Front Cover Final

I have re-edited my front cover today, the day before the deadline and I really shouldn't be touching it at all but the bottom advertisement wasn't following a true convention of The News as their advertisements on the lower region are much larger. So I have raised the story up slightly like how I have mentioned briefly in my evaluation, and placed in a yellow/creamy background box with bright writing over the top naming the company "Gunwharf Harbour Travel" in a very flourescent pink as this is one aspect of how some local business are portrayed in a local community. The colours are often bright, not only in newspaper but outside a niche market or business in a town in Portsmouth. So I used this aspect to evoke a bright and punchy selling point. I also included a deal like many papers do in order to promote and small local business and used a picture of mine from Spain.

I LOVE this photo, I think I even used this in my magazine for last year's work as part of a competition. The palms trees skimming along the front with a complete view of the sea, beach and the tourism involved which is key to portray for a holiday type company.

Now, because my background of it is yellow I had to change the right side stories as these backgrounds were also yellow. So I simply just used the other colours that had een used in small in the paper and now it appears more life-like and diverse with colours.

The Southern News is now much more filled with life!

Website come back ..

I'm behind on my practical work as per usual. Self inflicted. And I wonder why I get stressed!

Today is the 6th April and I'm handing in my blog tomorrow .. have not finished my website just yet. I did edit it more but haven't blogged it.

Left my house without my usb stick so catching up on little things like this before I can finish my evaluation.

The website has changed quite a bit to be honest, added another photo. One of my friend on a boat looking happy and I thought this was agood convention to develop like The News does as its more personal and can relate to the community who may know her and aspire to what she has achieved (supposedly). Its the same photo to what I've put onto my front cover last minute and is another convention that The News does. They often link similar stories from what they've had in their paper to the website.

The website is important as in this generation, web 2.0 and technology has rapidly moved on. Having a website for a newspaper benefits people in ways for easy access like on a SMARTphone.

Another piece I added was an advertisement on subscribing to the paper. I used the blue theme again and used a gradient look which gives it an edgethat The News uses. Thus mixing the blue with white and showing a cover of my paper titled! And also my inner page behind it.

I popped in a deal to encourage potential readers as this is what a media product uses to attract the product. Here is what it looks like.

ALSO, my second page of my website has been finished pretty late! On the 7th April ... not good either.

Here it is

Soo, I have dragged a picture in there of my friend Jenny! In Africa! And I basically wrote the story on her experience and really did use quotes that she'd said when she got back. But I thought this story would be good to use as it can target a younger audience for my paper and website as they can relate to someone at that age having ambition to go abroad or do things in general.

On the left, I've popped a home page on there and created a hyperlink with that one also, this was just by highlighting, selecting inspector on the bottom right hand corner and then clicking along the box until I find 'hyperlink'. Pretty simple pimple. Did use an arrow originally but I got told not to! Which I agree with but I was rushing and thinking at the time so yes it has been deleted. (told by my lecturer because it wasn't really realistic).

The weather was rushed as you can notice, unlike the weather in my newspaper. I took time with that one. So used the same icons with the weather and a basic description. Definately could be improved, and this will be a lesson learned for myself when planning my work. I must finish things before beginning with my evaluations too. Then I can go back and improve on it like my front page of my paper. Something that will be better in the future.

Here is my website:

www.southernnews.co.uk

FRONT COVER OF PAPER

Date: 5th April 2011 .. two days until the deadline for me. I have edited my paper again! Definately a repeat of what I did with my course work from last year and a mental note for myself: stop editing last minute parts. I couldn't help it, the front cover was annoying me and I couldn't quite point out how to improve it or what was missing. Then I looked more specifically to The News that I read the other day and realised! The right side has nothing to offer, and the main picture just looks ridiculously blue and it stands out too much for the paper. SO I have played close attention to this particular one .. The right side offers much more and I can therefore use this to target a broader audience, like for example add in something for younger people within my demographic area. This is what I did with a friend of mine, and here is a photo of her in Africa! I thought I could use this as this was a different colour AND had someone smiling in a non specific location. I could just talk about her trip to Hayling Island as this would be local, however, I thought it would be much more interesting to show someone young who has gone travelling. And another picture to offer a promotion in Gunwharf, and have used a different offer like how I have spotted on The News a few times like a meal voucher! So I have used this convention and developed my own. The photo has been taken on a beautiful day and therefore shows a positive place to be for tourists and local commutes. Also, a lovely yellow background to break up the blue to follow the sort of coloured themes that The News presents in their front cover. Sometimes the colours can be grey and drab depending on the type of news like The Navy. However I do see colourful photos and images in general. This example is slightly different. But the yellows do break the blue side of the paper and also doesn't change the type of audience it could be targeted for when thinking about colour. Blue and yellow are pretty neutral, so can sway between males and females!

EVALUATION!

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

Unfortunately when uploading my evaluation in one piece the font came out too small and therefore was unreadable. This was as close as I could get them when I zoomed in, so I have captured them in half pieces.

Following the Evaluation

View more presentations from baaabs.

POSTER

A quick poster to do in my lesson today. Very very behind now must get back on track. Trying to get things done is easy but doing it to a level where I'm happy with it is dragging me behind!

SO yesterday was 31-3-11. March! Course work due next week and I still haven't actually finished the website yet. So will start the poster and finish the website in my own time next week. (I'm blogging this today now to catch up as I can do this at home and have access to a Mac in college only)

This poster was very quickly done and I should've captured more images of each step but I was rushed so have only captured two.

Here is one ..

The background I have chosen is of the Spinnaker Tower, I've given it a transparent effect by about 50%, looks very nice I think - the blue reflects the kind of paper that mine has. Blue is neutral for all audiences.

Also, the Spinnaker is LOCAL so it will target readers of the local area or community in comparison to national news.

I've applied my logo, large and green and in Brittania Bold! And for the same when I have written the SAVE OUR TOWER. KNOW ALL WITH THE SOUTHERN NEWS.

This will show exclusivity to the local readers, and interest and the Spinnaker is a local tourist aspect and represents Portsmouth in a positive light.

It gives basic information to possible readers, like when The Southern News offer the papers from Monday to Friday. The price is expensive for a local newspaper but I'm just trying something different!

Have had a couple of shocked reactions (including my lecturer) "90p!!?" so I think I'm applying some challenging aspects to a typical local newspaper.

The font is kept bold however I changed the layout slightly and added an image to fill the bottom part of the missing blue with another one of the Spinnaker Tower. Also, from comments in class I gathered about the title of the paper having it's own seperate line I also applied this advice and did that. Here is how it looks now!!

Oh, also noting down how I had to keep to the same font, or no more than two. I changed it all to Brittainia Bold to save time. Although looking at it now it looks like it's all different!

I added the website address as at this modern age, more and more people use the internet and interact. A form of Web 2.0, important to apply this to my newspaper to target more potential readers!

I shall edit one of the papers I have shown to make it appear like there's more pages by changing the picture and colour. I will keep that updated! But this gives a visual outlook to potential local readers as this would matter to make people notice.

The subject matter SAVE OUR TOWER would bring the close knit community together as this would apply to local citizens.

WEBSITE

WEBSITE.

I now need to grasp iWeb, ahh! It will take time, today's date is 22 February, it's half term and I've come in to try get a little help with the basics of the website! I'll be coming to college tomorrow probably too. So anyway I've looked iWeb now, looks blank really and the way I pop my photos on is to drag them from my files onto the desktop, then drag it into the web! Pretty simple however my desktop is going to look messy :/. Only thing I've done so far is copy my News Paper title The Southern News by grab, capture selection! The dragged that out to my desktop. I have also got up the actual The News website itself so I can copy the kind of outlay of it and have my own photos in it too! Pretty much this, popped it in the top like how The News does with their s. I like how they've designed theirs though, doubt I could do it either but hey I know I change my mind an awful lot so we'll see. Looks very nice. This is the website I've got open, The News.

This is the kind of look I'm aspiring to for my website. On the top, NEWS SPORTS LIFESTYLE COMMUNITY Then a date, and a number of headlines. A picture on the left, a headline then sub-heading, roughly about a paragraph ish. I think I can do that! I will need many more photos thou gh I think I am running out. So that is what I'l be hopefully finishing tomorrow is the front page! :)

17th March - I'm behind on my website. Taken a couple of photos for it, and the general website looks like this so far - looks rubbish! I like the photo, and I've titled it as 'SUPERMARKET RECEIVES AWARD' and then underneath in just simple ARIEL font ' Waitrose Waterlooville celebrate their third year running on best customer service 2011'.

So that's fine, think I'l just edit the other parts, like the colours, I'm not particularly keen on yellow and green together. So think I'l link it more to yellow w ith blue like in my inner page! Lets see .. So I've changed the top bars where it says NEWS etc .. changed it to a box and filled it with a gradient fill with a blue and white - used this circle wheel picture to choose where I'd like the white and blue ... here's how it looks. Now just going to press on with more writing and pasting more images onto the page because it needs to be done! Right I've done a few more things and I shall paste a picture of how it looks so far. To be honest I thought I'd find this website easier but it's fiddly! Trying to position these bottom columns in line with eachother isn't working out right, it keeps automatically re-setting to other positions. So spending time on trying to get it neater. My top bar I've included a search bar, made a box basically and it's already filled in with white so stuck it in the empty space - then I captured the little magnifying glass from THE NEWS website and popped that into mine too. Looks realistic now!

More on inner page

FINISHING THE PIECE

So, I've cracked on with my inner page this lesson, 16-02-11. It's mega fiddly! Trying to carry on with the same kind of way The News designs their paper. Gradually the process has been slow but I've got there finally! the very top I've put in The Southern News logo on the left, then in the centre, www.southernnews.co.uk - in red just the The News does itself. The on the right hand side the date - simple pimple. Now working my way down, the banner bit in a light blue shade, just like the one in The News, nice neutral colour I feel that it compliments the other colours in the page overall. A picture of people walking in a forest had been cropped! Then I headlined it "Forest Protest Continues" then underneath "Citizens rebel against sale" (of the Forest supposedly)

The next picture is of friend holding a fish! Yum, I cropped it which I've mentioned somewhere else .. I've headlined that "Local Fish Market Wins Award" then "Highest standard in hygience continues" After each of those two headlines I put a mini box and coloured that white then places a 'page 9' after it imitating The News. The headlines are in white and the sub parts in black, giving it a softer look to the photos as the colours can be quite harsh against the light blue background. Now the weather didn't take me as long as I thought, however it certainly was fiddly trying to place to evenly without squashing other bits too. I grabbed and selected three pieces of weather from google, a sunshine, rain and cloud!

They appear nice and simple, then i made up the weather for the next four days, trying to write it in a way like how I see on the BBC news. The basic information then a temperature. I kept the font small so space wouldn't look too packed. After those four dates I set, underneath I put another box and filled it with the same blue as I had when I titled it WEATHER with blue in the background. The font is Times just like the rest. I don't think I copied the design that The News did, I saw a peer's work and I liked how she did hers and to be honest it did look newspaper worth.

So I added in the option for details then the actual details in red therefore it can reflect the other website information up the top of the inner page. I've changed the TOPSHOP ad like I predicted I would, my teacher had also agreed with me that it appeared pretty dull! So I changed the background to a pink, which actually compliments the font, looking funky and young which is the correct type of portrayal for TOPSHOP. I will probably put a small image of a bag or something in the gap on the bottom right as it's empty. The photo for the main story has been kept, I love the look of it, someone semi-smiling but also appearing uncomfortable. A reader could possibly see that and think 'ah what's that about?' In addition to that, my peers in my class have said the photo looks good. I've finished the story too! I have used Times font, and in size 12, two columns like The News. With the story I stuck to the main facts like who took part, where? New Forrest.

Also some opinions and feedback following from the front page too! To the right at the top border part I have placed a picture of the kebab shop in the end, it looks like this. The red in this is brought out by my TOPSHOP advertisement too, colours all around. Something negative in the paper too, must always have that. Moral Panic wouldn't come into this concept though, which is something I haven't really put into my paper apart from the Strike. Anyway, it's how it has turned out too. Words like 'havoc', 'disturbing' and 'disgrace' will portray a negative side to a story, making it readable. Underneath I have also popped in a photo of my friends in the snow. Wrote it as if the story were about students? Judging by the age group I think this would target a younger reader for my paper also. Soo here is how it looks!!

COME BACK

After some time trying to sort out my InDesign program, I have finally found a way to save my work and keep it! The previous file had corrupted so I've had to copy my work into another document after some time trying to figure a way in saving my work. Slightly frustrating but it's now been dealt with and I know how to deal with it in the future.

So far I've moved bits about again, just sizing but I'm pretty happy with my headline and main image. Instead of beginning the story underneath I've decided to use a different image (caving one) and introduce another story for that also. The title is 'CAVING TRIUMPH AS GROUP RAISES £2000 FOR CANCER CHARITY'

I've added the date, price (80p), The News is 50p but I chose 80p because I wanted it to be a bit more expensive, the content of the 'to-be' newspaper would be richer. I've written up my story ish about the caving act - I've talked about a group raising money doing things like caving, hiking etc. I've got some more photos to use for the inner page so it'l be colourful and interesting.

NEW PAPER

CHANGE .. AGAIN. I've changed the idea again, just looking at what I'd done so far just appeared more like a poster or a leaflet of some sort rather than a newspaper. It looked too neat or maybe the wording wasn't right. So I've made changes and I feel much better about it now! Here's how it looks so far. <--- I much prefer the alliteration in my title. I've shortened the picture because I believe no-one really needs to see the whole tower as a local citizen would already know what it looks like.

In my story I can give some information on what experts say about buildings etc. I feel much better with this one, it looks more like a newspaper ..finally. From feedback today I've had much more positive comments also, mostly on my catchy title but also on the layout. They've all literally commented on how the change of shape of the same photo has made a large difference to my piece. I'm pretty happy with it, now I can move on!

Although I'm beginning to see what I'm like when 'planning' and I really haven't gone with my template anymore, however I will see this as a learning curve and I have learned the type of convention in layout for my newspaper.

Things have to be squashed in at first (as I see that The News manage to fit loads in) but it does sort of plan out eventually! Colour is important, I'm not too sure on the kind of colours I have used for mine just yet ... and the story below it. I will probably change the picture for something with people in for a more personal because I see how The News personalise their stories as local people can relate to it more in comparison to an national newspaper.

INNER PAGE

Starting inner page today! Date? 10th February. Sorted the layout into 6 columns as this is how the main guidelines are usually set as from looking at other peers' work. I've played around with what kind of content I'm going to put in, it's looking pretty awful at the moment.

The colour of the border doesn't look good, appears more like a baby-ish sort of poster.

The INSIDE... font is TRUE STORIES. It doesn't look the part but I am working on it until I feel that it matches up to my front cover kind of content. I had tried using the same font but it didn't seem like a different page to the font so I'd like to distinguish the difference.

The story on the side will be about the kebab chip shop, how they're ruining the sewage system! I took this picture during one morning as I was walking past, pretty good timing as it was shut at this time

which will support my story about how it's now closed. And I shall also work on thefont!

The bottom is a TOPSHOP logo which I took on my phone a long time ago from a

TOPSHOP bag; I will use this to advertise most probably.

Now trying to pin point particular things right otherwise I'l be all over the place like I was when completing my front cover page. Starting with the top border I'm using a picture I've taken of a friend who works at a market in Portsmouth! Fish ...yum. This is how it looked when I began to photo shop and then after ...

From this <-- to THIS -->

I used some form of cutting then managed to smooth out the edges! I can't remember the technical words for it however I am pretty chuffed with how it's turned out. A picture of someone smiling is something I often see on a top border of a newspaper like The News.

Now my page looks like this! <--

Just throwing in some photos I have, changed one around already so I'l pop that in in a moment. I quite like how colourful the picture of the group of people are, it looks interesting to see something like this as it will make the reader think of questions to what these people are doing and why.

Now done some more and cropped my large picture of people walking to just this ..

and now decided to pop that into my higher border and give the title a 'STRIKE STILL TAKES PLACE IN COSHAM' .. might change it later but right now I'm just going to do with that.

Now moving my other picture to a larger size and changing my columns (to just 4 - because needed the space for the writing) ...it seems a little more organised.

Now I'm just adding some more to it! The bottom part with TOPSHOP I've added some details and placed a background by using drop sign thing that uses the same colour as the background of my picture. And the font I've used is 'Vtks good luck for you'.

I shall decide later whether it looks good or not once I've filled the rest out! I think it looks presentable on it's own however because of the dark dingy kind of grey colour used, does look slightly different to the rest of the colours chosen in my inner page. So this will be something considered changing later perhaps?!

16-02-11

Right, moving on, I've changed quite a bit about. I will change the TOPSHOP advertisement as it looks far too dull - but will do that a bit later. I've titled my main story like "KEEPING YOUR COOL IN A STICKY SITUATION" Continued ...and shall write up my story a little bit later on!

THE PAPER

RIGHT.. I'm constantly changing my mind at the moment, must make decisions and stick to them! I've forgotten to upload my image of the kebab shop onto my USB stick, so I'm just using what I've got now. For the sides of my paper I've began on a couple of stories, one about the caving charity act - and the other I'm not too sure about. I've changed my front cover and decided to usemy Spinnaker image as I think it appears highly attractive.. the bright blue of the sky presents a nice positive image of Portsmouth and I know that THE NEWS like to portray the Spinnaker in good lights also.

Above the name of the paper, I have inserted 'HAVANT AND PORTSMOUTH' in order to situate the locality of the paper. Beside it I've popped a story about a care home being sued for medical mistake.

Soo this is how it looks so far .. I think it's coming together, especially once I put in the book offer, by tilting the photo to the side I've been able to give an edge to the advertisement/offer. The colours from the main picture of the spinnaker and the small one of the book go quite well with eachother; blues and darker shades. However I need to do something about the layout, I'm struggling to figure out where to place the sides of the paper as it appeared rather cramped when I tried it. I will have to think about it for next time.. but in the mean time I will come up with a story for my inside page and therefore research on some real facts about the Spinnaker so I have more to say. :)

Today I have edited on some parts of the front cover, just sizing most of all trying to make it appear more proportional, the title of the paper 'THE SOUTHERN NEWS' and the headlines need to stand out much more. The sizing on the top part about the book vouchers has been made much smaller so it doesn't over power the name of the paper. I've added an offer on the bottom about a Thai restaurant and used a 'XBAND rough' font as this appears like a type of foreign look in a dark brown against my orange background - I've added in the name, address and phone number .. short and sweet.