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

For my media coursework i learnt a lot of new skills. For example, learning how to use this blog! Blogging is something i've never done before, so this in itself was a challenge.

As shown in my blog, i've also used a lot of print screens, something which i learnt during the process and have used it to show examples of my work along the way.

I used photo editing software such as photoshop and picasa to edit and adjust photos to make them clearer



I also experimented with my photography and tried a more artistic approach for some photos:



This worked well and audience feedback suggested that it could represent lonliness etc, something that i was aiming for because it is my main image for my front page of my newspaper.

For my As media coursework i used microsoft word, my final music magazine therefore looked very amateur, i wanted to make my newspaper this year look better quality and therefore used microsoft publisher and learnt how to add guidelines to make it look like a proper newspaper with colums etc.

Here is an example of how my technical ability has improved from last year:



One thing that proved vital in my research stages was the internet, it meant that i could look at local newspapers from around the country online and get a wider view of what local newspapers are like.

Here are some of the websites i looked at:
http://www.hampshirechronicle.co.uk/
http://www.surreyherald.co.uk/
http://www.somersetcountygazette.co.uk/
http://www.theargus.co.uk/news/

I also looked at the websites for the two isle of wight newspapers:
http://www.iwcp.co.uk/
http://iwgazette.biz/

Another element to my coursework was my radio advert. I've never recorded anything before so this was a challenge too. i tried various methods but decided on using my microphone on my laptop. I also used a website called www.freeplaymusic.com which has lots of uncopyrighted music on. I downloaded this and added it to my advert which i then burnt onto a disc.




When researching radio adverts, i of course, listened to the radio, however i found www.youtube.com useful as it meant i could listen to adverts over and over again so that i could analyse them properly.



For my radio advert, i needed to put it into a video format in order for it to work properly on my blog. I therefore used windows live movie maker to make a video. I added an image of a title page and clicked 'add music' to add my video on.



I then had to create a youtube account and load it onto youtube




Finally, the use of blogs has worked well. A lot of my peers also have blogs so it is a quick and easy way of accessing eachothers work from our own homes. It has proved very useful as they can just look at my blog instead of me carrying around surveys for people to fill out.

Evaluation: What have you learned from your audience feedback?

I found that in this piece, audience was the key thing which helped me make my decisions.

I wanted to use people from my target market (teenagers) to have their say in what they would like to see in a newspaper and what they think would be most effective.

I originally had a very general target market: adults, however feedback on my blog suggested it would be a good idea to focus on a smaller group, which is why i changed it to teenagers.



I carried out various questionairres to find out the views of my target market about things such as price, content and title. From this i learned that most people would pay 70p for their paper, therefore my paper is 70p

It also helped me decide on a title:



And as the third person said, there was potential in this for a good logo and i then set about creating a logo which looked vaguely like an eye.

I wanted to include my target market in all areas of my production so i also got comments on which pictures to use, this comment was particularly helpful:



One person suggested to have a series of posters so then i could get people to say which they preferred:



i took this on board and created three posters



I did a survey aswell as looking at feedback from my blog and it was decided that the second one was best due to a number of reasons



I also used the ideas of my peers (also my target market) to make decisions on my radio advert, i carried out a survey and went with the majority vote, i also listened to my actors views and their ideas when they were rehearsing they felt that there should be less dialogue and more music, i changed it and felt that this was better.

Audience feedback has been vital for my coursework as my target market has made most big decisions, sometimes unexpected ones (e.g. the choice of radio ad) therefore i am thankful as i would have ended up with something that my target audience isn't attracted to.

Feedback has helped me better my piece and made me sure that it is right for my target market.

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

When producing my coursework i wanted all three tasks to link well with eachother so that it is clear that they are all associated with eachother. For example, with my front cover and my poster, i kept the title and logo the same to show to my audience that they are clearly linked.



I also made sure each thing was very relevant to the Isle of Wight itself, seeing as it is a local newspaper for the Isle of Wight. When thinking about how best to advertise, i thought about the beach as it is the main tourist attraction and beautiful place on the island. It's also a place where a lot of young people go.

With this idea i took a lot of my photos for my poster on the beach



I also made sure i made reference to the Isle of Wight in my radio ad.

I used the same fonts in both my poster and my newspaper as they are printed media and i used the newspapers website in both. A catchphrase i used in my poster 'The Islands new local newspaper for teenagers' was also used in my radio advert as the slogan.

I feel all three worked well effectively to produce my local newspaper in a way that my audience would be able to see the link between the radio ad and the poster and work out that it all links in with the newspaper.

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

I wanted to use existing conventions of newspapers so that it was recognisable to my audience as a local newspaper, some of the conventions i used was:

Masthead - My title 'Island Eye' ran along the top like most local newspapers
Date/price/website/ - normal conventions that need to be on a newspaper
Articles with supporting images - Most local papers use images to enhance the stories etc.

I wanted to write in a similar style to normal newspaper articles, i therefore looked at various examples of existing newspapers such as 'The Isle of Wight County Press' and copied their style of writing, i also used it to find good topics for stories for me to cover.



I also created my paper for a specific target market (teenagers) therefore in the same way that the county press aim their adverts more to the elderly, i aimed mine at teenagers advertising for things such as driving instructors and pizza hut etc.



However. In order for my paper to stand out and be different to most local newspapers i needed to challenge the usual conventions and produce something different.

I decided to use a colour scheme of blue. This isn't a common thing in newspapers, apart from in logo's. I chose blue as it is a colour which appeals to both boys and girls and also represents the sea - one of the great assets of the Isle of Wight. I used the colour scheme in my title, logo, contents and also kept the theme on the second page by having a band of blue across the top.

In my research i didn't come across any local newspapers which are aimed at teenagers. This alone is therefore challenging conventions. I made sure i made my target market clear by using teenage models in my poster and teenagers actors to do the voices in my radio ad.

here are some of the teenagers i used:

Final Pieces

Here is my final Front cover, 1st page of my newspaper and poster for my newspaper:





here is my radio ad:

Radio Advert

I have now recorded my radio advert but can't find a way of getting it onto here at the moment.

I chose 3 A level drama students to do the voices for my advert so that they could get the right type of expressions i was looking for.

I wanted to use boys and girls to show that my newspaper is aimed at both and made sure they were of the same age as my target market.

After a couple of practices we decided that the advert was too long so we shortened the dialogue and made it faster. My peers also liked the music at the end but felt there should be some at the beginning so we did that. This shows the importance of audience feedback when making my radio ad.

Photo Editing

Here is an example of how i edited a photo to make it look clearer and better quality.

This is the original:


and this is the edited version:


i cropped it so that it would fit better on my newspaper page and i also enhanced the colours to make it brighter and clearer.

Annotated second page

Here is a copy of my final page 2. It is also annotated to show why i did certain things.

Annotated title page

Here is a copy of my final title page for my newspaper with annotations to explain why i have done what i've done.

Audience feedback on poster

As with the radio advert, i had different ideas to choose from and i wanted my target markets input as to which i should use as my final poster.
Here is the sheet i gave them:



3 people liked number 1, 8 people liked number 2 and 4 people liked number 3. I will therefore be using number 2 as my final poster

Audience feedback on radio ad.

I had 2 draft radio ad's and wasn't sure as to which would be the most effective. I therefore asked 15 people from my target market and asked which they liked best, this is the piece of paper i gave them:



As a result of this quick survey, 5 people preferred number 1 and 10 preffered number 2. I will therefore use number 2. This was an unexpected result and showed me the importance of audience feedback.

Advert for my paper

because my paper is aimed at isnald teenagers i wanted to make my adverts relevant. i therefore decided to have an advert for driving instructors.
here is an idea for my advert which will appear on the front page:

Another radio idea

after hearing more radio adverts, i have come up with another idea which is very different to my last advert as it is simpler. here is a draf script (there will be music too) i will get audience feedback as to which advert i should record.

The islands new local newspaper for teenagers: Island Eye
All the lastest news plus sports, competitions and giveaways!
Just 70p at all local newsagents, plus 30p of that goes to the youth opportunities fund.
Island Eye: straight to the point.

photos

One of my stories in my newspaper is about a group of teenagers who raised money for cancer research. I decided on having a picture of a girl holding a cheque. I'd like feedback on which photo is the best one to use, thanks.

Radio advert

Here is a script for my radio advert which i will record.


1 – (flicking through newspaper) Oh this is so boring, where can I get the real news on the island?
2 - What d’ya mean Liz?
1 - I mean it’s all politics and the council and stuff like that. Where’s the news that matters to us?
2 – Like...?
1 - Like I don’t know, just interesting stuff about people and real life, not all this boring stuff about the council
2- well haven’t you heard of Island Eye?
1 – Island Eye?
2 – Yeah it’s great, Island Eye has the real news cos it’s got an eye on the island and what’s really going on.
1 – So none of this boring rubbish about tractors and village fetes?
2 – Nope, just real news that’s relevant to us
1- wow that’s great, how much is it?
2 – 70p. And 30p of that goes to the youth opportunities fund, so it’s helping island teenagers too
3 – Island eye, the islands new local newspaper for teenagers, get your copy now for just 70p from any island newsagents

3 poster ideas

Here are three possible ideas for my poster, please comment and say which you like best, also please give any suggestions on how to make them better, thanks.

News values which are relevant to my newspaper

Threshold - My main stories are on my front page as they are big events.
Composition - I have tried to have a good balance of negative and positive stories in my paper to make it a good read.
Actuality - I am using pictures in my paper to support my stories, for example, next to my story about a car crash, i have a photo of flowers placed by the road.
Recency - i have made sure that all my stories are current and have happened within the past week
These are the main ones but i do also use others. Some of the news values however are more relevant to national papers.

News values

I have done some research and found the criteria for 'newsworthy' stories that could be covered in my paper. Not all are relevant to a local newspaper and are more for national papers:

1. Frequency - the time span taken by the event
2. Threshold - the size of an event
3. Unambiguity - musn't be too simple or too complex
4. Meaningfullness - pretty self explanitory..
5. Correspondance - where the familiar is more likely to be thought important than the unfamiliar
6. Unexpectedness - Where the rarity of an event which leads to it's circulation in the public domain
7. Continuity - where there is already a running story that the paper has previously covered e.g. the madeline mccann story
8. Compisition - A good balance of stories, for example, if there is a lot of negative stories, there will also be some good ones to balance it out
9. Reference to elite nations - e.g. elections, natural disatsers and wars etc.
10. Reference to elite persons - Anyone famous or powerful that is connected to a news story.
11. Personalisation - events that are often seen as the actions of people as individuals.
12. Negativity - 'bad news'
13. Actuality - evidence of pictures
14. Recency - freshness and immediacy of the story

Radio advert research

I've been doing some research on radio adverts and here are a few that i like, i will take elements from them when creating my advert

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-xdTrL9Jiw
this one is clearly funny, the humor works well and catches attention, it also uses good sound effects.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JD4b1LLz62s&feature=related
this one has very clear voices and also a jingle, something which i might incorporate in mine, again the sound effects are key in the understand of the 'joke'.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RHozqs4Ip4A&feature=related
i like this one because the music adds comedy and makes it seem dramatic and exciting, it is also clearly aimed at men by the way it is spoken and the fact that it is a male voice.

draft of my poster

here is a draft of my poster, please comment and say what you think, thanks

draft of my front cover

here's a draft of my front cover, please comment and say what you think, thanks

1 more photo idea for the poster

Photos for the poster

ok, the weathers finally got sunny so i got my friends together and went down the beach to take some photos for my poster advertising 'island eye' newspaper. I chose the beach as my location because it is a local newspaper for the Isle of wight and the beaches are the perfect way to promote the island. I used teenagers because my target market is teenagers.
Here's a few of the photos, please comment and say which you like.
(the one with the couple works better if its zoomed in cos then you can auctually see the newspaper!)

title and logo ideas

here are some ideas for different fonts for my title aswell as some logo ideas, i personally like the top two but please comment and say which you prefer.

Conventions of a newspaper

ok so i thought, if i want to make my newspaper like a regular local newspaper i want to follow typical newspaper conventions, here are a few that i think i will follow:
Masthead: my newspaper needs a catchy title which is easy to notice, i have decided im going to use the title 'Island Eye' and am thinking of a logo to add to it too.
Colums: I'm going to write my article in colums because this is typical of a normal newspaper and gives the writing some sort of order
Pictures: my images need to be eyecatching and interesting to look and of good quality
Website/date/price: these are all vital parts of a newspaper front cover and it it vital that i have them.
Contents: most newspapers have some form of contents on the front cover, therefore i will have this on my front cover with a taster of some of the other news stories

Target market

I decided to make my target market more specific by aiming it at people between the ages of 16 and 25. I therefore did another questionairre asking people within that age range and here are my results.