Evaluation 1

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

Evaluation 2

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

Evaluation 3

What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

Evaluation 4

How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Website link

Link to my final live website ancillary product


http://www.cornishinsight5064.com/

Click here to take survey

Finalised poster and potential application

Because I wanted to put my poster on a bus-shelter to advertise my newspaper, I decided to have a 5 minute Photoshop mess-about (as if I'm not busy enough) to see what it would look like in the real world, and I have to say, it does look the part. I am happy with my product.

Final Newspaper pieces

Double Page - Updated

Double Page - First Draft (Click for accessible view)

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Front Page - First Draft

Poster - First draft

This is my first draft of my poster advertising my newspaper. I have chosen waves in the background to connote 'breaking' news, and they are synonymous with the Cornish landscape. In terms of the centrepiece, the newspaper - I think there is room for improvement. My peers and teachers have informed me that I will need to write actual articles instead of faux ones, and the advertisement on the page looks tacky. Other than this, I am pleased with it as a first draft.

Webpage - Final Screenshots

My Adverts

As I have already posted, local newspapers heavily rely on advertising, and because this is a common convention, I will need to conform to it in my own work. Going against my flat plans, I have decided to go with just the one advertisement on the front page, as to not annoy my target audience. This advert is an advert for a free sports section pull-out 

This advert, which is essentially a banner that runs along just underneath my masthead, is typical of your usual freebie advertisement. In essence, I needed something quick and easy to make, and this is what I came up with. Its colours and font choice alike connote a different 'side' to the newspaper, where the extra colour on the front page really jazzes it up. The gold font and ticket colour I used is appealing as gold is a desirable object, and the reader/potential reader will be more inclined to open the paper to find out the deal. The idea of 'golden tickets' could cause some excitement among people, particularly those who will naturally link it to Charlie and the Chocolate factory - which could be a good selling point for my newspaper.

This advert for subscribing to my newspaper for a year was created on top of a collage of my front page. This was again a quick but effective way of filling up some space, as well as giving readers the chance to subscribe. I have used my logo to get people more and more familiar with the sight of it as it is a new newspaper. All the front pages connote all the newspapers you could get for just £45, giving readers the impression they are getting a good deal. This is backed up with the word 'little,' which, when put in the context of a year, is quite a small amount.

Finally, a picture of two students engaging in friendly conversation outside out sixth form area is the foundation stone for my last advert. I have actually turned this to black and white in my newspaper because a) it would be cheaper to advertise in black and white, and b) it looked very imposing on the rest of the page with the colours like the red in the logo. Again, this was quick and easy to make, meaning I could spend more time editing my newspaper.

Website categories

At the top of most newspaper websites, as I have observed, there are several categories in a horizontal strip on which you can click to get the news from that section. In the past, these have commonly been known to be listed down the left hand side of a newspaper, though it has become more fashionable to go with the horizontal look of late, and this is shown with prototypes of Microsoft's new platform 'Windows 8' being released, which revolves around a start menu fundamentally built around the horizontal idea. I will be including this in my own website to meet the conventions of those I have analysed previously.

First is always the 'news' section, which highlights the main stories of the day. This is almost a must in terms of newspaper websites, so I will need to conform to these conventions to please audiences. In terms of colour, while I am at present undecided about the shade of my tabs, I will be looking to follow the convention set by the websites I have analysed by making the news section red.

I also aim to make the tabs correspond with the colour chart/rainbow synchronisation, as it adds to the continuity of the page and is easy on the eye. This is what I observed the 'This is Cornwall' website does, and I liked it a lot.

Secondly, I will have a 'sport' section, which would supposedly bring up a page filled with sport related news. Though nobody voted for sports stories in my newspaper, I think it is imperative I include it because it is such a big part of society. Again, conventionally, the sport section is second or third in the bar, despite being always located at the end of the newspaper itself, where the back page effectively acts as a front page for sport.

Other subjects my study revealed young people were interested in include food, which I will be including in an 'eating out' section, aimed at tourists and people who want to go somewhere to eat. Similarly, politics was a popular topic, for which I will house a separate tab again, where I could write about increased petrol prices among other things. I would integrate national and Cornish politics for a politics page, as I would with the stories and I plan to do this for the newspaper in general.

Also popular were technology stories, which despite everybody's keenness for them, are fairly scarce, as I have discussed on a previous post. Conversely, I want to quote Twitter and Facebook within my articles to keep younger people in touch with my newspaper.

Finally, I have decided to go with Weather, as everybody seems to be raving about it all the time. It is also a key part of a local news website and keeping people in touch with it is vital to becoming successful.

Website analysis

Before creating a website, I must look at the conventions set by other newspapers' websites.

Analysis of existing media texts - websites on Prezi

I will now begin the editing process

Storyboard and video ideas

I have decided to do my moving image on my main pasty story, as it will generate the most interest from local people visiting my webpage. I have also taken inspiration from The Guardian video I looked at on the internet in terms of the opening and closing title scenes. I will start my video with black with my logo in white fading in, perhaps reminiscent of the Cornish flag, and this is how I will end it as well with each scene at around 3-5 seconds long. I plan to have two shots in my video with voiceover information, each of these being 10-15 seconds long. I want to have two different shots of Barnecutts in Bodmin, explaining how they were running a petition to be sent to London and how they were unavailable to comment on the matter. Here is my storyboard:

Chris Morris, Bodmin Football Academy Interview

I interviewed a member of PE staff and Football Academy at Bodmin College about sport relief:

"Sport Relief is a fantastic opportunity for ordinary people to contribute and make a difference to vulnerable people in the UK and some of the poorest people around the world. We can all join personalities from the sporting and entertainment world and between us can make a difference."

Stories - Pasty

The story on the pasty tax is a story that everybody is talking about, both on a national and local scale, on the news and around college. Because of this, I felt it appropriate to run with it as a late inclusion as my main headline, as it has clearly captured the imagination of so many of late. For this story, I want to give an insight into why people are getting so annoyed and side with them, as to not appear to be on the side of the government. As well as this, I hope to get an interview with a pasty company worker or someone similar.

Update: I have written my article, and it is here:-

THE UNVAILING of this week’s budget by Chancellor George Osborne has been subject to widespread criticism by the South West after what appears to be a tax on pasties among what are deemed to be ‘hot take-away foods.’

The so-called ‘pasty tax,’ which will hit the pockets of pasty lovers throughout the country in the coming weeks, is an attempt by the government to tax unhealthy fast foods in an unprecedented move to place the 20% Value Added Tax, or VAT on hot food.

However, many see the Chancellor’s new tax as just another way of bailing out the fragile economy by taxing everyday people and  with this, there is increased pressure on Mr. Osborne to shelve the rise in price which some would argue will see hot food sales crumble in the near future.

It’s not just pasties that will be taxed though; all foods that are hotter than the ambient temperature of the room they are sold in will be subject to VAT – and this has spurred uproar from the Labour party as well as Greggs and local bakers Barnecutts.


Petition
Barnecutts, who have bakeries in Bodmin, Wadebridge, Liskeard and St Austell, have created a petition against the proposed tax action, and it is available to sign at any of their outlets. Naturally, Barnecutts and Greggs are fearful of losing some of their biggest buyers; families, who are already struggling with the increasing cost of living.

Customers weren’t warm to the idea either; one man outside the shop was furious when The Cornish Insight broke the news to him:

“Well, all I’ll say is nobody voted this government in and since then, everyday families like mine have struggled to make ends meet with the fuel prices, inflation, and now this.”

The plans are not coming in for at least a few weeks, but you can still sign Barnecutt’s petition or write to your local MP.

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As you will see, I failed to get an interview with Barnecutt's staff as they refused one, as did the staff at Costcutters. As time was running thin, I decided to interview a keen pasty eater outside Barnecutts on his opinions.

I also took some pictures for my main headline image. I wanted a photo of a half-eaten pasty on the front of my newspaper to lure people into it, as Cornish people are traditionally pasty-mad. The images are below.

 As I have said, I wanted a picture of a half-eaten pasty, so started taking different shots of one. The pasty though, which was admittedly very tasty, was not so photogenic, and I found that I needed to put it on the floor around a nice patch of grass to get a good effect. I like the image of the pasty on the grass because we are looking down on the pasty in an almost controlling way, where we are either embracing to eat it or looking at it, which I think could connote me giving readers an insight into the story. The same could be said about the other pictures of the inside of the pasty, though this did not give the effect I wanted for the leading story at all.

Petrol price photoshoot

Here are some images I took of Bodmin Morrisons to include in my newspaper for my story on petrol price hikes.

Overall, I think this is the best image to use because it does not have any obstructions (like car mirrors or trees) in the way of the image. It will fit nicely next to my article, and gives readers a visual image of the story; something that will hopefully increase both the satisfaction of my audience and the verisimilitude of my production, as most stories on the first three pages of a newspaper will have an accompanying image.

If I have learnt anything from my experience taking these pictures, I have seen that the paparazzi and press photographers have a difficult job when it comes to photography and taking images for the editor. Several pictures will need to be taken, as some, it is guaranteed, will turn out to be blurred or not as you expect them to be. This was a good experience for me and I have learnt a few things about taking press images.