1. Evaluation question 6-
What have you learnt about
technologies from the process of
constructing this product?
By Ellen Thomas

2. I believe that constructing my media product has been a good
learning experience. My media product is synergistic
because I used a number of technologies and programmes
to create it. Before doing media as an A level I had never
used an Apple Mac or its software before. Throughout the
whole construction process I have used a variety of
different technologies which I have never used before and
had to get to grips with. I used the support option on the
Apple website to first get a tour of the Apple Macs. I also
used a number of different YouTube videos which showed
me how to do a number of different things with the Mac.
I believe Apple Macs must be used regularly in the
publishing sector because of the popularity of
these computers.

3. I was soon introduced to Blogger I discovered that this
was the programme that I would put all of my
coursework onto and we quickly did a task called
‘getting to know your blogger’ which really helped me
understand how to use the programme. It was simple
to make an account and everything was really straight
forward and easy to navigate. The options where
simple and to create a post you just click on ‘new post’
by doing this with task one I was able to see all the
different options on the icons above the box where you
write and soon discovered that you could add photos,
videos and links into your posts. Later when adding in
my slideshows and prezi’s I discovered that you had
to do this by adding in a HTML by clicking
‘edit HTML’. I think this was a fun and
interesting way of displaying coursework and
would definitely use this programme again.

4. I then had to learn how to use a programme called InDesign. This is the
programme that I constructed my media product with. I think this
programme (or one similar) would be very important to the magazine
industry because of this is where the main construction takes place. My
teacher gave us a tour and showed us the type of things you could do
on the programme but then left us to our own devices to have a play
around with some of the things you can do, this is were I created ‘my
first page’ (second post on my blog) which is just a practice page in
which I discovered how to use the different tools to add a picture and
change its shape as well as add text and change its size and font.
I soon discovered more complicated things as the construction process
went on, I soon discovered how to edited pages and add margins for my
double page spread, add shapes and create effects onto
text as well as using things such as the ‘eye dropper tool’ .
I believe this was the perfect programme to construct my
media product because of its wide variety of options to
edit, create and erase things. I would definitely use this
programme again.

5. Photoshop played a big part in the
construction of my music magazine
because this is were I edited all my photos
including my main cover image, I believe
that this programme is very important in
the publishing sector. Photoshop is used
regularly in the magazine industry so I feel
a sense of achievement that I have used it
in the constructing of my magazine. I
utilised this programme in my work to
create my cover image to be black and
white apart from her lips to be red I
watched a YouTube video to find out how
to do it. At first I thought it would be
difficult but following the YouTube video
and doing it step by step was easy. I really
like Photoshop because of the numerous
editing features you can do. I also used
Photoshop to design my masthead, I had
to ask my teacher for help but then
discovered it was easy.

6. To present my research as well as my evaluation questions I used two
websites called ‘Slideshare’ and ‘Prezi’. Slideshare allows you to
upload a PowerPoint onto blogger. It was simple and easy to use, all I
had to do was sign up and uploading a PowerPoint onto the site was
simple because it was easy to navigate. I then got the embedded
HTML and then copy and pasted it onto my blog in ‘New post’ and
then ‘edit HTML’. I think this is a really good site because I like using
PowerPoint as a way of presenting, so having the opportunity to
upload a PowerPoint to my blog was great.
Prezi however was more complicated because this is a site where you
create presentations online. I think its a fun and interesting way to get
across your ideas because you can do so much. At first it was difficult
to get your head around all the different tools and because its such a
large workspace to work on it can be a bit intimidating.
To get started I watched a couple of example
Prezi’s to get an idea of what you can
actually do. I also clicked the
‘Learn’ tab on the Prezi website where it
shows you a video on ‘how to get started’
and then ‘got to the next level’ and then even
‘share your prezi’. I would definitely use this
website again because I found it enjoying to
use.

7. Conclusion
In conclusion I believe that I have learnt most
about the magazine industry from the
programmes InDesign and Photoshop.
Without them I feel my magazine wouldn't
have looked as professional and too a
standard that I would be happy with. I have
also learnt that technology is very important
within the technology of the publishing sector
in constructing, presenting and marketing
your media product. I feel pleased that I have
utilised so many technologies within my work.