Shropshire Star Case Study

How Frequently is it published?
The Shropshire Star is published in seven editions which are published daily throughout the week Monday to Saturday. The paper is distributed to different regions in the Midlands throughout the day, the paper is published in these locations: Midday, Powys, Oswestry, North Shropshire, South/Bridgnorth, Shrewsbury and Last, which primarily serves the Telford area.

What is the cover price - or is it a free paper?
The cover price for the Shropshire Star is 42p. However if you have the Shropshire Star delivered to you door for six days a week you will pay a reduced price on the cover price.

Where/How is it sold?
The Shropshire Star is sold in many news agents around Shropshire, Telford and Oswestry.

Which Edition is it?
The Shropshire star is a county edition paper it gives the news from all around Shropshire. There are three editions of the paper a county, border (Welsh border) and south.

Who is the owner? How many other papers do they own?
The Shropshire star is owned by the Midland news association, they also own the Shrewsbury Chronicle and the Halesowen Chronicle along with many more papers.

What is the circulation? What is the readership?
The average readership is mainly adults which is 223,000 (54%) which means that the Shropshire star s a popular magazine for most people, seeing it is sold to over half the overall readership.

Describe the format and print quality
The format of the text in the Shropshire star is in 'justified' spacing which is common for most newspapers. The font used for the paper is a basic san-serif font which is used in the majority of the paper because in the close spacing on the paper it is easy to read. The reason why justified is used to space out the text on the paper is because it makes the column look neat and simple to read. The print quality for the Shropshire star is great the paper is crispy so it dose not rip while turning a page, the print quality for the paper is expected from all papers the ink dose not run when your fingers rub against it.

Describe the proportion of advertisement, both Display and Classified
there are not as many advertisement as you would expect to be in a paper in the Shropshire star there are a few pages in the back of the paper for advertisements and about 2 others mixed into the others with full page advertisements.

Calculate the proportion of a) International news b) National news c) Local news
The proportion of the news in the Shropshire star is split up into International, National and Local and is split into by International 10%, National 20% and Local 80 %

What type of local news are included?
The local news that is included is anything ranging from local school sports teams to international news.

What sort of news values operate throughout?
The news values in the shropshire star are split between: Relevant, Immediacy (news stories that happened the day of publishing appearing in the newspaper) , Interest, Drama and Entertainment, the news values are what make up the Shropshire Star are what make up any newspaper each newspaper has a mix of the specific news values. the types of news that are reported are, Emergencies, Crime, Local/National Government, Pressure Groups, Industry, Health, Human Interest, Personalities and Sport.

How are photographs used?
Photographs are used to grab the readers attention to the stories that are most popular in the world, an example of this is on the front page of the 3/03/12 edition. The pictures are used to grab peoples attention to the story about Prince Harry touring england. The pictures are colourful and vibrant showing natural aspects of Prince Harry.

Look at the language (vocabulary, syntax and mode of address) - what does that say about the target audience and how dose it reflect the style of the paper?
The language used in the Shropshire Star gives me the impression that the target audience for the paper is the working class.

How are various social groups represented? Young people; ethnic minorities; the elderly for example? Explain how the representation is constructed. How dose it reflect the audience?
As a whole the social groups are not represented poorly in the Shropshire Star they do not target a certain social group, the Shropshire Star dose not show any biased views to any social group and never give an un-accurate statement.

What other elements make up this paper, eg letters page? Account for the inclusion of each.
The other elements that made up the Shropshire Star are, the classifieds where people in shropshire can put there own advertisement in the paper for people to view so the readership can see what people are selling and promoting. Horoscopes are also involved in the paper because most people enjoy reading their futures. Also included sports news for the majority of people who like to read about there sports teams. Lastly there is a TV guide showing the days TV listings from 4pm to 1am.

What is the competition for this paper - discuss all media. What are the relative benefits of each competitor and how are they met by your paper.
The competition for the Shropshire Star is mainly the Sun and the daily express are the main competition for the Shropshire star because the are both daily newspapers that have a large readership. Each of the papers have a large readership which comes from the aspects of each paper the sun is mainly a sports paper and the Daily Express is a news paper giving more than just local news. the main competition for the Shropshire Star is TV and radio news.

Do they have a website? If so describe the content.
The Shropshire Star website contains most the stories including sports, weather, adverts, videos, pictures and blogs.

Outline any digital versions of the Star
The only digital version i know of is the Shropshire Star app for iPod and iPad.

Can you get the news from the Star in any other format?
On the Shropshire Star website you can download an app for your iPod or iPad where you pay £1.59 per week and you get six days of the paper downloaded but the first week is free which gives you 6 papers.

Do the owners own any other media, eg radio/TV
MNA (Midlands News Association) own the Shropshire Star they used to operate a radio station in Shrewsbury and Worcestershire but as of December 2011 they were taken down, the stations were called The Severn and The Wyre.

Newspaper Notes (Part 2)

• Newspapers are read by a majority of adults every week.
• local papers are more trusted.
• 1,600 associated in the UK.
• the local press is the UK's most popular print media, read by 33 million people a week.
• 42 million unique users rely on their local newspaper websites every month.
• more than 6,100 local newspapers are sold or distributed in the UK every minuet.
• local newspapers (60%) are the first media people turn to rase awareness of a local issue or problem.
• local media employs over 30,000 people including 10,000 journalists.
• eighty-five per cent of local newspaper readers in britain say it is more important that their local paper keeps them informed about local council issues.
• over 60% of people act on the advertisements in local newspapers.
• newspapers (30%) and TV advertising (56%) have more impact upon consumers that magazines (17%), radio (15%) an outdoor (15%).
• 89 paid daily newspapers
• 11 free daily newspapers
• 4 paid daily newspapers
• 10 paid sunday newspapers
• 5 free sunday newspapers
• 487 paid weekly titles
• 17 paid weekly with free pick-ups
• 494 free weekly newspapers
• 35 free weekly newspapers with pick-up
• 4 free pick-ups only (weekday).
• over stand-alone magazines and productions.
• over 1,600 websites (doubled over 5 years).
• radio stations.
• television stations.
• 71% of all adults read a regional newspaper.

Newspaper Notes (part 1)

• High proportion of local news- therefore a high level of "meaningfulness"- but with enough national/international news to keep a high 'solus' readership (people will ONLY buy the Shropshire Star)
• Editioniseing- to keep even more local focus (used to have editions for North Shropshire; South Shropshire; Oswestry; Shrewsbury; Welsh border and Bridgnorth)
• Fleeing of independence is promoted - its pro-community rather than pro-any particular political party (e.g. Wem town hall and swimming baths stories in the past)
• good value 56-72 pages often 9 stories on the front page 17 stories per page avg. 33-34 mins reading, Variety of content, delivery mechanism - £2.10 a week for 6 editions inc. delivery anywhere - even in outlying rural areas- with network of own vans and delivery boys/girls
• mode of address is friendly and direct e.g. 'your star' 'call us' 'try your luck' 'we're here to help' 'all your weekly viewing listings' 'our pete ....' 
• fairly simple syntax and vocabulary written in short sentences, yet quite copy heavy and detailed at times
• some use puns and alliteration in headlines e.g. 'weight for it' 'fun with files' 'corking price for vintage opener' 'deer oh deer' 'villagers kick up a stink over vile smell' 
• supplements for a different sections of audience e.g. women, cars, home, jobs, business, weekend, weddings, schools, special events
• voice of the reader local letters classifieds and announcements a high proportion of the stories come from the readership unlike other news providers e.g. coffee morning 'flower group hold meeting' 'hall in appeal for volunteers' 'indie band bassist appeal'
• the community is represented positively (whether rural village life or the bigger towns like shrewsbury or telford, the good self image encourages sales. positive values represented include being caring (of people and environment ) and charitable e.g. 'kind hearted village' 'tree planting idea to remember brian' 
• promoting pleasant environment 
• pro animal
• child centred child's play supplement fire safety in schools fundraising events invite to join children's club
• harking the past nostalgia photo every day 'vintage morris back on road' '40 years since film won oscer'
• lively social life 'band at community centre' 'concert to rock against racism' 'rockers joining festivle line up'
• service to community ad listings public service details (council trips; chemists, planning, applications ect.).
• Competitions and offers (e.g. win a dream wedding)
• Range of methods to get the Shropshire Star: Print; Online as a website; Emailed or as E-edition (£1.50 as a Copy); Mobile?

The Ring Essay

The Ring (2002)
Directed by Gore Verbinski
Starring Naomi Watts and Martin Henderson


The film starts off by showing two girls watching TV when they start talking about a videotape that kills you seven days after watching it. One of the girls says that after you watch it the phone rings and the voice on the other end of the phone tells you that you will die in seven days. The whole film is basically trying to beat death, a good way to make the audience feel tension in the film is showing the tape at the near beginning which gives it a view as you watching the film to the end will save you from the seven day death.


The way people are represented in the Ring gives me the idea that they are all normal people living normal lives until they find the videotape and get thrown head first into the supernatural world, the videotape shows the viewer what i believe was going through Samara mind during the seven days she was down in the well. The reason the tape did not kill Naomi Watts was because she made a copy of the tape and passed it on. The way that the people represented are in my opinion how i would expect people to react if there was proof to the videotape, people would always try and save there own skin which is why this film is a great horror film because it plays with your mind thinking how you are able to survive the seven days.


The legal and ethical for the Ring is it was a remake from a Japanese film called Ringu, so there would be legal issues if the director of Ringu filed a copyright court order but seeing that the film was a american remake they had to get permission from the original film director before being able to start the filming. The ethical for the Ring was that the videotape was like a gateway to hell showing the hell Samara went though down the well seven days is how long she survived in the well giving the people who watch the tape a chance to fight death and find a way to live past the seven days. 


The Ring gives out a lot of death throughout the film which seeing that the film originates from Japan Samara Morgan reminds me of a shinigami aka the Japanese god of death. The dead girl in the well could also be referred to the story of Okiku, a Japanese folklore which has been adapted a few times each involves the main theme which is a slave girl who was tricked into believing to of lost a family heirloom of the family she works for and ends up being killed and thrown down a well, the spirit of the girl lives on until someone comes and helps her find the last heirloom which never existed. This folklore was the base for the original Ring film.

Conventions of a Newspaper

Masthead: the newspaper's name, often in traditional gothic lettering. It may not have changed for many years and is the easiest way to identify a newspaper.

Headlines: the largest typeface on the page for the important story.

Sub-heads: in a similar typeface to explain more about the story.

Lead story: a story chosen to be most interesting by readers.

By-line: journalists name and details.

Alignment: most newspapers use justified to right the articles.

Photographs: in colour or black and white used to attract the readers eyes to the story.

Advertisement: used to attract the readers view to a certain product or charity (The Hill Valley Preservation Society in this case)

not shown on this newspaper but appears in others:

Puns, slogans, Puffs or Blurbs, Secondary Lead, Graphic, Rule, Column, Reversed Out(White Text on Black background) Menu, Small Add and Display Add

Fonts used in a Newspaper are in San-Serif and Serif. 

Frankenstein Essay

Frankenstein (1931)

Directed by: James Whale
Staring: Colin Clive, Mae Clarke and Boris Karloff

The structure of the film is a non-linier narrative. The film does not show how Henry Frankenstein got the idea to bring life to a lifeless body, it just shows you the collection of the body parts. The film later explains why Henry Frankenstein and his assistant Fritz were acquiring fresh dead bodies, the film follows a linier way to tell the story but it starts in the middle causing the film to be a non-linier film. 

At the beginning of the film a man walks out from behind curtains to  give a greeting and a warning to the audience, his 'friendly warning' is: "We are about to unfold the story of Frankenstein, a man of science who sought to create a man after his own image without reckoning upon God. It is one of the strangest tales ever told. It deals with the two great mysteries of creation life and death. I think it will thrill you. It may shock you. It might even horrify you. So if any of you feel that you do not care to subject your nerves to such a strain, now's your chance to uh, well, we warned you." this gives the film a theatrical feel to it so you feel as though instead of watching a film you are watching a play it also sets the scene and puts a degree of suspense and anticipation to the audience. In the opening credits to the film Boris Karloff's name was not shown, in place of his name by the monster's character was a '?'. Again this adds a degree of suspense and mystery to the character. 


The images created in the film give it a different look to other films made at the time, because the sets used in the film look more like a set for a play rather than a film. There is very little camera movement in the film, when it is used it is to give an air of suspense the camera moves at the beginning of the film to show the surroundings then to show Henry and Fritz hiding, waiting to dig up the grave. The only camera movement in the film is designed purely to build up suspense. The sound of the thunder during the build up to the lightning scene, shows each crack of thunder getting louder, and the gap between them shortens,  this is another way of intensifying the suspense. The most famous line from the Frankenstein films "It's alive", is not interrupted by thunder because it is the most important line in the film, the films mise-en-scene gives it a dismal look which makes the film seem even darker in a true gothic sense.


The characterisation of society in the film is shown through the use of the towns people in the film when they all go to hunt and kill the monster as a result of the murder of a small girl by the monster. The town all rally together when the father of the young girl who the monster killed walking into the town as the festivities are going on for the Frankenstein wedding, as the father walks up to Baron Frankenstein and explains the murder of his daughter, Baron Frankenstein then organises the town to go and search for the monster they split into three groups and search in the mountains, forrest and lake. They find Henry Frankenstein and the monster running into a windmill where they surround and kill the monster. This shows the fear of the towns people towards the monster and for all that it stands. They view it as an abomination of nature and "un-godlike".


Legal and ethical constraints on the film Frankenstein caused a few scene cuts, cutting out parts of the film because of the disturbing nature of some of the scenes. The scene where the monster throws the girl into the river was cut out at the point when the monster outstretches his arms then it cuts to the next scene. This was deemed as too much for an audience to accept, even now in modern films scenes showing the murder of children are rarely shown as they are deemed to disturbing for audiences. Other parts of the film that were cut out in the film were the start of Frankensteins line which was "Now I know what it feels like to be God!" this was viewed as being blasphemous and far too controversial, the line was overdubbed by the sound of thunder on the soundtrack and therefore shortened the line to "It's alive". In the scene where they are sedating the monster, there was a close up of the needle going into the skin that was taken out of the film, as it was felt that the audience would be too squeamish and horrified by the scene. The last cut was some of the footage that showed Fritz taking pleasure in tormenting the monster, this it was felt, would possibly enrage the audience. The reason there were cuts in the film were down to the film restrictions at the time, in the 75th anniversary it showed the scenes which were cut in the original.


At the time of the release of this film, audiences had never seen films such as this with such graphic scenes and subject matter. When this film was released there were no age restrictions as to who could and could not view this film, so censorship played a large part in the editing, and most censorship was left with the studio who were the arbiters of taste and morality. Most censorship was imposed to ensure maximum viewing attendance, thus ensuring maximum profit for the studio. Now the restrictions on editing and censorship have changed drastically.

The Devil Rides Out (1968) Essay

The Devil Rides Out

Director: Terence Fisher

Staring: Christopher Lee, Charles Gray and Nike Arrighi

(Video Link)

Set in 1930s London and the south of England, the story finds Duc de Richleau (Christopher Lee) investigating the strange actions of the son of a friend, Simon, who has a house complete with strange markings and a Pentagram. He quickly deduces that Simon is involved with the Occult. Richleau and Rex van Ryn rescue their friend Simon Aron and another young initiate, Tanith, from a devil worshipping cult. During the rescue they disrupt a ceremony on Salisbury Plain in which Satan himself appears. They escape to the home of the Eatons, friends of Richleau and van Ryn, and are followed by the group's leader, Mocata, who has a psychic connection to the two initiates. After visiting the house to discuss the matter and an unsuccessful attempt to influence the initiates to return, Mocata forces Richleau and the other occupants to defend themselves through a night of black magic attacks. Their successful defence ultimately results in Mocata himself paying the price of loss of life and eternal damnation of his soul for having wrongly summoned the angel of death.

first proposed in 1963, the film eventually went ahead four years later once censorship worries over Satanism had eased. Production began on 7 August 1967 and the film starred Christopher Lee, Charles Gray, Patrick Mower and Paul Eddington. The screenplay was adapted by Richard Matheson from Wheatley's novel. In the United States the film was retitled The Devil's Bride. Christopher Lee has often stated that of all his vast back catalogue of films this is his favourite and the one he would like to see remade with modern special effects and with him playing a mature Duc de Richleau.




The Legal and ethical for the devil rides out 

AO1 Representation in Horror films

The representation of social groups in horror films are sometimes portrayed as victims or killers like in the Texas Chainsaw Massacre there is a group of teens that are victims to the masked killer but in Scream there are both victims and killers that are apart of social groups. Each group is both similar and different in different horror films depending of what era the film is from in the 50's the films groups were strict where there were mainly sexist views against women where they would normally get killed of first leaving the killer almost always a man showing that at this time men were in charge not till the 70's when Alfred Hitchcock directed Psycho which was the first film to have a final girl which made the women more dominant in the future films. A lot of stereotypes were involved in horror films include: the murder weapons being kept in the open, the hero of the film who killed the monster always runs off leaving the monster to reincarnate, the one guy in the film who says "i'll be right back" then you don't see him again throughout the rest of the film and lastly whenever a blonde girl is being chased in a horror film they always fall down and occasionally sprain there ankles. The trends in horror films is that it taps into the subconscious of a persons mind which reacts to the survival instincts while watching a good horror film your hear should start beating twice the normal speed adrenaline should also take over giving you the feeling of you actually being in the film thats why the horror films i like to watch involve giving me the feeling i am in the film making my heart race letting the film immerse me in to the story. the main thing that can kill a movie franchise for me is a dull sequel it takes the fear out of the original for me if the sequel will be as horrifying as the original or more so then it will make the franchise will only get better the best way to make a horror better in my opinion is to make the original a fraction as scary as the sequel this way the sequel will give a better fear factor to the audience which will also give the film a better audience turn out.

AO1 Meaning of Horror Films

Each horror film has a different meaning depending on the monster that the film is focused on, most monsters are made up of fiction i.e. Frankenstein, the Wolf man, Zombies and Dracula. The most popular Monster in films in my opinion is Dracula the main story behind Dracula is said to of come from roman folklore the name Dracula comes from Vlad Dracule also know as Vlad the Impaler the name Dracula means "Son of the Dragon"Vlad the Impaler was called Dracule which means Dragon in Romanian folklore the name Dracule became devil so Dracula became "Son of the Devil" this gives Dracula the name which is shown in over 55 horror films. the sound in the film Dracula (1931) give out suspense with the varies to the loud and quiet moments  the howling giving the film suspense because the unknown location of the loud noise gives anyone a chill down there spine with this the film dose not need to show any blood or gore to give the audience a fright but throughout the film it makes the audience imagine every detail of where the gore should be this is helped with the link of the camera angles and the sound that is shown. the mise-en-scene of the film is all closed off i.e. the hills in the background giving the image of a locked off area where none can escape from Dracula also the interior of the castle giving the jail cell look giving the impression that none has ever escaped and none ever will, all of the scenery of the film gives a claustrophobic feel to it. the use of Dark tones in the film give more the the feel of Dracula seeing that in the book Dracula is a creature of the night giving the film a very dark look makes it easier for Dracula it be hiding away so you never know weather he is in frame or not but most the time he is not in shot but with the imagination of the audience knowing that Dracula is a creature of the night they will subconsciously imagine Dracula hiding in the dark stalking his victims. the only special effect i could notice in Dracula is the transformation scene where Count Dracula transforms into a bat to hunt for a victim. Bela Lugosi was the star of the Dracula film Bela Lugosi is an Hungarian actor which gives a good effect for Dracula's voice in the film with a Hungarian accent which matches the kind of character Dracula is giving an evil sounding accent makes Dracula seem more real to the audience.

AO1 Structure of a horror film

The narratives of horror films all follow a smiler storyline they either follow a supernatural storyline like with Dracula, Frankenstein and Zombie films these films are declared the most popular because the monsters are given supernatural abilities and births like in Dracula as a vampire he is a creature of the night and has incredible strength and enhanced reflexes with also needing to consume blood from his victims, with Frankenstein he is created by sending an electric current through several dead body parts which a sewn together and zombies are caused from religious and scientifically reasoning i prefer modern day zombies where they are blind cannot feel anything but have enhanced hearing making them more thrilling in my opinion, the horror genre has different tales for different monster they can be liner and non-liner with Dracula the films will be separated it might show the younger Dracula then jump to a present day or a far future then keep switching between showing a non-liner way of telling the story, most horror films are left open some to give the audience a chance to think of an ending or to be continued at a later date by the same film company or a different one but most Zombie films are episodic like 28 days later and 28 weeks later these seem to be like episodes to tell the story. the camerawork that is involved with the structure builds the suspense and adds to the climactic moment in the films, with Dracula it is the moment when he first drinks the blood of a victim, Frankenstein it is the quick shots as the monster is awakening from the lighting bolt, Zombies are given this by showing a group huddling around one person as the camera quickly cuts to every angle while the audio makes to imagine the ripping of human flesh as the zombies eat but the camerawork not showing any of this which gives the audience the chance to image what is happening behind the zombie horde.

AO1 Development of Horror Films

The advances in technology in horror films has allowed for more special effects like the scene in Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde with the rotating camera lens, showing off more of the makeup as Dr Jekyll changes to Mr Hyde without use of camera cuts. This made the transformation more realistic and provided a more immersive experience. People have always tried to scare others and it could be said that the horror genre started with the old folklore and fictitious stories told before the time of film. As the times have changed the way horror stories have been told has changed also. With the printing press the were more and more books published that were used to send shivers down peoples spines like Frankenstein and Dracula. Which where then, later, adapted into films.Cultural changes over the years effected how the films were able to show gore and the way they could use this to show the stories in better detail for example in the Hostel the entire film revolves around the gore shown. Other ways that cultural changes can effect movies can be seen in Dawn of the Dead (1978) by George Romero. He used real life events, i.e. the consumerist culture at the time, to relate to the audience, showing hordes of mindless zombies crowding into a shopping mall. The film also put forward the idea of how people subconsciously follow daily routines, by having his zombies craving brains George Romero offered a harsh critique on this lifestyle.

The economical reasons for horror to develop is the films keep coming out with sequels for the original horror films like Frankenstein has a few sequels filmed like Bride of Frankenstein and Son of Frankenstein, werewolf and also Dracula has had a lot of sequels. Other vampier films also referring to the original vampire count Dracula, people watch the sequels because they liked the original films because they are either continuing the story or give a prequel showing the start of the monster. Dracula films gave the idea for more vampire movies to me filmed which changed into different genres with Blade: Trinity which was a hybrid between horror and action the film also showed a reincarnated Dracula. the main developments in horror films have to be technology because with it there was the chance to change the types of films from psychological horror (making the audience imagine the gore) into visual horror (showing the gore leaving less to the imagination) the other way the development has changed is the rules for a horror have become more lenient you can show more in a horror film now a days but when horror started up you could barely show any gore.