Planning and resrach for Lambeth Press newspaper's inside (second) page

For my inside page research, I did a field and secondary research. I looked at different kinds of newspaper (hard copy).  I analyzed different types; such as local, nationwide, business newspapers. I also used the internet for further research. Whenever a newspaper has a sidebar on their front page they usually carry on at least one of the article headline on the sidebar to the inside page. So I decided that I will be doing this to follow the convention and not break the norms. I also have to make sure that the texts will be written in columns. From all the newspaper that I have researched such as South London Press, Metro, Evening Standard and City AM; within their inside page they include something that will immediately show the readers which particular newspaper they are reading. I decided to add the logo of Lambeth Press on the inside page to be able to let the readers know that they are reading my newspaper, I will add additional necessary informations such as the page number because this is a must so that no confusion will take place. Local newspaper in particular features quite a lot of advert on the inside page, so I will dedicate a big space for the advertisements that I will originally be making later on. I will also add a line to make it clear and emphasize where an article begin and ends. 

Teacher's feedback on my Powerpoint Presentation.

In class, I presented what I have done so far through Microsoft PowerPoint. I showed the class and my teacher how I done the nameplate and the reasons why I decided for it to look like that. I showed my draft Lambeth Press front page. 

My teacher said that my presentation was excellent because I explained things in details. For instance, when I took my original pictures I explained why I wanted them to be like that. For example, one of the pictures are zoomed in, which I did in purpose to emphasize the person's facial expression. I also explained how I modified them to suit my newspaper and I  used Adobe Photoshop for to be able to dot his. My teacher Miss Smith also said that it's good how I have research everything before doing things such as the layouts. Firstly, I researched the conventions of a newspaper in general but most specifically a local one as that is exactly what I'm going to be doing.  I also conducted a questionnaire from my potential target audience and for the result I analyzed each answer with a pie chart to make things even more clear and easier to understand. I researched on typography to have a deeper understanding regarding the texts that I will be using for my newspaper. I found out which texts should be used and which shouldn't. Miss Smith said that I have a 'strong knowledge and understanding, as well as informative comments on work made'.

When I was doing the presentation, I took the chance to ask my peers on what they think of my newspaper front page and these are the comments that they made.

Ebun:  'Re position the texts and move the pictures because you can spot on some big spaces.'  

Mary: 'Change the text on your yellow advert because it's not readable as the texts are overlapping each other.'

Bukky:  'Make sure you add a caption for the image that you have because that's what I found out with every photos in newspapers.' 

Biancha:  'Maybe consider taking off the bullet points on the sidebar as it looks a bit like a magazine but if you decided not to, at least change the sidebar a little bit by adding another photograph maybe.'

Lambeth Press Local Newspaper (front page)

This the front page of my ‘Lambeth Press’ local newspaper. As a nameplate/masthead, I used the logo that I originally created for this newspaper. The purpose of having a nameplate is to make it easier for readers to identify which newspaper they are reading and it’s a chance for the newspaper company to differentiate their media product from their competitors.  I added a dateline, price of the newspaper and its website as these are necessary information that readers need.

Mise en scène is a French term for ‘within the frame’ it is an element that represents different things such as costume, lighting, set design and acting. I chose this particular photograph for my first page as it is well related with my main article. I am aware that the lighting of the picture is important because it has a ‘profound effect’ on the way an image is perceived. I took the picture at night to try to affect my reader’s emotion as this emphasize that something bad happened in the  dark. Again, I tried to amplify the reader’s emotion by the set of my picture; as you can see the wall looks bad and dirty which connotes that a crime took place in this area of the house.  In addition, I added some newspaper, letter and other paper props on the floor to make it seem as if something strange happened as some objects are just scattered all over the floor.

I followed the convention of having a big, bold headline on the top of the page as this is the best layout that suits the newspaper that I am originally creating. I made sure that the font type and size are clear as well as big enough to catch the reader’s attention. I decided to make the ‘lead’ section in bold because this is the first paragraph of the article. Therefore, it should try to engage the readers to read the rest of the article. In addition, I made sure that I use a jump line after writing half of my lead article to inform the reader of the page number where they can find the rest of the article. I decided to add a sidebar because this is a good way to present additional news and I made the background colour blue to keep the colour scheme of my newspaper. I added a picture that relates with my first article on my sidebar because I didn’t want the page to look boring by having too much text. I added a line and a bullet point to make it clear that the articles are different separate piece of writing.

I originally made two adverts but I then realised that the adverts looks too stretched so therefore I decided to make another smaller advert to take advantage of the free space available. I used different font types, sizes and colour to differentiate each ads from each other.  

I changed the ‘final’ one because I had to take into account few audience feedbacks such as changing the font style and re position because there were too much space in between the pictures and the texts. After doing further research, I then changed my text into ‘Times New Roman’ because newspaper today still uses this font style and also I now agree with my audiences that this font will look better than the one that I used for my previous one. I added caption on the image that I originally took so that readers can relate and would know what the picture is about. I made the boxes and advert bigger to fill in the spaces. I also changed the font on the yellow advert because when I printed out a copy of my previous newspaper the font was on top of each other and it wasn’t readable at all.

Choosing a headline and planning of article

 According to my research the best way to describe a headline is: "It's a text at the top of a newspaper article, indicating the nature of the article. The headline catches the attention of the reader and relates well to the topic. Modern headlines are typically written in an abbreviated style omitting many elements of a complete sentence but almost always including a non-copula verb".

In addition, I found out that they use different techniques when writing a headline. Some of these are:

• Alliteration which is a repetition of the same beginning letter sound. For instance one of my  headlines on the sidebar will be 'Toddler Tragedy' which will be about a two years old baby that dies because of a car collision.

• Metaphor which is a direct comparison between two unconnected people or things. A good example of this would be 'Saved by the bell'.

• Hyperbole; exaggeration.  For example when a slight problem or difficulty is described as something far worse e.g. NIGHTMARE SEARCH FOR GOOD PUB FOOD.

For this week I was thinking of possible headline and articles that I can use for my newspaper. These are some of the ideas I came up with:

- Two hurt in stab horror

- Toddler tragedy (2 years old died because of car collision)

- SHOOTING HORROR IN PARK (innocent victim was shot as feuding youth clash)

- SHOT DEAD ON THE DOORSTEP (Woman aged 28 was gunned down)

 -DEAD ON COUNCIL DOORSTEP

- COUNCIL SHOOTINGS

- HUMAN ENTRAILS ON COUNCIL DOORSTEP

- ESTATE NIGHT SHOOTINGS


I decided that I might be using this headline and article:

DOORSTEP SHOOTING IN LAMBETH NORTH

Sendeniz  Richards,  Turkish woman aged 35 was gunned down in her home.

Police officers are searching for the killer of Sendeniz .  Yesterday, she was horrifically killed using a shotgun in her house in Frazier Street, Lambeth North. She was immediately rushed to St. Thomas’ Hospital but later died from her injuries.  Her next door neighbour Mr and Mrs McGettigan said that they’ve heard the victim shouting and arguing with a man, the couple assumed that they were talking in their language. ‘She was crying hysterically and he was shouting over her. Moments after, gunshot were fired’.

“The suspect is a man who is well-built and approximately 6ft tall. He was wearing a black baseball jacket, black hoodie, black baseball cap, blue jeans and white trainers.” Friends and relatives believe that the victim’s killer might be the husband as they’ve been having many arguments mainly because of money issues and their planned divorce.

The police have started their search and have posted details about the issue around the local area especially in the Turkish Community Centre (TTC) as the victim and her husband always socialise in the premises. Anybody with information regarding to this matter should call 020 78897 914/ 07944335683 or Crimewatch anonymously on 0800 333 914.

This will be one of my article. As of now I am planning to put this as one of the headline on the sidebar of the front page which can continuously flow to the first page.

Outstanding young entrepreneur

    Sean Garrett was awarded last week with ‘Outstanding Young Entrepreneur 2010’ by Sir Alan Sugar in Waterloo.

    Sean has been very successful throughout the year as he made a total profit of £8 000 from his clothing line ‘Noize’. He makes different varieties of designs but mainly music related ones. Fortunately many musicians loved his designs and they are willing to pay higher price than other customers as they would want to help his clothing line to be successful.

    Sean makes hoodies, T shirts, sweat shirts, jeans and belts; which has been featured in many music videos such as ‘Magic’, ‘The way you are’ and ‘Show me what you got’.

    For anyone who is interested in Sean’s Clothing Line can contact him on www.noizeclothing.com or phone him on 07936782947.

Here are some more ideas that I might use for the headline on the sidebar of the newspaper:


PARK HORROR

PARK HORROR NIGHTMARE

PARK NIGHTMARE

VICTIM SHOT IN HORROR PARK

HORROR VICTIM ON COUNCIL DOORSTEP

SECOND SHOOTING - DOORSTEP OF HORROR

TRAGEDY STRIKES TODDLER

DEATH OF TODDLER IN CAR TRAGEDY

TODDLER IN VIOLENT TRAGEDY

Audrianna, 22 months old died in a car accident. The collision occurred when the bus collided into the car hitting the side of the car. Unfortunately, the baby did not survive but others were injured.    

My research on typography and target audience for my newspaper

When I researched  typography on the Internet the meanings that came up for it was: 'The design of lettering in printing/ The process of setting type.'
I found out that there are wide ranges of choices available for typography and I also learnt that there are five sections of typography in newspapers. These are; text, nameplates, headlines, standard type and info graphics.

- Text: Different research has shown that apparently it takes a little bit longer to read sans serif type whereas serif type is more visually pleasing to the eye as it has a 'horizontal flow'. This is the reason why the majority of all body text in newspapers is in serif type.

- Nameplate: Having a nameplate is an excellent way for newspapers to differentiate their product with their competitors. I found out that before one of the most popular nameplate was  'Old English' style and this is still used by  some newspaper companies today. A good example will be 'The New York Times'.

- Headlines:  Sans serif and serif types are used for headlines. The font used for the headline is the most dominant typographic element on a newspaper page. This however, should be  carefully chosen to reflect the overall mod/personality of the newspaper.

- Standard type: The standard typography is mainly used to broadcast regular features or daily columns. This helps the readers by showing them where certain stories are as they look through the newspaper. According to my research, san serif is a good choice for standard typography.

- Info graphics: The main point of a graphic is to quickly help the reader understand something in as few words as possible.


Research on potential target audience

Audiences are crucial, without an audience there wouldn't be any point of creating my local newspaper. For my project to be considered successful I need to make sure that the texts on my newspaper are going to appeal to my target audience. I researched different kind of theories in relation to target audience but this two are the main ones that interest me:

- Hypodermic Syringe Theory (1977) this theory is explaining how video games and mainly television act on audiences like a 'drug injection'. As the audience are addictive they are then seen as 'passive’ while the media makers 'inject' a kind of 'instant fix' into he viewer.

- Payne's Studies America (1930's) The main point of this theory is that apparently, when children watch too much cinema they then suffered from lack of sleep as well as a tendency towards delinquency. However, I personally disagree with this because now a day research is showing that children are quite capable of distinguishing between simulated and real violence. In addition, TV is not always a bad thing; it can also be a positive influence to children (i.e.: educational programs)

For my newspaper I would say that the target audience are the general public but mainly those people that lives in borough of Lambeth. However, I am aware that it will be better if I have a more specific target audience as this will help me understand more about them which will lead to a better result for my newspaper as I would know what their wants, needs and most especially their expectations when it comes to reading a local newspaper.

 I was looking back at the questionnaire that I did and I found out ages 31 to 37 years old are my main target readers as they are the ones that are most interested in reading a local newspaper. This is followed by 23-30 years old; I believe that this is also the 'working class' group and maybe mostly parents. The least interested are the teenagers I am aware that teens now a days are interested in technology, music and their social life, so maybe this are the main reasons why this age group shouldn't be my main target audience.

Planning the nameplate/masthead for my local newspaper.

According to my research the best way to identify what a nameplate is: 'It's a banner or a title area that indicates the name of a publication which is often misidentified as a masthead.'
 There are different types of nameplates and some of them are:


- With advertising: I found out that there are usually mixed opinions about selling ad space above the nameplate. However, for papers that does this; the ads can have the effect on drawing the readers focus to the top of the page. But they have to make sure that they don't overwhelm the page.





- Blocking: This visually separates the nameplate within a block of colour which can give a  more page dominance as it draws all of the weight to the top of he page to showcase the paper's brand.

- Clipped images: This type of nameplate includes an interweaving graphics or clipped images which can bring a typographic logo to life. It is assumed that the readers are forced subconsciously on to the photos and faces, which means that they are to separate the images from the template and in the process it builds their connection to to the brand and its content.






 

I used Adobe Photoshop to make my own unique nameplate/masthead and this is what I came up with:

¢This is my nameplate/masthead for my newspaper. I used blue because this colour is associated with the local area. (For example: the Lambeth logo is originally written in colour blue with a yellow design on top and  also the colour scheme of the Lambeth council website is blue and white.)

¢I decided to add a cropped and edited picture of Lambeth Townhall because I think that this is a good image for my newspaper as it represents Lambeth well. I edited the original photo because I think that the original photo didn't go too well with my layout and also I went for a 'traditional' black and white look for the nameplate because I think that this will appeal more to the readers as most newspaper masthead looks traditional such as 'The Times'.

I used Adobe Photoshop because this enabled me to edit my original photo of Lambeth Townhall in a lot of ways. I was able to  zoom in, crop, change the contrast and add an effect on the picture which helpedmy nameplate to look eye catching. Also there are  range of different font styles and colour swatches which gave me more options and visualise which looks better  for my newpspaper front page.