What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

After we finished producing our newspaper and subsidary tasks, we asked 5 members of the public to complete a short questionaire, that judged our production's authenticity when compared to other newspapers already available to buy.

The questions asked and the answer options were as follows:

1. Does the newspaper look authentic when compared to other local papers already available to buy? (we showed the person completing the questionaire three examples of local newspapers when they answered this question). The answer options were "yes, this looks like a genuine newspaper that I would read," "With a few improvements, this newspaper could be made to look authentic (please state these improvements)" and "no, the 'Portishead Beacon' looks like an amateur production (please state why this is the case)".

2. Do the radio advert and poster look/sound at a standard that you would want to look at/ listen too? The answer options were "there were no local radio adverts to compare this radio advert too, nonethless, it was a good production," "the radio advert was a poor production (if so please state why this is the case," "the poster looked authentic" and "the poster did not look professional (why is this your opinion?)". One option had to be chosen for the radio advert and poster.

3. Any other comments to make?

After we had asked these questions we looked over the answers that they gave us and analyses them and applied them to the question; What have you learned from you audience feedback?

Person number one; We showed them the Mercury and the Evening post along with our own newspaper. They said that our newspaper showed alot of 'authenicity' when placed next to two real newspapers especially the layout of both of our front pages and the types of pictures taken. This person really took a liking to both of our local heros pages and the stories that we covered on them, and that if it was a real feature they would like to read about it.



On the second question about our radio/poster, even though their were no radio adverts to compare it to they said that it sounded like something that would be heard on a radio and that the sound effects went really well with the 'theme' of our newspaper. Also with the poster they thought the link with the portishead author was a good way to attract people in and that the book was a good/comon idea used by newspapers and has always been successful



Person number 2; Just like person 1, we showed person 2 the same newspapers (Mercury and The Evening Post) as these were the newspapers we used in our previous research. This person also thought our newspaper looked like an authentic newspaper and that our logo and newspaper name went well together expecially with it being a portishead newspaper. They liked our local heros page, and took an interest into our main story on the July front page.



On the second quesiton this person also liked our radio advert and the idea of promoting our newspaper through a conversation rather than someone just telling the public straight up as it makes it less boring and thought the sound effects fitted it really well. They also thought the idea of giving a book away when collecting tokens is a good way to get people to buy the newspaper and the poster that advertised it was clearly set out and was easy to read.



Person number 3; We also showed this person the same newspapers as the other two people and they had similar comments to make about our own newspaper. They said 'if they saw it in a shop next to any of these newspapers it would blend in', which we interpreted as a good comment as this means ours wouldnt stand out and look amature.



On the second question they commented on how they had never heard a radio advert for a newspaper before and thought the idea we had come up with (the captain having a conversation with the sound of waves breaking) sounded like a real one and complimented our newspaper. The poster showed really clearly what it was advertising and the limited ammount of information made you want to find out more about this offer.





Person number 4; Like all of the other people we also showed this person the same newspapers along with the newspaper we made and asked them to compare the authenticity of our newspaper along with the real ones. This person said that it had very similar conventions to to the real ones especially pointing out the layout of ours against The Evening Post and was very interested in the types of stories we had come up with for both of our front pages.



On the second question this person liked the radio advert and the sound effects that went with it although they did say that we could have made it a little longer, and with the poster although it gave out a clear message of what it was advertising a little more information about the newspaper itself would have been helpful



Person number 5; This person had very similar comments to the people above. They also agreed that our newspaper had the authenticity to be like a real newspaper and covered the types of stories that a local newspaper would publish. The set up of the photos worked will with the types of stories especially the group dance photo and the traffic light photo. The adverts that were made looked like real adverts you would find in other newspapers especially the resturant one. However the taxi advert could of had a picture on it like other adverts but the colours used on that advert went well as they were the colours you associate with taxi's.



On the second question this person really enjoyed listening to our radio advert and said it was an entertaining catchy advert that makes you want to listen to it when you hear it coming on. 'The poster also gave a clear indication of what it was advertising as soon as you look it which is the main aim of the poster'



To sumerise all of these responses up the main thing we have learnt is that the 'Portishead Beacon' has the look of real local newspapers which is what we want so we hve achieved our main goal. There were specific things that people picked out that made it really look like a real newspaper, was the layout of both front pages, specific photos, conventions on the newspaper, adverts and types of stories that we have covered. As these were the main things that people picked out it seems like these are our strong points and that looked the most authentic. However one of the comments made picked out that on our taxi advert we could have applied a photo so we have learnt that if we were to do it again that maybe on all of our adverts we would put photos on them as this seems to be what people like. Also no specific comment was made on our logo so perhaps next time we could have made more specific audience research to see whether they liked our line drawing of the Portishead lighthouse or whether they would have rather had a photo or maybe a different logo all together.



To sumerise the comments made on our poster/radio advert, we thought that they both went quite well together. People took a particular liking to the radio advert considering there wernt any to compare it to and they seemed to be impressed with the sound effects that we used and how well they went with the 'theme' of our newspaper. One person said that they would of liked our radio advert to be longer but we discussed this and felt that if our radio advert would have been any longer then people may have lost interest and perhaps changed the radio to a different channel. We had many comments on how well our poster advertised the free book when you collect 4 tokens and that it was a good way of promoting our newspaper through poster form. Although one comment stated that the poster could have had a little more information, we also discussed this and said that perhaps it could have stated maybe the price of the newspaper but apart from that we couldn't think of anything else that wouldn't of over crowded it. Over all we thought that the audience feedback we had received was positive and that our media product was looked like an authentic piece that we were proud of.


Apart from this piece of audience feedback, if you go back to the start of our blog you will find how our audience research on local newspapers influenced many of our decisions and a detailed analysis of what people enjoyed about their local newspapers. Also throughout many of the posts in our blog we have stated why we have put certain things in due our audience research at the start. For example many people stated they liked crime and sport stories so we have applied this to the July front page about the Mr Watkins story and the local heros feature on table tennis.

We also did a video of someone from our main targeet audience to see what they had to say about our newspaper...