News Task

1. Explain your role/responsibility within the team and the task. What were you required to do?

We were split up into pairs or three's, in which we had the task to create either a front page for the Daily Telegraph newspaper, online or for the social media. Our group in particular, consisting of myself, Dara and Zain, had the task to create the front page for the website. In order to do this task, we had the template for the website given to us so that we could adjust our sizing, as well as the story headlines in which we had to alter it and make a standfirst from it. We had to also include things like appropriate adverts for the audience, images to suit our story and standfirsts to anchor the headline. We therefore chose and rewrite 5 headlines to be included in the front page of the Daily Telegraph website. During this process, we also had to communicate with other groups, so that we were able to coordinate well as we would have similar headlines to make it as realistic as possible.

2. For one media form, describe the codes and conventions you chose to follow and explain their intended impact.

For the website that we created, we had to include usual codes and conventions of telegraph.co.uk. For example, we included a large image to anchor the main headline as this is a convention for the website. Furthermore, the main headline that we used of "Brexit deal being agreed" is a headline that is commonly seen among the Daily Telegraph newspaper. Another convention that we used is by having advertisements situated around the page of the website. We had a total of 3 advertisements on our website as this was appropriate. This included a large banner advert along the top, a mid-page unit advert on the bottom right side of the page as well as having a small native advert along the bottom of the page, anchored with a headline for the advertisement as this is the usual convention. Moreover, we also included 2 premium stories, one with image and one without. Having a premium story is a common convention of the Daily Telegraph website, as usually on the website, one has to pay a fee in order to access more stories.

3. Explain how your choices reflect the real newspaper's values and target audience.

I think that the choices that we had reflect the real newspaper's values and target audience as we followed most, if not all the common conventions. For example, we chose Tiffany, a high class jewellery, to be our top banner advert as this suited the target audience of the middle aged. Additionally, for the mid-page unit advert, we chose expensive technology as it was suitable for the target audience of the Daily Telegraph. We also had a luxurious holiday advert which is also commonly seen in the Daily Telegraph website due to the fact that this suited the target audience of ABC1's. Our choice of having the Brexit deal headline to be our main story suited the value of Daily Telegraph as they have a more right wing view upon the situation.


4. Explain how your team adapted the news across the three different media forms and the reasons behind your decisions.

We adapted the news across the three different media forms through communicating to the other groups in as well as out of the lessons. We made sure that across the media forms, we had similar headlines, font and language so that we were able to keep it consistent. For example, we decided to have the Brexit deal as the main headline for all of the media forms. However we decided to change up the images we used to avoid repetitiveness and therefore will keep the readers interested.

5. In hindsight, is there anything about your team's outcomes that you would adapt or improve?

In hindsight, I think that we could've improved on the final piece by making some slight adjustments. For example, we could've made the sizing of the texts more consistent by keeping it the same size and I think that the language choices could've been better by adjusting it to suit the style of the Daily Telegraph. Moreover, maybe more communication between the groups would've been optimal but other than that, I think that the overall intention was successful.