news

 how to analyse a source

Steve Neale

"Genres are instances of repetition and difference" This means that texts in certain genres must follow some rules to be classed as apart of that genre, whilst also being capable of making changes to be classified as different. For example both star wars and 2001 a space odyssey are both members of the si-fi genre as they follow many of the same rules (conforming) and include many of the same tropes, whilst still having enough differences to be classed as different texts (subverting). The reason for the changes in text and story is to keep the genre feeling fresh and enjoyable as if every piece of text followed the same exact rules, the genre would end up becoming stale and lose popularity. Genres can also evolve overtime to stay relevant. An example of this is the superhero genre which saw a growth in popularity with the release of Sony's and Marvel's Spider-Man in 2002 which pitted a costumed hero against an equally wacky villain with a focus on good overcoming evil, much akin to the stories comic book roots. While in modern day superhero movies feature much more comedy, soundtracks and interwoven stories whilst still having that rule of good vs evil.

This also applies to Newspapers as their are certain codes and conventions which are required to make a tabloid a tabloid and a broadsheet a broadsheet. Genres can in fact blend together and form a hybrid genre, for example the stranger things series has elements of  horror, romance, mystery, and thriller all blended into a single episode. In newspapers, adverts may try to blend their genre with that of a newspaper article in order to attract a reader to it. This can also be referred to as sponsored content. Similarly, the times has changed its layout form a very informative broadsheet to more of a mid-market layout and has moved to a smaller tabloid like format or 'Quality tabloids'.

Media language differs from moving image to print, but the concepts of denotation and connotations are the same.

Conventions

newspapers- eg Mast head, Headline, Subhead. This is how a newspaper would be expected to be laid out, the stories you would expect it to feature, the pictures you would expect it to use.

Sub-genre- red-top tabloid, mid-market tabloid, broadsheet quality paper

specific brand conventions- the daily mail will always have a picture of a woman on the right hand side of the front page. Something the times is replicating.

• recognisable Masthead
• use of serif
• headline- short and snappy
• main image covers most of the page
• text image ratio predominate use of image 
• sub-heading
• 
• recognisable masthead
• short informative headline
• image takes up half the page
• second story below
• use of serif
• text takes up a larger amount of the page