Use the task sheet below to structure your investigation into a range of feature articles:

You can cut and paste this into a separate Word/Pages document. There are a series of feature articles for you to investigate at the bottom of this post.

Feature Articles

 

Paired Work Task Sheet

 

In today’s lesson, you will explore a range of feature articles.

 

 

Title of Feature Article ………………………………………………………………

 

 

Audience ………………………………………………………………………………

 

Evidence

 

 

 

 

Purpose  ……………………………………………………………………………….

 

Evidence

 

 

 

 

Title and Headline

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Details (The Main Article)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Conclusion

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Language

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Personal Response

 

Did you think it was a successful feature article? Why/why not?

How did the feature article inform, entertain and persuade?

How did the feature article meet the criteria for being successful?

 

Feature Articles:

Australia’s Heatwave Feature Article 

Context: Written by an Australian scientist at Macquarie University. He’s also a government advisor on climate change. The text concerns the heatwave which hit much of Australia in 2013.

Audience: It could be argued that the text is aimed at all Australians to warn them that climate change is a threat to the country. You could also argue that the text is also aimed at people who deny that climate change exists, or aimed at people who might want to invest in solar panels for their property. Another audience could be advocates for renewable energy.

Purpose: The text acts as a warning to those who are perhaps unaware of the challenges facing our climate in Australia. The tone of the article suggests that people need to act urgently to mitigate the threat posed by global warming. By using a wide range of facts, Flannery alerts the reader to how dangerous the changes to our climate are and that Australia is in a race against time. The article ends on a sense of optimism in terms of our approach to renewable energy.

 

Disney’s Dolls

Here is a very quick guide to what to look for when reading/analysing/responding to a feature article. When you’re annotating your feature articles, use this a checklist of what to look for, what to annotate.

 

A feature article… Informs, Entertains & Persuades.

 

Purpose – The Mission of a Feature Article

Feature articles are detailed pieces of writing which explore a range of issues, opinions, experiences and ideas. The purpose of a feature article will vary depending on the media it is meant for. Feature articles should appeal to the particular audience the article is targeting. For example if a magazine was targeted at middle aged women, then the articles, advertising and pictures within that magazine would reflect their interest in lifestyle, career, money, health and relationships.

 

Structure

Like any form of writing a feature article follows a standard structure. While it may vary depending on your topic, a feature article should always include a headline, introduction, the main body and a concluding paragraph.

 

Title & Headline

The headline performs two important functions. An effective headline:

• Grabs the reader’s attention and persuades them to read the article
• Highlights the main idea of the article.
• Includes keywords (for online articles). 
Introduction 
The first paragraph outlines the subject or theme of the article, it may also:
• Provoke the reader’s interest by making an unusual statement.
• Provide any necessary background information.
• Invite the reader to take sides by making a controversial statement.
• Heighten the drama of an event or incident to intensify its appeal.
• Establish the writer’s tone
• Create a relationship between the writer and the reader.

 

Details (The Main Article)

The middle section consists of a number of paragraphs that expand the main topic of the article into subtopics. The usual components are:

• Facts and statistics, which support the writer’s opinion.
• Personal viewpoints.
• Opinions from authorities and experts.
• Quotes and interviews.
• Anecdotes and stories.
• Specific names, places and dates.
• Photographs, tables, diagrams and graphs.

 

Conclusion

The concluding paragraph should leave a lasting impression by:

• Reminding the reader of the article’s main idea.
• Suggesting an appropriate course of action.
• Encouraging a change of attitude or opinion.

 

Language of Feature Articles

• A personal tone is created through the use of informal, colloquial (slang) and first person narrative.
• Relevant jargon adds authenticity to the information and opinions.
• Anecdotes help to maintain reader interest.
• Facts validate the writer’s viewpoints.
• In humorous articles, exaggeration and generalisation are used to heighten humour.
• Rhetorical questions help to involve the reader.
• Emotive words are used to evoke a personal response in the reader.
• Effective use of imagery and description engage the reader’s imagination.
• The use of direct quotes personalises the topic.

 

 

We will complete all the necessary preparation for this task in class, though it would be an advantage if you were to read a range of feature articles in your own time. The more you read, the sharper your annotations will be!

The process:

We will investigate a range of feature articles and we will look for:

• Facts, opinions, supporting evidence, bias and objectivity
• Summarise content and evaluate it
• Explore different perspectives promoted by feature articles
• How these texts are structured
• Language features used in feature articles
• Context, audience and purpose
• Developing your own perspectives and viewpoints

 

 

To confirm, the following pieces need to be submitted today for your Task 4 assessment:

• Your planning document. This will be the planning booklet you were all given, which should contain all the necessary planning and preparation.
• The SCRIPT of your 30-second public information broadcast.
• The AUDIO of your 30-second public information broadcast. This should be submitted as an MP4 file.
• A poster promoting the same issue.
• A 1-minute TV advertisement promoting the same issue.

 

Submission Requirements:

• Work can be uploaded to SEQTA if you wish. Please note it should be submitted to TASK 4.
• You can save your work to an external hard drive and I will download it from there.
• You can save it your OneDrive account and send me the link.
• The planning booklet, poster and script should be PRINTED OUT and handed directly to me.

 

If there are issues with submitting your work, you MUST let me know as soon as YOU know, so I can deal with it.

Public Service Announcement: Sample Response

 

MAKE SURE YOU HAVE YOUR CONTEXT, AUDIENCE AND PURPOSE ALL PLANNED AND SORTED OUT BEFORE YOU BEGIN SCRIPTING YOUR PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT. 

Context- WA Alliance To End Homelessness

Audience- Adults

Purpose- To End Homelessness

 

Sample Response:

Right now- RIGHT NOW- there are over 9000 homeless Western Australians needlessly suffering. With the winter months approaching, there is no better time than to act NOW. Everyone has the right to shelter and dignity… and YOU’RE part of the solution. All donations to the WA Alliance to End Homelessness helps homeless Australians to find a warm place to sleep, warm clothes… a decent meal… rather than needlessly suffering. Our website (endhomelessnesswa.com) gives more information on the valuable work we do. By donating, you will help homeless Western Australians to find housing and to prevent homelessness through early intervention. By donating to WA Alliance to End Homelessness, YOU will become part of the solution. Together, we can make homelessness a thing of the past.

 

Teaching and Learning Points:

What do you want your public service announcement to achieve? What is the core purpose of your announcement? What do you want people to do as as result of listening to your 30-second radio announcement?

 

• This example uses repetition. My key word- the key topic- is homelessness and I wanted to use this word as frequently as possible to make it stick in the listener’s head.
• I also repeat ‘Right now’ at the start because I wanted to give the topic a sense of urgency.
• My public service announcement uses statistics/facts to back up and support my topic. You MUST make your research explicit as this adds authority to your broadcast.
• Lot’s of pronouns used: ‘You’re, ‘You’, ‘We’… These are repeated throughout my script to make it clear that I’m reaching out to my intended audience and including them in the solution to end homelessness.
• I also give the appeal a context, that winter is approaching and this adds a sense of urgency to the appeal.
• Repetition of ‘warm’ is meant to make people feel guilty for the things we take for granted.
• Emotive language: ‘needlessly suffering’. You may need to appeal to the listener’s emotions. It depends. I wanted to make my listener feel guilty by suggesting that homelessness can be avoided, that it’s needless and that people suffer.
• I then wanted to make the tone a little more positive by suggesting that there’s a ‘solution’ and that people can help find this by donating to the charity.
• I explain what the charity does to support and to end homelessness.
• I give out a website address so that people can learn more about the charity and how they can donate. There’s a link on the website for people to donate.
• I emphasise that the work that the charity does is ‘valuable’. That’s also a persuasive technique.
• I end by repeating ‘By donating…’ to reinforce the importance of donating to help end homelessness.
• The public service announcement ends on a positive note; making homelessness a ‘thing of the past’.

Please note the structure is pretty simple. I start with an emotional appeal, I follow that with some context, I explain the work of the charity and then I end by showing people what they can do to help.

 

Here are some links to important documents. Please note that the task sheet and marking key have been posted in a previous post. If you lose any documentation, either collect a spare booklet from me or download the relevant document from here:

exemplar of research data preparation re promoting Wheeled Chairs sports

Community groups

Simple basic ‘Aussie’ community service ideas

TASK 4 Producing CSA (Planning)

 

Here are some links to websites which might prove informative. Next week, we’re going to work on the script for your public service broadcast and I will model this for you. Remember that ALL your research needs to be completed BEFORE next Wednesday’s lesson.

 

The Community Broadcasting Association of Australia (CBAA)

https://www.cbaa.org.au/about

https://www.cbaa.org.au/listeners

Play’ Episode 1 to listen to who the presenters are and why they are presenting on the Community radio then play/listen to the remaining clips.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=funocbYwOdM&list=PLkObVpqnfou_FlvCAZa2tYNge7Q2yfpRe&index=3

The link above should show the following concepts below:

This Is Community Radio: Episode #1

CBAATube

This is Community Radio: Episode #2

CBAATube

This Is Community Radio: Episode 3 – Why is community radio important?

CBAATube

How does community radio contribute to a strong democracy?

CBAATube

How do volunteers contribute to community radio?

How did you get involved in community radio? | This Is Community Radio

CBAATube

How does community radio foster a vibrant culture? | This Is Community Radio – Episode #7

CBAATube

What is your proudest moment in community radio? | This Is Community Radio – Episode 8

CBAATube

Why Do You Listen To Community Radio? | This Is Community Radio Ep #9

CBAATube

—————————–

https://www.ourcommunity.com.au/marketing/marketing_article.jsp?articleId=1543

Marketing and your community group

http://headwest.asn.au/

https://www.salvationarmy.org.au/locations/western-australia/

https://www.bing.com/search?q=homeless+shelters+perth+wa&qs=SC&pq=homeless+shelter+perth+wa&sc=2-25&cvid=B396F91C51E8419DAB20D12C14FBF6C2&FORM=QBRE&sp=1

https://www.swan.wa.gov.au/In-around-Swan/Community-Noticeboard/Community-announcements

https://www.rrr.org.au/sponsorship-and-promotions/community-service-announcements

https://joy.org.au/community/

http://bunburycommunityradio.com/aboutus.html

https://www.bcl.com.au/perth/connect-wa/community-wa.htm

https://www.perth.wa.gov.au/live-and-work/community-services-and-facilities

 

 

 

 

 

Task 4 – Community Service Announcements and promotions final

 

Please refer to the task sheet (above) for information on how the assessment will be assessed and what you need to submit for it.

We will, of course, work on these during our lessons and I will provide you with the necessary structures/frameworks from which to work.

Infographics

What is the purpose of a graphic?

The purpose of graphics is to provide relevant visual output from a digital system. Graphics can be seen on a monitor when a computer is switched on, on a poster, in a related magazine.

 

What makes a successful Infographic?

As with any piece of content, if you want your infographic to be a success then you need to create one for your target audience. When coming up with the concept, do your research and find out what your audience likes, so that you can create an infographic that they will just have to share because it’s so on-point with their thoughts. Think about it like this. Your target audience has a problem (otherwise you wouldn’t exist) and your job is to solve that problem. When coming up with concepts, your goal should be to show your audience that you are their solution, using the creativity of an infographic. If you don’t have one, make sure you create a customer persona,so you know exactly who you are creating your infographic for.

 

A Compelling Theme.

If you check out the largest online community for infographics -Visually – then you’ll see that each one comes with a different theme. Your theme is essentially your story and it needs to correlate with your brand, as your infographic will become another footprint in your content marketing journey.

An exemplar is … Home Food Safety … or Home Food Safety for children

The aim is to teach people the importance of cooking safety to help avoid food poisoning. The theme is set within the various focus areas of the kitchen,

 

Actionable Data

Your next step should be to find the right data for your infographic, and this should be a heavy focus throughout. Don’t just create one because you think it looks cool. For people to want to share it, it needs to feature statistics that will back up your case.The key here is to find ‘stats’ that will help prove to your audience that your product or service is the solution that they need in their life/lives.

 

Awesome Graphics.

This is an obvious point to make, but your infographic has to look good! The graphics you use within it will help guide the viewer through the story.

You must provide handwritten research data on at least TWOtopics/ideas/concepts before selecting one. Notes for both topics will be part of the assessment task.

Some suggestions from infographic designers include:

• Keep your graphics simple
• Tell your story in sections so it flows
• Don’t use too many colours
• Make it readable
• Match up your visuals with data
• Stay true to your brand/service provider e.g. St John First Aid
• Don’t be too repetitive

• It’s not all about how it looks. The copy/information on your infographic is just as important!
• You need to come up with powerful headlines to really convey the message.
• Your headline needs to be strong so that people will be compelled to share it.
• Keep it simple, concise and relevant to the theme.

 

https://www.socialmediatoday.com/content/what-makes-great-infographic-1

 

Recycling-Infographic

https://www.swan.wa.gov.au/Services-support/Waste-Services/Recycling

https://www.rgang.org.au/r-gang/recycling-rule-changes-2018.aspx

https://stjohnwa.com.au/docs/default-source/first-aid-compliance/st-john-ambulance_first-aid-fact-sheets_a4_drsabcd-infant.pdf?sfvrsn=2

Fire-Season-Guide

https://www.thinkmentalhealthwa.com.au/media/1085/mcaay0430-tmh-infographic-how-to-final.pdf

https://www.thinkmentalhealthwa.com.au/media/1086/mcaay0430-tmh-infographic-mh-in-wa.pdf

https://www.thinkmentalhealthwa.com.au/media/1092/mcaay0352_gpposter_nov17_final.pdf

https://www.thinkmentalhealthwa.com.au/media/1115/181114-ment0171-tmh-infographic-v3-final.pdf

https://www.rsc.wa.gov.au/RSC/media/Documents/Resources/Publications/Alcohol-Interlock-Campaign-Evaluation_Report.pdf

 

 

As you know, you’ll be working on producing an infographic on either a local or global issue. The task sheet below (and marking key) have all the information you require to complete this task:

 

Task 3 – Public Service Infographic Assess sheet

 

In today’s lesson, you will conduct some individual research on some (or all) of the following institutions:

 

Try and find relevant websites for the following…

 

Australian Health posters

West Australian Health dept

WA Fire Dept

St John’s Ambulance

WA Surf lifesaving

WA Swimming

WA Mental Health

Safety in the home

Safety in the workplace

Domestic Violence

Child safety

 

In today’s lesson, I would like to research as many of these institutions as possible. You need to find posters and infographics on these websites and record your findings under the following headings:

 

• What is the purpose of the poster/infographic? What is it trying to achieve? What evidence is there in the text to support your answer? Is the text trying to warn the reader, to inform them, to support them? What is the tone of the text?
• Who is the intended audience? How can you tell? What evidence is there in the text to support your answer?
• How does the text use images to help the reader understand it? How do the images support the text?
• How does the text use words to help the reader understand what it is about? How do certain words help set the tone for the text?

 

You might want to use the table below to help you record your findings. You will need to cut and paste this into a Word document:

 

	Text 1   Website:	Text 2   Website:	Text 3   Website:	Text 4   Website:
What is the purpose of the poster/infographic? What is it trying to achieve? What evidence is there in the text to support your answer? Is the text trying to warn the reader, to inform them, to support them? What is the tone of the text?
Who is the intended audience? How can you tell? What evidence is there in the text to support your answer?
How does the text use images to help the reader understand it? How do the images support the text?
How does the text use words to help the reader understand what it is about? How do certain words help set the tone for the text?

 

Remember that you need to find EVIDENCE from the text to support your responses. The learning objective here is for your research to deepen your understanding of how images and text combine to present information in a specific way, for a specific purpose and for a specific audience.