Journalism work

For this post I've decided to take one of the first items I wrote for the Bradford Student's union newspaper and analyse it. I can then compare this to a more recent article I have written to see how my writing has developed. This is a scan from a page I did on my interest in journalism, in my visual diary last semester which included an article on something which I find annoying and a review of a video game.

As I was appointed as reviews editor I havn't had much opportunity to write any other articles apart from reviews. Recently however I have been asked to write a feature on distraction burglary which will involve shodwing the student liason officer and interviewing a victim. This "Pet Peeves" article is quite personal and so creates a personality for the reader to identify with when reading future issues of the paper, this is quite important with the sort of laid back, entertainment orientated style. The article is also quite short which again is important due to the target audience of student's as they would be less likely to read it if it was exessively long with no images to accompany it.

The subject of the article, general rudeness of the public in everyday life, is very easy to understand and empathise with, which again has an appeal to the audience. It may also be quite interesting for foreign students to read as it gives a small insight into British etiquette.

The language used is informal and chatty, very similar to articles seen in tabloid newspapers and is suited to the young and distracted target audience.

The first review I did, for the game "Professor Layton and Pandora's Box" is again in this chatty language style and as the number of words permitted is limited to approximately 200, I tried to structure it into an introduction, the gameplay, the graphics and a conclusion so that the review was quick to read and straight to the point.

A certain amount of background knowledge of games, films or music in terms of technical aspects and franchises is quite important when reviewing to justify your opinions and also gain a certain amount of trust from the reader.

I think this review has been successful in terms of impartiality, accuracy and critically analysing the product allowing the reader to fprm their own opinions around what has been written.