Level 2 Print Media Production

So far in Print Media Production you've told me about a PUBLISHER , the JOB ROLES at a magazine or newspaper, and how those job roles come together in the PRODUCTION PROCESS . Today I want you to tell me about the TARGET AUDIENCE or READERSHIP (same thing, in print media we call the Target Audience our 'readers' or our 'readership')  for the publisher you've talked about and you're going to do this by telling me the difference between TABLOIDS and BROADSHEETS . These terms used to strictly be descriptive of the size of the newspaper - Tabloids are small, broadsheets are bigger. A tabloid used to be defined purely as a newspaper with a compact page size smaller than broadsheet, "roughly 17 by 11 inches (432 by 279 mm)" and commonly "half the size of a broadsheet", although there is no standard size for this newspaper format. Broadsheets (as the word implies) were bigger, "characterized by long vertical pages (typically 22 i...

OK, last week you gave me breakdowns of all the important job roles in a magazine or newspaper and how they fit into the production process . Remember, so far we're just writing in general about a publisher , and the typical production process behind print products . It's towards this first criteria in your print media production unit. Today, just to absolutely nail the 'production process' element I want you to write a blog post about exactly how all these people working together get a newspaper onto the shelves. You'll tell me about the 4 stages involved, pre-production , production, post-production  and final print run.  PRE-PRODUCTION starts at the EDITORIAL MEETING . These are weekly for weekly papers/mags, daily for daily papers/mags, monthly for monthly mags. They're basically a staff meeting where the editor , the section editors , the writers and designers meet up to discuss and argue about what should be in the paper/mag this day/w...

The above image is from a film called 'All The Presidents Men', a great movie all about the two journalists Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward who exposed the Watergate scandal in the US in the 70s, eventually leading to the toppling of President Nixon. Alot of the film is set in the Washington Post office you can see above. To a certain extent, it's a dated image (journalists don't use typewriters anymore for instance) but you'll still see similar scenes in newspaper offices today. Journalists on phones, chasing stories, taking notes, writing up copy. The way newspapers and magazines make it from planning to print has changed technologically (e-mail and internet-research for instance) but the actual basics of the process has remained the same. Editors and section editors ask writers and photographers to give them story ideas - writers and photographers then provide copy (another word for text) and shots to commission. Sub-editors check it all as the copy comes in...

The other full unit  you'll be doing with me is PRINT MEDIA PRODUCTION . It's a 10point unit (remember you need 60 points to achieve the full qualification). In this unit you're going to analyse a publisher , a newspaper , and a magazine before going about proposing , planning and producing your own magazine.  What tends to happen is that those who properly analyse mags/papers,  follow the stages and plan their mag properly end up with great looking mags. Those who miss out bits through laziness, and who don't properly look at mags/papers in their analysis tend to end up creating mags that look rushed and unprofessional. The final criteria in this unit is really about the QUALITY of the mag pages you create and that's where the distinction criteria are. Dick about + create something that looks like a school project = pass. Work steadily but don't push yourself to make your mag the best it can be = merit. Work hard and create something that wouldn...