Media Evaluation

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First Printed and Marked draft of the inside page

I found that making the inside page was more difficult than making the front cover as their was more text to write. Getting the right tone was difficult but after rewriting I found it easier. I am happy with this for my first printed draft as it is almost finished I just need to change a few things.

Final Product

Inside Page of the Haverhill Weekly Gazette

After already having decided the layout of the inside page as a group I then decided to choose the articles to write about on the inside page.

I used 'Local dog breeder fears life in prison'. I used this article as it was automatically got the intended audience's attention. Being a local breeder shall interest the people of Haverhill as one of their community members has broken the law in such a cruel way.

My first draft of 'Local dog breeder fears life in prison':

Seven unwanted Alsatians were found dead and four more Alsatians severely injured, in an abandoned Genzyme warehouse in Haverhill, on Monday 3^rd December. Matthew Sparks, 34, had been breeding dogs illegally in the warehouse, he was arrested by police and remanded in custody after being found guilty of cruelty to animals under the Protection of Animals Act, first passed in 1911. This penalty also carries a fine of up to £6,000, if found guilty Sparks will receive a maximum sentence of ten years in prison.

Inspector Brown, who found the dogs commented, “Sparks had been breeding dog illegally for approximately 7 months and inbreeding Alsatians which is going against regular animal cruelty laws. When we found the state of the dogs to be horrific. The stench was horrendous and the dogs looked like they had not been fed for weeks on end.”

After a post-mortem on the dead Alsatians it was found that all seven of the deaths were caused by dehydration and malnourishment. The evidence of this will be used against Sparks in court on Tuesday 11^th December.

Review:

I re read my article and compared it to another local article in the Haverhill Weekly News, and then decided to make a few tweaks to my article.

Second draft of 'Local dog breeder fears life in prison':

Seven unwanted Alsatians were found dead and four more Alsatians severely injured, in an abandoned Genzyme warehouse in Haverhill, on Monday 3^rd December. Matthew Sparks, 34, had been breeding dogs illegally in the warehouse and was arrested by police and remanded in custody after being found guilty of cruelty to animals under the Protection of Animals Act, first passed in 1911. This penalty also carries a fine of up to £6,000. If found guilty, Sparks will receive a maximum sentence of ten years in prison.

Inspector Brown, who found the dogs commented, “Sparks had been breeding dog illegally for approximately 7 months and inbreeding Alsatians which is in breach of animal cruelty laws. The state we found the dogs in was horrific. The stench was horrendous and the dogs looked like they had not been fed for weeks on end.”

The Veterinary surgeon linked to this inquiry found the Alsatians deaths were caused by dehydration and malnourishment. The evidence of this will be used against Sparks in court on Tuesday 11^th December.

Review:

I decided to use this article in the inside page as the main article of the page as it was very attention grabbing on the audience. I had also presented this article title as a teaser on the front page of our local newspaper as it was shocking that a local community member would do such a horrible thing.
Although I would find taking the photograph of malnourished Alsatians it is possible to get a photograph of a man being arrested for the crime.



Samuel Ward contributes to charity
Article carrying on from the front page...

 … Daniel Wright, 47, commented, ‘I was heartbroken when my wife died of breast cancer four years ago and that is why I decided to start a local charity. I wanted to help others who had been in the same situation as me. For a local school to raise £6,476 for a local charity means so much to me, so many people will be grateful. We give one third of the money to the main breast cancer charity and they use the money to research trials to help find a cure. The other two thirds of the money is kept in our local charity fund which help provides nursing to those local community members that are unfortunately suffering from breast cancer, the money also offers support for those that have recently lost.’


Review: 
I decided not to use this on the inside page but to use it on the front page of my local newspaper and to make the font smaller so it all fits on together, this was a coincidence that my font for the front page was too large for a local newspaper. When adding the text and reducing the size it looked a lot better and I was therefore very happy with my outcome of my front page.



School does their bit for Sport's Relief:

Many people gathered together on Friday 23rd March 2012 to help raise money for Sport’s Relief charity. Samuel Ward Academy took part in the event with a sponsored one mile run. 

Over 850 students took part in raising money for charity and from this Samuel Ward Academy accumulated a grand total of £5,000 for Sport’s Relief charity. 

All students that completed the mile run put their own twist on the syle in hich they crossed the finish line. Some sprinting the mile, and making a new record time, others hopped the mile and some managed to do a fifteen-legged walk. From the positive attitudes from everyone the day was very successful, even dispite the unexpected rainfall at the end of the year 11’s mile run. 

The student council of Samuel Ward decided upon that each member, including staff and students, should wear red in order to represent the Sport’s Relief charity occasion. Some members of staff took this is the extreme and  four staff members, from the English department, attended school in their matching red pajamas, which recieved a lot of laughs from the pupils. Yet it was all for a good cause.

Sport’s Relief is a charity that raises money for a range of people in the UK and around the world. Helping children, in the UK, who are carers for their parents to Mothers who are suffering from HIV and cannot afford treatment, in Africa. 

From the money Samuel Ward Academy raised Sport’s Relief are able to clothe 1,000 children living abroad or help 500 people suffering from dementia in the UK or even transform five communities in the poorest parts of Africa by providing uncontaminated, safe water for them to drink. 

Mr Kane, head of the PE department, said: “Every year Samuel Ward Academy raise money for Sport’s Relief, we have been doing it for 9 years now, but this year was exceptionally amazing. We raised more money than we ever have before and the day was really enjoyable for everybody who took part. Everyone was really hands on and wanted to do their bit. Even the run up to Sport’s Relief we had a number of students stay behind after school to make posters and signs to get everybody ready and organised for the day. And it was really worth it on the day the atmosphere was fantastic. As head of P.E. I was amazed at how many people were enthused into running this mile for Sport’s Relief, it was unbelieveable to see everybody getting so into doing their own bit for charity. It made me proud to be a member of staff at Samuel Ward Academy as you could see the joyous faces of the pupils.”

William Howe, a member of Samuel Ward Academy’s student council, says: “It was a real pleasure it be such a big part of this charity event. The whole of the student council was excited when we found out we were able to have such an input into helping this organisation. We discussed what our ideas where, there was a lot of them, but we came to a descision of non-uniform; wearing red to represent the charity - what a success it was.  The whole of the student council was chuffed as it turned out to be such a big hit, with everyone. It made us feel like we accomplished something big, after all we where helping many people from around the world, which was great. All I can say now is let there be many more fun raising events to come.”

Review: 

This is the copy of my main article on the inside page. With this I did not write drafts as I felt I was getting use to writing in a formal register, for a newspaper. Instead with everything that I had wrote  I would re-read and re-read until I felt that it was the best as it could be. 

I felt with this article it connected with the audience, as from my Survey Monkey my audience responded with wanting to see local events and local sport and that is why I included an article on fund raising from their local school as they would then be interested in their local newspaper. 

Front Cover of the Haverhill Weekly Gazette

First Draft

When measuring our local newspapers that we were using as a guide we noticed that we were using the wrong measurements. My local newspapers sizing was too long, as I had used the measurements for an A3 piece of paper. I discovered that I was suppose to be using 305 mm X 365 mm. 

Also looking at this newspaper and comparing it to our local newspapers the what's inside article titles font was too small. So for my second draft I shall change the size of the layout and include larger font for the what's inside article titles. 

Second Draft

Unfortunately when I had to change the size of the layout of my local newspaper I had to reduce the size of the advertisement at the bottom of the page. However from the widening of the page I love the size of the masthead as it has enlarged their is a lot more focus on that which is good as it shall draw more attention to the newspaper and away from other local newspapers. 

I also really like how the header seems to be bolder, even though it did not change the font it also, like the masthead, draws more attention to itself, which is very appealing. 

Things to still complete: 

From this you can see I have small changes to make. For example, there is an unnecessary hyphen in the word 'against'. There is also two font sizes. The font is also different from the copy and I want it to be the same as it is a local newspaper and the font, which we used for the copy - Franklin Gothic Book, is a friendly font. 

I am also going to change the page number for 'Local dog breeder fears life in prison', to page number 2 , as I do not have a story to write about for my contents page and I have decided to use this story as it is an interesting story, that will immediately grab the audience's attention with the shock and horror of a local which could be so cruel. 

I still need to include the date, web address and price on my local newspaper. 

One of the main projects I need to do is complete my photography so I can add the images into the front cover of my newspaper. 

Third Draft

I have now done my photography and included the images into my newspaper. I have also designed my advertisement. Yet  I am not 100% happy with this outcome so I shall compare my newspaper to other local newspapers from around my area and play around with the layout a little bit to make it more like a newspaper. 

First Marked Draft

Now I shall go on to make these improvements.

First Marked Draft

Only small improvements to make now. Yet I am very happy with the outcome. I think that this looks professional and just like a local newspaper.

Finished final product

The Copy.

I began writing my version of the copy after the layout was produced and decided as a group.
My first draft was on the charity work of sending shoe boxes to the soldiers abroad for Christmas.

Samuel Ward contributes to charity.

'Samuel Ward have always been an involved school when it comes to charity but this year they have been exceptionally thoughtful when they sent a number of shoe boxes to the British troops fighting in Afghanistan for Christmas.

Headmaster Howard Lay explained why it was so important to make this gesture. “I know how important it is to help others, I want to open the students eyes and show them that Christmas isn’t about receiving presents but making the effort to help others have a good day. After all, these soldiers are fighting for us, the least we can do is spend them some homely gifts. We filled the boxes with basic objects that many of us take for granted, for example, tomato ketchup sachets.”

“Within each box we sent a letter to each soldier, which I found was very important, there are many students who are interested in finding out about the army and by doing this we are giving them a great opportunity to do so.”'

After reading through this and comparing it to other articles in the Haverhill Echo and Haverhill Weekly news and I did not think it was good enough for the Haverhill Gazette, the wording was not right as it was too descriptive and the column inches were to large so instead of tweaking it I decided to start from scratch and re-wite the article.

I decided to change the charity as there are many people who contribute to sending shoe boxes to the soldiers and do not get any recognition so I went with a local charity - Haverhill's cancer hospice. 

Samuel ward contributes to charity

'Samuel Ward Academy has been celebrating after raising a whopping £6,476 for a local breast cancer hospice.

The Academy started fund raising for the hospice this year by holding a variety of events. Non-uniform days, bake sales, car washing and a sponsored fun run have all helped raise the phenomenal sum.

Headmaster Howard Lay, said: “I love to get the pupils involved in helping others and by fund raising we are able to teach the pupils that even a small contribution of your time and effort can make a big difference.”

With the in-school events being successful Howard Lay wanted to contribute more. The Academy then went on to raise more money by cooking a variety of cakes: including muffins, cookies and brownies and selling them on Haverhill High Street during the weekend.

A lead ambassador of Samuel Ward Academy, Amber Benjamin 18, found the whole experience thrilling. She exclaimed: “I couldn’t believe how well it went, the whole school wanted to get involved and with everybody’s effort we were able to raise as much as we did.”

Breast Cancer Hospice chairman Daniel Wright, was astonished to receive £6,476 cheque from Samuel Ward Academy.'

I found this article a lot more suitable for the Haverhill Gazette. The article included a local school helping out a local charity. The wording was also more to the point and therefore better for a local newspaper.

Planning for the front cover: What's on my front page of the Haverhill Weekly Gazette.

Main article:

- Samuel Ward Academy contributes to charity.

Main image:

- Samuel Ward students.

Front page advertisement:

- Jewel Mark Jewellers.

Kicker 1:

- Homes for sale.

Kicker 1 image:

- House with selling post.

Kicker:

- Soldiers home safe from the war.

Kicker 2 image:

- Solider reunited with his family.

Inside contents:

Type of font:
- Masthead -  Bell MT
- Copy - Franklin Gothic Book
Three colour pallet scheme: black, grey and red

My issue date: Friday 9th December 2011

Website: www.haverhillweeklygazette.co.uk

Price: 35 pence

Survey results for font copy.

Here are the results from our survey, you can see that Franklin Gothic Book was selected for the font that looks the most professional, Euphemia UCAS was the majority vote for the easiest font to read and the last question showed results that Franklin Gothic Book was the font that our audience would like to read in their local newspaper. Like the other survey we asked if they would like to see the font round or blocked in their local newspaper and if block or rounded grabbed their attention first, both response came back with block font being the most popular. 

Therefore from this feedback we are going to use Franklin Gothic Book text for the copy. Using block, lower case letters to make the font easy to read.