Liam Keenan

1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and convention of real media products?

My newspaper is named ‘The Mancunian Telegraph’ and I have aimed for it to have similar conventions to that of modern Berliner newspapers such as the Manchester Evening News or The Guardian. The paper only contains local news for the people of Manchester so to widen the audience and aim it at middle and lower class societies I have included many informal traits as well as formal conventions. I think I have been very successful in developing and encoding conventions as my paper sounds trustworthy and truthful. I used the word ‘Mancunian’ in my title so the audience can relate and believe that this is a product especially for them. This term is associated with regional identity so will be common with locals appealing to all of Manchester’s inhabitants. ‘Telegraph’ sounds technical and is quite an old fashioned sounding word which connotes the newspaper is dated and trustworthy. Mancunian also sounds quite working class where as ‘The Manchester Chronicle’ sounds like a broadsheet. I have challenged the conventions of a typical Berliner newspaper title in making it sound informal adding elements of typical tabloid newspapers like the ‘Salford advertiser’ for example. The Main influences on my text were The Salford Advertiser and the Manchester Evening news as I wanted to make the demographics as wide as possible but ‘The Daily Mail’ and ‘The Daily Telegraph’ also influenced the title and content.

I have included a whole range of story types from local crime to sport. This is extremely conventional of a tabloid newspaper. I used the story about a shop fire so locals and businessmen can relate to this putting themselves in the victim’s shoes imagining what it would be like if their shop or organisation encountered these problems. They will also associate and sympathise with the shop owner making them read on and drawing them closer to the article. This also appeals to the lower and working class my paper is aimed at as they will have jobs at small shops or organisations like this and realise how much money can be lost and how employees could become jobless all because of these disastrous accidents. The article about the new high school opening to house two schools that are being shut down is obviously aimed at parents who are looking into their children’s education. As the new school includes a sixth form this also widens the audience for this article maybe attracting my target audience of teenagers and fresh leavers. My main article is targeted at the whole public in general and

Liam Keenan

forces the audience to relate to the victim imagining what they would do in this sticky situation. Locals are attracted to gossip and news from the area so will be immediately drawn to this story on seeing the headline.

I have used a conventional house style for the layout of my paper, Similar to that of most tabloid and broadsheet newspapers today. I have used the Guttenberg principle to design my front cover but the price and date is in the strong fallow area, similar to most daily newspapers today. It also says 1st edition in this area in a dark blue font as my paper is aimed at a male audience predominantly. I have stuck to a blue and grey colour scheme following a certain house style but red and yellow is predominant on the front cover to stand out and attract consumers. The colour red is quite regal showing the papers British heritage and giving the audience a sense of royalty. I have also used the colour yellow to symbolise power to attract consumers. I have used a very large bold sans serif headline on the front cover to attract consumers and stand out. This also sticks to the conventions of newspapers today. Sans serif is the font that will stand out most clearly on my newspaper and is a more eligible print being easy to read especially when it is bold and dominant. I have placed my main image underneath the headline so it doesn’t distract the consumers from the topic of the story though sometimes tabloid newspapers place the headline within the image to save space and for added effect and dominant contrast. I have included an index like most typical tabloid and broadsheet papers and a section down the right hand side with smaller stories of interest that are continued inside the newspaper. I have used red on yellow dominantly contrasting for my ‘FREE magazine’ box just underneath the masthead to attract youngsters who love power. The red stands out and could symbolise danger, desire or love, all new and exciting to a teenage boy or girl. The colours also mirror the quirky style of the music magazine. The box to the left of this is grey drawing in home buyers and middle to old aged people. There is only a small amount of text for the main story at the bottom of the front cover which continues onto the second page sticking to the traditional style of a paper. The adverts stand out dominantly using yellow or white text on a navy background to draw the readers in. The main advert on the front page is promoting a taxi company and on the inner page it is an offer for a free £25 to bet in the casino, slots and play bingo. This attracts all audiences as the old aged and females would stereotypically use this to play bingo and teenagers and middle aged people would use it at the casino or in the bookies. The yellow font ties in with the house style of the paper and both adverts

Liam Keenan

use similar colours and fonts giving the paper a continuous feel. Normally typical Berliner newspapers wouldn’t include adverts so this challenges the conventions of a daily paper. Salford advertiser influenced the adverts for my newspaper and I spent a long time flicking through the paper and researching adverts in order to create my own.

I used a large, bold, sans serif, black font for my headline filling up a lot of space on my front cover to draw my audience in. I converted this Font from DaFont.com as it was the most effective I could find and matches that of modern newspapers today. I used a conventional old English, medieval type font for my Masthead to follow the conventions of tabloid papers like the ‘Daily Mail’ for example but did not include a logo.

For my taxi advert I used a serif, italic font to appeal to all ages but mostly aimed it at old aged who can’t use public transport due to disability etc. The font has a line going through the middle symbolising speed. I used a standard sans serif font to write my articles following the conventions of a typical tabloid paper. I have used a thin serif font for the ‘Looking for a home’ box to attract middle to old aged home buyers and a large bold sans serif ‘FREE’ for the music magazine attracting youngsters to the paper. I also used a standard sans serif font for my headlines for smaller stories such as ‘Meatloaf gig cancelled’. I made these headlines bold to tie in with my main headline. I used a bold block text for my FREE £25 advert to attract women and youngsters primarily but to widen my audience added bingo to the list which is stereotypically more popular with the older generation. Generally I have stuck to the conventions of a typical tabloid or berliner newspaper with the print design and layout.

In my opinion the photography works very well with my print design and layout. The main image on the front cover ties in with the blue house style throughout the paper as it is a predominantly blue and white image which compliments the front cover nicely. I borrowed some ‘police line do not cross’ tape from my mothers friend who is a policeman and used masking tape to stick this across the entrance of an underpass on the east Lancs at the Monton crossing into Swinton for a few minutes whilst I took the photograph. I used shallow depth of field for this image. The photograph is fairly conventional of a local broadsheet and I made sure the underpass was empty before I took the photograph. The photography on my inner page design was taken in Swinton and Wardley. The shop fire photograph was an extremely lucky find as this shop is currently under renovation so I took it on my way to college. The weather was luckily rainy and dull to reflect the content of the article. On the photo of the scaffolding you can

Liam Keenan

see the sky is grey adding elements of pathetic fallacy and mirroring what the shop owner feels like. In the photographs of the High school I made sure that I used rule of thirds. This follows the conventions of any daily newspaper for added effect of the photographs. I was influenced by articles in the Salford advertiser for the shop fire and high school stories.

I used many conventional openings for the articles mainly stating the time and place that the tragedy occurred for the main article. I used emotive techniques and language such as ‘a defenceless old lady’, to spark sympathy in the reader and draw them closer to the story. For my shop fire story I began by stating that a shop in Swinton has partially collapsed due to a fire. This challenges some conventions as most tabloid newspaper stories start with the date and the time the crime or tragedy happened. This strikes questions in the readers mind and forces them to read on and finish the article, making them want to read similar stories throughout the newspaper. I introduce characters to the articles conventionally by giving the reader a quote then going on to who said it and why they are involved. I introduced Margaret, victim of the robbery and stabbing, very early in the article and the thieves later so their description sticks in the readers mind and they phone crime stoppers to put an end to their rampage.

To conclude my product follows many conventions of a typical modern tabloid newspaper today also challenging a number of conventions and adopting aspects of broadsheet and berliner products to make it unique and one of a kind. It uses these forms effectively and attracts its target audience well also appealing to a wider demographic through certain attributes.