1. What did you know before you started looking at the newspaper layout, design and content?<br />Whilst carrying out my research, I measured a newspaper, its columns, main photograph, the plug size, headline size and the advertisement size to achieve a professional layout. I based my design around the Metro newspaper and the Bromley Times. I started with a three column layout and decided that it wasn’t a suitable layout as my newspaper has a more mature attitude based around it; therefore I changed it to a four column layout like the Bromley Times.<br />I noticed that most newspapers have a gutter space of 0.5cm; I changed mine to 0.3cm as it is appealing to a younger audience than most like the Metro or Bromley times. The plug for my newspaper is a vital piece that I had to include, in my research this is one of the main things that caught my eye when viewing different papers. A plug is advertising something in the newspaper; therefore I chose mine to be about horoscopes as this is a main thing that young people like to read. <br />Advertisements fund my newspaper therefore they have to take up 40% of the paper to make sure it is funded well. The advert s that I included in my paper is driving lessons, nail polish and a fashion store. These are appealing to both genders as this is one of the main issues my paper focuses on, both genders. The weather is also something I found to be popular on a second page of a newspaper, this appeals to all ages and both genders. <br />Small things I noticed like the name of the paper, page number and the date on the second page were missing on my paper, these were last minute details I made sure I included and made a big difference to how professional my newspaper would look. Other small details such as by lines, jump lines and publisher details were all important to include. <br />I followed the normal convention of a newspaper as I felt my newspaper would be successful after my research and planning. <br />What do you think of your newspaper, do the poster and radio advert sell your newspaper and fit in as one brand?<br />Whilst carrying out my research and planning, the main thing I focused on was how I was going to link all of my tasks together to make one flowing and understandable brand. <br />My newspaper consists of two pages that have a professional layout of four columns; I used a main image of my girl band ‘Sugardolls’ that is a photo of my friends and me. The second image is of my model John Carpenter, which focuses on my second story based around anorexia. <br />I stuck with the colours of blue and pink focusing on both genders within my newspaper, poster and radio advert. Blue and pink are two well known colours and are related to male and female, this makes my newspaper understanding and doesn’t make my brand look scatty or unprofessional, and this is a theme that is followed through all of my products.<br />My audience that I am focusing on is young people, they are shown throughout my brand, I have a young girl leaning on the Y of my logo, and a young boy leaning on the B of my logo. This also pulls together my issue of both genders shown throughout my brand. I feel as if all of my products follow conventions, I researched newspapers and posters but I found researching a radio advert was hard as not many newspapers use a radio advert to advertise their newspaper as it is very costly and has a lot of high competitors. <br />Poster – <br />I focused on what my audience would want to see, there for I placed all of the main issues on the poster such as ‘news’, ‘horoscopes’, ‘what’s new in your area?’ as these are all what my target audience are likely to read about. It was important for me to maintain a brand identity that had been shown in my main product; I experimented with a variety of effects that would make my poster stand out by using Adobe Photoshop CS4 which made my editing easier. I used the internet and the website www.dafont.com to download fonts that would suit my poster and attract my young target audience. <br />I wanted my poster to be in your face and outgoing, therefore I used blue and pink diagonal boxes with my highlighted stories in them; this would attract my audience as it isn’t seen as a dull design. The fact that my newspaper is free was also a big issue that needed to be raised on my poster, this also made it attractive to my audience.<br />Radio Advert –<br />Whilst writing my script for my newspaper I found that it was hard to make it last for 30 seconds, even though this doesn’t seem like a long time, I found it difficult to make it stand out and not drag on. This then lead me to add both genders to my advert, I used a boy and a girl to make the theme of both genders stand out, this made my advert last for the full 30 seconds with both genders attracting my target audience. I found the radio advert an overall challenge to put together, I had very limited experience with ‘garage band’ the program I was using to create this. <br />What have you learned from your audience feedback?<br />My overall feedback from my newspaper was positive, I received opinions from family at home, friends, but also the public as I posted my paper on facebook to receive comments from people online. This print screen shows how people were able to comment in my media group as we created a group that was successful in feedback - <br />-32385-81280<br />My audience feedback helped me greatly whether it was the small details about the font or photos as one person said “the top right hand corner looks very dull could of brightened it up to make it a bit more eye catching”. I took this into account and changed the top right hand corner completely, I feel as if the comments and audience feedback made an overall difference to my presentation and my grade after finishing my product. <br />I was also shown the grade criteria when producing my main and ancillary tasks, I found this useful as I noticed what was needed for the difference between a level 3 and 4 and what small details would make a big difference.<br />How did you use new media technologies in the construction, research and planning and evaluation stages?<br />New media technologies have benefitted me greatly throughout my product, whether it was in the designing or planning process. <br />I researched online newspapers such as The Guardian, I looked at their design and layout and how the online copy is different from the hard copy. This also applies to The Sun newspaper. I knew that the best new media convention to use was the internet. <br />Blogger was a main media technology I have been using throughout my work, it gave me a direct link to my teacher where my work was able to be marked quickly and I was able to receive feedback that would benefit me as I was able to boost my grade effectively. I could use blogger anywhere as long as I had access to the internet; this wasn’t a problem as I was able to use my Blackberry phone to update any work quickly, rather than being chased around by my teacher.<br />www.Slideshare.com was another new media convention which I regularly used to upload documents to blogger and gave my blog a professional and tidy layout. I was able to upload lots of work at a time without it looking messy. <br />My whole project has been based around new media technologies; if I wasn’t able to access the internet then my project would have been unsuccessful. A large amount of my research was carried out on the internet, along with presenting my work on blogger. <br />The Metro newspaper was a main part of my newspaper design, I was able to access this via the internet instead of going to buy a copy every day, and this is a big benefit for me as my work was able to quickly develop using the internet and online newspapers. <br />