Detailed analysis and comparison of one local newspaper and its website

Advanced Portfolio

Mikhael Ellis

A2 Media Portfolio

Analysis of Newspapers• Both ‘Islington Gazette’ and ‘Ham & High’ portray themselves in different ways as the difference

in style and layout is blatant for everyone to see. The ‘Islington Gazette’ has the look of a tabloid because of it use of fonts and layout where as ‘ham & high’ resembles a broadsheet newspaper. To reiterate, The use of comical type fonts and the wide variety of colours infused on the front page may give viewers the idea of this paper being more about life and gossip. The masthead resembles that of the sun newspaper and the also supports the reasoning of this newspaper being a tabloid paper. Ham & high Is different. Although there are various different colours on the front of ham & high, the lack of creativity with the fonts lets this paper appear a more formal newspaper and that it should only be bought by those interested in topics such as Government and politics and not interested in gossip columns.

• The points in the above paragraph may give us a rough idea of who may buy the newspapers and also may give us more insight in to who the exact target audience is for these papers. Lovers of tabloid newspapers like ‘the sun’ or ‘daily mirror’ may be more inclined to buy the Islington gazette where as those that favour broadsheet newspapers such as ‘the guardian’ and ‘the daily telegraph’ may prefer to buy Ham & high.

• The ‘splash’ on the front of the Islington Gazette is entitled ‘Seeing red over strip club man’. Although this newspapers stories are related to happenings around the area, this story isn’t a formal story. Because of this, the general public will end to buy this type of paper for similar reasons why they would to buy ‘the sun’ for example, because of the interseting entertaining stories and all the glamour and gossip.

• Ham and high has more serious headline as the main story at the front of their newspaper ‘devious clerk admits 250k charity theft’, although this headline may slightly appeal to tabloid lovers it is more inclined to be bought but the broadsheet readers as it is a serious matter to do with society and not about fame and show business (which tabloids tend to present).

• The Islington gazette has one main picture but surprisingly it does not correspond with the main headline of the newspaper but instead corresponds with a support story but tabloids tend to fill their front pages with as much pictures and colours possible in order to grab a readers eye and let them know ‘I am a newspaper that’s full of excitement and entertainment’. A broadsheet is the very opposite.

• Broadsheets tend to be filled with writing on their front pages and although ham and high has pictures and adverts on its front page, it also has a lot of writing.

• Another function of pictures is so readers can get a better idea of a story and sometimes helps them to visualise the story/scenario and this, without knowing, makes viewers more inclined to buy the paper after one glance.

• Although the Islington gazette has no picture to go with the main article , ham and high does (although it is not the biggest picture on the front page). The picture is a mug shot of the perpetrator behind the charity theft. The idea of a mug shot is to make it look as if she is taking photos for the police after a crime which gives the story added effect and another dimension.

• The Islington Gazette has a support story headlined ‘here comes Santa Claus’ and the pictures that goes with the story is one of an adult sitting on Santa's lap. This goes well as the story goes on to talk about a good Christmas for adults . Ham and high have a support story entitled ‘let it snow this Christmas’, this corresponds with the picture being a women in snowy conditions.

• The Islington Gazette has a plug box that gives away a free Christmas TV guide. This may make people be more inclined to invest in the newspaper as it also comes with a useful TV guide and will save them money on going to buy one if they are regular buyers of those magazines. The plug box also gives away a free ‘homes24.co.uk’ magazine which may also appeal to readers, it also contains a story entitled ‘save our hospital’ which will feature in the newspaper, The use of the word ‘our’ will make viewers feel as they are involved and may make them want to buy the newspaper.

• Ham and high also has a plug box but there are no ‘freebies’ instead just stories that feature in the newspaper. One of the stories are entitled ‘nativity play special’, which possibly maybe a story about a play that was performed at a local school. The other story is entitled ‘Luka who’s back’ and is about Tottenham midfield maestro Luka Modric making his comeback from injury, The paper uses a clever pun in the title of this story using Modric’s first name instead of the word ‘look’.

• Ham and high saw Luka Modric's return from injury as a big story although the Tottenham midfielder has nothing to do with Hampstead or Highgate but his return to football after a lengthy injury layoff was a big story in the football world nationally so in terms of news values, it was quite important.

Similar fonts for mastheads

Plug boxes in same place

Similar fonts for main story

Newspaper and website comparisonIslington Gazette

Both the website and the Internet have the same masthead

The newspaper will show the main story at the front whereas the websites front page has links to all the stories on it

Both contains plug box

•Both the newspaper and the website keep the same colour theme

•Both contains a lot of pictures

• Unlike newspapers website are not restricted in the amount of stories they can present and people may almost say that newspaper website are more useful than the newspaper itself. Newspapers are much easier to acquire s you can just go to the shop and pick one up but that is if you are computer illiterate, if not, and you have access to the internet, the website definitely is the better option because it provides things that a newspaper cannot such as:

• Navigational links – If you want to look for a particular type of story i.e. latest on arsenal football club, you can do that and certain story to do with this section may not have made the newspaper but will have made the website.

• Video – instead of reading i.e. an interview in the newspaper, you can view it on the website.

• Regular Updates – the website will provide you with the breaking news that happens throughout the day and what cannot be done with a newspaper because it already has been printed.

• Adverts – More space to advertise companies which mean more information for us (the viewer) and more money for the newspaper owners.