Evaluation Question 1

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

Newspaper:  Mastheads, skylines, straplines, headlines, white on black, bylines, body text, sidebars, menus, pull quotes, puffs and captions are all typical codes and conventions that real newspapers follow, especially on the front cover. My local newspaper’s masthead is bold and large and therefore able to catch the audience’s eye and get them interested in my newspaper, including the date, website and price. Through research into real products, the masthead noticeably covered a quarter of the space on the front cover. Similarly, I applied this convention into my newspaper. The title represents the newspapers identity and personality. I rejected the traditional icon of black on white (typically broadsheet) or white on red (typically red-top tabloid) and went for a mixture of the two to symbolise a mid-market touch to the newspaper (although it’s mainly for the lower middle class/higher working class: “Willesden” being black on white and “Gazette” being red on white. Analysis of a range of local newspapers constructed the title of my newspaper. It is almost impossible to find a local newspaper without its local area name in its masthead, hence, the construction of “Willesden”. Local newspapers follow a sans-serif typeface in their title and masthead to connote informality and news stories and captions follow a serif typeface of an equal and small font. Likewise, my title and masthead was of an aerial font and the rest was times new roman.

Additionally the term “Gazette” adds this journalistic flare to the whole personality to the newspaper. Developing a headline introduces the title of the lead story or splash. This is usually carried out in a condensed black font. However the white on black effect allowed dramatic emphasis on the story. It is something unusual for the audience to witness, so therefore will definitely be intrigued as to what the story is about. The headline itself, “Life for murder”, is very simple but damaging. I had purposely created this convention because big news stories in local newspaper follow the same convention. An additional strapline gave a taste of what’s to come in the story which is a modern convention as well as a byline (in bold type), indicating its authenticity to the story. Furthermore, a sidebar column separated from the main body text, allows viewing for short teaser stories on inside pages or news in brief. An example of this is a sneak peak of a headline in the sidebar “onions for laptops”, followed by a teaser story.

Furthermore I used and developed the images/photographs of the three Afro-Caribbean males on the front page, with an additional caption of their names below. Although it was difficult, I managed to glamorise the images itself without editing it through the connotations of their facial expressions. Pulling of a symbol to the audience, we as consumers are intrigued and attracted to such intimidating but yet “I don’t care” images. Through the majority of mug shots in local newspapers, the connotations I had found in these photographs is that the individuals have this “I don’t care” look. And the captions/names below the murderers add a sense of reality.

Furthermore, through research the local newspapers I analysed followed a format of a tabloid-sized newspaper (approximately 23 *43cm) consisting of 5 columns for the front cover and 6 columns for page 2. During the research I had come across some design tips that helped me develop the conventions I created.

·         All story packages should be should be shaped like rectangles (all my news stories on both pages follow these codes).

·         Every page should have a dominant photo or artwork (on the front cover, the 3 Afro-Caribbean males and page 2, the class and the teacher).

·         Every story must have a headline (essential standing element that my newspapers covers where every news story is followed by a headline)

·         Every photo must have a caption (again an essential standing element my newspaper covers as there is a caption for every photo)

·         Use no more than three typefaces per page, including the typeface in the nameplate.

·         Headlines should get smaller as you move down the page (local newspapers, especially after the front cover have one main dominant news story consisting of a main headline and photo. The other headlines and news stories surrounding are much smaller in size)

Although local newspapers have strong advertising services, I deliberately kept the size and number of advertisements as minimum and as small as possible, as the examiner prefers us to show of our journalism in news stories, hence why I created one hair and beauty advertisement on page 2. However, advertising is large part of a local newspaper which drives local businesses and is a convention of real products. Sometimes it even covers half of the front cover and page 2 such as the Harrow Times. In terms of the “missing person”, “contact us” and “Gazette weather”, again I kept it as minimum as possible taking up ¾ of a column. It is still a typical week in and week out convention that most local newspapers follow. To make my newspaper look more realistic and not just covered with a splash of news stories, these conventions were part of the page 2. The opinion poll about “rising fare” on page 2 is again another convention that some local newspapers abide to so I managed to interview 5 people about their opinions. In terms of news stories itself, from following real products front covers typically seem to contain one very dominant story or one dominant and a lesser dominant story next to it. On page 2, there are a variety of 3-4 news stories in real samples so I similarly applied 5 news stories to my product.

Please note there is an audio presentation of evaluation question 1 on the CD