Introductory Article
Media Me is a newspaper written by students, for students. This newspaper will cover several topics that will arise in the A2 Media Studies exam ‘Critical Perspectives In Media’. Reading it will give you information that you will be able to apply to your exam answers to get you a better mark. We will cover all areas of the exam prompts from Global Media to Media in the Online Age.
Interested in video gaming? Check out our articles on Online Gaming Communities on page [Insert page number here]. Maybe you hate the internet, or want to hear arguments that aren't conforming to usual standards of what might be expected from a teenager in this online age? Flick to pages [Insert page number here] to look at the articles Time To Turn Off Your TV For Good? and [Philippa's Article Name Here]. Wikipedia fanatic? We have two articles solely Wikipedia related. Turn to pages [Insert page number here] to read our articles on Wikipedia games and it's uses.
This newspaper is really just here to give you some information, hints and tips for when you take your A2 exam in an interesting and amusing way.
Dave talks about conventions of newspaper layouts:
Different sections of the paper must differ from each other, however have something in common. For example, News and Features should look different, but have (for example, the same font).
The key thing is to decide what font you want to use. It must be easily readable. Then decide how many columns you want in your pages. An article must have an intro section. Hopes that the reader will be ‘sucked into the narrative’. Decide how to layout this first paragraph. Is it going to be in a different font, will it be in bold? Will it work? Fonts should probably be from the ‘font tree’.
Having a large title and a sub-title is wise. The article should start with a large capitalised first letter. Have different entry points for the reader, such as large quotations that will interest the reader.
You must worry about what to do with your images. ‘An image is worth one-thousand words’ - most magazines don’t think this, is it a good idea to have a caption? Should the image have a boarder, or rounded edges etc.
A lot of magazines (especially games magazine) do not like having any space on the pages and like them to be very ‘busy’. Some articles even have footnotes.
What font should the page numbers be? Should you include the date/issue?
Once decided on the layout, layout must stay the same throughout the paper and retain its own style.
This article is taken from a newspaper. From looking at it, you can clearly see that there are many similarities between the magazine, and newspaper layouts. The article is headed by a large image that takes up half of the page. It contains a quote that is used to attract an audience and draw them into the story. The quote "It was like Zulu" accompanied by an image of many soldiers is a popular topic, especially amongst males. The article plays on these strengths.
The quote about Zulu is by far the largest text on the page. Much like the magazine article, it is then followed by a much smaller sub-title (which is, however, still bigger than the main text in the article). However unlike the magazine, the sub-title for this article is in the same font as the title (the quote).
The article itself is split up into four main columns, and two sub-columns containing quotes and images of two soldiers (one in each column). One of these sub-columns is after the first two main columns and the other after the third main column.
The article is started with a very large introductory letter, which then carries on into the rest of the article. The first word (being 'In') starts with an enormous capital 'I'. The capital letter is big enough to cause five lines of that column to be indented. Like the magazine article, new paragraphs are marked using indentations and no line-breaks.
The first two columns are cut short by a large landscape image that stretches across the bottom of the page. The picture is approximately a third of the size of the article in height. Just below the picture is a caption explaining the picture. The caption is in bold and all of the text is left justified.
In the first sub-column there is a picture of the man in question at the top (portrait size). Just below the picture is a quote. The font for the quote is in italics and is much bigger than the rest of the text in the article (excluding the title and sub-title). Below this text is a small information caption. The caption takes the same format as that used to expand on the landscape picture below the first two columns. In the second sub-columnn the layout is completely different, however the format of the text is the same. The quote is at the top, followed by the caption with the picture at the bottom.
In the third main column of text a new section of the article starts. When this happens it uses the same technique as the beginning of the article. The first word ('Today') is accompanied with a very large letter 'T'. However, where as the 'I' from the first paragraph spanned five lines, the 'T' only spans three.
The bottom of this page holds a caption quoting 'Continued Overleaf' (all in capitals, and bold).
On the second page the continuation of the article takes up less than half of the space it did on the main page. It has two large pictures at the top. The two of them span the entirety of the article (not the page as there is a smaller related article to the right of this one). Both pictures are landscape however the one on the left is slightly larger width-ways than the one on the right.
Just below these there is a large title that spans the length of the article. It is the biggest text on the page, but is a very different font to the original title on the previous page.
The article is laid out with three columns, all the same size as on the previous page. It also has one sub-column after the first two columns. This sub-column contains a caption at the top, and a large gap, and then a quote, but no picture.
The article is started with text (laid out in the same way as the captions) stating that it is continued from the previous page. After which there is a line-break and the article starts. After the line-break there is no indent for the start of the text however. Other than this irregularity the article continues and the text has a layout the same as the previous page (left justified, indented and without line-breaks).
To start off at the to have an image that spans the length of the left hand page. This will be the first thing the reader sees (assuming every reader starts at top left) so it is a good idea to make it visually interesting. This is not to say it can't be simple, just interesting. It is also used on this page as the background artwork. The image is just over one quarter of the size of the page vertically.
Just below this image is the title. The title is its own font, and is also the largest text on the page. Like the top image, it also spans the entire length of the page and summarises the content of the page in eight words. The title will be the first thing the viewer reads, so it important for it to have both relevance and interest ('the ocr a2 critical perspectives in media exam').
Succeeding this is a sub-title below. The sub-title is centralised and uses a much smaller font, however is still the second largest on the page. The sub-title is more specific than the title and carries more information. It is bold, and bigger than the standard text ('how to write about your production work'). There has been no punctuation used so far.
The page then splits off into three different columns. The far left uses a separate font to the rest of the article. It is a small intro paragraph that takes up about a quarter of the page's vertical and fills one (out of three) column of its horizontal. It talks briefly about the article and acts as a small synopsis. It is not part of the article itself. In this 'blurb', it states the authors name and his title in bold. The text is left justified.
Just below this column (still oriented to the left of the article) is an image. It breaks up what the audience is looking at quite nicely. The format of the image is different to that of the text, it causes the column it is in to appear wider than the others because the image 'bleeds' over the margin of the page to go right to the edge of the left hand side.
Below this there is a small page marker, it states the page, name of the magazine, date of issue and topic, in that order.
The article starts with a heading over each section and paragraph. The heading is smaller than the text of the sub-title but is in the same font. It lays out what the audience is to expect from the paragraph(s) following it. It, like the main bulk of text in the article is left justified, not centered etc.
The main text of the article is the smallest. Each paragraph starts with indent at the beginning of each paragraph, but there is no line-break. In the second section (after the second heading, which is still in the second column) the article uses dashes as bullet points in the first section, when talking about different ideas of things to put into their exam. Later on in the same section (still column two) the article used actual bullet points to illustrate what the candidate might be asked in the exam. When using the dashes to mark the list, each option was often multiple lines long. When using bullet points each line was only a few words long and none of them exceeded one line. Throughout the text, certain key words are highlighted to show their importance. This is used throughout the whole article.
Right Page:
In the next section (located in the third column, and spilling over onto the next page) the same technique is used when talking about how to prepare for the exam, each section (all of which are quite long) is marked with a number. Therefore using every single bullet point type marker there is in one article.
The right hand page of the two page spread is laid out much like the article section of the first page. It uses three columns and has the same style of headings and text. The page is almost entirely text. There is one point where the author uses bold writing to indicate the different sections of the exam writings.
At the end of the article there is a small box that gives information about Pete Fraser (the author), which is succeeded by a conclusive use of a similar image to the one that appears right at the very beginning of the article (top left of the first page).
| Day | Plan | How it went | Still to do? |
| Monday - 15th | Look over Tara’s design of the flyer for friday and annotate. Write to clients, get Jenny to send feedback of article ideas. Set up email for newspaper. Start annotating people’s articles. | Today went well. I got Tara working with Hayden to improve the visuals of the flyer. I received another email from jenny and began to annotate but ran out of time. Got Sam to set up the email account. | Finish highlighting email, distribute to class. |
| Tuesday - 16th | Use the internet to research different possible designs for the newspaper. Work out possible layouts. | College was not on today. Didn't manage to get work done at home. | Everything in the day plan. |
| Wednesday - 17th | As a class, go over everyone's work. Make notes on how to improve their articles to relate more to the exam criteria. | I annotated Natalie's work well. Everyone had their work assessed by someone and progress is good. The class also did an activity where we wrote down bullet points of some of the criteria prompts for the exam. | - |
| Thursday - 18th | Give Natalie the feedback I made on her work. Plan out another article of my own to help with the 'Exam Help' section of the paper. | Today went well, I panned out my article and gave Natalie her feedback, which she seems to have responded to well. We also all made a list of important article guidelines which I contributed to heavily. | Finish my article, although I'm not sure when to do it and what I can do with it. It isn't looking too promising but I'll see how it goes. |
| Friday - 19th | Get class to send their articles to Grahame. Ask if anyone needs help with their article. Work on my own article. | I have received all of the articles and sent them off. I helped Philippa on her article but didn't make much progress on my own. There are still some people who need to send me their articles but hopefully they will have done it by the end of today. | Finish article. |
Contemporary Media Regulation
- The internet enables dissemination of information on a revolutionary scale - one person, or a sneezing panda, can be heard by the whole world. Should this be regulated? Can it be regulated? (Yes - China manages it, despite - perhaps because of? - its being the home of the panda.)
- The UK Government might seek to restrict the publication of these images on Google. Is that right? Is it possible? Google was quoted "It would be impractical to ask Google to withdraw images as they can be easily obtained from other sources over which we have no influence".
- Is self-regulation valid or effective? An MP is quoted as saying ''There needs to be a certain degree of restraint shown by people like Google”.
- But if Google is to be regulated in this way, shouldn't it apply to all search engines... all organizations... all people? Therefore, would it mean YOU are not allowed to take a picture and show it to a friend? - that's the reductio ad absurdum to which this logic could lead.
Global Media
- Consider how the Web 2.0 has allowed "everyone to see everything". If Google Maps/Google Street View keeps evolving then pretty soon anyone can, immediately and without introduction, see into anyone else's house, anywhere in the world.
- Five years ago this would have been very different. To get this information you would have had to either travel to the country yourself, or have an individual mail you the pictures.
Media in the Online Age
- Conventional media still over-represent tiny but powerful groups of people. Note how the article quotes MPs, and Google - but not Mrs. T Nesbit who lives in the village near the SAS and who's worried about the impact on her life and security.
- But, 'new media' will allow Mrs Nesbit to blog about this, or the whole village to create a lobbying website for example.
Media and Collective Identity
- That is, Mrs Nesbit and her cohorts of web-enabled brolly bashers.
Postmodern Media
- Google Maps has taken the idea of sending someone a photograph, and taken it to a level where simply sharing images can be seen as criminal.
'We Media' Democracy
- Consider how Web 2.0 has put publish-power in the hands of everyone, including Mrs Nesbit and the panda interest groups.
- But consider also - Google is one of the world's biggest companies; so huge power still rests in the hands of a tiny number of people (the Board of Google). How democratic is that?
The entrance to the base, which has never before appeared on maps for security reasons, can easily be identified on the images, leading to fears it could be used for terrorist planning.
Users can even see the base, in the country's west, is clearly marked as "British SAS" on the website.
It also offers a detailed 180 degree view of the perimeter boundary.
The images, all taken within the past six months, also show a military ambulance and a police car at the gates of the base along with three guards.
The disclosures further fuelled privacy concerns after the service was earlier this month expanded to cover 95 per cent of Britain’s roads or a quarter of million miles.
MPs and military chiefs demanded Google remove the pictures, claiming it made the SAS a target for terrorist attacks.
But Google defended the pictures, saying it had no plans to take them off their site.
The Ministry of Defence has never made the exact details of the base public but the location of the nearest village is available online.
“Military chiefs have had concerns with Google Street View for some time,” one military source said.
“It is highly irresponsible for military bases, especially special forces, to be pictured on the internet.
"Google claims it blurs faces and number plates to avoid people being identified but one mistake could be very dangerous weapon for a terrorist.”
They added: ''The question is, why risk a very serious security breach for the sake of having a picture on a website?''
Paul Keetch, the local MP, labelled the footage unacceptable “during a time of perceived terrorism”.
''There needs to be a certain degree of restraint shown by people like Google,” said the Lib Dem member for Hereford MP
''I wouldn't want a terrorist to be inspired by these pictures and it would be appalling if any help at all was given to our enemies.
"We all know where the Palace of Westminister is, we all know where the SAS camp is, but the issue is if you're going into such detail in such a way that you can undermine the security of that building, that could be a problem.''
One man, who did not want to be named but is associated with base, said: ''The SAS conducts operations where secrecy is absolutely vital to their success.
''Terrorists could potentially use their home computers to plot an attack capable of dire consequences on the base. That's frightening.''
A Google spokesman said the service would not take down the images.
''One in five people already use Google Street View for house hunting and the scheme has previously launched in 20 countries without any breach of security issues,” he said.
''Google only takes images from public roads and this is no different to what anyone could see travelling down the road themselves, therefore there is no appreciable security risk.
''We're happy to discuss any concerns as they arise.''
A spokesman for the MoD said it did not comment on where any special forces were based.
"The MOD cannot prevent satellites taking imagery of its establishments however we ensure that steps are taken to protect highly sensitive equipment," he said.
"It would be impractical to ask Google to withdraw images as they can be easily obtained from other sources over which we have no influence."
we would be very interested in supporting you with this project and taking out an advertisement. I have copied in Sarah Barrow, our new Head of School, who will need to authorise this and Richard Vickers who can put together the copy you need.
I wish you every success with your venture into publishing which sounds very interesting indeed,
all the best,
Mike'
My response TEXT:
'Hi Mike,
