STATEMENT OF INTENT

For my NEA Coursework, I have chosen Brief 2, where you create a front page and a double page spread from a regional newspaper reporting on a social and/or political issue of interest to its broad local audience. 

For my main story, I will focus on the United Kingdom’s teenage mental health. This is a serious subject and by doing this, I can raise awareness and explore into the causes of mental health. 

For my campaign flyers, I will create three that raise awareness for mental health. To make these, I will use Photoshop along with Canva. All three flyers will have the hashtag #YouAreNotAlone as a social media challenge for people to connect people together going through the same thing. 

For my first flyer, I intend on using the main text to read ‘You are NOT alone’ the same as my newspaper headline. I intend on creating a digital design of a head that has a bouquet of flowers coming out, which will represent how amazing the mind is, and how we should look after it. I will add a floral print background behind the head with flowers, this is to add depth and carry on the floral theme, symbolising that you should treat everything like it is a flower, even yourself. 

For my second flyer, I intend to create a blue gradient background, with a brain in a dark colour to symbolise the fact that you need to take care of your brain/mind. I intend on writing ‘Be kind to your mind’ as this will hopefully remind people, they must be kind to themselves. I will also write ‘It’s okay to not be okay’ inside a speech bubble coming from the brain, to show people that it is okay to not be okay. I will add a QR Code that takes you to the helpline page on Mind’s website so people can get the help they need. 

For my third flyer, I aim to imitate the google search bar. To make this, I will create the ‘Google’ logo and I want this to be a pink gradient to match the pink/orange background. Google frequently changes a letter to an icon; I will imitate this by putting a brain icon to symbolise mental health. I will make it look like somebody is typing into the search bar ‘It’s okay.’ to which I will put the ‘answers.’  

Newspapers all have different Political Compasses/Political bias, where the readers and audience also have those same political views. I will make my newspaper Libertarian left wing, as this will represent my political bias, and the fact that my story is on Mental Health. As theorist James Curran said ‘Reflect a wide range of opinions and interests’, and this is exactly how I intend on my newspaper being. 

For the front cover, I will take a photo of two teenagers talking. I will use the headline ‘You are not alone’ to match with the hashtag on the flyers. The masthead will have a blue background and will read ‘The Island Local.’ This will have a picture of the Jersey flag. I intend on 5 complementary plugs along the side and above the main story. I aim to include an advert at the bottom of the front cover with a barcode, and a contents line underneath to inform my audience what they can find in the newspaper. I aim intend on having the Subheading ‘Teen’s mental health has been worse than ever, how do we make it better?’ and the strap line: ‘Looking into the reasons why teens mental health needs more attention, Natasha Rawley explains how to help young adults in need.’ 

To write the body of the article, I will use Microsoft Word, and then I will import it into ‘InDesign‘, which will allow me to shape the body easily. To design my work, I will use photoshop. For my images, I will take photos and upload it onto InDesign.  

For the double page spread, I aim to take a candid photo of the same teenagers and caption it underneath. The header will say ‘You are not alone: Teen Mental Health.’ The main story title will read ‘Teenager’s mental health reports have increased significantly. What can we do to help?’ To fabricate the newspaper, I aim to write a plug article linking to mental health. I will also write a notice article on Mental health awareness month explaining what the newspaper have done to help. Following my style model, I will have a headshot photo of myself next to my name showing that I am the reporter. Looking into THEORISTS HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!. My main article will have a drop cap on the first letter of the story, along with my plug article. I intend on creating a header too, this will state the date, page and the name of the newspaper.