Wednesday, 22 March 2017

LO3: Planning the Article*

Key Categories/Genres:
Sport
Music
Entertainment
Community
Education
Animal Care
Politics

Ideas

Gym/Fitness - Can you and how to exercise at home
Trees being cut down in the local area - Talking to local activists/residents who are acting against it and the Council
School Play - High Storrs school play, interviews with various people showing why it was good and why people should attend


I've chosen the sports article to write. This is because the subject of the article interests me the most out of the three, as I participate in sport while I have never been in a school play or participated in the tree-saving movement. As a result, I think I'm most knowledgeable about sport compared to any other subject, and so am more likely to write a better article on it. In addition, I believe this article would be most interesting to an audience, given the current fitness craze in the media, so it would be more effective at targeting an audience.
Also, I am in contact with a variety of people who both participate and run sporting events (e.g. personal trainers, people who exercise etc.) which will help me in writing an informed article, as their opinions will provide an accurate and varied view on exercising in general.
Other sources would be fitness journals and experts, who would provide valuable and accurate information which can be sourced back to them, making the audience more likely to trust the info, and by extension the article as a whole.



LO3: Secondary Research Techniques

Crowd Sourcing - Information callout

Web Sources - Academic work VS popular opinions

Observation - Focus, recording and evidencing


Reliability - Is the info trustwoth? E.g. use of field experts, first hand eye-witnesses, authority - official v. subordinate, use of primary and secondary definers

Relevance - How suited is the info to the topic?

Accuracy - Cross referencing info to make sure it's accurate

Validity - Is the point of view valid or unimportant?

Accessibility - As a researcher, is the info easy to access? Relates to relevance

Quality - Has to be info-rich or no point. Relates to Validity

Cost Effective - Is the info worth the effort/money/time recquired to get it?

Wednesday, 15 March 2017

LO3: Research Techniques

Primary Definer

These are individuals who have power, expert or academic knowledge and/or control whom news institutions use as a source of information to support an argument. Articles will often quote primary definers to add credence to a point of view.

Secondary Definer

These are individuals, often the public, who provide opinions. Public opinion is often quoted in articles aimed at a mass audience in order to convey a populist point of view. This sort of opinion can be gahtered quickly on social media or online blogging sites and forums.


Questions for interview - Donald Trump's 2005 tax return leak reveals $38m bill



  1. Do you support Trump in any way at all?
  2. Why didn't Trump publish his tax returns?
  3. Do you think Trump should release his tax returns?
  4. Why was the tax return leaked if according to the White House it's "against the law"?
  5. Do you think every president should release there tax returns (every president has since 1976).

Tuesday, 14 March 2017

LO3: Gultan and Ruge News Vaues Task

Turkish sanctions are 'bizarre', says Dutch PM amid diplomatic row
Mark Rutte says Turkey’s move to freeze contacts are inappropriate as Netherlands has more to be angry about

The Dutch PM Mark Rutte  described Turkish sanctions following the diplomatic clash as ‘not too bad’. Photograph: Remko de Waal/EPA

The Dutch prime minister has said that Turkish sanctions following a diplomatic clash were “not too bad” but were inappropriate as the Netherlands had more to be angry about.
The sanctions include freezing all diplomatic communication but no economic measures. Mark Rutte said: “I continue to find it bizarre that in Turkey they’re talking about sanctions when you see that we have reasons to be very angry about what happened this weekend.”
Tensions between the two countries, a dramatic escalation of Turkey’s row with EU states, broke out on Saturday when the Netherlands blocked two Turkish ministers from speaking at political rallies and the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, twice referred to the Dutch government as “Nazis”.
Turkey followed on Monday with a suspension of high-level political contacts with the Netherlands and a threat to re-evaluate a key deal to halt the flow of migrants to Europe .
Numan Kurtulmuş, a deputy prime minister and chief government spokesman, said while announcing the sanctions that the Dutch ambassador, who is on leave, would not be allowed to return .
Turkey would also close its airspace to Dutch diplomats, Kursulmuş said, adding: “There is a crisis and a very deep one. We didn’t create this crisis or bring it to this stage … Those creating this crisis are responsible for fixing it.”
The spokesman’s remarks came hours after Erdoğan defied pleas from Brussels to tone down his rhetoric, repeating accusations of European “nazism” and warning that his ministers would take their treatment by the Dutch to the European court of human rights.
Erdoğan also accused the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, of “supporting terrorists” and criticised her for backing the Dutch in the row over Turkish campaigning abroad before an April referendum on controversial plans to expand his powers.
“Mrs Merkel, why are you hiding terrorists in your country? … Why are you not doing anything?” Erdoğan said in an interview with Turkish television. He added that the position adopted by the Dutch and a number of other EU states amounted to nazism. “We can call this neo-nazism. A new nazism tendency.”
Merkel had earlier pledged her “full support and solidarity” to the Dutch, saying allegations made twice by Erdoğan this weekend that the Dutch government was acting like Nazis were “completely unacceptable”.
The Turkish remarks followed a request on Monday by the EU’s foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, and enlargement commissioner, Johannes Hahn, for Ankara to “refrain from excessive statements and actions”.
The Turkish foreign ministry said in a statement on Tuesday that the EU’s stance on Turkey was “short-sighted” and “carried no value” for Turkey. It said the EU had “ignored the violation of diplomatic conventions and the law”.
The threat made by Kurtulmuş to re-evaluate the deal the EU signed with Ankara in March 2016 – which has successfully curbed migration from Turkey to Greece, then onward into the rest of the bloc – will be seen as particularly alarming.
The Netherlands, Austria, Germany, Denmark and Switzerland, all of which have large Turkish immigrant communities, have cited security and other concerns as reasons not to allow Turkish officials to campaign in their countries in favour of a referendum vote on 16 April to give Erdoğan expanded presidential powers. But with as many as 1.4 million Turkish voters in Germany alone, Erdoğan cannot afford to ignore the foreign electorate.
Austria’s chancellor, Christian Kern, called on Monday for an EU-wide ban on Turkish rallies, saying it would take pressure off individual countries. But Merkel’s chief of staff, Peter Altmaier, said he had doubts as to whether the bloc should collectively decide on a rally ban.
Analysts said the Turkish president was using the crisis to show voters that his strong leadership was needed against a Europe he routinely presents as hostile.
Erdoğan was “looking for ‘imagined’ foreign enemies to boost his nationalist base in the run-up to the referendum,” said Soner Cagaptay, the director of the Turkish Research Programme at the Washington Institute.
Marc Pierini, the EU’s former envoy to Turkey, said he saw no immediate solution to the crisis because “the referendum outcome in Turkey is very tight and the leadership will do everything to ramp up the nationalist narrative to garner more votes”.
The standoff has further strained relations already frayed over human rights, while repeated indications from Erdoğan that he could personally try to address rallies in EU countries risk further inflaming the situation.
The row also looks likely to dim further Turkey’s prospects of joining the EU, a process that has been under way for more than 50 years. “The formal end of accession negotiations with Turkey now looks inevitable,” the German commentator Daniel Brössler wrote in the Süddeutsche Zeitung.                  

Text Box: Reference to an elite – Names of high ranking politicians and officials have been included in this article to provide content and show the scope of the argument – that people from multiple countries other than the two in question are involved now
Unambiguous – Specific names, dates and events are told to show exactly what’s happening 
Threshold – The word ‘bizarre’ is uncommon in politics as it’s quite a normal subject, so using this word rather than ‘shocking’ etc. is more effective in attracting an audience, as they want to know what’s happening
Personalisation – Mentioning migrants and specific groups of people means it applies to certain readers, making it personal


LO3: Be able to research and plan content for an article

News Values

Whether it effects anybody, does it reinforce the values of the owner etc.


Galtand and Ruge (1965)

Frequency - how often somthing is in the news

Dutch Election - Recently (2 weeks), this has been in the news frequently as there are many parts of it, their relationship with Turkey, each politician running, why the election differs from recent elections (Trump and Brexit) etc.

Threshold - the amount of superlatives or clear hyperbole of statement, appears on the headline on front covers, that captures attention


Unambiguity

Sport articles are unambiguous as they present clear facts and numbers

Meaningfulness and newsworthiness

Who's in politics/power, taxes, stuff that applies to people
This article explaining Brexit is what I'd click on, as I want to know more about Brexit because I know little, but it applies to me

Consonance - agreement of ideology/meaning

More likely to read an article if the article agrees with your opinions
This article about the second Scottish referendum will make the audience think that Scotland is definitely going to leave the UK, as it shows statistics to back up the claim - devolution

Unexpectedness

Something so unexpected (random articles, political or sporting results) you have to click on it

Reference to elites

People who are well known (politicians, Royal Family, celebrities - musicisans, actors, reality TV stars, local celebrities, sporting personalities, local governement officials)
E.g. Brangelina story

Personalisation

A way that a journalist directly tries to link content to the audience to personalise the article - rhetorical questions etc.
When we think we know alot about an elite by how it's written - ie anything to do with Donals Trump

Negativity

People are attracted to negative news (at least we're not in that sitiation)

Tuesday, 7 March 2017

LO2: Article Analysis



Quiet Cornerstone - Sport Magazine

Published February 2nd 2017

This article was written to show the opinions of Dan Cole via an interview. To do this, the majority of the article is dedicated to his opinions on the questions he was asked, as he was asked to further explain his points. Very limited reaction or analysis from the author also shows this.

1. The topic (sport, specifically rugby) and tone (serious analysis and interview) is most likely to attract an older male audience in the ABC1 categories, as rugby is dominated by these demographics, and features one for the interview (building on the 'Ideal Self' theory).

2. 'Quiet Cornerstone' is an effective title for this article, as it connotes to the reader the subject of the article, Dan Cole, while also showing the audience the tone of the article and their attitude towards the player. It also appeals to the older (40+) male audience, who are less likely to be attracted to emotive language and sensational titles.

3. Only complex or compund sentences were used in the article (asides from quotes), which is effective in conveying detailed interpretations of the interview and performance of Dan Cole. As the article is long-from with few interspersed pictures and no social media quotes, this style fits in as it priorities information over ease-of-use (which is most likely the same priority the audience has, as they are more likely to want the full story on the article). 'Despite serious neck surgery in 2014, he has amassed 72 Test caps – including three for the British and Irish Lions' shows this.


4. Although no social media exerts or quotes from other sources were used to provide futher information for the audience, as the article was an interview, quotes from the sportsman compromised a large part of the piece. In fact, in some places paragraph is followed by paragraph with just quotes, with little response from the author. This is because the primary goal is to provide the opinion of Dan Cole to the audience, with the author using the teacher to pupil mode of address to fill in any gaps, ofer interpretations or provide context if necessary. E.g: "Everyone is entitled to an opinion, but you just have to block it out. You should trust the opinion of Eddie Jones and Steve Borthwick over, with due respect, a person writing an article. No offence.”
Lifting his palm, Cole laughs at the double apology".

This article brings the topic of England's rugby team and rugby as a whole from an insider's perspective, which is unique as interviews of this nature a fairly few. But this article is to entertian/inform of opinion rather than to educate.

What a con! Gary Barlow faces outrage as it's revealed Let It Shine winners WON'T front Take That musical - CelebsNow

Published March 7th 2017

The subject of this article surrounds the controversy of the Let It Shine TV show - explaining that while it appears to be a betrayal, Gary Barlow didn't specify the roles of the contestants. This contrasts with the opinionated headline ('con' is very bias against the show), showing a bias which is most likely used to relate to the readers.

1. The audience for this article is the same as for the TV show it is talking about - working class women (as the contestants in the show are women, and this demographic is most likely to be interested in competitive talent shows such as this) aged 18-49 (as it's watched by both young adults and families). The peer to peer mode of address connotes a chatty-complaining tone, which also attracts this demographic.

2. Contrary to the norm for this type of article (celebrity gossip), the title reveals large amounts of the info for the article, with little in terms of a hook to encourage the audience to read more. However, the mention of celebrity ('Gary Barlow') and emotive words ('Outrage') do encourage people to read more.

3. A mix of sentence types were used throughout the article - but mainly complex sentences were used in short paragraphs (1-2 sentences) to convey a mix of information and emotion to the audience, 'Despite viewers feeling cheated by the show’s premise, it turns Gary never actually said the winners would have a starring role in the production and instead opted for the phrases', effectively using the peer to peer mode of address to effectively communicate with the audience.

4. A whole section of the article is dedicated to fan quotes, said via Twitter. This was to further the peer to peer aspect, as the audience is literally interacting with other audience member's opinions, e.g.
"Let it shine" who for? not for the winners of the competition, just another backing group in a stage show, what a let down.
— joseph supple (@josephsupple1) March 7, 2017
Furthermore, the heavy inclusion of other people's opinions, which consistently had the same position on the topic (outrage) connotes to the audience that these opinions are shared by the paper, making it more relatable, although not actually saying it is important to avoid bias.

Stavros Flatley father reveals he's devastated by son's arrest - HeatWorld

Published March 7th 2017

The short article is about the father's and families feelings of the arrest of the son. Because of this, only opinions and brief analysis of the opinions are included, with no facts or reports to provide evidence. This makes the newspaper unbias, as they are showing someone else's opinion, not theirs.

1. HeatWorld published this article to inform a younger, working class audience of celebrity gossip (the most likely audience to be interested in such news). The teacher to student mode of address, very short article and short sentences also connote this, as these are the demographics most likely to be interested in short stories.

2. The title does not reveal a lot of information about the article (e.g. what the arrest was for), but uses names and emotive language ('devastated') to attract the reader and make them want to read further.

3. This article uses very simple structure to get the point across, using almost exclusively simple sentences with a few complex to quickly present the information. The teacher to parent mode of address exaggerates this (although it's not the typical mode of address for gossip articles), as it says the points quickly, with no opinion from the author, which allows the article to be so short.
Eventhough the article uses only 104 words, 2 large pictures of the people the story about are included, which connotes that the audience is more willing to see pictures then read the information (again, typical of working class and young people).

4. The heavy inclusion of quotes in this article (compromising almost a third of the text - 31/104 words) is indicative of the short-form article (with little substance) that it is. Instead of wasting time for the reader and author by explaining the sitaution, a brief summary follow by numerous quotes such as in this article is effective in explaining the situation, while not feeling like a news article (which many people dislike).
The first paragraph covers Who, What, When and Where, while the second covers Why and How, which is effective in drawing people in to the article, but due to the fact that the audience can already know everything they need by the second sentence/paragraph, it is ineffective in keeping the audience interested, especially as the rest of the article is filled with background not necessary to the story.

Theresa May facing possible defeat today over her axing of a scheme to rescue refugee children - The Independent

Published March 7th 2017

The article is about Theresa May and her actions, preventing refugees from entering the country. Although the initial theme is biased against her actions due to the emotive language in the title, throughout the article is unbias, providing facts and reasoning behind both side's actions and opinions.

1. The Independent published this in order to inform people of possible events in politics regarding refugees. the audience is ABC1C2, as the text is long and informative of politics (indicative of middle class readers), although the lack of jargon and comparitively short story also connotes lower-middle class readers. The tone is serious and informative, with no comments or opinions and little bias.

2. The title uses mulitple words chosen to attract attention, as they connote action and are easily picked out - 'Defeat, axing, refugee'. The violent imagery on top of the controversy surrounding refugees is successful in drawing people into the article as it includes trigger words people are interested in.

3. Almost exclusively using complex and simple sentences allows the article to present facts quickly and concisely. This connotes that the audience is younger and lower class, as they are the audience demographics most likely to have shorter attention spans and generally target shorter articles.
Only one picture is used in the article. However, it plays an important role, as it's emotive and as a result attracts readers to follow through and read the article, as they want to find out what happens to the people in the picture, which the article is assumed it be about.
The mode of address is teacher to pupil, informing the audience of the news without opinion or conversation, which also connotes a middle class - upper class audience. Building on this, the paper includes all available information the audience may need to understand the story, while not economical from a production standpoint, is effective in drawing in an interested audience who seeks to know all they can on the subject.

4. Quotes compromise a large part of the article, as they are short and efectively show the info to the audience, exactly what the article attempts to do constantly. They are often used to compliment and reinforce the report of the author, although at the end of the article they are used in a TL;DR fashion, again encouraging the idea that younger/lower class readers would read this.
The first paragraph of the article presents the Who, What, Where and How of the article, and as these are the hot-button issues it effectively draws the readers in to find out about the other information, while not presenting the whole story (albeit most of it).

http://theojni.blogspot.co.uk/2017/02/lo2-newspaper-analysis.html

Wednesday, 1 March 2017

LO2: Language Analysis - Criteria for Grading

Berstein

Elaborate Coding - Words are of higher level when it comes to reading ability.

Restricted Coding - Jargon and dialect, easy to understand



'Who, What, When, Where, Why, How', Mode of Address (peer to peer, teacher to student, parent to child), Sentence Structure (Simple, Complex)
All used in newspapers to address a certain audience in a certain way.