Learning Objective

• To write a newspaper article based on a story featured in a Clipbank News Bites report

What to do?

Different newspapers appeal to different audiences. Each type of newspaper uses a different style and level of language to attract a particular group of readers. Watch the clip Newspaper readership to find out more about national newspapers. What are the three types of national newspapers?

You are going to write a front-page article for a national newspaper based on a story that has been featured in a News Bites bulletin. Choose a story from the current bulletin or from a previous bulletin. To find previous News Bite, use the term "Bite" in the Clipbank search engine (not available in Clipbank promotional website).

Next, decide which type of newspaper the article is for. The newspaper styles you can choose from are a tabloid, a broadsheet or a children's newspaper (for readers under 12-years-old). You can use the appropriate worksheet template to type in your article or create your own newspaper front page in a Word document.

1. Newspaper template: Tabloid
2. Newspaper template: Broadsheet
3. Newspaper template: Children's

The worksheet Writing a newspaper article provides some useful tips and guidelines on how to construct your newspaper report. If you are writing about one of the stories featured in the current Clipbank News Bites bulletin, you can use the headline you created in the Starter activity. If you are writing about a different story, use the guidelines in the Starter section to help write your new headline.

Find and open the separate News Bite clip for your story. Use the transcript and other related information to help you research write your article. You may also want to use newspaper websites to carry out further research for your newspaper article. Useful websites include:

'Red top' tabloids:

• The Mirror
• The Sun

Mid-market tabloids:

• Daily Mail
• Daily Express

Broadsheets:

• The Guardian
• The Independent
• The Daily Telegraph
• The Times

Learning Objective

• To select a suitable image, and write a matching caption, to illustrate your newspaper article

What to do?

Watch the clip Image manipulation at The Guardian.

Select an image, such as a photograph or diagram, to illustrate your newspaper article. This could be taken from the original News Bites clip or may be some other suitable image. Like the headline for your article, the image should also grab the reader's attention.

Write a caption for this image that matches the style of your article and is appropriate for the type of newspaper that your article appears in.

What to do?

1. Use the internet to find an online report about the story that you have written your article about. Compare the style of language used in your article and the online report. How would your article have been different it was written for:
• one of the other types of newspaper?
• a local newspaper?
• an international newspaper?
2. Watch the clip The trainee journalist to find out more about working in newsroom. How many different jobs do you think are involved in the production of a newspaper?