News Website Homework Project – Media Studies

Helena Rickeard 9TB

News ValuesThis article is about water mains flooding in Oxford Street in central London, flooding shops and ripping up the road. It contains these news values:• Offbeat• Proximity• Prominence• ImpactAnd also contains a visual imperative: an image of the street after the flood. This story is appealing to me, as I live in London and I know Oxford Street, and if you live in close proximity to a place involved in a story, it makes you more likely to want to read it and find out about it.

Source: [http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-16644549]

News ValuesI found this story interesting as includes some news values such as:•Offbeat / Odd•Currency• Human InterestAnd includes a visual imperative: two images relating to the story.This story is about an American man who didn’t realise he had shot himself in the head with a nail gun until he had an x-ray the next day. I found this article appealing as it is unusual and you would have expected him to realise such a dramatic thing happening, so, in a way, it is comical.

Source:[http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-16663332]

TreatmentMy News website is going to be called “The Scoop”, as scoop is

another word for news and I want the website to sound original and modern. It will contain some hard and some soft news, such as crime, odd news, celebrity gossip and local area disturbances. These types of news will be split, so my audience could clearly pick which type of news to read. I think this would appeal to teenagers as they like to know what is going on, but don’t care as much for some hard news such as politics or the economy. My website would also be available as an app for mobile phones and tablets so it could keep up with the growing use of technology, and would be updated daily. The main target audience for “The Scoop” would be both boys and girls aged around 12-16 years old, although it could appeal to other audiences and ages. I will ensure my website caters for the needs of both boys and girls by using gender-neutral colours and a range of different stories.

News StoriesOverview of story and Source How it is relevant/ Can be made relevant

“A rioter who terrorised diners with an axe at McDonald's has been jailed for five years and three months - one of the toughest sentences for last summer's disturbances” London Evening Standard

This story would be relevant to my website as it is about crime, one of the topics in my website, and it has the news values of currency and proximity, as his sentencing happened recently and it is about a disturbance in London, catering for the Local News.

“Police have arrested a 26-year-old woman following the fatal stabbing of a 13-year-old girl, named locally as Casey-Lyanne Kearney, in Elmfield Park in Doncaster.” The Metro

This story is relevant to my website as it is about a 13 year old girl, around my target audience’s age range, so they could possibly relate to it. Also, it is about crime which would go in the hard news section of my website.

“Whitney Houston's body has arrived in her home town of New Jersey as it emerges her doctors are to be questioned over the prescription drugs found in her hotel suite where she died.” The Metro

This story’s main focus is of a celebrity, Whitney Houston, which would fit into the celebrity news section of my website. However, since it is about her death, it may be classified as hard news, but overall it fits into many categories of my site.

“It's not what you want to see when you enter a lift - no floor. This was the terrifying prospect faced by shoppers in South London during a test run of an upcoming Alton Towers ride.” Yahoo! News

This story is odd as it is about how Alton Towers resort tricked the public into thinking a lift had no floor. This would fit into the “soft news” section of my website. It is also local, as it happened in South London.

“Police are seeking a robbery suspect who has an 'uncanny resemblance' to the cartoon character Burglar Bill.” The Metro

This article would fit into the “odd news” section of my website, as well as crime and local news.