The document summarizes a student's evaluation of a local newspaper media product they created. It describes the main tasks of creating the first two newspaper pages and ancillary digital content. It discusses how the student's media product used and developed conventions of real newspapers through things like advertising, photography, fonts, and cross-platform content. Feedback was gathered from audiences and the student learned about readability and branding. Media technologies were used in the planning, construction, and evaluation of the project.

1. Evaluation Tom Sutherland – 4122Wilson’s School - 14743

2. Brief MAIN TASK: The first two pages of a new local newspaperANCILLARY TEXT 1: a poster for the newspaperANCILLARY TEXT 2: two hyperlinked pages from the paper’s website

3. MAIN TASK The first two pages of a new local newspaper

4. ANCILLARY TASK 1 A poster for the newspaper

5. ANCILLARY TASK 2 Two hyperlinked pages from the paper’s website

6. QUESTION: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? Advertising was necessary in order to make sure that the newspaper would be financially viable. As my newspaper is a pay publication, and the Sutton Guardian is free, I have included less advertising in my work. Large, sans-serif masthead font replicated Large, impact photography is of vital importance as it is also one of the audience’s hook. As such, I made sure that in my publication, there was a photograph to grab the audience’s attention. Large, sans-serif, bold, black font for attracting the gaze of the target audience when on the news stand. Differences in density of font choices, based on research and audience feedback. Subhead works in conjunction with the headline to summarise the story and attract attention. Although a column style of text is retained across the two publications, I have conducted research into various fonts’ readability and have found that a darker print is often easier on the eyes than a lighter font. Cross-media convergence made evident, which is typical of a modern newspaper trying to sustain its readership by exploring more modern and digital platforms.

7. QUESTION: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

8. QUESTION: How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts? Embracing modern media for communication of the news. Audience members are able to search for a story that interests them, look at the most read/shared/commented stories, or select a menu at the top of the page to select a type of story. Colour scheme is kept consistent; logo appears across texts to encourage brand continuity and audience recognition Publication details are included here to inform audiences of when they can buy the newspaper – this is fairly conventional information to include on a poster. Otherwise, the value of the promotional material would be diminished. Here, the colour of the logo was changed, to improve the contrast against the green of the grass. However, as the logo itself if the same (i.e. the text font/size,) there was no impact on recognition. Additionally, as it was placed against a green background, the brand was anchored. I removed the sky from this photograph using the Magic Wand tool in Photoshop in order to avoid over-burdening the page with colour. Additionally, it contributes to the overall feel of the poster by making the building seem strange, and thus “time for a cleanup.” Large image, representative of the local area. This anchors the publication as being local as the majority of the target audience will recognise the landmark.

9. QUESTION: What have you learned from your audience feedback? Before starting my production, I emailed East Surrey and Sussex News and Media, who currently publish several local publications

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