Airplane gone missing – possibly found?

Malaysian aircraft has gone missing since 8th March with 239 people on board. Flight MH370 left Kuala Lumpur to what should’ve been a 6 hour journey to Beijing, China, when contact was lost an hour after lift off. Nothing has been heard from it since. Authorities have been searching for the plane and have only found estimates of the plane routes and possibilities but no plane wreckage. Ships and aircrafts are still on the lookout despite satellite images not helping the situation as much as they wish. So far, satellites in Australia have shown signs of what could be floating debris in the Indian Ocean.

Teams have hundreds of square miles to cover with upcoming news almost everyday making the search longer and widespread. Authorities think it is very unlikely anyone has survived. Relatives have been left devastated waiting for any news of this rare problem.

For now, this situation remains a mystery.

Suspected plane routs and possible debris round in Indian Ocean

News Values

My story is newsworthy as it has a lot of news values which makes it a good news story, they include:

Negativity – This news article is negative as over 200 people might have possibly died and hundreds of relatives are devastated. The plane has obviously crashed somewhere which is very upsetting and it usually makes the reader more interested if the story is negative instead of positive.

Proximity – This story isn’t close to the UK however it has had a global impact as the plane is no where to be seen so our country is included in the investigation/search.

As our country has got involved it makes us feel as if we are able to relate to the news story so we are more likely to read it.

Unusual – This article is very unique as it is out of the ordinary and catastrophic. This will have a greater effect than something occurring everyday. It is extremely rare that a very big and heavy plane loses communication and goes missing. The fact that it hasn’t been found for 2 weeks is overwhelming. The mystery makes the audience question the news story many time of how they even let this happen.

Currency – This news story is very current as it happened 2 weeks ago and investigations are still being carried out now. Most news stories are current because people are more interested in what’s happening now and not years ago however old news such as the Oscar Pistorious court case may still be in the news as it is an ongoing news story as what happened really interested the public and people would still want to know what happened afterwards.

Interest – I would say this article is quite interesting because it’s an unusual thing to happen and there are so many different possibilities and different kinds of proof to the situation. No one knows if any evidence found so far is relevant so all of these constant changing updates keep the target audience intrigued to find out what is next to come. The events changing all the time and the mysteriousness of the story also make it interesting.

Impact – This article would impact the public because hundreds of people have died and this could be their relatives or it could happen to them when they get on a plane. Many people are confused about the situation.

Treatment

Name: teenewz – This is a suitable name for my website because the ‘z’ represents how teenagers text and type (example; coz). The ‘n’ on teen and the ‘n’ on news has been merged together to create a fun effect and it adds less seriousness to the website.

Target AudienceThe website is aimed at 12-16 year olds (teenagers) of both genders showing top stories that are interesting and are not put together in a boring way as stereotypically, teenagers don’t pay attention to formal news channels/webites. The design of the website will be fit for both genders and so will the news articles (eg, it won’t just show girly things like make-up).

Content FocusThe content in the website will be a mixture of things as teenagers are very different and change their likes and dislikes all of the time. Of course, important news will be placed on the website so teenagers can still have an insight of what is going on in the

world but in a simpler and more understandable format. However if there was too much of this, teenagers would get bored. Therefore, a lot of interesting news will be put onto the website aswell such as sport, music, celebrities (gossip), fashion – teenage interests. News articles focused on politics and financial things such as taxes won’t really be put into the website because they are completely irrelevant to young peoples life’s as we are not the ones paying bills and we are too young to vote so it is more of an adult thing.

My website is also going to have many links to social networking such as Facebook, twitter, instagram etc to spread the word because this is a simple and easy way of getting more teens involved as 97% of teenagers own and use social networking sites. There will also be videos and sound as plain pictures and writing would make the website seem dull and my aim is to make it as interesting as possible.

Other news stories

“Chelsea thrash arsenal 6-0” – Teenagers would want to know about this as Chelsea and Arsenal are 2 very popular football teams with millions of supporters/fans all over the UK. They would want to be up to date with the latest news. This is an interesting topic as lots of teenagers watch and play sport so it is easy to relate it with themselves and the stuff they like. Sports can appeal to both genders

even though stereotypically boys are interested in sport more than girls. It can include all types of sport and popular teams and celebrities as people are more likely to read about known celebs. Sport doesn’t just have to be about the scores of the game, it can be about the players and their inner lives. A vast amount of teenagers are interested in participating in sport and wanting to be something like a footballer when they’re older therefore sport news would be relevant as teens can see what their lives are like and apply it to their own future.

“Khloe Kardashian and Lamar Odom are 'talking all the time' - is it really over?” – This is relevant in the website because everyone is interested in a bit of gossip as Khloe and Lamar’s relationship was very popular and they were a famous couple. Their divorce caused drama therefore people are now wanting to know the latest news between them as there are claims that “it’s not really over”. Celebrity gossip can be very interesting as it covers a wide range of topics such as relationships, arguments etc. As they are

famous and always on TV, people recognize them and they would want to know about their personal lives by reading gossip on them.

Celebrity gossip can appeal to both girls and boys as there are hundreds of celebrities out there which both genders have as either inspirations or they are just interested in. Celeb gossip draws in a variety of teenagers with different likes, dislikes and interests.

“Hackney shooting: teenager was shot in the neck” – This is a good article to have on the website because it relates to teenagers as someone the same age as them was shot. It is very negative which makes people more aware and want to know what happened and how in a way. Young people can be seen as more vulnerable so it almost puts out a warning message to be careful. Although this is a serious topic, I think that even though teenagers may get bored with stories like this they should be aware of what is happening in the outside world and they should know that there is more to life than celebrities and the ‘dream’ life.

Deconstruction

My website has a variety of different values which engage my target audience (teenagers 12-16). Firstly, ‘Teenewz’ is written big and bold at the top of the website in multicoloured bubble writing which is ‘cooler’ than ordinary plain writing. The ‘z’ is a typical part of teenage text talk so it instantly creates the ‘theme’ for a young audience and it is appealing to them. This is because the style (colour and the way it’s typed, font) of the website name adds less seriousness to the news site and gives teenagers the idea that news can be fun to read. The use of multi colours makes the website different from typical adult news websites such as BBC news as the usual news colours are red, black, white and blue. The background colour of the website is for both genders because my website is not biased with stereotypical colours such as pink for girls.

On my website, there are not huge blocks of writing as this can make news tedious for teenagers to read and look at. Instead, the writing has been replaced with images with short captions so the target audience can click on the stories that

interest them most. Videos have also been put on the website as a lot of teenagers prefer watching and listening rather than reading. Some subtitles are written in bold to represent breaking news and the news story images on the side are placed in order of currency as people would not want to know old football scores for example. There are not only still images, moving images and GIFS are on the websites too to make it more interactive as teenagers can get bored very quickly. The types of stories put on my website will appeal to a unisex audience and will avoid adult based subjects such as finance and government because teenagers are too young to ‘care’ and know about taxes etc, if I did include those you wouldn’t be able to relate to the website whereas if I include celebrity stories, gossip, fashion, music, sport etc, you can apply them to your own interests. Using celebrities appeals to the target audience because teenagers are known to idolise celebs so they will be eager to know about someone well known more than an ordinary person they have no connection to. Important news such as the missing plane will be included because teenagers are growing up and I think they should know about what is going on in the world around them.

A music bar has been placed at the top of the website with up to date music of all genres and you are able to choose which songs you want to listen to by clicking on the drop down menu. This is appealing to my target audience as teenagers are surrounded by music everyday on their phones, the radio and TV. It would make the website seem more interactive and you can make it relate to you and almost personalize it in a way depending on what you want it to be like.

Social networking tabs have been put at the bottom so teenagers can share stories and communicate with their friends. This engages my target audience because the majority of teenagers use more than 1 social networking site everyday so it makes the website seem fun and appealing to the young generation.

I have chosen to put a quiz on my website to add something else other than reading/watching ‘news’. The quiz consists of questions about the top news stories on the website and it can test your knowledge but in a fun way. This could be based around celebrities or whatever category you pick. You are also able to like and dislike articles so in the future you can be emailed on articles you are likely to be interested in. This lets the target audience know that the website is fully up to date and it is very easy to use.