Robin Murray

Codes + Conventions

Codes + Conventions- Broadsheet

Main headline is politics

Substantial amount of text

Entices readers to buy paper + grabs attention

Important topics- war

Banner to attract buyers

Quotation from interview

Few pictures

Big, bold text

Archaic font

Codes + Conventions- Tabloid

Big bold title grabs attention

Virtually no text

Cheap price

Daring, “low-brow” content attracts less educated readers

Ridiculous headline

“Judge frees ratface”- comical and audacious

Picture takes up whole page

Reality television

Difference between Local + National

Local National- Only contain stories on a local basis “Serving Frome and the surrounding areas”

- Contains national and global stories, “News from around the world”

- Contain plenty of adverts to fund the production and distribution of the paper

- Money comes from newspaper sales, so don’t contain many adverts

- Often pictures are in black and white as colour is too expensive

- Fully colour pictures and titles

- Very text based front page- very few pictures, lots of “main” stories

- Large picture takes up a lot of space, only one or two “main” stories

Local/ Regional/ National

Local newspapers- Very small area, inform locals of news and houses for sale etc. Light-hearted, comical stories.

Regional newspapers- Circulate a larger area and inform people of local news but also include several national stories, such as the election. Eg The Western Daily Press

http://www.thisissomerset.co.uk/westerndailypress.html

National newspapers- Distributed across the whole country and include all the major national and global stories. Eg The Times/ The guardian/ The Sun.

Maker of texts- Northcliffe Media

Large regional newspaper publisher in the UK.

Owned by The Daily Mail and General Trust.

30 publishing centers, 18 daily titles.

The Bath Times, Bath Chronicle and Somerset Standard.

5.8 million readers in the UK

115 local newspapers in total. Dailies, weeklies and frees

Northcliffe Media cont.

Owns the “thisis” network, for example “thisissomerset.co.uk”

4.1 million newspapers every week

Bought 26 titles from Trinity Mirror plc for £64.15 million

http://www.northcliffemedia.co.uk/

Northcliffe Media website

Wiltshire Publications Ltd.

Much smaller institution.

Family Run.

Office located in Melksham, Wiltshire.

Produces and publishes the Frome Times.

10,000 copies distributed every fortnight- Frome and surrounding villages.

Includes a lot of Advertising.

http://www.frometimes.co.uk/ Frome Times website

Historical Research

One of the most recognised media forms in the world.

Used by millions worldwide.

Internet has posed a threat to physical newspapers.

Online sites starting to charge for use. Eg The Times

2007= 6,580 daily newspapers in the world, selling 395 million copies a day.

Famous personalities, crime, business, entertainment, society, sports, politics…

Historical Research cont.

Westminster in 1476.

Set up by William Caxton

First paper- Corante, published in 1621- became “Daily Courant”

“The Daily Universal” in 1788 which became “The Times”, “The Observer” in 1791, and “The Daily Telegraph” in 1855.

Historical Research cont.

Rupert Murdoch- one of the most powerful people in Newspaper

Founder, chairman and chief

executive of “News Corporation”.

First started a Newspaper in Australia before expanding News Corp.

The Sun and the News of the World.

Bought Dow Jones- Owner of “The Wall Street Journal”

Local Newspaper Facts

40 million local papers are read every week

There are over 1,200 local paper websites in the UK

Local media websites attract over 37 million unique users each month

Over 14.2 million adults read a local paper but not a national newspaper

73.1% of teenagers read a local newspaper

Over 70% of people act on the advertisements in local papers

As a source for local news, local papers are three times more popular than the BBC

Institutional Platforms

Shops, delivered, public places, online. Daily/ Weekly/ Frees

Some local newspapers are delivered to houses, such as The Frome Times.

Originally sold at Newsagents- “sold at point”, now delivered too.

Newspaper websites posing a real threat to newspapers- worrying journalists.

The Times Online charges for online use- a real risk.

Audience

Newspapers are read by virtually everyone worldwide.

Different newspapers attract different audiences;

Tabloid (eg. The Daily Mail) Generally less educated, lower-class readers who are more interested in subjects such as reality television, sport, and news on celebrities etc as opposed to politicians.

Broadsheet (eg. The Times) Generally more upper-class readers who are interested in more important topics such as finance, economy, law and politics.

Audience cont.

Certain newspapers are aimed at a specific group of people.

http://www.metro.co.uk/home/

Compact/ tabloid versions of broadsheet newspapers have been developed.

Local newspapers are targeted at residents of the local area; local stories and house/car listings, sport.

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