Wednesday, 8 May 2013

Evaluation Question 4

How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

This year instead of working alone, I decided to work with Ruth as a pair. We thought this would be a good idea and beneficial, as together we could combine our skills and knowledge. Whilst deciding which brief to do this year, we felt that we should pick one that would challenge us to create something  which we hadn't already done, allowing us to develop our media skills. We chose to do the website brief as the internet is a world-wide phenomenon, and almost everybody within our society uses it, often in place of other media areas such as newspapers. The work we did last year and the skills we learned helped us with our research, planning and production of our task this year.

For the research, Ruth and I chose to each research two websites each. As we were working in a group but had two separate blogs, we published the two we had done on our own blogs, and added links to the other persons blog. I looked at the Channel 4 website and the BBC3 website. Whilst conducting the research, I was looking at the style of the website, layout, features, images etc. I wanted to be as aware of what a typical television channel website includes as I could be so as to emulate this in my own work. Ruth and I discussed our research and used it to help us create the website for 21TV. Although the websites we researched were not aimed only at females, many of the shows and genres were similar to what we created.

For the planning, Ruth and I had no strict plan of what we were going to create, but we had a good idea of the target audience, and the genres of show we wanted to include. We decided that we would each create shows, with images and information about them to put on the website. I created three shows, all of which fell into different categories. 'Ayre you Ready?' is a reality show similar to the popular MTV shows Geordie Shore and the American version Jersey Shore. 'Make Me Up' which is a beauty show and 'The Dark Side of Drugs' a documentary which is more on the serious side. Once I had created the images and text I added them to the website. We used a template from the wix website, which I feel was a good idea as allowed us to have a guide but fill it with our own ideas and content and so still following the codes and conventions of the professional websites.

This year, I used prezi slideshows to present my evaluation. I wanted to make my blog a little more interesting, and create something I had not done last year. I think they are a fun yet clear way of presenting work and information, and it allowed me to go a step further with the media technology and skills I have used throughout this project. 

The only thing I would have done differently this year, is to have made my own posts of the editing and construction of the website, and to show more clearly the steps in how I went about doing things. However, I am very pleased with our products and think working in a group with Ruth was definitely a good decision as all the joint efforts and team work have paid off. 

Evaluation Question 3

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Evaluation Question 2

Evaluation Question 1

Website Editing Posts

The way our project has turned out, is that Ruth has been the one publishing most of the posts about the editing and creation of the website. I haven't included all of these as I felt it would be unnecessary to repeat all this information on my blog, however they are all able to be viewed on Ruth's blog.

Tuesday, 7 May 2013

Completed Website

The 21TV website has now been published and can be accessed here:

Completion of Products

As we are working in a pair, Ruth and I each chose to do one ancillary piece each. Ruth created the newspaper advertisement, and I created the double page spread. The link to Ruth's  finished newspaper advertisement can be found here.

Completed Newspaper advertisement

Completed Double page spread


Double Page Spread

I have completed the task of creating the double page spread for our television channel 21TV. As I created one of these last year for my music magazine, I was fairly familiar with how to go about doing it. 

I used Microsoft Publisher, and created the double page spread before adding any of the content. As the article is for a television channel, I thought it best not to have too much text, as the people interested are interested in the channel and the shows, not the background and pages of information about it. I have tried to make it short and snappy, with enough information to tell people what it is all about, but not enough to bore them and put them off. 

I have stuck to the colour scheme we have used throughout the website, as it looks professional and allows everything to link together smoothly to the audience. The hot pink also catches the readers eye, and as pink is typically more of a female colour, it will automatically draw the female audience in.

I have used the launch logo and the launch week programme schedule from the website, because it is information the audience will be most interested in, and obviously be able to relate to if they do then decide to visit the webpage. 

I have also included what Ruth and I said about 21TV on the 'about page' on the website. Again, this is copied information, but is the best way of advertising and reaching different members of our target audience. Some may be more likely to visit the webpage, but some may be more likely to read a magazine, so either way the important stuff is there.

I included images representing two of the featured shows 'Make Me Up' and 'The Dark Side of Drugs' just as an example of the sorts of programme 21TV will be showing. 

Lastly, I have chosen to insert the logo twice, as this is the most recognizable device for people to remember 21TV by. Having it on each page just reinforces this to the audience, allowing them to remember what to look out for.

Unfortunately I forgot to take screen shots of my progress whilst creating the double page spread, but here is an image of the finished product on Microsoft Publisher before I converted it into a JPEG interchange format.


Completed Double Page Spread