1. Explain your role/responsibility within the team and the task. What were you required to do?
For this task, we were the temporary editorial team that was in charge of the front page of the Daily Mirror, the home page of Mirror online and the newspaper's social media pages. Livia and I were in charge of the newspapers social media pages, this meant that we had to work together to reflect the traditional conventions of the Daily Mirror on all social media platforms. We therefore met in our free time to pick the most suitable pictures for each platform and came up with appropriate headings whilst incorporating direct address, alliteration and hyperbole, as the Daily Mirror intertwine these throughout their social media pages. I also analysed each social media platform individually in order to fully understand the Daily Mirrors codes and conventions in order to assist us when we were writing and checking the headlines and photos.
2. For one media form, describe the codes and conventions you chose to follow and explain your intended impact?
For our Instagram page, we selected the 'Buckingham Palace announces that the Royal Wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle at Windsor Castle next year will follow an American theme' story. In order to be successful with mastering the typical codes and conventions of the Daily Mirror, we thought very carefully about the picture which we would choose. Therefore, we browsed the Daily Mirror's instagram and looked for pictures of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, we noticed that most of these pictures were medium close ups and in media res, therefore we chose a medium close up of them waving, just before a TV interview. Furthermore, when writing the headline, we also noticed that the Daily Mirror conventionally wrote lengthy anecdotal headlines, therefore, we mirrored their compound sentences and incorporated a light-hearted and humorous undertone whilst explaining the story.
Moreover, we employed direct address to make the readers feel included and used colloquialism as instagram is aimed at a younger target audience. In addition to this, we included the traditional blue hashtags as the Daily Mirror never fails to use these in any of their posts. As the Daily Mirror receives many likes and comments, we thought that we would reflect another typical convention and add a comment by creating a username called '@kathryn93'. Furthermore, after browsing the Daily Mirrors instagrams, we noticed that sometimes they would add a title with a banner on top of the picture. As a result, we reflected this and put the title 'The American Dream' in a white serif font with a red background to match the Daily Mirror's left wing relations and brand values. This was strung throughout all of the three different media forms.
For our Instagram page, we selected the 'Buckingham Palace announces that the Royal Wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle at Windsor Castle next year will follow an American theme' story. In order to be successful with mastering the typical codes and conventions of the Daily Mirror, we thought very carefully about the picture which we would choose. Therefore, we browsed the Daily Mirror's instagram and looked for pictures of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, we noticed that most of these pictures were medium close ups and in media res, therefore we chose a medium close up of them waving, just before a TV interview. Furthermore, when writing the headline, we also noticed that the Daily Mirror conventionally wrote lengthy anecdotal headlines, therefore, we mirrored their compound sentences and incorporated a light-hearted and humorous undertone whilst explaining the story.
Moreover, we employed direct address to make the readers feel included and used colloquialism as instagram is aimed at a younger target audience. In addition to this, we included the traditional blue hashtags as the Daily Mirror never fails to use these in any of their posts. As the Daily Mirror receives many likes and comments, we thought that we would reflect another typical convention and add a comment by creating a username called '@kathryn93'. Furthermore, after browsing the Daily Mirrors instagrams, we noticed that sometimes they would add a title with a banner on top of the picture. As a result, we reflected this and put the title 'The American Dream' in a white serif font with a red background to match the Daily Mirror's left wing relations and brand values. This was strung throughout all of the three different media forms.
3. Explain how your choices reflect the real newspaper's values and target audience.
Livia and I chose to string the red colour motif throughout all of our media forms. The repetition of the red exemplifies the Daily Mirror's left wing relations. For our instagram, we decided to use a red banner, for our facebook page, we used a red background beside a picture of Jeremy Corbyn, who was additionally wearing red. This also signifies the labour party whilst intertwining elements of Christmas. On our twitter page, we picked a picture with a red background and Trump who was wearing a red tie; as Trump is a conservative, we picked an unflattering picture of him to match the Daily Mirror's anti-Trump associations. Furthermore, Livia and I ensured that we adapted the lexis to reflect the Daily Mirror's style as different platforms, such as Facebook, which used more formal lexis to exacerbate the gravitas of the story, this was because we noticed that online readership is more affluent. In addition to this, on our instagram page, we continued to reflect the Daily Mirror's cheery and light-hearted undertones through our language, especially in our hashtags. We did this because we noticed that many more young people read the Daily Mirror online and more women than men furthermore.
Livia and I chose to string the red colour motif throughout all of our media forms. The repetition of the red exemplifies the Daily Mirror's left wing relations. For our instagram, we decided to use a red banner, for our facebook page, we used a red background beside a picture of Jeremy Corbyn, who was additionally wearing red. This also signifies the labour party whilst intertwining elements of Christmas. On our twitter page, we picked a picture with a red background and Trump who was wearing a red tie; as Trump is a conservative, we picked an unflattering picture of him to match the Daily Mirror's anti-Trump associations. Furthermore, Livia and I ensured that we adapted the lexis to reflect the Daily Mirror's style as different platforms, such as Facebook, which used more formal lexis to exacerbate the gravitas of the story, this was because we noticed that online readership is more affluent. In addition to this, on our instagram page, we continued to reflect the Daily Mirror's cheery and light-hearted undertones through our language, especially in our hashtags. We did this because we noticed that many more young people read the Daily Mirror online and more women than men furthermore.
4. Explain how your team adapted the news across the three different media forms and the reasons behind your decisions.
Firstly, when I was absent, the team comprehended each story and ranked them in importance, they decided that the most important story would be the '534 killed in terrorist attack in Iraq' as this held the most gravitas. Therefore, this story would be incorporated on all different media forms. On the other hand, they ranked the stories with a more comical twist, such as the story where 'Mum finds severed finger in bag of Iceland frozen chips' towards the bottom of the list. Throughout the team however, the biggest convention of the Daily Mirror which we tried to display was the language used as we encompassed a lot of alliteration, hyperbole and direct address throughout all three different media forms.
Firstly, when I was absent, the team comprehended each story and ranked them in importance, they decided that the most important story would be the '534 killed in terrorist attack in Iraq' as this held the most gravitas. Therefore, this story would be incorporated on all different media forms. On the other hand, they ranked the stories with a more comical twist, such as the story where 'Mum finds severed finger in bag of Iceland frozen chips' towards the bottom of the list. Throughout the team however, the biggest convention of the Daily Mirror which we tried to display was the language used as we encompassed a lot of alliteration, hyperbole and direct address throughout all three different media forms.
5. In hindsight, is there anything about your team's outcomes that you would adapt or improve?
In hindsight, I think that maybe we should have checked our work thoroughly before printing it as Livia and I noticed that we had a spelling error in one of the headlines when we were cutting. This could have perhaps saved us a little bit more time. Furthermore, Livia and I could have been a little bit more careful when measuring the boxes of the headlines, because when we cut some of them, they turned out a bit bigger than we expected, therefore we had to cut some of the box off to match the required measurements.
In hindsight, I think that maybe we should have checked our work thoroughly before printing it as Livia and I noticed that we had a spelling error in one of the headlines when we were cutting. This could have perhaps saved us a little bit more time. Furthermore, Livia and I could have been a little bit more careful when measuring the boxes of the headlines, because when we cut some of them, they turned out a bit bigger than we expected, therefore we had to cut some of the box off to match the required measurements.
An comprehensive response to the set questions. Really good on codes and conventions and audience. Political context is correct. EBI would be to make sure you always use an example to illustrate a point (eg q2 headlines) and to explain the beneficial relationship between the platforms.
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