My website!

3rd March 2011

Today I started my website for my newspaper company. I first had a quick tutorial on how to work iweb what seemed to be pretty basic and self explanatory. I began with the title of my paper at the top of the site. I wanted to match the colour of the title used in my newspaper on the website which i think is most important. Looking on local news paper sites such as The Portsmouth news, i could get an idea of what to aim for when creating my own. The style of the title of the paper was the same as on its news papers which made this most recognisable. Looking at the style of headings, image layout and links was a way of me taking these ideas as examples and being able to put my own ideas on my site.

After playing around with the title to make it look as similar as possible, by taking a sample colour of what i had used on indesign and matched it to the colour palette on iweb made this possible to look realistic and exactly the same. I started my sub headings. from looking on local newspaper sites i could see what sort of headings to write. such as News, sports, life style and jobs. But as i wanted to put my own ideas downinstead of taking influences from other sites, i decided to personalise the heading regarding my paper. This gave my newspaper company advertisement as well as being personal. I titled my headings as:

• Gazette New


• Gazette Sport


• Gazette Lifestyle


• Gazette Community


• Gazette Jobs

This makes my site personalised to the title company, and again will make it recognisable for residents in the area just like the feeling I get when i see the Portsmouth news title/ paper because i know and remember the paper.

I have now uploaded plenty of pictures which i canuse on my site. I took the image i had used on the front cover of my news paper and used it as part of one of the top stories to read about on the website. I then used a variety of pictures which represented different stories and i wrote a short sentence next to each of the images to give basic information about what the stories are about. I had seen that this technique had beenused on local news paper sites so i thought this would be good for mine. After deciding on final pictures and arranging them on the page to look nicely presentable I started on the next section which was about sports.

I took a variety of pictures which could be used under my sports section. Again i did the same for what i did for top stories, arranged the pictures onthe page and wrote a short sentence explaining the story briefly. The only problem with my sports pictures is that they look quite similar and mainly refer to foot ball. I have to take other pictures of other sports as people reading the paper may not be interested in football.

I have also done a weather section on my page as this is most common. I also did a weather section on my news paper so again it links to realism and the same information can be found on either. I included weather icons and gave a brief description of the weather. I arranged it across the page so it looked clear and easy to read. I wrote a short sentence next to the weather section stating if more information is needed is to click the link which will give a more detailed weather response.

I have included a advertisement for a subscription to Gosport Gazette were readers can subscribe to having their local news paper sent to their door daily. This is a good advertisement technique for the company and by looking at other sites its clear that this is a common advertisement for news papers. I placed a picture of this weeks Gosport Gazette front cover of the news paper to supplement the ad.

That is the majority of my first page of my website completed. I want to make small adjustments by turning some text in to hyper links and main menus turn in to a drop down for more information. I have included advertisements from other businesses as well as advertising how to advertise own businesses on the Gosport Gazette site. These are vital media elements for news papers as they create money and helpful towards readers.

This is what my first page of my web site looks like:

I could not capture the whole page of my website to show on here, so when i publish my final website later when it is fully completed, it will be easier and clearer to see all of it then.

I have now started my second page of my website.

I had an idea of what story to write from looking at picturesi have taken but not yet used in my project. I chose a picture i had taken of a man holding birds in the streets, i used the term used in media here, where mediation takes place. i took a picture and adapted it within a story what it nessercarily had nothing to do with. I decided on this picture and making a story about a local man who was respected in the area had died, and he had this gift of attracting birds to coem feed in his hands. I wasnt sure about this story at first, but after discussing it with the class they felt it worked really well and was the sort of story that was expected in a local paper.

So i decided to go with this! i first uploaded the picture at the top, then began to write the article below it. Not forgetting to include the five W's used in the opening paragraph. After writting the article and finalising it, I was pleased with this and glad it has worked. I included a smaller picture of the man at the bottom.

Today i am doing the left hand side of my website second page, where i am going to place advertisements and information about what else to findon the site.

Firstly i included to stories- this is an indication of what other top stories can be found on the website.

I then thought about the sort of advertisements i could use. I have just come back from a trip to Paris, where i took lots of pictures. So from that i thought about advertising the Eurostar to Paris, and the puting in a link on visits to Paris.

This could help me with later ideas when coming to create my poster.

I created this advertisement by capturing the Euro Star logo and placing it in my poster. This helps with aiding readers understanding.

After creating the advertisements, i though what else do news papers have? and i thought, search engines!!

From this i decided to create a job search engine, where readers could search for jobs via the Gosport Gazette. This was quick and easy to make, i used pinks here as i thought it contrasted well with other colours on my page.

I then created a link where readers could go on and see this weeks TV guide. I thought this was appropriate as i stated that a TV guide was included in my news paper, so I thought this would work well as i would be linking the news paper and website together.

I have now finished my website! I really like my second page as i think it works well with my news paper and website home page. This is what my second page looks like:

As the same as when i captured and uploaded my website front page, the second website page i have created couldnt show up either. So when i publish my finalised website look then to see all of the page.

Design/ layout of inside paper!

As i am soon approaching making the inside of the news paper i need to consider some vital elements.

I have selected pictures and played around with them in my previous post, so i now know what pictures i am using and what the story is going to be.

First i am going to consider some headlines for this story. The story is about a group of teenagers raising money for a charity. Some possible headlines could be:

• Youths raise £800 for wildlife charity



• Teens take the lead in fundraising event


• A WILD event

I have chose "A WILD event" as my story headline because the actual event i took part in was called "WILD" so i felt this was a nice way of introducing the event and would flow well with the main story text.

I have drawn a layout of what i plan to basemy insider paper on.

This is just a guide, but it shows my intentions of my newspaper. I plan to include at least 3 stories, including images.

By next lesson, i am going to have written my articleout by hand as a way of drafting and playing around with how i am going to write the story. So then when next lesson comes i can type up the text, and start introducing other stories to my paper.

I have started to write my article for this storyline, this is some ideas i have come up with so far:
A compassionate group of students from South Downs College created a fundraising event on 18^th December, all in aid to raise money and awareness for Care for the Wild International charity. The charity are against badly treated animals in Africa, as they are killed violently, kept in bad conditions and treated disgracefully. This group of students felt strongly when they heard how these animals were being treated in these parts of theworld, and wanted to make a change.

“The situation came about when we were sat inour Travel and Tourism lecture at college. Our lecturer said how he was passed down this charity from his father and how he now owns it. Myself and 5 other students felt very passionate about what he was saying and the stories he was telling us about these animals. So me and my friends spoke to him, asking how we could help” said Josie Marks, aged 17 who came up with the idea to make a fundraiser.

The students got together in lesson time, breaks and around college to organise the event. With the help of their lecturer and a few other students who felt the same, they all had a role to participate in whenmaking the event. Many of the students in the team also study media at college, so it was to their advantage when making posters, tickets and leaflets.

Hannah Mason aged 18 was part of the team,and told Gosport Gazette how she felt about the fundraiser. “It was really exciting to do this event! I had fun making the posters and tickets and having something towork towards. We gave ourselves a target of money we could raise for the charity. We aimed high and chose thetarget of £1000. This made us work hard as we all wanted to achieve it.”

Time quickly came to the inspiring and quick working students when the day of the event happened. They had arranged stalls selling official CWI merchandise, given to them with the help of their lecturer Richard Gridley. Two of the team members had made cakes, cookies and bought sweets to sell on the stalls. They hadsold tickets to friends and families for the event and they all came on the night of the event.

Dance acts and live music bands were the entertainment in the associated evening event. They were extremely popular with the customers that came as they all crowded round and a roar of applauses filled the room when they finished.

The event was a huge success, and the students and lecturer were extremely pleased. In total the group had raised a staggering £800 for the charity. As Gosport Gazette found the time to speak to the students lecturer Mr Griddley, he said:

"The students did a marvelous job raising this amount of money. This money will be a huge help to the charity, and cannot thank the students enough for their compassion, time and help."

I showed this article to my lecturer and together we came up with some ideas that would make this piece better:

• Dont use the same word more than once
• Say the peoples names first then let their quote follow after as this introduces the story better.
• Talk about things that happened in the event what are shown in the pictures.
• Explain the charity more regardingthe animals and how they are treated.

I am going to re write my article including these points to make it more realistic.

For now i have used this article i've written so far and copy and pasted it in to my news paper. I sorted it in to columns and smaller texts to see how the layout will fit and if it would look good. This is what it looks like so far:

I like the look of the text in the columns and font size. The layout looks realistic and still has space on the sides for other story lines and images. The only problem is that it didn't fit all of the story in the columns, there fore i have to cut itdown. I will have to cut down on about 3 paragraphs, so i am going to have to see whats good and important to have in the article and whats not.

Today i have focused on the edges around my inside newspaper. Fromlooking at other local newspapers, they used weather forecast information. I felt this would work well with mine, and gave me the opportunity to insert aspects of colour to liven up the page.

This is what it looks like so far:

This is what i have done for the left hand column on my news paper. I am really pleased with how it is looking. It looks realistic as i researched other news papers to look at style and type of information they place on this side. I had to change the font to make it have a newspaper style and make the text smaller, so it looked in porportion to my main storyline text. I researched the weather icons online, again this added a professional finish.

I decided to focus on the side columns in my newspaper rather than editing the main story line because i can spend more college time focusing onthis, and can rewrite the story lines at home.

Today- 3/02/2011. I had to spend my lesson re-doing the weather column i had done last week as half of it didn't save! annoying! I have now redone it which should save correctly this time.

10/2/2011- Today i have started to re-write my article. using the bullet points i made in previous lessons i have made improvements. This is the article i have made adjustments to.

A compassionate group of students from South Downs College created a fundraising event on 18^th December, all in aid to raise money and awareness for Care for theWild International charity. The charity appeals against badly treated animals in Africa, as they are killed violently, kept in bad conditions and treated disgracefully. This group of students felt strongly when they heard how these animals were being treated in these parts of the world, and wanted to make a change.

Josie Marks, ages 17 who came up with the idea said, “The situation came about when we were sat in our Travel and Tourism lecture at college. Our lecturer said how he was passed down this charity from his father and how he now owns it. Myself and 5 other students felt very passionate about what he was saying and the stories he was telling us about these poor animals. So me and my friends spoke to him, asking how we could help the wildlife in Africa”

The students got together in lesson time, breaksandaround college to organise the event. With the help of their lecturer, they all had a role to participate in when making the event. Many of the students in the team also take media at college, so it was to their advantage when making posters, tickets and leaflets.

Hannah Mason aged 18 was part of the team, and told Gosport Gazettehow she felt about the fundraiser. “It was really exciting to do this event! I had fun making the posters and tickets and having something to work towards. We gave ourselves a target of money we could raise for the charity. We aimed high and chose the target of £1000. This made us work hard as we all wanted to achieve it.”

After the fundraising event, a successful £800 was raised. All the students were ecstatic about the results, although not getting the target this money will still make a massive difference to the animals. This will help CWI stop the use of snares in Kenya that kill thousands of wild animals a year, help stop poaching and help towards elephant protection work. Richard Gridley the students lecture said “ This is a phenomenal success from a small group of students, their hard work and caring minds will help save thousands of animals yearly”

If you would like to find out more information about Care for the Wild International visit http://www.careforthewild.com/

This is the article i've written up in Indesign as part of my inside paper.

from this i am going to decide how i want the text to be laid out in my paper, i am going to play around with different paragraphing styles to see what will look best on the page and wont make the paragraphing any longer.

17/02/2011

Today i uploaded more pictures that i had taken for my news paper. I uploaded an image from New York city which i used as part of a prize to be won for readers. I also uploaded a picture i had taken of a protest march. This picture i used as part of a small article down the right side of my paper. The article is small and brief but I wrote underneath "To read more go to page 11.." This is so it gives the realism of an actual news paper as looking through papers they all do this. This story fitted well within my paper, the sizing ofit looks small compared to other columns on my page so i might have to have a play around with making it look as even. It doesn't look bad, but just to make it look more professional i think it would benefit it.

When i first uploaded the image of New york city what i had taken when i visited the city, I knew i was going to use it as part of a prize to be one for local people. News papers use prizes and competitions to involve the readers so I thought using this in mypaper would work well. I thought that New York was a good prize to be won as it is a famous city and is seen as an expensive trip. New York i felt gave the "Wow" factor so i thought this would look professional and realistic. When i first uploaded the picture my intentions were to have it running across the top of my inside page. But after playing around it wasproven difficult as i already had too much on the page. So i looked at my front cover, I had plenty of room to place this at the top. I had to move my page down to give more space for the picture and information on the prize.

These are the two images i used n my work today. For both of them i had to upload them to photoshop to make them brighter and work on the contrast of the images as originally they were very dark. I like this image of New york because of the traditional taxi. I like the protest picture as it looks realistic to my story as you can see what the banners say, "No Cuts". I had to crop and resize both of these images to make the most possible of them. Cropping out any wasted space on the image to make them look enhanced and clearer.

I thought of what colour background to use for this competition prize. The first colours came to me were red white and blue as these are what we associate with America. This would give a professional look and were good connotations of the USA and what my competition was related too. This is what i created:

From using the gradient tool on In design i was able to create this back ground for my banner. I like the use of the blue and red and how it fades to white slightly in the middle. This stands out on my front cover page and will be good to get attention. The image of New York placed on the top as well as the information on the prize makes it look appropriate as the image and colours relate to the subject.

The text i used to describe the trip to New York i used words such as "The big apple" this is what New york is known as therefore the lingo makes the trip sound more exciting.

This is what my final page looks like for my front cover.

As you can see the banner representing the trip to New York stands out. The white text compliments the red and blue back ground well. The image of New york with the trade mark yellow taxis and big buildings in the back ground i felt identified the destination well as it is these trade marks that make it so recognizable.

02/03/2011

Today I completed my paper! I wrote the final story and added the picture to go with it. This was the article that fitted on the column on the right hand side. I am pleased with the way it looks and wording of the story. It feels good to have completed my inside paper and now i have to create a poster and web page for my news paper company. I will do this in tomorrows lesson. This is what my final news paper looks like:

Pictures for inside news paper stories

I am currently happy with my front cover of my news paper. Therefore i am making a start on some pictures for possible stories for the inside of the paper. I took part in a fundraising event to raise money for a animal welfare charity. I took pictures of our stalls and selling merchandise to our customers. I felt this would be a good story for my paper, a story about a group of teenagers putting on a charity event. But before going in to detail about what the story is going to be about, i am first going to adjust and crop some pictures i can possibly use.

This is one original picture, with a cropped version next to it.

The picture on the left is the un-cropped version of the picture, with the cropped picture on the right. i have cropped the space at the top, getting rid of the ceiling area. I have cropped the far right sides so the people in the image is the main focus. Also by cropping this image has made the animal poster stand out and looks bigger. I really like this image! It shows the big poster of the charity, showing what its about but also what is good is that it shows the customers and event workers selling and purchasing merchandise, showing interactiveness and sets a nice atmosphere and tone for a story line.

My second picture, which is similar:

With this picture, i like it but i don't think it is as beneficial as the first picture i uploaded. I cropped a lot of the ceiling, floor space and sides. This picture shows a good angle of the poster and the team working on the event, but there is also a girl walking away from the stalls towards the camera. I feel this gives a negative vibe so i don't think i will use this image, despite their being a woman in the picture purchasing and browsing the items.

Third picture what is possible i will use in my newspaper:

I like this picture as it shows a close up of people, getting involved in the event. This is a happy and positive picture, it creates a tone for the story line as they are smiling. They are presenting an impressive body shop prize what also gives good interaction and positive feedback to customers reading the article. I think i'm going to use this image, i have cropped a lot out of the top, bottom and sides of the picture which gives more emphasis on the people and prize. I have discussed with my lecturer about using this image as part of a completely different story. I dont want to have too many pictures on just one story line, and as i like this one so much i think i could make a raffle prize story line from it.

So, so far in the planning for my inside page i have selected 2 definite pictures for the story line. they both include people and i like the story behind it. It is positive, happy and i think would be attractive to readers as it is about a good cause, doing good work for a charity event.

headline ideas-

This is my front cover so far of my newspaper:

The image on the front shows a grumpy looking man, stood next to bins that are full. I have decided to base this pictures story line where the council have changed the frequency and times of when the bins are emptied. The bins will be getting emptied every 3 weeks, compared to it being emptied once a week. I felt this storyline was striking and would be relevant to any readers in the area. I need to decide on some snappy headlines to match this story. my ideas are:

• bins busted by council
• bins go to bust as council change times
• bins, full of rubbish
• Our bin hell

I have made adjustments to the cover above and chosen a final headline i am happy with.

Compared to the front cover above, i have now added a story line title, added more text and advertisements. This is now looking more like a local news paper as it is realistic. I have given a brief description about the headlining story. I have added basic pastel colours to the page, after researching other local newspapers that showed light colours. I felt this would work well in mine. I have mixed bold text along with plain text, to make certain parts stand out and be intriguing to the eye as it looks attractive. After deciding on what headline i wanted, i finally decided that "Our bin hell" would work best. The "Our" gives the impression of including the readers and making them feel apart of story. This i think is important, especially as this is a local paper where most of the readers will be able to relate to the story as it will be happening from around their area.

25/11/2010 - newspaper production

So far in my newspaper i have uploaded pictures,cropping and resizing them to fit proportionally. I have tried and finalized texts, fonts and sizes for titles, and confirmed headlines and sub headings. The following images i have used so far are...

My first step of making my newspaper!!!- 18th Novemeber

Today i am beginning to make my newspaper. Already i have uploaded a few pictures i am considering using. To base the layout of my newspaper, i need to draw a layoutof my paper on a piece of A4 paper. I am researching different newspapers whichhave different styles, for example The News and Petersfield Post.

After looking at this news paper, I felt this was not the sort of paper i would base my own on. The text on the page looks to much for readers, and looking less appealing. I would base my front cover more on different headlines of stories and pictures. for example, like The News paper:

This is the sort of style and layout i am aiming for with my paper

. I like this be

cause the title of the paper is big and bold, along with the headlines. This really stands out to readers and looks more appealing to read. This also encourages readers to buy the paper to read more about all the stories included.

From looking and analysing these papers, has also helped me decide on a title for my paper. I am going to call mine The Gosport Gazette as this sounds catchy and the use of alliteration makes it sound interesting.

I have drawn a layout of what i want to base my paper on: this is it!

Pre production of my newspaper!

I have now finished researching the media behind news papers. I now have an understanding of what is involved in catching audience attention and different styles and techniques used by journalists. So now i am beginning to focus on my own newspaper and what ideas i can come up with.


To begin with i made a list of vital elements to base my news paper on. My first idea came from my place of work. I work for a holiday park which gave me ideas, i thought basing my storyline at my work would work out well because i can go there a lot to take photographs of the location, my managers and other people. I know the area really well to talk about it in my paper and can create some good story lines for myself from it.

• My story is going to be based at a holiday park, where a drug raid has occurred by police in one of the holiday homes. I thought this would be good as it creates a sense of irony considering it is a holiday home for families and this illegal crime has been suspected. i also feel this is a catchy and shocking story line for local residents from the area.





• I can have images of the holiday site, along with photographs of the managers and neighbours.





• The outcome of the story will be that the man will be founded not guilty.





• I can create quotes from the manager of the holiday park, the neighbours/ witnesses and police to make the papers story line seem realistic and truthful.

I have started to create some headlines and sub headlines for my newspaper. These were some ideas i have thought about so far:

Police raid holiday home

He was a father of two, cheerful and funny. But behind this mask stands a drug addict who sold and bought drugs from his holiday home in Breezes Holiday Park, Warsash.

and...

Drug Patrol raid holiday home

He was a father of two, but from his holiday home in Breezes Holiday Park Warsash, Dean Jones sold and purchased pills to aid his addiction.

I prefer the second headline and sub heading to the first one because i feel it is more snappy and attracting, yet it still leads readers to carry on reading to find out more information on the story. I also came to the conclusion that i preferred the second example because of the amount of words in the sentences. I researched other newspapers such as The Sun and a local paper, The News to see how many lines they have used in their headlines and sub headings. There were small word counts so i took this on board with my own headings and tried to keep it short and to the point.

The use of vocabulary i have used in the second example i feel is more practical and catchy. such as, "He was a father of two". This i feel as the opening sentence is catchy as it gives audiences the shocking factor of this man being a father and buying and dealing drugs, readers will feel sympathy for his children. The sounds of alliteration such as, "Holiday homes" and "Purchased pills" is catchy and readers can remember it.


Story line 2
my story line 2, is going to be about a group of local shops that is at risk of being bulldozed down to be turned in to a block of flats. This will cause a lot of havoc to the local people who are against the idea strongly and will protest against the idea happening.


I am going to take pictures of the local shops around my area. I will take pictures of people who are acting concerned and worried and can make quotes up from them.






headline examples- Bulldoze threat to local shops!

Residents protest against local shops being bulldozed!

Flats instead of local shops?


These are just some examples to grab audiences attention.




Story Line 3


My third story line is going to be based on a local area being awarded most recycled products for 3 years in a row.


I plan to take pictures of row of bins outside houses to show how many people recycle the most waste in their homes/ down their road.


Possible headlines: recycle winners 3 years in a row!
proud winners for most recycled waste!

Story line 4


Story line 4 can be about First bus company being rewarded for great customer service from surveying customers from all parts of Hampshire. I can take pictures of buses, people who work for First buses and customers.


Possible head lines: Best buses around!
First bus company awarded for first class service!



Story line 5

Story line 5- A block of council flats receive a 15 million pound refurbishment for all local residents. This will involve pictures of the flats, residents and interviews from the local county council.

Possible headlines: Council flats receive £15000 000 make over!


£15 million invested into Crook horn council flats


Storyline 6

My sixth storyline will be about a man who has caught an impressive sized salmon in local Southampton waters.

Possible headlines: Super sixed Salmon caught in local waters!

Man catches impressive sized salmon!

I have taken pictures to back up these story lines ideas, unfortunately the bluetooth device system on my computer has failed therefore not enabling me to upload pictures!! This will take a while to get them uploaded on here but should be working and uploaded on here within the next few days :(


Advertisements


All local newspapers have advertisements in them. From businesses promoting themselves, to advertisements of sales or new shop openings. I have come up with some advertisement ideas that i can place in my newspaper.

• Builder/ electrician/ plumbing business advertisements


• Debenhams sale!


• New Asda opening


• offers- 10% off spinnaker tower entry prices


• Car sales


• Car boot sales


• restaurant/ pub advertisements


• Events- boat shows, wine tasting events, children events


• College open evenings


• University open days

Pictures have uploaded! Scroll up to see some samples i have taken that match my storyline ideas.