My A2 Products

 http://rebeccabla79.wix.com/newspaper-sunnyside -- access to website

Evaluation Question 3

Question 3. What have you learned from your audience feedback?

This is a drawing from my lecturer and this shows many different layout used by other newspapers that are similar to my product and the reason why she has done this is because I was having trouble with the layout for my website and so if I knew what other newspapers looked like I could make a knowledgeable decision about how I should change my layout for it to look like a professional newspapers.

This is a feedback form from my lecturer for the second page of my main task, she lists all of the strengths of this page for example: appropriateness for task and audience and the overall design is very conventional however the area of improvement would be the lower section, add the twitter/email address.

This second assessment is for my poster as you can see from the check-list criteria she thinks that my work is in the low Level 4 criteria, around 8 points.

I have also received verbal feedback: widen the spaces for the articles on the front cover, make columns all the same width, change the advert arrangement so that the layout works better and move the sub-title to beneath the main title. All of these comments have been taken on board and have been changed so that the newspaper is best it can be. As well as the lecturers feedback I have also tried to evaluate and analyse my own work to make my work look better and so after these changes had been implemented I decided that my product still wasn't up to scratch and so decided to re-do my product, keep the content however move it around so that the layout fitted better. 

Evaluation Question 2

Question 2) How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

Evaluation Question 2

My main product and my ancillary task of my poster and website work together effectively and the reason for this is because I have tried to stick to as many conventions for a newspaper as possible.

One thing that I have thought a lot on was the colouring for my product and have even changed the colouring of my product to make the whole of my product more effective. The running colour palette for my product is blue, white and black and I think because of this colour scheme I have been able to make a collection of products that work together to form one successful product.
 

Already in the media industry newspapers are not just a stand alone product any more as they also have a products which promote the newspaper and also allow a wider range of people to read the newspaper for example they have the newspaper which the locals can get, they have the poster to advertise the local newspaper product and then they have the website to help make the product more viral and more known to people who don’t just live in the area.
 

My main task, the front cover and the second page of a newspaper needed to work together well as they would be seen one after another and so I have used the same font, colour palette and simple layout for each. The products also work together effectively in the sense that all of my products, except the poster as that doesn’t have any articles on it, have the same articles and the same headings to the articles which makes my product consistent throughout.

 

For my poster I have used fun bright colours and have used this throughout my products an example of this would be for the front cover of my newspaper I have put ‘YOUR POSITIVE PAPER’, underneath the masthead and I have chosen the same colours as the poster and I have also used this technique of the multiple colours on my website.

Another element which makes my products work together successfully is the fact that the theme of my newspaper products is that it is a happy newspaper and even the slogan illustrates that ‘your positive paper’ and because of this all my products are combined together as all of the content is about happy news.

Further more all my products have been promoted effectively as all my products promote one another in some way for example the poster has the website details on the bottom of it, the front of the newspaper has a big advertisement for the website, the second page also has a link for the website at the top of the page and the website itself is promoting the newspaper.

 

Comparison between a real magazine and my own

(Left real - Right mine)

After looking through my products I can say that I have created a professional product that would not stand out if put along side professional products as being a media students work as I feel I have followed conventions correctly and in doing so have linked my products together to create a successful product.

Evaluation Question 4

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

I used new media technology in the construction stages of my website product as I used a website to help me to build my product as I used the site called www.wix.com, this has allowed me to focus on the layout and context of my product without having to worry about the technical side of actually building a website from scratch. I used this website to develop my product as all I originally started off with just a flatplan andso used the site to load images text, shaped and buttons. For example when adding text you have option of where to put the text, what size the font is, the colour and style. Also, once you have created the text you then have the option to duplicate the text, delete it, edit the text, change the settings of the text, add an animation, show it on all pages, copy, paste, show in front and show behind. WIX is a professional style website creator and as the site was free it was easy enough to access without having money details and upgrades to deal with. The impact to using this was that I was able to publish my website so that others could access it just like any other real professional company would do to their website.
 

In addition to this I have used technology in the research of the product as I looked a the e-editions of newspapers as well as print copies to have a look at a wider range of product for example the Metro newspaper is one of the many newspapers I looked at the gain ideas.

To plan my product I used Photoshop to plan the layout of my work as without crucial planning you could be lost as you could be going out and taking images that may or may not fit into the required spacing of the newspaper for example a portrait orientation image might need to fit into a landscape orientation image and this may mean that the image would have to be smaller than planned and then that would also mean there will be empty space, which could lead to me then having to stretch the image which would ruin the quality of the photographs.
During the production of making this product I have used tools such as the mouse tool as when creating the product I needed to re-arrange certain images that I have taken. I have used the Magic Wand, Quick selection, Magnetic and Lasso tool and the impact of using these tools is that I was able to have professional looking images for example when taking the images I had taken them in a photography studio, unfortunately the floors have a few scuffs on them and so used the tools to make the floor look clean andthe impact on my product would be that they look a lot cleaner and more professional.

As you can see I have used a range of products when constructing, researching, planning and evaluating my product and as well as this I have also had experience with using a video software called Premiere Pro to help me get to grips with using the software if I was to use that brief later on. I have also used this software when creating my evaluation. When using the product I used only a small selection of tools as I used the Mouse tool to drag images over from the library to the viewing pane and the from there I dragged them to the video. When looking at the videos I noticed that they needed some editing doing to them as there was a little gap between the beginning and ending of the videos added, this was obvious when viewing and so to make it look seemless I cropped it down and so used the first 2 tools on the first image. the impact from this was that the video seemed to play seemlessly.

Evaluation Question 1

Evaluation

Evaluation Questions

1.              In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge form and conventions of media products?

For my media product I have tried to keep to as many conventions as possible and the reason for this is because this is a new local newspaper and I want people to buy the newspaper and recognise it is a newspaper and continue to buy it as I don’t want people to buy the newspaper for example thinking it was a comic and then be disappointed when the start to read the content.

An example of how I have used the convention of a media product would be for the colour palette as I originally had a yellow colour scheme but after having a look at the affect of my product and having a look at other media products similar to mine I realised that the colour wasn’t very conventional as and it also would not appeal to my target audience as although 30+ people still want to have fun they don’t want to have a bright yellow smack bang in the middle of a newspaper and when I looked at my product I could see that it would be off-putting and unprofessional and so decided to change it to be more conventional and opted for a dark blue and the reason for this is because newspapers similar to mine uses this style for example The Mail Online and The Daily Mail. They blue for their masthead and for key areas of their product and I felt that this strong blue colour would although still be bold I felt that it would be more subtle on the eyes and so decided to go for a more conventional colour.

I looked at the Sunderland Echo for inspiration because the Sunderland Echo is my local paper, but when looking at the newspaper and how they use their conventions I noticed that they use the colour red for the main colour for their colour palette and red represents the devil, evil and passion which is the total binary opposite to what I want my product to represent I want my product to represent happiness and I have researched that blue signifies health and happiness.

I have also used conventional layout for all my products and in particular the style for my poster as I looked at the Guardian’s poster and found their playful and colourful styling inspiring and so decided to reconstruct their poster and use their graphical approach and instead wrote ‘your positive paper’, placed ‘Everyday only 50p on the inside of positive and paper and then placed the masthead, along with another slogan of ‘Your Positive Paper and then finally at the bottom the information strip with the Publishing company’s name, website/newspaper/twitter for the newspaper. This style layout I know for certain is conventional as The Guardian use a similar style for their poster. The front cover for the newspaper has also been reconstructed using the Sunderland Echo for the conventional layout as I used the masthead in the same place, the red strip for the advertisements, the bordering for the second main story, the big font for the main article, the articles down the right hand side of the page and finally a small advertisement in the bottom right hand corner. As you know the Sunderland Echo paper was used to reconstruct the page and so again know for certain that I am using the conventional layout.

Another feature that I have used that is conventional to a media product is the fact that on the front page there are little labels that indicate that the remainder of the article is on the inside pages for example on the front page I have used ‘Turn to page 5’ located at the bottom of the article so that people reading the article would know that there is more of the article inside.

One main convention that I have followed is the fact that I have created 3 products: the newspaper (front page and inside page), the poster and the website (two hyperlinked pages), these products have been created so they are linked but also because it is the conventional thing to do as you want people to have a better access

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

My main product and my ancillary task of my poster and website work together effectively and the reason for this is because I have tried to stick to as many conventions for a newspaper as possible.

One thing that I have thought a lot on colouring for my product and have even changed the colouring of my product to make the whole of my product more effective. The running colour palette for my product is blue, white and black and I think because of this colour scheme I have been able to make a collection of products that work together to form one successful product.

Already in the media industry newspapers are not just a stand alone product any more as they also have a products which promote the newspaper and also allow a wider range of people to read the newspaper for example they have the newspaper which the locals can get, they have the poster to advertise the local newspaper product and then they have the website to help make the product more viral and more known to people who don’t just live in the area.

My main task, the front cover and the second page of a newspaper needed to work together well as they would be seen one after another and so I have used the same font, colour palette and simple layout for each. The products also work together effectively in the sense that all of my products, except the poster as that doesn’t have any articles on it, have the same articles and the same headings to the articles which makes my product consistent throughout.

For my poster I have used fun bright colours and have used this throughout my products an example of this would be for the front cover of my newspaper I have put ‘YOUR POSITIVE PAPER’, underneath the masthead and I have chosen the same colours as the poster and I have also used this technique of the multiple colours on my website.

Another element which makes my products work together successfully is the fact that the theme of my newspaper products is that it is a happy newspaper and even the slogan illustrates that ‘your positive paper’ and because of this all my products are combined together as all of the content is about happy news.

Further more all my products have been promoted effectively as all my products promote one another in some way for example the poster has the website details on the bottom of it, the front of the newspaper has a big advertisement for the website, the second page also has a link for the website at the top of the page and the website itself is promoting the newspaper.

After looking through my products I can say that I have created a professional product that would not stand out if put along side professional products as being a media students work as I feel I have followed conventions correctly and in doing so have linked my products together to create a successful product.

3.              What have you learned from your audience feedback?

I have had some peer assessment of my work which has made the development of my product a lot easier as peers can give advice on how to make my products look better. I have also had feedback from my lecturer’s which has been most valuable as both my Lecturer’s Chris and Kaye are in the same age group I want my target audience to be and so not only will they be able to tell me what people in their age category would like to see in my product, they can also give a critical analysis of what needs changing in my work as they have Media Studies knowledge.

An example of this would be a sheet of paper which gives an analysis of strengths and weaknesses with my products during the process of making my product.

Peer Improvements

To change this you could have a different colour for the background of the adverts to make it stand out more and could use your blue colour palette more to your advantage for example the headlines. I agree with this feedback as parts of my product in particular my advertisements, they seem to blend in with the rest of my articles because there are no borders are backgrounds to differentiate however to counteract this argument I did at the time have heading for each article and so when it came down to the advertisement I labelled it Local Advertisement however I have learnt from this feedback that I need to add a background colour to put behind or around the advertisement to show that it is not a article.

On the What’s On page there is too much blank space between the articles and from this feedback I now know that I need to change the layout of my articles as it obviously looks like I haven’t though a lot about the layout of my products but I have and so I need to re-arrange the products so that there is no or as little as possible white space without it looking cluttered.

Peer Strengths

I like the colours you have used, as they are striking and very eye catching, you have taken good images, which link to the text and are of a good quality, I like the little tag-line with the images as it helps the readers know where the images were taken and what the article is about, I also like the LN publishing at the website and the articles are long enough to be informative, yet short enough so as to bore people. From this feedback I can see areas that I don’t need to worry about.

Lecturer Improvements

Unsure of suitably for target audience, as at this stage I was planning having a young target audience for the paper from around 17-30 and I can see why my lecturer has given me this feedback as stereotypically older people read the paper and so picking an age range which doesn’t stereotypically read a newspaper is already a risky move for my new product as there would only be a small amount of people who would actually want to read and buy my products not enough to make a profit for my business and so from this feedback I have learned that I need to re-evaluate the age for my product and have since changed my target audience so that it is now 30+, as people in their 30’s want to know more about their local area and I have left the age bracket open for people older that 30 as people in their retirement like to read newspapers and so closing that bracket retirement age would seem odd. So from this one feedback I have learnt that I need to change my target audience to suit my product.

From these strengths and weaknesses I can see the areas of improvements to change my product for the better as from the list you can see these are only minor changes to help develop my product.

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

I used new media technology in the construction stages of my website product as I used a website to help me to build my product as I used the site called www.wix.com, this has allowed me to focus on the layout and context of my product without having to worry about the technical side of actually building a website from scratch.

In addition to this I have used technology in the research of the product as I looked a the e-editions of newspapers as well as print copies to have a look at a wider range of product for example the Metro newspaper is one of the many newspapers I looked at the gain ideas.

To plan my product I used Photoshop to plan the layout of my work as without crucial planning you could be lost as you could be going out and taking images that may or may not fit into the required spacing of the newspaper for example a portrait orientation image might need to fit into a landscape orientation image and this may mean that the image would have to be smaller than planned and then that would also mean there will be empty space, which could lead to me then having to stretch the image which would ruin the quality of the photographs.

When evaluating my work I would send copies of my work to other class mates as well as my lecture for feedback and I have also created an account on survey monkey which allowed me to gain responses to questions about my product and also as my blog can be seen any where this means that I can have anonymous comments to give feedback on my work.

As you can see I have used a range of products when constructing, researching, planning and evaluating my product and as well as this I have also had experience with using a video software called Premiere Pro to help me get to grips with using the software if I was to use that brief later on.

Time management

The only thing that I have left to do is to publish my website.