Analysis of the front page of the Harrogate Advertiser

The tabel above shows detail into the more specific layout of the stories as well as the overall stucture of the articles.

I also found that In the Harrogate Advertiser they have a range of Hard news, Human Interest, Entertainment and sport. Particularly focusing on Hard news .Where as in the Wetherby News they have generally more human interest and Ripon Gazette have equal amount of the range of the four categories. Overall when deeper at local newspapers articles you can see how they use news values to categorise their articles

Local Newspapers:Front page articles

The content of the three main local news papers front pages; Wetherby News, Harrogate Advertiser for Friday June 11th 2010 are listed below in the tables .

Sources of News

Journalist cannot expect stories to land in their lap, meaning they have different sources who they visits on a regular on a regular basis to guarantee stories –such as police, courts, big businesses ,charities and local celebrities .Primary definers are people who witnessed an event first hand e.g. police but could be eye witnessed an event .If they hold creditability the story will get placed on the news agenda .Relationships between journalist and their sources is symbiotic .

News Agenda

The news agenda is to do with priority that different organisations give to stories .If they decide that a story won’t fit their agenda the public won’t hear about it. News values are the same no matter which news institution you work for. Different newspapers place priority on different news values for example The Sun news values might be elite people and personalization.

How my example article matches conventions

Media Students discover the news:

A Level Media students are now being taught behind the scene secrets of the news, making a massive disadvantage to big institutions such as the BBC and ITV, if the secrets are later revealed. The new course is now teaching students what exactly happens in the media world of news risking traditional bulletins being lost for good.

Big executives fear news will now be more popular on new media technologies such as blogging and social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter. Resulting in wiz-tech teenagers taking over the entire industry .Fears have be rising since the course has been introduced, and uncertainties are set to continue as only time will tell, what will happen to the news.

Analysis of example story:

My constructed article is an example of an unambiguity news value because of nature the of simplicity which makes it attractive. The example story was intended to be short as it would only be a small feature of a newspaper as its not necessarily important, and is more of a human interest story.

The establishing sentence is longer than the others in the article because it is trying to get the key facts quickly across to the audience and keep them interested. The establishing sentence is broken down with comers to break up the information and make the information being dispatch more digestible to the reader.

The second sentence goes into more detail about the headline and gives the reader a deeper insight in what the journalist is trying to get across .The article is split into paragraphs to break the information up and to move further on with the story. The second paragraph is not as urgent ads the first and just is giving more background facts to the reader. The fact that the article ends with ‘uncertainties are set to continue as only time will tell’ makes the reader want to know more and gives an advantage of a return reader for further articles.

News Values Research

News Values area piece of criteria that helps journalists select news that will get featured.A reason for this method is that because there are millions of stories daily there needs to be a strategy which selects the most importance/relevant ones for each area (country/county/town etc)

There are thirteen news values which govern news agenda:

1.Frequency-How quickly to story is broke. An example of this is the recent Cumbria Shootings.

2.Threshold/amplitude/numbers-The size of an event will govern the amount of attention it is given. An example being the World Cup.

3. Unambiguity-The simplicity of the story will also make it more attractive to the media as it will be easier for journalists to investigate, as well as the audience understandability to the story. An example of this is the BP Oil Leak.

4. Meaningfulness-Culturally relevant or culturally proximate events are more likely to make the news. The reason being that the audience are more interested in events which have happened close to home or contain reference to values, beliefs and attitudes that it shares. An example being the election for Prime Minister.

5.Consonance-Events which meet our expectations are more likely to become news. Ascot being an example of this.

6. Unexpectedness/surprise-Events that hold a large element of surprise. The Cumbria Killings can also be an example of this too.

7. Continuity-Events that have initially been defined as news will continue to carry importance in news agenda. The Icelandic eruption being an example.

8. Composition-Many news institutions try to balance there news output,e.g the dead donkey ending things on a more positive note at the end of the news bulletins. An example being the invention of 'Bra Growing'

9.Reference to elite nations-Other major Western nations e.g. USA,Germany,France are more likely to be in the news even if the story is not that significant to the audience e.g. The American Elections

10.Reference to elite persons-Significant people within our nation. An Example would be Prince Harry & William’s tour of Africa.

11. Personalisation-Events which have a personalised twist on them, e.g. large scale NHS story such as the spread of MRSA and through the eyes of someone that has survived it.

12. Negativity-Bad news makes good news! The world cup could again be reported that way.

13. Actuality-If the news station has exclusive interviews or video clips of an event the story is more likely to be reported, where without that they may have less significance with that news bulletin. An example is the amount of attention Sex and the City 2 interviews received.

It is important to note that all news is a construction of choices of image and text

Research on background information of local newspapers

The links that follow gives evidence into my research of history, circulation figures and there target audiences and the influencing factors on the stories they deploy, the newspapers included are from my local area of Harrogate.
http://www2.harrogatetoday.co.uk/tiles/ad.pdf

http://www.nsdatabase.co.uk/

Research:Top Stories on 14th June 2010

Local Newspapers

Local Newspapers around the Harrogate area include:
1. Harrogate Advertiser
2. The Knaresborough Post
3. The Ripon Gazette

Top 3 International News Stories:

1. World Cup: Riot Police Storm Durban World Cup Protest
Summary-Armed riot police have stormed a protest by workers at a World Cup stadium in Durban, firing tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse the crowd.
2. Oil Leak: Spill Crunch Week As BP Faces The Big Guns
Summary-This is a crucial week for BP in the wake of the Gulf oil leak, with a board meeting in London today before top company executives visit Washington and its boss testifies before Congress.
3. Nelson Mandela: Nelson Mandela's Great-Granddaughter Killed
Summary-Former South African president Nelson Mandela missed the opening ceremony of the World Cup after his great-granddaughter died in a car crash.

Top 3 Showbiz Stories:

1. Peirs Morgan: Piers Morgan 'To Replace CNN's Larry King'
Summary: Britain's Got Talent judge Piers Morgan is reportedly set to replace veteran American TV host Larry King in a multi-million pound deal with CNN.
2. Cheryl Cole: Cheryl Cole Voted Woman Of The Year
Summary: Pop star Cheryl Cole has been named Woman of the Year by readers of Glamour magazine.
3. Katy Perry & Pixie Lott: Katy Perry and Pixie Lott Join X Factor
Summary: Chart-topping singers Katy Perry and Pixie Lott are joining the next series of The X Factor as guest judges.

Top 3 National Stories:

1. Dereck Bird: Gunman's Family Gather To Mourn Twin Brother
Summary: The family of gunman Derrick Bird have united in grief at the funeral of his twin brother, David.
2. William & Harry: William And Harry Join Forces For Africa Tour
Summary: Prince William and Prince Harry will be in Botswana this week for what will be their first joint tour overseas.
3. David Cameron: 'We're In Afghanistan For National Security'
Summary: David Cameron has said the number one reason troops are in Afghanistan is to maintain Britain's national security.

Top 3 Local Stories:

1. Blazing Sun: Blazing sun sets car alight
Summary :A car set fire after sitting in the sun at a Morrison’s car park in Boroughbridge
2. Cat Thefts: Anguish over cat thefts in Bilton
Summary: A devastated pet owner is warning others to be on their guard after 17 cats have gone missing in the same Bilton streets.
3. Miss Harrogate: Miss Harrogate set for national contest
Summary: A former pupil of Rossett High School has been crowned Miss Harrogate and District 2010, Ashleigh Jayne Spanton, 21; beat twenty other finalists in the contest, held at Revolution in Harrogate