Digital technology media evaluation
- 1. What have you learnt about technologies the in the process of constructing this product ?
- 2. Blogger The website blogger has been crucial during the process of the construction of my product. I has helped me link together my research, planning, production and evaluation elements of my product and let me comment on each stage of the process. Everything is displayed in chronological order which make all of my posts accessible and easy to find. Combining my ideas on this website has meant that I have been able to use different features that I would be unable to do with out the use of such digital technology for example embedding hyperlinks to YouTube and different websites. I have used this to link to different trailers when talking about youth subcultures and how they relate to the music industry. I have also been able to do none of my textual analysis as a video instead of a word documentary. Blogger has allowed me to keep all of my work in one place and has not constricted me to presenting my work in just one format. I had nit used this website before starting this project but I have found it easy to learn how to use. Blogger has helped me learn how to embed links and how to present my work in many different ways and has showed me how digital technology can make the presentation and accessibility of work far more simple.
- 3. Google docs Google docs was a useful application during the research process of discovering my target audience and what elements of my magazine appealed to them and which did not. This application was not not new to me but I did learn that I could add photos to my questionnaires which helped me to decide which images appealed to my target audience most. It also meant that all of the responses were compiled into handy pie charts and bar charts which made the information very easy to process. Without this digital technology I would of had to spent far more time on my questionnaire and the results would not have been as easy to determine.
- 4. Digital camera and iPhoto The use of a digital camera aided me greatly in the process of taking my photos. It meant that I was able to take hundreds of photos quickly and easily and review them during the process unlike a film camera which requires a period of time for the film to develop. I could adjust the aperture and shutter speed easily as well and so I experimented with using a fast shutter speed which produced clear images and a low shutter speed which created a 3D effect with the different colour light. I was also able to use my iPhone to test out my photo- shoot idea before taking the photos with a digital camera. I was then able to connect my camera to my laptop where I dragged the photos into iPhoto so I could clearly see them and begin sorting through them to identify the strongest pictures and create a contact sheet. IPhoto also allowed me to make minor alterations to my photographs such as removing skin blemishes and adjust lighting.
- 5. Photoshop and InDesign These applications were crucial during the production and editing of my magazine. For my front cover I used Photoshop as this helped me to edit and make sure that there was no imperfections in my image. After the editing process was complete I added layers of text, putting each cover line on a different layer so I was able manipulate them more easily. I used Photoshop instead of InDesign for my front cover as the focus of the page was on the image and not on the text. For my contents page I used InDesign this meant that I was able to play around with many more fonts and change the look of different fonts. This helped me in finding a font for the “subscribe now” element of the page. I found that InDesign was also much better for resizing images and it helped me to visualize the final product. I also used InDesign for my double page spread. I found that using InDesign for this page of my magazine was really helpful as I was having to manipulate a lot of text and InDesign made this easy. InDesign also has a feature where text can be imputed straight into columns this meant that I was able to see if my text was the right size through the use of the 3 columns per page rule. I had not used InDesign before this project and I did find it hard to adapt to at first but after persevering and watching some you tube videos I found it very useful and I learnt that it can be more appropriate to use InDesign for more text based products.
- 6. Conclusion I have learnt that with out the help of digital technology this project would have been almost impossible as the technology that I have learnt to use has helped me at every stage of creating my music magazine, from posting on blogger to the editing and production process. I have learnt to use new technology and in InDesign and I have furthered my knowledge of digital photography and applications such as Google docs.