Ancillary task Double Page spread and newspaper article research

Radio times examples-

Strictly come dancing Doctor Who

Q Magazines example-

Lady Gaga

Channel 4 examples-

Britain’s forgotten Children Peep Show

Disarming Britain Meet the Foxes

Here we can see a few examples of different types of double page spread sheets; some are advertising programmes and some for interviews.

If we look at channel 4’s spread sheets we can see that they use double page spread sheets to advertise their programmes and upcoming seasons such as ‘A season on the care system’. We can see that they do not include much text on the spread sheet, they only appear to include an overall title for the specific season of the programme they are broadcasting, the title of the programme and the time that it is on; each one also includes the well-known channel 4 logo which always seems to be positioned in the ‘correct’ place on the spread sheet- the right hand side in the middle. This shows that they do not need lots of text explaining the programme that they are advertising, the picture and title alone gives enough of an insight into what the programme will be about and consist of. The image that Channel 4 uses is probably the most important element to the double page spread, this is because it literally takes up the whole of the spread, the titles and logo are very small in comparison to the picture which acts as a background; this suggests that the picture alone describes the programme. The image is clearly picked very carefully to represent the programme, and often the images are very stark and in your face to get a reaction and to enforce very clearly what the programme is about. If we look specifically at the spread for ‘Disarming Britain’ the image used is of two boys, one is using their hand to make a gun shape and is pointing it aggressively at the other boy who looks quite innocent and sad; this image makes you think, it gives off a strong meaning due to the fact that they are children and guns are associated with grown men in gangs. The image tells us that guns are creeping their way and emerging into a younger age of children, it shocks the audience and makes the programme seem more interesting with this visual insight and therefore will encourage more people to watch it.

If we compare the Channel 4 double spread to the Radio Times double spread we can see a lot of differences. The first thing I notice is that the Radio times spread uses a lot more text than Channel 4, and they use more images too; they do not have a main background image, though they do have one large image which acts like the main picture used on a channel 4 spread sheet and is used to inform and act like text to give the reader a visual look at what the text describes. We can see that the Radio Times likes to use puns for its titles to create humour, such as ‘come tan with me’ for the Strictly Come Dancing

spread. If we take a look at the Dr Who spread we can see that they use about 6 images on their spread sheet, all of different sizes and all have blocks of text next to them which narrates each image along with the main block of text. That is another thing, they use a mass of text on their spreads however they have different reasons for doing this in comparison to channel 4, The Radio Times do this because they are describing the programme in depth as Channel 4 on the other hand are just advertising. The Radio Times are still advertising the programme but they are looking at all the details, describing the set, talking about the new actor etc, the top left of the image says ‘Behind the scenes’ so we know that this is going to be an article style of discussing elements behind the scenes.

All of these double page spreads advertise their programmes well and I believe this is a really affective way of presenting their programme or interview to the public. I believe a double page spread is one of the most interesting forms of advertising due to its creativity and artistic layout.