In what ways does your media

product use, develop or

challenge forms and conventions

of real media products?

Babs MacNeill

@

OFFE

R

EXTRAS

HEADLINE

WEBSITE INFORMATION

WEBSITE INFORMATION

HEADLINE

EXTRAS

OFFE

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Front

Page

IN COMPARISON

…

HEADLINE

Bold, blue and large. Different font. I used a

Britannic Bold. Effective as it is eye

catching and the boldness follows the

conventions of a real newspaper. The title

conveys the sense of locality as it‟s the Southern

News. However if it were to improve then I would

specify where about in the south like The News

does.

EXTRAS

The extras above the title of the paper helps to show as much

information as possible which is what a media product does.

Following from this convention I think the same font and

boldness helps to place it neatly. Also, the little black square dot

with the page number is something that The News does so I

developed this convention myself which helps the media product

to be effective.

Page 23

WEBSITE

People use the internet much more these days.

This shown on the top like The News can effect

the opportunities available for The Southern

News. Thus the opportunity to interact and

know more about the paper.

OFFE

RImportant for the public who perhaps show no

interest in knowing about the news in general.

However providing an offer will effect the different

readers as this would target a certain audience;

elderly or young.

INFORMATION

Helps provide a lot of information, the date is important

for general purposes of organising. “NEWSPAPER OF

THE YEAR” aids the selling point of a media product, if

you say something is the best out of competitors then

you will potentially earn more readers. And the price is

very important, it needs to be easy to read and cheap too

as The News is also. A local paper will be cheap as it‟s

part of a close-knit community and should therefore be

more accessible for all ages.

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HEADLINE

EXTRAS

FIRST

LINE

Front

Page

IN COMPARISON

…

HEADLINE

Bold and very important, how you phrase things is

what gets a local citizen reading first before or

after seeing the main photo. Alliteration is a

typical convention of papers as language that

catches the sound is an attractive factor.

The photo is very important as this is what will

attract a reader to the story and therefore buy the

paper. The blue Spinnaker looks attractive

however the words juxtaposes as they are

negative. This would be effective in a way that a

reader would feel concern for a popular iconic

symbol of Portsmouth and it‟s local area.

FIRST

LINEEngages the reader and will give the

first insight to the story. The News

uses this in order to create a

dramatic effect which will encourage

the reader to be interested. I have

used this and placed it in a way that

the white background stands out and

the information is simple to find out.

EXTRAS

Yellow is a common use for breaking up

colours and style of The News. My paper

was very blue throughout the process of the

production so using yellow really aided in

breaking up the colours and not over

whelming a potential reader with too many

colours. Lines in the whole middle section

help separate the information so that it isn‟t

to cluttered.

Smaller stories also help to attract different

types of ages within the local area.

Considering the type of demographic area I

have chosen, I haven‟t included much multi-

cultural aspects like I would for London

perhaps. But including people from all ages

and positive and negative news helps to

keep the paper lively and cutting edge.

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Very important to promote local companies and business as these

could also aid the paper. Mine was a last minute construction it

had originally been a food restaurant one. I had made less space

for another story and more space for the advertisement, The

News uses this to show more going on in the local area. For a

paper to employ a local business helps the paper itself become

heard and therefore this convention was something that I wanted

to develop.

DETAILS

IMAGESWRITING

IMAGES

WRITING

DETAILS

Evaluation of Media‟s Advanced Portfolio

Page 2

IN COMPARISON

…

DETAILS

Keeping the reader reminded with details

such as the paper they‟re reading. The

website and the date. The colours were

important as I had to establish something

attractive so I used colours and evened out

the look by spreading the details over the

top.

WRITING

Very similar to The News as I used a

blue background for the border and

white writing. Originally I had used

black but it appeared too harsh with

the words.

Also when keeping the title simple, the words

must be bold and present information that is

easy to digest but makes you want to read

further.

With colour I‟d developed mine just like The

News has in the previous slide and therefore it

brought out a more realistic looking media

product when following this convention.

Babs MacNeill

IMAGES

Very important. The audience will see this first and then read what is

next to it. I chose to use a group of people for my first photo and

cropped this photo. The people are colour-ful and it also attracts the

reader‟s attention.

My other photo was cropped

like how I have explained in

one part of my blog. CLICK.

This followed how The News

has also done in one of their

papers. This would show the

individual in a close knit

community which would relate

to a local citizen.

WEATHER IMAGE

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CONTEN

T

Evaluation of Media‟s Advanced Portfolio

Page 2

IN COMPARISON

… Same background as The

News, blue with black

writing. Bold and easy to

spot.

Images chosen carefully for an

easy understanding. Some were

tacky but I liked the look of these.

They aren‟t like The News one and

the details I provide aren‟t like how

The News presents them.

However, I do present them in a

formal language and kept short.

More details. Definitely a

convention I have developed

and understood from all media

products. „For more information‟

aspects also employs how

useful the product can be.

Providing information in different

formats like the internet and by

phone.

IMAGE

Depending on what news there is to provide in

the media, whatever you show can portray any

opinion whether positive or negative. Some

papers show negative but I felt that after having

something negative in the front page, providing

a positive image could create a diversion for the

reader. The colours in my chosen picture and an

individual local citizen smiling employs a diverse

choice of what to read which is a good

convention to have in a media product. To target

a general audience from all ages and

backgrounds within my demographic region.

CONTEN

TContent being

important as I must

provide the 5 W‟s.

Who? What? When?

Where? And why?

My content quotes the

people involved and

where the problems or

achievements have

taken place etc.

Page 2

Website

The NewsSearch bar. Being able to be

interactive with the news.

Stories, short headlines like

The News and a picture

which can attract certain

readers depending on their

social needs.

Subscription for my news.

Not always in the website of

The News however I wanted

to involve more readers and

present a deal which is how

media products like The Sun

or magazines do in order to

keep regular customers by

keeping them „happy‟.

For comparison

In addition,how effective is the

combination of your main

product and ancillary texts?

Evaluation of Media‟s Advanced Portfolio

Babs MacNeill

Combination of the logo:Keeping to the same logo I combine my paper with my

website and use dark blue along with Britannic Bold font

as this would be important to keep to the iconic outlook

of the media product. Linking with advertisement to really

promote a business

Linking in stories:Opportunity to interact or comment on stories

like the BBC News. Part of the Web 2.0 element

in technology. From the example on the right, the

offer to comment or „follow‟ the BBC either on

Facebook or Twitter etc.

Tower story:as it plays an important role in the

reputation of Portsmouth for it‟s local

outlook. Therefore linking my story

of the tower from the front page and

to the poster would help get more

local people involved.

How did you use new media technologies in the construction,

research, planning and evaluating stages?

Evaluation of Media‟s Advanced Portfolio

How did you use new media technologies in the construction,

research, planning and evaluating stages?

Evaluation of Media‟s Advanced Portfolio

ResearchIn comparison to last years work, my understanding of new technologies has

improved and I‟m much more willing and open to learn more. Generally when

using a Mac instead of a PC, the documents I use to produce my work is very

complex to me.

When beginning my media product I had to research on other texts in

order to gain a basic understanding of the conventions. For this I

used The News that I receive at home and I analysed daily papers to

get an idea of the layouts and languages involved. For the website I

produced and types of stories I‟d include has been helped by safari.

See blog for details on research.

I had used Safari to research website conventions.

ConstructionI used InDesign to produce my front

cover and inner page of my

newspaper. I used aspects such as

placing photos in, following margins

and columns, exploring the uses of

font in which it offers and the whole

over view of the InDesign enables

me to focus on detail.

When completing each stage of my work,

when blogging it it enabled me to see how I

have improved and where I started from.

Probably the most used icon on my

desk. I use this for posting onto my

blog and evaluating and it really helps

to capture just the small details of my

work and talk about this in comparison

to the big picture.

Photoshop has been there for me to crop

my pictures, and to turn my files into

JPEG‟s so I can upload these files onto my

blog.

iWeb, like Microsoft word in a way as I start

off with a blank page and then drag photos

onto my page and use a text box to place

words into it.

Evaluating

Using power point and InDesign to enable me to

express my evaluating when going back into my

work and how it was constructed.