Victus newspaper story

Healthy fast food at victus

After 2 years of planning and 5 months of renovation the new restaurant Victus has just opened up last week on Beulah Street. It’s only been opened up for a week and it proves very popular with the locals. This is surprising due to the high saturation of restaurants and cafes in Harrogate. The restaurant was founded and designed by people who love food, and they providing the freshest, healthy and good tasting food available. The interior of this Victus is also a big part of the overall experience, the interior makes you feel warm and welcome.

However, it is not just the great tasting food and interior which has people excited about Victus. But it is the proper grand opening of the restaurant which has people eager.  Formula 1 star Jenson Button (who is the founding member of Victus) will be attending the grand opening along with the mayor.

Skatepark newspaper story

New Skate Park opens up in valley gardens 

After many years of young teens petitioning for a skate park to be opened in the Harrogate area, a new skate park has finally opened up in valley gardens on the 28^th May; work began on the skate park in early February, and it had setback the council £150,000 During the production of the park both the users of the skate park and the council has been working together to build the park at the highest quality, there we’re a couple minor setbacks during the construction process as there was still debate on where to locate the skate park which setback the original completion date. Local skaters say that it was well worth the wait.

However, this is not the first skate park that has been opened up in Harrogate, about 5 years ago there was a skate park located near the Hydro. This too was very popular with the younger generate-on, but was very unpopular with local residents as it caused a lot of noise and disruption and the skate park was removed only a few weeks after it was built. However, the new skate park is a permanent structure and it is unlikely to go, the location of the skate park means that it is likely that there will be less complaints.

As of now the skate park has proved very popular with teenagers and children alike. A local skater says “it’s great that Harrogate finally got a skate park, before there were not many places to skate in Harrogate, before we would have to travel as far as Leeds in order to have a good skate session” it is not only younger people that benefit from this skate park but local parents also do “I think that the skate park is a great opportunity for my children, it gives them something to do and its great exercise”  as of far the new skate park has been very popular with local residents.

9 golden rules

1.       Kiss – keep it short and simple- local papers normally have shorter sentences between 16 – 20 words- keep to simple vocabulary which the broadest audience can access

2.       Read for speed – sentences and headlines are short – cross heads break the story down into bite size pieces – columns are narrow and easy to read

3.       Never use 3 words where 1 will do – you will rarely see the following phrases in newspapers – “in the near future” – “ in the first instance” – “ on the subject of” – “in the consequence of”

4.       Don’t repeat yourself – don’t use 2 words which mean the same thing e.g. uniquely special – final outcome – important essentials

5.       Use active verbs – e.g. burglars took the corgi, rather the corgi was taken by the burglars

6.       Play with language – use puns e.g. chippy gets a battering, Steve Davis arrives on que

7.       Make the story personal – particularly  in local papers, people sell papers

8.       Categorise people in the news – e.g. grey haired pensioner, secret lover, mother of two, retired teacher

9.       Things to avoid – clichés, euphemisms, being to chatty, unnecessary use of foreign or American phrases

Writing newspaer articles

Writing newspaper articles

1.       The headline – accurate and in the present tense, first sentence 5w’s

2.       First paragraph – make the reader interested and include a hook

3.       Make it accurate – make sure info is correct

4.       Search for the special ingredient  which makes your story stand out

5.       Paragraphs throughout should consist of only 2 or 3 sentences  - no more than 22 words for 1^st sentence as a grab line

6.       Use quotes (expert opinion) or direct witness

7.       Keep language simple

Potentail names for my newspaper

Harrogate Post

Harrogate Gazette

Harrogate Standard – this is going to be the name for my newspaper, the reason in why I chose this title is because people will expect a high standard if newspaper.

Publisher’s statement - “the voice of the people since 1886”

Harrogate Standard  

Harrogate Today

The Harrogate Journal

The Harrogate Express

Harrogate View

Harrogate Chronicle

Writng a newsaper

Design Checklist

·         Gather material for front page and decide which is essential and which is optional , use short pieces of writing or “fillers” to fill small gaps

·         Give each page a main story or picture which will attract the reader’s attention

·         Give the best picture a prominent position on the page, even if it doesn’t go with the lead story

·         Scatter other pictures around the page and make sure it is always clear to the reader where to go next

·         Vary the shapes and sizes of the picture

·         Make sure every picture has a caption and every story has a headline

·         Use lines and boxes sparingly, and only if they are needed to make separation clear

Making stories fit

If your stories are too long, your options are to:

·         Cut the text  - you can always drop a sentence or two or else find shorter ways of saying things

·         Trim or resize photographs – tight cropping of pictures, especially head and shoulder shots, can make them much more dramatic

·         Shorten the headline

·         Alter the size or style of the font or change the leading or tracking

·         Move something else, such as advertisement, off the page.

If your stories are too short your options are to:

·         Add text

·         Enlarge a photo

·         Add an introduction (standfirst)

·         Alter the size or style of the font or change the leading or tracking

·         Put space between the paragraphs

·         Add crossheads (mini-headlines) between paragraphs

·         Add a lift quote – take a quotation form the story, type it in larger font, and draw attention to it by boxing it or giving it some white space

·         Add an advertisement or filler material

Local newspaer names

 

Yorkshire Post

Harrogate Advertiser

Nidderdale Herald

Ripon Gazette

Boston Standard

Knaresborough Post

Beeston Today

Harrogate Herald

Proposal

I’m creating an ultra-local newspaper which is going to be based in Harrogate. My newspaper will cover on both local issues and some national issues, but only if they relate to the local area.  The news values that I will give priority to are personalisation; these are stories which are to do with local people. Negativity will also be prevalent within my newspaper as these stories are more likely to read by the target audience. Continuity will also be included within the newspaper. I want my newspaper to have the feeling that there is a strong community.

Ideology:  I’m going to replicate the established conventions of existing newspapers, without these conventions the audience may not recognise the product. My newspaper is going to predominantly conservative and I will not be challenging the normal conventions. My newspaper will also need to be politically neutral so there is less chance of losing the target audience. My target audience for my newspaper is going to be people, who live in the Harrogate area, and the newspaper will be mainly targeted for people who are around 30+, and due to the fact that it is a Harrogate newspaper it will also be targeted towards the more middle class. There will also be secondary readership to account for, so teenagers may also read it so there will be some content for them. Secondary readership means that there will be larger audience and I will need to consider that into the newspaper.

News values

News values

There are millions of stories that happen every day which could make the news and journalist need a method to make sure which stories to include. They use a set of criteria called news values to help them select the news.

·         Frequency – the more similar the frequency of the event is to the frequency of the news medium, the more likely it is to be recorded

·         Threshold/amplitude/numbers – the size of an event will govern the amount of attention is given. Obviously the bigger the better

·         Unambiguity – a simple stroy is good for the journalist to investigate And it is also easier for the audience to understand

·         Meaningfulness – Culturally relevant or culturally proximate events are more likely to make the news. The audince is more interested in event that are closer to home

·         Consonance – Events meet our expectations arre more likely to become news

·         Unexpectedness/surprise – events which hold a large element of surprise are more likely to hit the headlines.

·         Continuity – events which have already been defined ad news will continue to carry importance in the news agenda

·         Compositon – editors make sure there is a balance of home and foreign news, they will put in lighter news to make it less depressing

·         Reference to elite nations – other major western nations are more likely to make news

·         Reference to elite nations – events which contain references to stars, politicians and royalty etc are all likely to become news

·         Personalization – events which are personalised are more likely to be reported  than those which have no specific individual concerned

·         Negativity – bad news makes good news?

·         Actuality – news which has a sound bite, clip or radio station is more likely to be reported

News agenda

The news agenda is to do with which stories you select for your newspaper and the priority you give to those stories. More important stories will have more text and images to go with them. News values are the same for all news organizations and whoever your target audience is but different newspapers give priority to different news values. A broadsheet newspaper might give priority to elite nations, but a tabloid newspaper will give interest in personalization. Local newspapers will prioritise things with meaningfulness.

News selection

All news involves the selection of information by journalists because it would be impossible to include every single detail. When photos are taken that also involves choices by the photographer about how they wish to represent the event. Captions underneath pictures help to lead readers towards a preferred reading of the image.

Ideology

Ideology is a set of beliefs or ideas which is held by a society or groups of people or by individuals. In our country the dominant ideology is probably white male, middle class, middle aged and conservative. Your local newspaper is more likely to support this ideology so they don’t upset their wide audience. The layout of the newspaper is very formal, gives the feeling that the newspaper is trustworthy and reliable. The front page is like an advert for a paper, shows that it is up to date and has an array of features.

Audience

Going to be targeting a local but very broad audience, broad means that the age range of 10 – 100, people from different social/ economical groups will be reading it, people with different religious beliefs, politics, family circumstances, retired etc. Primary media is when we pay very close attention to a media text, secondary media is when you skim through a paper and see if something catches your eye. Tertiary media is when media is present but were not consciously aware of it. One person can buy a newspaper but it is not only read by one person, it could be read by several other people. Local newspapers tend to be kept for the whole week and not thrown out, people will check for such things as events etc.

Front page semiotic analysis

Front page semiotic analysis

Harrogate advertiser

·         Main Headline – the headline is written in very large bold font, can easily catch the attention of the audience.

·         Mast head - Name of the newspaper also stands out, Text is white and within a large blue box- just above it says “since 1836” makes it seem more reliable and authentic, blue background, shows that it is conservative

·         Web address just below the mast head

·         By lines on the main story, shows who wrote the article

·         The headline is just below the headline and is to the right of it

·         Below the main title it includes a small preview of other stories in the magazine – these include pictures and large and bold blue font

·         The text of the newspaper is split into two different parts, one part for the main story and the other part is for the other smaller stories- there is a bold line which divides the two.  There are a total of 3 different stories on this front cover. Newspaper is usually folded so it is the main story that is on show and this should draw in the readers

·         Bottom half of the page has been used for advertising – advert has bright colours so it attracts the reader

·         For each story on the front page there is an image for each story- there is a much larger image for the front page story – because it is more important

·         Each image also includes a caption – the caption helps the audience to understand the image and the story

·         The Front cover story has a lot of appeal to people living in Harrogate – in this instance it is discussing the rising parking fees, which affects a lot of people living in Harrogate

·         The price of the newspaper is just below and to the right of the name of the newspaper- this is placed so it is easy to see

·         Bar code is placed at the bottom half of the newspaper and it is placed on the left – above the barcode it says that this newspaper should be recycled.

·         Some of the stories headlines use exaggerated language e.g. “Outcry over plans to pave Parliament Street” 

Ripon Gazette

·         Mast head has large white font and is on a dark green background , style of font also varies on the main title “Ripon” is written in bold and “Gazette” is written in italics

·         4 pictures in total, there are 2 main pictures which catches the reader’s attention, these pictures are associated with the main story

·         2 other stories which are included in the paper are just below the main title; both include a picture which is associated with it.

·         Main headline is in large, bold font, catches the readers attention

·         2 separate stories, both cut off by border lines

·         Advertising at the bottom of the page, adverts for different schools around the area, will attract readers who are parents

·         Bar code is in the same place as the Harrogate advertiser

·         Layout is very similar to Harrogate advertiser

·         The font size for the articles is size 9, small font so you can fit more text on a page

·         Main story is on the top half of the page, newspapers are folded when on the shelves so this is the story seen by the customer

·         The most dominant colour in this front page is green, to do with environment

·         Pun is used in the main headline, attracts the audience as is makes it sound clever

·         Website information just below the main title, advertises their website, most likely has extra information for the readers

What is news?

What is News?

·         News is people

People are inerested in celeberites, gossip etc

·         Dog bites man - no interst. Man bites dog – news

This is an example of Abnormal news and people are interested in this

·         News is anything that makes the editior say “Gee Whiz”

There needs to be Shocking/Amazing news

·         News is what someone somewhere wants to suppress, all the rest is advertising

News that people want to know but the person involved does not want peploe to know e.g man cheats on wife – super injunction

·         Fresh events reported

News must be current and up to date, there is no point of having news which is 2 weeks old

The dictionary definition of news is probably the most helpful.

·         News must be new or fresh or at least have a fresh angle.

·         News must be presented as something that is not mundane; it must be an event.

·         The fresh event must be reported to become news.

Writing newspaper articles

Writing newspaper articles

1.       The headline – accurate and in the present tense, first sentence 5w’s

2.       First paragraph – make the reader interested and include a hook

3.       Make it accurate – make sure info is correct

4.       Search for the special ingredient  which makes your story stand out

5.       Paragraphs throughout should consist of only 2 or 3 sentences  - no more than 22 words for 1^st sentence as a grab line

6.       Use quotes (expert opinion) or direct witness

7.       Keep language simple

                                                                                                                                                            

9 golden rules

1.       Kiss – keep it short and simple- local papers normally have shorter sentences between 16 – 20 words- keep to simple vocabulary which the broadest audience can access

2.       Read for speed – sentences and headlines are short – cross heads break the story down into bite size pieces – columns are narrow and easy to read

3.       Never use 3 words where 1 will do – you will rarely see the following phrases in newspapers – “in the near future” – “ in the first instance” – “ on the subject of” – “in the consequence of”

4.       Don’t repeat yourself – don’t use 2 words which mean the same thing e.g. uniquely special – final outcome – important essentials

5.       Use active verbs – e.g. burglars took the corgi, rather the corgi was taken by the burglars

6.       Play with language – use puns e.g. chippy gets a battering, Steve Davis arrives on que

7.       Make the story personal – particularly  in local papers, people sell papers

8.       Categorise people in the news – e.g. grey haired pensioner, secret lover, mother of two, retired teacher

9.       Things to avoid – clichés, euphemisms, being to chatty, unnecessary use of foreign or American phrases