Watford Observer Textual Analysis

Textual Analysis – Watford Observer

The Watford observer newspaper is a local newspaper which can be bought in the area of Watford.


The layout of the newspaper follow similar codes and conventions of other newspapers, as you can see there is a large title in simple yet bold font, which is easily comparable to the majority of newspapers. This is an effective way of grabbing the consumer’s attention.


Under the title the Watford observer has their strap line highlighted in yellow, this is very useful as it contrasts from the rest of the page making it more visually pleasing. The strap line consists of the current date of when the paper was issued, the price of the paper and the website of the Watford observer, “www.watfordobserver.co.uk”.


The main headline of the paper is good as it is a large font and bold, this informs the reader about their main story in a few words and intrigues the reader.


However the Watford observer’s text layout for the story isn’t really satisfactory as they have a picture in between 2 of their columns which allows the text to look untidy.


There are capital letters at the beginning of the story showing emphasis and the story is summarized into several brief paragraphs creating an element of suspense which is then followed by “See pages 4 and 5 for a day-by-day account of the trial”, which gives the reader the option of reading further if they are interested.


With relevance to importance there is a picture on the right of the paper of a dog who had to be put down and a small section at the bottom right of the paper in where there is a suicide story.


The dog takes up a large proportion of the page whereas the suicide story is smaller than the advert.


This portrays that the suicide story is of hardly any severity compared to an “Award winning dog”.


At the bottom left of the paper there is an advert of a local mp hosting a public meeting, this would relate to the Watford community and putting an advert in the paper allows the reader to relate more to the community and interact. The Watford observer in that respect has a key role in participating in keeping their community aware.


That aside the paper looks quite dull with not to many colours standing out making the overall look of the paper dreary.