Evaluation

My Media A2 coursework task was to design and create a local newspaper, along with two ancillary tasks. I chose to design and create a poster advertising my local newspaper and also a website for my local newspaper. For this I had to use all of my own photography and article content. Throughout this process I recorded my progress on this blog, to demonstrate my ability to not only analyse other works, but also to show my understanding of how to put things together and how to do the appropriate planning for a project.

Main Task - Two Pages of a Local Newspaper

The research segment of my task was very important and necessary. I made perfectly sure that I understood the conventions of local newspapers before I could begin designing, and also allowed me to understand more about the making process too. I researched newspapers very thoroughly, and gained an insight into them, and also sparked ideas for my own newspaper. It allowed me to define that target audience that my paper would be aimed at, which is of course the local people. I think defining this target audience made it much more clear how to write my articles, because obviously the local places mentioned in the articles would not be something new to them, so more local terminology could be used, which shows understanding of audience. Some of my research is shown below:



These links show posts from my planning, presenting my development and challenge of the forms and conventions of real media products:

http://katherineholmesa2mediacoursework.blogspot.com/2010/04/existing-newspaper-analysis-page-two.html

http://katherineholmesa2mediacoursework.blogspot.com/2010/01/existing-newspaper-analysis.html

From this research I focused on creating a choice of design work for my two pages of the newspaper to analyse and decide which I thought was best and most appropriate. I tested out what I liked about each design and then pushed it all into one final design. I think this process allowed me to analyse my own work and to see what worked well and what did not. This process is shown below, as well as some audience feedback, to decide on key features of my project:





These links from y planning blog (shown below), present how I properly planned out my design and carefully considered how to present every aspect of my task:

http://katherineholmesa2mediacoursework.blogspot.com/2010/02/first-draft-newspaper-designs.html

http://katherineholmesa2mediacoursework.blogspot.com/2010/03/final-front-page-design.html

http://katherineholmesa2mediacoursework.blogspot.com/2010/04/first-draft-newspaper-second-page.html

http://katherineholmesa2mediacoursework.blogspot.com/2010/04/newspaper-page-two-final-design.html

After doing this I looked at many different local newspaper articles, to understand more so what types of articles are conventional and appropriate, and from this I decided whether I wanted to follow or break the convention. I tried to follow more closely to the conventions as I thought this was a very defining figure of a local newspaper. So I drafted some articles, and then redrafted so I could alter any mistakes.

After doing this, I knew I had to pair some of these articles with some interesting images, so I used my digital camera to take images to match the articles. I took a lot of pictures that I didn't use, as I wanted a large variety of images so I had the best chance of using the most appropriate choice. I had to take into account the composition of the images as well. Some of my image choices are shown below, including some that I did not decide to use:





I used photoshop to create the separate components of the newspaper, so that it would be much easier to set things out in Adobe InDesign. After doing this, I had finished the two pages of my local newspaper. One of my paper component designs are shown below:



What I like about my newspaper, is that I think the structure and layout of it, makes it very clear and easy to read. I think that the use of colour and attractive images made it very eye-catching and look more interesting. I liked my use of using a constant theme throughout the newspaper, so it wasn't mixed with too many different colours or different fonts to make it look confusing. My original layout design is shown below, and then my final page:



I think that however, I could have added a lot more content into the articles. I think if I had done this, I could have shown more so my greater understanding of the article writing section of the newspaper industry. I also feel that i could have perhaps, used a few more images, just to catch the eye more. I feel the second page is a bit too bare, and a few more pictures may have made it look much more interesting.

Ancillary Task One - Local Newspaper Poster Advertisement

For this task I had to create a poster to advertise my local newspaper as being new. I decided to use Adobe Photoshop for this, as I think this editing program would allow me to create a ore sophisticated and professional look to my poster. I once again used my own photo, to create an iconic image of the local area that the newspaper was aimed at, and then used some editing to create a wave effect, before adding bright text to finish my poster.
The link below shows my prgression in creating my poster, along with approproate images:

http://katherineholmesa2mediacoursework.blogspot.com/2010/04/ancillary-task-one-poster.html

This is my poster:



I think my poster looks very professional, as it uses the same theme as my newspaper, which I think conveys its solidarity and also presents the newspaper nicely. I think that the use of colour makes the poster very eye-catching, which is the purpose behind the advertisement. I also like the simple font used, because I think it presents the paper as being quite modern. However, I think that I could have perhaps added slightly ore information, not too much to clutter the poster, but perhaps a small slogan to sell the image more.

Ancillary Task Two - Two Pages of a Local Newspaper Website

To do this task I firstly research a few local newspaper websites to understand the basic conventions of a local newspaper website. In doing this I think it allowed me to better understand how to design one and also gave me a few ideas, by taking what I liked from the web pages and designing mine similarly. After doing this, I designed my own layouts and chose which I thought was most suited, then plotted it out in Adobe Dreamweaver. This allowed me to use images to import into dreamweaver to make up my website, aside from the links. I then created my two pages, and imported all the images into their correct place, then managed to link the two pages together.

I like that I still used the same theme throughout all my pieces of work, which I think neatly joins them together, and it is also what you find with most real local newspapers. I like the white background as it makes the rest of the website very clear. I think my website is very simple and easy to use, which I think makes it a good piece of design.

However I do think that I could have used more images and devices to make the website pages look less bland.

In conclusion, throughout this task, I have learnt to use my research, design and practical skills and also to improve them to a more professional standard. It allowed me to explore into greater detail this genre of media (newspapers), and helped me understand them more.

I believe I have completed this task to a good standard, and took into serious consideration the conventions of local newspapers, which I believe allowed me to create a more realistic piece. I think I could improve on my editing however, as I think some of the editing isn't as cleanly done as I would like.

After this I asked a few people to give me audience feedback on my work, their comments are shown below:

Emily Habermel - "I think her work has shown a good range of different design features, and I like that she has used a constant theme throughout her work, however I think she could have included more images throughout her website, as it looks a bit too blank."

What I learned from this comment is that it was good that i kept a constant colour theme, which presented all my separate task as a whole, but I should have used more images, to make my website look more full.

Matt Wills - "What I like about her work most of all is her newspaper, because I think it is a very full looking page with bright eye-catching features, however I think a greater range of fonts would have made it look more interesting."

From this comment I have found that perhaps a greater range of fonts would have been more appealing, as it might have made me newspaper stand out more.