1. Q1) In what ways does your
media product use, develop or
challenge forms and
conventions of real media
products?
A2 Media Evaluation 2013
By Ferdous Audhali

2. How to all began..
• At the start of the academic year as a new
year13 student, I was told that this year’s
coursework would be to create the opening
5minutes of a television documentary.
Alongside this, the coursework would also
entail completing two ancillary tasks which
were to create both a radio trail and a double
page magazine spread which will be used to
‘advertise’ the documentary.

3. Documentary as an academic topic
• It is through this year’s A2 course that I found myself
correcting my own misconceptions, by finding myself
fully appreciating the deep context of the field of
‘documentary’. What I thought was a basic media
portal for factual information to be shared, I soon
found to be in fact an academic topic that many
people have written books on..
• One of these people we looked at was by Bill Nichols,
who is an American film critic/theorist best known for
his pioneering work as founder of the contemporary
study of ‘documentary film’

4. Bill Nichols theory of Documentary
Modes (2001)
• Nichols identifies six different documentary 'modes' in his
schema: poetic, expository, observational, participatory,
reflexive, and performative.
-These all seek to distinguish different traits &
conventions of various documentary film styles.
(Furthermore, through studying Nichols’ work, we realised
that one single documentary could have a combination of
these 6 different elements/modes within them)
• Myself and my group learnt a substantial amount from
Nicholls’ work and thus tried to apply his modes of
documentary into our own documentary in order to
increase its validity as a ‘real media product’..

5. Poetic Mode
• Documentaries which take the Poetic mode tend to take a fragmentary
structure (meaning they are quite disconnected and patchy in terms of
having a structural pattern. This is done through editing, whereby the
continuity of the editing is considered not as important compared to
other modes of documentary.
• Documentaries that take the poetic mode tend to be quite subjective in
their interpretations of its subjects.
• It is quite impressionistic in the sense that it stresses mood and tone more
than it displays facts as a form of persuading the viewer.
• Before Nichols created this ‘poetic mode’ as one of his modes, early
documentary film-makers encouraged by The Soviet montage theory and
the French Impressionist cinema are found to have used these very poetic
techniques in their documentaries.

6. Expository Mode
• The expository mode speaks to the viewer directly, with visual titles or
audio via voiceovers and commentary that propose a perspective/view in
regards to a specific argument.
• It uses rhetoric in order to persuade the viewer into taking the side of the
particular viewpoint portrayed in the documentary. This is usually through
either voice over commentary where the speaker is heard but never seen
or interviewed commentary where the speaker is heard and seen.
• Where documentary in the poetic mode thrived on a filmmaker’s
subjective visual interpretation of a subject, expositional mode collects
footage that aims to strengthen the spoken narrative.  Cutaways
during an interview are a particularly good example of this.
• This mode tends to be the most popular mode used in many Film
features, news stories and various television programmes as well as
making up the bulk of most documentary products.

7. Observational Mode
• The techniques of Observational mode pretty much take after the name-
they observe lived life. Unlike the subjective content of poetic
documentary, or the rhetorical style of expositional documentary,
observational documentaries tend to simply observe, allowing viewers to
reach whatever conclusions they like.
• There are some rules for observational documentarians at their purest-
there is to be no music, no interviews, no narration and no arrangement
of scenes.. everything is natural. (tend not to include voiceovers)
• Because of this observation, on most occasions the editing consists of long
takes and few cuts (keeping it as original as possible) And it is because of
this, that the observational mode is often referred to as ‘fly-on-the-wall’ –
hence suggesting that there is very little intervention between the camera
and the focus of the documentary. The camera simply moves with the
subjects playing as a personified ‘eye’ for the viewers to simply observe
the action that is occurring.
• An example of raw footage which used the observational mode would be
the hit campaign trail with President John F. Kennedy in 1960.

8. Participatory Mode
• This mode is when the film-maker is actually viewable to the viewers
(most cases the presenter hosting the documentary) and other times as a
social actor within the film. This gives them the opportunity to freely
discuss their own perspective in regards to the topic of debate during the
documentary- in most instances, the film-maker clearly asserts their
message.
• In contrast the objectivity displayed by the observational mode, films
using the participatory mode can become a major channel for the
broadcasting of a film-makers agenda. A good example of a film-maker
who implemented the participatory mode directly in their world would be
Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 911.

9. Reflexive Mode
• The Reflexive mode draws specific attention to the constructed nature of
documentaries where sometimes the film maker is shown wrestling with
the content of their findings. As well as the fact that most film-makers
who chose to use the Reflexive mode, do so, by being sceptical of the idea
of ‘realism’ captured in documentary film.
• An example of a documentary which takes on the Reflexive Mode would
be Dziga Vertov’s Man with a Movie Camera where he features footage of
his brother and wife in the process of shooting footage and editing.
• He said that the goal in including these images was, “to aid the audience
in their understanding of the process of construction in film so that they
could develop a sophisticated and critical attitude.” (Ruby 2005)
• So overall, it highlights that this specific mode attempts to reveal the art
of making a documentary which tries to challenge the audience’s view of
the topic/text at hand, in a much more objective way.

10. Performative Mode
• The performative mode, the last of Nichols’ 6 modes, is quite often
confused with the participatory mode.
• .. But the crucial difference lies in the fact that, where the participatory
mode has the film-maker in the story and attempts to shed light on truths
that should already be obvious to everyone, the performative mode
engages the film-maker in the actual story- creating a type of
autobiographical description of subjective truths (that may also be
significant to the film-maker himself)
• This is personally my favourite mode, as it opens a gateway to enable the
film-maker to stress their own personal/emotional experience through an
often unconventional method of attempting to connect their own
experiences to the wider population. Many find that Nichols’ conception
of performative documentary is the direct opposite of observational
documentary.

11. Modes used in real products
Supersize Me (2004)
Morgan Spurlock’s documentary
‘Supersize Me’ is an example of the
Performative mode being used, as he was
the main feature of the film (the film-
maker actively engaging in the film) The
performative mode also enabled him to
tell his story on his deep/personal hatred
of the dominance and irresponsibility of
most major fast food companies- offering
him a brilliant chance to air his
perspective/view on the issue.
Children Underground (2001)
This documentary is an observational
documentary shot over a year in the
subways and streets of Romania. There
is no music, and few editing (long takes)
to keep it as original and untouched as
possible. However, there are some
interviews contained (to gain the
children’s perspectives)
Andrew Marr’s History of the World
(2012)
BBC’s political commentator and
British journalist created a series of
documentaries on the history of the
world. This is an example of
participatory mode as he was
physically visible hosting/narrating
the show and actively present
throughout some of the scenes.
This mode gave him the opportunity
to freely discuss his own fascination
on the particular stories from
history which he was presenting.
In my spare time, I watched numerous
documentaries, taking notes on various
elements of its codes and conventions.
Here are just 3 examples of documentaries
with specific modes that I noted.

12. Underage Binge Drinking
(My product)
• After watching a variety of different documentaries from different
channels and different outlets using different budgets, it helped me come
to grasps with the wide range of modes available and how they are
productively used (more importantly, how they help shape the style and
message of the documentary)
• Therefore, I then used this information to help me when it came to
planning my own documentary with my group later on, where we
discussed what modes would be most suitable to use for our own
product.

13. Continued..
• The main mode we utilised was the Expository mode however, our
documentary also included some aspects of the Poetic mode aswell..
• Expository: The main majority of our documentary took the elements of the expository
mode, ‘the expository mode speaks to the viewer directly’ and this is exactly what our
documentary does. It does this through various ways, some of which are: the narrative
(voiceover- voice heard but never seen) which addresses the viewers, visual titles and
prompts and an overall commentary which proposes a certain perspective/view in regards to
the topic of underage binge drinking (that it is a current rising issue). Furthermore, by using
the expositional mode, it enabled us to collect footage that aimed to strengthen the spoken
narrative (eg. Interviews relevant to the specific sub topic the narration as just introduced) In
our eyes, the expositional mode was deemed to be the most sensible choice as it is generally
the more popular mode choice for most media film features (not only documentaries, but
news stories and various TV programmes)
Poetic: We took the idea of ‘subjectivity’ from the poetic mode. This was done through the
fact that our documentary was based on/largely influenced by our own personal feelings,
tastes, or opinions. Although different views were expressed (when some young people
thought that ‘’underage binge drinking as a whole, is over rated’) the majority of our opening
5minutes was generally swaying to the larger opinion of underage binge drinking being a
dominant and dismissed issue in society.
Moreover, the idea that our documentary is quite impressionistic, is debatable. Simply
because, although we did tend to exploit the idea of stressing moods and tones more than
displaying just hard core fact as a form of persuading the viewer, we were quite limited as we
are just sixth form students with £0 budget to add a more poetic style increasing the
stressing of moods and tones.

14. Other codes & conventions..
• Film makers go to great lengths to ensure that their documentaries are
very factual and will generate some sort of public interest.. and some
ways this is achieved is through 4 key components of documentary, these
being: Actuality, Voiceover, Interviews and Reconstruction.
• Actuality is a record of real events as they unfold. This in turn, is a key
component as documentaries are a way in which viewers are informed on
a specific topic, therefore, it is important that documentaries give a
realistic perspective which is as accurate as possible (not made up fiction
like one would find in most films with written scripts and storylines)
• Voiceover is used as a form of narrative within documentaries, and in
some documentaries- is the backbone. Narrative is used to Used in
documentaries so the the filmmaker can speak directly to communicate
directly with the viewer, a channel in which the film maker can voice their
view of the topic as well as offering certain explanations and opinions.

15. • Interviews are a common way in which a film maker can strengthen the
validity of the information they are offering. By filming formal interviews
with experts of a specific field (in order to provide a rationale that
supports the main theme presented within the documentary), as well as
filming vox pops with members of the general public – it expands the
viewpoint and hence strengthens the legitimacy of the information in the
eyes of the viewer (making them believe what they are hearing is the
majority view point and hence correct  leading them to be more
inclined to trust in the opinion put forward by the film maker)
On the other hand, interviews can also be used to highlight other issues in
regards to the certain topic, eg. Providing a contrasting view, thus
challenging the main viewpoint (giving comprehensive info on the topic)
• Reconstructions are sometimes used to portray factual information in a
much more interactive and realistic way- through real life visual scenarios.
These scenarios are reproduced (hence the name re-construction) and
although are artificial re-enactments of a real scene, help put things into
more perspective for the viewers. Sometimes, when more sensitive issues
are being explored, film makers edit using blurs, lighting effects and
colour enhancement within the footage to protect confidentiality of the
individuals or topic.

16. Extra commentary..
• Reasons for mode choices:
We decided against using the participatory/performative modes, as
although I thoroughly enjoyed documentaries which utilised this mode
(Supersize me in particular) I really thought that this wasn’t ideal for our
product as we didn’t want to include a presenter in the fear that we may
make the documentary look amateur due to bad acting/unprofessional
attributes etc.
• Which of the 4 conventions did we make the most of?:
We tried to incorporate all 4 conventions however only Actuality,
voiceover and interviews were fully used. We were going to reconstruct
an interview with a student at the college who had their stomach pumped
due to excessive alcohol intake, however this plan didn’t make the cut.

17. Documentary styles & influences
• Public Affairs Documentary is probably the most influential style that we
assimilated in our final product. Reasons for this is due to the fact that
most public affairs documentaries are shown on Public Service
Broadcasting channels such as BBC and Channel 4 and examples of these
types of documentaries are Panorama and Dispatches. Furthermore,
these documentaries can often be ‘polemical’ meaning they draw
attention to a perceived wrong (underage drinking) hence has the power
to ultimately leave a significant impact..
• Our documentary:
Broadcasted on Channel 4
Investigating a social issue (Public Affair)
Directly based around the public and their lives (..their children)

18. Direct similarities between our product
and a real media product (Supersize Me)
Supersize Me was the main documentary
that we used to adapted on some of its
key selling points. Above is a screen shot
from one of the first scenes of our
5minute opening (Alcohol bottles lined up
on the floor outside a pub)
And to the right is where we got our
inspiration from (a close up shot of
different McDonalds size drinks from
Supersize me)
Of course it was only sensible for us to
benefit from the codes and conventions
of real media texts by watching and
taking notes on documentaries and
hence implementing some of the
techniques they used into our final
piece..
Our Documentary
Supersize Me

19. Furthermore, we
filmed and edited the
bottles appearing on
the screen one-by-
one similarly to how
the fast food drinks
appeared on the
screen in supersize
me..

20. Similarities in Interviews..
Here is yet another similarity between
Supersize Me and our documentary.
When interviewing the academic, Spurlock
made sure to position him in his office and
in one third of the shot, looking over the
dead space..
We also followed these codes & conventions
by interviewing Neil in his office and made
sure that he looked over the dead space to
his left. We also ensured that the computer
screen displayed one his college initiatives in
regards to alcohol awareness and made the
canteen viewable through the window
behind him, to make the setting relevant to
the topic and to help paint a visual picture of
his work with young people.
Following real media conventions we
included a caption to highlight important
details about the interviewee.
Our Documentary
Supersize Me

21. Similarities in visual aids
(Statistics)
Not only is this an example of how we displayed a statistic using real media conventions,
but also the background image used behind the ‘60%’ statistic is not random- it is very
relevant to the topic choice (empty alcohol bottles outside a pub etc) we did this because
we considered the fact that Morgan Spurlock also made the background image relevant in
his documentary, by including obese people who required the use of a wheelchair when
discussing the health implications of obesity.
Our Documentary
Supersize Me

22. Extra Creative styles..
Short documentary on teenage drug use on Youtube
Our Documentary
To the left is a snippet that I suggested to
the group in order to add a more creative,
unique clip to our opening 5minutes of
the documentary. I had once been a part
of a short film (pictured below) and the
professional cameraman used extreme
close ups when interviewing the young
people about the sensitive topic.
I thought this idea would be good to use in our
documentary as we too, were interviewing young
people on a sensitive topic, and thought that by
preserving their identity (confidentiality) they may be
a bit more open and more inclined to give their
opinions rather than hide their true thoughts and give
inaccurate answers due to the fear of social
desirability.
Furthermore, the mosaic thumb nail effect adds to
the variety of frames used. Also it was quite a fiddly
task which required an array of editing effects and
checks (See next slide)

23. Here is an example
of how we edited
each of the
individual clips to be
black and white
(unless the individual
was speaking)
This helped to
distinguish which
individual was
speaking so that the
viewers could match
the voice with a face-
otherwise it would
be too confusing
To smooth out the editing,
so that the cuts between
each of the shots wasn’t
jumpy, I used the pen tool
to fade out this specific clip,
with all the extreme close
ups, simultaneously.
I also used the pen tool on the audio as well..
This was used to smooth out the transition
between each persons vocals. The pen was a
very useful tool for adjusting the volume of
each person (trying to get all of the volumes to
be the same so that it sounded professional)
as well as fading out the persons voice towards
the end of their segment so that the move
from one individual is not abrupt.

24. Special effects
To display a statistic, we wanted to follow
real documentary codes and conventions
by adding a blur effect on top of a still
image of the bottles lined up outside the
pub. So for this, we inserted a blur video
effect on top of the specific clip, then
inserted a text box to write the percentage
and display it on the screen.
Another example of a blurred
out edit (of students walking in
and out of the canteen)
For this clip of some students sitting in the canteen (to
the right) the camera panned from one side of the
canteen to the other. However, when we uploaded
this clip for editing, we realised we were not happy
with the speed, therefore, using Final Cut features, we
sped up the pan (making it faster) as well as reversing
it.

25. Overall, which codes & conventions were
implemented into our product?
By using a large amount of codes and conventions that I have seen featured in many professional
documentaries I had watched, I was able to try and implement these into my own documentary
to try and make it appear a lot more professional.
So how well did we really keep to the documentary codes and conventions? And if not, how did
we challenge them?
• Variation of camera angles
• Voice of God; the influence of the narrator on
the audience
• Archive Footage
• Linear Narrative to make it easy to understand
• Credits/Titles to introduce the documentary or
an interviewee in an interview
• Diegetic/Non Diegetic sound
• Audience never hear questions asked
• The interviewee never looks into the camera.
(Always at interviewer)
• Vox Pops: The voice of the community
• Rule of thirds
• Shot on location
• Continuity editing (the predominant style of film
editing and video editing in the post-production
process of filmmaking of narrative film and
television programs. The purpose of continuity
editing is to smooth over the inherent
discontinuity of the editing process and to
establish a logical coherence between shots)
• Montage of clips (usually at the beginning of the
narrative)
• Ambient sound of surrounding environment
• Experts as evidence
• Graphic's font and colour doesn't distract from
the subject.

26. General Camera shots & editing
Archive Footage
We included about 20seconds of found footage which
brought to life the underage binge drinking culture,
helping visualise the
issue a bit clearer.
Variation of camera angles
A variety of camera shots and angles are essential
conventions of documentaries- and without this of course,
the documentary would look very amateur indeed.
Shot on location
Seeing as we were investigating teens (underage drinkers)
in our documentary, it would have been rather strange to
not have shot the interviews in their ‘natural habit’
meaning their school or their areas where they like to hang
around. Due to our restrictions of using college cameras
and property, we thought it was best and most sensible to
shoot the majority of the 5minutes on
the college campus with the students
themselves.
Continuity editing
Our opening 5minutes of the documentary followed a simple
continuous structure. There was no inherent discontinuity of
the editing so as to establish some sort of logical order
between each of the shots.
Montage of clips (usually at the beginning of the narrative)
The topic of the documentary was introduced via short quick
previews of the clips-to-come in the rest of documentary
(including clips from different interviews and the bottles
lined up in front of the pub.
Extreme Close upsPanMedium Shot
Long Shot Close up

27. Narrative
Voice of God narrative
(the influence of the narrator on the audience)
Our narration/voice over was authoritative and
anonymous, making it known as ‘’the voice of God’’
approach. This is when the voiceover is a separate audio
track, isolated from the audio of the video, and recorded
separately in a studio/room (free of any ambient
background noise or room echo/bounce)
Our voiceover was scripted well before the making of the
documentary, as we made a storyboard and used this to
write out a detailed narration of the 5minutes. This was
then recorded separately at a later stage then placed
where appropriate once the editing process began. (The
narration not only tells the story and creates the flow for
the direction in which the documentary is going, but it also
gives detailed and accurate figures/statistics providing
deeper background information on the topic)
Linear narrative
A linear narrative is a structured narrative over the film
(voice over) it follows a linear sequence, therefore,
from start  finish.
We started off by introducing the topic of the
documentary:
“It is clear that there is a strong binge drinking
culture within our society, but worryingly it is
effecting our young people greatly”
Then introduced the main chunk of the documentary:
“We went into a local sixth form to ask them of their
opinions’’
Followed by segments of introductions for each
interview:
“Neil Attewell is a Student Development officer and
therefore works closely with young people, what’s
his opinion?”
Voiceover
Voiceover

28. Audio/Sound
Diegetic/Non Diegetic sound
Diegetic Sound: Diegetic sound is the sound which is made
visible to the audience on the screen therefore originating
from the source within the documentary. This could be
both on and off the screen.
Examples of diegetic sound in my documentary, would be
the voices of those being interviewed both vox pops of
students and professional interviews alike. As well as the
sound of the students in the background of the canteen or
the noise of the cars and hustle and bustle of the high-
street in the background of the interviews.
Non Diegetic Sound: Non-Diegetic sound is
artificial/inserted sound, therefore it does not originate
from the source within the video (not visible on the
screen) It is sound represented from a source outside of
the direct action within the documentary.
Examples of non diegetic sound in my documentary would
be the commentary sound of the voiceover and the music
that was inserted over the video sound track (not too loud
or overpowering so that it steers interest from the talking)
Audience never hear questions asked
Throughout the whole documentary, we knew that if
we had included our voices in the middle of the bustling
college canteen or busy high street asking the public the
question of ‘how many units they thought were in the
vodka bottle’ then this would not be following the
codes and conventions of documentary. It would have
sounded extremely amateur and out of place,
therefore, when editing, we ensured that we deleted
the unnecessary parts.
Ambient sound of surrounding environment
‘Ambience’ is the natural background sound/atmosphere.
Of course this was included throughout our documentary
eg. student chitter chatter within the college – natural
environment left unedited to allow realism.
Vox pops

29. InterviewsThe interviewee never looks
into the camera
(Always at interviewer)
As can be seen in the screenshot
image of one of the interviews
taken from our documentary, the
interviewee is not looking at the
camera, but rather looking straight
at the interviewer asking him the
question. This eliminates the dead
space to his left.
Credits/Titles to introduce the documentary or an
interviewee in an interview
Here is an example of how we used this convention in our
documentary. Listed below the interviewee is his name, and
details about what he does and why he is relevant to the
documentary topic (giving viewers necessary information)
Experts as evidence
There is no way that a
documentary could avoid
interviewing experts within the
field of the topic in question. In our
documentary, we interviewed a
representative from a local alcohol
awareness charity who work on
raising the profile of the serious
health implications of recreational
drugs such as alcohol, and also
interviewed Neil who works with
young people.
Graphic's font and colour
doesn't distract from the subject
The text font and colour is completely
neutral and does not distract the
attention away from the interview,
rather settles in nicely in the frame.
Vox Pops: The voice of the community
Vox Pops are a common convention of documentary as it is
an easy way of directly interacting with the public and
gaining their perspective on the particular topic.
We took this on board went out to the local high street to ask adults how many
units they thought were in the vodka bottle so as to compare their answers with
the answers of the students in the sixth form college.
Rule of thirds
A basic convention of films and
documentary is the rule of thirds, which is
used to discourage placement of the
subject to be in the centre of the frame,
but rather centred to the side (where the
body is lined up with a vertical line
representing 1/3rd
of the screen and the
eyes are in line with a horizontal line)

30. Radio Trials
• Before looking into drafting our radio trial, we listened to several different
real radio trials (real media texts) The job of such radio trials is to ensure
they grab the attention of the listeners, persuading them to watch the
documentary or programme that is being advertised
One of the examples we looked at was BBC RADIO FIVE LIVE’s
broadcasting of the Formula 1 Grand Prix.
• The basic codes and conventions we
learnt from listening to radio trials like this
was that they included a main narration
(voice over), clips from the real product and
music – all to be played together at the same time. Therefore, it was about
balancing it properly and ensuring that the voiceover was never drowned out by
the music or the clips.  This is how a radio trial would sound good and therefore
appealing to the listeners (making them intrigued in what is being said and
hopefully wanting to ensure they watch the documentary being advertised)

31. Our Radio Trial
• Following the common codes and conventions of the radio trials that we had previously analysed,
our radio trial included all three main components: Voice over, Clips from the documentary and
Background Music.
• Voiceover:
The first words that were said in our radio trial was:
‘’Underage Binge Drinking..’’ (getting our documentary topic/name straight out there)
Followed by a rhetorical question:
‘’..is it getting too much to handle?’’ (to grab attention)
• Background Music:
The background music we included was upbeat and lively (but not too domineering so as to divert
the attention away from what was being said in the informative voice over) The music choice was
down to the fact that the topic was about young people, therefore we thought we’d make the
music relevant to the topic of reckless underage binge drinking
• Clips from documentary:
The inserted clips from the documentary were not only relevant, but also provided a variety (giving
the radio trial more of a chance to relate to the wide array of listeners) The clips included the
interviews with adults (such as Neil) as well as young people (from the extreme close ups)
• Furthermore, our radio trial included persuasive words which pulled in listeners interest and
attention such as ‘’hot topic’’ ‘’controversial issue’’ also, we included interesting & relevant
statistics ‘’did you know that 30,000 hospital injuries are caused by alcohol? “ And most
importantly, it included details of the time, date and channel for the screening of the

32. Creating the trial on Garage Band
• Here is a link to our radio trial:
• https://soundcloud.com/a2columnc12/underage-binge-drinking-radio
All 3 core elements of the radio trial
arranged in specific order in order
for the radio trial to flow and make
sense (takes it structured)
..and the green lines are for
toggling with the music sound
levels (the music was inserted
from a large selection Garage
Band offered)
This is how we adjusted the sound levels
(using the pen tool). The blue lines are
for toggling with the imported clips
(eg. the voiceover and the clips
from the documentary)

33. Magazine Double Page Spread
Here is the main introduction to the article and it is coloured
and in bold. Ours wasn’t coloured, however it was put in
bold.
This is considered to be the main image of the spread, and I
like it as it is not a common convention to have the main
image to spread horizontally across the page, it tends to be
vertically in most instances. Therefore, it could be here that
we have challenged the majority.
The grab lines are a common convention as it gives a quick
insight into what the rest of the article entails.
Although the top horizontal third of the spread is considered
the main image, it is also conventional to include another
A nice striped border to separate
the main image from the main
body of text.
A website for more
information on the
channel or the
documentary.
Main body of text in simple plain
font, and in neat columns.
Page numbers have
been creatively edited
into a wine/cocktail
glass (relevance to
documentary topic)

34. Did our Magazine follow common
codes & conventions?
• I feel out of the 3 tasks, I personally feel that our magazine was the
weakest and the radio trial was the strongest. One of the reasons for this
is due to the fact that we stuck very firmly to the codes and conventions
of real radio trials in comparison to how much we stuck to the codes and
conventions of magazine publishing.
• Furthermore, our magazine wasn’t exported out properly, leaving a few
unnecessary boxes being left on the final piece which unfortunately
reduced the legitimacy of our final product (making it look amateur) Also,
we challenged too many of the codes and conventions, leaving our
magazine looking a bit too unlike most magazines such as ‘The Radio
Times’ where double page spreads are used to advert documentaries.
• However, from this I have learnt a great deal!