Local and Regional Newspapers

Shropshire Star

• It is published everyday.
• The cover price is 42p.
• It is sold in local shops e.g. Spar or delivered to your home.
• It is the Thursday, February 23 2012 edition.
• It is owned by the Midland News Association which also owns the 'Express and Star' Newspaper.
• The total circulation is 55491, with 139927 of them adults, 71370 of them men and 68558 of them women. http://jiab.jicreg.co.uk/standardreports/paperreport.cfm?NoHeader=1&geogtype=paper&SID=4987890765&UID=-1
• Local News includes politics, for example bank payouts, along with shops closing down and jobs being lost. The local news also includes football results and information and local restaurants and shops. As well as local hero's, stars and criminals featured in the newspaper, worldwide celebrities are also sometimes found in the paper, normally due to deaths or marriages. 
• Photographs are used along side big headlines to let the readers visualize the story they are reading and also to draw their eye to the story in the first place. 

The regional press is the backbone of Britain's media,  read by the vast majority of adults every week and considered to be the most trusted responsible medium of all. There are 1,200 regional and local newspapers in the UK, this has shrunk by 10/20% in the past 5 years. There are 1,600 associated websites in the UK and the local press dropped by 7/8 million, it is the most popular print medium read by 33 million a week. 42 million unique users rely on their local newspaper websites every month and more than 6,100 local newspapers are sold or distributed in the UK every minute.

60% of people will turn to their local newspaper as the first medium to raise awareness of a local issue or problem. Local media employs over 30,000 people including 10,000 journalists, the rest are made up of receptionists and people in advertising etc. Over 60% of people act on advertisements in their local newspaper and 85% say it is important that their local paper keeps them informed about local council issues.

The majority of readers buying the Shropshire Star are working class (C2DE) rather than higher class (ABC1) and are aged between 45 and 54. There are also 71,370 male readers in comparison to the 68,558 female readers. Therefor making the total circulation of adults 139,927. 

As well as the conventional newspaper, there is also the option of an online newspaper wich has a circulation of  182,413, on this occasion, the female readers (98776) outnumbering male readers (83636) and the higher class readership (AB - 64975) outnumering the lower classes (C1 - 50635) this may be due to the online version being more accessible and appealing to those with a hectic lifestyle and therefor don't have the time to sit and read a newspaper, so they will go online, on their phone or laptop and search for the relevant news they want to read.

Over the last 5 years circulation of all readerships of regional newspapers has dropped by 15%.
Age Brackets of reading any regional newspaper:
- 15 - 24 = 61.1%
- 25 - 34 = 66.6%
- 35 - 44 = 68.0%
- 45 - 54 = 71.9%
- 55 - 64 = 75.0%
- 65+      = 79.9%
Coverage of social groups, which is still a high number, is also down by 12% in the last 5 years.
Classes AB + C1 = 70.4%
Classes C2  + DE = 71.1%
The Regional press have a high Solus readership, and 26.7% of those who read a regional newspaper do not read a national daily. This is due to the regional newspapers aiming their news at the specific community they are catering for and also including national and international news, for example, a royal wedding or a celebrities death. 
Three quarters of the UK workforce work within 10 miles of home, 40% within two miles. The top 20 publishers own approximately 90% of all regional and local newspaper titles in the UK and 95% of the weekly circulation. Midlands News Association (MNA), the owners of the Shropshire star are ranked 9th with 17 titles and a total circulation of 1,557,075.

The Shropshire Star was the first evening newspaper after the Second World War (1964) and was at the forefront of new technology from the beginning. It used new printing technology, called web offset printing and photocomposition, which are still used today. At this time the technology was so new, even Fleet Street, were still using the old style, hot metal press. 
The first edition was an offshoot of the 'Express and Star' and was almost an experiment, it just so happened that it was a hit. The nightly circulation started at around 19,000 and by the mid 1980's sales were pushing the 100,000 mark. The paper had expanded from an initial 2 editions to 8. The Shropshire Star was also a pioneer of colour and was one of the first to use it. The Shropshire Star has a high proportion of local news, giving it a high level of meaningfulness to the readers. * 
As well as the local news it also includes National and International news of high importance, this means that most of the readers will then not need to read other newspapers to get that information. * It used to have editions for North Shropshire and South Shropshire, covering a wide range of towns and villages including, Oswestry, Shrewsbury and many more. The county edition has a circulation of 7,628. Local newspapers, like the Shropshire Star, are all about community rather than politics and are positive about people who do well in the county. They concentrate not on big political issues, but things that effect local people in the community. * The Shropshire Star is good value for money. They print lots of stories every day and have a wide variety of content and it only costs 42p per issue. The mode of address in the Shropshire Star is friendly and not particularly formal. * The syntax is simple, short and sharp, so not to exclude any part of the buying public, but puns and alliteration are used. * Supplements for different sections are used, for example jobs, cars and weddings. * A lot of the stories come from the readership unlike other news providers, they include things like coffee mornings and pictures from the past.* They promote a pleasant environment and positivity within the community. They include lots of stories on charity events, sponsored runs and also pro animal stories, promoting a caring persona. *

Newspaper Notes

Nationals - eg: The Sun, The times
Regional - The Shropshire Star
Local - Advertiser Herald

Formats:

Tabloid - The Sun
Broadsheet - "Old Telegraph"
Berliner - The Guardian
Compact - The Independent (The I)
Digital - Apps, Whole papers as PDF
Websites
Certain papers have different styles (informal or formal) known as House Styles

- Broadcast must be balanced
- Print news may be biased, but must be accurate
- Broadcast news is believed and trusted, mainly due to the moving image. The audience believe what they see with their own eyes. 
- Print news is regulated by:
PCC - Self regulatory
Contempt of court - Legal 
Official Secrets act
Defamation

Newspapers

The Ring

The film starts with two girls having a sleep over, the conversation moves on to a tape. One girl, Katy, looks shocked, she tells her friend that she saw the tape 7 days ago. Katy then starts to joke, her friend panics and Katy bursts out laughing, they both giggle about it. Then the phone rings, both girls stop laughing and look at each other, they go down stairs and Katy's friend answers the phone, it's Katy's mum. Her friend goes upstairs as Katy is chatting to her mum on the phone, as she hangs up, the television set in the living room turns on, there is no picture on the screen, just fuzzy crackly noise. She switches it off and tells her friend to stop messing about, but the house is silent. The TV comes on again, she calls her friend and runs upstairs to find water coming from her room, the tape is playing on her TV, there is a close up of her face looking terrified.

The scene then cuts to a little boy at school, his mum comes to collect him and the teacher asks her to talk to her about Aiden, the little boy. The teacher is concerned about him as he has been drawing disturbing pictures of a girl buried. His mum brushes it off as his way of coping with his cousin, Katy's death. She goes to leave with Aiden, the teacher then adds that he had been drawing these before she died. It then cuts to Rachel, Aiden's mother, putting him to bed, he tells her that they don't have enough time before they die and that's what Katy said.

The next day they go to the funeral, they go back to Katy's house for the wake and Katy's mum is talking to Rachel about the death, this is when we see a flash back of Katy's mum finding Katy, her face is shocking. She asks Rachel to find out what happened as there was no explanation for her daughters death. Rachel goes outside to Katy's friends to ask if they knew anything about the death. She finds out that Rebecca, the girl who was with Katy when she died, is now in a mental hospital. She also finds out about the tape Katy watched with her boyfriend, who died the same night as Katy with an unexplained cause of death, and that it kills you 7 days after you watch it. As this is happening it cuts to Aiden walking upstairs, he walks to Katy's bedroom and towards the TV, just as we expect something scary to happen, Rachel walks in and tells him he shouldn't be in Katy's room. He tells her that it's not her room anymore. Rachel finds pictures from the weekend she went away with her boyfriend and watched the tape, she see's that their faces are distorted. She also finds out that they both died at exactly the same time that night at 10pm, so she goes to the place they stayed looking for answers.

The man who owns the cabins remembered them when she showed him pictures and he then tells her that the reception is bad so they have video tapes for people staying. She looks over to the shelf of tapes, and there is one black tape, with no cover, she takes it. She goes into the same cabin that Katy and her boyfriend stayed in, she puts the tape in. It plays and you see flashing images of a circle or ring shape, a woman brushing her hair in a mirror, an eye, waves on the shore, the woman from the mirror throwing herself off a cliff and a long tall ladder. Throughout the video there is a high pitched squealing noise, making it even more tense and uncomfortable. As soon as the video ends the phone rings, she answers hesitantly and a voice tells her, '7 days'.

It then cuts to a new scene with 'Day 1' appearing on screen. Aiden is walking to school, he comes across a man on the way they look at each other, then carry on walking. That man then arrives at Rachel's house, she tells him about the pictures with the blurred faces and asks him to take her picture, her face comes out blurred. She tells him about the tape, so he gets it and puts it in, the same images appear on screen. She asks him to find out who made it and where it's come from. The phone rings, her friend, Noah, then leaves. There is a close up of the phone with 1 message, she presses delete. Rachel then goes to Noah's they play the tape and find a fly which looks like it's under the glass. A girl then walks in and Noah looks uncomfortable, she kisses him on the cheek, Rachel looks upset and leaves. As she walks out of the building she walks under a ladder. She turns and looks at the ladder, it is the same ladder from the tape.

It then cuts to Rebecca in the mental hospital, Rachel is asking her about the night Katy died, all Rebecca says is, 'She will show you, 4 days'. Rachel then goes and plays the tape again, she sees a lighthouse which she is curious about, then she notices the fly under the glass, she reaches for it and picks it out of the screen. Her nose starts to bleed. She then starts to research this lighthouse, she finds out where it is and also comes across a picture of the lady from the tape. She finds out her name is Anna Morgan and that there was a mysterious illness at the Morgan Ranch which killed all of their horses. As she is reading this, she doesn't realize that her other hand has been scribbling out Anna Morgans face on a picture. She then realizes what she is doing and stops. When she gets home, Aiden is asleep in bed, she is on the phone and gets herself a glass of water, as she takes a sip she coughs and chokes. She puts the phone on the side as she starts to pull out a long wire, she pulls it out and goes to grab the phone, there is no one on the other end, blood starts to drip out of the phone. She goes to bed and dreams about a little girl with long black hair, the girl grabs her arms, she wakes up in shock and looks at her arm, it has a red hand print of a small girl on it. She gets out of bed and calls Aiden, she walks into the front room where she finds him watching the tape. She shouts in fear and asks him why he was watching the tape, he tells her he couldn't sleep.

She calls Noah and tell him Aiden has seen the tape, she says he must go and find out about Anna while she goes to the island where the lighthouse is. When Aiden and Noah are left in the car, we then find out that Noah is Aidens father. He draws him a picture, as they drop Rachel off at the ferry, Noah hands her the picture, she takes it with her. Rachel looks at pictures of Anna as she heads towards the island, the camera zooms quickly towards her from behind, as she turns around we expect her to see something, but nothing is there. She notices a horse so she goes over to it and tries to stoke it, the horse spooks and rears up, she desperately tries to calm the horse but it gets more and more distressed. Eventually it breaks loose and is cantering around the cars on the ferry, the owner and other people try and catch it but it falls over the side of the boat. You see the horse thud against the side of the boat as it tumbles down into the sea, then everyone rushes to the back of the boat where all you see is blood colouring the water a deep red.