Evaluation

Question 1) In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

This is the powerpoint presentation which i presented to Miriam O Riley.

This is a video of me presenting our ideas to the selected target audience using PowerPoint as I felt that this would allow me to broadcast my ideas clearly. [07/12/2016]

This is an edited and up to date version of the Powerpoint presentation which I presented to Miram O Riley.  [07/12/16]

Edited version of powerpoint that was presented to Miriam from Hasan Ahmed

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

This is the script of my final narration.

Our broadcast begins with our logo on the screen. Behind this plays our non diegetic jingle of our news broadcast. Right form the beginning; this will create a sense of identification as the audience will be able to place that jingle alongside our news broadcast, we carried this music through to our radio advert also; this was following on from the research which we did into branding and identification within news broadcasting.

In order to inform the viewer of what is going to be spoken about within our broadcast, we selected the main points of each story and presented them in order of importance through fast cutting and filler shots of what was going to be covered in each story. This would allow the viewer to determine whether they want to stay and watch or leave if they’re not interested. Quick short statements of each of these stories are used in order to engage and capture the viewer’s attention but also to not give away too much information. Whilst in the process of doing this, there is a jingle that will be played in the background which will elicit a sense of recognition as this is common amongst all news broadcasts. This is just one of the many ways in which we have conformed to the existing codes and conventions of TV news.

The scene is then cut to our title sequence. We ensured that our title sequence consists of a variety of different shots, non diegetic sound and in turn filler shots of moving images around the West Midlands to stimulate that sense of recognition into our final news broadcast right from when the audience tune into the broadcast. By producing a news broadcast that consists of Galtung’s and Ruge’s proximity feature, the audience know that through the use of images that are recognisable to the local area that the news programme is aimed primarily at them, it encourages and engages the audience to stay tuned as what is being broadcasted will have an effect on them. After receiving feedback; we have removed the bull from the beginning logo of the news intro and instead replaced it with a gold globe as this targets more of our audience and does not pertain to a certain select few living only in central Birmingham like the ‘Bull’ did. Furthermore, one of the effects and transitions utilised in the title sequence was the moving circle effect. This allowed us to include a visual effect to our logo and brand identity as the way in which the circles appear acts as a stimulant to the audience as it emulates the way the clock strikes in the town centre. Also they create that sense of familiarity within the viewer of the symbolic shapes of the Birmingham Library and acts as a semi-conscious way of communicating with the viewers and helps them associate with the local area; this again links in with Galtung’s and Ruge’s proximity theory. As my title sequence unfolds you will be able to notice how as the shots cut to one another; name supers of the major city’s and town fade in and out. I have done this as I will be presenting a local news and the individuals watching will be from all across the West Midlands. This in turn creates a sense of familiarity and also makes the reader believe that my TV news is reliable as I will document from all around the different areas and cities and not one particular place.

As our group only consisted of me and Rob, we decided it would be best if we only had one anchor man as the other individual could be used for on location shots and would be a different person as opposed to the same individual. This again added to the sense of realism and professionalism and would encourage the viewers to stay tuned as It would make them feel as they’re watching a professional constructed piece of work. By having only one anchor man we have challenged the conventions of TV news as this is not common for evening news. Furthermore, the attire which the anchor man is wearing conforms with the codes of TV news as he is wearing a black suit, white shirt and a black tie. It was imperative that we adhered to these conventions of attire as it would elicit to the audience that this broadcast possesses that sense of professionalism and that the language which is going to be used also is sophisticated. We used a TV for a back drop and had a long shot of the West Midlands at night from a bird’s eye view. The purpose behind doing this was to not only remind viewers that it was evening news but to also allow them to be a part of the broadcast as this is local news and the audience of my TV news is members within the West Midlands. This in turn allowed us to contextualise the location of the broadcast so they audience felt that sense of proximity.  The anchor man introduces himself and myself on a first and second name basis so the audience is able to engage in the broadcast more clearly as they will know who we are.

The broadcast goes straight into the hard news. In order to construct our media stories correctly we had to ensure that they had relevance and coincided with the theories that were out there and being formally used by professional news broadcasts such as the BBC. For my hard news I used Barthes Enigma theory as he Barthes said that the narrative is about asking questions that the audience will need the answers to, leaving them on a cliff hanger and wanting more. I decided to use this theory and it is evident that I have done so as I also posed a question about the safety of the public within the West Midlands. Rob introduces a vox pop from one of the individuals of West Midlands about the safety fears of West Midlands due to the Paris Attacks and how it has effected her. This further enhances and elicits a sense of empathy amongst the viewer as they will feel as she is one of hers and will feel more engaged to view as what she will say; the audience will resonate with the opinions of local people. Also, by including a vox pop from a female first; this allowed us to challenge gender equality barriers. A soft transition was then made to another individual in a van who had mixed emotions pertaining his safety within the West Midlands. The use of these transitions were to imply a sense of professionalism that the viewers would instantaneously be able to recognise and relate to as existing news broadcasts utilise these simple transitions in order to display how they are trustworthy and not shying away from the topic at hand. These on location shots benefitted us as those who were questioned were regular ordinary people of the West Midlands and not people who the audience were unable to sympathise and relate with.

The cut-shot is then made back to the studio where Rob introduces the next vox pop with DCI grant who is a high ranked police offer. The purpose behind doing this was to get an experts opinion of what was going on and how they are handling the matter. This creates that sense of safety within the audience as they are told not to worry and are provided with facts and statistics of the situation and how it is being handled by the ‘professionals’. This reassurance keeps the viewer engaged. A clean cut transition is then made to DCI grant. The simplicity of the transition is done in order to stimulate recognition of how we have emulated this concept from existing news broadcasts. Original News broadcasts use simple and basic transitions to portray professionalism. They choose not to utilise flamboyant transition as they feel this would distract them from the initial purpose of the news. DCI grant is on location at the police office as she is surrounded by computers which have the police logo on the screen. A name super is used to reinforce that she is a professional and to also create reassurance within the user that everything is being done in order to ensure the safety of the West Midlands. Another cut is made back to the studio where Rob the anchor man talks a little bit about what has been said and what it means to us.

Rob then speaks about the soft news story and introduces me as the field correspondent on location at the school. For my soft news I used Levi Strauss’ Binary Opposition theory as it focused on an excelling student from a prior failing school.  A soft transition is then made to a filler shot where I speak over Lucas the child prodigy. I run down the information that the audience needs to know before continuing to watch. A mixture of filler shots are used including different camera angles such as close up of him typing on the keyboard. This reinforces the audience to the concept that his life currently evolves around continuously working. Another smooth transition is made where the camera pans to Lucas being interviewed. I am off shot in this scene and Lucas is talking away from the camera as he is looking at me whilst the camera records him from a side angle. This is a common feature amongst interviews and I noted this through analysing existing broadcasts so here I have conformed to the existing conventions intentionally so the audience will be able to pick up that sense of professionalism. Another cut is then made to a filler shot of Lucas showing us the prime method. I again speak over this shot and sign off and give the report back to Rob in the studio. The shot is then faded out to Rob in order to allow him to change the topic of story without pacing things. Rob is concise and wastes no time to introduce the weather. After doing so, Rob looks to the left of himself as this is where the weather anchor is normally positioned. This is turn creates a sense of recognition to the viewer as they would have seen this before in previous broadcasts. By also having this smooth transition, it allows the viewer to get ready to receive the weather.

Patricia is our weather anchor and does a fantastic job with all the hand movements which we later through editing placed in weather related effects. Animations such as fog signs, rain symbol and clouds were later imported to elicit a sense of professionalism to the audience. This also makes the weather interesting and does not bore the viewer.

In the bottom right is a name super of the days as Patricia talks about the different days of the weather and what is in store.

A final transition is made to Rob who signs off and notes to stay tuned to see us the same time tomorrow. This reinforces the idea of consistency. Whilst he signs off the jingle slowly fades in and once he is done the shot is cut to an image of our logo with the jingle playing in the background.

Next time, we could improve our news broadcast by changing the size of the font on the name supers and including a time in the bottom right throughout the whole broadcast. We could also animate the logo to make it more interesting to the viewers.

Q3) What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Placed below is the video feedback which I received from Miriam O Riley; who was a guest in our school.

I had to present a presentation breaking down all the codes and conventions which I used over the process of creating my title sequence and an explanation for all the decisions i had made over the process. This portrayed how we have developed existing news broadcasts and integrated the concepts within our local tv news. This in turn allowed us to produce an effective news broadcast.

From my feedback from Miriam O Riley which you can watch above, the first initial comment made by Miriam is that the logo of a bull does not effectively relate to everyone around the West Midlands and only pertains so to those who live within Birmingham as the 'Bull' is located within the city centre of Birmingham. She added on saying that by doing this we were excluding the rest of the members who lived in the West Midlands which ultimately was us pushing away our target audience. Taking this feedback into consideration; we then changed the logo of the bull to a globe. We did this as we felt that by utilising a globe it would pertain to all members of the public who lives within the West Midlands as the globe is a geographical object containing all the countries. This allows me to further target my selected audience as they will be a mixture of ethnicities viewing my broadcast which is reinforced through the globe as it holds all the countries which these individuals are based from. 

Additionally, when talking with Miriam she mention that we were ambiguous with our presentation in terms of our hard news story as it was very sensitive to talk about a terror attack occurring in the West Midlands. Hence why in our final production we changed this and instead related the story to the Paris attacks and then questioned the safety of the West Midlands. This made for a better story as the threat was not direct. Consequently, as request of Miriam we related our hard news story to Barthes's Enigma theory. He stated that the narrative should be based around asking questions which the audience would want answers to. We did this as we asked the question regarding the safety of the public within the West Midlands. This was applied to our news broadcast as we knew it would leave the audience wanting more and in turn make them tune in next time. Through the feedback received from Miriam; she taught us how this would ensure that we keep the attention of the audience. 

Finally, Miriam commented on my presentation skills and said how i was very clear and spoke directly to the audience which allowed for a relation to be created between anchor and audience. This was reinforced in our final news broadcast as even though i wasn't the initial anchor; i made sure that Rob spoke directly to the audience and referred to himself and me by our first names to create a relationship between the audience and anchor. Consequently, as you will see through the broad cast that despite this; Rob is not making direct contact with the lens of the camera, This is done intentionally as the hard news topic is sensitive and quite an emotive topic to talk about. So we did not want to come across as intimidating. 

This is our second audience presentation that me and Rob presented to the class.

This is the feedback which we received from the presentation that we have to our fellow class mates and teacher.

Question 4 - How did you use media technologies in the construction, research, planning and evaluation stages? [05/04/2017]

Research and planning:

To start off, we assessed and analysed various different existing news broadcasts to acquire the conventional codes and conventions which are used throughout all of them. The purpose behind doing so was to ensure that when we created our own new broadcast that we followed these codes and conventions in order make a successful TV news programme that would elicit a sense of familiarity and proximity within the audience. The analysis of these news broadcasts can all be found on press which is a presentation software. Then, in order to really acquire an insight into who I would be targeting I created a questionnaire on survey monkey and handed it out to my selected target audience. From the questionnaire I was able to gather that my target audience for my media product is individuals aged 18+ and will consist of a mix of ethnicities due to the time we have chosen to broadcast our news show. Which is at a peak time of 6pm. Knowing that our audience will be a mix of ethnicities due to us broadcasting local TV news, we also know that the West Midlands is an ethnic diverse region; we made this evident in our News title sequence by including moving images of the areas where these ethnicities are based. This assisted me greatly as by doing so I was able to find out exactly what the viewers would want to see when watching my news broadcast. I was also able to gather other important information such as what time to launch the news. It was from this questionnaire which I gathered that I was going to be creating an evening news.  Moreover, to further enable me to create a professional news broadcast I looked at the different media theorists. I looked at Todorov’s narrative theory where he stated that everything must follow a line of events and that the media project must consist of certain aspects in order for it to be a success. I then went on and looked at Barthes’ enigma theory. Barthes said that the narrative is about asking questions that the audience will need the answers to, leaving them on a cliff hanger. I decided to use this theory and it is evident that I have done so. My hard news story consisted of a question regarding terror, and whether our safety within the West Midlands was at risk. The reason behind this question was solely to attract the attention of the audience. The story will be presented, then as it comes to an end, the question will be answered through the various vox pops with experts and regular members of the public. I went on and looked into Levi Strauss’ Binary Opposition theory. I decided to use this theory and apply it to my soft news story. With this story I focused on an excelling student from Archbishop Ilsley, who has discovered a new prime number, and the impact this has had on the individual and the people around him. As previously; Archbishop Ilsley was failing according to an Ofsted report and now they are excelling.  Furthermore, I researched the different news values and decided to apply Galtung and Ruge’s News Values theory for the initial production of my  TV news programme. I have applied proximity, this in turns means that I have specifically selected stories that are geographically close to my target audience which will more likely have a greater effect on them as this relates to my hard news story of the safety fears around the West Midlands.

Construction

Before the initial creation of our news broadcast we had a lesson in media where we went out into the city centre and recorded various different types of moving and still images. The purpose behind going out into the city centre was because this is seen to be the heart of the West Midlands so by taking footage around the city centre would emulate a sense of recognition to the viewer who would be engaged to carry on watching. To make our camera shots look professional and sophisticated we were provided with Canon 1200DSLR cameras to ensure we’re able to capture every little detail and tripods to reduce any shake that the human hand wouldn’t be able to avoid. We positioned ourselves around different spots in the city centre to capture all the natural movement that surrounded us. When we came to actually filming the shots of us in the studio; we used the drama hut to replicate a desired studio of our choice that we felt our audience would relate most to. The way in which we did this was through the use of sound recorders to ensure that there is no echo and only the voice of the individual speaking is picked up and not any background sounds. We used two DSLR cameras. Both were placed in different positions but when it came to finally using the shots we did not use any of the shots from the second camera. Also, to reduce any shadow and poor low-key lighting we were provided with 4 soft box lights which out of the 4 we used 3 as were going for the evening effect as our news was going to be broadcasted in the evening. Again, we utilised the tripods to ensure that everything was steady and professional. We used a compilation of 2 tables and some cloth to emulate a desk that you would see in a real TV news. To further reiterate the idea of proximity within our broadcast we used a TV for a back drop which had a long shot of the West Midlands at night from a bird’s eye view. The purpose behind doing this was to not only remind viewers that it was evening news but to also allow them to be a part of the broadcast as this is local news and the audience of my TV news is members within the West Midlands. This in turn allowed us to contextualise the location of the broadcast so they audience felt that sense of proximity. Consequently, for the weather report we utilised a green screen which we gave Patricia a script which she had to talk over. When it came to the editing stage we included animations and a desired background of our choice that would relate most to what was being said by Patricia. This in turn would meet the needs of the user as it would give off a sense of realism.

Editing

Finally, once all the footage had been taken that was needed, me and Rob came together and began to edit and put all the shots together and remove any cuts which would not be needed. The software’s that we used consisted of Photoshop, Camtasia and Corel. Each of them were used in different aspects of the editing. Photoshop was used to create the logo and to also edit any particular images that were going to use in our final news broadcast. Corel was where we edited the actual scenes that we had taken and included all the transitions and visual effects that were needed such as colour correcting the images which he had taken outside in poor lighting. We also used Corel to import the sound from the voice recorders and synch them correctly and then mute the initial sound of the clip. This allowed the broadcast to sound clearer and professional which would encourage the viewer to stay engaged as this emulates professionalism. By doing so we were able to ensure that our final TV broadcast is concise and coherent throughout. Corel was used to edit the backdrop of the weather to make it look sophisticated and give off a sense of realism which is just want the audience would expect. We further added moving animations to what Patricia was saying whenever she made hand movements. Consequently, in the production of our Radio ad we used Corel to import the sound from the voice recorder over a stretched image of our logo. We then imported our jingle audio for our news broadcast and lowered the volume so it could be heard in the background while Rob speaks over the ad. This allowed us to portray continuity as the jingle is used throughout our news production. Finally, all the work which we completed was then uploaded to blogger which could be accessed and viewed by anyone with the correct link. This also allowed our teachers to view our work and leave us with any feedback which they felt was necessary.

Some elements could be improved such as the sound for the first few clips were slightly echoic. This was due to us losing the sound recording of those clips which could be prevented next time by us being more careful.