A2 MEDIA STUDIESADVANCED PORTFOLIO

RESEARCH & PLANNING

CENTRE NO: 11049

ST FRANCIS XAVIER COLLEGE

MY NAME IS:

DENISSE SAMANTHA VARILLA

CANDIDATE NO: 9593

My main portfolio project is:newspaper

with 2 ancillary projects:

newspaper poster and 2 hyperlinked pages from

newspaper website.

THE GENRE(S) OF MY MAIN PROJECT IS: Genre: local newspaper

and the title is: Lambeth Press

target audience: lower to working classes but mainly parents and elderly people.

SO I HAVE RESEARCHED AS FOLLOWS: Model 1 Model 2

WHAT I LEARNED FROM THIS WAS….. Design aspect 1

The masthead is straight forward which shows important information such as the name of the

newspaper and date of the publication. The lead headline is big enough to catch readers attention and also the space is used well as the headline is written over the picture and the story is in short paragraphs in small fonts. The byline is published in bold which shows the name of the reporter who wrote the story. Even though, the main model (person) in the picture is on the side, the picture was still used effectively

as they put the text over the background, so no space was wasted.

WHAT I LEARNED FROM THIS WAS:MASTHEAD/NAMEPLATE:

The masthead contains the date of the publication.It also help readers to develop a connection between the brand.

LEAD HEADLINE:

It summarises the most important point in a news report. It’s usually in bold and much bigger font size to attract reader’s attention.

TEASER:

This helps to keep the reader’s focus around

the nameplate and add structure to the design. It also shows some of the important stories

run on inside pages or boxes announcing a

paper’s inside contents.

LEAD:

The first paragraph of the news is in bold so that it stands out and leads the readers to rest of the story. COLOURED PHOTO:

This is used to support the headline. There is also an additional caption at the bottom to briefly explain who is in the photo and what’s going on.

JUMP LINE:

Is used to inform the reader; of the page and column

number where they can find the rest of the story.

SIDEBAR:

This is a short, boxed news story that is

printed alongside a longer article and which

typically presents additional, contrasting, or late-breaking news.

 

GENERIC CONVENTIONS

OF A LOCAL NEWSPAPER

The Newspaper size14.5" x 23"

Names:London 24Barking & Dagenham PostDocklands 24Stratford ExpressEast London AdvertiserKilburn TimesMarylebone Express

Ratio of images to words:Higher percentage of words compared to texts. It tends to have a higher percentage of photos, illustrations and other visual than broadsheets.

The style and toneExaggerated with a keen use of alliteration and puns on words, it tries to catch reader’s attention. E.g.: Shot dead by Hitman.

Content:News, politics, entertainment, sports and classifieds

LanguageEasy to understand, colloquial, short paragraphs.

Target audience:Read largely by the working and lower-middle classes

Narrative structure:

Front- national and international storiesMiddle- entertainment and TV scheduleBack- horoscopes, competitions, financial pages, classifieds advertisements and sports section

FOR MY MAIN PROJECT…. the target audience: lower to working

classes but mainly parents and elderly people

and here is how I arrived at this conclusion: these people are the ones that are mostly interested in a local newspaper. It will also be given around the local area for free which will suit lower to working class and elderly people are free most of the time so they have time to read the newspaper.

AUDIENCE FEEDBACK ABOUT PLANNING MY MAIN TASK

TARGET AUDIENCE

HERE ARE 4 ORIGINAL PHOTOGRAPHS FOR THE NEWSPAPER OR STORYBOARD……

I MODIFIED EACH PHOTOGRAPH; HERE IS THE ORIGINAL NEXT TO THE FINAL VERSION:

What I was trying to do with this photo is I planned to write some of the headline on the side (wall) of the picture. As you can see there is loads of space on the side of the original photo, so I decided to crop the final one on both sides because I thought that writing the headline on the picture wasn't looking too good for my newspaper.

Raw 1 Final

AND THE SECOND ONE: Raw 2 Final 2

I will be using this photo on the sidebar of my newspaper page (car accident article). I didn’t edit it as much, apart from cropping the picture as you won’t be able to see the car properly because the image will be resized in a much

smaller size.

AND THE THIRD ONE: Raw 3 Final 3

I have no plans in editing this photograph because I think it already looks good as it is. I think the

quality is excellent therefore I don’t need to edit the lighting and contrast of the picture.

AND THE LAST ONE: Raw 4 Final 4

I decided to use this photo for my inside page (young entrepreneur article). I didn’t

edit this picture because this is how exactly I wanted it for my newspaper.

NAMEPLATE/MASTHEAD

This is my nameplate/masthead for my newspaper. I used blue because this colour is associated with the local area. (For example: the Lambeth logo is originally written in colour blue with a yellow design on top and also the colour scheme of the Lambeth council website is blue and white.)

I decided to add a cropped and edited picture of Lambeth Townhall because I think that this is a good image for my newspaper as it represents Lambeth well.

FRONT PAGE Mise en scène is a French term for ‘within the frame’ it is an

element that represents different things such as costume, lighting, set design and acting. I chose this particular photograph for my first page as it is well related with my main article. I am aware that the lighting of the picture is important because it has a ‘profound effect’ on the way an image is perceived. I took the picture at night to try to affect my reader’s emotion as this emphasize that something bad happened in the dark. Again, I tried to amplify the reader’s emotion by the set of my picture; as you can see the wall looks bad and dirty which connotes that a crime took place in this area of the house. In addition, I added some newspaper, letter and other paper props on the floor to make it seem as if something strange happened as some objects are just scattered all over the floor.

I followed the convention of having a big, bold headline on the top of the page as this is the best layout that suits the newspaper that I am originally creating. I made sure that the font type and size are clear as well as big enough to catch the reader’s attention. I decided to make the ‘lead’ section in bold because this is the first paragraph of the article. Therefore, it should try to engage the readers to read the rest of the article. In addition, I made sure that I use a jump line after writing half of my lead article to inform the reader of the page number where they can find the rest of the article. I decided to add a sidebar because this is a good way to present additional news and I made the background colour blue to keep the colour scheme of my newspaper. I added a picture that relates with my first article on my sidebar because I didn’t want the page to look boring by having too much text. I added a line and a bullet point to make it clear that the articles are different separate piece of writing. I originally made two adverts but I then realized that the adverts looks

too stretched so therefore I decided to make another smaller advert to take advantage of the free space available. I used different font types, sizes and colour to differentiate each ads from each other.

INSIDE PAGE The main article here on the first page is a continuation from one of the headlines on the sidebar of the newspaper's front page. I chose this article because I wanted to make a positive approach to the readers as most of the article in a normal newspaper contains mostly negative news. As Lambeth Press is a local newspaper,  I decided to balance the negative news with positive ones and informative information about the Borough of Lambeth. I added a photograph so that readers can have more feel with the article.  I didn't edit the photo in terms of lighting, contrast or changing the background because I felt that it already looks good as it is and I kept the background to give a more natural feel to the readers.  When I was in the process of doing this, I spotted that there was a big gap on the side of the page so I decided to add the logo for the clothing line that Sean ( guy in the article) is producing. I did the logo using Photoshop, the program was good because it  offered different varieties of font styles as well as colors. I added a black line after the article to inform the readers that it's finished and also this separates it from the other articles. 

Again, I added a sidebar because when I was doing my research, quite a lot of newspaper does this even on the first page, so I then decided to follow this convention.  The two article headlines are juxtaposed with each other because the top one is a positive article whilst the bottom one is a negative one which is about drugs, jail and crimes. I am aware that in newspapers there are usually loads of advertisements as the company gets money for this. So I dedicated a lot of space for the ads on my newspaper.  I originally made these ads individually using Photoshop. The program was excellent because it enable me to do a lot of things such as make lines, choose different font styles and size, rotate texts and create shapes such as stars as you can see on advertisement at the bottom of the page. It also enable me to amend the photograph that I originally took. I took the picture at night time, so the setting was dark and the house was not so visible, I then adjusted the brightness and contrast of the photo to make it look better so that readers can have a better view of the house.

WHAT I LEARNED FROM AUDIENCE FEEDBACK ABOUT MY MAIN TASK

PROFESSIONAL MODEL 1 FOR ANCILLARY 1 Model 1

As you can see I have followed some conventions such as having the newspaper's logo and nameplate, by putting a big, bold, black text for the headline to attract readers' attention. However I tried to challenge some conventions such as the way how I used and placed my photographs; normally newspaper posters has no or just maybe one picture but I decided to have two because I wanted the readers to have the close up face of the victim. As well as, to have another picture of her family to get a deeper understanding on how this tragedy has affected other people such as the victim's family. The colour used on my main newspaper page are white and blue; I still kept the text on the nameplate blue to make it easier for the reader's to distinguish the brand. However, I used colour yellow on both the bottom and top of the page because I think this colour is so eye catchy as it is bright, I strongly believe that this colour stands out therefore it will subconsciously force the audience to look at my newspaper poster.

FINAL MODEL FOR ANCILLARY 1

Model 1 According to my audience feedback, I

could’ve improved my first ancillary in a lot of ways. Most of them, including my tutor thought that it was weird seeing two pictures next to each other in a newspaper poster, which made me decide to changed it to a one solo portrait. I was going to use a landscape picture but unfortunately, it didn’t work well as the photograph looked too stretched. I added another tagline ‘The newest, most up to date local newspaper is out now!’ to be able to inform readers that Lambeth Press is now launching. Another main thing that my audience didn’t like according to their feedback, is the blocks of bright colour yellow as they explained how it stands out too much and it doesn’t go well with the blue colour scheme that I have. So I then decided to make it light blue instead to keep the colour scheme going through the whole page but I also made sure that the dark blue logo is still visible.

WHAT I LEARNED FROM MY FIRST ANCILLARY TASK 1

My first ancillary task appeals to my target audience because I have made necessary amendments that they wanted such as the photographs and colors used on the page. I followed some conventions of a newspaper poster such as having a tagline and writing the headline in such a bold, big, black texts for it to be able to catch the readers attention. I made sure that the logo of Lambeth Press is included and the I kept the color scheme going on the whole page. I did this so that the readers can easily differentiate Lambeth Press to its competitors. I also made sure that the page doesn’t look crowded and messy or neither empty with big gaps.

HOW ANCILLARY 1 LINKS WITH THE MAIN TASKS

REPRESENTATION: I made sure that the newspaper poster is quite similar with the newspaper its advertising. I included the logo and kept the colour scheme on both the newspaper front page and poster.

NARRATIVE: I linked both products by having the same article. I chose to use the article on

my front page because I think that this was the most eye catchy and interesting article in my newspaper. I thought that it would make

more sense if they are the same one because the poster is going to be advertising the main

product (front-page/ newspaper itself) so therefore it’s better to have the headline that I have on the very first page of Lambeth Press.

GENRE: As the newspaper is going to be a local newspaper I made sure that it contains mostly that happens within the borough or anything that will affect the place. But also to have some nationwide and worldwide news to be able to inform readers more on what’s happening within the country/world.

DRAFT FOR ANCILLARY 2 This is a draft of my newspaper

website. This is going to be the homepage but according to my audience feedback I would have to change a lot of things: such as the positioning of the texts and pictures. My audience made me understand that there is too much gap on the page and the texts and pictures are not align properly.

Also the advertisements on the side looks odd, so maybe I should also have a blue border for it just like some of the boxes on the opposite side of the page. The text also turns blurry and pixelated sometimes, so they suggested that I should change the text

into HTML .

This is the draft for my ‘News’ link page for my website. According to my audience’s feedback, the page is looking good however empty. They suggested that I should add more things such as more articles or maybe adverts.

I will be taking all their opinions into account. I will change both of the first and second page drafts, so that Lambeth Press website can look better, inform more and have more appeal to my target audience.

DRAFT FOR SECOND PAGE FOR MY WEBSITE; NEWS PAGE.

FINAL HOMPAGE FOR WEBSITE (SECOND ANCILLARY)

This is going to be my final website page. Firstly, I changed the pictures to something better and more related with the articles. I filled in the gaps by adding another headline title and a brief article about it. I also added a blue border around the adverts to match the opposite side of the page. I added the date on the top of the page so that the readers can be aware of what day it is.

This appeals to my audience because its informative as that is their main concern with newspaper websites. It has the colour blue scheme throughout the whole page so that they can easily identify that it’s Lambeth Press’ website. It’s appealing because the page is not just full of texts, there are also photographs that relates to most

articles mentioned. I also changed the texts to HTML ones so that it looks clear and better rather than looking like a pixelated picture and the texts aren’t so pleasant to read.

FINAL SECOND ‘NEWS’ LINK PAGE FOR WEBSITE (SECOND ANCILLARY)

This is going to be my final News page which is going to be the link from the homepage. Comparing with my draft, I have now filled in the gaps by putting more article and adverts. I also changed the pictures to a better quality ones.

This page is appealing to my target audience because as the page is called ‘NEWS page’ it contains so much information that the audience should find interesting. The page is also nicely set up as the layout and positioning of texts and pictures looks clean and professional. I managed to fit in an advert on the page and made the background brown, so that the page can have a little bit of colour apart from its blue and white theme. This page is also linked to the homepage, which the audience can easily navigate by clicking the linked pages on the top of the page.

WHAT I LEARNED FROM AUDIENCE FEEDBACK ABOUT ANCILLARY TASK 2

I learned that having big gaps even on the side of the page doesn’t look nice as normal website usually have advertisements to fill those spaces.

I made sure that important features was there such as the Lambeth Press’ logo and its colour scheme runs through in all my media products as my audiences suggested because it will be easier for them to identify the newspaper in the future.

They recommended that I should use HTML texts rather than having a plain text (from Photoshop or InDesign for instance). I done exactly what they have said and I saw the difference; HTML texts looks so much better and more clear ( see research regarding HTML text on my blog).

THIS IS HOW KEY CONCEPTS LINK MAIN TASK, ANCILLARY TASKS 1 AND 2

Narrative- My newspaper front page headline and the headline on my newspaper poster are linked together as they are both the same article. I chose to use the article on my front page because I think that this was the most eye catchy and interesting article in my newspaper. My inside page and websites links together as they have the same articles. However the articles are more explained on the website because the newspaper page has obviously limited space.

Genre- My genre is local news, I made sure that the news that I covered was all related to the Borough of Lambeth. However I wanted to feed my readers more information so I included other national/ worldwide news that will affect them such as tax rises, pensions and general health news.

Representation- For all the media products that I have created I made sure that I kept the colour scheme of white and blue. I kept in mind that I should be targeting the same target audience, reason why I decided to not have too many colors on the pages as (colorful/rainbow colors are more associated with young people). I put the logo in all of them so that readers can easily differentiate Lambeth Press from its competitors.

CHANGES MADE IN THE RE-DRAFT OF MAIN TASK

I changed the ‘final’ one because I had to take into account few audience feedbacks such as changing the font style and re position because there were too much space in between the pictures and the texts. After doing further research, I then changed my text into ‘Times New Roman’ because newspaper today still uses this font style and also I now agree with my audiences that this font will look better than the one that I used for my previous one. I added caption on the image that I originally took so that readers can relate and would know what the picture is about. I made the boxes and advert bigger to fill in the spaces. I also changed the font on the yellow advert because when I printed out a copy of my previous newspaper the font was on top of each other and it wasn’t readable at all.

How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages? • I have used different media technologies in the construction, research & planning of my newspaper.

For my research, I used the Internet which gave ma a lot of information on what I needed to know such as the conventions of newspaper itself, poster and websites for local newspapers. Internet didn’t just offer texts but also pictures, graphics, audios and videos that made me understand what I was researching for in more depth. The process of researching on the Internet is very fast, results are shown in seconds. However, I had to be sure that the websites I was going on was reliable as anyone can post anything on the web.

• In making my products, I used Adobe Photoshop which was very helpful as it enables me to do a lot of things such as amend pictures, rotate text, make shapes and it has a variety of texts, colours and styles. I was also able to work in layers which made it easier for me to move things around and helped me to position the texts and pictures nicely.

• I used Adobe InDesign to improve and simplifies my workflow as it has features like collecting files, images and fonts. It enabled me to create and continue to edit complex images and artwork once

they are placed on the page using all of Adobe's familiar creative tools. It also has a spelling checker tool that points out spelling errors as I type and it provides suggested corrections. • I also used Adobe Dreamweaver which allowed me to create a website. The frames and templates

make layout design quick. The HTML code and design view can be displayed separately and I was able to create pages in standard or layout mode for different design options. But the toolbar and properties provided too many options for me; this is the reason why I had to do a lot of research on how to use and work with the program.

LINKS BACK TO EVALUATION AND BLOG

http://denissevarilla9593.blogspot.com/