Evaluation

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

For the newspaper pages, i took into account the following about the codes and conventions;

The Guardian:

1. The text is small and covers most of the page.

2. The text is a serif style (where the letters are more defined than normal san serif fonts)

3. The images on the page do not take up more than half of the page

The Sun:

1. These papes are often dubbed 'red-tops' this is due to the fact that almost all of their mastheads are white in a red background. This is often the case in tabloid newspapers because it helps them stand out amongst the broadsheets.

2. The use of colour on the front pages is also very obvious, they use normally reds and blues as they stand out very well against white backgrounds.3. For the main feature, there is not alot of text, normally there is a large picture with the first paragraph of the article which continues inside the paper.

3.The font in the text is larger than that of a broadsheet

The Echo:

1. The Cover image takes up a large fraction of the page.

2. The text in the article is larger than that of a broadsheet.

3. The main headline is as big as the masthead.

4. The advert will normally be for a local establishment.

5. The main article will probably be about a local event that probably wouldn't get into any national papers.

I chose to combine the codes and conventions of mainly the local newspaper (The Echo) and the tabloid newspaper (The Sun). The codes that i used were;

- The main headline would be as large as the masthead.

- The adverts on my page is for a local establishment.

- I used a variety of colours on the page.

I developed the idea of a coloured masthead by changing the theme of mine. Most are just plain text in a box, however i made mine to look like a london road sign. This is challenging the normal codes and conventions of a masthead, as there are no mastheads that are made to look like something else.

For the website homepage, I noticed that all of the websites that i looked at had a similar layout. They all had one main picture with accompanying text, and a number of smaller pictures with text. On each website they also had the masthead at the top of the page. The one code that i changed was that the background of each website was white, i decided to make mine black, this is because i think that it made the boxes with text in stand out more.

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

For my main text, i used the layout of a local newspaper, but i changed the style. I made it look alternative, and something that people would be more interested in buying it as it appears to be more exciting than other newspapers. I continued this style through into the ancillary texts. I used the same font for the headlines in the two newspaper pages, and the same font for the articles. I also adopted a colour scheme for all of the products, the colours that i used primarily were, white, black, dark red and grey, with the red coming from the masthead. I used the same fonts and colours throughout the project so that if people were to see the website and the newspaper, they would be able to make an immediate link. The colours that i chose are not bright, this could have made it boring, but the combination of the style of headlines and the brightly coloured pictures ensured that it did not look dull.

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

The first way in which i got feedback from the audience was when i did a survey of 20 people, male and female, aged 18 - 30. I asked two questions, the first was, 'What kind of newspaper so you read, broadsheet, tabloid or local?' 12 people (60%) said tabloid, 7 people said broadsheet (35%), and only 1 person (5%) said local newspaper. This made me realise that it could possibly be quite a hard task to make a local newspaper appeal to a younger age group. I then asked 'An increase in which of these would make you read your local newspaper more, music, sport, arts, events, or news?' 6 people (30%) said music, 6 people (30%) said events, 4 people (20%) said sports, 3 people (15%) said news, and 1 person (5%) said arts.

The results of this survey made it clear that if i wanted to make my newspaper appeal to a younger audience, i would have to focus more on music and events.

Throughout the project i asked for feedback a number of times to see how i could improve my products. I found that this helped me tweak the pages very easily and effectively as i was getting the opinions of people in the age group that i was targeting.

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

The use of new media technologies was very apparent in my work. For the newspaper front page, I used Adobe InDesign, this is because i had learnt from previous work that this program was the best to creat text based publication due to the ease of use, and the column system which made the text layout almost perfect without editting it. I also used InDesign for the second page of the newspaper for the same reasons. For the production of my website, i used both Photoshop and Dreamweaver. I used Photoshop for the design part of it, this is because from previous experience, i learnt that this was a good program to use for image based and design work, with it being easy to make work aesthetically pleasing. I used Dreamweaver to put the website online, i had not used any web design software before, so i asked people who had experience in the area, and for ease of use they recommended this one. I used it to add links and rollovers, using the slice and hotspot tools. The last part of the project was to design a poster, and as with the website design, i used Photoshop, this is because i wanted to make the poster as visually appealing as possible to draw attention to it, making this program the most suitable.

Website

For the website, i wanted to stick to the same theme as the front cover of my newspaper. I therefore chose to use black and red as my primary colours. Another factor that i wanted to continue onto my website was the fact that most boxes had curved edges.

I began by redesigning my masthead to suit the website, i changed the dimensions, added a menu bar, and a strapline underneath.

I then added the masthead to the top of a black page, i used black as the background as it was one of the main colours used on the front page of the website. I made sure that the masthead was not so big that i did not have enough space underneath it to include a decent amount of content, and that it was not so small that it was hard to read.

I chose to use white boxes for my articles to go on so that they stood out against the black background, I began by using four of the same sized boxes with curved edges.

However, this left a large gap at the bottom which looked strange. After referring back to my research, i noted that on newspaper websites there is normally one main article with a number of smaller ones beneath it. I therefore deleted the boxes and added other ones in a less symmetrical style.

It was hard to know whether this would look professional or not at this stage, so i added pictures. I made sure that the pictures fitted to the curved edges of the boxes, i did this by inserting the pictures into the shape as opposed to just placing them over the shapes. The first picture i used was one of a holiday that i went on to Ayia Napa, the second was of a friends band playing a gig in Jersey, the third was of empty glasses and a cigarette box at a pub, the fourth box had two album covers which were copyright free, and the fifth box had a picture of a friends football match.

I chose not to fit the pictures in the bottom right box to the curved edges, this is because they are square album covers, and if i wanted them to fit perfectly they would take up a lot of space, making it harder to fit a decent amount of text in the box. I then added text and headlines to the boxes.

There was still space in the boxes so i added text saying 'Click here for the full article', this is where the links would be to the full articles.

Now that my front page of my website was completed, i began working on the second page. I used the same background and masthead as the first page. However, instead of using a number of smaller boxes, i just used one large one.

I then added pictures to the page, at first i was just using one picture. However, i found that if i wanted the picture to be nearly at the edges of the box, it took up to much space vertically, i therefore chose to use two images, placing them horizontally.

The pictures that i used were taken in a holiday in Ayia Napa.

At first this looked slightly odd, i therefore added text to the picture so i could decide whether to keep the design the same.

I decided to keep the design the same, as when the text was added it looked much better.

I then opened up the pages in dreamweaver.

For the website i wanted to make rollovers on the menu bar in the masthead. To do this, i used the hotspot tool to highlight what i wanted to change. Then i clicked 'effects' and then swap colour' to change the masthead to one which had a word in a different colour. Below is a picture which shows what happens when the cursor goes over the words 'Sports'.

2nd Page

For the second page of the website, i decided to keep it relatively simple, this is because if i over complicated it, it may seem hard to read and therefore unappealing.

I began by creating a banner to go at the top of the page, i made it quite small so that there was enough room for content below it. In the banner i included the title of the newspaper, the date and the page number.

I decided to have three features on the page. I did not want to just have a white background for each article so i made each of them differ; one with a plain white background, one with a border around it and one with a grey background.

I then added the pictures and headlines to the spaces. The first picture that i added was one that i took of at the Ocean Club in Marbella, and the second was of a friends band performing at the Jersey Live festival. I chose to use a white font for the headline on the grey background because it stood out more than a black font, making it easier to read.

I then added the text, keeping it relatively small so that it did not look unprofessional, however i made sure that the writing was legible. For the writing on the grey background, i used a black font with a white stroke around it, this was so it differed from the headline and making it more interesting.

Now my second page was finished, i was happy with it as it stuck with the same style as the front page, whilst being a lot simpler and easy to read. I chose not to put too many features as it may have seemed clogged up and messy.

Advertisement

For my advert, i decided to create an A4 poster. This is because they are relatively common, easy to read and can be distributed with ease. I wants to have a rough, street feel to the poster so i chose to start with a brick pattern background, the original image i used was quite dark, i thought that this may make writing on the poster hard to read so i lightened the image.

I felt that this background was perfect for my poster due to the fact that the bricks in the picture were a variety of different colours and the picture was not dark enough to make black writing hard to read and not too light so that it looked edited. I then added the masthead to the picture.

I placed the masthead in the middle of the picture so i could include an equal amount of content each side of it, however i then played around with the positioning of it.

After moving the masthead around a bit, i realised that if i placed it towards the bottom of the poster, i could make it look like a road sign if i added two shapes to the bottom of it stretching to the edge of the page. I was happy with the poster so far so i preceded to add images. Th first image i used was one of me and two of my friends dressed up, the second was the one that i had used on the front cover of my holiday, the third was of a party that i went to and the fourth was the one of a friends band playing at the Jersey Live festival.

I added four images of the same size with gaps below them so that i could fit in a caption describing what was in the image, i chose these pictures because they all had relatively bright colours in, making them stand out against the dull tones of the background. Although they stood out, i thought that the edges of the pictures looked a bit odd against the background, therefore i decided to add borders to the images.

So far i was happy with the poster, however, the pictures needed captions so to inform the reader what will be in the newspaper, i chose to use a white font as i though it would stand out against the darker background.

Although i could make out what the captions said, i felt that if someone is just having a quick glance at the poster, they would need to stand out a bit more. I therefore added black rectangles behind the text and turned their opacity down to make it less obvious.

I think that the background for the captions worked well and made them a lot easier to read, however i thought it looked slightly odd having a caption with a dark background as well as a border around the picture, i therefore removed the border of the images and decided that it looked better. To finish off i added text at the top of the poster saying 'This Week', this was to make sure that people know that it is an advert for that specific weeks edition a opposed to an advert for the newspaper generally.

I had now finished my advert, i think it is good as it gives a taster of what will be in the newspaper without giving so much information that it looks too complicated. It is easy read and the style of the poster matches that of he actual publication.

Front Cover

For my front cover i began by designing two mastheads, i made two so that i would have a choice.

After looking at both and their pros and cons, i went with the second masthead. I made this choice because I believe that the second one showed more imagination, I designed it in the style of a London road sign, and although i realise that the paper is not local for london I thought that it was a good idea as it showed that in my magazine I would not be unimaginative. I then created a rough guide for my layout by looking at a newspaper which i though was set out well, i then traced over it so i had guidelines.

I then proceeded to add my masthead to an a4 page.

I then added boxes and a headline so to set my layout so that i would not keep referring back to the guidelines i had made. I put a rectangle under the masthead and broke it up into three sections where i would put information about articles inside the paper. I put a grey box to he left of the page where i would put one small article and an advert, i used a grey background so that the page would not look boring and there would be an obvious space between that article and the main one. I also put another box where there will be an advert.

I now built around this template, adding an image to go with the main headline, along with text.

The picture was one taken on holiday, it is large and bright, so to draw attention to the newspaper. The font of the text was different to that of the masthead and the headline, this is because it would add some variety and make it less boring. I then added an advert at the bottom of the page with a picture of a friend at a nightclub. I also added another advert for a local hair salon with a picture of a friend of mine. I also filled the grey box with an article and a picture of my friends in a nightclub.

I then added text to the three boxes underneath the masthead.

I chose to use red lettering so it would match the red part of the masthead, it would also make the page a little more interesting. I felt that the text on its own in the boxes seemed a bit unimaginative so i added pictures to add colour and fill up the white spaces which looked quite unprofessional. For the picture in the box on the right i decided to put a picture that was too big for the box so it would fill the space in the top right hand corner, the picture is effectively a silhouette which i made using the polygonal lasso tool, i took this photo at a fashion and art exhibition that i attended. I also added a barcode to the bottom right hand of the page.

My front cover was now completed, i believe that it looks professional and readable. This is because of the use of colours, font, and the simple layout.

Research

For this project i will be designing parts of a local newspaper. Therefore i have decided to analyse a number of different newspapers to get an idea of content to use and how to design the paper.

Firstly i will look at the differences between local and national papers, and broadsheets and tabloid papers. This is because in my opinion, local newspapers and their design/layout are more comparable to tabloids, not broadsheets.

Broadsheet Front Page

This is the front cover of 'The Guardian', this is a well established broadsheet newspaper. It sticks to the main codes and conventions of abroadsheet paper;
1. The text is small and covers most of the page.
2. The text is a serif style (where the letters are more defined than normal san serif fonts)
3. The images on the page do not take up more than half of the page
However, this broadsheet is slightly different to most, this is because of the use of colour. Most papers of this style use minimal colour and the masthead is in a plain serif font, The Guardian has used a more modern art style. This may be to draw in a wider range of readers or perhaps to just set them apart from its competitors.

I believe that this newspapers target audience is the middle to upper class, or those who are relatively well educated. This is because of the size of the text and the picture to text ratio; the fact that there is a lot of small text may put off those who do not have a very good education as it may look challenging to read.

Tabloid Front Page

This is the front page of The Sun, arguably the most popular tabloid newspaper in Britain. It clearly differs to the cover of The Guardian, it follows the codes and conventions of tabloids;

1. These papes are often dubbed 'red-tops' this is due to the fact that almost all of their mastheads are white in a red background. This is often the case in tabloid newspapers because it helps them stand out amongst the broadsheets.
2. The use of colour on the front pages is also very obvious, they use normally reds and blues as they stand out very well against white backgrounds.3. For the main feature, there is not alot of text, normally the

re is a large picture with the first paragraph of the article which continues inside the paper. The font in the text is larger than that of a broadsheet
I believe that the target audience is the working class or those who do n

ot have a particularly good education, this is because it looks like it should be an easy read due to the picture to text ratio, the size of the text and the colours used.

Local Newspaper Front Page

This is the front page of the local newspaper in southend.

The front cover bares obvious similarities in the codes and conventions to that of a tabloid newspaper. The similarities are as followed;

1. The primary colours of the masthead and

other larger text is blue and red.

2. The Cover image takes up a large fraction of the page.

3. The text in the article is larger than that of a broadsh

eet.

4. The main headline is as big as the masthead.

5. The advert is for a local establishment.

6. The main article is about a local event that probably wouldn't get into any national papers.

One thing to note would be the fact that although the text size of the headline is as large of the masthead, like a tabloid, the papers are not very similar. This is mainly

down to the fact that the news is obviously local, there is just one article shown and the inside features are not advertised on the cover.

For my front cover, i will base mine on the tabloid. This is because my newsp

aper will be aimed at a younger audience, the age range will be 18-30. I will be using quite bold font, colours and not make the layout too rigid as it would not attract as many buyers as a tabloid based layout.

I will now look at the websites for these newspapers.

Guardian Website

The page is broken up into a number of sections using square shapes and red lines. The articles have a small headline with text to go along with it underneath. Most of the headlines also have a photo to accompany them. This website is well laid out, making it easy to read.This is the website for the guardian. The first th

ing that i noticed was the use of colours, in my opinion this causes he viewer to believe that there is a variety of content on the website.

The Sun Website

The first thing that i noticed about this website page is that the main picture takes up a larger section, as does the accompanying headline. This may be due to the fact that it seems like it will be an easier read. Like the guardian website, there are also smaller articles with pictures to go with them. This page does not use as many colours as the guardian, the main colour is red, as is the newspaper.

The Echo website

The local website is a lot simpler than the other two. There is still one main picture and article, with other smaller ones below. The main difference is that there is bigger spacing between the paragraphs and in the lettering, suggesting that there is less information on the site.

The codes and conventions that i noted for newspaper websites are;

1.Masthead from newspaper positioned at the top with menu below.

2. One main Picture with a brief description of the article to accompany it.

3. A number of smaller articles and pictures below the main one.

4. Articles broken up into squares, the page is set out in a linear way.

For my website, i will combine the styles of the tabloid website and the local website, hoping to appeal to a younger age group. I will use one or two primary colours, use one main picture with a description, and have a number of other articles underneath.

My Intent

What do I intend to produce?

For this Media A2 module, I have been asked to produce pages for a local newspaper, and a website to accompany it.

Who is the intended audience for my product?

I have decided to produce a newspaper aimed at students and young adults. I will do this by basing the newspaper around news that the target will be interested, for example I will include articles about events such as events such as club nights and concerts.

How does this product differ to others?

I believe that there is a gap in the market for such a newspaper, this is because most local newspapers are aimed at the local people with no particular target audience or specific content. There are very few newspapers for young adults, publications which do have this target audience are often in the format of a magazine. This project will differ to other existing products as it will have a specific content focus and audience target.

How will I allocate my time?

We have 3 hours of coursework lessons a week, I will also allocate another 2-4 hours a week to ensure that I complete the task with sufficient time.
The first project that I will complete will be the research folder, this is where I will look at existing local and national newspapers and websites to find the codes and conventions to help me with my main products. I will try and complete this within three weeks.
I will then go about designing the newspaper, as I will have done my research and taken photographs whilst completing the research folder, therefore this part of the module should take around 8-10 weeks to complete fully.
With the remaining few weeks I will touch up on the design to make it look as professional, i will also produce an evaluation for my blog with a guide to the module and why I made certain decisions and how I produced it.