question 1 (part 2)

Media EvaluationBy George Parkin

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

forms and conventions of real media products?

Media Product:

Double Page Spread

The Double Page Spread uses many of the forms and conventions found in real media products. I will demonstrate this below:



Pull Quote/Pun

Sell Line

Main ArticleTitle & Channel Information

Magazine Name & Date

Byline

Image Information/Caption

Channel‟s Slogan

Main Image

ImagesAs you have been able to see my Double Page Spread

has used many forms and conventions. On the next

slide there will be a real media product, to

demonstrate how these forms and conventions have

been followed the areas in which the real product

has similarities to mine will be labelled.



An Example of a real

media product.

Double Page Spread from the

Radio Times.



Main Image

Images

Further Images

Main Article

Magazine‟s Slogan

Sell Line

Pull Quote/Pun

Image Information/Caption

Magazine Name & Date

A Radio Times Issue: containing many of

same forms and conventions as my media

product.



Double Page Spread: The Article

• After reading many articles from various issues of the radio times, I noticed a pattern forming across the assortment of double page spreads. I noticed they often personalised the article, rather than just describing what the article was promoting in this case a documentary they actually interviewed those connected with the product, story etc. allowed them to speak and quoted them throughout the article whilst summarising what the article was promoting what the story was as well as background information on the subject.

• When I wrote the article for the double page spread I followed this convention of allowing interviewees to tell the story to make it more personal, emotive and poignant.

• I achieved this through fictitiously constructing a in depth backs story for the documentary. The article from the double page spread tells the story of two amateur filmmakers (Jason Clarke and Henry Fisher) the article proceeds to talk about their process from recognising the issue of bullying through to actually doing something about it, to create empathy both the characters Jason and Henry were bullied as well as a further fictional character, Gavin Stone - who helped edit the documentary, speaks of his problems with bullying in detail, the empathy that the reader will feel for the filmmakers involved in this project will likely make them pay closer attention to the message as the aim was to make the reader feel as involved as possible.

• Despite the fact that much of the double page spread is taken up with „Jason and Henry‟s story‟ so to speak the double page spread does not fall flat when it comes to facts and figures, this was another common element I noticed in many other radio times articles and decided to include extensive figures in my writing so the piece was evenly weighted between facts and figures.



• The use of powerful facts and statistics was an attempt to use shock tactics on the reader, opening with such powerful and astonishing facts would make them uneasy early on, keeping their attention throughout as uncomfortable as the issue maybe it becomes clear as the reader progresses this is an issue that cannot be ignored.

• An example of the kind of statistics we presented in the documentary can be seen to the right:

• Throughout the article as I already mentioned I attempted to make it seem more personal one of the prominent conventions I employed to achieve this was the extensive use of quotation from Jason, Henry and Gavin. This linked with the attempt to bring empathy in as they frankly talk about their own motivations, experiences, as well as their personal lives including their children the aim of this was to convince the audience that these were honest guys just trying to make a difference.

• Other elements includes extracting the staggering 69% of children reported being bullied statistic and using it as our pull quote, we felt it was powerful enough to perform such a important role in our documentary.

• Above the articles itself I included three brief lines to summarise what the articles was going to be about explaining these were two filmmakers trying to make a difference I opted for words such as „maverick‟ as I felt it hyped up the tension making the filmmakers and project in general appear romanticised presenting them as heroes and crusaders.





Double Page Spread: The Images.

• Similar to how I conceived the overall idea for the article, when going about deciding which images to include on the double page spread I studied many other magazines naturally many of them were radio times, I began to notice that nearly all of them had one large image which was the main focal point of the double page whilst including several smaller ones which were sometimes used to tell a story often to the right hand side of the page running down, often one underneath the other. The main image nearly always took up the entire or at least the upper left portion of the double page spread. I followed this convention carefully and as you have been able to see from the slide before I was successful in implementing this convention, with the main image taking up much of the page on the left becoming the focal point of the double page (it was important to put the main image on the left as that is were a reader would look first, as people read left to right) using this convention meant we were able to hook in as many potential readers as possible.

• We also used the convention I observed when it came to the images on the right hand side of the double page, we went out of our way to select images for the double page that would tell a portion of the story without the reader having to read the whole article to gain an understanding of what the double page spread was about, although it could be argued this was counterproductive as it would lead readers to opt for just looking at the pictures rather than reading the valuable and informative article in fact it would easily work in our favour as the likelihood potential readers undecided whether or not they are going to sit through the full article will likely realise early on through the images and the captions whether or not this is a topic that interests them, the result is it brings in a readership who usually may have brushed past such a long and in depth article as the one I produced.



• For our radio trail we listened to various real ones in order to get an idea the conventions they

traditionally used and how these conventions made them so effective. We listened to radio

trails from Capital, Heart, Free Radio Birmingham (formerly, BRMB) as well as various BBC radio

stations in order to how different radio stations produced trailers/advertisements. After much

deliberation and research we decided to exhibit our radio trail on Capital which meant the

product needed to appeal to a young audience, the radio trail needed to be instantly appealing

and be able to reach out to young adults and students and hold their attention throughout the

length of the trailer in the hope it will entice them to watch the documentary and ultimately

take a stand on the bullying issue.



• The main characteristic of our radio trail is how we overlap the series of excerpts from the

narrator of our documentary, implementing them into the radio trail and running them for the

main segment the effect this has is to almost sound disorientating or hard to concentrate on for

the listener, this may sound counterproductive but in fact making the radio trail hard to

concentre on was something was aimed for when editing it together, we tried to get the

balance just right for our radio trail, making it slightly disorientating so more concentration

and attention is required but we had to strike the balance just right in order to make sure we

didn‟t alienate the listeners. In the end making the listeners pay more attention pays dividends

as the message is drummed into them more effectively I found a radio one trail which used a

similar characteristic of making the radio trail difficult to listen to just the right degree, I

suggested we developed this convention, tweaking it slightly and ultimately it provided the

basis for the main body of our radio trail (lasting from the 8-20 seconds, the bulk of the radio

trail) this convention is clearly the most prominent on in our radio trail.

• The remaining few seconds either side of the extracts from the documentary were narrated by

myself, with my narration bookending the radio trial. The time, date and channel is mentioned

at both the beginning and the end of the documentary so to remind those who may not of

caught it at the beginning , this is obviously a convention found in all radio trails that are

advertising a programme or film as it is essential they inform the audience when and where to

see the film or programme.

• Through our research we found that the length of radio trails and advertisements vary greatly

sometimes being as short as fifteen seconds and at other times surpassing sixty seconds, we

opted for a middle ground, with our trailer just surpassing thirty seconds.



• We felt our radio trail coming in at thirty seconds was ample time for us to express the

message we wanted to put across to the listeners and advertise our documentary sufficiently.

• In the end we were able to create something that was both unique by creating new elements

specifically for the radio trail as well as constructing something that had clear connections to

our documentary as we used clips from the documentary narration, rhetorical questions put

forth by the narrator as well as the music we used throughout the documentary to help people

associate between the two products, signalling an emotive response as well as keeping an

adequate and realistic pace as we only had thirty seconds to express our message and it was

essential the message of our radio trail was put across as efficiently as possible.

• Rhetorical Question:

• We used as rhetorical question in our trailer make the listener feel more involved and included

in proceedings, the question was; “So, why is it an issue as widespread as bullying is so

neglected?” these are personal questions, that a listener would have to dig deep into

themselves to attempt to find an answer for, this would hopefully provoke them into watching

the documentary as they do not have a sufficient answer to why bullying is not addressed. The

overall indication put forth by the trailer is this question is going to be answered or at least an

attempt will made in the documentary to answer it so it put the listener in a position if this

radio trail really appeals to them and they find themselves wanting to know more then the

documentary will almost certainly be of interest to them.



• Overall:

• Through the research, planning and construction periods of both the double page spread and

the radio trail I feel we mainly used previously established conventions often developing them

to create something that was on the whole more effective (i.e. the use of overlapping clips was

a unique element we only found in one other radio trail, we subsequently put our own spin on

this convention)

• Although highly consistent in the conventions in employing conventions or developing them the

double page spread and radio trail did in parts challenge certain conventions in certain areas

although it was minimal in comparison with how much the products obeyed conventions set

forth by professionally made „real‟ media products.

• In conclusion I feel we were successful in creating something that was appealing to the

audience whilst not compromising the integrity when dealing with a difficult and challenging

issue that is bullying.

• Not only were these two products successful in their ability to advertise and endorse the

documentary but they also make great stand alone products and when grouped together in a

duo or trio they become even strong pieces of media. Undoubtedly, there single greatest

quality if their ability to appeal and connect with an audience on a important, turbulent and

often neglected issue.



question 1 (part 2)

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