I wanted my newspaper to become authentic, so I used the normal template of a lead, explaining: Who, Where, What and When my story took place. This is basically a very brief summary of the article that highlights, the most important points. It is also in bold to comply with the criteria of regular leads.
The paragraphs of my paper were present to ensure that my newspaper was reader friendly and a new paragraph was started every time a new point was being discussed. Ideally, I would have put more than three columns on my newspaper like broadsheets do, but I was limited in space because I was using only A4 paper.
A jump line, again, was used solely to make the paper look authentic. A real newspaper would have a jump line, to direct readers, to a subsequent page of the newspaper, where the rest of the article is displayed. This would help separate articles from other articles, save time and avoid confusion that could lead to frustration on behalf of the reader. By then, you would be able to see a steep line going down your profit graph.
All of my pictures are in colour to make them eye-catching. The main picture on the front-page would not usually be put on a newspaper, in the interest of its readers, because of its violent and explicit nature. I again, have chosen this picture because of a personal preference. You may begin to think that I have an “explosive” personality, because of my preference to violence. This may well be true, but not uncommon.
My article was inspired by the Playstation 2 game, “Grand Theft Auto 3” and also all pictures are screenshots from the game. This game has become a No.1 bestseller because of its violent theme that involves the killing of people and other illegal stuff. Once again, I have only included picture captions, in the hope of making my paper look more professional, though in real newspapers, it is used to explain who and what is happening in the picture.
Assuming that I was a reporter, I would hope that articles written by me, would appeal to me, would appeal to the general public and to be popular amongst regular readers. If the article was true, I hope that it would be read especially by those who could be potentially vulnerable and helpless such as women and children. Mothers, would, on reading this article, be extra careful for their children and be attentive of any information of the whereabouts of the murderer. By placing violent pictures on my newspaper, I didn’t have any intentions on scaring anybody. The primary objective of the article is to inform the public, of the emerging threat to safety.
The facts I used were biased against Ray, because I want society to stamp down on men like that.
I think that my newspaper was quite successful in attracting readers. I did put pictures in colour that were eye-catching and I used some factual information and statistics that I think, may have surprised and attracted some readers. I really wanted to include alliteration in my title but I just couldn’t think of one.
I think that the quality and attention in put into my writing was minimal because of the time-pressure and because of the fact that are other coursework’s from other subjects to complete. I have no computer at home and had to use the computer at school, which proved to be a great disadvantage, because it reduced the time that I spent on the computer and thus reduced time spent on this coursework and other coursework’s from other subject’s.
, I did enjoy making an article, despite all the hard work and research that I had to put in. At first, I was reluctant, to complete this coursework, finally I gave in to this reluctantly and started doing it. I never thought I could write a 500 word article, amazingly when I put my mind to it, I found that my writing had by far exceeded my expectations.
The experience I have gained from this article has led me to believe not to become a reporter, and has actually allowed my to fully appreciate the amount of work a reporter has to do, in even more time pressure than me. I then realised that some good has come out of the early deadlines that teachers set us, since this will help us cope in real life, “School is a preparation for life”.
Since I myself included many presentational devices in my article, I can fully understand the mechanics behind the presentational devices that professional writers use in newspapers. I also know what the particular presentational devices are implying to do to the reader. I have learnt a great deal from this piece of coursework from the differences between a tabloid and a broadsheet.
Broadsheets will try to make things serious and states facts and statistics. Tabloids usually provide information for entertainment purposes and always try to look at the funny side of things. Tabloids are condensed and smaller than broadsheets so that it is more user friendly and portable.