Research: Radio Adverts

There are six different types of adverts and these are;

• Hard sell: This uses a more direct and overt sales message.
• Soft sell: This uses a more subtle and friendly sales message.
• Conversational: Consists of conversational dialogue that implies a relationship between the producer and the consumer.
• Instructional: These usually have explanations on  how the products works.
• Aspirational: This consists of a large amount of the advert is taken up by the product so that the audience wishes to own it.
• Testimonial: This uses an endorsement from 'ordinary citizens' that explain the benefits of the product.

Here are some exemplar adverts:
https://www.voices.com/solutions/radio/examples-of-different-types-of-radio-commercials

On average, these adverts are between 30 seconds to a minute long and it varies many times they mention the product depending on the type of advert. In the exemplar adverts, the hard sell and testimonial adverts mentioned the product the most with a an average of about nine times and the soft sell and instructional adverts mention the product the least with only one time where the product was mentioned. Most of the adverts end with endorsement that urges consumers to go to an external link, for example a website, for more information on product and they can also include the producer explaining the benefits of the product and this is more common with testimonial, aspirational and hard sell adverts. Radio adverts will be more appealing to a local audience because it is common that people listen to radios on, for example, on their way to work and many people listen to the radio because they wish to know the state of traffic on their way to work. I think the type of radio advert that will suit a local newspaper the best will be a testimonial advert because of the endorsement from ordinary citizens which allows the advert to be more applicable to those in a local area that'll likely be outside a major city.

Media Survey Results and Analysis

After viewing the results of my Media Survey I can conclude that my newspaper must contain elements of both tabloids and broadsheets. Although my survey results concluded that audiences would prefer tabloids, based on the local newspapers that I have seen I think that my newspaper should be broadsheet as it is less likely that there will be 'sensational' stories in local newspapers so broadsheets are more applicable to a local area.

A2 Media Audience Survey

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Goodwin's Theory and it links to Newspaper Articles

Goodwin's Story Structure:

Charles Goodwin proposed a model of storytelling that highlights the interactive nature of storytelling. He suggested that there are six interactional techniques that speakers use when putting narratives together; these narrative features were:

• Story Preface: A signal that a speaker wants to tell a story and an invitation for others to show interest.
• Story Solicit: A response from someone else that they want to listen to the story.
• Preliminary to the Story: Background information to the story that provides context to it, this is usually in the form of 'who', 'where', 'what' and 'why'.
• Story Action: The main body of the narrative.
• Story Climax: The conclusion of the narrative.
• Story Appreciation: Signals from the audience that communicate their response to the narrative.

Application to newspaper articles:

Here is an application of Goodwin's theory to an exemplar article taken from a online news story in the Bristol Post:

The emboldened title catches the attention of the reader and 'invites' them to show interest in the article, this is the story preface, and the reader would respond by clicking on the link and reading the rest of the article, this is the story solicit. The paragraph underneath the title provides context to the reader so that they understand the meaning of the title, this would be the preliminary to the story.

This is the main body of the narrative of the article that follows up on the story preface that gets the attention of readers and the background to the story that provides context. Being the main body of narrative means that it is the story action in Goodwin's model of storytelling.

This is the concluding paragraph of the article that explains what chief executive the PA (Parent's Association) thinks about the charges against the hospital and how the parking prices of the hospitals. This piece of the article acts the story climax in Goodwin's theory of storytelling.

However, with newspaper articles it is difficult to apply story appreciation as it is difficult for readers to directly interact with the article (with the exception of reading the article). On the other hand it could be interpreted that the readers read the article then they discuss the article with others who have also read the article.

Story Conventions of Local Newspapers

Number:	Headline	Story Summary	Who’s interested and why?
1.	“Famous faces ride in Tour of Britain”	A number of renowned cyclists, that included Mark Cavendish and Sir Bradley Wiggins, were riding though Bristol during the penultimate stage of the Tour if Britain.	The people who likely be more interested in this article are cyclists fans who would want to know about the more infamous cyclists from the world of cycling riding through their local area.
2.	“Council prepares for winter”	Tells readers that roads in Pill, Portishead, Easton-On-Gordano, Clevedon, Long Ashton, Nailsea and Yatton will be closed for around two weeks.	Firstly, people who live in the mentioned areas will want to know which roads are closed and when. Secondly, people who need to drive to work may also want to know about this article because they might take these routes in order to get to work.
3.	“Rejection for High Street flats plan”	Plans for flats to be built in Portishead High Street have been rejected by the North Somerset council due to the fact that it would have appeared to be cramped and the belief that these flats would have had unacceptable living conditions.	People who require a flat to live in would be interested in this article because they may have recently just moved to Portishead and the article infers that there are too few flats in Portishead.
4.	“School crossing saved by generous villagers”	Funding for a crossing patrol at Wraxall Primary School have been found. This would enable for families to cross the road safely.	Parents whose children go to Wraxall Primary School would likely be more interested in this article because these parents likely walk their kids to school and a crossing patrol would mean that they can cross the road safely.
5.	“Pool café to stay open after summer success”	Following a successful summer season the Portishead Pool Community Trust has chosen to keep continuing the café throughout the autumn and winter despite the open air pool closing for the winter.	The locals who went to the open air pool during the summer and liked the café would be interested in this article because it tells them that the café will remain open despite the pool closing.
6.	“Port company reveals plan for land expansion”	The Bristol Port Company has revealed a deal to develop land in Easton-in-Gordano so that it can be used as storage space due to popular dam.	The people who work or the BPC would be interested because it means that they have more space to work.
7.	“Post office will not close in strike”	The Backwell Post Office will remain open during a strike on Thursday despite hundreds of post office workers going on strike on that day.	It says in the article that “the Backwell Post Office wants to assue customers that it will be open as usual this week”, this means that the customers of this post office will be interested in this article.
8.	“Smokers urged to quit for Stoptober”	Smokers across North Somerset are being encouraged to quit the habit in the event that will taking place this month.	Smokers who to stop smoking will be interested in this article because they want to ‘kick the habit’.
9.	“Skunk takes in the sights and smells of his new home”	A skunk from Noah’s ark zoo farm has been moved to an eco-friendlier enclosure.	People who are interested in the welfare of animals and the environment will be interested in this article.
10.	“Royal reply for preschool”	A letter from a group of pre-schoolers has been received a reply from the Queen. The letter contained questions to the Queen and the Queen sent a reply answering the questions.	The parents of the children will be interested in this article because it mentions their children, teachers at this preschool would also be interested.
11.	“Domino’s to sell pizza until 3am”	It was announced that the Domino’s pizza that will be opening in the Portishead town centre will be allowed to stay open until 3 am for two nights a week.	The locals of Portishead would be interested in this article because this Domino’s will be opened in their town.
12.	“Tickets to new Bridget Jones film up for grabs”	The newspaper is offering two tickets to one reader to go and see Bridget Jones’ Baby at the Curzon in Clevedon.	People interested in this article would also interested in seeing the aforementioned film.

What do these articles all have in common?

Many of them are broadsheet articles and can’t really be deemed ‘sensational’ stories as they are intended for a local audience where life is much simpler, this means that they can applied more easily to everyday life and to 'every man' that is very common in local areas.

What does this tell you about the features of local newspapers?

Many are focused on the news of local people rather than the lives of celebrities, many are based around local activities such as the examples above.

Who would be interested in these newspapers and why?

Mainly the local people or people that live in areas nearby that are interested in things that have happened or are happening locally.

Labov's Theory and its links to Newspaper Articles

Common Conventions of Newspapers

Audience Research: Local newspapers

Research in newspaper audiences show that the average age for reader's is around 50 years old with the youngest readers being around 43 and the oldest being about 61 years old. Below is a graph displaying the average age of the main newspaper outlets in the UK:

An implication of this graph is that implies that the older generations of people read the more conservative 'right wing' newspapers, such as the Daily Mail and the Daily Telegraph, whilst the younger generations are more interested the more liberal 'left wing' newspapers such as the Independent and the Guardian. The split between the varying ages is around 32 years old and on average around 25% of the total audience of these newspapers are aged below the age of 34 and the split male and female readers is in favour and more males read newspapers with an average amount of readers being about 55-58%.

Coursework Research: Newspaper Terminology

Here are some examples of terminology that is commonly used in newspapers both national and local, many of these terms will likely be used in my coursework:

• Attribution: A line identifying the source of the quote.
• Banner A wide headline extending across the entire page.
• Banner Ad: An advertisement across the top or bottom of the page.
• Border: A rule used to form a box that is usually used to edge a photograph or paragraph.
• Boldface: A heavier, darker weight of font that is usually used to add emphasis.
• Broadsheet: A full-size newspaper, measuring 14 by 23 inches.
• 'Butting Heads': Headlines from adjacent stories that collide with each other, this should be avoided and it is also known as tombstoning.
• Byline: The reporter's name, usually at the beginning of a story.
• Caption: A line or block of type providing descriptive information about a photo that is used interchangeably with the cutline. 
• Column: A vertical grouping of text; it is also called a leg.
• Continuation line: Type telling the reader that a story continues on another page.
• Cutline: A line or block providing descriptive information about a photo.
• Deck: A small headline running below the main headline; another term for this is a drop head.
• Downstyles: A headline style that capitalises only the first word and proper nouns.
• Drop Head: A small headline running below the main headline; it is also known as a deck.
• Ear: Text or graphic on either side of a newspaper's flag.
• Feature: A non-hard news story (e.g. a profile or a quiz) that is given special design treatment.
• Filler: A small story or graphic that is used to fill space on the page.
• Flag: The name of a newspaper as it's displayed on page one; it is also called a nameplate.
• Font: All the characters are in one size and weight of a typeface, for example Times New Roman.
• Hammer head: A headline that uses a big, bold word or phrase for impact and it also runs a small but wide deck below it.
• Header: A special label for any regularly appearing section, i.e. a page or a story; another term for this is a standing head.
• Headline: Large type running above a story to summarise its contents.
• Index: An alphabetised list of contents and their page numbers.
• Jumpline: Type telling the reader that a story is continued from another page.  
• Kicker: A small, short headline headline that is placed above a larger headline.
• Leg: A column of text.
• Liftout quote: An enlarged quote taken from a story, this is often done using bold or italic fonts.
• Logo: A word or name that's stylised in a graphic way; used to refer to standing heads in a newpaper.  
• Lowercase: Small characters of type that contain no capital letters.
• Margin: The space between different elements, e.g. stories.
• Masthead: A block of information, including staff names and publication data, often printed on the editorial page.
• Nameplate: The name of a newspaper as it's displayed on Page One, it is also known as a flag.
• Photo credit: A line that tells readers who took the photo.
• Pull quote: Another term used to describe a liftout quote.
• Quotes: Words spoken by someone in a news story, commonly used for liftout or pull quotes.
• Serif: The finishing stroke at the end of a letter; type without these decorative is called the sans serif.  
• Silhouette: A photo where the background has been removed leaving only the main subject.
• Tabloid: A type of newspaper that is roughly half the size of a broadsheet.
• Teaser: An eye-cathing element of text or part of a picture that promotes a item inside the magazine.
• Tombstoning: Stacking two headlines side by side so that they collide with each pther ; also known as bumping or butting heads.
• Underscore: A line below a line of text.
• Uppercase:  Type that only uses capital letters.
• Weight: The boldness of any type of text; based on the thickness of its letters.
• White space: Areas of a page that are free of any text or pictures.

Coursework Research: The Layout of Newspapers

Coursework Research: The Layout of Newspapers from williamellishughes

Coursework Research: Mastheads

Coursework Research: Mastheads from williamellishughes

Coursework Research: Headlines

Coursework Research: Headlines from williamellishughes

Coursework Research: Narrative theory

Ideas for Media Coursework

The newspaper will be aimed around the Bristol and Somerset area and could potential include stories about:

• local news; 
• e.g. politics and news relating to the major or Liam Fox (local MP)
• Local events
• For example, concerts and plays
• local sports news; perhaps news about nearby sports teams (such as rubgy or football) and maybe some more local sides such as 5-aside or Sunday league

I also made a brief list of potential names for my newspaper to be called but I narrowed this down to three names and these names are; Bristol Daily Press, Bristol Chronicle and the Bristol Gazette.

A2 Media Coursework (Introduction)

For this years coursework project I have chosen to create a local newspaper page 1 and 2 with supporting radio and billboard adverts. I did something similar to this in last year's Media Coursework at AS level, in this coursework project the aim was to create the first few pages of a music magazine and this inlcuded a front page, a contents page and a double page spread. Seeing as the aim of this year's project is to create a local newspaper and not just a music magazine I feel that this year's project will be a large improvement on last year's coursework as it allows for a broader set of ideas and not just music. I felt that picking the newspaper option was the obvious choice for me as my aim when I leave school is to become a journalist and this option will prove useful if I am to go into that field of work. My plan for this project is that I will create a front page of the newspaper similar to a standard newspaper and then a contents page which has a brief overview of what new stories will be in this newspaper, there is also likely to be a newstory that will be in detail if there is enough space on the second page.