2. My group and I chose to construct a local newspaper, local newspaper internet page along with a poster publication. We felt that there was a gap in the market for a quality local newspaper. We discovered in our area most of the local news is focused on advertising rather than actual relevant news. When making our practical it was important for us to focus on three key areas; layout, product and target audience. The audience for our (local) newspaper varies. Our paper is a community newspaper and the typical ages group would be around ages 26+ (this is also what we found out through our questionnaire), however there is always a possibility children from the age of 10 may read a/the local newspaper(s), as they contain many interesting facts, for interest or their education, there are also games such as Sudoku and crossword puzzles which children also enjoy, therefore there isn’t really a typical target market to pin point for a product like ours. Our paper will allow readers to be informed about news around their area, it will include more news and less adverts than the average newspaper: this is so readers will acknowledge our paper as a more superior local paper than the rest. We give them what they pay for which is more information that is going on around in their area, instead of little information and more adverts- to publicise companies and projects which most people already know about. Our where sold price is 55p, this is cheaper than some of the local newspapers such as The Enfield Independent which is 60p. There are few local papers that are 35p, however in our questionnaire, planning and research, we found people were happy to pay more than 50p for our paper. Seeing as we give more in terms of news than some of the cheaper papers, we believe 55p is acceptable. our paper is an echo friendly paper which I will discuss later on.
3. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
4. My media product uses the conventions in the following ways: Layout: the layout of our paper, is set out similar to what a usual Newspaper. We used the usual conventions such as the Masthead and articles, and placed them in the area of the paper you would expect them to be in. We added conventions such as page numbers, dates, logo (to show off our own brand). We added these as we need to allow readers to know when and who are publishing our paper. Website Masthead Date Lure Main Headline By-line Main Photo Caption to Picture Article in columns Adverts Price
5. My media product uses the conventions in the following ways: Colour: when creating a product, it is important to think about appearance. You need the product to look representable so that people will recognise our brand but most importantly that it stands out from the rest. We had to carefully think about colour usage and not to add to many colours otherwise it would make the appearance look unprofessional and cluttered We chose a two tone gradient green colour which we thought suited the paper. Moreover the green signifies the echo friendly ethos. In a political point of view, we didn't want to choose a colour such as blue which would relate to Conservative, yellow (lib-dem) and red (Labour), because we don’t want to be associated with one party. Political parties use one solid colour, our paper is a two tones green therefore our paper is unique and cannot be mistaken for “The Green Party”.
6. My media product uses the conventions in the following ways: Brand: we chose to add a logo to our paper to show brand identity. It is good to have a brand identity, a logo or statement that shows off your individual product. People will therefore start to recognise the individual product. We chose to create a brand identity, and used three things that showed our trademark. Font Colour Logo From these two main example, the front cover and poster, clearly show the features that tell people it is our trademark. We also use a slogan; “21 st Century News For 21 st Century People
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8. Adverts: All local newspapers have a feast of adverts. Like the papers, ours will be greatly supported by advertisements. Our paper is a January issue therefore we follow the conventions of new year advertising. Below are three example of adverts we created, they are suitable for the issue and they are a great money making scheme. Many over do on the Christmas dinner, the new year has come, therefore papers advertise gym membership's as people want to lose the pounds. The “cash for Gold” is an advert that would be issued; everyone is looking for financial help after the Christmas period. Our money making scheme works as it advertises new year adverts: gym advert=people need , cash advert=people want , and finally our luxury restaurant advert= people must . Papers make money from advertising. The readers will spend money and time in the gym, they will therefore need and want more money, with aid from our financial help advert. Lastly in most peoples heads they “must” try the new best thing- French restaurant. They pile on the pounds, and spend money and the circle goes around again, they are back at the gym and once again need more money.
32. Colour palette: allows me to choose colours I want to use This section allows me to select, colour and erase certain object. Form certain Shapes and much more . The above tool bar allows me to add special effects to certain objects This is the layer palette that allows me to add certain Object in front of others, change the opacity so that I can make something look faded out (one of the effects we used on the poster) and add certain effects to colour and appearance. PHOTOSHOP