Sixteen

I feel like I have exhausted all of the newspaper deconstructing. I have done a brainstorm of things I have found that I want to use from my research, and how I will put a twist on certain aspects:

• Language
• Particular words
• Outrage
• Shocker
• Scandal
• Subject areas
• Politics
• Celebrities
• Drugs
• General Crime
• Gangs
• Gun/Knife Crime
• Murder
• Paedophillia
• Abuse
• Sex
• Science
• New Studies
• Global Warming
• Religion
• Terrorism
• Playing with words for headlines
• Minimal
• Draws people in
• Fake Dates
• Word Play
• Alliteration
• Terrible puns
• Inappropriate use
• Hidden words
• Subliminal Messages
• Spelling words using first letter of each row
• Fake Journalist Names
• Helen Highwater
• Hugh Ray
• Al E. Gater
• Arty Fischel
• Barry D. Hatchett
• Chester Minit
• Lee Vitoff
• Warren Peace
• Robyn Banks
• Poppy Cox
• Horace Cope
• Frank N. Stein
• Lori Driver
• Lynne C. Doyle
• Justin Thyme
• Graphs and Charts
• Linking to real news stories
• Follow up stories
• Hysteria
• Misfortune on the vulnerable
• Children
• Elderly
• Disabled
• Evidence
• Photographs
• Outrageous photoshopping

Fifteen

Today I had my group crit with Frank and Noel. It was nice to see other people's ideas and get feedback on my own, and my problem from yesterday has been solved. It was suggested that I do a series of front pages, instead of doing a whole newspaper, which as I said before, would cripple me. I feel a lot happier doing this.

Fourteen

I have been doing research on printing. I have checked out several places that print whole newspapers, but they are all so expensive, and often require you to print a minimum amount of copies. The minimum being 500. It is cheaper when it comes to black and white printing, but I don't think that's an option. The whole point of my newspaper is for it to look real. If it was black and white it just wouldn't look the part. So now it looks like I wont even be able to print a whole newspaper unless I do it myself.

So making a whole newspaper seems like a bit of an awkward task. Plus I have been worrying that it is a bit too ambitious for the time scale, once I've done all my newspaper related research and feel ready to start making, I'll be trying to write a whole newspaper in less than a month. A perfect looking newspaper. By myself. Too scary.

So I'm a bit stuck now. But I have a crit tomorrow. I aim to be back on track by tomorrow evening with a compromise on my idea.

Thirteen

Newspaper Deconstructing

UK Titles:
Metro
London Evening Standard
Daily Mail
Sun
News of the World
Telegraph
Mirror
Express
Guardian
Times
Daily Star
Independent
Observer
Financial Times

Components:
Front page stories
Big stories
Trivial Stories
Follow up stories
Adverts
Sport
Puzzles
Cartoon Strip
Send us your letters
TV listings
Celebrity gossip
Horoscopes
Agony aunt
Page 3

Twelve

Today was the first day back at college, we did some group work in which we wrote a summary of our proposal, and then we all got to go round the room and read each others, and stick post-it note comments on them. This was mine:

The first comment was from Frank. Thank you Frank, however way ahead of you, I've been watching Brass Eye all Easter.

The second comment - There are elements in the media that I find funny, like the comment says, too sensational/trivial/negative, and I definitely want reflect this in my work.

This has made me raise some questions about my idea:
Will the stories be serious and politically motivated? Will making this newspaper be about me making a stand about the things in the news I disagree with? Is this the way I really want to go? Is it really me? With me being the way I am I feel more inclined with this project to be taking the piss out of the media, rather than taking a serious slant, that's all a bit angry and protesty. But then maybe if I did take this approach, it might be more effective? I need to think about this.

I have also thought about some other issues:

• Is the newspaper itself going to be fake? As in the title. Will it be an existing newspaper? A made up one? Or a slight variation on a real one (e.g. The Morning Standard/The Motro)
• Depending on the outcome of the previous point, what kind of newspaper will I make? If I use an existing one, which one? I like the idea of a red top. I can be a bit more ridiculous with the stories and they way they are written.
• Printing. How many issues can I print? If any? This worries me. If I can only print a small amount copies, then this limits me on my experimenting. I wont be able to leave it on the train for someone to pick up, because if they get off the train with my only spare copy, I'd have to run after them. It would not be practical. If I can't print a whole newspaper at all, then I will have to figure out how I can overcome this. But I will research printing first before worrying about that.
• I want to record people's reactions. The way I'd like to do this is to secretly film them whilst they discover my paper. But will there be issues with this? Would it be worth the hassle? Perhaps I could interview them? But would that look as good as part of my final work? It would be nice to have something to actually show.

Eleven

My idea so far is to make a completely fake newspaper. I think this could be a good way of telling lies. If it were to look real, it would be a seemingly reliable source, and hopefull I might be able to con some people.

I need to start looking at existing newspapers and deconstructing them. I need to take a step back from them and figure out what newspapers conventions are on the broader side of it, and then I also need to take a closer look at each title, and work out what characterises each newspaper, what they like to report on, what sections do they include, and how they handle stories.

I need to do something similar to what Charlie Brooker did when he made this:
Charlie Brooker - How to Report the News

Ten

Museum of Hoaxes
April Fool's Hoaxes
E-mail Hoaxes

Again - all play on people's insecurities. A lot of hoaxes are done through news stories.

7 Fake News Stories That Fooled 

All of these succeeded because they were told from reliable sources.


The Bubble - BBC
Each week, three comedians must differentiate real news stories from fake ones, after four days of isolation 'The Bubble', a remote country house.

Brass Eye
A satirical spoof on documentaries

The last two sources are very close to the route I wish to follow.

Photoshopped News Stories 1

Photoshopped News Stories 2

Photoshopped News Stories 3

Real Images That Look Photoshopped 1


Real Images That Look Photoshopped 2

Nine

I want to start thinking about how I can tell my own lies. I have established that I need to make a reliable source for the lies to come from, and my research has lead me to start thinking about ways of communicating. To tell a lie you must communicate the lie.

Conversations - Face to face/Telephone calls
Social networking
Broadcasts - TV/Radio
Periodicals - magazines
Documents - Leaflets/Letters
Speeches/Talks
Posters/Billboards

After coming  up with several ways of communicating false information, and thought that the best way to make a reliable source was to mimic one that already existed. This way it gives the reciever a sense of familiarity. I believe that if my lie-reciever feels comfortable and is familiar with the platform on which they are recieving the lie, they will be much more likely to believe it.

By pretending to be something that is trusted, I can lead people astray.

I have had the idea of faking news. Everybody trusts the news. How could people refuse my lies if they saw it in a news report? I feel this is pretty foolproof :)

So there we are. I'm going to fake the news.