Main Newspaper

Here is the final images of my newspaper, it contains my own images and own stories. Not to mention everything except the barcode was created by me.

Front Page

Second Page

Poster Advert

Here is my poster. First its my original poster. Below the original poster is my final poster.

Final Poster

Radio Advert

Evaluation

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

My media product uses the standard codes and conventions of the real media Newspaper products by using the same layout and colour scheme you would find in a local newspaper. It has the tutorials in columns along the page like you would find in any form of newspaper. My media product uses these to allow for adverts and corporate logos to be shown on the pages of my newspaper.

I developed forms and conventions by using the convention of the columns and corporate logos etc, and i put my own spin on it. An example of this is the corporate column, usually it is smaller than that but i felt it was important to show who was sponsoring my newspaper and it widens the audience, if you shop or are a part of the shops or organisations then you would become more interested in a newspaper that it endorses.

My newspaper challenges conventions by not having the traditional topic of just a sports newspaper. This allows me to connect with just a sporting audience and not trying to please everyone's interests and needs.

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

The combination of my main product and my ancillary texts works well due to the fact that I have produced my newspaper and then produced two different types of advertising for the newspaper. I produce a paper and audio form of adverts in order to spread the word of the newspaper. It is effective as it gives consumers double the amount of information and in different formats. It is effective as consumers will receive advert information in both and audio and visual formats, this gives an image and a description of what to expect from the newspaper.

The ancillary texts were produced in order to not only advertise the main product but to compliment it, and to extend the skills and production techniques i had previously learned and have learned whilst producing the main product and ancillary texts. I believe that i created a high level of products in both main product and ancillary texts. I liked the end products i created as it provided me with aspects and parts of the production method which i could learn from and gain high value experience for me to use in future projects and future tasks set.

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

My audience feedback showed me that the audience knows what they are talking about. They tore my original design apart and enabled me to see the mistake i had made. It allowed me to correct these mistakes and right my wrongs in order to produce a successful newspaper. My audience feedback gave me a connection with the audience, which i wouldn't of had without it.

The audience feedback provides me with vital information to determine how i should improve/change my products in order to meet the audience specifications and audience expectations. The audience is the most important part of a media production as without an audience the product cannot and will not be a success and be a popular hit with the public. The audience determines whether your product is a hit or a miss, whether it will be a success or a fail.

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

I used media technologies in my product by allowing myself the best professional software in order to help my newspaper be realistic and gives it a professional look and feel to it. In my media i used Microsoft Publisher for the poster and main newspaper. For the radio advert i used the schools radio equipment and used Audacity to edit and layer the recorded sounds and songs. Overall i feel that the media technologies i used helped me produce products that were sufficient and were professional in such a way that the media technology is a major credit for how my media product was made and presented.

The technology helped me to achieve a higher level of production than i had previously imagined. It enabled me to ensure i met the specification well , and not just done a half asked job. The newspaper showed me that i have a bit more designing ability than i previously believed. This was down to the technological software i used. Photoshop and publisher allowed me to get a good layout and allowed me to create the better product i produced than my previous hand drawn design version.

Radio and Newspaper Advertising

In order to justify reasoning behind advertising Newspapers and using the Radio to advertise I would like to present a couple of extracts from websites i used to fully understand my objectives and tasks.

From http://articles.directorym.com/Radio_Advertising-a148.html#50058

Benefits

Corporations, small business owners, and charitable organizations all benefit from the use of radio advertising. Radio advertising can alert various communities about a business's products or services or it can alert people to the existence of one's organization. Further, radio advertising is a good way to teach people about what one's business or organization has to offer the community.
Corporations: Lots of radio stations play corporate radio ads every hour. Just think about the millions of people reached with catchy jingles and company logos. Radio advertisements are created in such a way that they not only attract listeners, but they make a corporation's products and services memorable to potential consumers.
The Small Business Owner: The small business owner can reap the same benefits from radio advertising as corporations do. To build a larger client base, to reach previously unreachable clients, radio advertising offers the small business owner a chance to be recognized. Thus, radio advertising allows small business owners a chance to get an edge on all of the competition they face in their particular market.
Organizations: Organizations looking to get their presence recognized should certainly take advantage of radio advertising opportunities. Charitable organizations often use radio advertising spots to send public messages, to raise awareness and to solicit donations. Further, private organizations looking to announce special events or fund raisers, also frequent the radio airwaves to gain the attention of every listener.

This extract shows me that essentially Radio Advertising is used to gain reputation for small businesses and organizations.

From http://www.myadbase.com/cgi-bin/guide.cgi?page=media_advertising

"The advertising world has moved on significantly over the last 15 years and Online advertising is now moving ahead of the more traditional forms of promotion vehicles like magazine advertising andnewspaper advertising...."

"Depending on your budget and objectives, you may also want to consider advertising formats like Radio Advertising or TV advertising to shout about your brand. These can be targeted to a consumer or business audience and each provider will be happy to discuss ways in which you can get the best value for money..."

With this extract i can learn the meaning of advertising and what the point of advertising is in general, using many different mediums.

Focus Group

When doing my focus groups, I decided to use both newspapers I used for my deconstructions. I did this because I had seen the paper myself and made my own opinion about it, but however i needed to and wanted to see what others of different genders, ages and origins of people thought about both of the local newspapers. The group i had looking at the deconstructions were a group of 15 people. Eight people were between the ages of 12-18, 2 people were between 23-28. Three people were between 30-37 years old. One was 43 and the other was 49. There were 7 women and 8 men in the group, from different origins and ethnicities.

The first newspaper i showed to the focus group was the Get Reading newspaper. The comments made about the newspaper was that the corporate banner worked well as it advertised and helped gain reputation for local businesses and organizations; whilst being a traditional code and convention, the main headline wasn't associated with the main picture in the paper. This works well as it then gets the reader reading two stories and not just the obvious main headline story.

Having carried out a focus group to decide what to include in my local newspaper, i produced my first version of the front page and asked the same groups opinion on it.

They said that it was too simplistic to be a real newspaper and that the layout was more like a 'fanzine' than a local newspaper. The main story was a good choice but there were simple errors which didn't allow the newspaper to be a realistic and believable paper to be sold.

This focus group taught me that more thought needed to go into my design and i needed to go back to the drawing board on this one. I learned that i need corporate items on the front page like adverts and a barcode in order to convince the public that this is a real local newspaper and that it is like and can be compared to the local newspapers sold in the shops today. It showed me that there is more to a newspaper than just you think, i thought doing a newspaper would be easy but it wasn't. It is hard stuff, if your ideas get put down then it does affect you but for me it affected me in the right way, it made me want to finish the task even better than i had hoped in the first place.Here is an image of my original front page which was real to the designs i drew and also what my final front page looked like.

Original Design

Final Front Page

Questionnaire

This is the first graph from my Audience Questionnaire. When asking a group of 12 people whether or not they would read a sports newspaper this is the result i got. As you can see no one from my group said they wouldn't read a sports only newspaper, however 2 people said they would consider reading it based on articles in the newspaper. A massive 10 people said they would read the newspaper if it was sport only, so this shows to me that the majority of a sample group would enjoy reading a local sports newspaper.

The opening question in my questionnaire was the 'What is your age?' question. It is an important question as it provides me with knowledge to know what range of ages are taking part in the questionnaire. The ages on this questionnaire have quite a long range. This works into my advantage as i now have a broad and wide audience to be targeting. Once i have asked the age and gender you will then know who will be interested in reading your paper or watching your music video.

Before i asked whether or not the people would read a local sports newspaper, i first cut the original group for 20 to 12. I did this by asking if people read local newspapers to start with. I continued the questionnaire with the 12 who didn't say they don't read newspapers, but looking back on it i should have kept them in the questionnaire as it would have tried to change their minds and actually read a local newspaper.

Here is a copy of my full questionnaire.

What is your age? Below 16 17-25 26-35 35-44 45+ 3 7 4 1 5 Do you read newspapers? Yes No Sometimes Rarely 8 2 7 3 Do you read local newspapers? Yes No Sometimes Rarely 9 6 3 2 In a local newspaper, what articles do you focus on? Sport Front page Jobs Classified Letters Property Community Events 11 2 1 Would you read a local newspaper totally dedicated to sport? Yes No Maybe 10 2 What sort of language would you like in a newspaper? Formal Informal A mixture of formal and informal 3 4 5 Do you think a newspaper should contain images on articles? Yes No Depends on the article 8 1 3 Do you want to read about sports you may not usually read about? Yes No 9 3