Applying the Key Concepts

Representation - My newspaper is going to represent young people in the local area of Bexleyheath. Current local papers seem to demonise young people and the only reports on what they're doing is negative. My paper aims to represent the positive things young people are doing and also to cover issues that affect them. My main story will be about a local young girl band that has been formed, this shows that there can be success within their generation. My secondary story will be about a young male model who has suffered from anorexia and is now part of a campaign to raise awareness of the dangers for young people. My newspaper will be called BY, standing for Bexley Youth.

Institution - The newspaper I am designing would probably be published by an existing newspaper group like Archant who publish the Bromley Times. It would be a good way for them to advertise to the younger people in the area as they don't usually read the local paper. It will have a tabloid layout as it is aimed at a young audience and they are more likely to pick up a newspaper with a less formal layout. A tabloid is also a suitable layout as entertainment will be featured within it. My newspaper will be free, as this will also make it more appealing to my audience. It will rely on advertising for it's funding which will be driving lesson advert, fashion stores and make up, all things that appeal to my young audience. The sample paper I produce will probably have about 30-40% advertising on the first two pages.

Values - Production Values are important to make sure I attract the target audience. As this is the first time I'm using inDesign I know it will be a challenge to create to professional standards but I will be using real products as my inspiration so I hope to end up with something believable anyway. I will be using a Mac to design my newspaper and the programmes are PhotoShop and inDesign. My newspaper will need to stand out from others so I will create a bold mast head with the date so the audience are able to see that it is a weekly paper for them. My images should be a clear and high quality that represent and appeal to the audience I am targeting. I will work to a four column layout to ensure the paper looks like it has order in the design

Audience - My newspaper is aimed at an audience ages 13-20. I do not want to be sexist or alienate any gender in my newspaper so i will use adverts and stories that will appeal to both genders. By creating my newspaper in a realist way it would appeal to my audience more as they would be able to relate to it more. My audience are probably from working and lower middle class families so I will need to keep this in mind when designing the content. they are likely to be at school or university and they will be interested in local issues and events but will be frustrated trying to find things to do. This paper will help them find out what's going on and get involved.

Language - The colour scheme and images are the first things that people notice on a newspaper whether it is the main story or an advert, and this is what communicates whether the paper is for them. My main headline will also be short and appealing that will make the audience want to read more. I will use a fairly conventional sans serif font as i want my newspaper to have a young but appealing look to teenagers. I will use a blue and pink colour scheme which is a bit stereotypical but will communicate clearly that it's for both genders. The mode of address for the paper will be fairly formal as it's not a magazine and the content is serious, even though many of the stories will be about entertainment.

Ideology - The ideology of my newspaper will be that young people want ways to get involved if only they are given the right information. I will aim to represent a positive view of young people where they are often criticised for bad things such as knife crime or gang culture. My newspaper will focus of the success of two groups of people, one starting a girl band and a successful model that has overcome the serious illness of anorexia. It will give readers an insight into what they can achieve and will give off a positive attitude. The paper will challenge the current ideology of local papers by giving young people the information they need and a way to be heard.

Narrative - Narrative is hard to apply to newspapers but through its structure, my paper will communicate that young people in the area are busy in lots of ways and successful in lots of ways. It will also communicate that young people are just as interested in 'hard news' as they are in entertainment stories. However, by placing an entertainment story as my lead on the front page it could seem that soft news comes first. My secondary story is more serious and covers and issue affecting lots of young people today. If I was to continue the paper i would include more serious stories about youth in the community and ways that the audience can get involved.

Genre - The genre of my newspaper is a local newspaper and I will be competing against other local newspapers. I intend to give it a youthful twist that appeals more to the younger generation so that could be a sub-genre of the local paper. Local papers share some conventions with national papers but they have their own style and a lot of advertising to fund the paper so i need to remember this when i;m designing it. mostly it's the content that makes it fit the 'local' genre. All the stories and most of the advertising should be local in focus.

Segmenting my Audience

• My newspaper is based around the Bexleyheath community and my target audience is the younger generation of people aged from 13 - 20. I will feature stories and adverts for males and females in my newspaper and I aim to represent both in the sample paper.
• My target audience are likely to be in education, either secondary, college or university. Their parents have probably not gone to university so they will either be working or lower middle class.
• The modern audience are complex so advertisers need complex means of categorising them. some of the factors regularly considered are now: Values, attitudes, lifestyles. The VALS system was developed by the market research and advertising industry.
• My target audiences' psychographic category is 'rebels' as these are a group of people that wish to remake the world in their image. They can also be categorised under the group of 'drop-outs' that shun commitments of any kind.
• I believe this because I think my typical reader will be bored and looking for something new in the area. They won't be happy just hanging around or going shopping, they want to experience new things, music, events and other opportunities.