In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms

and conventions of real media texts?

In my A2 production I have created a range of products which include a

newspaper front page, a radio advert and a billboard. From my research, I
discovered the conventions of such a real media product. These conventions
included; having a plain background, typically coloured, including a social media
link and a website as well as a slogan. My product both conforms and challenges
some of these conventions.

My billboard conforms to the conventions of

including a social media link. Many billboards that
I had researched included a social media link; I
therefore decided to include a Twitter and
Facebook link as I felt that in todays day and age this is an important aspect that
helps new products to thrive, proven by the sheer amount of billboards that
featured this. However, many of the billboards that I had researched didnt
display the logos for each of the sites. I chose to include these as I felt it helped
the audience to quickly put the name to the site and, as billboards tend to be
displayed in places that passer-bys can only view for a limited time due to
travelling (in most cases), I felt that including this would decrease the time
needed to figure this out and increase their time to read or view the rest of the
billboard. Not only this but I found out from my audience questionnaire that
many people are put off by billboards that display masses of writing and
therefore I tried to limit this.

My billboard also contains a slogan, another

convention of a billboard. Local News, It matters I
chose to include a slogan in order to fit in with the
rest of the billboards as they typically contained
them. I chose to emphasise the locality of the
newspaper, hence the Local news aspect. The
slogan is fairly small as I felt it would take away
from the image and the name of my newspaper if it
was any bigger, which is also another convention of billboards. The name of my
newspaper is the biggest form of writing on it; this is in order to make this stand
out so that anyone that read it would know exactly what it was called without
studying the billboard for too long. Many other billboards that I have researched
also followed this pattern, further proving that this is a worth-while feature to
use.

I decided to display a picture of my newspaper article on

my billboard as well in order to highlight exactly what I
was selling. Although many billboards that I researched didnt include their
products on their advertisements, I felt that this was a
worth-while option as I felt the intertextuality would help
the audience to associate the two together. I also put this
picture over an image of a pile of newspapers to make it
look as though Id taken the picture of a whole stack of the
newspapers. I felt that this would be a good idea as it
meant that it took less time to make this as I didnt have
to take the picture myself but it also makes my brand of
newspaper look more professional even though its only a
local one, which tend to be less professional looking than national ones as I
found out from my research.

My billboard challenges the

stereotypical newspaper billboard
by including an image in the
background. Many of the billboards
in which I researched had little to no
images on them and tended to
focus more on the words and as the
majority of the billboards I
researched were of national
newspapers I felt that this may be a
reason as to why they had not
displayed images, as they were
already established products.
However I chose to include this
image as it was of a local school and
this, I felt, therefore reinforced the locality of my product.

I also decided to make my billboard brighter by colour enhancing the grass in

my even though most of the billboards
that I had researched had little to no
colour, as without this I felt that the
dull grass made my billboard look
unprofessional and not thought about.
On top of this, my questionnaire results highlighted that the majority of people
ignored billboards that looked dull or that werent eye-catching and therefore I
decided that I needed to make my billboard as bright as possible.
A convention in which I have utilised in on my newspaper is the positioning of the
name. In many newspapers that I had
researched, this was they placed the name. I
therefore chose to place mine there in order to
fit in with this convention but I also found that
it was the best positioning as by placing it in
the middle it gave it the best chance of being noticed and catching the
audiences attention. Not only this but I also chose to include some colour in the
name in order to again, make it stand out, and to also make my newspaper
recognisable through the colours as I felt it acted as a brand and helped people
to recognise it, I therefore used this colour throughout. My research also
highlighted that many newspapers did feature one main colour throughout so I
felt that this was a very important aspect to include in my production.

The main headline is in bold and in a bigger font than the rest of the newspaper
as I decided that this was a beneficial feature to have on mine after researching
others. I felt that it captured peoples

eyes the best and that by having a short punchy

sentence it fitted in with the conventions of a
newspaper. However, the severity of the case for a
local newspaper is unusual as most of the
newspapers that I researched had positive headlines;
however I chose to pick this headline in order to
create the audience to want to read my newspaper
as I felt it created the feeling of needing to read it.
Another convention of a newspaper that I have used is the placing of the sub-
heading, many newspapers that I had
researched placed the sub-heading below
the main heading to give the reader more
of an insight into what the article will be
about. However, whilst the adverts on my
newspaper are conventional, as many local
newspapers do contain these, the placing
of the one on the bottom right is unusual as typically, they are located at the top
of the newspaper. I chose however, to include it as it highlighted how many
offers my newspaper contains. Three of my adverts (Free parking, car wash and
florist voucher) are also very conventional of a local newspaper as they are
based upon local businesses, and therefore my newspaper is shown to promote
local businesses that most readers will be interested in. Although at first I had
chosen to advertise well-known shops such as Tesco or Greggs, but after realised
that the conventions of a local newspaper were not met and therefore made the
current ones instead. However, the main advert of winning an iPad is an unusual
advert to be displayed on a local newspaper due to the cost of it, however I
chose to include this advert as I felt that the iPad would be in high demand and
therefore would grab most peoples attention so that they will buy the
newspaper and then find out how to win the product.

My radio advert contains all of the features that I found out from my textual
analysis should be included such as the name of my newspaper, the price and a
slogan. My speaker also speaks clearly and eloquently to get all the information
across but also as it makes the audience want to listen as the voice is unusual
but also warm and inviting. This tends to be a feature in most radio adverts as
they want people to listen. On top of this, the background noise of a busy place
at the beginning with the cars horns also helps to grab the audiences attention
as they want to know what all the commotion is about, inviting them furthermore
to listen. Therefore, by including these features, I feel that my radio advert is
undoubtedly conventional.

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary

texts?

The image of the newspaper is actually a prime example of the

continuity between my ancillary texts as it also features on the
billboard. I decided to inlcude this for the continuity that it would
create so that the two could be put together by the audience if they
saw they seperately. I decided to use the exact version of my
newspaperarticleon the billboard instead of displaying a different in
order to promote that newspaper further, however when looking
back, itmay have been a better idea to display a range of articles
from my newspaper to promote the newspapaer as a whole further.
The picture of the school in the background may not be as effective as Id wished
it to be as when receiving audience feedback many people questioned why the
image was of this, however after explaining why, (as it is a local school and is
beneficial to the whole community and the school also

features on the newspaper) they

understood. It may have been a better
idea to display the name of the school
on the billboard, however, I didnt want
to add more text than what I had as I felt itd look too confusing and may contain
too much information.

I chose to display the The Corby Report in the same colours and font on both
the newspaper and billboard as well as on
throughout the length of my radio advert.
I felt that this then would cause the name
of my newspaper to act as the logo rather
than having a logo as I didnt want a logo
for my newspaper after finding some of
the local newspapers logos to look odd on
their newspapers. Although most
newspaper do have a logo, I do not regret
my decision to not have one as I feel that
the name is effective enough to do this on
its own. The name along with the slogan
also fetaures on the recording of my radio
advert, although the slogan didnt need to
be mentioned,I felt that this would be an
effective feature as it would make my
newspaper memorable and create the
continuity between both of the other
ancillary texts. I didnt however include the slogan on the newspaper as it didnt
look right on the newspaper, however, it definitely wouldve been effective to
have this on it and I do wish I had been able to place this on it to create the
continuity furthermore.
The text in my newspaper and the text on my
billboard are different fonts however although
this doesnt create continuity, I made a concious
effort to make sure that the two didnt display
the same fonts as I felt they needed to be
slightly different to meet the different purposes
of each. For exmaple the newspaper article had
to have a failry plain but easy to read font whilst
the billboard, I felt needed a plain font in order
to get the point across fast but didnt need to be
as conventional as the newspaper did. I
therefore feel although the continuity isnt
expressed through the fonts, there are enough
features on each to create continuity between the two.

What have you learned from audience

feedback?

There were many occasions that I needed to receive audience feedback to aid
me in the creating of my three products, to do this I used survey monkey a few
times, however most of the time I solely made my own
questionnaire and typically asked 20 people to answer the
questions.

When I was creating my billboard, I created a

questionnaire to find out more about what my audience
likes to see on a billboard so that I could adapt mine to
these preferences. I asked questions such as do you like
to see images on advertisements as I was struggling as
to whether have an image in the background or whether
not too as most billboards did just have plain
backgrounds. Once finding out that the majority did like the idea of an image, I
chose to include my image within it as this is what the audience preferred. I also
asked how much text they would want to see on a billboard when I was unsure as
to whether include massive clumps of texts to advertise the billboard or whether
to keep it as plain as possible. Many people answered little to no text and
therefore I included the bare minimum in terms of writing to keep it as
interesting as possible. Another question that I asked was what stood out to
them most on a billboard as I wasnt sure what to focus on in my advertisement,
the majority of people answered images and colours which helped me to make
the decision to brighten the grass in my image as well as using the picture o0f
the school so. All of these examples made me realise the significance of
audience feedback especially as it helped me massively when toying with what
to do.

What was said What I did

I dont understand why I felt that my logo did

1 that building is your logo relate as it looked like a
factory like the local
steelworks. However,
many people had
questioned this logo and
therefore I decided against
having a logo at all and
making my masthead to
act as the logo through the
colours and through using
this over my 3 products to
create continuity.
I dont like the placement I carried out audience
2 of your slogan on your feedback by asking five
billboard people where they would
like to see the slogan and
they all said they would
prefer to see it underneath
the name of my
newspaper.
I feel that the name or I could see this point one
3 masthead on your hundred percent; however,
newspaper is too big and I didnt realise that people
that there is too little wanted to see so much
space for the writing writing on the front of a
newspaper. I therefore
redesigned my newspaper
to include more text and
stories.
I also collated feedback when improving my products. One example of this is
when I asked a collection of people to write on a printed copy of my newspaper
any improvements that they thought were needed during the early stages of
producing my newspaper. From this I found out that the font was not liked and
that the headline was not efficient. I therefore changed the font to something
much plainer as people had stated and also changed the headline to something
snappier and more fitting. On top of this I found out that my logo was did not fit
the newspaper and from this, I then researched into more newspapers and
decided not to include one but to make my name of the newspaper the logo.
Many people also though that the name and the logo were too big on the page
which then therefore led to me shrinking down the size of this to make it look
better. This audience feedback helped me massively as I couldnt think of ways
that would improve the look of my newspaper.

These three pieces of feedback I feel were some of the most important pieces
that I received as without these my products would not be realistic products
especially as these prove that some people wouldve struggled to understand
some aspects of each, causing my products to not meet the requirements.

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

Throughout the process of my

production, I used many media
technolgies. The internet (such as
progrzmmes like Google) had a huge
impact on my research and planning
stages as I used it to find the majority
of the exisitng products that I was to be
using to analyse. This enabled me to
quickly source each of the existing
billboards, adverts and newspapers
which meant that I had more time to
analyse each of them. However, it
meant that any creativity was lost as I
relied soeley on the interenet to
provide each of the products. Not only this but the internet helped me to find the
background music that I used in my radio advert. I managed to find a website
that provided royalty free footage that you then just had to downloadn and
import into your project on Final Cut Pro. This allowed me to then create a
realistic advert as typically they do feature some form of background noise,
however the royalty free footage was limited and they were only a maximum of
ten seconds long, however this was all I needed for my radio advert.
I have also used Emaze to display information such as textual anlysis. I felt that
this would be the most interesting way to display this information as I knew that
there would be a lot of writing for each slide. The transitions between each of the
slides as well as the slide designs make it more enjoyable to read the bulky
factual text. However this did cause more time to be taken up as I would spend
time looking at all of the designs before picking one as well as it being trickier to
display everything you wanted to on one slide as there was only a limited space.
Whilst Prezi, another online powerpoint was used more for smaller bits of
text/information such as questionnaire results. Prezi was usseful for displaying
information that contained much less text due to the limited bubble space,
however I preffered to use this than tecnology such as Powerpoint as it
seperated each piece of information and displayed them with a nice dsign that
was already made, increasing the time I had to write this information, whilst with
Powerpoint I wouldve had to make my own designs which wouldve decreased
my time.

Photoshop helped msssively in the development of my productions of both the

newspaper and the billboard. The Horizontal Type Tool was used on both, on my
newspaper I used this tool in order to make the main text. It allowed me to
change the font sizes which was extremely important as from my textual
analysis I realized that on a newsppaer the font size is larger on main headings
and smaller on the text. I also used this tool on my Billboard whne making my
slogan; Local News. It Matters. This tool made it quick and easy to write any
form of text throughout my production.
Another tool that I used was the Clone Stamp on my billboard, this allowed me
to make the sky look more perfect and blue rater than having a grey sky as the
sky was very overcast on the day that I took the picture. This has made my
production piece, I feel, look brighter and moe aesthetically pleasing. I also used
this tool to make the grass look greener on my billboard as the grass looked dull
and again, wasnt bright enough, I didnt feel, to catch the eys of my targeted
audience.
I also used the crop tool and eraser to separate the school, the grass, and the
sky on my billboard. I did this as I felt that the sky took up too much of the image
so I cropped the sky down so that it was smaller and then made the grass larger
by using the clone stamp stated above and then stretching the grass to fit into
the picture. This played a crucial part in making my billboard as without this, I
feel that my billboard would be out of proportion with the sky being the main
feature when in fact the school should be, hence why this features in the middle.

Final Cut Pro was another technology that helped me massively, which I used
when creating my radio advert. This programme allowed me to import my
original recording and then place an image over this as well as merge the royalty
free fottage (as explained above) in with it. It also allowed me to crop parts of my
advert down which I did when merging all of my takes togetehr to create a solid,
realistic one. It also allowed me to turn the volume up or down of any of the
recordings that I had imported, which was useful when I realised that the royalty
free footage of cars beeping their horns was over powering when placed over the
voice of my radio advertiser, I therefore reduced the noise of this and turned up
the volume of the man speaking for my advert, allowing him to be hearda nd the
cars to just be a background noise.

Not just these but Blogger has been a massively useful programme as it
aloowed me to display all of these other platfroms onto it, allowing me to view
them whenever I want and alllowing anyone lse to view them whenever they
want, without this the rest of the platforms wouldnt have een as useful as I
wouldnt have had anywhere to display these!