2. Tabloid: The Nova
For my Tabloid newspaper, I wanted to create a centrist
newspaper without bias to either party and solely with
the goal to entertain the masses: The Nova.
Here is the final cover piece I created using the
photoshop-like app Procreate on my iPad Air.
Images were taken and edited entirely by me except for
the following photo:
- Mr Chedda(r) was created by AI and sourced online
on knowyourmeme.com
3. Inspiration:
My references for The Nova were a
variety of covers from both the Daily
Star and the Morning Star.
The layout of the displayed issue of the
Morning Star became a major inspiration
and the large font and pun-filled comedy
of the Daily Star influenced my writing.
The attitude of the Daily Star and their
lack of care for their political compass
was also a large influence in the centrist
stance of my newspaper.
4. Masthead and Logo:
The name ‘The Nova’ is meaningful to enforce the
newspaper’s centrist and political party-spaced
mindset. The reference to space and celestial bodies
denotes physical space from the affairs of earth and
thus implies/ connotes the newspaper’s space from
taking sides on important manners.
I implemented san-serif and bold stylisations, along
with simple linework art to refer to the Nova’s
starry theme whilst still remaining simplistic in
appearance.
The purple colouring is a further hint at The Nova’s
centrist political ideology as the right-wing red top
newspapers (the sun for example) contrast with the
blue coloured newspaper: the Guardian (which is a
left-wing broadsheet).
By combining the two colours here into a mid-point
between the two, one can assume it connotes to the
newspaper being politically in the middle of right-
and left-wing ideals: centrist.
5. Register and Purpose:
I followed the comedy and pun-filled style
synonymous with The Daily Star, being informal
as to appeal to a lower-class audience.
For example, the main news piece on my cover is
about a conservative MP’s son who was spotted
at a Green party rally, thusly instead of the
common term ‘Caught red handed’, I changed it
to green, incorporating both humour and
colloquialisms/ figures of speech.
For my newspaper, I wanted its purpose to both
inform and entertain, pointing out the humour of
the aforementioned story as well as informing the
reader about serious matters resolving happily,
making the reader feel more informed and
content at a happy ending and also sharing
celebrity news and film-based news like the other
snippets of stories at the top of the cover.
6. Layout:
My Layout was heavily inspired by the
typical line of small news stories as
teasers and particularly covers of the
Morning Star and the Daily Star,
however lacking as much copy and
keeping to the traditional Sun/ Star’s
distinct lack of copy.
I kept the image-dominated convention
of tabloids, yet sectioning off areas of the
newspaper to differentiate between
stories, akin to the inspiration covers.
7. Bias and Ideology:
The political ideology of my tabloid, The Nova,
is almost exactly centrist however, I realise that it
is rather hard to retain true neutrality, so I decided
to lean slightly right and Authoritarian.
This right-lean is shown through the main news
story being critical of the Green Party as shown
in the headline: "Caught Green Handed" as an
MP's son betrays his father's Conservative party
membership by campaigning for the Green Party.
This also shows the slight authoritarianism of The
Nova as it indicates there is something wrong
with going against your family's chosen party to
vote for.
The Nova
8. Conventions:
Followed and Broken
Overall, I kept The Nova similar to
typical tabloids, however, I did break the
following conventions to suit my desired
effect:
Purple as the primary colour to convey
centrist ideology
In conclusion, the centrist identity makes
my newspaper stand out and thus
different by the definition of Neale's
genre theory, whilst still identifying with
the genre of Tabloids. Therefore, it is a
good step forward and addition to the
ever-changing genre.
9. Broadsheet: The
Sunday Eclipse
For my Broadsheet newspaper, I wanted to create a
right-wing conservative media outlet promoting
traditional English values dedicated to broadcasting
hard news and particularly influential/ popular soft
news (film award shows and related big news): The
Sunday Eclipse
Here is the final cover piece I created using the
photoshop-like app Procreate on my iPad Air.
Images were taken and edited entirely by me with
credits to Matthew Cornelius for the B. Stephensen
Photo
10. Inspiration:
I wanted to retain the traditional layout
and appearance of Broadsheets, using
this issue of The Sunday Telegraph as a
core reference and sticking very harshly
to it.
The common 5 column style and large
title accompanied by snippets of news on
the lefthand side were essential to convey
my newspaper’s identity as a right-wing
broadsheet.
11. Masthead and Logo:
The Sunday Eclipse is named (similarly to The
Nova) in reference to space however in this case,
it is not a reference to space from political
winged bias. The use of the term eclipse is
meaningful as when combined with the medieval
insignia of a lunar eclipse as it refers to the dark
that follows an eclipse, alluding to the dark ages
of England, which is where traditional values of
British culture originates, used by many
broadsheets like the daily express and daily
telegraph.
The rest of the red leaf is there to solidify the
medieval theming as a right-wing allusion to
conversationalist and traditional values. The use
of serif font also follows the generic conventions
of right-wing broadsheets.
12. Register and Purpose:
Following the generic conventions of
broadsheets, I dedicated my newspaper
cover purely with the purpose to inform
the reader about occurrences in ‘hard
news’ and large ‘soft news’ that would
affect a large amount of people (award
ceremonies for example). Furthermore
following conventions and trends, I
retained a sense of formality and
reserved/ serious information delivery for
The Sunday Eclipse, not using puns or
comedic language
13. Layout:
Using the layout of this issue of The Sunday
Telegraph, I kept a sectioned-off layout, splitting
the copy between main stories similar to the
reference, and including a left-most column of
snippets of stories, each with a photo.
However, I didn’t include the advertisement at
the bottom, as it would allow me to add more
stories/ copy. To compensate for this lack of
advertisement, I filled the negative space in the
top righthand corner with a sponsorship from a
fiction society I called ‘The Penumbra
Foundation’, penumbra being the point in an
eclipse wherein the entire cosmic body is hidden
from view.
The title sizes, emboldening, and use of a
different colour in headlines was kept the same.
14. Bias and Ideology:
The political ideology of my broadsheet, The
Sunday Eclipse, is in line with the views of the
Conservative party, being less authoritarian but
slightly further right in medieval and nearly
regressionist ideals on British law/ government.
I do not convey this bias majorly by aligning with
the generic convention of broadsheets being less
biased/ unbiased. I remain unbiased by using
quotations to fully avoid decreeing my own
opinion and instead quoting the views of others.
This ideology is relatively shared among other
right winged newspapers as they all share a want
to return to simpler and more traditional views
and prevent English society evolving any further
socially, a generic convention trend.
The Sunday Eclipse
15. Conventions:
Followed and Broken
Overall, I was strict to conform to the
generic conventions of right-wing
broadsheets like medieval iconography
and layout methods and I didn't really
break any conventions, however the
design and small stylisations like use of
colour and text-box news stories
refreshes the mould and keep the genre
evolving and avoiding stagnation
according to Neale's genre theory.
