Evaluation: How Did You Use Media Technologies in Construction and Research, Planning and Evaluation?

Technologies for Reasearch;

Using the internet for my research was the most effective method to look at a variety of local newspaper front covers, second pages, posters and another website that are already established. I analysed these and using the software Microsoft Publisher converted tem to JPEG files and uploaded to blogger.

Also when analysing website online I used the featurea available to see how they worked as active websites, following hyperlinks etc.

Technologies for Construction;

When creating my initial idea, I used Microsoft Word, Then Copied my designs to Publisher and then completed the same process, Saving as a JPEG and Uploading to Blogger.

I Used Adobe Photoshop to create my local newspaper front cover, second page and poster, I used this software in my foundation portfolio, Although developed and fine tuned my skills to make my newspaper to be more professional than my foundation portfolio. I used the software Adobe Dreamweaver to create my Two Hyperlinked Webpages, I used this software to create basic pages in previous courses but never for a serious page, so wasnt a new experience but had never used the software properly before. 

I had never used a blog website like Blogger before, This was a new experience which I mastered through trial and error.

Technologies for Evaluation;

I wrote my evaluation on the blogger site itself, I used the availability to enlarge my work that is available on the site to help evaluate my work to see how it looked etc. I then posted my evaluation.

Evaluation: What Have You Learned From your Audience Feedback.

After completing my products, I did some audience feedback. I asked 13 random people from Swanley's local community what there first opinion of my local newspaper front cover, second page, poster and two hyper linked pages. A large majority of the consumers I asked said that my newspaper front cover could easily fit in on sale within Swanley and they also would be happy to accept and read it, if delivered through their front doors. Most of the people asked, said that they felt that Swanley had lacked a local newspaper solely dedicated to there community and thought it was a great idea, this suggests that the newspaper would thrive and be very successful if published and distributed. Some local residents asked rarely looked at local newspaper websites although felt that the website, looked easy to use and completed its job efficiently, if I could add anything, I would perhaps add an advertisement within the newspaper itself to make people aware that the webpage is available and there for them. When looking at the second page the audience commented that the advertisements were slightly large although said that it did not effect the ability to read and understand the newspaper. Finally, when looking at the local newspaper poster was said to be very similar in the features to other and national, which is what i aimed to achieve, also it did catch peoples eye apart from it lacked colour. Colour could be introduced in future developments.

Evaluation: How Effective is The Combination of Your Main Product and Ancillary Tasks.

The use of combining the main products and ancillary tasks is very effective. The local newspaper front cover and second page are the main part of any newspapers, being distributed throughout the bulk of the community, although a selection of people would rather look at the paper in a more interactive method, for example people who regularly commute, and would rather view the Emagazine on smartphones, laptops or tablet computers, or to attract to the younger generation who use technology rather than the conventional newspaper.

All of these though use the same template defining the newspaper and making it recognisable to the possible consumer/audience.

I feel this combination is very effective.

Evaluation: In What Way Does Your Media Product Use, Develop or Challenge Forms and Conventions of Local Newspapers.

When designing and creating my Local Newspaper, Second Page, Poster and Two Hyper linked Web pages, I tried not to directly challenge the forms and conventions already established and recognized.

With my Front Cover I attempted to keep as many of the forms and conventions that I analysed from my research into local newspaper front covers, I analysed variety of front covers, as some may use some conventions and not others as well as developing some to make there own unique. My Front Cover uses several well recognized conventions, these include a masterhead, this was for several reasons mainly as it helped create an identity for my local newspaper similar with a large majority of other local and national papers including the title and generally logo's but this was one way I did challenge the conventions by choosing not to use a logo, instead the name of the newspaper is unique to the town almost making it a logo itself. I used alot of images throughout my front page, Using the forms and conventions I used alot of mid-shot images. Some smaller conventions that still are very important include date, price, edition number. Another of the largest forms and conventions are advertisements, I used these on my front cover, advertising local businesses, for several reasons, to attract the local population as it links with them as well as acting as a form of income for the paper.

For my second page, I also tried to keep all the forms and conevntions as much as I could, and I feel I succeeded, continuing articles from the front page as well as supporting them with other mid-shot images as I found was a convention when I completed my analysis of other second pages. Also I continued to add advertisments onto the second page as I found was common with other newspapers and throughout local newspapers as a whole.

For my local newspaper's poster I slightly challenged the forms and conventions I established from my analysis and research into other local newspapers posters, I chose not to include images. Although some newspapers also do this, And some do not and some vary from story to story if it is nessesary or not. I aimed for a simplistic layout, structure and content, This is in keeping with the forms and conventions to keep it simple, as well as using just one or two large headlines to catch the consumers eye and attract them to read more within the newspaper.

With the Two Hyper linked Web pages for my local newspaper, I feel that there are some very important forms and conventions nessesary to create an efficient website that is appropiate and some that are more optional. I feel I didnt challenge these including all the major forms and conevntions I established, including a common masterhead, used throughout the webpage for consitancy and to help create an identidy, large mid-shot images, advertisments, some of which are interactive due to the availability of features online, Links to other pages. Also I included the date and time at the top, some local newspaper use this to make the webpage more unique to a certain area.

Overall I feel that I followed the major forms and conevntions without challenging them, although maybe developed them in certain places to make all my final products as good as they could be as well as meeting the brief as much as they could.

Audience Feedback.

After completing my products, I did some audience feedback. I asked 13 random people from Swanley's local community what there first opinion of my local newspaper front cover, second page, poster and two hyper linked pages. A large majority of the consumers I asked said that my newspaper front cover could easily fit in on sale within Swanley and they also would be happy to accept and read it, if delivered through their front doors. Most of the people asked, said that they felt that Swanley had lacked a local newspaper solely dedicated to there community and thought it was a great idea, this suggests that the newspaper would thrive and be very successful if published and distributed. Some local residents asked rarely looked at local newspaper websites although felt that the website, looked easy to use and completed its job efficiently, if I could add anything, I would perhaps add an advertisement within the newspaper itself to make people aware that the webpage is available and there for them. When looking at the second page the audience commented that the advertisements were slightly large although said that it did not effect the ability to read and understand the newspaper. Finally, when looking at the local newspaper poster was said to be very similar in the features to other and national, which is what i aimed to achieve, also it did catch peoples eye apart from it lacked colour. Colour could be introduced in future developments.

Final Local Newspaper Front Page.

This is My Local Newspaper Front Cover, Complete with a few additions to the final design, which I discovered through the creation process. These additions were the adding of an extra advertisement, this was due to the reality of the space available on the page and if I had not added this I feel that that the Front Page would not have appeared as professional as I had aimed for. Also small additions to the images such as a brief explanation linking them to the text was added although not in my final designs, This assists the article by supporting it and linking them together. Altogther I feel that this local newspaper front cover has been an overall success, I feel i created a very professional local newspaper which could easily be published and distributed to Swanleys local community which was my overall goal!

Final Local Newspaper Second Page.

This is my completed second page for my new local newspaper, I feel that creating this page was slightly more difficult than creating the front page, This was mainly down too the arangement and space available on the page and the amount I hoped to include on the page. In the end I successfully fitted all of the information, images and advertisements I wanted too on the page. I created the two advertisements with no issue using my own images and editing them appropiatley. With This page although the diffucluties I encountered were hard to overcome and I close to altering my design I still feel this was a success and is completed to a professional standard, which could be published and distibuted along side my Local Newspaper Front Cover.