Factual Writing (Task 1)

Writing copy

Task 1 – Factual writingPatrick Gouldsbrough

Clarity – This particular leaflet uses a clear and clean layout, which is evident from the absence of text on the front cover of this leaflet, while the piece giving you all the relevant information doesn’t bombard you with text. Instead, it’s separated into clear sections which allows the consumer to search for the part they want and allows them to bypass all the parts that aren’t relevant to them or their situation. This level of clarity is warranted, due to the age group this leaflet is trying to target. A 40-74 demographic, the age range that these health checks target, require a bigger and clearer font and layout because their eyesight may only let them read larger fonts.

Conciseness – The NHS have kept this leaflet concise and put in the key elements, while leaving out the unnecessary and irrelevant content. Too much text can make the target audience disinterested and when discussing such a key topic, you can’t afford to make this leaflet boring and restrained, you have to get your information out, even if it means having a small paragraph of very important information.

Accuracy – Even though this leaflet is NHS and they are a widely accurate and trusted company, they will still have check and re-check their facts, especially if this is an old leaflets. Developments through medical research may have led to a change in old information, therefore this information should be passed out to the consumer through new or amended leaflets. NHS have avoided missing out on accuracy by staying generalised but still on a level that gives the consumer all the information they will need about the topic. They don’t feature my facts or figures but this leaflet isn’t about worrying the target audience with figures, it’s about answering question and queries that the consumer has.

Avoidance of ambiguity – Like I stated in the accuracy section, the NHS generally stay away from stats and concentrate on facts about procedures and answering potential consumer queries. In terms of facts, a corporation like the NHS are in control and have hold of consumer/patient trust so are in control of these checks so not many people, if anyone, can say that the information is incorrect and ambiguous.

Bias – The nature and topic of this leaflet means that it cannot and is not biased in any way. Due to the NHS giving out the free health check, it’s the choice of the consumer whether to take it or not. The corporation may try and push people towards them by using a ‘scaremonger’ tactic in the form of this serious natured leaflet, but it doesn’t, at any point, become biased.

Register – Again, due to the age demographics that are trying to be targeted by the NHS, the corporation have made the leaflet accordingly. No informal or medical lexis is used on the leaflet because it may confuse the demographic. Instead, a formal lexis is used throughout this particular layout.

Evidencing of argument – Before the content is even visible to the consumer and the front cover is the only thing that can be seen, the issue has already been addressed and the topic is already introduced. The front cover gives you an overview of the purpose and topic, before the content inside furthers explains and goes into depth about the particular issue. As for opinions, there aren’t really any opinions attached to this type of leaflet, due to the free health check surely been a good thing for the consumer, so from a consumer point of view, there shouldn’t be opinions included in this leaflet. From a NHS point of view, they are also trying to remain biased so personal opinions should and are not included in this particular print product.

Referencing sources – This particular leaflet doesn’t really include sources as such, instead, the NHS use personal viewpoints which other medical organisation tend to use as their references.

Legal restraints – Checking the information on the leaflets is key, especially when advertising something as important as a medical procedure. Even if the health check is free, if a consumer has one and it wasn’t necessary, some legal action could be taken. However, the NHS cover themselves legally by adding “it is impossible to say that someone will or won’t go on to develop one of these conditions”. If this wasn’t added, assumptions could be made and legal challenges that state that consumers have not been properly informed could be raised.

Codes of practice – This leaflet won’t be subject to the NUJ or editors code of practice, however, may fall into the ASA and trading standards codes. While a product isn’t been directly traded or sold, a service by the NHS is been provided and therefore the ASA and TSC may look into the leaflets and other informational products the NHS make. As well as these two agencies, a medical trading agency or similar may look into these adverts too.

Typography (font effects) – The font on the front cover is bold both for the title and the labels on the illustrations. This helps the consumer easily identify the topic of the leaflet and helps tell the audience all the relevant information before they’ve flicked to the main content inside. When you get inside however, there is only one piece of bold font face; a little less than you would have thought for such a key leaflet. The ‘questions you may have’ title is understandable in bold because it’s one of, if not the mist important pieces of information on the leaflet. On the other hand, you expect the questions to be in bold too, but they're in colour; a feature I will talk about in the typography (colour) section.

Typography (colour) – Colour is used on leaflets to draw attention to key information and make it stand out as one of the key features in the print product. On this particular leaflet, there are plenty of examples of typography regarding colour. The first time you notice it is the white text on the pink, yellow, red and blue backgrounds of the front cover. This feature helps to communicate with the consumer what the health check is all about and which specific areas of the body could be under threat. This is key part to colour because it not only makes the serious topic stand out to the consumer, it also makes the consumer realise the severity of this problem and get them to think about it. Inside, more text is highlighted in another colour to make it stand out. The question titles are highlighted in green to make them stand out from the answers to the questions below. This allows the consumer to skip to the part of the leaflet they need without reading all the irrelevant information before.

Typography (font style) – The font face for both the main copy and the title are simple and easily readable fonts, they aren’t stylised because the function of this leaflet is to inform the consumer about a potentially scary and serious subject, you need a serious yet comforting font, which I believe the NHS have found for this particular print product. The font style of the normal copy is standard and of a clean nature, which isn’t soothing or comforting which you may think will be the font face for a serious topic. However, it’s not an angry or distasteful font either, which suggests the NHS have gone for readability of their font, rather than style. A feature that reduces the credibility of this leaflet is the small print down at the bottom. Due to this leaflet been for an older age group, you would have thought all the text on the page would be big and readable, however, the section on the left hand side is hardly visible. This maybe because this text is irrelevant but if so, why is it on the leaflet and if it’s key information and the consumer misses it, this could have serious repercussions for both the audience and the corporation.

Clarity – Been in black and white, not many features of the instruction manual are clear. The images stand out more than the text, which should be a key feature of an instruction manual. However, you still need certain parts of the text to stand out or it won’t catch the consumers attention. Also, as I mentioned in the conciseness section, the amount of text means that it isn’t clear and all the text seems to blur into one. The only bits that stand out are the headings of the sections, which are important but are wasted features if no other parts stand out along with it.

Conciseness – A feature that is evident on this and most other instruction manuals is the fact that they aren’t very concise in nature. Apart from the brief break from text with the images, it’s just mainly a huge block of text. However, even if the instruction manual isn’t very concise, all the information is key and can’t be taken out. Large pieces of text such as the warning is there to make sure the consumer stays safe, while also making sure the company aren’t subject to a law suit through absence of safety or warning notices. So this product is no different to their instruction manuals, they all contain huge paragraphs of text but it’s required to fulfill it’s purpose, informing the customer/consumer of how it works and the health and safety that must be taken into consideration.

Accuracy – Like the example of the leaflet, the accuracy of the instruction manual has to be very accurate with no mistakes. The consequence of not doing this will lead to the consumer not been able to make or construct the product, therefore giving the product a bad name, which, in turn, will lead to monumental financial difficult for the company. This particular instruction manual is just telling the consumer about all the features of the product, due to the product coming already assembled. This is better because there is less to go wrong, but the company still have to be completely accurate with the directions and the arts of the product.

Avoidance of ambiguity – The purpose of an instruction manual is to tell the consumer how to use a certain product, instead of telling the consumer about sales figures and statistics about the product. However, all instruction manuals are ambiguous or fit the description, according to the dictionary definition. The companies who make the product and manuals only have one way of putting the product together, therefore, surely you can only interpret it one way, which, in turn, makes all instruction manuals, that are accurate anyway, ambiguous.

Bias – Instruction manuals can’t be bias. Companies may claim that they’re product is the best but within reason, this is allowed by the ASA and classed as a ‘sales tactic’. Bias doesn’t really have a place in the annotation of instruction manuals.

Register – On all instruction manuals, the companies who make the products will tend to use a simple and broken down lexis. This is not because younger demographics will be reading them (if the product is for a child, it’s probably assumed that the parents will construct/assemble it) it’s because instructions should be clear and easy to follow. Putting in formal lexis could confuse the consumer, so a simple lexis is key to the success of the manual and the overall product. Even though formal lexis is avoided, specialist lexis is still used in instruction manuals. It must be used because the companies are just saying what it is and trying to get the consumer to have an understanding of their product.

Evidencing of argument – This is not relevant to this factual writing form, due to there been no opinions involved on this instruction manual. Evidencing an argument means having two sides to the story, but with instructions, there is only one because the company are telling the consumer how to put up/use their product.

Referencing sources – Like the NHS leaflet, this particular instruction manual is telling the consumer their own information that they have created. Therefore, they do not have to reference any external sources for this information. This is the case for most other instruction manuals also.

Legal restraints – Like any factual piece of writing, as long as all the information is checked an amended if incorrect, there will be no legal constraints. Also, the consequences to getting some information wrong on the instruction manual won’t be as detrimental compared with the NHS leaflet. If something isn’t accurate in the leaflet, patients health and safety maybe compromised and a lawsuit will definitely be filed against the corporation. Where as if an incorrect fact is included on the instruction manual, there will be no harm to the consumer. *an exception maybe taken if the instruction manual was for a razor, instead of a camera attachment. In this instance, if the consumer is harmed, a lawsuit maybe taken for incorrect information included on the print product.

Codes of practice – Due to this piece not been a piece of journalism, it won’t be subject to the NUJ codes. The ASA code of practice won’t be relevant to this piece either because of the nature of the factual print piece; the instruction manual is aiming to inform, not persuade or advertise. The only code of practice this manual will be subject to then is the trading standard codes. The codes state that you must be truthful and honest about your product, as well as making sure the consumer isn’t been mis-sold any products. However, after reading this particular manual for the camera attachment, I can see that the print piece isn’t breaching any of the codes of the TSC.

Typography (font effects) – With the font been small to start with, you need to try and make the key information stand out some way. A boldness on the font helps to identify to consumers the key parts of a product. Especially the warning and safety sections, which ties into legal restraints. If these pieces of information aren’t big enough, the company could run into legal trouble if someone is injured by the product. This is why boldness is used on the titles in this and other instruction manuals.

Typography (colour) – There isn’t any colour used on this instruction manual, so it isn’t applicable. Due to the informative nature of the manual, the aesthetic qualities don’t matter so much, it’s more about the content.

Typography (font style) – This instruction manual is no exception to the conventional instruction manual font face. Used as a clear font choice, the Arial font on this particular print product can be seen by all demographics and is still readable when shrunk down to the size it appears on this example. This font style is usually used because it is a clear font that can be used in large quantities for lots of copy and still be legible to all demographics, even the older demographics that may have a struggle reading small print.

Clarity – Due to the concise nature of the layout and the amount of images on the layout, this factual writing piece is one of the clearest and cleanest of the layouts I’ve analysed so far. The absence of a large quantity of copy means that images that help explain the process (like the one on the right, which explains how to make a tear-gas mask) can be included. However, this doesn’t mean that an inundation of images are added, the producer of this text has still kept it exclusively to relevant information and not put irrelevant and needless info/images in.

Conciseness – The ratio of text to images is pretty similar, meaning that most how to guides are very concise and stick to the point. There are more images on this particular kind of factual writing piece because it’s key to show the consumer what to do, rather than tell them. More or less, the images gives the consumer a visual aid to accompany the copy on the page.

Accuracy – Due to the vast array and various topics that how to guides can come in, they don’t necessarily have to be too accurate. However, if they give serious advice, the information has to be checked. Even though this particualr example for building a tear-gas mask may not be the most serious how to guide, it still needs to have both correct information and safety instructions, just in case someone actually makes and tests the design of the product. Therefore, it all depends on the nature of the how to guide; if it’s light-hearted and is meant for humorous purposes, the accuracy of the information doesn’t have to be entirely true, however, if it’s of a serious nature and people are genuinely following the steps, you need to research and checking extensively before producing the how to guide. *safety information should be added always, and will be also mentioned in the legal restraints section. As well as the differentiation between humorous and serious how to guides, there is also the question of how the consumer follows the instructions. With all the steps and the copy, consumers either don’t follow the steps or they don’t understand the steps properly, this is either down to wording by the producer or the interpretation of the consumer, therefore this could be another disadvantage of accuracy for how to guides. On the other hand, there are accompanying images on most how to guides to help the consumer, so the consumer can get an idea of how the product should look after been assembled.

Avoidance of ambiguity – Like the instruction manual, how to guides usually only print one way of assembling a product or doing a certain task. This, if you’re following the dictionary definition, can be seen as ambiguous, due to only one interpretation of the steps been available. However, this is only the case for this particular how to guide, with others sometimes printing an alternative version of the steps. On the other hand, this only happens a few times, with most producers of how to guides going for a single set of numerical steps.

Bias – Instruction manuals can’t be bias. Companies may claim that they’re product is the best but within reason, this is allowed by the ASA and classed as a ‘sales tactic’. Bias doesn’t really have a place in the annotation of instruction manuals. Register – Like the instruction manual, due to the informing nature of the factual writing, the register has to be one the consumer can understand. This therefore means that any formal or specialist lexis must be at a minimum because, as a whole, how to guides are meant to appeal to a wide range of demographics. However, this particular example I have found is aimed at a male target audience. Without making assumptions, a simpler lexis is used on this particular how to guide, which would fit in with the male demographical piece. Evidencing of argument – Similar to instruction manuals, the how to guides don’t have conflicted opinions and views in, there is only one way of following them, therefore, evidencing of argument is irrelevant for analysis on this factual writing piece.

Referencing sources – Generally, how to guides are similar to instruction manuals and leaflets in terms of referencing sources; they don’t need to. However, they are more likely than the other two do so. For example, if a few steps, the images or the whole of the text has been found elsewhere, the producer must credit the original owner of these items, which will be covered in the legal restraints section.

Legal restraints – So far, every single factual writing piece has been subject to legal restraints and that’s because all factual pieces are 1) informing the audience and if it goes wrong or misinforms the consumer, the harm caused could be have a big effect on the person. 2) all factual pieces are monitored by a standards board that have their own codes, therefore the producers of these products have to make sure they stick to them.

Codes of practice – The NUJ, TSC and ASA are not in control of these items because they are not pieces of journalism, a product that’s on the market or something been advertised to the public. The exception to this rule is if a how to guide is published and is sold to the consumers. In this instance, the product will be subject to both TSC and dependant on where and if it was advertised, the ASA. If this is the case of course, the producer of the how to guide would need to make sure they checked their information, even if they are meant to be humorous entries that they don’t expect people to make, they must check their instructions and put safety warnings and health codes on the product. As for the ones that are posted on blogs and online, they aren’t subject to any form of codes or rules, unless they are breaching copyright laws. Apart from this, the owner of the how to guide web pages can amend and make them in a way in which suits them.

Typography (font style) – Due to some entries of how to guides appearing on the net, they’re not in the same font face as each other, as well as been different from the traditional font of most leaflet and instruction manuals. This is because the producer isn’t subject to the the same codes from the print board as they would be if they published. On the other hand, a how to guide that was published on the print market would be subject to have the font at a particular size so all demographics can read it. However, for this particular example, it was sourced from a web page and therefore it hasn’t been subject to the print board codes and the font can be whatever size it wants. This, initially, seems like a good thing because you can make it clearer, but you soon find that the Arial font that most things are printed in is the clearest and any amendment on the text would be making the font face more difficult to read for the consumer.

Typography (font effects) – On this how to guide example, there is no portion of text that is more important than the others, therefore, there is no bold font effects on the main copy. However, if the how to guide had a health ad safety warning, the title, if not all of it, would be put in bold because it would be the most important aspect on the product. To differentiate between the numbered steps and the main copy, the steps are put in bold. This will make it easier for the consumer to follow the how to guide and, in turn, will make the product more successful.

Typography (colour) – Like the instruction manuals, there isn’t much colour to this particular example. Even though there is a contrast between the text, the background and the images, there isn’t that much variation of colours and is still in black and white format on the images. This is however not the case for all the how to guides; some products have coloured images and text and look more effective because it stands out more than the example that I have on the left hand side.

Clarity – This particular newspaper story is clear and keeps the text to a minimum, even on the story inside, it’s restricted to key details only. This is to entice the suns viewership (they tend to like a short story with lots of images and not much copy) and to make way for the headline and picture, which, after all, usually sells the newspaper. This is not the case for all news papers, papers like The Times, the guardian and the Telegraph have mostly copy and a few images, but chatty, informal newspaper, like The sun, The Mirror and Metro keep it clear and concise.

Conciseness – The nature of this particular newspaper, the sun, is to keep concise in their stories and only keep it to brief details about the overall story. This sometimes leads to bits of the story been missed out, die to the media group trying to twist the story either in their favour or to try and make it more interesting and gripping for the consumer. This particular story, especially on the front page (left) keeps the story to a short, concise section of the narrative (always the key details and most important parts). This is also accompanied by a concise headline that gives the whole story away. Usually this would be a bad tactic for the newspaper because they want the consumer to read the rest of the story within the newspaper. However, this is such a shocking and gripping revelation that the consumer will probably read the story regardless.

Accuracy – Without making generalisations about different media distributors, The Sun have been in breach of the NUJ codes more than other newspapers. Whether it’s because they don’t follow up on research or they invent statistics for stories or, as has been proved in the past, they twist peoples words to make the story more interesting and readable. The accuracy of this particular story isn’t good, and as I will explain in the legal restraints and code of practice sections, this particular story published by the sun is far from accurate.

Avoidance of ambiguity – The story uses facts, but not stats that could be interpreted as ambiguous. However, the media distributor goes through all the facts but doesn’t come to a conclusion, instead, leaving the consumer to make their minds up on the matter. The dictionary definition of ambiguity is “the quality of being open to more than one interpretation”, therefore, if we are following this definition word for word, you would have to say The sun were been unambiguous, inaccurate and potentially in breach of journalism codes of practice.

Bias – In recent times, the sun newspaper have tended to back the labour party in politics and have printed them in a good light and other parties and representatives in bad press. This has often led to the NUJ interjecting and decided whether the tabloid paper was in breach of libel, gagging order or breach of embargo. On this particular story, chief whip and conservative politician, Andrew Mitchell had allegedly called a number of police officers plebs for not opening the gates at Downing Street, instead making him use the side gate. This led to an investigation and the resignation of Mr. Mitchell. The Sun, a paper who supports the labour part were keen to print a story that would vilify the conservatives and try and make their viewership convert or continue to support the labour party.

Register – Geodemographic and social class status research support the understanding that a C2DE demographic are more likely to read The Sun and to buy The sun. this therefore means that the register on the stories will be informal and maybe uses less specialist lexis from the topic that the paper are covering. On the other hand, this particular story didn’t spare any details, going into detail about the job function and hierarchy of government, something the sun doesn’t tend to do. In conclusion, a generalisation can’t be taken about the social class of people is directly linked to informal wording for the media products that they consumer.

Evidencing of argument – Unlike most other news stories, this one gives the consumer all the information about the story. Normally, the media producer keeps some of the key information back so the audience will read the rest of the story. Newspapers usually do this in an enigmatic style, almost shrouding the whole story in mystery, so it will ensure that consumers will read the rest of this particular story and other stories in the product.

Referencing sources – If the newspaper uses an image or quote from someone, they must credit that particular source. Failing to do this is breaching the journalism code and is leaving the media producer open to a lawsuit from the person who owned the original image or that said the particular quote in an interview. Newspapers sometimes get round this by not putting the persons name and putting ‘expert ‘ instead. This gives the consumer the idea that this person will know what they are talking about and trust the story more. Referencing a source is one of the most important things to do in regards to the law side of a newspaper, or any media product for that mater.

Codes of practice – This, along with every other Sun story will be subject to the NUJ code. Without looking too far down the NUJ codes, it’s clear to see that The Sun, on this occasion has breached quite a few of them. These include:2. Strives to ensure that information disseminated is honestly conveyed, accurate and fair.3. Does her/his utmost to correct harmful inaccuracies.4. Differentiates between fact and opinion.*all these codes were found at http://www.nuj.org.uk/about/nuj-code/ and are directly copied, due to them been direct rules to follow and not a bit of guidance.

Legal restraints – As I explained earlier, the story is inaccurate and they have included things that may or may not have happened to try and boost the viewership of this story, as well as trying to gain an advantage for the political part, labour, whom they support. This particular story was found to be libelous, due to them directly accusing Andrew Mitchell of calling the policemen “plebs” before a proper inquiry had been carried out. After a court case, the NUJ and the court found The Sun had breached the libel guidelines are were punished for this. Most newspapers don’t report in this one, but chatty more informal newspapers are more likely to breach libel, due to them been more voyeuristic on celebrities lives, compared to the broadsheet newspaper.

Typography (font style) – The font on the main copy is the same font that is usually found in newspapers, due to their been a code in the NUJ codes and within the journalism body as a whole, that states that a media producer can’t go below a certain font to report their stories. However, the newspaper name and headline are larger and almost stylised in it’s approach. This approach by The Sun is understandable; they are trying to make the newspaper as bold and as striking as possible so more people will notice and hopefully buy the media product.

Typography (font effects) – In a conventional newspaper style, the only parts that are bold are the first paragraph of the story, which should tell the consumer the crucial detail in the story and hopefully get the reader to consume the remainder of the narrative. Apart from this, no other parts, other than the journalist that has produced the story are in bold. As for italicised parts of text, they are usually reserved for names of people or things in newspaper stories.

Typography (colour) – Throughout the front cover of The Sun, there are different colours on the font faces which add to doing one thing for the print product, potentially generating interest from the consumer through the striking nature of the front cover. The colour and font style of the newspapers name is always the same, therefore a continuation of this will prompt a sense of familiarisation from the consumer, hopefully securing consistent buys from the same viewership for the media producer.

Clarity – Even though the conciseness is compromised on this particular piece, it’s still clear and easily readable to the consumer. As long as the newspaper story is easy to follow and it’s in a traditional and consistent layout, that’s all that counts for the media producer.

Conciseness – Unlike The Sun, The Times doesn’t keep the story to a bare minimum and only report the key facts and details. Instead, The Times reports all the key facts as well as other background and secondary information, they also use other sources, such as use of experts and people with first hand experience. For example, on the front cover on the right, The Times have secured an interview with the boss of National trust, a feature that The sun may have trouble securing. The lack of conciseness isn’t the sign of a weak journalistic piece, it instead shows that all the information included is relevant and it can’t be cut out or it would have been by the editor. The lack of conciseness may also be due to the viewership of The Times been an ABC1 demographic, instead of the predominantly C2DE demographic consuming The Sun.

Accuracy – What The Times have done on this particular story about fracking is clever. Instead of putting in facts and then the consumer would have to put their trust in the actual newspaper, The times have asked the national trust boss about the statistics and facts and then published those quotes in the story. This therefore means that the consumers are more likely to listen to the expert, compared to the journalist, who isn’t trained in the fracking field. This also shows a differentiation between The Sun and The Times in terms of accuracy. Where as The Sun may guess on facts and statistics, the times have both the national and international credibility to get the interviews with key people, therefore ensuring 100/5 accuracy on stories are achieved. However, a generalisation must not be made, The Times do sometimes make a mistake and a libelous story is generated, but not that often. Avoidance of ambiguity – A media distributor like The Times usually tend to avoid ambiguity, instead checking their facts thoroughly or using statistics on their pieces through a quote from an expert. This is a clever tactic of bypassing and avoiding ambiguity. As for opinions, you can see from the headline that The Times have avoided ambiguity by reporting factual information, such as: “We’re open to fracking, says National Trust boss”. If they were trying to be ambiguous, they would say something like: “National Trust boss could be open to fracking” this leaves the doubt and the uncertainty of how he feels on the matter. All of their stories tend to avoid ambiguity also, as do most other media distribution groups.

Bias – Telling both sides to every story and making sure they aren’t bias toward a certain group or person because as a media provider, they’re function is to report the news not their personal ideologies and opinions. This isn’t easy for newspapers to do, due to all the media producers backing a political party. The Times backed labour in 2005 but switched to back the conservative part in the last election, therefore consumers sometimes see them as a newspaper who actually looks at the policies and pledges their allegiance accordingly, instead of always backing the same part. This leads to The times been regarded as one of the top three newspapers in the UK. However, even on political stories, The Times remain biased most of the time (I can’t say all of the time because all newspapers sometimes breach codes about bias behavior, The times been no exception).

Register – In comparison with my other factual journalism analysis piece, the register of The Times extract is formal with the addition of some specialist lexis also. The reason for this shift in register across the tow extracts lays with the social class of the reader. For ample, The Sun have a majority of viewership in the C2DE demographic, where as The Times hold a majority of viewership in the ABC1 target audience group. While there is a lot of text, most of which is written in a formal register, there aren’t as many specialist lexis within most stories, due to the paper still trying to inform the consumer, like ever paper, in terms that they’ll understand. On the other hand, generalisations can’t be made and research doesn’t extensively research the mass majority of the UK and make generalisations from 10,000 consumers, not the UK as a whole. This therefore means you can make assumptions but not state facts about the social class of newspaper readers.

Evidencing of argument – The Times, the producer of this example, is one of the only newspapers that comes in a tabloid form and doesn’t have just a paragraph, an image and a headline on the front page. Instead, this media distributor normally has the story in some detail on the front, a moderately sized headlines and a reasonable image. This could be to do with social class again but it isn’t really relevant to the evidencing of argument section. Even though The Times has this unconventional technique from a tabloid newspaper, they still use the traditional technique of keeping some information back so the consumer will read the story ad other stories later in the paper. This is because The Times, like all media distributors, have to sell their media products so me how and this is a good way of doing so. As well as this, The Times also make sure they tell both sides to the argument and cover either sides opinions. For example, even though the story is a good thing for fracking, The Times still put opinions and quotes from environmental and anti-fracking campaigners, therefore keeping the argument balanced and unbiased.

Referencing sources – Like The sun extract and every other newspaper, if they have sourced an image, quote or piece of information of someone else, the media distributor needs to make sure they credit the original producer of that particular piece. If not, the person in breach of using a sourced item without reference may find themselves with a lawsuit, which I will talk about in the legal restraints section. However, like I previously mentioned, it’s The sun and such that have to source things because they don’t have the means, resources or credibility to get the interviews and the content of The Times. Therefore, The Times don’t have to source because they’re the original producers. *this isn’t for everything; at some point, every newspaper has to source something.

Codes of practice – With something as big as the print industry, all media distributors are subject to at least one, if not all. The TSC, ASA, NUJ and print board codes will have to followed by newspapers especially. The National union of journalists makes sure the media producer isn’t been biased, controversial or racially insensitive, amongst other things. The Trading Standards Agency makes sure the way in which the newspaper is been distributed and sold is ethical, environmental and doesn’t harm anything, as well as many more codes. Finally, the Advertising Standards Agency may not link directly to newspapers but they will check the newspapers for adverts within the media product to see if all the adverts are in-keeping with their codes on legal and ethical advertising. Legal restraints – Libel, breach of embargo and gagging orders are just a few things that newspapers and other media distributors can be prosecuted for on the grounds of legal and ethical breaches. The Times and all the other papers are restrained from reporting and collecting news unethically and must make sure its done legally also. While The Times are very good for staying away from been libelous and such, they sometimes get it wrong; last month, it was reported that Gerry McCann, father of Madeleine, had won a £55,000 pay out from the Sunday times, after the newspaper reported that he and wife Kate had hindered the search for their daughter in Portugal earlier in the year. This example shows that no newspaper is safe or exempt from the rules and codes of legal journalism. However, The Times have got credibility in the world of media because they report legally and ethically most of the time.

Typography (font style) – The font face may differ a bit from newspaper to newspaper, but only slight variations are made. This is due to the print board and the NUJ codes restraining them picking fonts that could be difficult to read for certain viewers. This font face is easy to read and keeps the layout clean and consistent through the media product. The only parts that are difficult to read are quotes that are occasionally used in stories that are coloured in a pale grey colour. This colour doesn’t contrasts as well as black and is sometimes difficult to view.

Typography (font effects) – As well as the layout of this tabloid paper been different, it has a textual difference to other tabloid papers too. Conventionally, the first paragraph of a story is in bold and stands out from the rest of the content, however, the times have decided to not follow the usual conventions and haven’t put an effect on it. Instead, the media producer decides to put bold effects on the features that are advertised on the front page, like this extract, and add the bold text to the key parts, while keeping the rest of it standard. This helps to entice the audience to read the rest of the media product, which suggests The times are trying to appeal to their target demographic with unconventional techniques that aren’t used by other media distributors.

Typography (colour) – In terms of colour, The Times don’t really vary the colouration and layout of their newspaper from day to day. They have a few different coloured fonts on the front page, but unlike The Sun, the name of the paper is black and white and doesn't draw much attention to it. This could be seen as a foolish move but this could suggest that The times choose to entice their audience through their journalism, instead of design. As well as this, the continuation shows that The times want to keep their viewership and have managed to find a target audience that they are happy with because every issue doesn’t differ too much. Even though it may look restrained, the colour of the text contrasts with the white background, as well as the purple and white text on this particular example contrasting with the pink and blue background boxes.