Article ideas

For which ever of the following stories that I choose to use on my website, I will use a couple of them in my actual newspaper as well, for example in the small stories consisting of just a column or so, or the article on the second page. The following article ideas that I have thought of are a mixture of stories that I can create and stories that are real, and that I can research into. Through out this post, I am going to think about which type of story would be better in the way that they interest the readers, how realistic they sound and are and whether one will be too difficult to carry out successfully.

My initial local story ideas:

1.Plans to destroy run down homes & rebuild them stronger

2.Plans to build a park for the children of a village with very few facilities

3. Couple travel the world to raise money for (cancer research, building shelters in a 3rd world country)

4. 6th Form prepare to provide more space for their growing number

5. local shop been running for decades shuts down due to lack of customers - recession double dip is definitely taking place

6.6th form raise money by having a 'pyjama day' for Essex air ambulance

7. speaking to students and parents about their struggle in affording to go to university

8.bus services stopping
9. Three Essex Councils merging together on services, it can save them £100million a year.
10. Olympic costs - some of the olympic competitions are taking place in Essex - Raleigh & Brentwood. Cycling& mountain biking
11. A burglary/theft

12. University Fees

13. Car crash

14. House fire
15. Parking prices in a town
16. Something related to a primary school
17. A burglary or theft
Expanded details and ideas for the stories above:

1. For this, I would have to be able to find a run down area in area with houses that look very poorly kept, with out traveling a fair distance, I would not be able to gather photographs for this story, but I could write the article with out photographs being present, which I have seen on many other local newspaper's websites, for example the Halstead Gazette.

2. For this story, I could take a photo of a grassy area in a small village, but this would not be very interesting to look at from the readers point of view, so similarly to my first idea, I could write the article without the use of photographs to show the reader where the park is going to be built, or I could take a photograph of the village sign or some village children who are looking forward to their new park being built. I could even use photographs of the village itself, for example picturesque houses or the village church etc.

3. This would probably be the easiest story to create. I would only really need to take a photograph of the supposed couple who are planning to travel to raise money for a specific charity, for example Cancer Research UK. Despite this story being created from scratch, I could ask friends or relatives for reasons why they might do something like this for charity, therefore getting some realistic reasons and perspectives.

4. This story would also be fairly simple to create. I would be able to take photographs of parts of my school & be able to write about how the 6th form is growing as is the need for more facilities. But on the other hand, photographs might not actually be very interesting from the readers point of view unless it includes a decent amount of visual information about the 6th form and what is going to change. To create a more interesting feel to the photographs, there would probably have to be more than one photograph, and this is rarely seen on newspaper websites as it may be giving out too much unnecessary information that the readers may not actually be interested in.

5. This article may be harder to create than the others that I have thought of, this is because of the fact I would need to find a shop that either looks old(or is old) or that is shutting down, or perhaps even both. And this would be extremely hard to come across. But this would a be good story to have on the website as it links very well with the economic crisis and the recession going into the so called 'double-dip' therefore being an up-to-date story that would be interesting to a larger range of readers than the other ideas for articles that I have come up with.

6. This story would be very easy to complete successfully, as my 6th form are raising money for Essex Air Ambulance next month, therefore I could actually interview one of the people who came up with the idea and photographs would be very easy to take. Through out research into local newspaper's websites, I have found that some of the articles and stories actually contain small interviews with people who are involved in the story,(for example, The Suffolk Free Press.)

My 6th form has now had it's pyjama day, we have raised £128.24, and I have taken photographs of groups of peers to use on the website, and newspaper if I decide to use this story on both newspaper and website, but I will only use one photograph on the website, and possibly more on the newspaper, I will go into more detail later on in the post.

7. This story would also be fairly simple to write as I could interview many or just one family to have their point put across about the doubling or even quadrupling payment for university in the next couple of years, similarly to the story 5 above, I would be able to link it to an up-to-date event in nowadays money crisis. For a photograph, I could take one of a university near by or just the family of who I have interviewed.

8. For this story, I could simply take photographs of a bus from a specific company and use that along with a supposed interview with some one who uses this bus service frequently. To make this story realistic, I could talk to a relative or friend about what they would do if a bus service they use frequently were to stop running.

9. For this story, as it is true, I can easily carry out research into the details and the story will be realistic and of interest of possible readers. I will be able to talk to people (i.e. adults & tax payers) to get a mature and real perspective of the people that this council merge will effect.

10. For this story, I have family friends from within the Raleigh and Brentwood who I could talk to and interview. I would be able to talk about where it would be taking place and I would easily be able to take photographs of this aswell, for both the website and the newspaper if I decide to use it in the newspaper aswell.

11. For this story, I have heard a story about a friend's mum's collegue that they had been steeling money from the till at Boots, and then got fined £80 at court, and was free to go. Soon after, he then got a job in Tescos in the same town.

12. As university fees are affecting a lot of my friends, I would be able to talk to them about how it is affecting them and how they are going to deal with this. I would easily be able to interview them and have a fairly realistic article.

13. Car crashes are a fairly frequent occurance. This means that I would be able to achieve photographs and evidence that would be simple to link to this type of story.

14. House fires are occasionally reported, they're not extremely common, but they are common enough to become an article that people would read constantly in a newspaper.
15. This would be a good idea for a small article that could appear on both a page on my website and either the front page, or the 2nd page of my newspaper. But probably the 2nd page. If I were to need to take a photograph, this would also be easy to get around as I could go to the town that I based my story on and take a photograph of a car park.
16. People who read newspapers, most often have children, or even grandchildren. Therefore creating a story about a primary school would perhaps attract this audience. I would also be able to take a photograph of either the school my mum works in, or my school/sixth form.
17. Burglaries and thefts are not that rare. Therefore I would be able to find other articles about thefts and easily be inspired by them and therefore create my own story about a theft.

Looking at Newspaper Articles

The Halstead Gazette
The articles on the home page of the Halstead Gazette are briefly described so that people will click on the links that read 'more stories like this'
The stories on the Halstead Gazette 'News' home page are all linked to their own individual pages. The only thing that they say about each story is their title. It also displays the date and time of when the article was wrote. There is also an option to 'Have your say', it is a link to the bottom of the page where the reader registers to become a member of the 'Have your say' section (shown in the image A below.) It also gives the oppurtunity for readers to print the article, email it to a friend, share it and see what others have commented about the article, and for the reader to comment on it (shown in image B below). On every article on the website that I have studied, there is also a search bar where the reader can type in something that they want to search for across the whole site (shown in image C below). These small stories are hyperlinked pages from the 'News' home page.



Article 1.
"A taste of South Africa was brought to a children’s nursery which held its first of many international days this week. Children at Puddleducks nursery, Halstead, enjoyed South African food, music and colours today as they said goodbye to one of their friends, who is visiting the country for an extended break."

This story like many of the others is extremely short, but it gives away the whole event and lets the reader know exactly what happens in such a short story. This may attract readers to read the stories on the website rather than the stories in the actual newspaper. The title of the story is 'South African fun comes to nursery' - This title tells the reader what the story is about, in a fairly blunt manner, so the reader now knows if it's something they're interested in.

Article 2.

'A MOTHER-of-two who raised £7,000 after swimming a mile of the River Thames has thanked people for their support.
Claire White, of Chapel Hill, Halstead, completed the swim earlier this year with her friend Sarah Pollard from Braintree.
Having collected all the sponsorship money, half will be given to Farleigh Hospice and half to Cancer Research UK. '

This story, similar to the previous, is short, mounting up to only 57 words. It gives the reader all of the basic information about the event of 'Claire White' raising money for Cancer Research UK. This story, like the previous, only has a small amount of detail because it will not attract a vast amount of attention and readers as other articles that are put onto the home page of the website have a lot more detail to them because readers will be more interested in news that affects a larger area of the county/town therefore affecting more readers. This story is titled 'Halstead woman reaches her fundraising target', this tells the reader where exactly the news story is based and what it is about

Summary of the research from The Halstead Gazette

Overall, the articles on the Halstead Gazette Website are fairly brief, but the main details of each story that I have found are included and the reader knows the basics of each story without having to read the complete article which is sometimes printed onto the actual newspaper. I have decided that I am going to use a similar idea to this with my website and newspaper (using a story from the newspaper in a short and less detailed form on the website). The types of stories that are on the website are all related and would only affect a small area and amount of readers (the brief stories only - links from the 'News' page)


The Suffolk Free Press

The articles on the Suffolk Free Press offers similar options to what the Halstead Gazette does, initially on the home page, a few of the articles are listed (some with photos linked to them). Each article is also briefly described, and each story has its own page. On the page of each article, the stories are explained in a lot more depth that the articles on the Halstead Gazette wesbite. On the home page, the stories are seperated into different areas: 'News', 'Sport', 'Lifestyle' and 'Community' (shown in images A-D below). The orange icon next to each word links to a seperate news feed listing the same stories as the ones listed on the home page and more that are not listed on the home page - but are still seperated into their own sections (News, Sport etc). Each story also has the time and date written in between the title and the actual story.

Article 1.
A SUDBURY dog-walker said she was disgusted by litter louts who threw lager cans and plastic bags into the River Stour.
Michelle Richardson, who lives in Great Waldingfield, found rubbish scattered around the river bank and in the water, while she and her boyfriend were out walking their dog on Saturday afternoon on the town’s meadows.
They came across the remains of a campfire and plastic bags and cans near the Quay Theatre.
She said: “It looked like there had been some kind of party and everyone had just left all the rubbish behind.
“There were cans in the river and what looked like little plastic bags – I think the rubbish bin must have been tipped up and stuff thrown in.
“We saw some swans and they came up to us but they were having to dodge around all the rubbish in the water.
“I was worried they might try to eat some of the plastic and get hurt.”
Michelle reported the mess to Sudbury Town Council, which sent out its community wardens on Monday.
She added: “Apparently Monday is clean-up day – it happens most weekends when the sun it out and there’s a party of some sort on the meadow with drinks and a barbecue.
“I think it’s just pure ignorance and is inconsiderate towards families, children and wildlife.”

This story is a lot longer than any that I have read on the Halstead Gazette website, it has quotes from an interview that has been taken out and it gives the reader a point of view from the person who the story is focused on, in this case a dog walker from Sudbury. This story also gives a greater mass of details for the reader to comprehend and understand. The title of this story is 'Litter louts anger walker', therefore giving the reader the topic of the article (litter problems) and now the reader can tell by the title if it would be of their interest.


Article 2.
IN a small village school – with a total of 65 children – you might expect the odd set of twins to turn up on the register from time to time ... but what are the odds of having five sets of twins at the school all at the same time?
Stoke-by-Nayland Primary School headteacher Jane Le Grice said parents and staff are amused and amazed by the fact that they have 10 children who are twins – six of them are six-year-old twins.
“We think it is quite incredible to have so many twins here when we are only quite a small village school,” she said.
“I have worked here for 19 years, the last two-and-a-half as headteacher, and I have only known the odd set or two come through the school. Not as many as this at the same time.”
The twins range in age from three to six years old. All sets are identical apart from one, although staff still have a difficult time – given that they all wear the same uniform – to tell them apart.
The children are Layla and Zara Bambury, aged three in nursery, Carys and Sasha Preece, aged five in reception class, Frankie and Kara Day, aged six and in Year 1, and Joshua and George Dye and Matthew and James Bayley, all aged six and all in Year 2.
Mrs Le Grice taught one of the twins’ mother. She said: “That’s just par for the course when you are a teacher – you tend to see the next generation.
“I am not sure why we have so many twins here, and what the odds are for having so many when we are such a tiny school, but we are very glad to have them.”

Similar to the previous article on the Suffolk Free Press website, this one is fairly detailed an includes quotes from an interview that was taken out on someone that the story is written about ( A teacher at the school). The title of this story is Twins leave teachers seeing double, this shows that the story is related with education and the reader is now aware whether the story would interestn them or not. There is a photograph relating to the story on the home page next to the link. Shown in the image below. This furthers the knowledge of what the story is about and shows five sets of twins, which is an unusual sight in itself, so the readers are further interested in the story.