BY ROBIN FRETTER

A2 Media Studies Evaluation

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

How conventions are used:

In the production of my newspaper I made sure that the conventions used in everyday newspapers such as The Mail, Mirror and The Express were maintained so I could ensure, in the development of my newspaper that it actually looked liked a newspaper that you would find in a shop.

Some of these conventions I have used consist of: Price, Date, Layout, Competitions, Weather and a Masthead.

I have researched and placed different newspaper mastheads up and compared them to mine to see the difference between my own paper and the ones in the market already.

Using these conventions from national papers shows I have made good use of my knowledge into what a real newspaper product requires and now knowing this I can put my own style and impressions on it to make it even better and give it the certain quality to make it into a local newspaper.

How conventions are challenged:

The layout of my newspaper is my own idea and not used in any other newspaper I have researched.

I have not used to many advertisements in and around my paper because from feedback of people reading different papers I had prepared they said “they were a waste of space and a waste of money.”

Poster It was quite hard for me to research different posters to make for my

newspaper as a lot of the newspapers on the market today don’t have a poster they make to advertise themselves so I had to look into normal posters for products to see what they did to sell themselves. I used these posters to see what codes and conventions they had used so I could make my own poster by taking these conventions and developing them.

Conventions used: My poster contains all the conventions that a poster needs. I have my

masthead and slogan from my original newspaper. I also have my web-address and a main image which takes up the whole page, which is done in some but not all posters.

It is clear that I have stuck to these conventions from my poster but also challenge the conventions from some other posters in the market today.

PosterConventions challenged:

I feel my poster meets the needs of a lot of different people. My poster makes it clear straight away of what it is selling. Use of capitals “LONDON’S CALLING” grabs peoples attention instantly

when walking past. Use of different fonts can attract a lot of different people. Many posters use

all one font which I think doesn't always look too good. Bright colours stand out on the blue background of the sky. I clearly state what I am advertising I use a picture of my newspaper as well to try and sell that at the same time. I have my web-address in white at the bottom of the poster to make it stand

out and to make people look into my product even more.

WebsiteHow conventions are used: My main design and colour throughout the website is the same to keep

consistency, which is a recurring theme on a lot of websites. Competitions Pictures Articles Links

Challenges to other websites: Wide range of pictures Very informing Use of colours Promotes my newspaper well

Development and influences of how I got to my final product.Final Front Page The News

Development and influences of how I got to my final product.

Final Page 2 The Catholic Explorer

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

I have made my main product which is a newspaper and alongside this I have made my ancillary texts, which is my website and poster.

When constructing my newspaper I knew I had to make a website and poster alongside it, so I wanted to have certain things in my paper that could be used and carried over to my website and poster.

On my webpage I also had a picture of my newspaper front cover as a way to link it all together and a way to advertise my paper on a different platform.

On my website and poster I have my masthead for the Portsmouth Press and my slogan from the newspaper so people can identify with the companies name and see that it is all for one product. This keeps consistency and I feel this makes it more professional.

My web-address at the bottom of my poster is the same one for my actual website so I can link the two together and advertise my website through poster.

My poster also has a picture of the front page of my newspaper, so my poster links all my other work into one.

All of my different pieces of work have the same fonts and style of writing to make it all interlink.

I have used the same blue colour on all my work to make them all have a connection and something in common when you look at them.

How my final products all link together and the

similarities between them.

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Whenever I was making a significant change to my work, whether it be my newspaper, website or my poster I always asked for feedback to make sure other people thought it was good positive change.

Finding out what other people think is crucial as they are the ones who are going to buying it and a wide range of critics is always good.

I started by asking my friends what they thought of my work, which they thought was good. However I thought this could be biased by just asking my friends to critique my work so I asked random strangers from around my college to judge my work.

It was good to get the feedback, whether it was positive feedback or negative feedback and sometimes people noticed something's I hadn’t even thought of.

I have made lists of all the positive and negative feedback I have received from each piece of work, as followed.

NewspaperPositives

Looks like a real on the market newspaper.

The whole masthead stands out.

The slogan Portsmouth Press, For Everyone, gives the paper a large target audience.

Pictures all relate to their stories.

Lots of different stories.

Consistent style throughout.

Formal newspaper language.

Negatives

Not enough advertisements

Stories look squashed on page two

Not enough pictures.

WebsitePositives

Looks like a real website.

Simple and easy to read.

Same colours all the way through keep a good consistency.

Good use of various Pictures.

Good use of competitions.

Lots of well written varied stories.

Negatives

Boring font.

Not enough advertisements

Lack of web 2.0 and not interactive.

PosterPositives

Sky background makes it easy to look at.

Portsmouth Press masthead stands out.

The colour red of LONDON’S CALLING is very clear

States the offer very clearly

It includes the web-address so people know that I have a website

Has a picture of my newspaper so it links all of my products together.

Has a barcode reader square on to make it more interactive with modern technology.

Good Picture to go with the posters offer.

Negatives

Dose not have enough to do with the local area.

Not a lot of information

How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Technologies I used:

InDesign: This was the program I used the most as it was the program I used to construct my newspaper and my poster. I was quite comfortable using this software as I had used it last year as part of my A/S media coursework. I felt than when I got to the construction part of the coursework I worked independently well with this software.

Photoshop: This programme helped me directly in the construction of everything I produced as before I could put a certain piece of work together I usually had to put my photographs into Photoshop to make sure they were in the right format and right specifications for what I wanted. At the start I only had a basic knowledge of how to use this piece of software, which was enough at the time, but by the end i had a real understanding of all the different things i could do in this one programme.

Microsoft Word: I used Microsoft word to write my news stories for my newspaper and website as it is easier to paragraph and spell-check your work in a proper word processer. It also allowed me to plan my work better and make sure it was correct.

iWeb: I used iWeb as the programme to make and publish my website. I had never used this piece of software before and had never made a website so at first I found this segment of the work very challenging. Despite this it was a very efficient programme made solely for making websites so in the end I got to grips with it. I managed to get the layout it the same style as a professional website and brought my own pictures in.

Internet: The internet played a key role in the planning and research for my coursework. I looked at numerous different newspaper websites to try and find out what mastheads and stories were the most popular before I even started to make anything.

Blogger: I used the website blogger to blog all my work and put a step by step development of my work down for all my different products.

Digital Camera: I used my digital camera to capture all of the images in my Newspaper, Website and poster, from different angles and ranges.