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

My Newspaper

The newspaper I created tries to conform to many of the conventions usually found within existing newspapers. The masthead is found at the top of the front page, and consists of white text on a red background. This is done by many national and local newspapers to make it stand out and catch the attention of potential readers. The main headline is in large black lettering and in full capitals letter which is done to relay the importance of the story as well as to again catch the attention of readers. My newspaper also contains 3 pictures, two of which are connected to the main headline and take up a large amount of space. These pictures are there to help the reader connect with the story, making it more personal and therefore relatable. Only a small part of the main story is shown on my front page, similarly to existing newspapers. They do this so that the reader, once invested in the story will open the paper to find the story and in doing so, read the majority of the newspaper. All stories also have by-lines to identify to the reader who wrote the story. My main story is no exception and I have added a by-line to the beginning of my story and my newspaper also has adverts, similarly to existing newspapers. The support/secondary story of my newspaper is on the right, another example of the conventions I have followed, such as including the address for the newspapers website.
The inside page of this newspaper continues to follow the conventions of newspapers such as containing a contents page. Not every newspaper has this but many do. The main story from the front page continues on this page. The inside page also has a picture and list of members of the news team that help create the newspaper. Similarly to the contents page not every newspaper does this, mainly just a few local papers but as mine is meant to be local too I thought it would be a suitable convention to include. I didn’t follow all conventions of newspapers however, and I tried to challenge conventions to make my newspaper unique by including a list of the top 10 artist in the UK music charts at the time. I wanted to include something original in my production so this is what I did as no other newspaper does this.