Evaluation question 1

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Olivia Lyons A2 Media Advanced Portfolio F: Evaluation Question 1 Evaluation Question 1: In what ways does your media product, use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? For my A2 Advanced Portfolio I have produced a local newspaper; front and second page. The genre of my newspaper is a combination of both a tabloid and a broadsheet, also known as a Berliner. Prior to constructing my newspaper I carried out several research tasks, analysing various different local newspapers. From this I was able to explore the forms and conventions of real media products. When producing my newspaper, and throughout the planning process, I took these conventions in to consideration in order to ensure my newspaper would meet audience expectations and therefore be successful. When designing my masthead I wanted to ensure that I conformed to the conventions I had discovered, as a newspaper masthead

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Transcript of Evaluation question 1

Page 1: Evaluation question 1

Olivia LyonsA2 Media Advanced PortfolioF: EvaluationQuestion 1

EvaluationQuestion 1: In what ways does your media product, use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

For my A2 Advanced Portfolio I have produced a local newspaper; front and second page.

The genre of my newspaper is a combination of both a tabloid and a broadsheet, also known as a Berliner. Prior to constructing my newspaper I carried out several research tasks, analysing various different local newspapers. From this I was able to explore the forms and conventions of real media products. When producing my newspaper, and throughout the planning process, I took these conventions in to consideration in order to ensure my newspaper would meet audience expectations and therefore be successful.

When designing my masthead I wanted to ensure that I conformed to the conventions I had discovered, as a newspaper masthead is one of the most iconic features on the newspaper front page. When designing the masthead for my newspaper I was heavily influenced by The Manchester Evening News.

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Olivia LyonsA2 Media Advanced PortfolioF: EvaluationQuestion 1I used a sans-serif font as I found this was conventional and also ensured that my masthead stood out from the rest of the text on the page. A bold masthead is iconic in newspapers and in order to conform to this I positioned my masthead at the top of the page in the primary optical area. In addition to this, I incorporated a small graphic alongside my masthead. I chose to do this as I felt it enhanced the overall appearance of my masthead, as well as conforming to conventions of real media products.

The Times Newspaper Masthead

Manchester Messenger Masthead

I hope that in doing this, the audience will decode a preferred reading as my newspaper will be similar to real media products and will therefore meet their expectations.

I used the theory of Neale’s Mental Machinery as a guideline to ensure that, as a producer, I was providing the audience with what they want to see, by encoding clear conventions of the genre, to ensure that they were satisfied consumers. As my newspaper is a combination of both a tabloid and a broadsheet I have used a balanced combination of both text and images. In relation to the layout, I have used a simple, conventional newspaper layout which therefore conforms to convention. The layout of my newspaper uses conventions of real media products as the layout is similar to that of The Salford Advertiser.

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Olivia LyonsA2 Media Advanced PortfolioF: EvaluationQuestion 1Throughout the planning stage, and when creating my ideas generation mind-map I strongly took into consideration genre and conventions, as well as story ideas, tone, design principle, editing and image manipulation, photography and iconography. I wanted my newspaper to be as realistic as possible in order to conform to the conventions of real media texts. I planned to have a crime related story feature on the front page of my newspaper as news often heavily focusses’ upon negativity. However, when it came to producing the final piece I felt an image I had taken for a different story looked stronger and worked more effectively on the front cover of my newspaper. This then meant that both stories featuring on my front page would be positive news stories and therefore challenged the forms and conventions of real media texts. In doing this I am hoping the appearance of my newspaper will look professional and realistic.

Using Stuart Hall’s Encoding/Decoding model, where the producer of a media text encodes conventions, allowing the audience to decode a particular reading, I believe I have encoded clear conventions of newspapers and have successfully conformed to conventions of real media products.