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.
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.
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