1. Question 1 – In what ways does your
media product use, develop or
challenge forms of conventions of
real media products

2. • I have chosen to construct a front cover and second page for my
final media product ‘The Source’ newspaper. Whilst planning my
project I analysed three existing products to acknowledge the
convention of a newspaper. For example the media text must
include a genre, masthead, house style, photographs, an opening
that summaries each article and manipulated images.
INTODUCTION

3. Masthead
I have then used the conventions to develop a brief layout draft.
When creating my masthead I ensured that the name was
monosyllabic such as ‘The Sun’ and ‘The Daily Mail’. By using single
syllable words the masthead will be easier to read appealing to a wider
audience. For my chosen font I have used Charlemangne Std , a serif
font to add a formal tone. By encoding traditional aspects such as
black and bold lettering with a serif font for the masthead allows the
audience to automatically recognise the media text is a newspaper.
Conventions such as the price, date , issue number and website for the
newspaper appears in a smaller text in the corner of the masthead.
These conventional techniques allow the audience to relate my media
text to existing newspapers, unaware they are decoding the
conventions of a newspaper.

4. IMAGES/STORIES
The front cover displays a variety of stories verifying in genre for example the strip under the
masthead exposes a local sports story however my main story documents crime. Both stories
are advertised by manipulated images with a monosyllabic headline to attract a wider
audience. The three main articles I wrote relate to events that would realistically take place in
the local area for example and elderly couple win the lottery, a sports icon from the local area
runs a marathon to raise money for charity and my main story focusses on young crime a
problem highlighted every day in the local news.
Manipulating the images allow the photographs to stand out and emphasise the image
contrast in colour. For my main story reporting on a young man assaulting a police officer I
wanted an image that would provoke an emotive response from the audience. An image that
would create sympathy for the police officer and exposes the ‘thug’ responsible negatively,
this would encourage the audience to judge the suspect. The high contrast edit of the close up
highlighting the bruising of the police officers injuries is used to exaggerate the violence,
making the injuries look worse than reality.
Before After
Uses and Gratification theory (Bulmer and Katz)
encourages the audience to consider their personal
identity and relationships. The emotive technique has
been used to create a personal response from the
audience as they would compare the victim to
themselves or someone they may know creating further
sympathy. The image is placed central on the front page
and enlarged in the main focus area to shock potential
buyers. Personal identity/relationships is also applied
to the lottery win story as readers would image
themselves in the privileged position of winning.
THEORY

5. CONVENTIONS FOR FRONT COVER
Existing Products
All three newspapers , two existing products and my final piece all encode traditional
conventions of a local newspaper. All three front pages contain advertisements, multiple
articles reporting on a verity of genres in local news. A large bold font has
been used to highlight the main stories with condensed columns with smaller text to exhibit
the articles. Colour has been used to make the front covers more appealing and attractive
towards customers. The image for the main stories have been manipulated to exaggerate the
drama behind the three main crime articles.
These conventions are encoded to be decoded in order to label
the media text as news paper front covers, applying Halls theory
of encoding and decoding.
THEORY
My Project

6. SECOND PAGE CONVENTIONSExisting ProductMy Project
Conventions of a newspaper 2nd page include articles that follow on from the main stories
from the first page. Second pages are majority writing with images to match the stories,
usually refers to a verity of genre articles such as crime, local events and Information referring
to the economy and many more. The tabloid existing product on the left inspired me to include
a weather report section on my second page. Page number and the Newspaper name appears
on the second page so that people can locate where the front page Articles continue. The
writer’s name is labelled at the end of each article.
Uses and Gratification has been applies as all the articles in the 2nd page refer to local news,
audience would refer to personal relationship as they may know the people in the stories.
Personal Identity has been applied through the weather report as reader would relate the
information to their day to see how the forecast would effect their plans.
THEORY

7. MARET RESEARCH
The questionnaire I developed helped to research who my target audience would
be and what they would expect from a local newspaper. However a downfall to
my research came when trying to collect information from a wide age range of
participants as the questionnaires took place in college. This meant that the
majority of questionnaires were taken by 16-20 year olds. Although the
information did reveal that the majority of 16-20 year olds didn’t read
newspapers, coming to the conclusion my newspaper would be aimed at an older
audience more likely to be interest in local news. Reviewing my findings through
pie charts did help to decide a price, release pattern and different news sections
to report on.
I have applied HalI’s theory encoding information onto my front page on where
you can buy the newspaper ‘from your local newsagents in Manchester’, when
the product will be available ‘every Tuesday’ and how much the product costs
‘40p’. The conventions were decided after taking into consideration the results of
my market research including aspects that decode my final piece as a newspaper.
After reviewing my market research the most popular price people were will to
spend was ‘30p-50p’. Also by researching existing newspaper prices online such as
‘The Sun’ sold at 50pence and ‘The Daily Mail’ at 30pence. I decided to price my
newspaper ‘The Source’ at 40 pence making my newspaper cheap and affordable,
attracting a wider audience.
THEORY

8. ANCILLARY 1
The layout for my billboard was mainly inspired
by ‘The Sun’ and ‘Fox News’ billboard, two of
my three existing products I have analysed. The
white plain background similar to ‘The Sun’
allows my black bold masthead to stand out
creating a similar minimalistic layout for my
billboard. All three existing billboards include
billboard advertising conventions such paper’s
masthead , a price and where the product is
available.THEORY
By applying Halls theory encoding similar advertising conventions of a billboard on my
Ancillary task, audience will automatically decode these conventions to link the
Advertisement to a billboard without knowing they are doing so. Uses and Gratifications
through personal identity has been applied in my ancillary project, the possessive pronoun
‘YOUR’ is highlighted to encourage the reader to consider how the newspaper would benefit them.

9. ANCILLARY 2For ancillary two I constructed a radio advertisement for my final piece. The advert follows
a conversation between an elderly lady and her doctor. The conversation refers to the
overwhelming effect the newspaper had on the elderly character. The doctor states ‘Similar
to many of my patients recently, think there’s something going round’ emphasises how
popular ‘the source’ is. This technique applies Uses and Gratification theory of personal
identity to allow the audience to wonder if the newspaper would have the same effect on
the listener. The elderly lady informs the audience what day the newspaper is released ‘It
was last Tuesday ‘.My radio advertisement follows the conventions of radio advertising
shown by the three existing products I have analysed ‘Green Tea’, ‘Smart Car’ and ‘Energy
drink’ advertisements. All three adverts and my ancillary project follow the main aim to
inform the listener of what the product is ‘The Source’ is mentioned through out my radio
advert. They all express how the product could help the listener and where it is available to
purchase. My ancillary project also aimed to create humour as the little old lady would
provoke a laughable response due to the fact she couldn’t handle all the information ‘The
Source’ has to offer.
Applying Uses and Gratification to allow the audience to wonder if they could successfully
read through all the interesting information my final piece has to offer.
THEORY