The “Citizen” newspaper is a free local distributed to every house within Milton Keynes and the surrounding villages. It covers a range of local news stories as well as including competitions, local events and advertisements. The paper also comes with a small local entertainment paper called “Go!” with cinema listings and a TV guide and a property pull for local estate agents.
The main front page for this edition of the “Citizen” is a mix of advertisements and the headline story – around 75% news stories and 25% of local advertisements. The headline dominates the page as it is in a large, bold font which therefore will lure the reader into reading the story. Images of the story are dominant, luring the reader into reading the text, as there is a large picture of the house that was burnt down, and images of the family that died – offering anchorage to the audience from the title to the images and then to the text. There is a description of the pictures amongst them to offer the reader direct anchorage to the images. The story begins in large quantities on the front cover and then “continues on page 2” luring the reader, therefore, into reading the rest of the story within the newspaper.
The adverts on the front page are offering competitions and incentives to all genders to help lure them into the competition. The flower pull out offer offers a lure to the female audience, whereas the football advertisement below would appeal to men. The “Be Bod Beautiful” advert has an image of a male and female which therefore has a representation of luring a male and female target audience into reading the newspaper. The competition “Win a microwave and a cook book” also lures the audience into reading the content of the newspaper to find the competition, and could be aimed at both genders once more and appears to be family orientated. Furthermore, the advertisements that we see on the front page, and are also a feature throughout the newspaper, are there to generate interest in their content. The “Citizen” also charges a fee to each company advertising, dependent on the size, the revenue of which means that they are able to send the newspaper to the residents of Milton Keynes free of charge.
The lexical field on the front cover is accessible for all target audiences. The newspaper gives the impression that it is to be read by the whole family, for example over the breakfast table, as it discusses local issues in short quantities. The accessibility could also relate to the fact that it is put through all doors in the area of Milton Keynes and therefore the target audience is broad – all social classes could receive this paper and would be interested in the news in their community.
On the front cover of this edition of the “Citizen” we see a different composition in comparison to others. The linear layout design cuts the page in half with two main feature stories, three large photographic advertisements for the content of the paper down the right hand side and a local beauty salon advertisement at the bottom. This linear effect helps lure in the audience to different news features, advertisements and offers featured.
The large, bold font of the headline “Manhunt after rape of teenager, aged 15” allows the reader to be engaged in the story which continues on the next page of the paper. The language further more connotes how interested the reader will be in the story - including that the victim was “aged 15” for example evokes empathy upon the audience and therefore lures them into reading the story. The image of a suspect also enables the audience to be lured into the story as it shows a profile of who the people of Milton Keynes should be looking for and acts as an anchor to the headline and the main story.
The rhetoric of the headline “Will this eyesore ever disappear?” engages the reader into the topic of discussion and lures them into the content of the story. The large image further acts as a lure to the reader as it is a visual anchor to the headline and the story.
Large images and captions along the right hand side of the page allow the audience to be lured in to the within the content of the paper. The stories featured along the right hand column are family orientated and therefore appeal to the target audience of the local free paper of the town. Subsequently, the advertisement at the bottom of the front cover also acts as a lure to the audience as it is aimed at both men and women – connoted to the audience through the picture of a male and female – and therefore is conclusive of the target audience.
Annotations of inside of front cover
The inside cover of the “Citizen” the audience are instantly lured to the content as around 75% of the page contains brightly coloured advertisements, and the story which began on the front cover is completed – luring the audience who have already read about the tragedy on the front page. The continuation of the story from the front page is conveyed by a sub-headliner and another image of the police tape which anchors the two stories together. The language is once more of a lexical field lending itself to be read by different social classes and age groups.
The adverts on this page take up much more room than on the front cover. The “Windor” advert is in bright colours and therefore is eyecatching luring the reader in to look at the offers the company are advertising. The yellow, blue and red are all primary colours and contrast each other well (making it appealing to the eye). The blue connotes a sense of temperature on the outside of the window whereas the red could connote the warmth the windows could bring to the inside of the house.
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