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It is conventional for a double page spread article to contain a set of code

and conventions which hare rules generally accepted and understood when
creating and producing media products.
The headline or otherwise known as the main title is usually located across
the top of the page. Its the conventionally the biggest font on the page and
tells the reader what the article is going to be about. For my double page
spread I wanted to follow this convention, as it would notify the reader what
the article is about and be bold on the page so it would grab the reader's
attention. We chose to use the bright bold colour red to make the headline
stand out on the page and decided to use slogan for the title so it would be
catchy and memorable in the readers mind facilities for disabilities. The real
media product that I will be comparing my media product to is the Radio
Times A year in the life of a shepherd double page spread also uses a
headline, however I felt that the use of white for the title was quite boring
and neutral and didnt stand out on the page or grab the readers attention.
The focus was also taken of the main title as it was located at the very edge
of the left hand side of the page and wasnt near any of the hotspots in the
rule of thirds. For my double page spread we decided to place the headline
right at the top of the page so it would be noticeable straight away to the
reader, by following this convention wanted to make the double page spread
a professional as possible and create an immediate impact for the reader.

It is also conventional for a double page spread article to begin with a drop
cap indicating where the article begins. We decided to use a drop cap in our
real media product, as we wanted to clearly show the audience where the
article stared and also make it look as professional as possible. The real
media product also used drop caps however in the article two drop caps are
used which is considered unconventional in real media texts. We decided to
follow the convention rather than subvert it like the radio times article.

We decided to subvert the convention of having a main image on the double


page spread. Instead we decided to use multiple smaller images than all
related to the article. We decided to place three images of people that we
had interviewed in a square like structure on the middle of the page. All the
images were mid shots and featured various mise-en-scene such as a
computer and desk in front of the principle indicating that he is a professional
and a white cane or stick held by a disabled student indicating to the
audience that she has a visual impairment. We also decided to place an
image in the bottom left hand corner of the left hand page. We chose not to
have one main image as we felt all the images all had the same importance
and wanted the layout of the documentary to focus on the text itself. In
contrast to this the Radio Times A year in the life of a shepherd did follow
codes and conventions and used a main image, which covered the top two
thirds of the two pages. The image connotes farms or farming, as the image
is a herd of sheep walking through a field. The image is eye catching for the
reader and does make the double page spread more visually interesting.

Now seening this real media product I believe it would have had a greater
impact on the reader if we did feature a main image within the article.

To accompany the images we followed codes and conventions and used


captions to further explain the images to the reader. A caption is a brief
description accompanying an image. We wanted to make it clear to the
reader who the people in the images were and how they related to the
article. The Radio times also included captions to add extra information about
the images featured in the article. I am pleased that we chose to use captions
as it included that extra detail that help to inform the reader and also helped
to link the images to the article and explain their relevance.

For our media product we decided the layout should consist of three vertical
columns on the left side of the page. We wanted all the columns to be equal
in width to create a professional layout. In comparison to this radio Times
chose to use four small columns located at the bottom third of the page. We
decided to follow conventions, as we wanted the article itself to be a main
focus within the article.

Quotations are regularly used within media texts such as double page
spreads and are group of words taken from a text or speech and repeated by
someone other than the original author or speaker. We included one quote
from the documentary to link the to products together and give the reader a
sense of what to expect if they were to watch the documentary after reading
the TV listing article. Similarly to this A year in the life of a shepherd also
uses quotes in the same way. The quote reveals a little more about what the
reader can expect in the documentary and creates a link between the two
products.
In addition to this Stuart Halls encoding and decoding theory can be applied
to both mine and the radio times double page spread. The writer of the radio
times article encoded that farming was a hard, unrewarding job which was
decoded by readers like myself. I believe this was the preferred reading the
writer wanted the reader to take from the article. Similarly to this our article
also encodes the message that the college doesn't meet the needs of the
physically disabled students and staff through the use of real life examples
such as Suzanne not being able to do certain admin tasks. I believe our target
audience decoded this message and understood this overall meaning of the
text.
Documentary
In order to see if my documentary developed or challenged codes and
conventions of real media products I decided to compare it to a BBC three

documentary ' The world's worst place to be disabled' which was aired in
2015. I chose to compare this documentary with mine as we decided that our
documentary would be aired on BBC 3 and they have similar audiences.
For my documentary I wanted to follow codes and conventions and include as
I had learnt from my audience research that both my secondary and primary
audience would want to see an expert interview in the documentary. In my
documentary we decided to interview the principle of the Solihull Sixth Form
college Paul Ashdown to see if he thought that the college met the needs of
those who were physically disabled. Through gate keeping we cut down Paul's
interview to what we thought to be most important information and mediated
the piece so that the audience can understand that the college can't meets
everyone's needs and sometimes it can cause barriers for students and
members of staff. Similarly to this the BBC's documentary also included
experts in the documentary. The first interview that takes place is an expert
interview carried out by the presenter of the documentary. The presenter
interviews a member of staff from the human rights watch and asks her
'what's the worst place to be disabled' which is the documentaries topic. The
question is then asked again at the end of the documentary to another expert
in Ghana to reflect on the documentaries findings. This is an example of
circular narrative as the documentary goes full circle and comes back to the
original question. As we only created the first 5 minutes of our documentary
we didnt have an ending, but if we were to finish making the documentary I
would also return to the original question to reflect on our findings. Like my
documentary other interviews also take place; some with experts and some
with witnesses such as people who are disabled and living on the streets in
Ghana. These witnesses are similar to my witnesses Rebecca and Suzanne
Medley as they relay their personal experiences . I'm glad we were able to
interview and film the witnesses real life experiences as it helped create
actuality in the documentary. Actuality is featured within my documentary as
we follow student Rebecca around to see how she gets around the school and
how she interacts with her friends and how they give her various help.
Actuality is a big part of the BBC's documentary as its focus is to see what it's
like to live and be disabled in Ghana. We wanted to use actuality to reveal
what it was like to be at school and disabled and we wanted the audience to
understand these real life events that occur every day.
Another code and convention frequently used in documentaries are voice
over's. We decided to have a voice over in our documentary so we could give
the audience extra information when needed and explain what was
happening in a linear structure. Like our documentary BBC's 'worst place to
be disabled' documentary had a voice over as well as a presenter. We
decided not to use a presenter as we thought it was a sensitive topic which
we wanted our audience to form their own conclusions on and we felt having
a presenter could allows us to express our own view to the audience. As we
wanted the documentary to have a fairly observational mode we didnt want
the audience to feel we were pushing our own personal view points across.
We believed that we have a mixed style type of documentary as it includes
interviews, an observational mode and narrative to help advance the topic of
the argument. In contrast to this I think the BBC's documentary is self

reflective as the presenter who is also the subject in the documentary


acknowledges the presence of the camera.
In our documentary we used the code and conventions of vox pops to get an
understanding of how much students actually know on the topic. The vox
pops were used at various times in the documentary and helped the
documentary to progress in a fast pace. However the BBC's did not follow this
convention and didnt use vox pops at all throughout the documentary. I
believe this is because the documentary focuses on interviewing witnesses
about their experiences and experts that there was no need for vox pops to
be used. I'm happy we followed convention and used vox pops as it allowed
the audience to get a good understanding how much students know on the
topic.
Both mine and the BBC's documentary use Levi-Strauss' binary opposites
within the documentary. For our documentary we wanted to show students
with a disability as good and powerless and the college that creates barriers
for them bad and powerful. We did this through mediation and made Rebecca
look timid and powerless for her interview as she is talking about how the
college sometimes doesnt meet her needs. We show the college being
powerful through using various shots such as an upward pan of the stairs to
indicate a high level of power. Similarly to this the BBC's documentary also
uses binary opposites of the powerful and powerless as the show people that
are disabled being chained up in a spiritual camps unable to leave and there
oppressors being in possession of lots of money and power within these
camps and them actually hitting and shouting abuse at the disabled people.
I'm glad I used binary opposites in the documentary as it shows the audience
a clear argument or conflict which they can come to their own opinion on
although the preferred reading would be that the college is bad and aren't
meeting the all the needs of those who have a disability.
For our introduction to our documentary we decided to accompany it with
some upbeat music that keeps the documentary fast paced and helps to grab
the audience's attention and intrigue them. Our target audience said that
they enjoyed the music and thought it was positive and uplifted the serious
tone of the documentary. The BBC's documentary also used music for the
introduction, which had the same effect as our documentary, it made it
upbeat and fast paced. However the BBC didn't only use the music in the
introduction like our documentary but instead throughout, mainly used as
ambient music which reflected the atmosphere of the documentary. After
seeing the music used in this way I believe we should have used the music
more frequently throughout the documentary to help reflect the tone of the
documentary.
Archival footage is another code and convention we used in our documentary.
We used the archival footage at the end of the documentary to show all the
websites the audience could go to get extra information on the topic.
However the BBC's documentary didn't use any archival footage as all the
footage was the presenters experience in Ghana. I'm glad I used archival
footage as it allowed use to show a part of a PowerPoint that was created to
encourage people to speak out about their disability. If we were to make the

rest of the documentary I would feature more of the PowerPoint in. Unlike the
BBC documentary our documentary didn't challenge any forms of
documentaries as we wanted it to appear as professional as possible to the
audience. I happy we did this and followed the codes and conventions as it
made the product look like a real life documentary.
Radio Advert
Length
Music tracks- target audience
Voice over - direct adress
Sound bites from doc
begining middle and end -linear narrative
Date tmime chnnel
In order to see if my radio advert developed or challenged codes and
conventions of real radio adverts, I compared it to the BBC's Radio 4 advert
for 'The Untold'. I chose to use the advert from this radio station as it is part
of the same media conglomerate that we would show our documentary on
(BBC 3). For our radio advert we decided to have it on for the duration of 60
seconds. It is conventional for radio adverts to either be 30 or 60 seconds
long. We chose to use the longer option as we wanted to include all the
important information such as the date, time and channel it would be aired
on as well as giving the listener a brief idea about what would be included in
the documentary. In contrast to this the BBC's radio advert was 30 seconds
but it also managed to get in all the important credentials and sound bites
from the series. I feel that having a 30 seconds advert would have been just
as successful as our 60 second one. However I am very satisfied with our
radio advert and feel that everything we included gives the listener a good
understanding about what the documentary focuses on.
It is also conventional to have a voice over to explain to the listener when the
documentary or series will be aired, and any other information about the
documentary itself to persuade the listener to watch it. For our radio advert
we used the voice over to relay some facts on the topic, 'It is against the law
for a school or other educational provider to treat disabled students
unfavourably. This ranges from harassment, discrimination and victimisation.'
Similarly to this the BBC's radio advert also used a voice over but it was
mainly used to described who created the documentary, what it's called and
when it airs next on TV. I'm glad we used our voice over to give extra
information as being a listener myself I know little about what is going to be
the BBC's series of 'The Untold' whereas from our audience feedback we
know that our audience understood clearly what was going to be in the
documentary after hearing the radio advert.

Cultivation theory can be applied to our radio advert as the repetition of


being exposed to this advert could affect the listeners opinions and values on
the topic and intrigue them to watch the documentary. With the use of the
sound bite where expert Paul Ashdown says' I think physically disabled is an
incredibly wide wide term and there no way one college could meet the
needs of all those who have a physical disability.' A passive audience could
decode this information and believe that educational institutions do not meet
the needs of the physically disabled, however an active audience may not
agree with this statement encouraging them to watch the documentary to
get sense of both sides of the argument.
We used sound bites in the documentary to demonstrate to the listener a
little part of what the documentary would include. To develop this convention
we wanted to use a range of different sound bites to show the various
opinions within the documentary such as the expert Paul Ashdown, witness
Rebecca and a female vox-pop. The BBC's radio advert also uses sound bites
within their radio advert which they included responses from people they
have interviewed within the series. I'm happy we used the sound bites as
from our audience feedback we understand that they allowed the listener to
get a better idea of what the documentary would include and they got to see
a snippet of what these people's opinions were.
We wanted to use the same upbeat music from the documentary in the radio
advert to link the two products together and make the radio advert
interesting and appeal to our primary and secondary audiences of students
aged 15-20 and teachers and parents. I'm glad we followed this convention to
feature a music track as it uplifted the radio advert which is based around a
serious topic, and we felt if we used sad slow music our audience would
believe that the documentary would be depressing and boring. In contrast to
his BBC's 4 radio advert did use slow, sad music to reflect the tone of the
series. I'm happy that we didn't do this as listening to the advert myself I do
think it sounds bleak and gloomy and personal I wouldn't want to watch it
after hearing this advert.

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