The document discusses how the author used both traditional and new media conventions and technologies in creating their media products. Specifically: 1) The author's newspaper followed some traditional newspaper conventions like layout but also included new elements like a barcode to engage younger audiences. 2) Research included examining other newspapers online to understand conventions and using sites like the Radio Advert Hall of Fame for inspiration. 3) New media like Google Images, blogs, and GarageBand were used for planning, design, and creation of the newspaper, poster, and radio advertisement. Feedback was also gathered through online sources. 4) Overall the author aimed to create aesthetically pleasing products that appealed to younger audiences while still drawing on some traditional newspaper

1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions.<br />My newspaper has followed some similar conventions to that of other local newspapers, such as the Bromley Metro. For instance my newspaper has a 5-column layout, (same number as that of the Metro). This is because my newspaper is sophisticated and I believe the 5-column layout is perfect for my target audience. For instance if my newspaper followed a 4-column layout or less then it would be seen as quite childish and would be filled with pictures (similar to the Sun). I think my chosen layout fits perfectly as if it was similar to the Independent with a column layout of 7 or 8. This is for a small percentage of the public (the higher educated) so I feel that my 5-column layout suits my target audience perfectly.<br />The main headline for my newspaper is a strong statement. I believe that will help to draw in readers as it is bold and tells us about a tragic event of a boy in the local area. It follows a similar pattern to newspaper headlines. My newspaper also contains similar aspects to other papers by using similar gutter spaces, by lines and jump lines. I did this because I feel that all papers should follow similar rules and guidelines<br />My adverts that I produced are all original; they are funkier than the usual adverts you would see in a newspaper. Using different colours and layouts I produced my adverts, which were advertising a local football club’s fixtures (Charlton Athletic), a Goals football voucher and a Vauxhall Corsa advert. This use of colours and layouts are in my eyes aesthetically pleasing and from feedback from my peers and friends they say that it is a high point of my newspaper.<br />The font used in my newspaper is different to that seen in all newspapers, it is a Gill Sans Regular font, difference to a usually seen Times New Roman or similar font. I did this because my newspaper is targeted at a younger audience and I feel that with a font used in my paper it will cater for my targeted audience as it does not look old fashioned, it looks new and fresh.<br />The capturing comment below my photos in my paper uses similar ways that normal newspapers do. For instance underneath the picture of my main photograph (Blueprint band performing at a concert) it shows the band members from left to right with their names and what role they have in the band. This is similar to that of other papers because I feel that it is the correct way to use capturing comments.<br />How effective is the combination of your main product and your ancillary tasks.<br />The combination of my ancillary tasks consisted of a Radio Advert and a Poster to help advertise my Newspaper. These were aimed at my target audience, which was the younger generation, and I hoped that it appealed to them. <br />When I started to design my poster I looked at a numerous amount of other posters advertising newspapers and they did vary from different themes and motives but they all did seem to follow similar conventions. I decided to produce something alternative to this and produce a poster that did not follow the average conventions seen in newspaper advertising. <br />My poster consists of a picture of a late teenager playing guitar in a band. I edited it using Photoshop to make the creases and different tones of the picture blend in with the background except the guitar and the hands. I did this to try and show what my paper is about rather than showing screen shots of my newspaper (like all other newspaper adverts) <br />Overall I feel that my Poster is successful in terms of being aesthetically pleasing with my targeted audience, the poster shows what the newspaper offers and is about just from one image. It was also beneficial as I used the same colour schemes (a dark red) that were in my newspaper swell as my poster.<br />The construction of my Radio Advert (in my eyes) was the hardest task of them all. I visited rab.com (Radio Advert Hall of Fame), this was useful as it gave me an insight to the past successful radio adverts. it showed me the key concepts of making an advert. I found it difficult to produce something like this as it was out of my comfort zone, as I have never constructed something using sounds. <br />For this I used GarageBand to produce the music for the backing track of my advert. I decided to produce an advert that got straight to the point and made it sound pleasing so my target audience could remember it. I did this by using a catchy backing track. <br />I feel that I could of produced a much clearer and better radio advert, but I feel that my final produced advert does the trick.<br />My newspaper named “The Chelsfield” took the most amount of time out of the three tasks, but it shows as I feel that my newspaper was my best-produced media product. I am happy with most aspects of my paper, including the theme, colours, layouts and photos. The photos used in my website were tricky to take as it involved travelling to Gravesend to watch and photograph (Blueprint) the band used in my newspaper and my poster. I feel that the effort paid off and makes my newspaper look presentable and aesthetically pleasing as the layouts of the photos and column layouts suit the paper well.<br />The stories that I chose to write were targeted at my audience as my paper is all about people from the ages of 18-28. I feel that my stories could have been a little bit better in terms of length by making them shorter and more to the point. I found it difficult using language you would expect to read in a newspaper to write with than the normal style of text I would write. But I feel that I tackled this problem well by looking at other similar papers and studied how their types of text were worded.<br />In conclusion to this, I feel that my three tasks have linked well with each other. By this I mean that I am happy with in which the ways of my Radio Advert and my Poster have helped advertise my Newspaper. I do feel that if I had more time I could produce a much better radio advert and poster.<br />I feel that I have targeted my audience well with my newspaper, but in my advert I feel I could of used a better voice and more persuasive language to draw in my audience <br />What have you learnt from your audience feedback?<br />From my audience feedback I have had some very positive feedback with also a few negatives. I am please with my responses I received, and I will alter my newspaper to the ways in which I have been criticized for, this involves the BlackBerry Barcode and the comment next to it. I need to re-adjust this, as I want to make my newspaper to cater for everyone’s needs so it suits all types of people. I am glad how the feedback turned out as I expected it to receive little positive feedback. The comments were from different age groups (from 15 year olds to my fellow peers and my teachers)<br />The positive feedback included comments about my layouts, colours, main title, photography and my adverts. Even though on one of my feedback notes it said ‘stolen advert’. In a way this makes me happy as I produced this advert and must look professional enough to be thought it was a real advert.<br />The feedback I received on my stories is beneficial, as I know what to change now in terms of language. And I have now changed my newspapers language as I feel that doing this is for the best as my language that I used was too formal and did not suit my target audience correctly. Something that I also changed because of my audience feedback was the Goals Advert. I changed the advert as the cut out sign was white, but now I changed it to black as it stands out more.<br />I gained feedback through various different techniques. This involved me going round asking people individually what they though were the positives and negatives on my newspaper. I also received feedback from fellow peers concerning my radio advert and my poster. This was beneficial to me as I have re-done my radio advert and edited my poster. I received feedback from Facebook. I added photographs of my newspaper onto Facebook and asked people to comment on it with what they thought. This was different as I could receive feedback from what it looks like on a screen rather than in a natural paper format, (similar to the Bromley Metro online)<br />I learnt a lot from my feedback. As I have altered changes for the better, as my feedback was from people of a similar age of my target audience. I am happy with the comments I received.<br />How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research planning and the evaluation stages?<br />Media Technologies is the way in which we can view different things using technology, for instance reading a newspaper on the internet (Bromley Times), looking at images online (Google images). The ways in which I used new media technologies to use in the construction and research and planning varies from using different online facilities. Firstly I will talk about the way I researched other newspapers online to help decide what my paper would use, in terms of conventions and layouts. At the start of my research I decided to look at the Bromley Times online. This was a page to page newspaper that you could interactively use, you can flip the pages so you still have the original feeling of a paper in terms of turning the pages, but the downside is you can not get the same feeling as you do from a newspaper you can feel in your hands. This made me think about how I could make my paper seem more modern and technological but by using its original form.<br />This was a tough challenge for me but I included a BlackBerry Barcode, which BlackBerry phone users can use by scanning the barcode, and it will send you news on a weekly basis. I added this feature as I know a large percentage of people of my age own a BlackBerry smart phone so they can interact with my paper.<br />Another form of using media technologies for my research and planning was the Radio Advert hall-of-fame. This helped me decide what type of radio advert I would produce. I listened to various adverts, with advertising different brands, new shopping centers to adverts talking about helping the environment. This helped me to decide that I wanted my radio advert to be happy and lively but to get straight to the point in advertising my newspaper.<br />I also decided to look at other peoples/my peers blogs to see what their ideas and thoughts were. I did this because I wanted to see what other people could produce. I did not do this to copy or remake my peers work but to see what other people were producing so I could compare my work and see where I could further my paper, poster and radio advert.<br />I also used Google images to help to look at past posters, which were advertising newspapers. I did this for my research to try and se what past professional papers could produce. I feel that my poster is like no other and its originality is a key aspect of it. I tried to make it fit my target audience’s needs by making it aesthetically pleasing and by using colours and text that would draw in my audience.<br />The music that I used for my radio advert was found on GarageBand, after I recorded my advert using a fellow student, I had to decide what type of music would suit my advert perfectly, as I said I decided to use music that was happy and seemed to be suited with summer. I feel that this was the right choice, as I want my advert to attract viewers and not seem like another boring advert that you hear on the radios.<br />