This is a newspaper I made to critique the ways that we engage with future predictions and to show their importance. The main focus of the newspaper is to make comparison between predictive astrology and weather forecasting. This you can see in the centre spread. I chose these two forms of prediction to act as examples of predictions that we trust and predictions we distrust. The reasons I chose these forms in particular was because of their familiarity, how they both start with observable, recorded data but the ways they interpret the data is very different, and because of the fact that weather forecasts and horoscopes are both consumed in similar ways, at similar times of day. This is what pushed me to use the tabloid format. The other forms of predictions referenced in the newspaper, I chose to show the importance of predictions. The newspaper starts off talking about superforecasters, which I chose to set up the viewer nicely by showing them something that sits in the middle ground between trust and distrust. The articles I chose show both the agreeable and disagreeable sides so the viewer can decide what they think. Next is a page about Mystic Meg’s lottery predictions. I chose this to show the grandeur of predictive astrology. The next spread opens to big headline text which critique predictive astrology. This sets you up for the centre spread, which inverts the formats of horoscopes and weather forecasts in print, to make the comparison I explained earlier. The next page adds more references to predictions in the crossword answers, and introduces renewable forecasting in the comic which is explored further on the page after. This page shows electoral forecasting which I chose to show the importance of predictions. Then another headline page making another comment about astrology. Then a quick sport section looking at predictions in sport. And finally the newspaper closes on an advert which makes a closing point about the speculative nature of all predictions.
