Media Studies A2 Evaluation Question 4

1. EVALUATION QUESTION 4
“How did you use media technologies in the
construction, research and planning, and
evaluation stages?”

2. BLOGGER
• Blogger is the online blogging
platform where I have hosted my
blog to document the process of
building my magazine from the early
research stages to this last stage. It
has been a very useful platform as I
have been able to post at every stage
of the development and it is
convenient being online. The
software is very simple to use, which
is why it made the process more
simple than another line blogging
site, such as WordPress which is
more technical.

3. BLOGGER
• I learned how to use the blogging platform by trying out different tools. I mainly
used Blogger during the research and planning stage, where I presented my research
in different blog posts. This meant that they could be easily navigated to by using
the ‘labels’ tab which set each post in a category. I also changed the blog design to
make it more minimal and easily readable with a plain white background and simple
layout.

4. GOOGLE
• Google is a search engine which I
have use predominantly in the
research stages. It is a useful tool as I
was easily able to find examples of
real life regional magazines and data
to support their audience and
viewing figures. This made the
research into codes and conventions
a lot easier than if I were to have to
purchase and acquire the actual
magazines themselves.

5. GOOGLE
• The search engine is easily used and is, arguably, the most useful tool in the digital
technology I used. It was a very easy research method as I could simply type what
information I wanted, and after trying a few websites, the information was usually
readily available.

6. PHOTOSHOP
• Photoshop is the program I used to
create my final product, as it allows
photo editing and manipulation of
photographs, whilst allowing the
adding of text and whole host of
other tools. Without this program, I
may have had to find another
program which is similar but
probably less diverse in it’s
functionality, which would have
made the whole process harder and
take longer to achieve.

7. PHOTOSHOP
• The tools for photoshop are placed at the left side of the page. The main tools I used
were the text tool, the path tracing tool, and the shape tool. I also used the
adjustment tools in the ‘Image’ drop down menu to edit the colour balance and
contrast and brightness in the main photograph. The path tracing tool was used to
make the award rosette which allowed me to create arced writing.

8. PHOTOSHOP
• On the Editor’s Comment page, I used the eraser on a large size with a low harness
level which create the fading effect between the photograph and the bottom text of
the advert. I also used the spot healing brush and the clone stamp tool to smooth
the skin of the model in the two photographs on the left hand side.

9. KEYNOTE AND SLIDE SHARE
• To present my research and
evaluation, I used the program
Keynote for MacBook and created
slideshows. This is an organised and
easy way to present text and images
which has allowed me to keep on top
of the research, and now, evaluation.
After finishing the slide show on
Keynote, I would then upload it to
SlideShare which is an online service
for displaying the presentations so
that they can be easily embedded
into Blogger and make the research
more easily available through my
blog.

10. KEYNOTE AND SLIDE SHARE
• Keynote is used to create powerpoint in which I already had skills in from previous
projects. Slide Share is also easy to use as I simply uploaded the powerpoints,
however ever I had never used this website before my AS media so I learned skills in
using this new website.

11. WIX
• Wix is the website I used to create
my magazine’s website. It is easy to
use with a drag and drop interface,
and a number of pre-prepared
layouts made it simple to create a
professional looking website for my
magazine. This website was very
important in the creating of my own
website for my final product.

12. WIX
• The toolbar down the left hand side is the main interface for adding text and
features to the page. I taught myself how to add different features and how to edit
them to make a professional looking final touch. The main features I added included
a scrolling gallery, a Twitter feed, and a animated scroll over box.

13. CAMERA
• I used the Nikon D5500 camera to
take the photographs for my final
product. As it is a DSLR, it meant I
could change the settings to achieve
the perfect lighting and colours that I
wished for on my photos. I could
also change the focus using the lens
to achieve a different feel to the
photos, either having the foreground
or background in focus or blurry.

14. CAMERA
• To take my photographs, I had used a fast shutter speed and an aperture of 4.3 as
this gave the contrasting effect I wanted with a sharp focus. I also knew that I could
edit the colour balance in post production of photoshop, so I focussed more on the
composition and light in the photograph that the colours.