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

What are conventions of media products and our research into them

A convention of a media product is a typical element to a media product that is commonplace which the audience expect to see. Depending on the form of media product and the genre in which it is based in there will be certain elements that an audience will expect to see, for example images of the shows broadcasted on a TV's channel website. We decided on launching our own TV channel that was going targeted at a target audience of young adults that would enjoy innovative and edgier programming. We therefore researched into what conventions you would typically see on such a channel and we took inspiration from channels such as E4 who's ethos and target audience were similar to ours. We noticed typical conventions of the media products we were going to create based on our channel ethos was programming that related to the audience, e.g. The Inbetweeners is a comedy show on E4 based on students in the sixth form therefore the characters in that show will fall into the same age bracket as the audience. Another convention we noticed was references to social media including links to the channels social media pages as the majority of the audience would be in the age bracket that most commonly use social media. We noticed a number of other different conventions, some of which we used, developed and challenged in order to create the most accurate products we could make to successfully attract our target audience.

Logo

We stuck to many conventions when it came to creating our logo such as keeping the font colour consistent with our channels house style. The predominant colour we chose for our house style was indigo hence the name of the channel as we thought this summarized our channels ethos in that we are an alternative channel providing new and innovative programming. Most logos have more to them though than just the title of the channel therefore we wanted to add something that would make it stand out. We chose to include eyeballs as this symbolized that eyes would be on our product and this was a typical convention of a logo to include a special featured to it that helped it to stand out. We also used this same logo on all of the products we created as this kept a level of consistency throughout and made our logo identifiable. 

Behind the Scenes Video

Another convention we used was to include some interactive features on our website such as a behind the scenes video. We based our website around the launch of our new channel and a new show. It gives the audience a backstage look and insider view of a new show and builds the level of anticipation and excitement for the premiere of the show. We included the video to make the website more appealing to the audience as we didn't just want text and images as it would deter the audience from the website. Getting the view of the cast in the show helps the audience to understand what to expect from the show and will hopefully encourage them to watch.

Social Media Links

One of the other conventions we used was to include links to social media pages. This helped the branding of our channel as we could branch out and help to promote our channel to people on Twitter and Facebook. We included this throughout our products because it allowed everyone to see our channel was represented on social media and therefore if they had taken an interest in our channel they would want to follow our social media pages for news and updates. Also our age demographic of young adults commonly use social media therefore it made sense to target our audience using such a method as sharing on social media could easily get more eyes on our product and therefore more people viewing our content.

TV Channel Numbers and Launch Date

Another convention we used was the channel numbers and launch date included on our products. This informed the audience of what channel numbers our programming would be broadcasted on and when the channel would be launched. We included this on our products so that the audience would keep noticing it therefore if they were to tune into our channel they would remember what number to tune into and when to watch. This is why we made the channel numbers and launch date stand out on our products such as the newspaper advertisement seen above so it was very noticeable and therefore easier to remember for the audience. Many TV Channels include their channel number on their product and launch date because the advertising and promotion they do would be worthless if the audience didn't know how or when to tune into their channel so this was a vital convention we felt we needed to include on our products.

Tag Lines

One of the conventions we used to help promote our channel was a range of taglines. We kept these taglines consistent both in their message and the language we used. We wanted to reflect the channel ethos in our taglines in that it was a new, alternative channel that would provide entertainment and new programming to peoples lives. Therefore we specifically used words like new, exciting, alternative, fresh and colour in our taglines these were all words associated with our channel ethos and reflected the genre and style of programming that would be broadcasted on Indigo TV. We also used a wide range of fonts and colours when creating our taglines and including them on our products and specifically chose which fonts and colours we feel would stand out well, would be most noticeable to the audience and what would remain consistent with our house style.

The Coffee Shop

One of the conventions we felt we developed and challenged was that we decided to base the launch of our TV Channel heavily around one show. This challenges the convention because mostly with the launch of a TV channel they will provide small snippets of multiple content they will broadcast. However we felt that if we put our strongest content out there and based the launch of the channel around it, it would gain interest. We didn't want to be vague and provide small information on multiple programs because he felt that wouldn't garner much interest. However he felt if we put a lot of effort into the promotion of one show in our case The Coffee Shop there would be more chance of people gaining an interest. And if people were interested enough that they watched The Coffee Shop in the process they would be viewing our channel and therefore would be exposed to all our other content that they may enjoy.

Newspaper Advertisement

One of the conventions we felt we developed and challenged was what we included on the Newspaper Advertisement. The advertisement was distinctively different to our other products firstly in choice of colour. We used a black background which challenged the rest of our channel's house style as our predominant colours up until then had been indigo and white. However with the black background this allowed all the content included on the advertisement to heavily stand out. The image of the dancing people for example clearly stands out on the black background and the black background gives emphasis to the multi-coloured people we used on the image. It also helped the taglines, logo, launch date, channel number information and social media links to stand out as well so we challenged this convention in that we didn't stick to a predominant house style throughout but we believe we did this to good effect to create an overall better and more visually appealing advert.

Conclusion

In conclusion I think we stuck to the majority of the conventions of TV channel promoting however we did not set out to do that before we began creating our products. We as a group agreed that we would use, develop or challenge any conventions as long as it made sense to do so and overall contributed to creating better products. We used the conventions that we felt necessary and would help to attract and audience however we did not hesitate to develop or challenge certain conventions if it would help to create better products and expand our audience. Also our channel ethos was that we are an alternative, unconventional broadcaster therefore we would obviously challenge certain conventions we picked up from such broadcasters as the BBC as their ethos is entirely different. However we would use a lot of conventions we found in research into a channel like E4 which was very similar to ours both in ethos and style. Therefore we felt that all the conventions we either used, developed or challenged helped to create the best products we could helping to make them more realistic and create a sense of anticipation among our audience for the launch.