Extended Project

Project Brief

2012-03-01T05:58:00.000-08:00

We have to produce a 12-page, full-colour, Tabloid-size "newspaper" consisting of study materials to help OCR media studies students answer the a2 critical perspectives exam.

In small groups we will need to research, plan and produce our own case studies, learning plans and lesson activities for use by students and teachers in post-16 education (schools, sixth-form, and FE colleges) we must also find advertisers to help cover our costs of production.

We should aim to make the paper visually interesting, intellectually engaging, exam specific and up-to-date.

So we should: Think of games, investigation and simulations, comic strips, timelines, info-graphics, interviews and analysis of our own primary research with real audience and media users/producers.

The Client

2011-03-01T15:51:00.000-08:00

This is the sheet that we were given as a group which explained who our client was for this project:

We are producing the newspaper for Jenny Grahame who is at the english and media centre.

Jenny will be distrubuting our newspaper via the english and media website but only if it meets their requirements.

Here is a photo of Jenny Grahame at the english and media centre in London.

(In front of her there are issues of the 'media magazine') :

We will also be seeking advice and information from Julian Mcdougal who is the principle examiner for the OCR A2 media studies

Prezi - Project plan

2011-03-01T01:00:00.000-08:00

Shown below is the brief project plan for the extended project which I created on the following website : http://www.prezi.com/

Here is a screen grab of the editing screen on the prezi website:

Here is the actual prezi presentation I created on the website:

Extended Project - Schedule / Plan on Prezi

Feedback from Jenny Grahame (The client)

2010-05-09T22:20:00.000-07:00

Alex (liason) has recently recieved feedback from Jenny which he has sent onto the others within the group (including myself). Shown below is the feedback we recieved from Jenny

Dear Alexander and team

I just wanted (very belatedly) to congratulate you on a magnficent
achievement in getting the newspaper together to deadline and in such a
clear and attractive format. It looks very good, and as you probably
already know, schools are gagging for it - not an easy market to break into,
so well done to all of you. Am currently rounding up a long list of orders -
given the declining state of the newspaper industry, you appear to be
bucking a trend, which is rather brilliant!

Best wishes, and very good luck to you all

Jenny

I am very pleased with the feedback from Jenny as it clearly shows her raw appreciation for what we have done and also the sense that she feels as if there will be a future for the newspaper (when she speaks about the newspaper industry) which of course is a very good thing as it means that we may be able to carry on producing / printing the newspaper in order to gain a higher profit purhaps. Overall Jenny's feedback is very positive and I am pleased with the outcome of the newspaper evenmore so after viewing / reading through the feedback from our client (Jenny Grahame)

Mikes blog post

2010-05-04T01:29:00.000-07:00

Mike has posted on the main blog page. His blog post explains to people in the class where they can find my videos which I created for this project in order for them to place onto their own personal project blogs.

Here is a screen shot of mikes blog post on the main blog page:

2nd set of feedback

2010-05-04T01:16:00.000-07:00

Shown below is the 2nd lot of feedback I have recieved from mike

Feedback on newspaper

2010-05-04T00:33:00.001-07:00

We have recieved some feedback from the people who have purchased copies of our mediame newspaper, shown below is the feedback we recieved.

“We've just put the undergroundmap on the wall and are fighting about who is on the coolest line(that's teachers not students by the way!) Initial reaction is that we can't wait to use it in the classroom -could be a few more bigger images in there...We'll use it with students next week (weds) and email you some morefeedback”

Mary Berrisford, Islington

“MediaMe looks great. Works really well with the colour, etc. Megaachievement.”

Jenny Grahame

"Good on section 1"

"Methodical systematic and detailed"

"Very concise to the point"

"Very clearly expressed"

"Wordsearch page blurry"

"Wikipedia game Already played by lots of class good -article- less obviously useful than others"

"Useful - better than a textbook"

"Great format"

"Tube map great"

"Format handy"

"Teacher prefers online to print -students like print far more"

"Layout really good"

"Is point about TV not needing a licence true?"

All above points / quotes From Reigate College

Accounts - financial

2010-05-04T00:10:00.000-07:00

Shown below are the costs for this project (MediaMe newspaper)

Outgoing costs (Money out) :

Cost for 500 copies from newspaper club (printers) : £500 including VAT

Postage cost for first three orders : £11.40

Income (Money in)

Junction advert : £350

Lincoln university advert : £100

OCR advert : £100

Guernsey Grammar purchased -> 20 copies : £10

Reigate purchased -> 120 copies : £60

Islington purchased -> 40 copies : £20

Netherhall purchased -> 30 copies : £15

free samples and copies for media group members & moderator : 50 Copies

The total amount that we have received so far from selling copies and getting adverts is : £655

Which means we currently have a profit of: £145 (Aprox)

After looking over our account information we have realised that we still need to sell 240 copies of our mediame newspaper in order to sell all of our newspapers.

Overall I believe that we have done very well, financially we are stable and we have currently made a profit and we are in the position whereby we are selling copies of mediame which of course will increase are overall profit for the project.

Project Evaluation

2010-04-21T02:07:00.000-07:00

Project Evaluation

My personal reflection on the overall project

Overall I believe that this project has been one of the most successful projects throughout the whole media course. People have worked productivily in order to produce the newspaper on time for the deadline, unlike other projects where it has been very hectic near the end of the project this one has been very easy going and everyone has stuck to the dealines very well, which meant that there was no unesacary rushing near the end of the project which was good and built up the moral of the group, this also meant that my job as 'schedules manager' has been succesful in the fact that everyone has managed to get the work complete on time.

How pleased am I personally with my contribution to this project?

During the course of this project I have worked constructivly and I believe that I adapted to my role almost straight away. The main factor which meant that I could work effectivily within my role was that I organised a variety of activities for each group to do within the project. For example obne activity which I set up was 'the question box' this activity engaged the whole group and made sure that everyone was working together effectivily and productivily. I made sure that this activity was done near the start of the project as I believe it was very important that the group engage with each other at the early stages in order to work productivly throughout the rest of the project.

Another factor which meant that I had succeded within my personal role was the fact that I manged to ensure that everyone was informed about the dealines at the early stages of the project. In order to make sure that every one was informed of the deadlines I created a poster which showed clearly the deadlines for the project, Once I created the poster I stuck it onto the wall and made sure that everyone was informed about the location of the poster so that they could view it and see when things are due in.

Overall I believe that I have worked effectivly within my role and within this project, if anything I could of maybe been more verbal and spoken to people more about the deadlines etc but apart from that overall I believe that I have worked effectivly and productivly within my role during the course of this project and everyone stuck to the scehdule as I instructed so overall this project was a successfull one.

How did other people work within their groups / roles?

After the structure was sorted for the organisation of the groups everyone set to work on working within their seperate roles. At the start of the project people were a bit reluctant to work within their given roles naturally this is what happens at the start of any project where there is an organisational structure but people within the groups soon adapted to their individual roles and managed to adapt themselves to their groups and work effectively within them.

The leaders of each group havge worked very well in order to get their individual teams / groups up and running. There were tree groups & The quality control team. It was the red, blue and gold teams job to work on the articles for the newspaper and it was the quality control team taht checked that the jobs were getting done and also that the material was of a high enough standard for the specification and also the newspaper.

There was also a liason role which Alex was for this project and I strongly believe that Alex done a very good job within this role and managed to keep constant contact with the clients and other people such ast he advertisers, and when they did not respond on time Alex would chase them up about this and would gain a faster repsonse from the client / advertisers.

As far as individual people within the group I believe that everyone worked effectivly and productivly during the course of this project.

What have I learnt from this project?

Overall after this project I have learnt / gained a variety of things, which include:

Time management skills have increased
Orgainisation skils have increased
Comunication skills have increased
I have learnt to create activities for the group which has bosted my moral and persona sense of achievement
I have learnt about the structure of a newspaper company and also how to work more professionaly within a workin enviroment
I have also learnt how to get a product finsiehd on time for a client
Working productivly as part of a team

What have I learnt from previous projects?

I have learnt a variety of things from past projects which are very closely linked to the factors above things such as:

Organisational skills have incresed
Time management / organisation skills
Working productivly within a team
Working to a clients brief and producing a product on time and to their standards
Creative skills have increased such as photo and video editing

Newspaper - Finished Product

2010-04-21T01:30:00.000-07:00

Newspaper Finished product

After recieving the finished newspaper I can clearly see straight away that it looks very profesional and also has the feeling of a student made newspaper.

How well does the newspaper meet our original ideas / intentions?

Our original ideas for the newspaper were to have plenty of visuals and also to have information which links to the exam, the main idea was for each group / persons to write articles about subjects that relate to the exam itself, for example 'media in the online age' and the 'Time to turn off your TV for good?' written by Tara & Matt. Also the step by step guide to question 1a' by James links directly to the exam and gives some uselful advice, there were also some other articles which linked to the exam and were very usefull for students for revision purposes, which was what we wanted from the newspaper at the end of the project.

Overall the finished product / newspaper in some cases reaches our original plans / expectations but unfortunatly in some cases it doesn't. The main thing which makes the newspaper a good resource for revision is the fact that it is in a simple layout with some very uselful information within it such as:

Revision tips
Useful facts and figures for people to use within their exam
Relevant information
Information displayed within diagrams / images

On the other hand there were some significant down sides to our finsihed nespaper, things such as:

Some articles are lacking images
Articles are not always consistant in style
Font style is not always the same
Some articles do not relate to the exam
Not enough specific reference to the exam itself
Some articles are lacking facts and figures

Overall the newspaper is in mny opinion very good considering the time we had to work on it, I strongly believe that if we had more time then we could of amended the above things which were wrong with the newspaper but overall I believe considering the time which we had for this project we done very well indeed but of course there were problems with the finished product which I belive would of been apparent even if we did have more time.

Here is a video I created which hsows our finished newspaper / product:

Unfortunately I have accidently forgot to put a photo of one of the pages within this video, the article / photo which I have accidently forgotten to place within this video is Matt & Tara's article about Media on the online age, shown below is a photo of the article I missed out:

Feedback from Jenny Grahame

2010-04-01T09:05:00.000-07:00

We have recieved feedback throught this project from our client (Jenny Grahame), which Alex (Liason) has passed to the memebrs of each group who were writting articles for the paper so that they can act apon Jennys feeedback which was very constructive and helped a great deal during the production stages of this project.

Shown below are some photos I took of the print outs of Jennys feedback which I recieved from Alex:

Here is the 1st set of feedback which we recieved

Shown below is the 2nd batch of feedback which we recieved from Jenny:

Flat Plan

2010-03-31T05:39:00.000-07:00

Final flat plan

Here is a photo which I took of the style sheet (with the articles) on the board:

Shown below is a list of the page layout within the flat plan itself

page 1 - Front cover
page 2 - Question 1A of the exam (Mike)
page 3 - Time to turn off TV for good? (Tara & Matt)
page 4 - Is Wikipedia an online blessing? (James)
page 5 - Lincoln advert and activities (Alex & Sam)
page 6 - Media tube map (double page spread) (Tim)
page 7 - Media Tube map (double page spread) (Tim)
page 8 - Lincoln advert and activities (Alex & Sam)
page 9 - Wikipedia world tour (activity) (Tim)
page 10 - Has Twitter changed communication? (Alie)
page 11 - Zeitgeist forecast (Hayden)
page 12 - (back page) Online gaming communities (Ash & Dave)

Here is what people needed to change within their articles and what needs doing collectivily with some points:

Pete & Nick subbed and changed the articles (final drafts)

Change footer and headers to look the same
In the footer there MUST be exam tips (1 sentance) from Mikes article (So mikes article will now be spread throughout the newspaper)
In the header there will be bits from Sams practitioner articles
Question 1a needs to have question 1b added to it
Repetition of colour needs changing needs different eye catching colours
MUST be same style (ALL articles)
OCR / JUNCTION / LINCOLN adverts need putting into place (style sheet / articles)
Underground map needs changing (Writting / structure)
The offical london underground information / logos need taking out (copy right infringment)
Ash and daves article needs putting into one full article and needs re-writting
The front page at the moment looks un profesional and needs changing asap! the paragraph / editorial needs to take up most of the front page and descibe in DETAIL what the newspaper is about and who we are etc
The people involved with the project neede to be creditied on front page (e.g Jenny Grahame, newspaper club etc)
ALL articles must have at least 2 pull out quotes

Overall the main issue is that there are not enough pages as after cutting down articles we now have 11 so of course there will have to ba another page added (1 idea was to have an activities page) which I believe will be the best thing to do at this late stage of production as it is quick and easy to complete within a short space of time

Final flat plan session (Constructing newspaper)

2010-03-31T04:19:00.000-07:00

In todays session we have discussed and created the final flat plan for our newspaper. People who have written articles have also amended any erros within their articles and made corections where need be.

Here is a video / slideshow I created which shows the session today (in photos) and also has an audio recording from the session

( keep in mind that some bits of audio had to be cut out due to sound quality )

Feedback on Article

2010-03-30T07:43:00.000-07:00

In this afternoons session I have given some feedback on Matt, and Taras article about TV and the internet, I found that their article was very well written, with some very good and valuable statistics which people could easily use within their exams, there were only a few minor changes such as format of sentences and changing a few words due to repetition, but overall its a very good article and I will be happy to se it within the newspaper.

Here are some photos of me writing the feedback and also the article itself:

Plan - Completion of articles

2010-03-30T07:01:00.000-07:00

Due to the lack of time, we where unable to create the flat plan due to the simple fact that people were unable to complete their articles in this mornings session (10.50 - 12.20) so therefore people are working on them now in this session (2.40 - 4.10) Once the articles are complete they will be proof read by Pete & Nick at 4.10, and they will then be ready for tomorrows session, whereby we will start creating the final flat plan then instead of this afternoon. We have received feedback from Jenny (which is shown below) and based on her feedback a few people within the group have to change allot within the article and this has forced them to place their articles online rather than within the newspaper itself.

Here is the exact plan for the (2.40 - 4.10) session:

James and Mike are working on writing a brief article relating to question 1a & 1b they have been advised to include the following things:

- Long road media blog g325 (Links)

- Revision cards (brief notes on exam etc)

Some articles may have to be placed online rather than in the newspaper due to time constraints and also based on the feedback from Jenny people cannot change their articles on time in order to reach the print deadline, so therefore their articles will be placed online.

The articles need images and links to websites also need editing and cutting down based on Jennies feedback

Sam needs to re-do his articles (Gauntlet article) And also limit himself to the amount of written material within his article due to the limited amount of space within the paper itself.

Petes media blog needs to be addressed some where within the newspaper

At 3:50 today Pete has requested that EVERYONE who is working on an article should send them to him in a pages document so that himself and Nick can work on subbing peoples articles

The adverts need sorting out (physical adverts) - Bournmouth, Junction, Media Magazine

The front page of the newspaper needs sorting out (Names, thanks to.., Introdcution)

Finalizing images / Articles

2010-03-30T03:17:00.000-07:00

Everyone who is working on an article are now finalizing their articles and also touching them up, as in adding colour, images, correcting font, and making them look more professional / stylish.

The images which people are using must be copy right free and also if they are from an external website then the website must be acknowledged within the article itself as an italicized link.

which will look like this:

http://www.flickr.com/

We are also making sure that the format of the articles are correct and are closely linked to the specification and house style guide, this is the task which the quality control team will take on board.

Due to Jenny receiving the PDF's of everyones final draft articles (After cutting) she will unfortunately will not be able to give us feedback until this afternoons session, so of course the plan has been slightly effected by this, but hopefully we will still be able to get a flat plan complete this afternoon based on peoples articles and how complete they are.

The quality control team will work on putting all the articles into one PDF file, which in turn will work as our digital flat plan for the newspaper.

Flat planning / Completing articles

2010-03-29T07:03:00.000-07:00

Myself and Tara have discussed the flat plan draft with Pete and have changed it (due to people changing the length of their articles) Pete pointed out to us that we should keep in mind that we will not be able to complete a full flat plan because people are still working on their articles and are still cutting them down, another reason why this flat plan is only a draft, is due to the fact that the articles will be sent to Jenny for further feedback so therefore she may mention to people that they may have to be cut down further, which in turn means that the flat plan may need re organizing.

Here is the finished draft Flat plan for the newspaper:

I have also given some feedback to loz today for his article in order for him to get it completed and sent to Jenny in time, I found that the main thing for him to change was a few spelling mistakes etc but overall it was very good!

Here is a photo of Loz's article (with my written feedback on it):

Feedback on blog (Mike)

2010-03-29T02:39:00.000-07:00

I have received some feedback from Mike (Reflection - Quality control team) The feedback which I received was very positive and from the feedback I received it appears that I do not need to make any changes and I just need to carry on with the work as I am doing at the moment

Here is a screen grab showing the feedback I received from Mike (regarding my blog progress / work)

Schedule for week (29th - 1st April)

2010-03-29T02:19:00.000-07:00

I have created a plan for the rest of the week after a brief discussion with Pete (Teacher)

Here is the plan for the final week of this project:

Monday 29th March (Colridge & Long Road - B102)

9:00 - 10:00: Proof reading of articles / improvements (Alex to write intro article)

11:00 - 12:20: What is missing from the articles? (Exam related material, images etc)

1:50 - 3:20: Get PDFS of revised articles (Including copyright free images) Images must by CMYK not RGB! (DPI = 150) (FULL page) Articles then must be sent to Alex BEFORE 2:50 then Alex will email Jenny with PDFs of articles (Jenny MUST have the articles by 3:00 at the latest!) Me, Tara & Alex will work on the flat plan

Tuesday 30th March (Long road - B102)

10:50 - 12:20: prepare articles and get feedback from Jenny, then make the appropriate changes to articles

2:40 - 4:10: Mock - Up of WHOLE paper (including adverts, front and back page)

Wednesday 31st March (Long Road - B102)

9:00 - 12:20: Preparation for investigation project and finalize the paper

Thursday 1st April (Long Road - Conference room)

1:05 - 4:10: Finalize ALL material and WHOLE paper

Style Sheet - Rough / Draft

2010-03-26T09:30:00.000-07:00

Myself and Tara have looked through the articles during the subbing stage whereby people were adjusting and cutting down their articles in order to fit the newspaper / flat plan space. We soon found that the articles did not fit within the flat plan and this was a major problem, so myself and Tara went around each group and individually set people a target of how much they should aim to cut their articles down by, for example Phillippa and Alie had to cut their articles down from 1 and a half pages to one page in order for the articles to fit into the style sheet itself.

Flat planning session / completion of articles

2010-03-26T08:05:00.001-07:00

In todays session every one who is working on articles are completing their articles and placing them into the house style sheet and also completing their articles with the house style guide in mind.

Once people have completed their articles I will send them the images if they wish to place them into their articles in order to make them more visually captivating towards the audience.

Once they have completed their articles as far as possible then they will print them off and the will then be passed around every member of their group for 'subbing' basically to spell check and ensure that everything is correct, once this is completed they will then be passed onto the quality control team (myself, Tara, Alex, and Mike) who will then double check every thing and ensure that it is all correct and referring to the style guides, also another thing to check is that everyones articles look the same to avoid different styled articles, which of course is vitally important to the overall success of this newspaper

Copy right free images

2010-03-26T07:32:00.000-07:00

I have researched and sourced some copy right free images for people to use in the production stages of their articles

The first website which I looked at was 'Creative Commons', I soon found out that the official website does not have any images actually on the site, so unfortunately I of course could not source any information from this site.

Here is a screen grab from the website:

My other searches was on a few other websites which were as follows:

1) copy right free photos.com

I did not use this site as there were no images which where not fitted for the themes of the articles

2) Think stock.com

I found some good images on this site but unfortunately you have to pay to use the images so of course I could not source any images from this site for people to use within their articles

3) Flickr.com

I used the creative commons search on this website in order to source some images for peoples articles, and found that this website worked best out of all 3 as it has some good images which are copy right free and also fit to peoples articles very well

Things to be completed

2010-03-25T08:55:00.000-07:00

I have created a list of materials / tasks that need completing within the new plan / schedule

Here is the list of the things which need completing BEFORE the final deadline on Wednesday 31st March:

*Visual style guide / style template (Thursday 25th / Friday 26th)

* House style guide (Thursday 25th)

* 'Subbing' of articles (Friday 26th - Tuesday 30th)

* Logo designed and finished (Friday 26th)

* Gain adverts from confirmed advertisers (friday 26th)

* Place articles into the style sheet (Friday 26th - Tuesday 30th)

* Get photos for every ones articles (Friday 26th)

Change of plan / schedule

2010-03-25T08:36:00.000-07:00

In todays session we were informed about what was happening and what needs doing in the last few days of this project.

Shown below is the changed plan for the rest of the week / next week:

Monday 29th March (AM) - Colridge (9.00am-12.20)

Minutes from meeting (Style sheet)

2010-03-25T07:43:00.000-07:00

We have held a meeting to discuss the final design / style sheet for the articles for ournewspaper

Attendees:

Ash ( Gold team member )
James ( Blue team member )

Hayden (Red team member )

Myself (Quality control team )

Here are some photos which I took from the meeting today:

In the meeting we discussed about the 3 style guides which we had to hand the style guides which we had to hand where as follows:

Haydens article / style guide

James article / style guide

Matt & Taras article / style guide

The following things where brought within the meeting:

Hayden suggested that we should only have ONE text wrapping image within the articles and it must be a BIG sized image

James stated that the titles should be BIG and BOLD compared with the rest of the font within the article

I suggested that 3 collums within each article is a good amount to have as 4+ collums creates to much on one page and makes it look crowded

Hayden suggested that box outs should be shown in the bottom right of the articles

We all thought that 12pt font would be the best to use for the main content within the articles

James said that the best idea would maybe to centre the title on the articles

I suggested that it would be a good idea to make full use of the colour printers at the newspaper club and include as much colour as possible within our articles

We all suggested that the introduction should be in bold and set at a slightly bigger font than the other font within the article such as (14pt)

James said that there should be NO gaps with the articles as it looks as if it is 'unfinished'

After the meeting Ash, Hayden, and James set to work on creating an overall style sheet / guide for the group to use during the production process of their articles

Style Sheet - draft / ideas

2010-03-24T02:38:00.000-07:00

In todays session we are producing a draft style sheet which will allow us to gain a better view of what the completed newspaper will look like once all the articles are put together within the style sheet itself, or-though I am not personally producing an article, I still believe that it will help the other members within my group who are producing articles for our Media Me newspaper

A style sheet is a form of presenting the content within the publishing process, for example applying and formating text within the style sheet

Shown below is some general points that I must keep in mind when producing the stye sheet draft:

Typeface / font style

Bold / italics (Bold facing)

Underlining of text / titles etc

Justification (left, right, center, etc)

Space before and after paragraphs

Tab stops and indentation

Colour of text

Borders

Letters (capitals and non capitals etc)

Strike through style

Shown below is a screen shot from the editing process of my style sheet

I started working on my style sheet but due to time constraints I was unable to complete it, so I decided that since I am a member of the quality control team that it would be a good idea to concentrate on other tasks such as plans for the deadlines and letters for the group leaders

Also I was informed by my teacher that it was not my job to create a style sheet so this is another reason why I unfortunately did not complete my style guide document

Interviews with target audience

2010-03-23T16:52:00.000-07:00

Shown below is the video from the audio recordings that I gained in todays interviews, and also including the photos that myself and Tara took during the time that the interviews were taking place

Interview video - Extended project from cmdiploma on Vimeo.

This is the video made up of the recordings and photos taken from the interview session on the 23rd March for the extended project (Newspaper - A2 Exam)

Video produced by: Kirk

Interviewers: Kirk & Tara

Audio recorded by: Kirk

Photos taken by: Kirk & Tara

Thanks to every one involved with the interviews!

Interviews with target audience

2010-03-23T12:07:00.000-07:00

In todays session Me, Tara & Alex (Quality Control team) were asked to interview students from the level 3 media group in order to gain some further research . data for our articles in order to boost up our draft aricles for our newspaper, it was also a chance for us to gain an insight into what they thought of our articles so far

Shown below are the transcripts which I created after todays interviews

Tom

1) What social networking websites do you currently use if any?
Have you ever deleted your social profile online and why?

I actually don’t use any, I cant be bothered with continuous updating

2) Do you use the internet to watch TV programs as opposed to physically watching
TV? For example BBC I-player, 4OD etc …

Yeah TV programmes, I use streaming sites such as TV dome occasionally use BBC-I player, I don’t really use 4 OD, TV dome is better as it has all the American TV shows and also does pirate films

3) Have you ever produced a video and posted it online?
What websites have you posted your video (s) on ?

No, but I have during the course, I use vimeo but only for the course, Vimeo has better quality above you tube, as you tube has a low audience

4) In what format do you view the news? For example Internet, newspaper, TV?
What format do you prefer?

I get a little up date on my computer, when I go on my computer I get a little news update with important news, I cant be bothered to buy newspapers

5) Do you download music from the internet?
What websites do you use in order to download your music?

I use lime wire

6) Are you currently using any of the following websites to upload your own
material?

- Deviant Art
- Flickr
- Youtube
- Myspace

If so then why? And how often do you upload material to the websites?

I use flicker for photos and you tube as its what we are pointed at during this course

Tom & Sven

1) What social networking websites do you currently use if any?
Have you ever deleted your social profile online and why?

Tom - Facebook, I still have myspace but don’t do any thing with it

2) Do you use the internet to watch TV programs as opposed to physically watching
TV? For example BBC I-player, 4OD etc …

Tom - Yeah I sue 4 OD
Sven - I use you tube to watch new shows and use bbc I player

3) Have you ever produced a video and posted it online?
What websites have you posted your video (s) on ?

Sven - I mainly create animation videos and stop motions then place them on you tube
Tom - Me and my friend have an account so we upload videos, he does like magic videos and stuff

4) In what format do you view the news? For example Internet, newspaper, TV?
What format do you prefer?

Tom - I watch the TV in the mornings and I get the free newspapers off the train
Sven - I watch the news on TV in the afternoons

5) Do you download music from the internet?
What websites do you use in order to download your music?

Tom - My dads got a subscription to napster so I use that sometimes and ive used lime wire before but it takes too long so I don’t use it any more and id rather own CDS
Sven - I don’t download any music

6) Are you currently using any of the following websites to upload your own
material?

- Deviant Art
- Flickr
- Youtube
- Myspace

If so then why? And how often do you upload material to the websites?

Tom - I use flicker for college and that’s about it, maybe if I was creating a project I might use deviant art and I use it because its what we have to sue during this course, I upload photos about once a week

Tilly & Lewis

1) What social networking websites do you currently use if any?
Have you ever deleted your social profile online and why?

Tilly - Facebook, I did have a myspace but I don’t use it anymore but nobody uses it and everyone has a face book so I use that
Lewis - Facebook

2) Do you use the internet to watch TV programs as opposed to physically watching
TV? For example BBC I-player, 4OD etc …

Tilly - I did use BBC - I player before I got virgin TV and also I used 4 OD I prfer watching things on TV, but sometimes catch up online
Lewis - I use online TV to catch up

3) Have you ever produced a video and posted it online?
What websites have you posted your video (s) on ?

Tilly - I use youtube to watch videos now and again, I prefer youtube than vimeo as its easier
Lewis - I watch music videos on you tube Ive made videos of me and my mates mucking about, youtube is better than vimeo as Its harder to use vimeo as we have only just been using it in our course

4) In what format do you view the news? For example Internet, newspaper, TV?
What format do you prefer?

Tilly - I watch news on TV, I don’t like reading newspapers
Lewis - I watch news on the TV

5) Do you download music from the internet?
What websites do you use in order to download your music?

Tilly - Yeah, I use limewire and I-tunes to listen and download music
Lewis - Yeah

6) Are you currently using any of the following websites to upload your own
material?

- Deviant Art
- Flickr
- Youtube
- Myspace

If so then why? And how often do you upload material to the websites?

Tilly - I use fliker every two weeks and upload photos
Lewis - I use fliker and upload photos every two weeks

Max & Yasmin

1) What social networking websites do you currently use if any?
Have you ever deleted your social profile online and why?

Max - Just face book, used to use myspace and bebo, stll somewhere on the internet but not active
Yasmin - Just face book, used to use myspace and bebo

2) Do you use the internet to watch TV programs as opposed to physically watching
TV? For example BBC I-player, 4OD etc …

Yasmin - Yeah I do I use BBC iplayer, its more convenient watching TV on the internet
Max - Ive used bbc iplayer once or twice

3) Have you ever produced a video and posted it online?
What websites have you posted your video (s) on ?

Yasmin - Ive uploaded videos on youtube in this course
Max - I use youtube and have done since the age of about 12, Vimeo is more streamlined but ill probably still use youtube Just the fact that you have to get an account and everything just on youtube its easier

4) In what format do you view the news? For example Internet, newspaper, TV?
What format do you prefer?

Max - I don’t watch the news at all but I do see pop ups now and again on line and I would check the internet if there was some major important news
Yasmin - Its usually just on in the background and when I sign into hotmail the news pops up and I look at the metro on the train

6) Are you currently using any of the following websites to upload your own
material?

- Deviant Art
- Flickr
- Youtube
- Myspace

If so then why? And how often do you upload material to the websites?

Max - Yeah ive used deviant art once or twice for an old art project and I have friends that have flicker sites but I don’t have one myself I upload material about once a month
Yasmin - I use fliker to upload photos on my own personal profile I upload material about once a month

Hannah & Emma

1) What social networking websites do you currently use if any?
Have you ever deleted your social profile online and why?

Hannah - Facebook and used to use myspace
Emma - Facebook used to use picso and bebo I never use them now as no ones on them apart from face book always on facebook

2) Do you use the internet to watch TV programs as opposed to physically watching
TV? For example BBC I-player, 4OD etc …

Hannah - Sometimes use BBC I player
Emma - I use sky plus and record programmes but I sometimes use BBC - I player I prfer watching TV as its easier

3) Have you ever produced a video and posted it online?
What websites have you posted your video (s) on ?

Emma - we put our videos from college projects online
Hannah - We put our videos from college online, like the music videos etc

4) In what format do you view the news? For example Internet, newspaper, TV?
What format do you prefer?

Hannah - I don’t really watch the news or anything really
Emma - I watch news on the TV if its on and nothing else is on, its not that important to me

5) Do you download music from the internet?
What websites do you use in order to download your music?

Hannah - I use limewire for downloading music as its free
Emma - I use I-tunes and limewire as its free I convert MP3s from youtube now and again as its free and easy to do

6) Are you currently using any of the following websites to upload your own
material?

- Deviant Art
- Flickr
- Youtube
- Myspace

If so then why? And how often do you upload material to the websites?

Emma - I use flicker to upload photos but I use face book as well but I do like flicker, I use myspace now and again
Hannah - I use flicker for college photos

Overall I believe that the feedback we recieved today was maybe not as constructive as we would of hoped for due to lack of time but it was a good range of feedback and will feed very well into peoples articles as extra information and graphs, it will also allow people to see clearly what our target audience require as far as information goes, due to their internet useage etc

House style guide

2010-03-23T08:14:00.000-07:00

Shown below is the house style guide which basically shows and informs everyone who is producing an article how it should look like and also how they should structure their articles.

Elements such as: Font, Titles, Paragraphs, Indents, Collums, etc are all addressed within the house style guide to ensure that our newspaper is looking the same (articles must look the same) otherwise it will not look professional and will look very much like a 'slap - dash' quickly produced paper and that is what we must avoid without question, so therefore to avoid this Mike has produced this house style guide, which you can see a photo of below.

Plan for the week

2010-03-22T04:12:00.000-07:00

Here is the plan for this week (22nd - 26th March)

Monday 22nd March (9.00 - 12.20) :

Questionnaire for audience / peer research

Get style sheet from Jenny Grahame (from english media centre) - Nick to organize

Tuesday 23rd March (10.50 - 12.20) :

Questionnaire session with level 2 students for audience feedback

Tuesday 23rd March (2.40 - 4.10) :

Evaluate audience feedback session (with photos from it)

Work on style sheet

Wednesday 24th March (9.00 - 12.20) :

Work on style sheets

Photography for articles Example: (exam question article - photos of students working etc)

Thursday 25th March (1.05 - 4.10) :

Final style sheets

Adjust articles (with photos!)

Collaborate and review final articles then place into style sheet

Friday 26th March (1.30 - 4.10) :

Organize final material / articles for paper

Get paper ready for printing

Further research into other papers etc (for blog)

Quality control team to check everyones blogs and make sure everyone is on target

Logo for newspaper

2010-03-19T06:12:00.000-07:00

After a group discussion we have decided that a good logo for our newspaper would be a simplistic one with a simple deisgn which links to the media magazine logo.

Shown below are some ideas which people came up with in todays session:

Reflection on articles

2010-03-15T03:35:00.000-07:00

The quality control team (Myself, Tara, Mike & Alex) have looked through peoples draft articles and discoverd that many things need changing within them.

Shown below are some notes that where made on peoples articles:

- Very formal maybe to formal for the readers?
- Need to have more examples!
- MUST link to exam (That is the idea for the WHOLE paper!)
- Spelling and Grammar is an issue and needs amending
- Wording and structure of the articles need re-thinking / doing
- Where are the sources from? (website / book / film / music etc)
- Needs MORE personalisation towards the audience / readers
- Too vague needs more explicit writting and information to help other students
- Need to keep to the target audience in mind (AT ALL TIMES )
- Add facts and figures so that peple can use them within their exams
- More quotes are needed within the articles!

Overall we have discussed a list of parts / pieces that need changing within the articles

Shown below is the list of things which need amending asap:

Address the reader as a student of our age (16 - 20 )
Ensure that they all link directly to the exam paper / questions
Include images / diagrams / etc (VISUALS)
Refer to the exam criteria!
Use the wording from the exam questions or even use the WHOLE question!
Use facts and figures
Suppy references to sources you have used
Check and Change (spelling / gramma etc)
Use footnots for referencing sources
Make it personal to the reader and use a professional tone within your writting
Anotate images used (EXPLAIN AND ILLUSTRATE)
Target specific exam questions relating to your article (MIX & Match) be brief yet informative
Infomation on its own is not enough (explain every detail and be explicit with your writting!)

Ideas for article

2010-03-14T16:46:00.000-07:00

I have thought of a possible article or layout / format for an article.

I took into account what Pete, Jenny and Nick were saying that it would be good to have an interview within the newspaper somewhere so that the students can take quotes from it for their exams etc, so therefore I decided to expand apon this idea and came up with a possible layout for an interview style article.

Shown below is a photo showing the idea which I came up with:

My main idea was to have the questions from the 'interview' which would most likely be conducted over the internet due to time constraints etc. The questions would be set out as individual paragraphs, with an introduction, middle and a conclussion.

The papargraphs will be acompanied by polaroid style photographs of the person in question, I believe that this style of photo will relate to our target audience whom are students much like myself and my fellow class mates

I also thought that a simple colour scheme would work best and to not use too many colours as this would distract students from the main content, and considering that this is a revision newspaper I believe that to be distracted from the main content within the article would mean that that student would not be able to focus on the actual revision itself

Newspaper Club - (Printers)

2010-03-13T17:55:00.000-08:00

Shown below is the price guide from the newspaper club website:

Newspaper Club (Printers)

2010-03-13T17:52:00.000-08:00

Shown below is a video showing the printing process at the newspaper club printing press:

the most fun Ben's had all year from russelldavies on Vimeo.

Newspaper Club - (Printers)

2010-03-13T03:53:00.000-08:00

I have researched into the newspaper club website / company

( who will be printing our newspaper )

I have found out the following information about the newspaper club:

What newspaper club actually is and what they do

The page / newspaper specifications (Page dimensions)

Pricing

Past newspapers what have been printed

So, what is newspaper club and what do they do?

Newspaper club was set up and made by a organization know as: R.I.G - Really Interesting Group. Rig is a multi disciplinary organization who work in post- digital designs.

Projects which RIG have been involved with other than newspaper club are as follows:

Apple, Umbro, BBC, Dopplr, Six to Start and Penguin

The newspaper club is funded by Channel Four (4IP)

As it states on the website they are NOT about news or any particular form of content. they mainly concentrate on printing newspapers or as they say (Ink & newsprint), they will basically print anything and everything which is sent to them, but with obvious limitations!

Here are some direct quotes from the website:

"We think the web is wonderful and printed newspapers are a tremendous, highly-evolved way of reading stuff."

"Whatever you think would be good to print that way; we think you're probably right."

Shown below are some screen grabs from the newspaper club website which clearly show the guidelines they set for when producing a newspaper for them:

Here is a screen shot showing the pricing guide shown on the newspaper club website:

For our newspaper we are producing a set of 500 full colour copies so that will of course cost us £500

Here is an example of the kind of material (newspapers) which newspaper club have printed in the past

BBC - Hitchhikers guide to the galaxy (Penguin)

Newspaper club printed the hitchhikers newspaper for the BBC as a sampler to show people a taster of the new installment of hitchhikers guide to the galaxy ( the 6th installment)

Here are some photos showing the newspaper itself :

Lesson activity and letter

2010-03-11T04:02:00.000-08:00

I have created and handed out 2 letters to the group leaders today which basically state a reminder of the deadline for the draft articles and also on the other sheet of paper is an activity which is as follows:

To work colectivly as a team in order to produce some ideas for the content for the flyer which will be handed out at a london teachers meeting whereby we then hope to gain some customers to buy the newspaper

I set a time on this task as I believe when there is a time set for the activity then people usually work more effectivly and get the work done in a resanoble time and usally people tend to *beat the time* by getting it done 10 mins before the final deadline, so overall by setting the time of 20 mins max for the activity I believe people will hopefully work effectivly and fast and get the activity done on time!

I also decided to introduce a prize into the activity to hurry people along and also ensure that people produce some serious ideas for the flyer, as silly ideas (which have been coming up in discussions quite a bit) are not going to appear within this activity and if they do then the teams will have to re-think their ideas! So I believe the prize aspect is a great way to motivate the teams and ensure that they produce some constructive / serious ideas which will speed the process of creating the flyer up dramatically.

Here are some photos of the 2 documents:

- Letter to remind people of the friday draft deadline -

- Activity sheet -

Minutes from Meeting / Notes from session

2010-03-05T17:37:00.000-08:00

These photos show the notes I took in todays meeting / session:

Discussion with Pete Fraser

2010-03-05T16:58:00.000-08:00

In todays session myself and the quality control team (which I am a member of) had a group discussion with Pete Fraser, we discussed the following things:

- Exam paper (A2 media)

- Exam specifications

- Presentation from Rhygate college

- Tips and Content for articles / pages in newspaper

- Mark scheme for exam paper

- David Gauntlette

The main things which we discussed were mainly relating to sources of information which we needed in order for everyone to complete their articles, whilst relating 100% to the exam itself.

The main documents which we were given by Pete where:

The exam specification, and a past media exam paper, these two documents are vital to us as research and also will help everyoneto write their articles and will ensure that everyone is on track with what they are doing and rember to relate what ever they write within their articles to the exam itself.

Here are some photos of the exam specification which we recieved today:

Pete informed us that it was best for us to focus our articles on just 3 aspects of the exam specification and they are as follows:

1) Media in the online age

2) Post-modern media

3) 'We media' and Democracy

So these are the aspects which we as the quality control team will make sure that everyone who is producing an article will keep very much at the front of their mind, so that they can concentrate their content around these 3 catagories in order for other students to revise them

Question Box (Activity One)

2010-03-04T18:41:00.000-08:00

This is a screen shot showing the production stage of the activity / letter for each of the group leaders

This photo is showing the letter (Left) to the group members which basically informs them of the activity itself and the 2nd document (right) is a written expination of what the activity is and what they need to do etc

Here is what the 'Question Box' activity is about:

Questionnaire

Part one:

Could you please ask the members of your group to each work individually, and create one question each for the final questionnaire to hand onto Pete

(Please write your questions on the bits of paper provided)

(questionnaire will be created to gain information from students about possible content for the newspaper)

Once the questions are completed, please can you place them into the question box

(The question box will be brought around by a member of the quality control team)

Part two:

Once the questions are collected up from each group, they will then be shuffled

The box will then be passed around each group, could you pick out a question from the box (1 for each member within your group) don’t worry if its your own question (s)!

Once each member of your group has a new question to hand, can you please then instruct your group that you now must work together in order to combine the questions into one single question

Final part:

Once you have created your final one question please can you pass it on to the quality control table / team

Once All questions are colleted by the quality control team they will then be put into a
final question sheet which will then be passed onto Pete for Friday

Activity one: 'Question Box' activity

2010-03-04T18:25:00.000-08:00

For friday we need to come up with a questionaire as a group in order to gain some valuableinformation for the content for our newspaper, the questionaire will also help us to gain some information on what it is that students of our age group what within the newspaper itself.

On friday our teacher 'Pete Fraser' will be heading off to Rhygate college which is where he will conduct our questionaire and ask the students there to asnwer it.

In order for the questionaire to be completed by friday I have devised a simplistic activity whereby the whole group can get involved which the questioanire by brainstorming their ideas together, my 1st thought for this activity was how to combine everyones knowledge into one and then create a questionaire while taking everyones points into mind, so as I said I decidded that this activity would be the best idea as to how we could all work together and ensure that the questionaire is completed by friday and emailed to Pete.

Shown below is a photo which shows me preparing the activity at home:

Question Box activity - evaluation

2010-03-04T16:13:00.000-08:00

I strongly belive that todays activity was a huge success, as it achieved my main goal, which was at the end of the acivity to have a questionaire completed and ready for Pete for friday, which is exactly what occoured at the end of todays activity, so overall it went very well!

Shown below are the questions that the quality control team recieved during todays activity from the groups:

The photo below shows the finished questionaires which were created after this activity took place, as you can see the questionais have been filled in by students at Rhygate, because this photo was taken after friday when Pete took them along to the rhygate college in order for us to gain some peer feedback on some ideas for are articles / newspaper

I believe that the majority of the feedback which we recieved was actually unhelpful as it seemed to be rushed and not done acuratly which is a great disapointment to both myself and my team as we worked hard to create a questionaire which involved everyones envolvemnt with the questions etc, but overall we did recieve a few good points, such as the ideas for possible content and revision tips etc but apart from that as i said before the feedback was unhelpful, but we could stil extract some valuable points from the feedback here and there

Feedback from the client

2010-03-03T18:06:00.000-08:00

Today Alex (liason) has recieved feedback from our client based arund the questions which he had sent to her via email, shown below is a photo of the email Aex recieved from our client:

Schedule

2010-03-02T23:13:00.000-08:00

After completing the schedule poster / letter etc I then placed the poster up on the wall along with the letter and inspirational poster, Which all together I belive will give people the chance to keep up to date with what they are doing and will allow them to forward think into what it is they need to do in the next coming weekes / days.

Here is a photo of the schedule, letter, etc up on the wall within the class room:

Schedule / 1st letter

2010-03-02T17:55:00.000-08:00

My job role as schedule manager is to keep everyone on track so therefore I have created a letter which I have passed to the group leaders (red,blue & gold) which basically outlines to them and their team mates about the actual deadlines for each key point / stage within the project itself.

Shown below is the schedule itself and also the letter I wrote for the leaders of each group:

I believe that by creating the diagaram of the schedule it gets people looking at it now and again which is great, because of course it will mean that the deadlines will hopefully stick in peoples minds and will also hopefully mean that people will take down notes / times from the schdule which will help them to keep to the deadlines set on the schedule poster

I strongly believe that by writting a letter to the leaders of each group makes the project that much more professional and also creates a positive, well informed atmosphere whereby people understand exactly what is going on when and when things need to be completed by etc. I also believe that people work alot better in a well constructed, organised enviroment, because as I stated before they understand what is going on and when

Final role structure for the project

2010-03-01T17:48:00.000-08:00

Here is a video I created

It is a video showing the structure tree for this project with Nick (Our Teacher) explaining each of the areas

Here is the final decided role structure for this project:

Liaison: Alex

- QUALITY CONTROL TEAM -

Evidence: Tara

Schedules: Kirk (Myself)

Reflection: Mike

Red leader: Loz

Red team: Dave

Red team: Matt H

Red team: Hayden

Blue leader: Phillippa

Blue team: Joe

Blue team: Alie

Blue team: James

Gold leader: Sam

Gold team: Tim

Gold team: Matt L

Gold team: Ash

Structure for roles (Personal choice)

2010-03-01T17:27:00.000-08:00

I have selected members of my group for certain roles for this project

Shown below are a list of the roles and the students which I believe will fit best within the roles and why that is

Liaison: Alex

I strongly believe that Alex will be perfect for this role as he enjoys comunicating with other people, and this is the main comunication role within this role structure

- QUALITY CONTROL TEAM -

Evidence: Kirk (Myself)

I believe that I can personally be in charge of evidence within the project as I have a keen interest in photography, and in past project I have taken photos of the class working on the projects, so therefore I think I will be good within this role as I can supply some hard evidence for the group to use within their blog work etc

Schedules: Tara

I believe that Tara will be great within this role as she is genrally really good at sticking to schdules and will manage to keep the team on track with what they are doing (deadlines etc)

Reflection: Sam

I believe Sam is very good at giving people feedback, but could do with a slight boost when giving people constructive feedback and I believe this is a great role for him because it will invole comunicating with others within the group and giving them some constructive verbal feedback on their work during the course of this project

Red leader: Phillipa

I believe that Phillipa is a great leader and will make a great job of keeping her team on track!

Red team: James

Red team: Matt H

Red team: Mike

Blue leader: Alie

I believe that Alie has not had the chance to lead in past projects so this is the chance for her to shine! Therefore give her the chance to have experiance of being the leader of a group

Blue team: Hayden

Blue team: Loz

Blue team: Joe

Gold leader: Ash

Ash can be very energetic and confident about the projects, and I believe if he focused that down onto the leadership role then he would be a great group leader!

Gold team: Dave

Gold team: Tim

Gold team: Matt L

Answers during discussion

2010-03-01T17:14:00.000-08:00

Shown below are some notes I took during the Q&A session relating to the project itself (Brief)

Must be up-to-date!
Look into the future ('Future thinking;)
Cost of production -> (500 COPIES = £500)
ONE NEWSPAPER ONLY!
500 = minimum amount to print!
Must work effectivly and productivly as a team!
Quality control team will keep project together and ensure the requierments of Jenny are met 100%! (Learning objectives, lesson plans, etc)
The roles will be chosen as a group prior to the project begining
We will have to supply most of the research / infromation / photos etc for the articles ourselves!
Must do lesson plans!
Must test material on students to gain feedback
MUST stick to the deadlines!
Research ionto places where the newspaper can be distrubuted i.e. coleges, schools etc
Demos of material? (Preview work, flyer etc?)
CANNOT USE ANY COPYRIGHT MATERIAL!

Questions regarding the brief

2010-03-01T17:02:00.000-08:00

Here are some questions that I thought of when we discusssed the brief for this project

What is the a2 critical perspectives exam?
What are the clients requierments?
How extensive do the case studies, learning plans and lesso nactivites have to be?
What advertisers should we use for the newspaper?
How much is the 'Cost of production?'
When does it go to print?
What is 'quality control'?
Will we get any information from media magazine, OCR etc?