Newspaper Audience

The audience of a newspaper would be specific to what newspaper it is and the content, generally. More specifically, the audience depends on what story it is, for example, if a sports story, then the audience will probably be niche, defined by their gender or interest. For a school related story it would niche again, probbably a parent or governor, and so on... Therefore, if a newspaper is made up of lots of different niche stories and features, then on a whole, an entire, general newspaper would appeal to a mass audience.

But how do the mass audience choose a specific paper to read, a favourite?

Well, it is normally based on the newspapers' publishers' ideology and political views, as this generally affects the content, for example, a broadsheet, such as The Independent is more likely to be left wing, although they may not have assigned themselves to a particular party. A local newspaper would be more bias towards the smaller representatives of a party, for example, Liam Fox, a member of the Conservative party. If the paper has similar views to themselves, the individual will tend to buy and read that newspaper as opposed to one that has opinions they disagree with. Age will also affect the audience of a newspaper. Young people and children would generally feel more at home with magazines and wouldn't think about touching a newspaper, whereas those in their late teens and early 20s will be beginning to read papers,  i, a compact paper would be ideal for this. The emergence of new technology has also has an impact on the younger audiences nhot reading newspapers as much as older audiences, instead they turn to the internet or the television for news.

Papers such as The Spark or The Big Issue tend to attract more of an alternative audience, mainly because of the human rights/ eco friendly type vibe, more commonly associated with left wing politics or perhaps, no politics. These papers, The Big Issue in particular, tend to be shunned by the more conventional adult, as the way it works (street vendors, usually immigrants, buy copies of the paper off of the publishers and sell them back to the public) may not be understood, or may be thought of as 'cheap' or 'charity'. Perhaps they cannot be considered a paper to some individuals, due to their subversions of newspaper conventions.A middle-aged conventional adult would be more likley to go for something like The Mercury or The Evening Post. Of course, many people may just need an update, and choose a random paper on the go, not thinking about its publisher's ideology at all.




The Big Issue



Weekly and Daily Newspapers et. cetera

Daily newspapers are issued every day, occasionally with the exception of Sundays and some national holidays. Saturday and Sunday editions of daily newspapers are often larger, include specialized sections, inserts, and always cost more. Usually, most of these newspapers' staff work on weekdays, so the Sunday and Monday editions depend on either content done in advance or that is syndicated. Almost all daily newspapers are published in the morning, whilst evening papers are aimed at commuters. 

Weekly newspapers are much more common and are often smaller than daily papers. There also are some newspapers that are published twice or three times a week. In the US, such newspapers are classified as weeklies anyway.

Most nations have at least one national newspaper. In the UK, there are many national newspapers, including The Independent, The Times, The Guardian, The Observer, The Daily Mail, The Sun and The Daily Mirror. In the US and Canada, there are few national newspapers, the exceptions are The Wall Street Journal and USA Today in the US and The National Post in Canada. 

Many newspapers formerly published only in non-English languages have also developed English-language editions in order to appeal to a wider audience. In places such as Jerusalem and Bombay, newspapers are printed to English-speaking public, for both local and national. The Internet has allowed non-English papers to give out smaller English version to give their newspaper a global reach. There is also a minuscule group of papers which might be described as international newspapers.

Job titles in the newspaper industry vary. In the US, the overall manager of the paper — sometimes also the owner — may be termed the publisher. This much less common outside of the U.S, where the person responsible for content is usually referred to as the editor. Variations on this title are common.

Although most newspapers are aimed at a mass audience, often geographically defined, some focus on  readers defined by their interests. More specialist papers are usually monthly or weekly, usually free and are distributed throughout limited areas.

Papers usually refine ads and news stories using zoning and editioning. Zoning is when advertising and editorial content change to reflect the area to which the product is delivered. The editorial content often may change merely to reflect changes in advertising or may contain region-specific news. In instances, the advertising may not change from one zone to another, but there will be region-specific editorial content.

Conventions and Genre

"How something is categorised is determined by who does it, for whom, where and when. The same is true for film"

Reid 2001

This basically means that genre is not fixed and is decided by the audience.

The importance of genre - The audience will have expectations about a certain product and this allows the audience to judge or decide whether to use the product, based on their previous experiences with the institution.

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I will explore which conventions I can conform to and how successful they would be in the paper that I'm planning to create.

Market Research

Our deadline for our secondary and primary audience research is the 11th July which gives me around three weeks, therefore I thought I'd get stuck in with both audience and other research. Firstly I'll be finding out the different types of newspaper, e.g - tabloid or broadsheet et.c and then what kind of audiences they attract. I will then look at what the similarities are with these types of papers and regular local publications, and what audience they attract.

Alternative Newspapers


These generally abandon comprehensive and detailed news stories in favour of stylised reporting, opinionated reviews and columns, investigations into controversial topics and magazine type feature stories highlighting people and culture. Their newspaper coverage is locally based and is aimed at a generally younger audience than regular newspapers. They are often printed in tabloid format on newsprint, although some create their own formats. Other names include alternative weekly and alternative newsweekly as the vast majority circulate on a weekly schedule. These are generally found in urban areas and small urban areas. Many of these are either free or very cheap, earning most of their revenue through advertising. These would be read by several different races and both genders. Despite some similarities with English papers, these are generally produced in America.

i, a daily English newspaper could be considered as alternative as it contains a news matrix, which is when news is condensed, and was designed for people with not enough time to read bigger newspapers. This newspaper costs 20 pence and has some younger audiences, very much like an alternative newspaper, rather than a local newspaper, which generally have a middle aged audience in areas such a Portishead. Note how the red theme and small size is consistent with a tabloid, however the layout is slightly different. This paper could be classified as a tabloid because of the size, however it contains intelligent stories combined with other typically tabloid journalism, such as celebrity news. However, because of the intelligent stories, it would probably refer to itself, and be referred to as a compact newspaper, this is expected as it was created by the same people who produce The Independent.

Example of i

Tabloid Newspaper

Tabloid journalism consists of sensational crime stories, celebrities, gossip, T.V and astrology. The stories on celebs are often very negative. These types of papers are often frowned upon although some respectable newspapers such as The Times also use tabloid format. This demonstrates that audience often base their opinions on content rather than just layout when choosing their newspaper and will read the headlines, for example. The term tabloid has become almost synonymous with down market, therefore many newspapers of the same size are referred to as compact. Compact is one type of tabloid, not associated with tabloid journalism, whereas red top (another type) IS associated with tabloid journalism. As red top tabloids are downmarket, the audience is expected to have below average intelligence, this is suggested by the easily absorbable stories. Perhaps they are on the right wing side of politics, a member of the BNP, the stories are normally influenced by political standing. It is also possible they have an authoritarian personality. This type of personality includes traditional morals/values, this would reflect in being economical with the truth, the sensationalist stories and The Sun's scantily clad models. Red top grammar and vocabulary tend to be simple and straightforward and the layout often gives prominence to the picture.

Example of tabloid covers

Broadsheet


This type is the largest of any format and is characterised by long vertical pages. The original purpose of these types were to post royal proclamations, events, acts and other official notices. Eventually people began using them as a form of political activism by reprinting speeches, ballads or songs, originally performed by bards. Taking this history into account, logically, the modern broadsheets are considered to be more intellectual, using their greater size to cover stories in more detail, whilst carrying less sensationalist and celebrity material. This distinction often shows on the front page, tabloids, for example, have one big headline, whilst broadsheets often have several smaller stories with the most important stories above the fold. Popular newspapers in this genre, in the UK include The Independent and The Guardian.

Berliner


This format is bigger than tabloid/compact format but smaller than broadsheet. This format is more commonly used in European and American newspapers and originated in the city of Berlin. However there have only been a couple in Great Britain. These generally have the same sort of content as a Broadsheet and are often politically based.

Mini Photo Analysis

There are several types of photographs in a newspaper including posed, action (which is not posed) and the photos sent by either a professional or amateur photographer. In my own publication I will need to take all of the photographs myself, rather than using ones from other sources, for example, photobucket.

This photo is evidently posed and matches the story below it.
The composition has been made in order to summarise or suggest what the story is about. If looking at this picture without the headline or story I would say it was a school related piece to do with the recent academy debates in the UK.
Also I would say that it was most likely to be positive news because the 'models' are smiling
Note - I have blurred out the faces in this so nobody recognises the 'models'

In contrast to the previous, this was taken as the action was happening.
This kind of shot is normally used for a review or for a story that has not been completely planned, for example a riot. Additionally, this type of shot would often be used for crime related stories, for example when a person involved is giving a public statement during, before or after a court case.

Advanced Portfolio Project

Yay! New media project!

Okay, we have a choice of three projects for our A2 coursework, these are;

• Teaser Trailer
• Music Video
• Newspaper

We also have two subsidiary tasks. I will be doing the latter project as an individual.

Firstly, I will be researching different LOCAL newspapers, looking at conventions and analysing et.c. I shall then be comparing them to old publications and how they have progressed over the years. I will be looking at the differences between local newspapers and national newspapers. Additionally I will be carrying out interviews with local newspaper readers in order to gauge a possible target audience and what makes them read their favourite publications and the reasons why they avoid others.

Next I will begin planning, looking specifically at layout, conventions, subverting conventions, narrative structure in pieces of journalism, advertising et cetera. Finally I will produce a front page, and inside page and a double page of a fake local newspaper publication.