The LA Times Essay Outline
Introduce
Interduce the newspaper, where it is from, what type of paper it is(broadsheet, tabloid, morning newspaper, Berliner.) Then talk about what key elements will be discussed
- Los Angeles focused.
- Local daily newspaper, broadsheet.
- Paid daily newspaper.
- Parent company is "Chicago Tribune".
- It was the largest metropolitan newspaper.
Body paragraph
- front page (How many stories?; What stories?; How big and how many graphics?; What are the teasers like and how many?
- Language- Syntax and diction (diction is more like to be sophisticated or highly sophisticated)
- Banner/Headline/Deck/1st and 2nd paragraph-Does it drops lead? How often? Does the headline speak to the stories?
- Stories about what and who’s perspective
- editorials- about what? What is the opinion?
- Who is/ are the target demographic?
- size of paper
- Targeted audience?
Body Paragraph 1
Talk about the front page, the amount of graphics and stories. How big the headlines are, what are the teasers like? What does this tell you about the newspaper? What does the front page look like?
- Contains six stories and four graphics on the front page - one large graphic under the first headline, with caption in bold.
- Agate - stock tables - under date, teasers
- Headlines - in bold, seven words in average / 1st headline is extra large.
- The banner advertisement is on bottom of the banner, generally not every front page has advertisement.
- What's News(contents) - left-hand side - two sections - internal politics / local events
Body Paragraph 2
What kind of stories are on the front page?
- Top stories from the previous day
- Local events focused stories
Body Paragraph 3
How are the stories constructed: headline, deck, graphic. Does the headline speak to the stories? (reference to diction) (diction- word choice and why?/level of audience)
- Headlines does speak to the stories.
- The headline is a hook, grabs attention.
- Usually simple and short headlines, approximately 7 words.
- Top 1 story has a deck- around 15 words. deck is a introduction.
- Audience - Especially for people who living in Los Angeles
Body Paragraph 4
How are the stories constructed: first paragraph (reference to diction and syntax) (diction- word choice and why?/level of audience)(syntax- how you structure you sentence and paragraph)
- contains 35-50 words in 1-2 sentences and establishes the who, what, where, and when?
Body Paragraph 5
What comes after each news article( the second paragraph and the rest of the inverted pyramid, does my paper drops lead? If Yes, how often?
- Inverted pyramid- the most important things of the story goes at the top and slowly the importance of the information goes down.
Body Paragraph 6
What are the editorials about? What kind of editorials are they? What is the opinion?
- An editorial is an article that present the newspaper's opinion on an issue.
- Many newspapers have named editorial board differently.
Conclusion
Sum up all the analysis of each paragraph. What does this tell you about the newspaper? Talk about the demographic. Wrap it up by restating the big point and revisit key ideas from explanations.
