Updated 2 Media Studies

1. EVALUATION QUESTION 4
HOW DID YOU USE NEW MEDIA TECHNOLOGIES IN THE CONSTRUCTION
AND RESEARCH, PLANNING AND EVALUATION STAGES?

2. BLOGGER AND ONLINE SOFTWARE
• Blogger is a web based technology that allows my work to be accessed by a variety of different audiences. it is a method that allows
me to publish my work myself. My work can be presented in a variety of different ways, examples of these include the blog post
themselves, Prezi presentations and podcasts.
• Using blogger put me under the category of Web 2.0 allowing me to be a prosumer rather than just a consumer. Being a consumer
means that you just consume the information that is provided on the internet unlike a prosumer who also provides the information
so others can access it. Being a prosumer also contributes to the uses and gratifications theory as consumers will meet the need of
surveillance and information as they are seeking information. Being a prosumer means that I am providing that information butalso
consuming that information. The information that I consumed would’ve been in my research.
• Prezi is an example of online software that I used during my planning and analysis stage alongside other features including SlideShare
and SoundCloud. This software allowed me to present my work to the audience in a variety of different ways. Prezi was useful in
analysing covers of newspapers as it allowed me to create an interactive presentation rather than just the standard Microsoft
PowerPoint. SoundCloud was useful throughout my project as it allowed me to great regular podcasts informing my audience of the
stages I’m at and what else needs to be completed.

3. STILL CAMERA, PHOTOSHOP AND INDESIGN
• A still camera was paramount to my project as a whole, this is because still images were
key to my project as not only did they feature on the main product they also did on one
of my ancillary tasks – the poster. I used a Canon camera as they’re known for producing
high quality images, this may be because the camera has an ‘intelligent auto focus’
feature which means that it saves time when it comes to focussing images as the camera
does that itself rather than me having to focus the camera.
• I've used Photoshop and InDesign previously so I used this year to improve on my skills, I
focussed more on using the quick selection tool more precisely in comparison to other
years. I’ve only used InDesign once before which was on the AS element of the course, so
in comparison to last year I felt a lot more confident using the software. InDesign allowed
my product to look more like my style model when creating my Page 2. this is because
unlike Photoshop it created columns that were suitable for the page, which is something
that Photoshop wouldn’t do.

4. AUDACITY, GARAGEBAND AND USB MIC
• I used the following features to create the Radio Advert for my ancillary tasks. These were all new features to me and I didn’t
have knowledge on the features of each and how they worked. However, as a whole I believe that they created a high quality
radio advert.
• The USB microphone explains itself in what I was using it for, I used it to record those who were featuring on my Radio
Advert. I would connect the microphone to a laptop computer and use the recording rooms in school to record the voice
samples into audacity. I was told that the USB microphone itself was sensitive and picked up the littlest of sounds and for
that reason it was best to do it in a recording studio. I used the Samson C01U microphone, being a USB microphone meant
that it didn’t need any extra cables to record the sound all you needed was the laptop and the microphone itself.
• Audacity was used as software to record the voice samples for my radio advert. Audacity was a simple programme to get to
used to as all I needed to do was create a new track and record the voice through the microphone. To get the best and
loudest sound from the microphone I used the microphone input slider bar on the programme. I was able to trim the
recordings on Audacity so I was able to place them straight into GarageBand.
• After I recorded all my voice samples I used GarageBand to arrange the tracks into a suitable and realistic layout. It took me a
while to get used to the concept of GarageBand and how to insert tracks to the programme, but once I got to grips with the
software I became more confident. I trimmed the background music in GarageBand to get to a suitable starting point of the
song and end point when I was able to incorporate the real song. I wasn’t fond with GarageBand as a software overall.