Newspaper news story research: blog task

 Newspaper news story research: blog task

Then, each week you need to visit the MailOnline website and the 'i' newspaper website and choose one story from each to summarise and share. 

Most importantly, you need to do the following on your blogpost for each story...

1. Copy the headline, date and link.
2. Briefly summarise the story in a sentence or two: is this is an example of hard news or soft news? Does it reflect the politics or ideological stance of that newspaper/website?
3. Explain in a sentence how or why this story appeals to the audience of that newspaper (use media terminology and theory if you can). Is it quality journalism or an example of clickbait?

Week 1;

MailOnline; Generation Cocaine 

Date; 10th February 2021

Link; Generation cocaine: One in ten teenagers has tried hard drugs as use by under-17s hits a peak | Daily Mail Online

This article would be seen as soft news because it contains the story that many young people especially men are more likely to try hard drugs, Studies state "12 per cent of boys and 8 per cent of girls said they had tried cocaine, ecstasy or ketamine."

This story would appeal to the audience because it dives deep into the epidemic of drug use with young people, I would say that this is quality journalism because the article stays impartial with facts however they don't dive into demographics and social background of those teenagers using and selling drugs. 

The I newspaper; CoronaVirus latest; Bristol variant

Date; 9th Febuary 2021

Link; Coronavirus latest: New Bristol variant is 'of concern' and could be more resistant, experts say (inews.co.uk)

This article would be seen as hard news as it is giving valuable insight into the new varitant of the Covid-19 virus. The study shows that "Professor Nick Loman, a leading member of COG-UK, the group of scientists monitoring the genome of the virus, said it was “plausible” that the new Bristol variant would have an impact on vaccines."

This story would appeal to the audience of that newspaper because it provides both surveillance as audience pleasure through informing the consumer about how this news may affect their daily loves. This is seen as quality journalism as again it provides information that is informing the audience as well as keeping it short.