Question 1 – In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms of

conventions of real media products

• I have chosen to construct a front cover and second page for myfinal media product ‘The Source’ newspaper. Whilst planning myproject I analysed three existing products to acknowledge the convention of a newspaper. For example the media text must include a genre, masthead, house style, photographs, an opening that summaries each article and manipulated images.

INTODUCTION

Masthead I have then used the conventions to develop a brief layout draft. When creating my masthead I ensured that the name was monosyllabic such as ‘The Sun’ and ‘The Daily Mail’. By using single syllable words the masthead will be easier to read appealing to a wider audience. For my chosen font I have used Charlemangne Std , a serif font to add a formal tone. By encoding traditional aspects such as black and bold lettering with a serif font for the masthead allows the audience to automatically recognise the media text is a newspaper. Conventions such as the price, date , issue number and website for the newspaper appears in a smaller text in the corner of the masthead. These conventional techniques allow the audience to relate my media text to existing newspapers, unaware they are decoding the conventions of a newspaper.

IMAGES/STORIESThe front cover displays a variety of stories verifying in genre for example the strip under the masthead exposes a local sports story however my main story documents crime. Both stories are advertised by manipulated images with a monosyllabic headline to attract a wider audience. The three main articles I wrote relate to events that would realistically take place in the local area for example and elderly couple win the lottery, a sports icon from the local area runs a marathon to raise money for charity and my main story focusses on young crime a problem highlighted every day in the local news. Manipulating the images allow the photographs to stand out and emphasise the image contrast in colour. For my main story reporting on a young man assaulting a police officer I wanted an image that would provoke an emotive response from the audience. An image that would create sympathy for the police officer and exposes the ‘thug’ responsible negatively, this would encourage the audience to judge the suspect. The high contrast edit of the close up highlighting the bruising of the police officers injuries is used to exaggerate the violence, making the injuries look worse than reality.

Before After

Uses and Gratification theory (Bulmer and Katz) encourages the audience to consider their personal identity and relationships. The emotive technique has been used to create a personal response from the audience as they would compare the victim to themselves or someone they may know creating further sympathy. The image is placed central on the front page and enlarged in the main focus area to shock potential buyers. Personal identity/relationships is also applied to the lottery win story as readers would image themselves in the privileged position of winning.

THEORY

CONVENTIONS FOR FRONT COVER

Existing Products

All three newspapers , two existing products and my final piece all encode traditional conventions of a local newspaper. All three front pages contain advertisements, multiplearticles reporting on a verity of genres in local news. A large bold font hasbeen used to highlight the main stories with condensed columns with smaller text to exhibit the articles. Colour has been used to make the front covers more appealing and attractive towards customers. The image for the main stories have been manipulated to exaggerate the drama behind the three main crime articles.

These conventions are encoded to be decoded in order to label the media text as news paper front covers, applying Halls theory of encoding and decoding.

THEORY

My Project

SECOND PAGE CONVENTIONSExisting ProductMy Project

Conventions of a newspaper 2nd page include articles that follow on from the main storiesfrom the first page. Second pages are majority writing with images to match the stories, usually refers to a verity of genre articles such as crime, local events and Information referring to the economy and many more. The tabloid existing product on the left inspired me to include a weather report section on my second page. Page number and the Newspaper name appears on the second page so that people can locate where the front page Articles continue. The writer’s name is labelled at the end of each article.

Uses and Gratification has been applies as all the articles in the 2nd page refer to local news, audience would refer to personal relationship as they may know the people in the stories. Personal Identity has been applied through the weather report as reader would relate the information to their day to see how the forecast would effect their plans.

THEORY

MARET RESEARCHThe questionnaire I developed helped to research who my target audience would be and what they would expect from a local newspaper. However a downfall to my research came when trying to collect information from a wide age range of participants as the questionnaires took place in college. This meant that the majority of questionnaires were taken by 16-20 year olds. Although the information did reveal that the majority of 16-20 year olds didn’t read newspapers, coming to the conclusion my newspaper would be aimed at an older audience more likely to be interest in local news. Reviewing my findings through pie charts did help to decide a price, release pattern and different news sections to report on.

I have applied HalI’s theory encoding information onto my front page on where you can buy the newspaper ‘from your local newsagents in Manchester’, when the product will be available ‘every Tuesday’ and how much the product costs ‘40p’. The conventions were decided after taking into consideration the results of my market research including aspects that decode my final piece as a newspaper.

After reviewing my market research the most popular price people were will to spend was ‘30p-50p’. Also by researching existing newspaper prices online such as ‘The Sun’ sold at 50pence and ‘The Daily Mail’ at 30pence. I decided to price my newspaper ‘The Source’ at 40 pence making my newspaper cheap and affordable, attracting a wider audience.

THEORY

ANCILLARY 1The layout for my billboard was mainly inspired by ‘The Sun’ and ‘Fox News’ billboard, two of my three existing products I have analysed. The white plain background similar to ‘The Sun’ allows my black bold masthead to stand out creating a similar minimalistic layout for my billboard. All three existing billboards include billboard advertising conventions such paper’s masthead , a price and where the product is available. THEORY

By applying Halls theory encoding similar advertising conventions of a billboard on myAncillary task, audience will automatically decode these conventions to link the Advertisement to a billboard without knowing they are doing so. Uses and Gratifications through personal identity has been applied in my ancillary project, the possessive pronoun‘YOUR’ is highlighted to encourage the reader to consider how the newspaper would benefit them.

ANCILLARY 2For ancillary two I constructed a radio advertisement for my final piece. The advert follows a conversation between an elderly lady and her doctor. The conversation refers to the overwhelming effect the newspaper had on the elderly character. The doctor states ‘Similar to many of my patients recently, think there’s something going round’ emphasises how popular ‘the source’ is. This technique applies Uses and Gratification theory of personal identity to allow the audience to wonder if the newspaper would have the same effect on the listener. The elderly lady informs the audience what day the newspaper is released ‘It was last Tuesday ‘.My radio advertisement follows the conventions of radio advertising shown by the three existing products I have analysed ‘Green Tea’, ‘Smart Car’ and ‘Energy drink’ advertisements. All three adverts and my ancillary project follow the main aim to inform the listener of what the product is ‘The Source’ is mentioned through out my radio advert. They all express how the product could help the listener and where it is available to purchase. My ancillary project also aimed to create humour as the little old lady would provoke a laughable response due to the fact she couldn’t handle all the information ‘The Source’ has to offer.

Applying Uses and Gratification to allow the audience to wonder if they could successfully read through all the interesting information my final piece has to offer.

THEORY