Research and Development

Research - Codes and Conventions Tabloids -

The image above is of The Sun. It is Britain's best selling newspaper and is relevant to my project because The Sun is very popular for it's sports section. The Sun does not back a specific politcal party, it is a populist newspaper and it changes who it supports politically, ever since 1979 whichever political party The Sun has backed has gained the most votes. My newspaper will not follow a specific political party as it is a local newspaper. Local newspapers tend to support the party that is in control of the local council, however as my newspaper is focused on sport this is again, irrelavant. Although my newspaper is going to be local I am aiming to design my newspaper in a tabloid style because I feel it suits the target audience of my newspaper and also suits the sporty theme. The main difference between a tabloid and a broadsheet is a tabloid is much smaller than a broadsheet and often is sold weekly or semi-weekly. They often focus on specific subjects or target a certain group of people. Local newspapers often follow the general conventions of a tabloid but have the typography of a broadsheet. Tabloids tend to sensationalise it's articles and the articles are often a lot smaller and shorter of those in broadsheets. They often report about subjects like crime, sex, celebrities and sports. Tabloids tend to exaggerate their stories in order to make the articles more interesting.

Broadsheets - The Guardian

Above is an image of a broadsheet newspaper, this newspaper is, The Guardian. The Guardian was founded in 1821. It currently is politically a liberal newspaper and in the recent general election it supported the Liberal Democrats. The Guardian, is a worldwide newspaper and has a sister sunday newspaper named The Observer.

Broadsheets are the largest type of newspaper, they tend to be much larger in terms of length. The way the report news is also different to typical tabloid newspapers, articles in broadsheets are often much more serious and factual and they focus mainly on political subjects. The typography is also different as broadsheet us a Times style font whereas tabloids use a Sans font.

Typography-

Newspapers generally use two different types of typography, Times and Sans, broadsheets mainly use Times style fonts and tabloids use Sans. The popular font Times New Roman actually came from the newspaper The Times.

For example...

Times style font.

Sans style font.

Mastheads - Examples:



Use of colour -

Although many of the above newspaper logos are from national newspapers, local newspapers seem to follow the same conventions. Newspaper logos seem to follow two main styles - one being neutral black text on a blank background and the other being light (usually white) text on a red background. The Echo has several different newspapers around the UK and their logo consists of bold red text as shown above. So, newspapers main conventions normally consist of red of or black text for the masthead or white text on a red background (usually for red top national newspapers such as The Sun). As my newspaper will specialise in sport I have decided to break the conventions of standard newspapers so that consumers know that it is different and recognise it's unique masthead. My newspaper's masthead consists of white text on a dark blue background which matches the colour of Southend's main sports business, Southend United.

Technical terms for parts of a newspaper

Technical Terms for Parts of a Newspaper

Masthead - Usually a large block at the top of the front page of the newspaper, consisting of the newspaper's logo and title. Each newspaper has it's own iconic masthead.

Box out - A small part of the page that is shaded in a different colour.

By-line - The name of the person that wrote the article, if they are important then it is often at the start of the artcile instead of at the end.

Caption - A line of text underneath an image with an explanation of what the image is.

Headline - The main title of the article/report, usually taking up a large amount of space and in a bold font.
Menu - Contents, usually found on the second page of the newspaper.

Pugs - These are found at the top corners of the newspaper, they a cleverly positioned to draw attention to them.

Lure - A piece of text that refers to something inside the newspaper to make the reader want to turn to the story.

Kicker - A story that is designed to stand out from the rest of the page and is normally set out in a different font and layout.

Lead Story - The main story of the page.

Strapline - An introductory line that follows the headline.

Standfirst - The introductory paragraph giving the reader an idea of what the article is about, usually in bold.

Secondary Lead - Usually a small picture and block of text on the front page that gives a preview of what is inside the newspaper.

Exclusive - This means that the newspaper is the only newspaper with legal access to the story, it is a story that only that newspaper can cover.