Evaluation

QUESTION ONE - In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

A typical television news programme lasts for approximately five minutes, providing a substantial amount of information to a target audience thus informing them on what is currently happening in the world around them. This can be linked to the ideas propose by Blumler and Katz and their uses and gratifications audience theory. They stated that an audience have a desire for surveillance i.e having the need desire to know what is going on around us. 

For my summer transition work I researched three separate news programmes: BBC, FOX News and Newsround. Through my research I was able to pick out and note the typical codes and conventions of a news programme. I noticed that a news programme tends to have a formal and serious tone which tends to be consistent throughout the programme itself. This includes Newsround which is aimed at a younger audience despite being more lighter than news aimed at an older audience, it still had a serious tone. This serious tone allows the information to be taken seriously as the content in news is serious. This formal tone is continued throughout the genre within the presenters. News presenters are typically dressed in a formal attire that makes them look presentable thus allowing the audience to have more trust in them as a formal attire gives a sense of professionalism. The set of a news programme tends to be in a studio including a backdrop featuring an overlook of the city of location, followed with a desk and a chair. And includes props such as mugs of tea, a pile of papers and or a laptop. The structure of a television news programme tends to include a hard news story followed by a soft news story, these two types are used to create a balance of good and bad news. Hard stories tend to be negative and soft stories vice versa which is done in order to ease the audience in to the information provided to them. A news programme also features a weather report which allows the audience to be informed on the weather within their location thus allowing them to prepare for it. At the start of a news programme it is usually introduced by the anchor and then followed by a title sequence featuring a typical news programme non-instrumental song and a sequence of footage and or stills which is then followed by the logo of the news programme. The programme is also given a sign off which is often done by the main presenter or anchor.


      


In Local Lunch our aim was to use the typical codes and conventions as a loose basis for our own news programme. We wanted to subvert the expected typical audience of 18 + viewers and instead wanted to aim for an audience of ages similar to our own and so we decided to make our target audience for 11-17 years. We did this because we felt that this specific age range was not represented enough in the news industry and the typical news programmes of BBC and ITV News were not catered to and aimed for young people. We wanted to make the news more interesting and engaging for this age range as it is important that the youth are educated and aware of what is happening in the world around them.  

In reference to the typical representation of a news anchor, we wanted to subvert the typical idea of the news anchor being a white, 30+ male and so we decided to make both anchors women and of a different ethnicity thus highlighting our aim to bringing a diverse representation of the youth. Both anchors were dressed in formal attire thus keeping the typical formal tone of the news as it is important that the news is to not be taken lightly and instead is taken seriously by the target audience. Reverting back to the representation of the presenters, our weather reporter was male. This again links to our aim to subvert typical codes and conventions in the news genre as the weather reporter is more expected to be a woman. Our introduction featured a friendly greeting introducing the news programme 'Local Lunch' and the two anchors followed by the title of the hard and soft news stories: “Treasured student in critical condition as a result of cyber bullying” and in lighter news, we have all access areas to the information on this year’s Brits winners." This informed the target audience and what was to be expected on the programme but also links to how news programmes typically begin with a brief summary on what content is included in the programme itself. After this introduction, our title sequence shortly follows. Our title sequence features intricate graphics, footage and stills that we captured ourselves and our house style with the colours red, white and blue. We chose these colours in order to link to the location identity of the United Kingdom but also because these colours are very strong in nature in terms of aesthetics.

The usage of software and hardware allowed us to form and create an ideal and desired television news programme in the ways that we planned it out to be. We utilised our blogs and platforms such as canva and prezi in order to plan out our work so that they could be displayed accordingly. Through the usage of the internet I was able to research existing news programmes so that I could identify and pick out the typical codes and conventions of the news so that I could use them in my own. For example, I used YouTube as a main source for finding existing news programme broadcasts and from these I was able to look for codes and conventions. Linking back to my summer transition work, by researching three different news programmes I was able to see how they follow and subvert the typical codes and conventions of the television news programme. 

I have documented my work on my blog, each piece of work I had done has been documented on my blog as it allows me to place it all and display it in one place thus allowing me to stay organised. Some of my work has been written, this includes writing in my books, mind maps and diagrams which I have documented and placed on to my blog by photographing them. I have also used platforms such as canva, powtoon, powerpoint and prezi in order to display my work in more creative ways so that it makes my blog look more interesting and pleasing to the eye. A variety of platforms makes my blog and work more unique. Another method I used to document my work was through the recording of videos, specifically presentations and practice runs through our news programme script. Having a visually pleasing blog featuring a variety of media further develops the idea of making it more interesting and engaging to the person viewing it.

QUESTION ONE by jasmine fogoe

QUESTION TWO -How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary task?

The coursework production of my advanced portfolio consisted of creating a title sequence, news programme and a news advert. A key aspect in the news genre is the importance of continuity. This concept of continuity was demonstrated thought out the entire production in order to link to the news genre as news programmes ensure that they include a common level of consistency which contributes as a typical code and convention of the genre. This includes the formal tone, house style and structure of a news programme which has to be consistent in order to correlate with the news genre itself despite media productions being able to subvert certain conventions, these three codes play a vital importance in identifying the genre of the programme and so it would be difficult to attempt to subvert these specific aspects. For example the logo and house style colours were used consistently throughout each task in order to establish and strengthen the brand identity of Local Lunch.


In reference to a formal tone, in Local Lunch we loosely used this code as having a more linear formal tone could have led to the content not being consumed properly by the target audience as they are much younger than the typical audience. We did this by ensuring we did not include any over complex language that would make it difficult for the audience to comprehend. For research I looked at the typical news programme such as BBC and a programme closer to the one that which I wanted to create such as Newsround as it is aimed at a younger target audience. The BBC is one of the most successful media new broadcasting networks in the UK and its news programme is one of the most popular watched among the nation. It is very committed to and is essentially the embodiment of the typical codes and conventions of the news genre and throughout its showings, they ensure to maintain a formal tone. A formal tone is used to establish a sense of professionalism which is commonly used in the news in order to ensure that the content is taken seriously. Where as Newsround is aimed at a younger audience and so its content seems to be more lighthearted or executed in a way that allows it to be consumed in a way that could be considered at frightening for younger ages.  

In my ancillary task, the production of the title sequence of Local Lunch was important in establishing all the key elements that we wanted to feature in our news programme. Although we wanted to subvert some codes and conventions of the news genre, we also wanted to ensure that our programme was easy to identify as a news programme. And so we ensured this by choosing a relevant house style and theme. In reference to other existing and successful news programmes, their house styles tend to include the colours red, white and blue. This can be linked to the location identity of the programmes themselves as they are are located in the United Kingdom. For example the BBC features the colours red and white and Newsround includes the colours blue and purple so we wanted to combine these two programmes as we wanted to create a programme that loosely follows the typical codes and conventions but also subverts them slightly thus making the news more interesting and appealing to the target audience. 

After creating the title sequence of Local Lunch, we then had to produce the rest of the news programme also known as the main task. In order to create this task we combined it with our previously made title sequence as having a title sequence is a common aspect feature in a news product thus contributing to making the task recognizable as being part of the news genre. For our main product  we had to independently film footage that was relevant to Local Lunch's stories. This includes the filming and conduction of the the hard news story which featured a narrative based on a bullying incident at a local school. The common structure of a news programme features a hard news story followed by a soft news story which is used to balance the effects of the media content. For example one of our questions was whether the audience would be interested in content that is related to entertainment and music as these are key areas that play a large role in the interests of the youth of today. As a result of this we featured a music and entertainment segment within our news programme that was specially catered for a younger target audience whilst also using this to highlight underlying important information such as the raising awareness of bullying.

Our final task was to create a radio advert which had to be approximately 20 - 30 seconds long. In order to create a successful radio advert, we used the main programme as a base for the advert's structure. Due to the short amount of time, we had to ensure that our advert featured the correct amount of information but we also had to ensure that the information presented is not too overwhelming for the target audience. 

In Local Lunch, our main aim was to get the youth to actively watch the news and be willing to do so with genuine interest and so to do this we wanted to feature specific content that we thought would be appealing to the audience. As we are students ourselves we came up with our own ideas of what kind of content we would like to watch ourselves but we also did questionnaires on what our general target audience would be interested in. Ultimately each production was combined in order to create a more realistic news programme which is shown through the continuity presented through each task. 

QUESTION THREE - What have you learned from your audience feedback?

The target audience of Local Lunch is aimed at the youth, people of the ages of 11-17. We wanted to subvert the expected typical target audience and make the news more engaging for young people as we felt that this audience is not represented and catered to enough within the news genre. Our audience is for the main streamers and aimed at a group of diversity including gender, race, ethnicity and religion. In order to find our target audience we had to find methods of getting to know them better so that we could cater better to their needs. 

There are many ways in which the media can get to know their audience better which can be linked to the ideas of audience theories. For example the ideas of Maslow, Blumler and Katz, demographics and psycho-graphics. These categories include: Reformers, Aspirers, Explorers, Succeeders, Mainstreamers, Strugglers and Resigners. These can be used in order to separate the target audience in to specific and smaller categories so that the media can find ways to cater to their needs better and more diligently. This can be done through the conduction of surveys and questionnaires, for example i conducted a questionnaire aimed at my target audience in order to get to know them better and find out what kind of content they would like to see in the news programme.  For example I asked questions such as their age and when they watch television news. This gave me better insight in to my audience. We used many of these audience theories in order to categorise the target audience of the news programme. Demographics classify an audience in to categories that are broken in to bands depending on one's job or status. (A, B, C1, C2, D and E). In reference to the audience of Local Lunch, as it consists of people of ages from 11 to 17, this suggests that they would mainly be students and so it is logical to conclude that they would fall in to the E category within demographics. 

      

In order to gain further knowledge in to the target audience, as a class we also researched and looked at narrative theories. These theories include the ideas of Todorov, Barthes, Propp, Strauss and Galtung and Rouge. Audience theories are used in order to present the ways in which audiences consume media content and how media producers should utilise these specific theories in order to create a product that is successful and satisfactory to the receiving target audience. For example, in Local Lunch, our hard news story was based on the suicide attempt of a treasure student called Gabbie Johnson. In reference to Todorov's theory, it has five stages: the equilibrium, the disruption of the equilibrium, the recognition of the disruption, an attempt to repair the issue and finally the restoration or a new equilibrium. In the hard story for Local Lunch: the equilibrium is the everyday school environment that is then disrupted by Gabbie's suicide attempt, then the school recognises the disruption and so attempt to repair this by changing their anti-bullying policies. As a result of this there is a new equilibrium established which is a reformed anti-bullying policy. Barthes Enigma theory is based on raising questions for the audience that which they want to discover the answers to. The audience of Local Lunch will wonder why this incident has occurred but could also raise awareness on the subject of cyber bullying. 

There were several pieces of work that were examined by my peers and my target audience. I presented many presentations in front of my class and received general feedback. Receiving feedback allowed me to pick out what I needed to change and ways that I could improve to make my work of a higher standard. This includes any group work and presentations done in class. As a group we conducted a presentation where we worked together to include relevant information and each member played an equal role. Ultimately the target audience and the audience feedback plays a large role in highlighting the positives and negatives of my work and how I could make it more appealing to the audience. 

Similar to my work in my AS portfolio, a lot of my audience feedback was gained through the conduction of surveys, polls and questionnaires. In reference to this, I could do this again in order to gain more of a depth in to my target audience so that my work can reach its highest potential thus satisfying them completely. As my target audience is quite niche in comparison to the typical target audience of a news programme, it is critical to gain deeper knowledge on my audience as they are not highly represented in the genre itself.

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