The document discusses how the media product, a local sports newspaper called "Bromley Sport", uses and challenges conventions of the newspaper genre. It follows many conventions such as masthead placement, column layout, and inclusion of news briefs. However, it challenges conventions by using a four column instead of five column layout to make pages less cramped. Photos are taken by the author instead of professionally to provide a personal touch. The target audience of 16-20 year olds is considered in design choices. Overall, the newspaper draws from conventions but makes some adaptations to cater to its specialized sports focus and younger demographic.

1. In what ways does your media product use, develop, or challenge forms and
conventions
The main task that was put forward to us was to produce a local newspaper, in this we had
to research and plan prior to starting the production. I looked into other local Newspapers
such as the Bromley Times, the Metro and the News Shopper.
Genre
My paper “Bromley Sport” is a local sports paper covering the area of Bromley. The paper
that I have created will be comparable to papers such as the News Shopper and the Metro,
for they contain the conventions that my paper will need to follow. The reason why I
compare my paper to these instead of national papers such as the Sun and Guardian is that I
believe there is a gap in the market for a local sports paper targeting people in the age
group of 16-20. These two papers base their news on more than just one area and focus on
national news. The conventions used within these papers are of a tabloid and Berliner
format. I want the layout of my paper to be more conventional for a local area. The main
inspirations for my paper was the local paper such as the News Shopper and the Metro,
they had similar conventions in structure, content and page design. I needed to follow these
so my product would be recognised as belonging to the local paper genre, to gain the
attention of my intended target audience. I could also see what conventions I could
challenge to make my paper more unique and exciting for a younger audience who wouldn’t
normally read a local paper.
Institution
The Newspaper challenged the five column layout as I decided to use four columns making
the pages less cramped. I followed other conventions such as the masthead being placed at
the top with the plug placed in the top left corner, I also included a news and brief column
which was conventional for the News Shopper. These are the conventions that the
institutions have set, it was my choice to follow them.
Layout/Measurements
The audience in which I am aiming to target is people between the ages of 16-20. These
people within this category are more interested in sport than others. The layout of the
papers I have looked at were very much conventional, the majority of the papers that I
viewed had a five column layout compared to the Metro that had a four column layout
which I wanted to follow. I took some measurement from the Metro, it had a gutter space
measurement of 0.5cm with I decided to keep, the main photo was 16cm by 15cm which I
then changed to 18cm by 16cm to make the photo bigger attracting more people to look at
the paper. I attempted to follow the measurement as best as I could but some parts looked
smaller when I laid them out. The masthead was measured at 18cm by 5cm, this fitted my
paper well due to me wanting people to be drawn to the name of the paper and to the

2. paper details. The plug was measured at 5.5cm by 5cm and was placed at the top right of
the page, this is a very conventional plug size and position which I decided to keep the
same. I also measured the margins of the paper to see whether they were the same size on
each side. The size of adverts, contact information, news and brief, Jump line, Bye line
stayed the same as a conventional paper.
Design of Masthead
The design of my Masthead was drawn and produced a number of times with drafts and
improvement sketches/prints. I researched into a number of different Masthead for
different papers such as the Bromley times and Metro, this enabled me to compare and
contrast different types of mastheads and develop a particular design that would best fit my
paper and attract my type of target audience. My Masthead contains two different colours,
two different font types. Throughout my research it showed that I challenged conventions
but I believed it benefited my paper making it more eye catching and unique compared to
other papers.
Photography
When looking at other local papers, the photos used for the articles are all taken
professionally and appear clear and visible. Having this will be a positive for the paper
because the audience will appreciate a clear photo to go with the article, and will most likely
buy the paper again of the picture quality is good. The photos that I have used in my paper
are all taken by me, I tried to a get as clear and good quality as possible using a school SLR
camera. I hoped the main photo for the front page would best represent the lead article.
This will give the audience a feeling of being more engaged with the story, for people like
visuals to go with a story and help them understand what happened. My photo is fairly
typical of a sports story because it shows an action shot from a game.
Advertising
Advertising is a main source of income for many newspapers, for example the Metro uses a
lot of advertising due to it being a free paper and requires funding via the companies being
advertised. This applies to my paper because it is free and relies on funding from other
companies. The adverts used are mainly sport orientated for it is a sporting paper following
the areas of what my target audience will be into.
Stories and Structure Stories
The stories I used within my paper stuck to what I set out to write about, I researched into
10 possible stories that I could use in my paper. Two of the stories that I included were
written from scratch and the other was already existing but I chose to edit it, making it more
appealing to my target audience. Writing the stories allowed me to be creative and give the
audience different stories than they would usually see in the news. All of the stories had a

3. structure of who, why, what, where and when with the most important details first and
supporting details following. All were detailed enough to give the audience the important
information and how it links in with the local area.
Corporate/Publishing/Contact details
The corporate side of my paper is not very detailed, compared to other local newspapers
that make the mission statement known to the audience. The publishing details such as
distribution figures, quality of production, these are factors to consider for the audience will
want to know how many products are produced and where they can be found. All of the
papers that I researched contained their contact details either in the top left of the front
page which is the most conventional place, I followed the convention by positioning them
there.