Evaluation Questions
- In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
The idea of having the big and bold letter "P" for my masthead, beginning for both, the "Portishead" and "Post" differs to conventions as none of my researched newspapers do this, however in my opinion this looked best and suited my newspaper much more then sticking to the traditional layout of a newspaper masthead.
Similar to the newspapers I have researched such as, Evening Post, Daily Post and Echo I have created a logo which my audience can relate to, as it's only made for Portishead Post. But I have differed to Evening Post and Daily by not having the placed in between the two words in my masthead. Instead I have duplicated the way in which Echo place their logo, by having it on the right side of my masthead. I did this because it positioned best with the way in which had put my masthead, if I had the logo cutting into the masthead it began to make problems and made my newspaper look quite rough and unorganised, so by placing the logo out side of the masthead it kept it looking clean as well as keeping to conventions.
Adopting the idea of having a advert banner at the top of my front cover, like Echo, The Cornwall Review and Evening Post has kept my product to conventions. Through this I have also done similar adverts, that they are for local businesses in Portishead, where my newspaper is sold and is about winning a prize or deals on eating out, mirroring that of my researched newspapers.
For my inside page I have only stuck to one of my researched newspapers, Mercury as I thought this one kept to a traditional layout rather than The Times, where they had loads of announcements for locals. I did this because if I had gone and decided to do a announcements page, I would have not been able to do an inside story or put any other contents on that page, which would have made it too simplistic and not what would be in a weekly newspaper.
I stuck to the conventionally layout by keeping the inside story the main attraction to my audience, by placing it in the middle of the page and using a large picture, similar to the way in Mercury has laid out their inside story. However I did develop the way that the headline was placed, I decided to instead of having it below the image, to have it above as I thought this would hook my audience better as it looks more promote.
Another part of my newspaper that is comparable to Mercury is that they also have adverts on their inside page, however I have challenge conventionalities by having my advert on the right side, bottom corner of the inside page, rather than another advert banner along the whole bottom. However, I have stuck to traditions by having a contents guide on the left side third of my inside page, similarly to Mercury.
Adopting the idea of having a advert banner at the top of my front cover, like Echo, The Cornwall Review and Evening Post has kept my product to conventions. Through this I have also done similar adverts, that they are for local businesses in Portishead, where my newspaper is sold and is about winning a prize or deals on eating out, mirroring that of my researched newspapers.
For my inside page I have only stuck to one of my researched newspapers, Mercury as I thought this one kept to a traditional layout rather than The Times, where they had loads of announcements for locals. I did this because if I had gone and decided to do a announcements page, I would have not been able to do an inside story or put any other contents on that page, which would have made it too simplistic and not what would be in a weekly newspaper.
I stuck to the conventionally layout by keeping the inside story the main attraction to my audience, by placing it in the middle of the page and using a large picture, similar to the way in Mercury has laid out their inside story. However I did develop the way that the headline was placed, I decided to instead of having it below the image, to have it above as I thought this would hook my audience better as it looks more promote.
Another part of my newspaper that is comparable to Mercury is that they also have adverts on their inside page, however I have challenge conventionalities by having my advert on the right side, bottom corner of the inside page, rather than another advert banner along the whole bottom. However, I have stuck to traditions by having a contents guide on the left side third of my inside page, similarly to Mercury.
- How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
I think that my main product is very effective and follows conventions. I think that it is a good example of a fake newspaper as it firstly, mirrors the layout and appearance of a real life newspaper which would be sold to customers. I have used traditional layout formats, such as headlines, masthead and stories. I believe that the best part on my front page is the advert that I created on Photoshop, which is on the bottom right corner of my cover. This is because it reflects similar adverts that would be put in newspapers and targets my audience, people who like fitness. By making sure that the text doesn't sink into the background and become faded I have made sure that it is promote by adding a white boarder around the blue masthead of the advert. I think that my logo that I also created on Photoshop would be used in a real newspaper, such as, Daily Post. However I have adopted the layout of a logo design from the newspaper Liverpool Echo, as I have put it along side the masthead, on the right side instead of having it cutting in between the masthead like Daily Post.
Another part of my newspaper which I think is effective is the stories, as I think that they target my audience. This is because the story is based on my audience, a group of young adults who have gone out drinking and have to pay for their actions. I have also targeted an older audience, that being middle ages parents, which out their opinions in the story. As well as targeting my audience in the main cover story, "Teens In Mud Rescue Drama" I have also targeted them in the second story, "Travel Chaos As Road Blocked By Smash" as many young and middle aged people drive, the audience will be able to relate to the story as they may find it useful in trying to get to work or into Bristol.
Although I have spoken about one of my adverts, I also think that my advert banner is effective as it will hook my audience and take their interests, as they enjoy going out. The advert for "Free driving lesson" also links well with the story about the crash. As some of my audience may be young adults this will also apply to them well. Also the fact that I am promoting jobs suggests that my audience may be unemployed and looking for jobs, so by advertising jobs, it makes it easy for the audience to find one instead of searching online or in the back of other newspapers.
On my inside page I think that the most effective part of the newspaper is the main image as it mirrors that of The Mercury and follows forms. I believe that the structure of the picture links very well to the main story for inside page, as the woman is holding up a cardboard cut out of herself from where she was much bigger, as it shows a before and after, where now she looks so much fitter. This would attract my target audience, as they are interested in keeping fit or want to become fit and could use this story as an inspiration.
The way in which I have added a contents bar line on the left side third ordinates and gives the audience a choice in what they can read. This will hopefully encourage my audience to purchase the newspaper as they have a choice in what to pick, unlike other newspapers which do not do this, such as The Times.
My advert on the bottom right of my inside page is very important as it makes itself promote, its very clear against the white plan background as it is the contrast colour red. The different kind of fonts and italics works well as it helps make the advert stand out and stops it from becoming too repetitive throughout the texts. The before and after pictures used in it also make it effective as it shows how good the painting can come out from a standard personal picture.
In my ancillary texts, the poster and radio advert are very effective. This is because they link well with my newspaper, as they're both to do with health and fitness which is a repeated genre and content in my newspaper. For my poster, it is quite standard as it doesn't have a lot of different things on it, such as texts or pictures. Also the background is a faded grey that keeps it as though it is relaxed but cool by having the striking red text "Unlock your potential" in capitals which helps the poster to be clear and engages the audience through second person pronouns which address the reader. I have made sure that my audience can relate the poster to the newspaper by making sure I have added my mastheads layout onto my poster, as this will help the audience identify with it when they see it in a supermarket or on the street, as it still has the same name Portishead Post.
My radio advert also links well with the newspaper as it is in the gym environment where the audience may actual go or even hear the advert. I have made it obvious that it is a gym by adding diegetic sounds of the gym in the background and have created a scene where three friends are in a gym class, as at the end the instructor tells them to "get pumping" which helps create the image of a gym atmosphere. The fact that the radio advert is also persuading the listeners to purchase the newspaper by using influential power shows that the combination of the newspaper and advert are important, as without the advert the newspaper could lose readers.
My advert on the bottom right of my inside page is very important as it makes itself promote, its very clear against the white plan background as it is the contrast colour red. The different kind of fonts and italics works well as it helps make the advert stand out and stops it from becoming too repetitive throughout the texts. The before and after pictures used in it also make it effective as it shows how good the painting can come out from a standard personal picture.
In my ancillary texts, the poster and radio advert are very effective. This is because they link well with my newspaper, as they're both to do with health and fitness which is a repeated genre and content in my newspaper. For my poster, it is quite standard as it doesn't have a lot of different things on it, such as texts or pictures. Also the background is a faded grey that keeps it as though it is relaxed but cool by having the striking red text "Unlock your potential" in capitals which helps the poster to be clear and engages the audience through second person pronouns which address the reader. I have made sure that my audience can relate the poster to the newspaper by making sure I have added my mastheads layout onto my poster, as this will help the audience identify with it when they see it in a supermarket or on the street, as it still has the same name Portishead Post.
My radio advert also links well with the newspaper as it is in the gym environment where the audience may actual go or even hear the advert. I have made it obvious that it is a gym by adding diegetic sounds of the gym in the background and have created a scene where three friends are in a gym class, as at the end the instructor tells them to "get pumping" which helps create the image of a gym atmosphere. The fact that the radio advert is also persuading the listeners to purchase the newspaper by using influential power shows that the combination of the newspaper and advert are important, as without the advert the newspaper could lose readers.
- What have you learned through your audience feedback?
As 70% of my participants answered yes to if I have stuck to the traditional layout, this has reinforced the fact that my newspaper looks like a real newspaper and that it can probably be created by a newspaper company, not just me. However I think the reason why some thought that it wasn't was because of my masthead, as it differs to the traditional layout of a newspapers which you can purchase in shops, as the "P" stands out much more then the rest of the title and is cut onto two lines rather than on one line.
Most of my audience said that the adverts and masthead where the most interesting on my newspaper. I think this is because they visually stand out mostly, compared to the front cover picture which is quite lifeless and as the stories do not really attract audiences at first sight. The reasons why my audiences liked these parts most may have been because the adverts are linked in with the stories and they are based on the interests of the audience.
As my questionnaire results told me that my audience thought that my target audience where not 18 and below or 61 plus suggests that my newspaper is attracting the right age group I am trying to get to purchase my newspaper, which is young adults and middle aged people.
some of my audience believed that I did not use my pictures well, this could be because of my cover picture. As it is suppose to be the most important image, which is the most interesting I have chose a picture which is quite standard and not very appealing to the audience. I think that to improve this I should have added in a person to my newspaper cover picture as it would have helped the audience to relate themselves to the story. I should have used a parent or a police office as parents who read my newspaper could easily identify themselves with them. However some did say that I did use my pictures effectively, this is might be on my adverts or inside page as they are more attractive.
Majority of my results said that my audience think that my newspaper would be promote and stand out in a supermarket. This could be because of my different type of layout I have chosen for my masthead and my logo as it is unique. However the reasons why it might not stand out is because of the cover picture not being very exciting and being just the location. It could also be because of my layout of my whole newspaper isn't very original but this is what I wanted, as I wanted to stick to conventions of a newspaper layout rather than to totally subvert from it.
All of my participants believed that my adverts where effective, this could be because they are to do with their interests. However it may be because the deals that I am selling are very good, such as the advert for the gym on the front cover.
As my feedback tells me that some think my stories are not appropriate for the audience this suggest that the audience could feel as though I have too many different genres for my stories. However I did link them with the adverts and other stories within the content of my newspaper. If I could redo my newspaper I might have added in another story on fitness or health rather then the story on the traffic incident, even though this could attract my audience as it is a local dramatic story.
Most of my audience believed that my masthead and logo seemed realistic, even though my masthead does differ to traditional masthead layouts. I think by adding a logo has helped to make my audience believe that the newspaper could be real and keeps it unique.
When doing my evaluation I used Blogger to plan it out then recorded it on the school Mac so that I could create a voice-over for the Powerpoint I created to show what I had done through out the whole project and my newspaper I had made by myself.
- How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
When planning my newspaper I used InDesign once again, the only tool I needed to use for this was the rectangle tool so that I could show where I was going to place my images, texts, masthead and headlines on my newspaper once I start to create it.
When creating my newspaper I used the same software as I used for my AS media project, which where Photoshop and InDesign as I believed this where best suited to create my newspaper rather than Word or Paint as they're too simplistic for creating a conventional newspaper which would be sold to the public. When creating my actual front cover and inside page I used InDesign, in this software the main tools I used where the text tool and layers. As I made a newspaper, stories where the most important to be made for my newspaper and took up the most space. Using the text tool was easy, as there are a few difficulties when using it because all I needed to do was drag a box and type my story. However using layers can be a problem as they are easy to forget to use every time I added a new text box or image, but once I got the hang of using layers it made the whole job of creating the newspaper very straight forward as I could hide parts which I did not want to see whilst focusing on another part of my newspaper, this helped make it clear when making changes.
For my pictures for my newspaper and my poster for my ancillary task I used Photoshop. On majority of my pictures I used the crop tool which made my pictures smaller, so that I could focus on one aspect rather than the whole image, which may not have interested my audience, I demonstrate this through the inside page picture, as before the audience could see more of the gym until I cut it down to the women and her cardboard self. I also used the feather tool, after cropping which made them seem more smooth and stop the edges from looking so sharp. For the front cover image I had to change the brightness as before it was quite dark and you could barely see the image. I used the rubber and feathering tool on my advert image, the one which is on the masthead for advertising jobs, as before the image had more of a irrelevant background and also I slightly put the picture on a angle so that it seemed different and more promote.
For my poster I used similar tools, such as the feather and cutting down which where easy to use as I previously used them for other projects. The only thing that cause difficulties was finding a colour which stood out against the grey background, as Photoshop have a wide choice of colours and tones you can chose from I found this quite hard to chose.
I used Garage Band to create my radio advert, I really enjoyed this as it was a new type of software that I had not used before. When making the radio advert I had to use three other people to record it. It was quite straight forward when recording and putting together the radio advert. However when adding digetic background sound and ambient sound of the background music I found it quite difficult to combined them at first but then got how to use it.When doing my evaluation I used Blogger to plan it out then recorded it on the school Mac so that I could create a voice-over for the Powerpoint I created to show what I had done through out the whole project and my newspaper I had made by myself.
