Evaluation question 1

1. In what way does the media product use, develop, or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

We generally followed the conventions of a real media production, we tried to make our media production realistic in the news story we were telling and in continuity, we aimed to deliver a news programme that would allow a audience of all ages to sit down and enjoy without having to pay full attention to each word said. Our aim was to appeal to a local area and give them a variety of news, both light hearted and national affairs. To give our news programme a local feel we used shots in our title sequence of local monuments and buildings, we felt this was using the conventions of a news programme because BBC and ITV do similar things on their regional news programmes, another thing we also did was include our news 6 logo throughout our media product to give it a professional touch.


(BBC regional news title sequence)
We see that the BBC have also used shots of a local area in their opening sequence.

(First 20-25 seconds is our title sequence)

Whilst filming our news programme we knew we didn't want to make it look amateur so we discussed the variety of shots we could use. In our product we have a variation of different shot, we used tilts and panning shots when establishing bulidings or locations, we always established a location before going into an interview, we didnt want their to be sharp transitions that seemed too fast or obrubt. We also watched other news programmes reporters so we had something to aim for when we were reporting our news storeys, we wanted it to be as realistic as possible and to make the viewer feel combfortable watching it.


(Example of a news report)

There are elements of our news programme that would not be in the usual conventions of a news programme, we have storeys that are light hearted and relaxed, our music story is a interview in a relaxed enviroment, this is want we aimed for because we wanted to do a regional news programme. However we do include national storeys but we put a local twist on them by showing the effects it has on the regional area. We thought by using local people as our target we would entice the majority of people in the area because most of the news is happening around them and will concern them or their children. Our interview with the lead singer of a local band would be good because everyone loves a local success story and this is what we aimed for.


Our main aims when we decided to do a news programme was to make it appeal to our target audience and to make it look professional. we belive we have achieved this through our variation of shots and editting. We also got possitive feedback from people about our title sequence, we included many establishing shots and music that would be under the genre of news programme, it gave the opening of our news programme a good professional feel.
(the first 25 seconds of the above video shows our music ^)

Evaluation question 2

2. How effective is the combination of your main media product and the ancillary texts?
Whilst making our news programme our aim was to create a news programme that had light hearted local news stories but at the same time showed global and national affairs too. We believed their was a gap in the market for young people and news. After our audience feedback we aimed to make news that would appeal to all ages in the local area and we wanted this to be as appealing and exciting as possible. We found out that people would prefer a more relaxed feel so we took this into account we also had a variety of shots including local monuments and buildings which would be familiar to the viewer, we put all these shots together in our title sequence because we knew it would be the first thing the viewer saw and we wanted to capture their attention straight away, BBC's look north also do this. We decided that with a combination of local light hearted news storeys and national news storeys, but with the national news storeys we would show the effects it has on the local area for example the recession is one story we have covered. We believe that this style of news is more personal and would encourage someone in the local area to watch the news.


As a group we decided to do a radio trailer for our news programme. Again we tried to give this a local spin by using the regional accent. Using an accent gave our trailer comic value and it also got across that we were doing light hearted news with a relaxed atmosphere. However we did say we were including national news to try and appeal to everyone. Using Local accents in our radio trailer was something people in the region could relate to.


(Our radio trailer)

Evaluation question 3

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

When we decided to produce a news programme we also decided to ask our target audience their preferences on news programmes. We set up a handheld camera and asked random samples about what they would like in a news programme, what they would like to see more of or less of, and just general opinions on improving news. We took this into account when making our news programme.

(The research on our audience)

After researching our audience we got fairly similar feedback, people generally watch the news when they have spare time, they say it is something they put on when they get back from work or college. The younger generation preferred a more informal news programme with people sat on sofas rather than at a desk reading the news. We took this into account when producing our news programme. Our research influenced our decision to decide that it would be on around 6ish when most people would be watching, we even named our news programme news6 to indicate the time of the news, we also decided to do a more informal news with trivial sports and music storeys, we also decided to wear smart shirts and ties without a suit jacket to give the programme a more relaxed feel.

The stories we chose to do were a story on the recession, a sports storey and one about music. while doing these storeys we always kept the audience feedback in mind. Our main aim was to create a news programme that appealed to the younger generation but also kept them up to date with the latest local news and international news. I believe we achieved our initial aims, we had news that appealed to all generations appealing to people in the local area. Mid-way through we asked people what they thought so far, the people we asked were those that fit in to our target audience. We took into account their positive and negative feedback and applied as much as what they wanted or tried to improve what they didn't like. Using audience feedback and research was a great help, it allowed us to know what people outside our group wanted in a news programme.
We inserted text along the bottom when information was being read out so both visual and auditory learners were satisfied, we originally did not insert text when reading out facts about recession but after one person who viewed our work said "when the facts about the recession are on it is difficult to take them all in, I think it would be easier if their was a voice over too".

Audience feedback

I posted the youtube link onto facebook and asked a few friends if they wouldn't mind giving me their feedback on our final piece. We hope the feedback would show us what things we could improve or what things people thought were good and worked well.


I sent the link to three of my friends, unfortunately this is the only one someone gave feedback to.

The feedback goes as follows:

Jess Mills:Very good work, loved the title sequence and wide range of shots! Good local news, was factual and informitive. The studio set looked realistic and reporters were confident.

Evaluation question 4

4.How did you use new technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
During my studies of media I have used a variety of software to aid me in creating film and audio.


After we were given our brief we chose to create the first 5 minutes of a news programme. We knew we first had to some research on other news programmes to see what style of camera shots they used and to get a general feel of what a news programme should look like. Our first method of research was to browse the Internet and watch online videos to get the knowledge and data we needed to start our project. We used Apple iMac computers to access the Internet and store the data and research we had found. Our second method of research was asking our target audience what they would like in to see in a news programme, what time they usually would watch news and other general questions to give us a an idea of what we would like to achieve in our production. We used a hand held camera to film their answers and uploaded them on to our blog.


In order to show and store all the research and data we used blogger.com. Blogger.com is a website we used in our AS year also, on this website we were able to create posts and keep updating our progress. Having access to the Internet and blogger.com was a huge help with our project, it allowed us to organise our project and significantly helped with time management, we found our work easy to access and organised. We also used blogger.com to upload out script, shooting script and photo story bored, by uploading these we knew what shots we had to do in which order and which location.


Another major website we used was youtube, youtube was greatly helpful for research, we were able to embed videos onto our blog for examples and ideas. A Sony HDV 1000 was our camera of choice, using a high definition camera gave us good quality images for our news programme. It also gave us a crsip finish to our title sequences, we were able to get the shots we originally wanted, it was far better than the camera we had previously used, it maximised our potential for creating a good quality news programme, we were also able to connect a microphone on a lead and attach this to the camera which gave us better audio when interviewing or reporting on a story.
We recorded our footage on to a tape, we then were able to convert the footage from the tape onto the iMac's by using a Sony GIV D1000
this made it very easy to transfer footage. Once the footage was on the iMac we were able to edit and pick the bits we wanted to use thanks to Final Cut. Final Cut is an editting software installed on the iMac's. Final cut made it wasy to organise the footage and allowed us to insert transitions to our work, wire frame and smooth out sounds. Final cut made our news programme appear to be much more professional.

Finally we created a radio trailer, we used the garageband software to develop this and mix noises and sounds together to get a construction site atmosphere. We recorded the sounds on a zoom recorder and then uploaded them to the iMac and used garageband to edit it all together.

Audience feedback, news 6

Radio news trailer, Audience feedback

As part of our task we had to create a radio trailer for our news programme to advertise to people when they can view our news channel and give an idea of the genre of the channel.

I sent a message to five people on facebook with the link and only three posted back there thoughts on the trailer. here is what they said:

Adam Walshaw: It is very good, i liked the sense of humour it portrays. my only improvement would be to make it more understandable for people from different parts of the country.

Thomas lodge: The trailer was cleverly structured as it gave good information, yet made you want to listen, i mostly liked the joke at the end with the beep overlapping the dialect. to make it better you could use more dialect and punch lines.

Jack kilner: The trailers sense of humour was very easy to pick up and suits the local area very well and certainly makes most poeople want to carry on listening as it is very different. I rekon you could cut out the news music as it is too long in areas.

Audience feedback

We posted our final news program via facebook and asked five individuals each to message us back, commenting on what there thpoughs were on our work. such as how we could improve it, and good points that stood out. here is the feedback:











Thomas lodge: wow that was very good! i loved the variation of effects used, it really does capture the audience. You turned a local news story into such a gripping report! well done guys

Adam walshaw: I really enjoyed the news programme, the continuity of it made it easier to view as it flowed easier. also the mise en scene of props in the studio, logos and clothing was really to detail. i think you could improve by using better music.

Jacob Lawton: The news programme was very clever. i liked the opening title sequence as it clearly shows you what is coming on and sets the scene as it uses photos from the local area. i also did not like the music, maybe using traks from a new album would attract a younger audience.

Jack Kilner: The good things about the show was the shots overlapping dialogue, like on the golf shots, rugby shots and band shots. I think you could have taken more time in interviews and asked a wider variety of questions.

Claire wroe: The news channel is very good at appealing to all audiences as there were different news genres such as, recession, music and sport. You could possibly think about making the peice longer if possible and having more diverse shots in the title seqauence. also i think the studio location could be improved. but i would like to watch it again, as its an excellent effort.

Tom bridges sports coach, interview questions

1. coach of the barnsley sports academy, youve had alot of sucess winning the colleges north east cup and qualifying for the nationals. were you pleased with your teams performances through the stages? (10 seconds)

2. what were your original targets and did you supress these?
(4 seconds)

3. so weve come into a second season with this sucesful rugby team, what do you want to achieve this season? ( 6 seconds)

4. how are you going to bring new talent into the sports college in the following seasons? and has this helped by turning into a sports academy?
(10 seconds)

These were the original questions asked un edited. The seconds were time so we could fit the right dialog to the recording.

Evaluation question 2

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts

our main objective was to achieve a news broadcast that would relate to the local community whilst expressing worldwide news and linking the two. we feel this was achieved through the use of our main topic the recession as it is easy to express worldwide facts about the economy whilst linking this to local trades people in the local community, thus attracting local audiences interest in the news channel.


(example of local news story, 1 minute 48 - 1 minute 55)

likewise throughout the production we have tried to make viewing as easy as possible for a wider selection of people, to do this voice overs have been added along with writing added on top of the screen on interviews to give the viewer as much information as we can. A large focus of our was to keep the audiences attention as long progressive topics can often cause the audience to lose interest and skip channels. combating this theory we used a wide variation of different images combined with special effects, yet again to provide information for the viewer whilst giving them a visual focus. The special effects and images combine to give a modern relaxed feel allowing the viewer to take in collective bites of information.


(example of visual effects)

overloading the viewer with imformation can often be a mistake as this will not allow them to focus entirly on the important facts and could encourage them to view other news channels. for example tabloids such as the sun are easier for a higher percentage of the population to digest in comparison to the daily times. so as a team we decided the best idea would be to include local stories for the viewer to watch, keeping the lenght fairly short in comparison to the lenghty version of the recession clips. This would in part take on two important roles. one providing the viewer with local headlines, thus giving the audience a sense of community and pride, as we are a regional, local station, aswell as allowing the audience to take small bites of stories and allowing them to feel comfortable and not overwhelmed.


(example of local stories)

Our aim was to identify our target audience and connect with them straight away, we achieved this through the use of local radio advertiseing. As we would be broadcasting to a local population with traditions, history and a distinct dialect we created a radio broadcast to appeal to the local community adding a touch of humour, yet again making people comfortable with our news station. To do this we used the working class background of a building yard, and used characters with common dialect to advertise the programme in the use of a normal everyday conversation, with the hope the audience would pick up on key bits of humour, whilst taking in the key information and most importantly standing out from other more formal advertising.

(example of radio advertisement, listen for, local dialect,key information made clear and establishment of scene)

In comparison with real media products such as bbc news and sky news, we found in our innitial research that the advertisements are formal as they are connecting with a larger nationwide audience so people need to be able to undertstand the key facts. Which in comparison with our 6 news is very different as we try our best to relate to a regional, local audience, thus making us different and standing out. Also the nationwide news broadcasts and global news do not pick specific locall stories they tend to focus on main stream stories in the public eye and interview only mainstream celebritys.


(example of radio news advertising)

As we see in comparison with ours, the radio 2 news get straight to the facts and concentrate less on advertising and attracting audiences.

Evaluation question 1

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

One of our main priority's consisted of a smooth continuous finished piece that would allow the audience to view our broadcast and take in pieces of information with mild effort. Throughout the planning stages we researched other news channels such as channel four news, calender, sky sports news and BBC news. we tried to create a title sequence that would compare with channel four news title sequence. opening images of the local area flowing into each other one after the other. The local images were used as we were sticking to the conventions of a regional news show, as we wanted local viewers to relate to there local areas and monuments. after discussions with the team over our research we decided that in comparison with channel four news and sky news, special effects should be used in between scenes to create a smoother continuity that would give the feel of a modern attractive news show, hopefully adhering to our younger viewing audience. The news 6 logo is continuously shown between scenes using special effects flashing it up on screen. observations from other news channels gave us some very good ideas surrounding continuity and how we should present our stories and images. Matching dialogue to audio was one of our biggest challenges as the theme music had to match the special effects.


(example of, news title sequence, special effects, use of logo)


(first 24 seconds, example of our title sequence in comparison)

Throughout the production of the news programme we used a variation of different shots to achieve a well rounded broadcast. when recording establishing shots many different technical shots were used such as zoom, tilt and pan. the new variation of shots were discussed in the planning stages and quite often on set as we experimented with different shots. The approach came from our research, news channels such as channel four and BBC news both use these shots, to give a live realistic view of the surrounding area they are filming, to make the audience feel comfortable as if they were there. we did this both in our title sequence to give a wider view of the local area's buildings and monuments, and also in the interviews to establish where the interview was taking place.

(example of the shots in 1st video^^^ seconds 1-1 minute 16 seconds)



(example of the shots, seconds 1 - 25)

Our news shows contents slightly differs from the stereotypical news programme, as you would normally associate a news broadcast to be national, whereas ours is local regional news, with the presenters expressing the same accents and dialects as a high percentage of the audience. we also chose to cover a national story that does effect everyone in the economic downturn we are experiencing in the current climate as this is a main everyday topic of interest for allot of people. What makes us stand out from other national and regional programmes is our modern and younger approach, as you can see we use different formality's of dress for the presenters as on average they are younger than the stereotypical middle aged presenter. Our modern outlook allows a new audience to feel comfortable and take a keen interest which we believe is even better for the future generations. We also had a one to one interview with an up and coming band member which you would only see on the likes of NME and music channels, as main national and regional channels can only afford to interview mainstream celebrity's. I believe we have opened the possibility's of attracting a new audience, socially and younger whilst maintaining a level of formality to attract existing middle aged viewers from all backgrounds.


(example of younger viewing audience)

From the start we have taken full regard to our biggest assessor been our main market, the audience as all ways. So making there viewing a pleasure has to be the first on the list to gain high viewing figures and good feedback. I believe we achieved this through the use of mixed formal and informal presenters and story lines, as some feedback we had from our early research stated that people dressed too formal look boring and make the viewing experience less comfortable. Also graphics and special effects were used to entice the audience t o keep watching and the feedback we had from this was very good and looked " professional". As well as audio visual writing was placed on the screen to make sure the audience understand certain images on screen and also different people we are interviewing, thus creating a relaxed viewing atmosphere. our news show focus's on local news dealing with local issues mostly but also incorporating stories such as the recession allows the audience to gain a bigger incite into the subject and helps them to understand there personal situation better. Making people feel comfortable and giving them a pleasurable experience i believe has been created.

Evaluation question 3

what have you learned from your audience feedback?

Throughout the planning stage we made it out sole aim to attract a wider spread audience, also attracting a young fresher viewing audience. To do this different research had to be carried out, firstly we had to anylises the genre of news people allready viewed and find out the most popular viewing times. A short but detailed questionaire was given to 20 members of the public who ranged from an age of 15 to 62. We gained alot of useful information that was used and considered to develop our news show, for example most people preffered to watch the news around six o'clock, as this is the average time most of the public get home from work. Also what genre and formality of news they would feel comfortable viewing. The audience feedback was very useful as we wanted to make a channel with appeal to a younger audience, encorporating social backgrounds and to maintain a wide range of ages. We had to take into consideration, the genre of stories to be broadcast, mise on scene, the way we edited using special effects and the music. Different techniques were used to research the audiences opinion aswell as a paper questionaire, we used a GZMG 330 HDD camcorder to record the opinions of people form different sex, age and social backgrounds. The feedback was very mixed as we found people over 60 are less bothered how there news in shown, whereas the younger audience prefer a more vibrant modern feel to a news show as we see on camera. The main criteria we found for a news channel differed towards the younger theme, people feel more comfortable with a relaxed studio set, yet still prefer the presenters to look smart. Also the genre of news that is broadcast on the news either attracts or ditracts people from watching it, a younger audience prefer the lates sport and music whereas an older audience prefer national economy news, such as job losses and banks. This influenced us in the planning and production to create a channel that suited both needs as we used two sports stories, one music and one economy story, i feel we fully catered for a wide range of people.

(example of casual smart uniform in relaxed seated studio)

(example of audience research, planning stage)

The audience were kept in mind throughout the full planning and proiduction right through to the very end as we would like to have achieved a high rating. throughout the production ideas were experimented with as we took different shots and angles from many scenes to make sure we had a good range so we could create an interesting broadcast, such as shots from the rugby game and the golf course as we aimed to acheive high excitement shots to grip the audience to carry on viewing. Throughout the recording of several scenes the type of clothing we wore was essential to how we would like to represent our programme, so we used a mixed approach, yet again to cater for a wider audience yet keeping it light and modern.

(example of action shot)

Throughout the editing stages and final productions of our news programme we asked audience members to view our work and give us feedback, we did this also by using the GZMG 330 HDD camera. The audience members gave us some specific feedback about what they liked and how we could improve our work to suit there cultural tastes.

(example of audience feedback, final stage)

The feedback we got was very positive, the stories related to local people and the set up made us look proffesional, and the music made people feel comfortable. whilst in the late editing stage we were told by other pupils that more shots would be better for different topics to give a more diverse viewing aspect. After discussion with members off the group we edited parts of our draft work and overcame any forseeable problems with good team work and communication.Also we had to research the audiences cultural background as we are a local news station so we had to be specific to the local area, local stories also the presenters would have to relate to the audience by using the same expressions and obviously dialect.

Evaluation question 4

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

New media technologies have enhanced the capabilities of equipment to create more continuous, better quality finishes adding the bonus of more diverse shots, editing and research. To create a good quality news broadcast research is key; you have to know how to put it together, and how the public will react to your news channel, researching what they would like. The internet has developed now over the last ten years with the likes of Google, apple, Microsoft leading the way we used the internet to research many different news channels and key features of news, such as, the cast, mise en scene and genres of stories. I mainly used the search engine Google, which lead me to many various sites giving me lots of solid information.

To show our research, planning and evaluation we have subscribed to a blog to post all of our information and evidence. Uploading photos has been a key way of showing our methods and proving our media research. Likewise uploading videos to the website YouTube to show our public analysis, after uploading to YouTube I put the link on the blog. This is an obvious advance in media technology; it enables you to share your ideas and research with millions of people whilst showing an advance viewing and link to follow on your blog. Once constructing our news program together there were various technologies that helped us along and lack of some technologies that hindered our quick production. To capture our shots we used a Sony hdv100 camera which enabled us to zoom in and out recording in high definition. Another one of the cameras many features was to white balance all of our clips to make sure we had natural looking consistent light throughout the whole five minute broadcast. For one of our live interview shots a microphone feed had to be fed to the camera, thus enabling us to get a clear sound and block out other social and environmental interferences that cannot be controlled. New camera technology enables shots to be recorded and viewed in better quality, including sound quality.

Through our recording we were constantly cutting, and replacing scenes until we were happy with our final piece. New editing software on the apple mac (final cut), gave us the control to edit our news real at our own place, with features such as, cutting and adding new scenes, adding photographs, title sequences, music and over voices used in various areas. One key feature that stood out above the rest was one that enabled us to slow the pre recorded shot down and make it last longer to match the written text that was placed over it. Although technology has developed and made our media project easier to adapt to different scenarios, there are still some floors in technology or the lack of budget to gain technology that held us back. Such as, for our title sequence we would have preferred more diverse shots like Ariel skyline shots, as we have no budgets this would be very hard to achieve without the use of a Crain, helicopter etc.. Other technologies that could be improved are the sound recording, the program final cut did not allow us to layer sounds and recognise a voice to muffled background noises and separate them, possibly editing them out to create a smoother finish.

Other software such as garageband enabled us to create a radio tralier for our news programme. The trailer would consist of to average joe males haveing a conversation on a construction site. In order to re create the background noise we used a zoom hand held sound recorder to record seperate noises such as a hammer banging and drilling etc... Garageband enabled us to put the sounds together overlapping with the conversation and news theme music. This was very succesfull and without the new software and recording technoligy would have been possible.


(example of radio trailer, seconds 1-20)

Audience feedback - radio trailer

We had to produce a radio trailer to advertise out news programme and give an idea of what the genre was. i sent the clip to some friends on facebook, this is what they said:

Lee Beevers: A good trailer, its clear to tell where and when to watch the show. also what to expect to see on the news programme.

Becci Moorby: Very Funny and made it clear that it is a local news programme with the dialect and accent. although if anyone was listening from other areas they may not understand some parts of the conversation.

Adam Walker: Good use of sound effects and script, a well informed and funny trailer.

Audience feedback

As part of out production i asked 5 people on facebook if they could look at the news programme and give us feedback of what they thought. here is what they said:

Josh Exley: I really liked the news show, it was very informative and included everything that a good local show needs as well as the big national stories.

Brett Jackson: There were a good variation of stories and really like how the different shots overlap to introduce the next part of the show. however a change of music could have been used instead of the same theme tune throughout.

Andrew Lingard: The opening theme was very good, showing our local area and showing that the news programme is made about people and the news around us. it has a wide audience range appealing to everyone.

Chris Kellet: A good variety of news stories, i especially liked the music story about the band, although there could have been more questions asked, and interviewed the whole band. but well done.

Jess Mills: Loved the news show! very well made and put together. A good mixture of stories to entertain everyone. Also alot of information used in the reccession part, very informative.

Evaluation part 4

Q4 – How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Firstly we used the internet and TV to research other similar news programmes and stories to compare how we could make our programme and how we wanted it to look like in the finished product. Looking at how a news programme is run and the various styles different shows have, weather local or national news, the audience they are aimed at and the different looks of the news shows. We set up a blog on http://www.blogger.com/ and by doing so, it showed the planning stages of our film and what we had to do to get to the finished news programme. On the blog we have put on story boards, photo story boards, scripts, shooting scripts, ideas of location and styles of show we can produce. We used the internet and websites such as BBC news http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/and sky news http://www.skysports.com/ to look at how they made a news programme. With the planning of the programme we used digital cameras to take photos to put on the blog of the location photos, prop and costume photos.

In the construction process of the news programme we used video cameras to film the show, using a Sony HDV 1000 and tripod also used audio microphones to make sound clips for the voice over of the presenters using a zoom recoder. In the editing process we used a Apple Mac computer and final cut pro software to upload and edit our recordings to make the final product. We had used more advanced editing techniques than previously used making our first year film. For the music in our news programme we had used a track from a CD and iTunes to load onto final cut pro to edit onto the film. For our news logo we used adobe Photoshop software,
There were a few difficulties in the production of our news programme, for example we had issues with white balancing the video camera to get the best picture quality possible with the combination of indoor and natural lighting. There was also problems with sound, filming outdoor scenes it sometimes sounded muffled and distorted, we overcome this by positioning the microphone at the correct distance from the reporters mouth, some scenes had to be re-shot but all sounded right afterwards. Finally we had previously learnt to edit on different software than final cut pro so when we first started editing this film we had to be taught a few different things so that we could make our news programme the best it could be.

Evaluation part 3

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

throughout our research and production stages of making news programme audience feedback has been very important. Firstly we had to find out what people were looking for in a news programme and what lured them into a certain type and style of news show and story. A GZ-MG 330 HDD camcorder was used to record the first research interviews with a varied age range of people. We then found out what certain people want and prefer from a news programme such as style, type of story, formality, set, costume etc. This then helped us greatly in how we could build our own news programme to reach a wider audience, entertain and inform without alienating a certain age group or even just concentrating on a certain age group too.

We had some good feedback from our interviews that helped us understand what an audience wants. Our interviewees especially the younger age groups said they prefer a more informal setting of news programme, for example they said they like to watch the news where presenters are sat on a sofa or arm chair style instead of been sat formally at a desk. They also said they preferred a more casual dress code for what the reporters wear and not always in suits and ties. Also they like the idea of a more all round relaxed news programme with "easy going" news stories as well as the main "hard hitting" big headlines. Also using a large range of stories and not just the usual main headlines, some of our audience wanted different stories to others, so we took this into consideration of not just reporting on certain news and events. For example the older age range wanted more economy news and latest on the reccession where as the younger side wanted the latest news on bands and sport, so we tried to find a way to combine everyone's interests. Another idea we got from the audience research was showign our programme at six o'clock, most of our interviewees said thry watch the news around this time or when they have the time, usually after work or evening meal.


(First audience research video)


After listening to what the audience had said, we tried to intertwine all the ideas to suit all of our viewers and not just one certain niche market or people. We decided on a less formal studio and costume although still keeping up a sense of a smart businesslike presentaion to our viewers. Although we have gone for a more local approach to the news we have tried to cater to everyone's taste in news stories, for example local music news for a younger market, the nation wide reccession and how it has effected our region for the oler market and also added sport and light news stories for everyone's taste. We have tried to include something for everyone's tastes and styles.

We got some classmates to watch a rough edit of our news prgramme and tell us what they thought and if there were any improvements they could think of to help us become more succesful. Overall the feedback was posotive and if we had any criticism we would try and fix it to a better standard e.g. the problem that one person said is that in some interviews the shots were too long and some people could lose concentration and intrest with the story. So what we did was by putting in various angles and different shots but of the same story with the interviewee or interviewer talking over the shots made the story more interesting and broke up the story into different watchable sections.

Evaluation part 2

Q2-How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

The main purpose of our news programme was to give stories of current events and light hearted news from around the local area, but also giving a run down of the main headlines of the UK and world. By making the show more localised it made its style unique in the way that not many other shows have. There are some news programmes that have sub sections from one main big headlined show to a local news programme such as look north or calender, but ours is mainly about local news and not sub sectioned from a larger show such as ITV news or BBC.

Our ancillary texts were a radio trailer for the news programme, a logo for the show and the opening title sequence. The opening sequence shows the audience straight away that it is a local programme based and made for them. The images in the sequence are ones that the barnsley and surrounding areas will easily and quickly recognise, such as the town hall and the main shopping area. These images show that the programme is made about them, for them.

We have reported on stories from around the area that the people will be interested in of all ages, from music and sprots stories for the younger age range and how the reccession has affected Barnsley for the older more mature age range. We have tried to accompany everyone's needs and interests. Also because not many young people watch the news we have relaxed the style of the show by a more casual dress code and relaxed set. For our news programme we made a radio trailer to accompany the programme to advertise what we are offering to our audience and the vital information we need to give out e.g. what time the show will be on, what channel it will be shown and also what stories we will be showing that day.
(Our radio trailer)


To add to the local theme of our news programme the radio trailer has a strong yorkshire accent throughtout, and by making it comedic it appeals to the younger age range too. we had four different ideas of radio trailers but decided on this one as it kept with the local Barnsley theme. We sent the radio trailer to friends on facebook and asked other people what they thought, the feedback and reaction was very positive and many people said they liked it and it got the point across easily with a comedic feel that made them listen. We tried to change it from a normal styled radio trailor like what the BBC use as we wanted to make it unique, oringnal and made so the Barnsley people would easily recognise it was our show and made to be heard by them.
(BBC radio1 trailer played on both TV and Radio)


The Logo we decided on was very recognisable and easily understood as it shows the channel our news programme will be show on. Some other logo's that comapnies use are quite confusing as you cannot figure out what they stand for or the information they are trying to portray.

I believe the radio trailer and logo accompany the news programme well and round off the show to make it more appealing and could also grab a more broader and wider audience.

Evaluation part 1

Q1 - in what ways does the media product use, develop or challenge forms and convections of real media products?

For our own media news programme we did a lot of research and looked into the various styles and shots used to create a popular news show and what brought an audience to them. we knew that we would have to create a catchy and interesting opening sequence and title to rival the professional quality of the big news shows such as BBC, Channel 4, ITV and Sky news. To make it the best it could be the shots had to be as smooth as possible from one to the next, sometimes overlapping images to keep the continuity steady. Because our news programme is largely based around the Barnsley and surrounding areas we used images and recorded shots of popular and well know areas and places that people would easily recognise and know that without even seeing the 6news logo that the show they were watching would be ours, an easily recogniseable title sequence.

Example of well known place in barnsley - The arcade.

(Our opening sequence to 6 news.)


Look north also uses recognisable images and shots from the area so viewers know it is a local news programme aimed at the people in their area.

(BBC Local news openings.)

We challenged the normal forms and convections of a regular news programme in various ways. Firstly for example we had a younger approach to the news, the presenters were alot younger than the average age of a news presenter on a big broadcasted news show. We did this to reach out to a younger age market and make a younger fresh spin on the news as well as still wanting to attract the rest of the news viewers too. The dress code was also made younger to appeal to more to that age range, the reporters wore more casual clothing when reporting and interviewing guests. The reoprters wore brands that can appeal to the younger generation. Image can have a big effect on its audience, some people watch a programme to see what the people on the show are wearing.

(example of relaxed casual clothing wore by the reporter rather than suit and tie)
We differ from other news channels and shows because they either report on the main headlines of the country and world and concentrate on these stories, if they have stories on localised news then they will hand it over to the sub section programme, e.g. BBC news to Look north and ITV to Calender. Where our programme is mainly about local news with the odd main headline added to capture the audience. We have a variety of stories to intrigue everyone, localised news stories, about events, sports and music, our programme has a story about an up and coming band, this would be expected on a specialist music channel not on a local news story so this can bring in a broader audience.

Evaluation Question 4 - John Selby

4. How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
Throughout our media project we have used a number of new technologies to help develop creative ideas, gain access to more in-depth research and organise planning in a very efficient way.

During the research stage the Internet was used through Apple imac computers which gave us access to huge quantities of data to which could be used for research and to aid in planning. We used Blogger.com to create a blog to store all the research we collected and it enabled us to present our research in a very organised fashion. Using Blogger.com meant we were able to present information collected from the Internet as well as providing links to certain useful videos, soundbites and websites. We could also embed videos directly from YouTube onto Blogger.com which greatly help us in terms of time management and presentation of our research and planning. We also used a Samsung ST61 compact digital camera to go out to collect research by taking location photos, test shots, costume photos, prop photos etc. This was incredibly useful as we soon found out whether our ideas were achievable and whether o not certain locations we attainable.

The blog also came in use with easing the planning process as all our planning was easily developed on the Macs and stored onto our blogs on Blogger.com. We developed a script, shooting script and photo storyboard using Microsoft office programmes which easily allowed us to get our ideas across onto a written format. These were then uploaded to Blogger.com where they were then stored in an organised fashion for easy accessibility and storage. The Samsung ST61 compact digital cameras were again used during the planning stage to collect images of locations, props, shot tests, storyboard photos and character profiles. The cameras enabled us to to collect large quantities of imagery data in seconds and they could then be easily uploaded onto our blog to fully show our research and planning ideas. iMovie also enabled us to develop an animatic slide show to show our ideas fully for our storyboard.

The digital technologies used to create our media project also helped us create and develop ideas as we were able to see all our ideas organised in one place, Blogger.com. From there we could see where we needed to go
and could then play with new cameras and editing software to see just how achievable our ideas were. All the research and planning was clearly priceless when it came to the construction process of our project. It was also at this stage where we realised whether or not our ideas were realistic and achievable as well as helping us to develop new ideas through trial and error. We started the construction phase by developing a logo on photoshop and it soon became evident was more than capable at achieving our ideas. The logo was then printed so a hard copy could be used to create a studio feel in our studio location as well as a copy on the Macs to use for our title sequence. When filming began we used a new camera, the Sony HDV 1000, which gave us a much sharper HD image than any camera previously used. The better picture quality and better zoom meant we were able to fully optimise the zoom function to achieve all our initial ideas for our title sequence. These ideas included some shots we previously believed to be too ambitious throughout or title sequence with shots of buildings, monuments and ariel shots. The Sony HDV 1000 also had an add-on microphone which greatly helped in terms of sound quality and also helped us to achieve some more shots where the audio is far from the camera. It also helped to single out certain audio where the reporters were a distance away from the camera and background noise may have over powered the primary audio. FinalCut, an editing software programme, was similarly used to develop our ideas with such new functions as wire framing, monochromatic imaging, still imaging and a new wide range of transitions. FinalCut was perfect for this and more, we were also able to smooth out sounds and make sound transmissions smoother for a more professional final product. Some of the audio in our shots finished very harshly and the audio transitions really helped in smoothing out these sounds to create a much more flowing professional programme.

Finally we created a radio trailer which was developed using the GarageBand programme. Using this programme enabled us to blend together many different sounds as we were aiming to create a construction site atmosphere. We first used a handheld sound recorder to record many different tool sounds idividually and then brought them together onto GarageBand. This enabled us to blend sounds together and mix them up for the most realistic construction site atmosphere. We were also able to tamper with sound levels to ensure our main voice audio was clearly audable over the background noise.

Evaluation Question 3 - John Selby

3. What have you learned from your audience feedback?
During the research phase of our project we researched audience behaviour, habits and interests and kept them in mind throughout all stages in our production. We used a GZ-MG 330 HDD Camcorder to record all our initial interviews held during the research stage. We interviewed a range of age groups during the research stage and looked at their viewing habits, preferred style of news, preferred stories and their opinions on improvements towards news programmes in general. Nearly all of our ideas stem from this initial research and it highly influenced our final product in terms of start times, formality, news coverage, costume, set, location and many other aspects.

(Example of initial audience research)
We found that many of our audience preferred to watch the news when they had spare time, usually around tea time. For example one interviewee, when asked what time they prefer to watch the news, replied "When I've got time, usually around 6ish" (6 O'Clock). These kind of answers directly influenced our decision to broadcast our news programme at our selected time. Also from this research we found that the younger generations preferred the news to be less formal, but not too informal. This was evident in some answers, when asked 'What formality of news they prefer', such as "When they're all sat down on sofas as it's more relaxed". We initially found this request rather tricky but ended up settling on using costumes that were simple yet formal such as smart shirts and suit trousers, using a lower more informal desk and including more trivial, sport and music stories. We believe this would fully cater to the audiences demand for less formal news without it been too informal.

Throughout all stages of our media production we kept the audience in mind and tried to the best of our abilities to fully provide them with a new style of news that appeals to a younger audience whilst also keeping them up-to-date with current international affairs. We chose to include a range of topics to cover in our stories which expressed the audiences interests in more local news with bands, music and sport event stories being the bulk of our news whilst also covering a major national or international story. We eventually decided to include a story about a local bands rise to fame and a the local college's rugby team's success whilst also including a story on how the recession is affecting the lives of the Barnsley public. We believe we achieved our initial aims and surpassed any targets arisen from our initial audience research. As well as this we tried to include a lot of visual stimulation for the audience, such as descriptive titles where we felt the audience needed informing, and including voice-overs where necessary to fully elaborate on visual information given and to appeal to auditory learners as well as visual.

Once we had made a rough edit of our news programme we trial ran it passed some peers who were of similar age to our target audience. We asked for criticisms, positive feedback and fresh ideas to enable us to tweak any imperfections for maximum enjoyment from our news programme for our intended audience. One issue raised in this trial run was a sense of confusion amongst our viewers over some certain areas in the production. One critic said "when some locations are shown such as the Lucorum, I think that there could be a bit of a description about what is shown, such as a title of the location or how it relates to the story". We then looked back at each problem and found realistic solutions and applied them to the most appropriate areas. This process included adding voice-overs where the visuals failed to fully inform the viewer, adding text on-screen to certain frames including new guests and locations and including more shots to break up long interviews which some viewers found to slow the pace of the programme. We also found from this that the cultural situation of the viewer was going to be a vital aspect in our news programme. It was planned to be local news and therefore local regional dialects are used by the presenters and reporters and many local locations were used and we assumed a local audience would be aware of these locations so no text prompts were given. This was another issue raised by our critics in the trial run and something which we overcome by adding titles to certain locations that our critics deemed confusing.

Evaluation Question 2 - John Selby

2. How effective is the combination of your main media product and the ancillary texts?
Our aim with our main product was to provide global news coverage whilst also providing local coverage as well as light hearted, more trivial stories. We believed this would be a good combination of information and entertainment for maximum enjoyment and interest for our audience. We found that this could be a realistic combination if we put a local spin on the global stories. So to do this we decided to include a global story but show it's effects and influence on our local region for example the recessions effects on the Barnsley region. We were also trying to appeal more to a younger audience as in our initial audience research we found that younger teenage audiences didn't watch the news particularly often as they believed it was too serious and formal. We believed this issue could be solved by including more local trivial stories including bands, sports teams, music events, films etc. We hoped this, combined with the younger less formal presenters and reporters, would help entice a younger audience to or news programme. We tried to express the fact that our news programme was going to feature primarily local news in our title sequence as this was the first thing the viewer saw and we felt it must fully express what the show is about. We managed to do this by including many local attractions, buildings, monuments, shopping centres etc. We believe this projected a more comfortable, personal and familiar feel to our news programme which we believed our younger local audience could easily relate to. We used this method to attract our target audience as we have seen it similarly done in local news programmes for our region including 'Calendar' and 'Look North'. With the familiar attractions featuring in our title sequence the audience can immediately relate to the area the news will be based and it helps them to fully understand the local problems and stories. We also tried to further express this local familiar feel in our radio trailer by using the regional dialect which our audience could also easily relate to whilst also exaggerating it for comedic effect. We believe in doing this we also managed to get across the more light hearted entertainment side of our news programme as well as expressing familiar aspects. We also used the strong exaggerated regional dialect in our characters from the radio trailer to provide our trailer with an aspect of humour, whilst also retaining the strong community, familiar, and personal tones expressed throughout the programme.

(Example of exaggerated local dialect)

Our trailer almost directly contrasts the BBC World News trailer which I analysed. The BBC used similar methods of dialects and accents to express a global interconnected feel. Throughout the BBC trailer many foreign accents and sounds were used to fully express the width and depth of the news coverage covered by the BBC World News team. We used this method and turned it on its head to get an opposite effect and instead provide our audience with a regional and familiar feel opposed to the more global expansive feel connoted by the BBC World News trailer.

Evaluation Question 1 - John Selby

1. In what way does the media product use, develop, or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
In our media project we observed and stuck to the typical conventions of continuity and language of film and editing rather well, after having analysed similar media products during the research stage of our production (Post). Establishing shots are a rather prominent feature throughout our title sequence as we found this to be a very effective concept when researching similar media products. We aimed to fully express the location as to where our news was primarily based and to briefly explore the area, providing the audience with a more personal and comfortable environment. I found this to be the case when watching and analysing Calendar news and believed a similar concept would work very well when producing our own media product. We tried to gain a similar result by using several establishing shots in the title sequence showing a wide range of locations across Barnsley, the local region. This is a similar concept to many local news programmes including 'Look North' and 'Calendar'.

(Series of establishing shots used in our title sequence)


(Calendar opening title sequence - 0-13 seconds)

We also used many tilts in our establishing shots to further explore the environment and imitate natural reactions to seeing the local monuments and buildings to give the shots a very familiar and natural feel. We considered all our tilts to be technically correct as we always tilted from point A to point B and never over tilted past the point we wished to end on. This technique was developed after seeing it in action in almost all the local news title sequences I researched and analysed which inevitably had a direct impact on our decision to use the same rule. Similarly when panning, we always chose to pan from left to right as this is how western culture reads and thought this would be a more familiar and comfortable panning style for our intended audience. This is often the panning style used in western television for those reasons and also happened to be the chosen panning style throughout all the local news programmes I originally used for research purposes.

(Examples of pans and tilts used)

In terms of continuity we always made sure that our white balancing was done correctly and consistently throughout each location. In some cases this was more difficult than expected with varying weather and light conditions. This problem was overcome by a "touching up" process whereby we white balanced the scenes in certain locations after the filming process during editing. this was accomplished by using the 3 way colour correction feature on FinalCut.

Continuity was an issue we faced in other areas too because many of our scenes contained cut-aways and we had to make sure things such as eye lines were always exactly the same and that the 180 degrees rule was always being obeyed. We believe this made our media product look far more professional and much more like a real media product as these basics rules were always obeyed in the programmes originally analysed during the research stage.

In terms of content our news programme only slightly deviates from the typical conventions of news programmes. We chose a local news format whereby we covered several stories from the local region whilst also covering any major global stories and if necessary their relation to the local area. For example one of our national stories is based on the recession but we also chose to include it's effects on the Barnsley region in particular. This was not the case when researching typical local news programmes as they often had a separate programme to cover the national news and none showed the national stories effects on the local region. We believe this makes our news programme unique as it challenges forms of real media products. We also, in some cases, deliberately subverted the audience's expectations by using younger presenters and reporters to appeal more to the younger audiences and to give the programme a slightly less formal style. At first we were unsure of this as all local news programmes seemed to be formal with an older set of presenters and reporters but we decided this would only further enhance our programmes appeal to a younger target audience, who are otherwise rarely targeted in this form of media.

We hope to have provided the audience with pleasure when viewing our programme as well as much gratification in terms of information. As identified by Maslow, audiences chose to watch programmes based on what they get from them and everyone has different uses for media. According to this theory we believe that the audience would use our programme for information as well as entertainment. Obviously, in terms of information, this is the case with all news programmes but to varying degrees. We believe that due to our unique view on global issues' effects on the local community, our news programme provides a more in depth and personal series of information which is not provided any news programme previously researched by myself. Our news programme should also fully satisfy the audience's curiosity in local and global issues and fulfill the needs of those seeking to expand their knowledge on society and the world. Again having a local outlook on global issues helps emphasize this to a greater extent than that of the typical news programme. As well as this our news programme also provides integration and social interaction aspects as our stories should help the audience sympathize and empathize with others in their community and around the world. This is another aspect apparent in the majority of news programmes and we felt we had to fully incorporate this aspect to be of a standard expected of national or local news programmes.

(Example of integration and social interaction)

As well as this it should also entertain the audience to a certain extent as we did deliberately include more light hearted trivial news stories for more humorous and entertaining purposes. As we were aimed at a younger audience than the majority of news programmes I researched and analysed, we believed more of these style of stories were perfectly acceptable and tried to include a majority of these feel-good stories e.g. the local rugby teams success and local music sensations etc. In terms of information, integration and social interaction this is likewise with most news programmes although we tried to be slightly more unique by also adding the entertainment factor which is not apparent in all news programmes.