Newspapers are read by nearly everyone, are highly influential and make millions of pounds each year. It is one of the most trusted and responsible mediums of all which is read by the majority of all adults. Over all there is 1200 regional and local papers and 1600 associated websites in the UK. The local press is the uks most popular print medium, read by 33million a week and 42million unique users rely on a local newspaper website each month. More than 6100 local newspapers are sold and disributed in the uk every minute. Local newspapers are the first media that over half of people would go to to raise awareness of a local issue or problem. The local media employs over 30,000 people including 10,000 journalists, which is more than the bbc employ. 85% of local newspaper readers in Britain say it's important that their local paper keeps them informed about local council issues. Over 60% of people act on advertisements in local newspapers. Newspapers (30%) and TV advertising (56%) have more impact upon consumers than magazines (17%) and radio (15%) and outdoor (15%). The paper covers all social classes in high mainly because profiles of regional and local news paper readers reflect profiles of areas they cover. 71% of all British adults read a regional newspaper, yet only 47% read a national newspaper. The regional press has a very high solus readership, and 26.7% of those who read a regional newspaper do not read a national daily. Media moves from global to local and local newspapers journalists tend to live close to the areas they write about. The top 20 publishers own approximately 90% of all regional and local newspaper titles in the uk and 95% of all the total weekly newspaper circulation. They have new ways of attracting audiences such as using websites, podcasts, mobile phone apps, e-editions allow access to news and entertainment on the move.


Nearly 100% of the industry now has an online presence. They also use blogs as a way for the reader to be directly involved with the newspaper. They also use video streaming to provide information. There is a symbiotic relationship between newspapers and audiences. The Shropshire Star is owned by Midlands News association, and is ninth on the league table. In 1964, the Shropshire was the first newspaper to be published after world war 2. It used new printing techniques instead of hot metal printing that had been used by all papers previously, and as The Shropshire Star was using it's new technique of web ofset printing and photocompoisition, fleet street was still using hot metal printing. The techniques that The Shropshire Star developed is still used today. The first copy was an offshoot of the West Midlands Express and Star but The Shropshire Star became independant quickly. Nightly circulation of 19000 was a huge sales growth. By the mid 80s, is was pushing 100,000 mark, spread from 2 editions, to 8. It was also the first paper to use a colour picture in it's paper on the 30th January with a picture of Winston Churchill on the day of his funeral. Then in March 1967, it was the first paper to publish a colour photograph on the same day as the picture was taken when the queen visited Shropshire. In the 1980s, the Shropshire Star and it's wolverhampton sister paper were at the front of another newspaper revolution, which was the computer revolution. Together they moved from old fashioned 'double keying' to single keying, which cut out entire production process and effectively turned journalists into printers, this began the age of hi-tech computerised newspapers.

The Shropshire Star was one of the very first to go online in 1998 with shropshire-online.com and in 1999, the newspaper got its first internet editor and renamed it to shropshirestar.com. More of the shropshire stars papers get into homes of the potential readership than for any other regional paper. 172,000 adult readers read The Shropshire Star each night which is the highest penetration rate in British regional press. Over 82% of all Shropshire Star published being home delivered. 57% of Shropshire Star readers don't read any other daily papers other than that. On average, readers spend 33 minutes a day reading their paper. The paper also supports local events and gets involved in the community, not just reports about them. In the past they have sponsored people, suported charities and worked with schools, this makes the paper seem more friendly and approachable. It employs around 400 people and has offices around the country. Most people live in the area that they write about making it more trusted. It owns 2 radio stations: The Wyre and The Severn. There is a high proportion of local news and a high level of meaningfullness in that news with enough national and international news to keep a high solus readership. The editionising keeps even more local focus. There used to be 8 editions of the paper, and now there is only 3: the county edition, boarder edition and south edition.

The feeling of independance is promoted in the newspaper and makes a big deal of how its pro-community rather than pro any particular political party. It is  good value paper and has 56-72 pages which contain 9 stories on the front page, 17 stories per inside page and 33 minutes spent reading it. It has a varied content which ensures a wide spread audience. There is the option of having the paper delivered for £2.10 a week for 6 editions which can be delivered to anywhere even outlying rural areas as there is a network of paper boys/girls and delivery vans.

The papers mode of address is friendly and direct using phrases such as 'your star' 'call us' 'try your luck' 'we're happy to help' as well as the use of syntax, short sentences, yet still quite copy heavy and detailed at times. Puns and alliteration is used. There are supplements for different sections of audience eg. women, cars, home, jobs, business, weekend, wedding, schools and special events. The voice of the reader is heard as local letters, classified articles and announcements are used. A high proportion of stories come from readership, unlike other news provies eg. coffee mornings, flower group holds meeting. Comunity is represented positively whether rural village life or bigger towns like Shrewsbury and Telford. This promotes a good self image and encourages sales as they are seen as being caring and charitable. They promote pleasant environment and are pro animal. There is also child centred stories and nostalgic photos sent in by readers. They promote lively social lives and include festivals, films, concerts and coffee mornings. There is also community announcements like opening times and competitions and offers. There is also a wide range of methods you can read the shropshire star in, such as the print, online app and smart phone versions.

There are several types of newspapers, such as Nationals like The Sun and The Times, Regional Newspapers such as The Shropshire Star, Local such as the Market Drayton Advertiser and The Whitchurch Herald. There are also different formats that the papers come in, such as Tabloids like The Sun, Broad Sheets like The Telegraph, Berliner like The Guardian, compact such as The I, and digital which can be sourced through apps, online and through pdf documents of the whole paper. News printed in newspapers can be biased towards a certain side of a story, but the information must be accurate, but with broadcast news on the television the news given must be balanced because news on the telly is more trusted. Printed news is regulated by the PPC which is self regulatory, and also contempt of court which is legal. There is also the official secrets act and deformation.

The Ring is a psychological horror films released in 2002. It's a remake of the 1998 japanese horror Ring of which there is also a novel. The film begins with a shot of a big house on a stormy night. There are two teeange girls names Katie and Becca who are telling eachother ghost stories about a tape they have heard of which is said to kill people after it's watched. Katie begins to panic as she says she has watched the film in the previous weekend. It is then explained that after watching the tape, the phone rings at 10pm and a voice says 'Seven days' to you, indicating that you only have 7 days to live. The phone then rings and the camera goes onto a close up shot of the clock which shows that it's 10pm. Tension is built with the use of music and a long pause as the girls go to answer the phone and as Becca answers it, she acts as if it is the voice telling her of the 7 days, but passes the phone over to Katie and it's just her mum. This is known as an eton bus (i think but I might have to check that....) which means it builds up a large amount of suspence, then nothing scary happens as a result. As Katie remains on the phone, Becca goes out of shot and Katie goes to look where she's gone. There is noises and the television turning itself on. The camera then moves to the television which shows it is turning on and off. The scene then goes to the kitchen where the background music stops and Katie sees the fridge opening. As she investigates she hears footsteps quickly going up the stairs, so she follows them thinking it is Becca, but as she gets to the top, there is a low shot of the bottom of her bedroom door with water pouring from under it, yet as she opens the door there is no water in the room. She then looks up at the television and the camera shot shows she is screaming and her face has been distorted. There are then clips from the video shown. The scene then cuts to a parents evening at a primary school where a teacher is showing a mother pictures of what her son has drawn in class.

 The images are of a dark nature which is seen to be odd for a child of his age to be drawing. It is revealed that the small boy, Aiden, was friends with Katie, and his mother, Rachel, thinks the drawings are as a result of her death, but it's revealed that the drawings were actually done a week before her death. They then return home and it is revealed that Katies time of death was 10pm. At the funeral for Katie, Rachel discusses with Katies mum that the cause of Katies death was a mystery. Her mum doesn't believe that what the doctors said her heart had just stopped beating and thinks there is more behind it. The scene then cuts to a shot of Katie in her wardrobe looking gross. Rachel then goes outside and speaks to some of Katies friend and they bring up the story about the video, and the fact that Katies boyfriend also died on the same night. Then the scene cuts to a shot of Aiden who it walking up the stairs of the house to where Katie died. He see's the television and it starts to move, but Rachel is just behind him and tells him to return downstairs, yet he stays put.

Then Rachel looks around her room a bit and see's pictures of people but their faces are blurred out, and underneath the pictures are the contact details for the place where the photos had been developed so she goes and gets some of her pictures developed and the pictures are of Katie and her friends who had been away at the weekend on a trip. The pictures seem normal, except one where all the peoples faces are blurred out. We then see a birds eye shot of a car driving, it is raining and grey, which suggests she isn't taking a nice trip. The car then reaches the destination of 'Shelter Mountain' which is the place Katie had stayed with her friends the previous weekend. Rachel goes to the reception area and asks about which cabin it was that a group of teenagers stayed at which she finds out was number 12. She also finds out they rented a video so looks at the video's that can be rented. They are all in cases except one which looks out of place so she had that one. She then goes to the cabin 12 and puts the video on. It's the same video shown snippets of earlier on in the film. The film is very hectic, atmospheric as it is in grainy black and white and uses quite stressful music. After she has finished watching it, the phone rings, and a voice says to her '7 days'.

The scene then cuts to a black screen with white writing with the words 'Thursday - Day 1'. The next scene begins and it is raining which suggests the atmosphere of the film is still gloomy. It is then shown that Rachel is taking a photo of herself, but when she looks at it, her face is distorted as it was in the pictures of Katie and her friends after they'd watched the tape. A man named Noah appears and she shows him  the tape. After Noah is shown the film the phone rings, but as Rachel knows who it'll be she lets it ring. After Noah leaves the apartment Rachel presses the button on the phone and there is a close up shot of her face looking apprehensive. We then cut to the next scene which shows that Rachel is getting a copy of the tape made, whilst she is doing the copy, the machine keeps going wrong and the numbers keep going mental she also see's that something is falling from the tree on the film. The scene then cuts to a black screen with white writing saying Friday - Day 2, on this day she thinks she begins to see things in real life that were in the video such as the ladder. The next shot shows that it is Saturday - Day 3, shown in the same style as the previous 2 days. Rachel goes to the mental hospital where Katies friend Becca is a patient. Becca seems unresponsive until Rachel reaches out an touches her hand, when Becca tells Rachel that she will show her how she died. Becca is also aware that Rachel only has 4 days to live. The next scene shows Rachel looking at the tape again, she fast forwards the tape to the part where she saw something falling from the tree, there are fast cuts between rachel and the tape. The films is paused and then there is a fly on the screen with moving wings, she picks it up off the screen and it disappears out of the video. She then has a nose bleed. On Sunday - Day 4, Rachel finds where the lighthouse that is in the tape is situated. It is on something or other island and in an article about the island, there is information about the woman out of the tape who's name is Anna Morgan. Rachel does an online search of her name and a lot of articles about horses and mysteries about how a lot of them died which begs the question, why? We see that a lot of the horses died and she was linked to them in a way. She died by jumping off a cliff which we'd seen on the tape. We then see that Rachel is scribbling out faces on the pictures as Katie did.

Monday - Day 5 see's Noah at a store, looking into a CCTV camera. He notices that he has a distorted face just like Rachel and the photos of Katie and her friends. Rachel then comes home to the babysitter and the camera goes over the actress, for this they probably used a jig, and to the TV, which has started to distort. The baby sitter leaves, an water starts to come out of the bottom of the TV. There is a close up on the water , and Rachel starts to choke. A close up from a low angle is then used to show Rachel choking and she then pulls out a chord that is used to monitor patients in hospitals. She pulls it out goes to the phone, only to see that the phone is leaking water. Rachel then goes to see Aidan and there is a girl sitting in the middle of the floor in a puddle. There is then a bright flash and Rachel wakes up in bed, knowing that it was all a dream, by she wakes up covered in hand shaped bruises. Suggesting that something has happened to her in her sleep. She walks into the lounge to see Aidan sitting watching the tape, angry and upset she turns the video off but the phone rings.Rachel then rings Noah and we find out that Aidan is Noah's son. 

On Tuesday Day 6, there is a sequence of footage revealing the information that Rachel has found Anna's location, we then see a birds eye view of her driving as we have seen previously in the film, suggesting she is making an important journey, along with a voice over of the shot suggesting that both Rachel and Noah are both in the car together. Rachel then gets out of the car and it is raining heavily. She then boards a ferry that will take her to the island where she believe Anna to be. She also reveals that she thinks that you see the ring before you die. The audience at this point don't know what the ring is, which raises questions. Due to the weather, the ferry ride is very rough, this creates mise en scene making the islands she is traveling to seem daunting and unwelcoming.  On the ferry journey, Rachel finds out that Anna had a daughter who died young. Rachel then approaches a horse in a horsebox which is among the cars on the ferry. She reaches out to touch the horse and it becomes aggravated. There are close ups of the horses eyes and hooves which makes the horses power known. The horse then escapes from the horse box and jumps over the side of the boat, using cgi, the water then turns red, explaining that the horse is dead. This raised more questions in the film as we know that horses have been connected to Anna on the island.

Slasher Films

The horror genre has many sub-genres which it's films fit into. One of these is Slasher which are films recognisable for the shocking amount of blood and gore used in them. Some well known and successful films of the sub-genre include Halloween, which had 7 sequels as well as Rob Zombie re making Halloween 1 and 2, Nightmare On Elm Street, of which there are 5 films and one (utterly terrible) remake which was released in 2010, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, which was so popular it had sequels, remakes, games and comic books and Friday 13th, which has several sequels as well as the movie Freddy vs Jason, which took the villain of A Nightmare On Elm Street (Freddy Kreuger) and the villain of Friday 13th (Jason Voorhees) and made a film starring them both.

The Devil Rides Out 1967

The Devil Rides Out was a hammer horror film made in 1967 and released in 1968. Hammer is a London based production and a legendary British film brand founded in 1934 and best known for its gothic horrors throughout the mid 1950's to the 1970's. As well al gothic horrors, hammer also produced science fiction, thrillers, film noir, comedies and later on, television series. 

A classic film from the hammer genre is 1968s The Devil Rides Out starring Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing and Charles Grey. It was made in England. Hammer often partnered up with Warner Bros to make their films internationally famous and therefore gain more success. The film was set in 1930s, and has a theme of Satanism and black magic running through it. The film opens with credits backed with images with satanic connotations such as the downward pointing pentagram and the goat of mendes. The music used in this part of the film is dramatic and booming, this makes the audience think something equally dramatic is going to happen in the film. The theme of the film is made clear from the beginning.  The film then goes into a scene of lots of people in suits, telling us they are posh. The two main characters find a room at the top of the house that has satanic imagery on the floor and a basket with chickens in it in the cupboard. This shows the owner of the house has an interest in black magic as the slaughter of the black cockerel and the white hen signifies this.

The main character then takes one of the men and hypnotizes them with a mirror and places the christian cross on them as a symbol of protection from black magic. The man who is hypnotized is then sent to bed, and starts strangling himself with the cross, suggesting he is being possessed to do this. The man then escapes and the removes the cross. As they have to go and look for him they are back in the room with the chickens and symbols in it. Smoke begins to come from the rams nose on the floor and the eyes glow red. A man them appears from the smoke and the main character says not to look into his eyes, so they other man does, naturally, and he becomes hypnotized. The main man does some chanting and the smoke man disappears. There is then mention of a devils baptism which is going to happen on a certain date and that is why all the weird stuff is happening. Throughout the film, very bright lights are used as hammer horrors are known for their use of bright technicolour, so because of this, hardly any shadows are used, but suspense and mystery is still present even with the lack of shadows, which is a dramatic contrast between earlier horrors such as Dracula which heavily relied on shadows to create atmosphere because of the amount of content they weren't allowed to add. 

Special effects are used in the film when the man appears from the smoke and appears to be floating. It is also used when all the people from the party at the opening scene go into the woods and sacrifice a goat and they summon the goat of mendes which is a symbol of the devil. The two main characters then throw a cross at it at it burst into flames. The sacrifice of the goat that they did shows that the devils baptism that they were on about has begun. There is dramatic music used which shows us that something significant has happened. 

Frankenstein 1931

AO2 - Looking at the narrative, composition and content.

1931s Frankenstein was an early horror film and one of the first ones to have sound, which was introduced in 1927. The success of Frankenstein was so high that it was one of the first films to have sequils. It was a film that was ahead of its time with the use of technoligy and special effects. The film begins with a man in a suit in front of a curtain talking about the film and issuing a warning about the frightening content throughout it. This would get the audience prepared and make them feel more scared about the movie they are about to see. The set up of this opening has  very theatrical look to is, making the film seem more like a stage production
that a cinematic film. After this introduction is over the film goes onto the opening credits which include words over a background of spinning eyes and blurry figures, giving the opener a mysterious feel to it. These credits don't include the name of the person who is playing the monster, making it seem more real and giving the illusion that there is actually a monster. After the credits are over, we are taken to a graveyard scene, including crying people and grave stones. We see a coffin buried and the people leaving. Almost immediately after, two characters dig up the grave and take the body. During this there is a bell ringing and a grim reaper like statue behind them, following the usual connotations of what a horror should include. When the coffin is removed from the ground, one of the two men holds the coffin, almost affectionately, and looks at the camera and says "he's just resting waiting for a new life to come" this audience interaction lets the viewers know they are stealing the body for a reason and makes them think what they could be wanting to use it for. It raises many questions about the film. The grave robbers then go on to observe a class and steal a brain from it. There are two brain jars, one labeled normal brain, one abnormal. One of the men try to steal the normal brain but drop it, so are left with no choice but to have the abnormal brain. This again raises more and more questions with the audience and the plot begins to add up. We are shown where the two men live, in a broken windmill. The inside of the windmill is full of machinery and a mysterious body under some sheets. There are loud electric sciencey sounds used throughout this scene as well as a loud storm outisde. This sets the scene and makes it all scary. Lots of closeups are used to focus in on important bits of the scene, such as Frankenstein saying scary things. The sounds and weather contribute to the bringing to life of the monster. The equipment and the realistic sounds, levers and lifts give the film a science fiction edge, where as the rest of the story is fantasy. The dramatic scene reflects to madness going through Frankensteins mind throughout the process of creating the monster, this is confirmed when he says "Now I know how to feels to be god" when the monster is brought to life. There is a close-up on the hand of the monster and we see the first movements it makes, the use of the close up is dramatic and effective in bringing fear to the story. One of the sub stories in the plot is in the town where frankenstein lives, there is a woman who wants to marry him and they are concerned about him because he has left the town to live on the outskirts to do experiments. This sub story contains a pretty, seemingly helpless woman, which was a key part of early horror films. Throughout the film, there is very little camera movement, as the recording equipment used in these early films were often very heavy and almost immovable, but towards the end of the film, some camera movement starts to be introduced. In the film, more shadows are used in the scenes shot in the windmill, this makes the audience aware of the unknown aspect, whereas in the village scenes, it is very light, reflecting that they are happy and have no real worries. The lighting is used effectively and creats atmospheres throughout the film. The film was ahead seen as quite controversial as a scene is shown where the monster throws a girl into a lake and she drowns. This scene was cut from the film by the classification boards as it was too controversial, but was later added back into the film as other films started to contain more frightening content. The special effects used in Frankenstein are very effective as they are teamed with mise en scene and sound effects, especially when the monster is being raised up to the roof. At the end of the film when the monster takes Frankenstein up to the windmill and the villagers follow and set the windmill on fire. Here, lots of pyrotechnics and falling beams are used which make the scene dramatic and realistic, and therefore making the audience more frightened. Credits are used at both the beginning and end of the film, only on the beginning credits, there is no name to say who is playing the monster, this makes the film seem more real to the audience and create an illusion that there is actually a monster, however at the end, Borris Karloff is in the credits as the monster.

In Frankenstein there is a strong sense of insanity, as Frankenstein portrays a 'mad scientist' like character and likens himself to god after the creation of the monster, saying he knows how it feel to be god.  There are strong images used, especially close ups eg on the hand of the monster as it first moves and a worms eye view as the monster is raised into the roof. The sound is also vital as it adds to the significance of the machinery in the process of bringing the monster to life. There is also an animalistic nature to the villagers in the film as they turn barbaric when they chase the monster and set the windmill on fire. They act as if in a pack and all group together and set fire to things.

Throughout the film, different groups within society are represented. Frankenstein would of been seen as a bad roll model for the time as he is blasphemous and is comparing himself to god. This would of been seen as a very shocking thing to do at the time because there was a lot of religious people about. As the crowds go up the windmill to burn it down, there is a pack mentality to them with animalistic tendencies. The audience should be drawn in to this mentality as they are watching the film and should feel the same way towards the monster as the crowd do. This is stereotypical of the time, as it would be the norm for the majority to outweigh the minority. Nowadays however there may be a different outlook on how the monster is seen by the viewers, and there may be pity felt towards it.

The film was made by universal studios, which was a studio renowned for making horror films at the time. This meant they would already be aware of what would make it a successful film and what to include as they know what the audiences want. As they were making so many horror movies, they could re-use sets for more than one film, this way they could save money on the overall budget, so they would have more money for other aspects of the film such as the make-up used on the monster, which was an innovative approach to how the monster looked, because in the original story by Mary Shelley, the monster was portrayed much differently than how he looks in the film. Even though it was a much different look in the film, it worked as in it needs to be dramatic to scare people as much as it did. The way the monster was portrayed has become an iconic look in horror. Because the the actors were contracted the the studio, they had a say as to which films they appeared in, for example when Bela Lugosi turned down playing the monster in Frankenstein.

AO1 - Examine the changes in the genre over the past 100 years

As a genre, horror is always developing since it's very first motion pictures in the early 1900s. In 1925, Lon Chaney directed the silent movie 'The Phantom of the Opera'. It was innovative as Chaney did all of the make-up himself and starred in the film as the phantom. The things he used to create his looks in the films can still be seen in the LA natural history museum, including the glass eye he used The Phantom Of The Opera. He changed horror in such a drastic way that has made it what it is today. It is said that because Chaney had such a love and attachment to his films that his ghost is in Universal Studios to this day. 1927 saw the entrance of sound in horror films with Universal Studios 'Dracula' starring Bela Lugosi, a Hungarian actor who had had trouble getting into the english film industry because of his accent, but for this film, his long drawn out use of speech was perfect. This film used low key lighting and sound. The way that lighting was used created a dark and mysterious atmosphere and an enigmatic feel, questioning what could be lurking in the shadows. The film was directed by James Wale who pushed the bounderies of horror to new levels and his films were seen as shocking. It was the first film to have dialogue running all the way through it which marked another milestone for the film industry. The film used very low lighting which meant there was a large amount of shadows which made for a better and more spooky atmosphere throughout the film and raised more questions with the audience as to what could be lurking behind the shadows. Because of the era the film was made in, no blood or fangs could be included in the film, instead these things were portrayed through suggestion. If anything was deemed too risky, The Hays office would cut the scene. The Hays office is a censorship organisation that policed what went into films, making sure content such as this doesn't enter films for the viewing public to see. As the horror genre progressed and the content of films became more graphic, The Hays office went mental as they felt they didn't want the public to see such graphic things. Over time they slowly allowed more things to be included in films, by the time the second Dracula film was released in 1948 they were allowing scenes such as women being thrown out of windows and men off balconies. This was a step forward for horror are gave the genre more room to work with in terms of what they could include. In 1951, Lugosi felt his career ending, and went to England to be in west end perofrmances of Dracula alongside Sheila Wynn. He believed the audience would still find the play as scary as they found the film, but with the progression of what was allowed to be shown in films, audiences were becoming harder to scare, and at times even laughed at Lugosi's performance on stage. Five years after his failed comeback, Lugosi died, and was buried in his Dracula cape.

The first in a long line of Frankenstein movies was made in 1931, including Borris Karloff who played the monster. The monster was originally meant to have been played by Bela Lugosi. The film very much stretched the limits of horror with it's inclusion of necrophilia, with Frankenstein taking much love from making the monster, and the death of a child on screen. Karloff used his own experiences of being seen as different for his role. As a young boy, he was the subject of racism due to the colour of his skin. After the successes of both Frankenstein and Dracula, Universal Studios was now primarily associated with its horror films.