Hayley ReevesA 2 M e d i a E v a l u a t i o n

Quest ion 1

In what ways does your media product use, develop, or challenge

forms and conventions of real media products?

Fo r m s a n d C o n v e n t i o n s

Newspaper:

• Name of newspaper at the top of the page

• Large eye-catching main headline

• Smaller sub-headings

• Images relating to articles

• Adverts

• Variety of colours

• Text in columns

• Grid style layout/composition

( o f a r e a l m e d i a p r o d u c t )

In my newspaper pages, I have followed many of the conventions of ‘The News’. For example, I have put the name of the newspaper at the top of the page, added adverts, made my main headline large and eye-catching, and ensured that my images relate to the story. On page 2, I followed the conventions of having the text in columns, however, for the main story my front page, I chose to keep it to one column because, as it is such a small amount of text, the column seemed pointless. Another convention I developed from ‘The News’ is the layout/composition. I kept the grid layout but made it more strict, which made the composition stronger and therefore, more effective. The conventions I challenged were the use of subtitles and the wide variety of colours. I chose to not add subtitles as I felt they were unnecessary and kept to a minimal amount of colours as blue relates most to Portsmouth, highlighting the locality.

Fo r m s a n d C o n v e n t i o n s( o f m y m e d i a p r o d u c t )

Fo r m s a n d C o n v e n t i o n s( o f a r e a l m e d i a p r o d u c t )

Website:

• Name of newspaper at the top

• Working links underneath main title

• Adverts

• Images relating to articles

• Search box

• Side bar on right side

• Minimal amount of colours

• Grid style layout

Fo r m s a n d C o n v e n t i o n s( o f m y m e d i a p r o d u c t )

The forms and conventions of a news website are often similar to the forms and conventions of the newspaper itself. One convention of ‘The News’ website that I followed is the layout of the title and links because they wouldn’t have looked as good elsewhere. Another convention I followed is the use of a side-bar (‘latest news’ section), on both the home page and second page. Once again, I developed the layout of the page. I kept the simple, structured layout but once again, brought all the elements in closer to create a stronger, more eye-catching composition. One of the conventions of ‘The News’ that I challenged on the website is the minimal use of colour. When I first looked at The News’ website I felt it looked boring and segregated. I created colour through the use of bigger photos and large masthead, which consequently made the website more likely to capture the attention of my target audience as it is bright, compact and connected.