National Newspaper Covers, and the Similarities and Differences from Local Newspaper Covers...

National newspaper covers:

The national newspaper covers I have come across are slightly more unconventional in comparison to the conventional local newspapers. Despite this they do still include some of the main features:

 This national newspaper cover from the Daily Mail looks like a a usual newspaper cover and uses mostly all of the usual conventions found on covers of newspapers. For example it has the main heading (title) at the top of the page along with the date and price, local newspapers would also have the location also with these details. Also on this cover another clear convention is the big bold heading of the main story centre left of the page followed by smaller text linking with the story and also a small insight to other stories in the paper. There is an image on this cover as well which again is a main convention of a newspaper front cover.

This cover from the Daily Mirror is slightly less conventional to the Daily Mail cover. As the topic on the front cover is serious there are no other stories shown along side this main one on the cover. Also the writing about this story on the cover is made clear, big, bold and easy to read and understand. One very outstanding feature of this front cover is the black background colour. Most newspaper covers have a ordinary white background usually with black print and other images on top but this background is completely black, again this could have been to emphasis the importance of the story making the newspaper stick out and be noticed as different and important.

This newspaper cover from The Sun is also unconventional as it also only consists of one story and two images both of which complement with the main story on the cover. Again same to the previous newspaper cover the background is covered by one of the images highlighting that this is a differen, more important story, this is supported further by the lable in the corner saying 'Historic Edition'. Despite the less conventional features this cover does have the main bold outstanding title which works well to draw in the eye of the audience as it it bold white writting on red. Also a bold subheading of the story which also attracts the audience.

Conventional and Unconventional Newspaper Covers...

Most newspapers all have similar layout style with minor differences:

Conventional Newspaper Covers:

All fornt cover have large bold title with the main story as a bold headline. Most of the front pages contain one or two main stories with images relating to it. These stories are usually continued inside of the paper the the page numbers are usually given with the main stories on the front page. 



Another convention that is on each of the front covers is adverts. Each of these examples I have choose either have adverts at the top, bottom or left hand side of the page. In local newspapers these adverts are usually adverts of local businesses or event happening around that area.


Another key convention that is obtained in mostly all local newspaper front covers is competitions or special offers. These again are competitions or offers relating with businesses and things around the local area like restaurants and local super markets.



Despite the main stories being featured on the front covers of local newspapers there are also small snippets of other stories included inside of the newspaper. This is just to give the audience an insight as to what else is in the day newspaper. Again page number are given, maybe along with a small image.


Unconventional local Newspaper Covers:




Both of the following newspapers are unconventional. The main aspect of the covers that makes them unique and unconventional is that large images that take up most of the front cover.





The example of The Sun unconventional front cover is a good example as again there is a picture that is taking up a large amount of the front cover. This is also good because it is clear that the story is important as it is about
Margaret Thatcher. It is made clear that the story is of high importance as the front cover is full of headlines and picture rather than smaller story writing. 





The smaller titles on the Daily Mirror example also make that front cover unconventional as they are highlighted and they are also slanted. It is the small things like this that make the cover unconventional as they are different, and have a different layout to what you would usually expect to  find on a normal newspaper front cover.

Newspaper Names...

Most local newspapers names begin with the area then follow with another word, they all have similar names. the following words are usually these:

• Citizen
• Chronicle 
• Advertiser
• Standard
• Reporter
• News
• Gazette
• Guardian
• Journal
• Mail
• Recorder
• Times
• Echo
• Telegraph
• Local
• Observer
• Mercury

When I create my newspaper for my A2 coursework I will use one of these tradition names along with the local area of Portishead.

Links Between AS and A2...

Whilst completing my AS Media Coursework of creating a music magazine I had to complete many different stages and use many different digital technology programmes in order to get the completed final product.

When doing my AS course work I used different programmes on the Mac's to help me achieve a advance music magazine. I used:

• Photoshop

I used Photoshop to edit the images I had taken for my magazine and enhance them making them look professional and bring a more 'real' and 'professional' look to my magazine. I will again have to use Photoshop when doing my A2 coursework because again I will need to edit my images.

• iMovie

I used the programme iMovie on the Mac's to record my evaluation at the end of the project. I had to include a series of images and text along with my own voice recordings over the top to make a smooth running evaluation video. One problem I did come across when doing this was when I was watching my video back every now and again just to make sure everything looked ok when my voice came in the images and text would stop running through. I didn't find a reason for this but when I exported my video it all work finely together. I will have to use iMovie when creating my A2 coursework as I will have to record my radio advert.

• Microsoft Word

Different to everyone else I used Microsoft Word to put my magazine together instead of InDesign. I am glad I done this as I demonstrated to people that Microsoft Word could be used for something other than just simple word processing. I did come across a few simple problems like finding it difficult to move images to different places on the page but I got their in the end and had a good outcome. One thing I would say is that I may be at a slight disadvantage when completing my A2 coursework as I will have to use InDesign to process my newspaper cover and pages and therefore will have to develop new skills because I will not be used to using the programme.