near the back of a Newspaper, where the audience won’t be missing out greatly if they don’t read it. Having a boring article on the front page of a newspaper will indeed foreshadow the hole Newspaper to the audience as being boring, which therefore lead to their decision of the more news value, the better the article.

FREQUENCY

The first news value that Galtung and Ruge proposed was ‘Frequency’. This relates to how well the story fits with regards to timing for the newspaper organization. A story that happens at night or something that may be irregular, are likely to be regarded as inconvenient to the organization, and therefore to the audience.

NEGATIVITY

Another news value considered important, is Negativity. It is thought that negativity attracts an audience to an article, as it arouses a lot of other feelings, for example shock ,grief, maybe even unconscious excitement. Galtung and Ruge considered bad news more newsworthy than good news.

UNEXPECTEDNESS

This news value can be considered as priceless, as some unexpected news is more than likely going to attract a large amount of media attention, leading to a bigger sales in newspapers. Galtung and Ruge stated that if something happens out of the ordinary, it is going to have a greater effect than something that happens on a regular every day occurrence.

PERSONALISATION

Personalization is a news story which basically has a factor that the audience can relate too, or it concerns them. This news value was considered important by Galtung and Ruge as it can be the difference between an article being successful and selling more, as people can relate to it.

MEANINGFULLNESS

This news value relates to how much an audience can identify themselves it. Cultural proximity’s can be taken into account here, stories that speak the same language, have the same preoccupations and perhaps look the same as the audience will receive more coverage. This can be vital in making a story successful.

 

REFERANCE TO ELITE NATIONS.

This refers to articles with larger, more powerful nations receiving more coverage than other nations. For example, it may be that an article about New York, America may receive more audience attention than an Article concerned with London, England.

REFERENCE TO ELITE PERSONS

Similar to elite nations, articles with rich, famous and powerful people are more likely to attract more coverage and media attention. This is certainly a key new value to celebrity magazine who rely on Elite people to satisfy their readers.

CONFLICT

Stories/Articles which involve fighting or any sort of conflict are deemed as Newsworthy, as they tend to create a dramatic atmosphere which will indeed appeal to the public.

THRESHOLD
This legitimately relates to the size of an event. The size of an event determines how much media coverage it is. This can link to both ‘Reference to elite nations and Elites persons’ news values, Which can make the article more newsworthy.

CONSANCNESS

Where the familiar is more newsworthy than the unfamiliar.  Galtung and Rage suspected that things the audience are more familiar with may appeal to them more as they have a greater understanding, and again it may act as a catalyst of emotions, for example a death of someone famous may be seen as more newsworthy than the creation of a new judge on a panel show

CONTINUTY

A story that has achieved a high level of importance, resulting in it running for a long time. This could include some feature like the Royal Wedding, or the War in Iraq.

COMPOSTITION
This is the weighing out of news, for example having a positive news story to out balance a negative news story. An abundance of bad news may depress the audience and put them off buying the newspaper again. Furthermore, it could be to do with the time period which the news is about. If one news story is to do with the past, a one about the present will be included for balancing purposes.

UNAMBIGUATY

This relates to news stories being interpreted in the least amount of ways.

click here to view my presentation on journalistic values

(because this is a zooming presentation, please zoom all the way out before reading)

HERE IS MY EXAMPLE ANALYSIS OF A NEWSPAPER ARTICLE.  

MY ARTICLES

 

 

For my product, I have brainstormed a couple of ideas of what I want them based around. My main article will be about a Highland cow that has been accidently let loose and ended up at Morrison's Car park

Frequency- My Newspaper will report that the event happened the day before, giving Sunderland Life enough time to get pictures to support the article and write a report.

Unexpectedness- There hasn't been anything in the news before that has would lead to the suggestion of the stray cow. It is also quite a random article and take the audience by surprise. The fact the article is unique may increase 'word of mouth' and get the locals talking, which will in result promote my paper.

Threshold- The event has taken place on a large scale, I will be reporting how the cow managed to walk from his farm on old burden to popular local Supermarket Morrison's.

Reference to elite relations- Morrison's supermarket is extremely recognisable amongst the Sunderland Locals and can concern a large selection of  the target audience who live in the Doxford Park area. Those who do there weekly shop at Morrison's will be intrigued to read the article and earn about the cows travels. This can link to the value 'Personalisation', as audiences can relate or feel more close to the story knowing the cow was found in a familiar place to them.

Negativity- the article does have elements of negativity, for example the cow has damaged ligament's making walking painful. This can cause shock and sadness to the audience and also make the article seem more dramatic.

 

Hit and Run

This is a small article which will be positioned on the right side of my front page. It is about a granddad who was killed in a hit and run incident.

Negativity- The article has a great deal of negativity in, as family's will be greying for the lost of their loved ones.

Composition- The negative article counter balances the happy uplifting articles on the second page and creates more variety within the paper. The negative news also helps make the paper seem more realistic, as papers don't only report happy news. The composition also helps binary opposites, for example the fact the hit and run article is along side the Cow article may make the main article seem more humorous compared to this one.

Personalisation- audiences will be able to sympathise and relate to this article especially if they have a grandfather/ father they are close to. It gives the audience brief escapism from their troubles also and allows them to step into someone else's world.

Side Articles

On the second page of my product I will have two articles featured at the right hand side of the page positioned in a column.

First side article

This article is about plans for Seafront renovation. It will be a brief overview of what the locals can expect to find and the date of completion. Most importantly this article will appeal and be relevant to all of my target audience and will unite them, as it is something everyone can look forward to.

· CONSANCNESS- the location will be familiar for all target audience and will affect them all equally. For older locals, they will be intrigued and shocked at the fact of a change. For younger residents this is an exciting opportunity for them to experience.

· Unexpectedness- As it has been criticized that Sunderland council spend their money unwisely, this new development will act as locals will be shocked their beach is being renovated. They will be excited and pleased for the finished product and give them something to look forward too together.

· Threshold- as it involves a large majority of Seaburn beach and a key location within Sunderland; this will attract lots of publicity and attention.

Second article-

This is a review on an Empire show 'Rocky Horror Picture Show', which has proved popular to the locals. it will be about an event that took place in Sunderland and therefore will be relevant to the full target audience. throughout the article I will push how the show is fun and exciting, which will hopefully be reflected through my writing. The fact that my newspaper will be including reviews of performances will encourage the audience to return back to the product to read more reviews and recommendations.

 

Personalisation- Those who went to the Rocky Horror Picture Show will enjoy reading the experience of it and will be able to easily identify with the article. They will understand and can relate to certain aspects of the article, for example when I mention how everyone went was dressed up.

 

Consances- the article refers to the popular establishment 'The Empire'. The audience will be intrigued to read about a show that has been held at a familiar place and will value the article more.

Composition- The review style article creates a balance within the paper and breaks up the article. The more variety in the paper the more there will be available to appeal to the different target audiences.

 

Main article

One of my articles for my second page will be about a teenage girl who took part in a marathon raising money for Alzheimer's charity, dressed as a Crayola pencil. The fact I am choosing a teenager for the character in this article is an attempt to communicate and represent a teenage audience.

Teenagers may feel empowered by this and inspired by the character in the article. Also by doing this is representing teenagers in a different way, as usually when they are in the news it is to report violence or 'hoodies'. By portraying them in a good light is uniting them with the community and showing not all teenagers are vandals.

Threshold- The marathon will be a big event, recognized by the target audience to captivate their interest.

Meaningfulness- The news story will be touching for the audience and will portray the girl as brave. Audiences will be able to identify with the character and feel sympathy towards her, and may even feel proud.

target audience research

For a local Newspaper, the target audience isn’t so specified as other products such as a music magazine, or an action adventure film. Because this product is designed for all members of the local vicinity, it is important that it appeals to both genders, and range of ages. To make my product look as realistic as possible, and to ensure I achieve a high grade, I will do thorough research into the target audience of the existing products.


Firstly, I conducted a questionnaire to find out exactly who reads news papers, which will enable me to know who to aim my articles and features at in my Local Newspaper.

 

1.      When conducting my research, I felt it was key to get the basic information from my interviewees, which will help me find what kind of audiences read local newspapers. I recordered the gender and age of the audience concerned, and portrayed It in a graph, making it easy to analyse

2.     Now that I collected the basic information about the audience, I asked them if they read the local newspaper. This would give me a cross range answer, and an insight idea of what ages actually read the Local Newspaper the Most. The chart above has reordered information for Males. The most popular age amongst the males to read the local newspaper is 41-60 year olds. Local Newspapers are proven unpopular towards teenage boys, leaving the 16-20 column empty. This research tells me that Local newspapers, amongst the male gender is most popular to middle aged men. I will continue to pursue my research into this, by conducting more questionnaires designed specifically to that age. Because the ages 61+ and 21-40 year olds came a close second, I will also consider them in my research.

3.Likewise to how I ordered my research from the male Gender, I did the same for females. My research shows that Local Newspapers are quite more popular to females than males. The most popular age amongst the people I asked are 41-60, and the 61+ year olds. Again this suggests the middle aged is more inclined and enjoy reading a local newspaper compared to other ages. The fact that the 16-20 year old female that I asked has selected yes, shows me that Local Newspapers may be more appealing towards female teenagers than males. I will conduct further research on this, to find out exactly what my target audiences want out of my Local Newspaper, and make my Newspaper look as realistic as possible.

From collecting some basic audience research, I am going to study the audiences further, to gain a greater knowledge and understanding of the types of things the readers like in a Local Magazine. Because for both Genders, the most popular age range that read Local Newspapers was 41-60, I will start with that age group, and try to appeal to them most. Taking this into consideration, I showed the front 2 pages of the Sunderland Echo two both male and female in the age of 41-60, and asked them a few questions.

1.      What factors highlight that the newspaper is local?

Women: The masthead name and colour scheme together

Man: The word choice ‘Houghton woman & Local Area’. Also there is local advertising.

2.      What appeals most to you on the front page?

Women: The main image is bright and cheerful, shows a happy family, gives a happy vibe!

Man: The adverts, and the price.

SECOND PAGE

3.      What do you notice is different to the layout of the second page to the first?

Women: No heading, more info on emergency numbers and general useful contacts.

Man: Is an index

4.      What appeals to you most on this page?

Women: Again the images, show happy people, makes you want to read the articles. Also the heading is quite knowledgeable because you learn about national milk day.

Man: The article headline about the dad is quite infuriating and makes you want to read more.

ADVERTISEMENTS

5.      What advertisement on the front page appeals to you more?

Women: Personally, the Frankie and Bennies one as I have a big family and it would be nce to treat them to a Breakfast there! The foods great!

Man: The Frankie and Bennies advert, the car advert is too small in comparison.

6.      Do the advertisements distract attention from the main article?

Woman: Yes it’s very colourful and the words are very large and big, easy to see.

Men: Yes the food side tracks you.

INCLUDING AND APPEALING TO A TEENAGE AUDIENCE

(Research/questionnaire/analysis)

Target Audience research!

In order to broaden the target audience of my local newspaper and appeal more to teenagers, I used the social networking site ‘Facebook’ to do some target audience research. The target audience of Facebook is mostly teenagers and having a Facebook account at my disposal, I decided to ask my friends what they thought on Local Newspapers. The answers I receive will help me adjust and subvert existing conventions of local Newspapers so that they appeal more to teenagers.

  Already, I can see that the teenage audience I asked enjoy reading local Newspapers. This fundamentally tells me that teenagers are interested in the news of their City. I intend in my own product to make it exciting and interactive for this audience. Interestingly, the genders who answered this question balance out. Again this suggests that a Local Newspaper is gender neutral.

The intention of this question was to find out how involved teenagers were in the purchasing of Local newspapers and whether they would spend their pocket money on it. The answers I received tell me they read it from a family member, suggesting they wouldn’t themselves go out their way to buy one. This tells me that marketing strategies towards the teenage audience aren’t as emphasized and promoted as other audiences. By improving this for my own product, I will be able to appeal more to that age.  

To approach this section of my target audience on a less formal tone and make the questionnaire more comfortable for them, I asked them a basic question to get to know their personal opinion. The most popular choice was ‘Main article and headline’. This research will help me when it comes to construction my product as I will know to include more conventions into this feature to make it appeal more to teenagers. Article image was also selected which tells me that my main image will make an immediate impression on the audience and therefore more be tailored suitably to my target audience.

The purpose of this question was to see how much the local conventions of a newspaper had an effect on the audience and what differences they notice from national to local papers. It is evident from my research that the masthead is the main feature that enlightens them the paper is local and therefore for my own product I will concentrate on the masthead of it and make sure it has a catchy and eye catching name that registers to the audience its purpose.

This question will not only help the construction of my product, but my ancillary task which is to build a website to help the promotion of the paper. It is a stereotypical assumption that teenagers and the younger children are very interested in developing technology. The main audience of the internet and social sites is teenagers and by creating my product on a platform that is more adaptable and accessible for them is a way of promoting my product to that target audience.

I asked an open question in the questionnaire to draw a more evaluative conclusion and also be on a more personal level with my audience. I wanted to know whether they felt Included in the audience of a local newspaper. Nearly all my response tells me they think Local Newspapers are more targeted for middle- older aged locals. Because the teenagers I have asked have built this assumption on the grounds of looking at previous products, this tells me not many features included appeal to them. This has gave me the initiative to stretch the target audience of a local paper even further with attempt to make them feel included and welcome of hearing news from their local vicinity.

How has this research helped me/what have I learned?

·        Out of my research I Was hoping to get an idea of what teenager’s thoughts and emotions are towards local newspapers. For my own creation I will manipulate some of their response and use them to my advantage to appeal more to that specific target audience.

·        I have learned that the format of the news being online will be more appealing to their age and more dynamic for them as they frequently use internet and social networking sites. This will meet their needs and gratifications to a more successful level.              

·        I have differentiated teenage expectations of a local newspaper to middle-older aged locals.

Production

To make sure my creative decisions were appealing to my target audience, I printed off the work I have done so far and asked a fair representation their opinion on it.

Lauren Kirtley and Kirsti Anderson, aged 18 said that

·      They like the Crayola article as they thought it was something different and created variety.

·      The image was their main attraction to the article, the bright red colour of the costume.

 James Redford, 18 commented

·      There was a variety of articles and something that could appeal to everyone. The review as really helpful as I’m interested in the Empire.

·      I really like the layout; it’s easy to follow!

Points they didn’t like:

Lauren ‘There’s a lack of images and too much text, may add a couple of more images to break the text up!

James “The box at the bottom of the page doesn’t look very professional because of the big gap. Maybe get rid of that

Talking to my target audience has really helped me evaluate where I’m at with my product. It has been helpful, as I know what areas to improve with. 

genre research

For my newspaper product, the Genre is going to be ‘Local’. It is extremely important that before I construct my product, I do thorough research into the existing genre, to make my product as realistic as possible. Genre is seen as a structuralist approach to literary, print, film theory and much more. Studying the ‘Local Newspaper’ genre, I will be able to find and examine the structural elements that combine and put together the telling of a story, or events in the case of my product. I will be able to base my product on these elements, also known as ‘Paradigm’. I will analyse and take apart several different local Newspapers, to see if a fundamental pattern emerges. Here I will distinguish the Genre, and with it the conventions that belong to it.

There is Genres for almost every creative product, for example, films, tv shows, newspapers, magazines, documentaries, books and much more. It is important that when whatever product you are going to construct, moving image or print, that you have a genre in mind, with conventions that will help you produce the product to a successful level. Some Genres, appeal to audiences more than others, for example some people prefer reading a tabloid newspaper than a Broadsheet, so with the importance of Genre, comes the importance of appealing to the correct audience. Directors of films can look at existing Genres to see how well they appeal to audiences, and this will determine whether they will base their film on that Genre.

For my product, the genre of my Newspaper will be Local. With a local Newspaper, it is deemed important for it to appeal to the full extent of the city/town it concerns. The rules of genre can be applied to my product, and promote the organisation of my product. Over the years, the boundaries between genres have decreased, and some critics say it’s hard to define a products genre. Some conventions overlap, and one product could include elements from several different genres. In order to make sure I keep to my correct genre, I will follow the description by Jane Furere, who divided ways to categorize genres, into 3 separate groups.  

A newspaper is a source of information in print for the public to read. It is the equivalent to what is on news channels, however in a written format, which can be read on busses, trains or simply in the house for morning reading. There are different formats of newspapers available to suit different audience types. A tabloid newspaper has news based on celebrities and gossip that will interest the mass audience, whereas a Broadsheet newspaper touches on political and business matters, for example the Guardian or the Independent.

Newspapers have both a visual and literal element available to the audience, and can be referred back to and re-read. Special editions of newspapers are available for things of mass interest to the audience, for example Royal Weddings and the Olympics which can be kept as souvenirs of the events. Audiences have a chance to get more involved with the news by reading a newspaper, as news articles are wrote more directly, some using first person pro nouns. Typical conventions of newspapers that allow a closer relationship are competitions and quizzes, and even posters.

An audience reading a newspaper may digest more news than someone watching it, as they are paying their full attention to the article, and may feel more obliged to read the stories in depth as they have paid for it.

Paradigms is the explanation of all conventions of a genre being put together, and being recognised as a genre.
view this link to see my research of codes and conventions of Local Newspapers
Before I researched into the conventions of the existing products, I analysed a front page of a local Newspaper to see what my initial knowledge is. I will later compare the comventions before and after.

please click on this link to view the text more closely!

Analysising existing products-

To construct a Local Newspaper to the best of my abilities, I am going to deconstruct several Local Newspapers so that I am familiar with the standard conventions and layout. This will help me when it comes to constructing my own Newspaper, as I’ll use and develop the existing conventions that I learn about.  

click here to see my research on codes and conventions of existing Local Newspapers
click here to view my research on anchored images

click here to see my deconstruction of the first 2 pages of the Sunderland Echo 

EXTRA THOUGHTS

In this particular local Newspaper, ‘The Wear’, two main stories are featured on the front page, own with a political theme, the other about a house fire. Positioned to the right of the front cover is a ‘spoiler’ column of what the audience can expect to find inside, constructed similar to a contents table. There are several features from the contents page that will attract different audiences, maximizing the overall potential audience of the Newspaper. For example, there is a News section with a ‘Politics special’. This can interest a range of different ages who are interested in politics, persuading them to pick up the Local Newspaper. The next column down is ‘On Campus’, which is specifically for teenagers attending college/ University, so immediately we can see the Newspaper is appealing to different types of audiences, and aren’t specifically appealing towards an age group, or a gender. Also on the ‘What’s inside’ table is a ‘Fashion’ column, and further down a ‘Sports’ column. Those who pick up the newspaper will immediately be able to see that it has something in for everyone. This persuades when I construct my own newspaper to include features that will appeal to both genres, of different ages.

According to Galtung And Ruges theory, the more new values a story has in, the more popular and newsworthy they prove to be. The news articles on the front page of ‘The Wear’ are most likely to be chosen according to the amount of news values they have. Within the ‘New Mayor vows to do city proud’ article, there is lots an abundance of new values that together, will make the article News worthy. One of the news values included is ‘Reference To Elite Person’. This is when a rich person or someone with a high status of power is featured in an article. In this particular article, this concerns the mayor, who in the article picture is having his chain of honour placed around his neck, clearly showing the audience he is the new mayor adding a visual factor. Another news value included is ‘Meaningfulness’. For the people of Sunderland, this articles definitely concerns them as they are been given a new mayor. The target audience of the Newspaper is initially, the people of Sunderland; therefore this article achieves the goal of appealing to the intended audience. Another news value included in the article is ‘Conflict’, although it is only minor, and can be considered quite humorous. The new mayor I said to be a Newcastle fan “The chains of the office were passed down to Sunderland’s new mayor Dennis Richardson this week, despite his being a Newcastle United fan”.

  I took a closer look at the articles on the front page, and deconstructed what slection values, news values and treatment values were included by the journalist.



























Deconstructing the articles has helped my understanding of how an article is written. I have learnt that it is important to consider what newsvalues and treatment values will appeal to your target audience, to ensure they will have an enjoyable read. When making my product, I will refer back to my notes on article writing to help me achieve a high grade.