Evaluation - Newspaper

Evaluation

This is the newspaper article that I used as my main influence to create my own Daily Mail front cover. We were assigned a task to replicate a Daily Mail cover, including selected stories, advertisement and a gender stereotype/targeted skyline at the top. The paper above demonstrates the layout of text and images that I was able to look at whilst making my own; whilst ensuring the font matched up and the text was the same size, and the language used would be difficult to identify which cover was the real one and which was mine. 

What programmes did you use to complete the task?
Firstly, I used Photoshop to edit the Christmas holly onto a dark blue text box, similarly to the one on the official Daily Mail newspaper. This meant changing the shape, size and position of the image against the advert section - including text in a while bold font to stand out. Despite the advertisement being small, the colour of it is significant so that it still grabs the attention of the reader. On the other hand, I used Publisher to put together the article in the same way the other one is presented. Publisher allowed me to set the page as an A3 size and compose the piece, editing along the way.

What tools did you use to create the task?
On Photoshop the following tools and skills were used:
- Cropping of images and text boxes to fit the content
- Brightening of images to make more engaging
- Move tool
- Inserting text to make the advert
- Sampling colour onto the text box

Other than Photoshop I used:
- Safari to search for appropriate images, such as Christmas lounge-wear, Ant and Dec from I'm A Celebrity, Daily Mail logo, holly berries and a print screen of the Daily Mail title (created online)
- Safari to identify the fonts used on a Daily Mail front cover  

- A colour gradient text box, fading from black to burgundy, used for the skyline

What are the biggest obstacles to completing your task?
When creating my newspaper I faced some obstacles that had I had to overcome in order to make the front cover convincing and accurate, like the official one. The following things demonstrated difficulty:
- Finding the correct font for the Headline and Master head
- The sizing of text contrasting the images
- Using appropriate images to use on a newspaper front cover
- Writing the correct terminology in the form Daily Mail would

- Keeping the colour scheme the same as the official copy

Describe your production and why you chose the various text headings and images?

To show an accurate representation of a newspaper, I needed to use a dramatic heading to entice the reader. I wrote "ENERGY DRINKS ARE DECREASING YOUR CHILD'S IQ". Using a bold statement such as this would interest any parent who has children (especially young children and teenagers). I used the Christmas pyjamas because they are stylish and would be worn be a varied audience, therefore the image will appeal to the readers. 

What was your initial feedback? What did others say about your production?

Initially the feedback that I received was to change the headline font and to ensure there was limited space in between content and images on the cover. It had to represent features of a real Daily Mail newspaper, and the first response was to work on a few things in order to do that. Improvements to the paper were to change the images in the skyline because it wasn't relevant to the promotion. The newspaper was in the time period leading up to Christmas and I had inserted a bikini image in the summer. People wouldn't be thinking about summer and dieting at Christmas time. So I changed the title to fit the time period. 

Identify what went well and with hindsight what would you do differently?
What went well was the accuracy of the newspaper - meaning the font of the headline, the short line spacing between the text, the skyline colour and title and advertisement. Changes I would make to the front cover would be the colour of the advertisement box from a dark purple to a lighter one, similarly to the front cover I used as influence. I would have made the masterhead less fuzzy by finding a way not to stretch the text.