The document discusses technologies used to construct a media product. It describes using the internet for research, uploading work to a blogger portfolio, and generating a QR code. Microsoft Word and PowerPoint were used for planning, research display, and evaluation. Blogger was used to document work, and SlideShare was used to upload documents to blogger. Photoshop skills improved with learning techniques like placing text behind models. A camera was used to take original photos for the magazine, and a laptop was needed for planning, construction in Photoshop, and evaluation writing.

1. Evaluation
6) What have you learnt about technologies from
the process of constructing this product?

2. Technology Used

3. Internet and QR Reader
Some of the software I have used includes internet explorer. This
was vital for completing my product and in many stages along the
way. It would have been pretty much impossible for me to
conduct any secondary research without the use of the internet
and all the information from finding real media products for
analysis to looking at music magazine publishers. Using the
example of using the search engine to find existing
publishers, without the internet, I couldn’t of gone straight to
Bauer Media’s website and see what they had produced and
compare with otherInstitutions such as IPC. The internet was also essential every step of the way for uploading my
work into a safe portfolio on blogger as a way of documentation.
I had used the internet prior to planning and producing so there
wasn’t much that I needed to learn, however I did find learn the
danger in trusting sites that could give faulty information for
example Wikipedia, as anyone could have written it.
I also used the internet to generate a QR code which has been
placed on my blog. If my magazine was a real media
product, the QR code would link to a website for my magazine
for people use, but the QR code as it is, links to my blogger
page.

4. Microsoft Word and
PowerPoint
In the planning and evaluation phases of creating my media
product, I used Microsoft word and powerpoint. This software
was not vital but made each stage easier and more organised. I
used both programmes to display my primary and secondary
research, analyse my findings on and plan my product. I then
used it to evidence my work and to evaluate what I had done. I
could have done this on paper, so the technology wasn’t
necessary but it was a much more efficient and organised way
to layout and show my work. It also meant by doing it on this
software I could easily put my work onto blogger, my online
portfolio of work.
Along with the upsides of using this software, there was minor
downsides, which included, the risk of the hardware I was using
crashing or shutting down without saving and it can be
unreliable. It was also quite time consuming to have to upload
each file to SlideShare before being able to post it on my blog.

5. Blogger and SlideShare
I used blogger as a way to document my work with the URL elliecorbettasmedia.blogspot.co.uk
I had never used this software before and therefore had to learn about it from the start. It was
quite an easy web page to use and navigate around, the only hurdle was being unsure of how to
attach a word document or a powerpoint document to my blog. I learnt how to do this by using
a different programme; SlideShare. To use this software, I had to upload a document that I
wanted to put onto my blog, then copy the embed code and paste this into the information of
my new blogger post. Once I had learnt this process I found both programs easy enough to use
and both were very beneficial. In some ways
it wasn’t essential to use blogger as I
could have manually written out my
plans and evaluation instead of doing
it digitally, however, this did save me
a lot of time and was a more
organised way of displaying
everything. If I had chosen not to use
blogger I would also have not had to
use SlideShare to upload my
documents either.

6. Photoshop
An essential piece of software in construction of my media product was Photoshop. Without this
or the use of other software that I did experiment with, for example, In Design or Publisher, I
would not have been able to produce my magazine in an efficient and professional way. I had
knowledge of Photoshop before I started this project and knew my way around and how to use
all of the basic tools and some of the more complex ones, however I have learnt so many new
skills in this software. Without learning any new skills I could adequately edit my photos using
the curves and levels, the blemish removing tool, change the lighting effectively and create a
image that wouldn’t look out of place on a magazine cover. I could also add text to my
canvas, on on top of my image, and I knew how to change the fonts, the size
and the colour of my text. However, a new skill that I had
learnt, was to have text on top of the background, but behind the
models head, (as seen on my front cover). I also learnt other
valuable skills to do with the text, like how to put a drop shadow
on it and how to bevel and emboss the letters. Once I had learnt
how to do this, I played around with these tools to make the most
effective cover I could and made the text so it would attract a
potential target audience. Although I did have prior knowledge of
this software, I learnt so much more through this project.

7. Hardware
I used a camera within
this project to take the
images that are in my
magazine. Each of the
pictures featured in my
magazine is original. I
did know my way
around a camera
before it came to
shooting for my media
product and this came
in use when positioning
and lighting decisions.
A laptop or computer
was essential in all
stages of
production, from
planning (to gather
secondary information
and display my
ideas), to
construction, (for the
use of Photoshop) and
in evaluation, (to write
all of my thoughts down
and display them on my
blogger website).
I had to have access to
an SD card and a
memory stick. The SD
card was important as I
needed it to get the
pictures I had taken
and the interview I had
recorded off my
camera. The memory
stick was also vital to
store all of my work on
and so I could continue
with my project.