1. Question 3 – What have you learnt
from your audience feedback?
• In seeking audience feedback I went back to
my market research to see if my production
reflected my audiences interests.
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9. Question 4: How did you use media
technologies in the construction and
research, planning and evaluation
stages?
Looking at my market research it suggests that the most popular types of article were Gossip and Review however I sort of ignored this research as this style of writing isn’t conventional with local newspapers, so I opted to write factual writing instead. This however follows my other research which says if you not a regular reader cover articles are the main reason for someone reading a newspaper. Asking my focus group what they thought of my cover articles I received positive responses.
Firstly Lisa said that ‘I PREDICT A RIOT’ attracted her straight to the article as it was a well used pun used from the Kaiser Chiefs song ‘I predict a riot’, she went on to say she was intrigued from the main headline and the big bold font took her to that section of the newspaper first. In addition to article styles from my research it also suggested over half the consumers like informal language so I adopted that in my production.
In addition to article styles from my research it also suggested over half the consumers like informal language so I adopted that in my production. Lydia went on to say, the use of informal language contributed to making the article seeming more emotional and interesting. Words used such as ‘Ruthless Yobs’ created a greater description and made the consumer feel more emotional about the events as the riot happened to their own city.
The Marker research suggested that the front cover image was the main attraction for the consumers along with the main article. Andrew claimed that the main image on my final production intrigued him from the start as he could tell it was to do with football with the wild fans however he had to read the caption beneath to know what the story was about, the caption also linked him to the page the article was on and he said if it had been a real newspaper he’d of gone to that page straight away following on from the main image.
Similarly to Andrew, Lydia was also intrigued by an image on the second page. She said she wasn’t interested about reading about the riots as she see’s herself as being to young for it however when she saw an image of one of her favourite stores ‘Miss Selfridge’ it immediately became interesting and she had to go back and read the whole article to find out exactly what happened. Therefore it is clear that the pictures can have an effect on if the consumer reads the article or not.
The layout of the newspaper was something the whole of my focus group agreed on, they said that the columns used on both front and second page looked thoroughly professional like a real piece. They also said the range of articles on the right hand side of the pages was important also in them enjoying the product as it brought variety and there was something for all of them to read. Furthermore Andrew said that carrying on the main article onto the second page also brought professionalism as it is something he has seen in many newspapers over the years.
As a media concept as a whole with the combination of finished production and ancillary tasks combined my focus group believed that I had achieved all the conventions that are present for local newspapers. They said that I managed to get the selling line in all 3 products which was “News relevant to you” which added professionalism and a consistent house style. They said the colour used in the billboard brought their attention as it was something different and unique and got the point across simply, didn’t overload the brain with useless images or information and the price was also clearly stated across all three products.
Photoshop was the primary software I used to create my final products, both front page and second page. All the editing options made it the most attractive software to use in creating my final products as it gave me more freedom and a wider variety of things I could achieve. For example in creating my newspaper I had to create advertisement banners. With the Lynch one it entailed shapes and a range of colours which were available on photoshop. Another tool which was used in my creation was the eyedropper tool which allowed me to hover over a previous colour click on it and allowed me to use that exact same colour again. This was essential in creating a constant house style throughout which is a convention of local newspapers. The magic wand tool was another well utilised tool as it cleared the background of images and imported text. For example I imported the masthead ‘Manchester Chronicle’ in which was attached to a white background and the magic wand tool cleared the background making the masthead look much more professional. Obviously being a newspaper there were articles in my final product and the text tool was used throughout. I also used the same size and font which further contributed to my house style. The line tool was utilised to create columns and a consistent layout throughout my piece which is important for my newspaper as layout is essential.
Audacity helped me to create my radio advert ancillary task. Firstly the programme allowed me to import background music and sound to accompany my voice recordings, this allowed me to create a more professional advert. I used a variety of tools such as trim, time-shift and cut to make sure it didn’t go over the conventional 30 seconds. Without this programme I would struggled to construct a radio advert so it was definitely beneficial in the creation of my ancillary.
Youtube helped me in the researching for my radio ancillary projects. There were hardly any resources online in which you could listen to radio adverts to analyse conventions and get inspiration however I found a few to analyse on youtube. However there were no radio adverts specifically advertising newspapers. Consequently I analysed a subway advert and a Wonga advert. I feel that from that research and analyse that I benefitted and created a more professional piece for my ancillary project.
Slideshare allowed me to place my annotated powerpoints onto my blog. This allows me to present more detailed research and analysis to the examiners. Without this software I would have been unable to present certain parts of my research and consequently lost marks.
Eblogger has helped me with the producing my coursework and all the prior research and planning. It has allowed me to submit my work in an efficient way and it is very simple for the examiner to overlook my work rather than having to individually look at each piece it is all there on one page segregated into the relevant categories.
