Becky's Reflection - Newspaper Session

The aim of the session was to introduce students to print media with a focus on newspapers. In addition to this Corey and I also wanted to facilitate a discussion that would get the group thinking about brand reputation and the techniques and devises that newspapers use to appeal to their target audience, as well as looking at newspaper format.

The plan for the session was to begin with a brief discussion about the function and layouts of  newspapers and then to talk about brand reputation and the impact of headlines. The discussion continued with a comparison of how four different newspapers reported on the same story. We then moved on to our main activity for the session where we gave each group a photo and a fictional story that their newspaper was to report on.  Each group was then tasked with inventing their own newspaper front page, thinking about branding and audience as well as format.

I think that the discussion was a good way to begin the session as it allowed thoughts and ideas to be shared with the group as a whole and I think that this was beneficial to the main activity as this encouraged the group to think critically as well as creatively. The use of paper, scissors and glue worked well for the main activity as the groups thought more creatively and freely about their layouts. I feel that the use of computers for this particular session could have caused issues as the groups would have been limited to what they could do by their knowledge of the programmes. The paper method for this task also meant that all four members of each group were involved in the creativity where as using computers would have made this more difficult. 

If I were to lead this session again I would think about challenging the groups slightly more by assigning each with a target audience or political affiliation. Doing this would prevent having groups creating similar front pages and this would encourage students to think more critically about newspaper layout and visual cues. I would also consider giving a wider range of example material for students to look through for inspiration. 

I think that the main task taught the group to think not only about placement and layout within newspapers, but it also challenged them to think about wording and the techniques that different newspapers use within their headlines and photo manipulation that grabs the attention of their readership.