QUESTION 4) H

OW DID YOU USE MED

IA

TECHNOLO

GIES IN

THE CONSTR

UCTION,

RESEARCH AND PL

ANNING AND

EVALUATI

ON?

B Y LO R E T T A T

H O M P S O N

MAIN MEDIA TECHNOLOGY The way in which I broadcasted the whole of A Level Media Studies coursework, not just the research andplanning, was through Blogger. The reason I used Blogger as it was an easy for me to update day to day, using Blogger as a digital diary. As well as this, I was able to show the journey of how I researched real media texts, planned my own main task and ancillary texts, all the way to the construction in which we created our products. It was also easy for myself to keep track of my progress throughout the course.In addition, Blogger made it possible and straight forward for myself, to embed images and other means of media technologies in which I showcased my research and planning (all of which will be included in the presentation.)

PLANNING AND RESEARCH

I used a range of media technologies for my planning and research including a presentation software called Prezi. This allowed me to present my research of TV news programmes in a creative and interesting way, rather than just using Microsoft PowerPoint slides the whole way throughout.

Another presentation software which I used was Slide Share.This allowed me to embed all my Power Point slides in one presentation, rather than individual slides.

To research a range of local and national TV news programmes, I used the internet and the website, Youtube. Thiss website in particular let me view a wide range of TV news programmes, for example ITV Central, Newsround etc…From this, I was able to gain a wide spectrum of knowledge on TV news programmes, and I could then narrow it down to just local TV news. I didn’t just have to use computers for this research as I also installed the Youtube app on my phone. By downloading this, I go watch and research TV news programmes on the go, by using my 3G internet.

PLANNING AND RESEARCH

I then used Survey Monkey. This let other people I didn’t hand out the form to, to answer my questionnaire. I felt that this media technology is very beneficial environmentally wise, as it would save considerable amounts of paper, especially if I wanted to reach out to a mass amount of people. It also allowed me to gain some audience information, outside of the school as people from home are able to fill out this questionnaire, as well as people that I don’t know.

I used Microsoft Word to create my questionnaire out in which I gave out to my vertical tutor group and also subject teachers. Using this media technology allowed me to easily write out my chosen questions, print it out and hand it to the people filling out them out. When I received them back, I was able to read the answers and specify whom my target audience were.

PLANNING AND RESEARCHI obtained images of people filling out my questionnaires for evidence. Instead of just uploading them images straight onto Blogger, I decided to download an app called Flipagram onto my iPhone. This app allowed to create a video which contained all the images I took, as well as adding background music, providing a more interesting and creative way to display my images.

After accumulating the answers from my questionnaire, I used Microsoft Excel to put down the data for each question. I then turned this data from written answers and circles into bar charts and pie charts. This provided a more readable and understandable format for my data to be, rather than stay in the same confusing format. From this, it let me compare responses with ease and notice any patterns.

PLANNING AND RESEARCH Videoed responses were another media technology which I used for a part of my audience research. This allowed me to get my fellow peers opinions on local TV news programmes, focusing on that my age group.In addition, my A2 class received a response from Bob Hall, a presenter on The Midlander. This video made it easier for the class to understand the responses which Bob explained. We were also able to see again, what a real news studio looks like.

As I wanted to find out ideas of soft and hard stories, I thought using social media, especially Twitter, and viewing local TV news accounts would be a good idea. With ease, I was able to grab concepts of different types of stories which these TV news programmes have used. This gave me to some ideas to use for my own news stories.

CONSTRUCTIONFor the construction of my local TV news logo, I used Photoshop. This software had tools which I was able to use. For example, I used the text tool to write each initial of my acronym on different layers. This software also allowed me to import an image of a train from the internet and create in to my idea of a silhouette, by using the magic wand tool. The end quality of my logo looked professional and that of a real media product.

For recording I used the Canon DV Digital Video Camera Camcorder and for taking images I used the Nikon Digital SLR camera. The reason for using these media technologies is because they both produce high quality images, of which would look suitable for a professional TV news programme.With these media technologies, I was able to also zoom in on certain things, in order to pinpoint that they are important in the story. In addition, I was able to zoom in and out with ease, so that my local TV news programme wasn’t just boring and lifeless still images.

I used a boom mic to get high quality sound during the recording of my news studio and also for the recording of my radio trailer. This ensure the sound was that of a real media product.

I used a green screen in order to allow for the weather update to have high quality images as the background; as seen in real media products. The editing of this stage was done by using the Mass Chroma Key tool which is featured on the CoralX8 software.

CONSTRUCTIONI used CoralX8 for the construction of my main task and two ancillary texts, making it the most prominent media technology that I used throughout the course. When I first started of using this software I found it quite difficult as I wasn’t sure how to do certain tasks. However, as time went by, I got to grips with this industry standard software. I felt so comfortable in using this software that I used it for all three tasks. With ease I was able to edit, crop and merge images, videos and audio together; which I found useful, especially in order to out take mistakes. There was also a range of effects, fonts, colours and transitions which were suitable for a TV news programme. I was able to use this in order to make my media product look as authentic as possible. When I finished each task I then easily rendered it as a video and was able to put up onto Youtube then to my Blogger.

EVALUATIONFor my evaluation question 1, I used Windows Movie Maker 10 in order to showcase how my media product uses, develops, or challenges forms and conventions of real media products. I thought that this software would be the best to do so, as I was able to include images in the video. This allowed me to speak on top of the images, explaining the similarities between real media products and my own. It was a create way of comparing between them. I used Emaze, which is an online presentation software. I

answered question 2 using this media technology as I had plenty of room to explain the effectiveness of my combination of the main task and ancillary texts, instead of just writing it down on paper or Microsoft Word; which would have been quite basic and less sleek.

For my third question, I decided to straight off record myself using the Cannon Digital recorder, and then upload it to Youtube. This allowed me to explain what I learned from my audience feedback and what I done in response to that feedback.