Website Comparisons

Website Comparisons

I am going to compare the 4 newspaper websites to talk about what they share in similarities and what makes them different from each other, all the websites have different layouts and designs as well as content that is featured.

Sky News & Daily Mirror

I am comparing these two newspaper websites sky news and the Daily Mail (Mirror Online), these two compared to each other have some differences and a few similarities. The Mirror on-line layout has more detail on the homepage while Sky news has a very clean simple layout design, the top bars both share similar content and tabs such as the story categories which are all in the same order while the mirror online top bar has more going on. Sky news has a grey, red and blue colour scheme while the mirror online has black, red and white and red is more eye catching giving it the advantage for the reader to spot the headlines highlighted in red.

On the homepage the mirror online has a feature bar full of featured top stories while the Sky news doe not, this makes the more popular stories to be read more and be more noticed by the reader. The website designs layout are both totally different as sky news is more simple and has less stories on show making it easy to scroll through the site without being distracted by the multiple stories on the page, the mirror online has a lot more on display which makes it hard for the reader to choose a story and this impress the reader to easily go through the site.The Mirrors page is a bit longer than the Sky news as it has more stories condensed into the page, featured and most read articles are featured both top and bottom of the page to make them more easily spotted by the reader. The two sites also do not share the exact same articles and his gives them more diversity in their content, the articles are featured from around the world including news stories that are not typically featured.

Sky news focus's mainly on world news such as crimes and politics in the UK and the US, the audience for this newspaper website would mainly be older audiences from adults to elder's, the audience is different to the Daily Mirror mainly because the daily Mail has more entertainment for content thus bringing in the younger audiences such as teens and young adults. Sky news also has a TV channel which in turn gives it a better wider audience as Sky news is watched worldwide by a variety of different age groups, but it is still not as popular as the Daily Mirror as its likely viewers would prefer to watch the newspapers TV channel instead of reading it online.

Website Research

Research

I have done researched into existing online newspaper websites and analysed the details as well of design into the newspaper website, the main websites I did Research on was The Daily Mail, Sky News, Daily Mirror and The Guardian. These newspapers are all very popular and well know by the public, these sites are used regularly everyday by millions of people worldwide giving it a wide very wide audience.
These sites all have different amount of content regarding newspaper stories, some of the sites will have only a few big news stories on the home page while others have huge amounts to choose from.

The Daily Mirror

The first newspaper website I researched was The Daily Mirror or Mirror online, this newspaper has relatively simple layout with most of what you see on the home page being mainly dominated by different newspaper stories, the top bar has a range of topics from big news stories to the strange giving the audience more variety of stories to choose from and even some that they may not find in the newspaper. The colour scheme used is very simple only being black, white and red, the red helps draw attention popping out to the reader, main big stories will be likely highlighted to gain the readers attention.

Sky News

Sky news was the next website I did research into, this website has a more simpler layout design that to the other newspaper websites. The top banner has a few tabs leading to the other news stories and a additional search bar which can be helpful tot the reader if they want to find a specific article, the stories are more organised on the page with a bit more less than the other websites this makes it easier to navigate through to find the story the reader wants. On the right hand side there is a video bar with news stories that contain video clips which organises the stories with video away from the none video stories, which is alas another helpful doting feature to the site.  The home page does not feature as much stories as the other newspaper websites, it has about 3 categories with UK, politics and entertainment with the top red stories at the bottom. 

The Daily Mail

The Daily Mail was the third newspaper website I researched into and this one was the most popular UK newspaper out of all of them. The site had a lot more content such as lots of articles which dominated the home page, the amount of articles made it very hard to pick and choose a story and with the amount on offer it took too long to find the right one. The layout was all round messy and very unorganised, as well as the design for the colour scheme was simple which included blue, white and black font. As most of the newspaper stick to only 3 colours to keep it simple and not too extravagant and distracting to the reader. As the paper is the most popular it would of course have more news stories on the page to keep on top above the other newspapers, even having stories that are less known and not as big as the other big headlines for lighter reads.
It has a lot of entertainment news too which is one of the most popular stories people like to read, like the other websites the weather and strange news is put at the end of the top bar as they are not as popular with the readers.

The Guardian

The Guardian was the last newspaper website I researched and is one of the most popular UK newspaper's, first look into the newspaper it is a lot more different than the other online newspaper websites. The home page layout is more professional and clean with a good amount of stories and text, as well as the design layout is very simple with a  colour scheme of blue and white which unlike the other newspapers it has 2 colours for its design.  It has multiple sections for different article genres, like strange news, highlights, weather, technology etc and a simple top bar with the sections linking to the pages. Like the other sites it has a helpful search bar to find specific articles which may not feature on the home page at first look, also the most popular types of stories such as UK, politics and technology are one of the first categories top feature on the top bar meaning they are more popular to the readers

Questionaire

Questionnaire

Survey/Questionnaire:

Here are some questions that some of the public will be asked by me to help put together my newspaper article, these answers will be incorporated into the final newspaper.

Which name do you prefer for the newspaper?

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What sort of content do you want it to have?
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Which audience should the newspaper be aimed at?

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What events could we include in the newspaper?
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Should we have stories that are from surrounding areas?
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Should the newspaper have ads and promotions?

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Findings of Research:

From the results of my questionnaire and research I have found that the public would like multiple stories based off other surrounding areas instead of having stories from one specific area, the main audience will be mainly adults to elders as they are the most likely to buy the newspaper but with a few of the younger audiences appealing to the newspaper.
The news article and online article should not have a lot of promotions and too many ads like existing newspapers, as more stories could use the space on the article. The stories that should be included should be documented form the main location and surrounding areas and about different topics, such as local events, crime news, health and technology etc. t

Audience Theory

Audience Theory

Audience Research: The audience that mainly buys newspapers are adults and older audiences, younger audiences are not a focused audience as News Apps allows users to read on demand and read in their on time freely, but older audiences are more likely to buy newspapers. The main reasons why people buy newspapers especially local ones is that they can keep up to date with what is going on, such as finding out about local events such as fairs and shows, in addition it can also help get the reader involved if a specific event they can contact the person who wrote the headline. It is also a source of entertainment for the reader, as there is a range of content on Celebrities,Movies, fashion, gaming etc.

Model Effects Theory: Media Effect theory is how media can affect society and how society affects the media. Some negative implications of this theory are when people do “copycat murders”, An audience that tends to see the audience as passive and sees how exposure to particular aspects of media content can influence the behaviour of the reader or viewer.The theory helps explain Moral panic in relation to representations of; sex violence and deviant behaviour and it’s supposed effects on youth. Moral panic The feeling that the situation is out of control in some way, and therefore represents a threat to the moral order.

The Uses of Gratifications Theory.  Is the approach to understanding why and how people actively seek out specific media to satisfy specific needs. UGT is an audience-centered approach to understanding mass communication. Diverging from other media effect theories that question "what does media do to people?", UGT focuses on "what do people do with media?". It assumes that audience members are not passive consumers of media. Rather, the audience has power over their media consumption and assumes an active role in interpreting and integrating media into their own lives. Unlike other theoretical perspectives.

Reception Theory. Is a version of reader response literary theory that emphasizes the reader's reception of a literary text. It is more generally called audience reception in the analysis of communications models.

Research

Newspaper Research

Name: There are a few names that are used for newspapers such as the "Daily Mail" which suggests that the paper is published every day except for Sundays, other names such as the "Halstead Gazette" means that its an official newspaper that publishes lists of people in government, legal, military, or university jobs. A name that is frequently used is "Weekly" which is when the newspaper is published weekly instead of daily.

Price: The pricing of the newspaper depends on the newspapers name, Daily newspapers go from 50p-£1.20 and others such as the independent are £2.00. The price I wanted to set for my newspaper was in the range of 50p-80p.

Language used:There are a few different types of language that is used in a newspaper but for different categories, such as headlines which often use short words to make a impact and do not often include verbs or articles. In newspapers they often play with words to make the article look more exciting or to entice the reader,

Type of stories featured: The type of stories that are featured in an article range from promotional to factual, promotional stories are used to get the readers attention and help to support and endorse them into a product or project, the most common storied are factual stories that are reported mainly based on facts and these are the most common stories found in a newspaper.

Headlines:  The type of headlines that will be featured in my article will be up to date stories and events such as the Church Fate, and other events that are relevant to the area or around the area for the public to keep up to date. Other stories that will be in the newspaper will also be from around surrounding areas and locations to be more diverse and give more variety news headlines.

Features of a newspaper: One of the key features of a newspaper is a By-Line so who wrote the article, an introduction of the article such as what the headline is about or who about. Photographs and captions to describe the story better and a caption to explain it more in detail.

Comparison: Here are some existing newspaper's and their comparisons, the Halstead Gazette and Lynn news, the two newspapers have very different layouts and design as Lynn News website has less headlines while the Halstead Gazette has far more content and smaller headlines. The Halstead Gazette has a more simpler layout and is easier to navigate through, Lynn News layout is more spread about with content spread out across the page. The content in contrast with each other is different, as the Halstead Gazette has more serious news headlines and content while Lynn News has more of casual local event headlines with not so much interesting content, it does not bare any serious news.

Project Brief

Brief

The two first pages of an original local newspaper, together with two of the following options.

A billboard poster of the newspaper;

A radio advertisement of the newspaper;

Two hyperlinked pages from the paper's website