Evaluation task a2
- 1. Evaluation In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? I am going to be looking at the way my media production of the first and second page of a newspaper called “Eccles Chronicle” develops or challenges forms and conventions of real media products. The title of the newspaper “Eccles Chronicle” is a typical newspaper title and follows past newspaper conventions, it sounds good and rolls off the tongue which was the reason I chose this name, as well as it tells the audience that this is a local paper as it has the name of the town in the title. I have chose to use chronicle as it means factual written account which is what the the news actually is. The newspaper I created followed other local newspaper conventions. To begin with, local newspapers write about the news in the area so I decided to write about a local takeaway which has just opened as well as a golf competition which took place locally. I linked sport in with my newspaper as well as local business, as social issues are always important for the reader as it is something that impacts their everyday life. I have followed conventions of newspapers by the variety of reports I have used and I have also thought of the target audience when producing this paper which is middle aged people. Whilst creating my final product I read a number of different newspapers for inspiration but I mostly read the Manchester Evening News and The Salford Advertiser as these are local newspapers to me, and I am creating a local paper so I incorporated many of their conventions. As you can see on my final product I have used a trim at the top of the page, to break the text and pictures up I have also used 3 blue squares at the top left hand of my page. I did this as it singles the paper out and makes it a lot more individual, it also makes it look much more professional. I have also got the main strips of text at the bottom of the page followed by the conventional right hand column of text, The Manchester Evening News inspired me for this as I like the layout they use and it enables there to be much more text and information on the page. The main front page article was split into two columns, I have done this as I have never seen a newspaper text go across the whole page, this shows I have also done my product research and embedded it into my final product. The font I used for my title is Times New Roman, this is the most popular font, but in my opinion it is the classiest. I tried a number of fonts but none suited the look on my newspaper I was going for therefore I chose this. It is a traditional yet modern style it also allows the audience to familiarise themselves with it and help attract the audience. Commonly in local newspapers I have found that the first and second page have at least one advert on each, therefore I followed the conventions by putting a taxi advert onto my front page. I did this as I found out through product research that most newspapers have taxi adverts on them. For my second page I had a holiday advert as this was found out to be the second most popular advert. Another reason for this choice of adverts would be because mostly middle aged people would use taxi services and holiday services. I have also found out that most local newspaper conventions are to have the website of their paper underneath the title, so I decided to use this on my paper as it makes it look much more professional. I have also used a band which advertises a free magazine which is inside the newspaper. I have decided to include this as most local papers include a magazine about music, or about television which is what the magazine is on. On the second page I have decided to go with similar amounts of pictures as I have text, as this helps break the text up and doesn’t make the paper to boring. At the end of each story I have written I have written the reporter’s name, this is following the conventions of most newspapers, but I have also added a picture which personalises the story, this doesn’t usually happen in local newspapers therefore I am breaking the conventions but I personally think it makes the newspaper much more professional.
- 2. Finally the price, the edition and the date are all in the top right hand corner of the newspaper, this makes it look much more professional. It also gives the reader that little bit of extra knowledge on the product, letting the reader know the price, which in turn could give us an edge over other papers as it is one of the cheapest on the market. In the bottom right hand side I have manipulated and cropped an image. I did this because the image was too large and had to excess on it therefore I cropped it. The image also was a little dark, therefore I change the lighting on the image to make it a little brighter making it look more professional and real as the picture looks much better quality and more crisp. How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts? The conventions of my ancillary products are very similar to The Guardian billboard. This was because, the way the text is written on the guardian I felt looked the most effective as it stands out on the black background. It was also similar as the face takes up most of the picture showing the dominance of the figure, as well as the quotation next to the picture in big writing. The billboard is effective as it catches the attention of any passers-by, whether in a bus, car or walking etc. I have included a catch phrase on the bottom of the ancillary which I believed I was going to use in my final product but I decided against this. I have emphasised the price of the paper, as I have put it in red bold writing and a very large font size, I decided to do this as I think that the price of the newspaper is one of the most important factors and most people would go for the cheapest newspaper therefore I took this into account when designing my final product as well as using the questionnaire results I constructed. When constructing my radio advert, I found the convention for the advert was around 30 seconds long, so I decided to follow this; my advert being 34 seconds long. I chose to do this as I didn’t want to overload the audience with too much information, but it is just enough time to get all the information you need in. I made the speaker be enthusiastic and sound very interesting as I found you don’t tend to listen to them if they are boring and monotone. I added the tag line in “we’re not just a paper, we are the Eccles Chronicle” I did this as it gives a professional feel to the advert. I followed the normal conventions of a radio advert by fading music in and out whilst the speaking took place, and faded it back in louder at the end. This gives a familiar feel to the advert, and also makes the advert much less boring and adds a bit of life to it. The radio advert also links to my newspaper, as I have used the same name as my final product. What have you learned from your audience feedback? When in need of audience feedback I went back to my market research which consisted of 9 questionnaires I handed to a group of random people giving me fair and up to date feedback, it would also give me an insight on my audiences interests. When looking at my market research I found out that more middle aged people read newspapers than any other age group therefore I have decided that this would be the age group I would address. Males and females both read papers, none really out weighing on in terms of who reads them more, which is why I have chosen to go for a more neutral colour scheme andhouse style. I found that the majority of audiences tend to prefer the informal type of newspaper with not too overpowering text which would leave my target audience tedious which I was happy with as this was the type of newspaper I wanted to do. Through my market research I also found out that the audience wanted the main story’s to be general news, but I didn’t want to just have one type of story so I decided to add sport into it as well so that it is not too serious and there is more variety of story’s. I found out that the audience was more intrigued
- 3. about having bigger pictures and less writing, rather than lots of writing. The pictures also are able to have an effect on the audience if they are good enough before they even read the article, this could be key as the picture could strike there eye and it may entice them to buy the newspaper. When designing my layout, I had a number of the newspaper focus group agree on a different layout, but the majority of them have agreed on a similar layout to the Manchester evening news. This is also the layout which I preferred the most I believed it is the most professional sophisticated local newspaper. They wanted the main article to consist of interviews mostly followed by facts and the main story, I have taken this on board and I have decided to go with the majority of the focus group. After finishing my final product, the focus group believed that I achieved what they wanted through the similarity to the Manchester Evening News paper and they understand that I have achieved all the conventions they were looking for. They were happy with the stories that I included and also the way I showed the magazine which was included with the newspaper. They believed that the house colours I used were suitable and original and gave a warm feeling to the paper; they also added that I didn’t overload the paper with too much; I had a very good balance. They liked the fact I also stated the date price and issue in the top right hand corner.