Sunday 10 April 2011

Evaluation

After completing my advanced media portfolio I have created various tasks while using and developing my skills of certain desktop publishing software's in due course.During the 14week production line, the programmes I used varied in user skill ability considerably with easy programmes such as Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel to more complex software's that require a depth understanding to receive some good products on the likes of Adobe InDesign and and Photoshop elements.

Throughout the coursework many challenges arose that would have to be dealt with to complete the coursework such as what programme to use to create the website. At first I set of to Dreamweaver but due to the complexity and time factor and chose an alternative method of using Wix.com, a free online page in which you can create websites.If I used Dreamweaver I would have to create the page from scratch, in addition to that I would have to make sure that all forms of media(pictures, videos, buttons etc...) was in the correct folders or it would not work. I found wix rather quick and convenient to anyone in particular an A Level media student, this was because it already has a set of buttons, animations and effects that are ready to be used.

Through out my coursework I have tried to challenge as many codes and conventions as possible, however it is important in the way which I challenge it as it may make the product look like something I am not trying to produce. In my ancillary task of the web page, one way in which I challenged the convention was by adding a reflection however, unlike most reflections mine is directly below where as most are reflected to the bottom of the page.

The production of this coursework shows one key media term, synergy. This is relevant where I have included the newspapers website address on the print product, this lets customers know that the newspaper have a website, and that they can get up to date news coverage 24/7. In addition to that the other ancillary tasks of the poster incorporates both the website and the print product, this lets people know about the two products by including the web address, newspaper name and the company slogan. In many ways this is effective as it allows the users to know all kinds of media platforms that 'Harrow Weekly' is accessible from.

One new media form i used in the production of my coursework was the integration of a video onto my website. This turned out o be useful as it not only showed that i was able to include videos on to my website but it also creates interactivity with the user, it allows the user to watch the video and may allow them to get a personal experience of the event to an extent. In addition to that the adding of a customer survey form to receive feedback on my websites also allows the user to interact with the creator to further enhance their personal experience.
Another way in which it helped was by representation of my questionnaire analysis. New media helped in several different ways firstly, following the feedback of my questionnaire it allowed represent the data in graphical forms such as graphs and charts. This allowed for a greater understanding of the responses. In addition to that when putting the graphs with analysis on to my blog i created it in using  PowerPoint slide, this enables anyone looking at my blog to view all the work in one piece.
In addition to that, upon creating my poster for my newspaper I researched some previously made posters, I showed these posters i used on a slide show. While the posters was inspiring some of the posters would need so expertise in creating posters.

To obtain audience feedback I asked four people from each age group category to get a fair understanding. once i received my feedback i learned that more of the older population consumed a newspaper more often then the younger generation, this may be because they may not necessarily new media literate and are more accustomed to reading newspapers. I also learnt that while the old generation was more likely to pick up a newspaper and read, majority of the younger generation was more likely to go onto the Internet and read articles online. However upon comparing my primary research to secondary by Harrow's current leading newspaper Harrow Observer, i learned that more people of middle age picked up the local newspaper.

Thursday 7 April 2011

Poster Final Draft

*Click to enlarge*

After receiving feedback from my original poster I made a complete renovation of the whole poster design. The original poster was too dark and it didn't have much of a community feel to it, therefore I got pictures of stations which Harrow Weekly covered. Secondly this poster enhances the corporate identity of Harrow Weekly as it uses the same fonts and colours.

Final draft of second page for newspaper

*Click to enlarge the pic*