In what ways does your media products use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
My media product, a new local newspaper to an extent does challenge forms and conventions of a real local newspaper. My newspaper firstly directly challenges local newspaper which I’ve looked at by basing its story on page 2 towards music. This is generally rare within a newspaper as it would generally focus on the “big issue” of the time. I decided to challenge this as I feel local newspapers are a good means of advertisement around a community. Another reason I decided to use this as a main page is because music within the Reading community is a big feature, with festivals such as Reading Festival.
My newspapers layout challenged the conventions of a local newspaper. The main page looks more like a page from a national or global newspaper such as The Sun. This is evidential by the use of a columnist which is displayed on page with a bright blue background with white font over it to make it stand out from headlines. The layout also uses more than one story on a page. Within a local newspaper there is usually 1-3 stories per page, however my newspaper has 5. I decided to use this many as I thought it would fill the space more necessarily. I also did it this way so that there would be less pages in total making my newspaper much greener, if it was real.
The newspaper does follow some conventions of a real newspaper, the A3 sizing and the use of a large image on the front with large, bold text to stand out as a headline. It also follows the conventions of not using a barcode on the front; barcodes are usually found on the back however they can sometimes be placed on the front. The reason for me to do this is so that I had more room for a column to advertise a part of a story in order to provide an interest for people who would see it at a glance.
The poster in which I made is very different from conventional newspaper posters. During my research the posters I saw where generally black and white with bold text advertising the main headline of a newspaper. My poster doesn’t do this. It uses the headline of the newspaper in a similar fashion, being at the top but only being made large enough to fill the page rather than be seen on the newspaper where it was seen to advertise the newspapers name. The poster then uses an image which would be the main focus of my newspaper, which has been accustomed with suitable text advertising both the headline story and the newspaper page.
I decided to do it this way instead of following the basic conventions because it wouldn’t be suitable for the criteria, being suitable for use within a magazine. I also thought that by making it this way it would be more eye catching an exciting to see in a magazine. I also thought that the use of the stories on the poster would be suitable in advertising the whole of the newspaper rather than just an individual story on the newspapers name.
The radio advert is very simple and yet follows the features and conventions of a real advert. Adverts have to be simple and short in order to be used within a short break on air. It follows the traditions of a real radio advert because it is between 20-30 seconds long but also uses a song in the background in order to keep a flow about it. I secondly decided to make it as one of three radio adverts as this would make it seem as if it was from a real radio show. By doing the above it made it very realistic but also within a set purpose advertising it well.
How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary task?
I personally think that my media product as a whole works very well, especially well after the changes in which was prescribed by my focus group feedback. I think the use of colour and font which links together throughout products makes it look as a collection of work rather than individual products. I think the way also that images between the paper based products work well together.
To an extent individually I think the products are probably more effective as they are used to advertise different things, the newspaper advertising and containing the story and the poster and radio advertising the newspaper as a whole. However hand in hand each of the products does work well with a fluent colour scheme, a fluent theme between radio, poster and newspaper e.g. stories.
What have you learned from your audience feedback?
Audience feedback has been a big help throughout the A2 sector of my coursework. By using my audience feedback in an array of different methods e.g. use of questionnaire and use of a focus group along with feedback through speech.
By using my audience feedback I have learnt there are certain things people wish to see within a local newspaper e.g. community news, sports, jobs and free ads. I also learnt that from the people who completed a questionnaire that they wanted to see the inclusion of a music column or page in order to promote the involvement of music within a community and local gigs as they felt this wasn’t advertised enough within a local newspaper and only in magazines.
I also learnt from their feedback that from my first draft of my products that people felt it needed a few changes such as, the change from A4 paper size to A3. The reason for them wanting me to do this is so that it would be similar to existing products and also that I could fit more information on it.
A final thing which audience feedback gave me was that the layout on the pages needed to have a few bolts tightened as such. They felt that on the front page that I needed to change a few things, they recommended that I used a barcode in which I decided against because I felt it would be more acceptable on the back of the newspaper. They also recommended that I move around my columns making them fit the page better. I decided to change this and with their feedback it made my newspaper feel more complete and look professional.
How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
Media technologies were needed throughout the use of my media product. I used an array of different mediums in order to create my products. I used professional software’s such as Adobe Photoshop and Adobe In-design and later I used Microsoft Publisher. By using this professional grade software it meant that I could create my products to the best of my ability, even when there was problems in gaining access to software and getting images which would be suited for my media piece.
During my planning I had to use both paper based and electronic means of media in order to gain knowledge on products and also how to note them down. Using such mediums as a BlogSpot it has allowed people, such as you to follow the story of how I planned and researched into creating my products.
Other technologies which were used throughout the use of my A2 coursework was the use of Camera (Digital SLR) and computer equipment and software.
