Tuesday, 20 March 2018

Titles for blog posts

Home
Individual Blog

Group Blog Link - A,B,C,D

Main Music Video Task 
- Research (include summer video as a starter)
- Analysis
- Audience
- Preliminary
- Planning 
- Production

Ancillary Music Video Task 
- DigiPak 
- Magazine Advert 
- Website
 - Research 
- Planning 
- Production

Final Work
Show actual video here - add link
add any text relating or outlining theme.
Show final magazine advert
Show final digi pak
Show final website - add link

Evaluations on own Individual Blog 
Question 1
Question 2
Question 3
Question 4

Friday, 16 March 2018

Citizen Journalism

Citizen journalism; the process of members within the public playing an independent role in collecting, reporting and distributing, current and breaking news events, has recently become very popular(i). New media technology such as social networking eg: Twitter, Facebook and Blogger, have given everyday citizens the ability to transmit information globally; a power which was once only reserved for large media corporations (ii).
In addition, the increasing presence, speed and accessibility of advanced cellular phones and other media sharing devices has allowed citizen journalists to report on breaking news not only to a larger, global, audience, but also more quickly than traditional news reporters. Many believe this form of news coverage is fundamental to Journalism today; citizens’ being relatable, unrestricted and available to capture images and footage of worldwide news as it breaks.

DANGERS

Fake news is a type of yellow journalism or propaganda that consists of deliberate misinformation or hoaxes spread via traditional print and broadcast news media or online social media.[1]   

the term its self was coined during the US election

its not just recent ......Some examples of citizen journalism include the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963, Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004
link below has some good points and facts about processional journalism vs citizen



Critics of the phenomenon, including professional journalists and news organizations, claim that citizen journalism is unregulated, too subjective, amateur, and haphazard in quality and coverage.


Fake news also undermines serious media coverage and makes it more difficult for journalists to cover significant news stories.[7] An analysis by Buzzfeed found that the top 20 fake news stories about the 2016 U.S. presidential election received more engagement on Facebook than the top 20 news stories on the election from 19 major media outlets.[8]Anonymously-hosted fake news websites lacking known publishers have also been criticized, because they make it difficult to prosecute sources of fake news for libel.[9]

try this link for some mind blowing stats on fake news and its reach during USA elections!


what was the impact on the result?


Nice conclusion- ignore the satirical cartoon.


Advantagers

Citizen journalism is a branch of reporting that is led by the public. ... Advantages and disadvantages of citizen journalism exist. Some of the major advantages are that citizen journalists can report events as they unfold, report from closed regimes, capture the unexpected, challenging the media, and offering multiple perspectives on an event, give a voice to the masses.

3 good points made in the first section of this link:


list of citizen journalist web sites



Now Public is A multimedia news site with 5 million readers puts it in the top bracket of citizen journalism news coverage. NowPublic.com says that it receives news from 6,000 cities in 160 countries. The crowdsourced news site accepts news, views, photos, and videos from its legion of contributors. 

I like the idea of crowdsourced news its a good term ( crowd funding, wiki shaping our understanding)

2 points from this next link
 1) traditional news institutions are buying into citizen journalism as a source of news E.g 

People around the world posted more than 100,000 stories on CNNiReport.com last year. Out of that, 10,789 were vetted for CNN, which means they were fact-checked and approved to be broadcast on CNN TV or featured on CNN.com. '   

also it has some links to some examples of stories covered. 

Wednesday, 14 March 2018

fine tuning to 'We are media'

Here are some good issues to help understand democracy and the key isses, work your way through this makeing notes or a spidergram

open this link:
https://prezi.com/mjequmlagxnh/studying-we-media-and-democracy/

Thursday, 8 March 2018

What Career event in Liverpool - Free tickets - think about your creative future

Hi everyone,
I am going along to this event on Friday to pick up new information on career pathways, opportunities and apprenticeships in the arts, media & design.

I have booked spaces for students so if you fancy meeting me there then please feel free.

Come and chat to me if you fancy joining me so I know to wait for you outside.

Breaking News: NME to close print edition






Wednesday, 7 March 2018

Question 2 - We Media

Today we looked at essay structure to help you for assessment week next week.

Firstly try and answer question 1: WeMedia I gave you. 
Base responses on all of the documents/ booklets I handed out to you.


Example responses

We Media’ and Democracy
• What are ‘We Media’?
• Where/how has ‘We Media’ emerged?
• In what way are the contemporary media more democratic than before?
• In what ways are the contemporary media less democratic than before?

Candidates might explore combinations of any two media in relation to the above prompts.
Starting from Gillmor’s definition, all media that are ‘homegrown’, local, organic and potentially counter-cultural can be studied for this topic, as long as two media (eg blogging and digital film uploading and sharing) are studied. Note that candidates should compare potentially alternative/progressive ‘we media’ examples with other examples of more orthodox production and ownership models.

The question also asks candidates to consider media within an understanding of democracy so any contemporary examples that support their argument will be credited.

http://www.ocr.org.uk/Images/75162-unit-g325-critical-perspectives-in-media-specimen.pdf



Some extra examples of possible questions below:


We Media’ and Democracy                                                                                     (Specimen Paper)

12 “The media have become more democratic in recent years”. Using specific examples of media activity from two media to support your answer, evaluate the accuracy of this statement. [50]

13 How new is the concept of ‘We Media’ ? Refer to at least two media in your answer. [50]



2016


2014


2013






















Monday, 5 March 2018

1a How to answer - moderator speech


How to answer 1a - Essay structure

These tips are from Vicky Allen, an OCR Examiner - she knows her stuff and may be marking your paper!

For Question 1(a) you have to describe and evaluate your skills development over the course of your production work, from Foundation Portfolio to Advanced Portfolio. 
The focus of this evaluation must be on skills development, and the question will ask you to adapt this to one or two specific production practices. 

Watch the video link below on how to gain full marks in this question, with exemplars for you to follow:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kN8O9t-oOII&feature=youtu.be

The exam essay question will be a variation of:

1a. Explain how your skills in the creative use of digital technology developed over time. Refer to a range of examples from your media productions in your answer.

How to prepare your answer for 1a)


You need to prepare FIVE essays to be ready for the examination. 
You only have 30 minutes to write this section, so your answers do not need to be long. 
Make notes on:
  • Digital Technology
  • Creativity
  • Research and planning
  • Post-production
  • Using conventions from real media texts
For each essay, prepare 3-4 examples for each of THREE sections:

• Pre-production
• Production
• Post-production

Remember, you can use examples of work you have done outside your production portfolio, too, such as other videos you have made at home or at school, or artwork you have done. 
You must focus on PROGRESSION over the course - the skills you developed.

First, decide what you think 'digital technology' is! 
Then recall how you have used different sorts of digital technology across your AS and A2 courses. 
TOP TIP - remember the difference between software and hardware (ie a tripod is NOT an example of digital technology!). 
You need to demonstrate your development throughout the course, so think about what you used at AS then what you used at A2 that you hadn't used at AS.

Now think about your first area, Pre-production. 
Do a spider diagram or write bullet points answering this:

a) What digital technologies did you use in Pre-production at AS? 
This could be PowerPoint presentations, your blog, YouTube, mobile phones, tablet computers, Iphones. Write down 3-4 examples.

b) What digital technologies did you use in Pre-production at A2? 
This could be social media (Facebook/Twitter/Instagram), use of websites to stream content such as films, Google.. Write down 3 more examples.

Next, think about your second area, Production.


a) What digital technologies did you use during the production process at AS? 
This could be different camera settings, use of MP3 players for lipsyncing, lighting, sound recording, downloading tracks to iTunes... Find three examples.
b) What digital technologies did you use at A2? 
Find three examples, e,g. Photoshop, creating a website, camera effects, greens creen

Finally, think about your third area, Post-production.


a) What digital technologies did you use during the post-production process at AS? 
This could be basic FinalCut Express, iMovie for importing clips, |Moviemaker... Find 3 examples.
a) What digital technologies did you use at post-production at A2? This could be more advanced Final Cut effects, such as colour correction, linking/unlinking audio, changing the speed of clips, using the Trailer creation on IMovie... Find 3 examples.

Now write your essay introduction, using the PDQ format: Point, Data, Question. Make your point, give your data, then apply it to the question.

1. Answer or give your point of view on the question in 1-2 sentences.
2. Outline briefly the products you made across the two years - give the type of production, the title and the genre. The examiner needs to know what sort of work you're talking about!
3. Tell the examiner that you will structure your essay be explaining how you used digital technology at the pre-production, production and post-production stages of your work.
THEN reference basic theory if it's helpful - take from your AS representation work or your coursework evaluation.

Now you are ready to write your essay using the examples you found in your plan. 
A basic framework for your essay is below:

Basic essay structure for 1a (Write about your AS and A2 productions):

Paragraph 1 should be an introduction which explains which projects you did. 
It can be quite short, but should frame your response. 
Explain what you did, e.g. 'For my AS Foundation Portfolio, I produced a two-minute chick flick film opening and for my A2 Advanced Portfolio, I made a pop music video.' 
Then move on to impress the examiner with a theoretical statement related to the topic, such as: 'Digital technology has meant proliferation and convergence of cross-media forms. 
My projects have evidenced what Gauntlett describes as "the harnessing of collective intelligence through interactivity".

Paragraphs 2, 3, 4 and 5 should pick up a skill area and suggest something about your starting point with it- what skills you had already and how you used them. 
Use examples and have some key phrases ready, such as:

  • 'Use of iMovie helped me understand the conventions of film editing' (good for analysing how use of software links to creativity). 

  • Or 'My iMovie skills improved from AS to A2 as I  became more proficient with special effects' (then give examples of effects you used such as green-screening, detaching audio, colour saturation). You need to show evidence of improvement from AS to A2 which obviously also improved your creativity. 

  • Or 'I found iMovie to be basic but suitable for the project; however at A2 I used the more advanced programme, Final Cut XPress.' 

  • 'Using Final Cut XPress allowed me to create seamless transitions between camera angles, whereas in my Foundation Portfolio I had problems with narrative continuity.' 

  • 'I uploaded my film opening on to YouTube as an example of Web 2.0 to gain interactive feedback.'

Paragraph 6 Short conclusion relating back to the question and summing up key skills you have developed in that area over the AS and A2 course. 
Frame your essay with another quotation from another theorist that relates to the question and confirms what you said in your introduction.


2. Creativity

This is the trickiest, possibly, but it is often combined with one of the other four areas in the question, so you need some phrases up your sleeve. Think about what 'creativity' means to you. Handy quotations from theorists are:

"Making of the new, rearranging of the old" (Bentley)
"something new that communicates something to someone" (Gauntlett)
"something original" (Roberts).
You can use these quotations to support your points in your introduction and throughout the essay. You could also refer to Rick Altman on genre pleasures.
Repeat the planning process as you did for Digital Technology. Now write your essay!


1. Research and Planning


1a. Explain how your research and planning skills developed over time and how they contributed to creative decision-making. Refer to a range of examples from your media productions in your answer.

First, decide what you think 'research and planning' and 'creative decision-making' is! 'Research' is all your work looking at previous film openings and music videos and learning the conventions. 
Use the Bentley quotation that creativity is "making of the new, rearranging of the old" - therefore you had to become very familiar with other work in the same genre in order to make something recognisable within the genre yet fresh and new for the audience. Required research included:

AS Foundation Portfolio (magazine/summer music video)

  • watching lots on YouTube to become familiar with the genre (give one or two examples for each of these bullet points). However, this only gave vague ideas so you:
  • conducted nine-frame analyses to learn about shot types and editing; 
  • detailed semiotic analysis of key shots to learn what sorts of signs and symbols have been used in other film openings of a similar genre;
  • creating a timeline of a film opening to see where to include credits and shot changes;
  • research into film company idents, credits and film titles;
  • research into film companies to find out how to produce, market and distribute your film.
Then AS planning included:
  • audience survey to conduct a psychographic analysis of your target audience as well as what they expect from your chosen genre;
  • pitching your idea to a focus group and taking feedback;
  • storyboarding
  • location planning, practice shots, costume, props, mise en scene, shot lists, timetables, weather forecasts!
End result was a successful music video in your chosen genre which adhered to key conventions and received lots of positive feedback from your target audience.

A2 more advanced research included:

  • completely new media - began again with the techniques used at AS such as watching lots of videos in your chosen genre;

  • this time need to be more creative due to the need to provide something in a very demanding and competitive market, so lots more research into innovative techniques - greenscreening and effective lighting, stop motion, creative transitions;

  • this time planning included much more analysis part-way through the project, taking feedback from audience focus groups and a music video director - needed to manage time very efficiently for this;

  • additional new media for the ancillary task - magazines for the advertisement and digipaks. Lots more analysis of other magazine advertisements and digipaks, learning the conventions of what to include such as bar code and twitter/facebook logos; 

  • planning included research into new technology to use for these media, such as Gimp and PicMonkey;

  • also included ways to create synergy between the three products, looking at how others had done this, taking key signs, colours, images and fonts across all three.
End results were a slick, professional-looking video, attractive digipak and successful advertisement which worked very well together as a package and received very positive feedback from the audience.

Basic essay structure for 1a (Write about your AS and A2 productions):

Paragraph 1 should be an introduction which explains which projects you did. 
It can be quite short, but should frame your response. Explain what you did and frame the essay with a quotation from a theorist that relates to the question.

For Paragraphs 2, 3, 4 and 5, pick up a skill area and suggest something about your starting point with it- what skills did you have already and how were these illustrated. 
Use examples. 
Follow this with ways you improved on those skills at A2, perhaps by using a more advanced piece of software or learning more advanced tools, always reflecting on how this improved your creative work.

Unless the topic is post-production you should cover three areas: pre-production, production and post-production. You could use those areas for a paragraph on each.

Paragraph 6 Short conclusion relating back to the question and summing up key skills you have developed in that area over the AS and A2 course. 
Frame your essay with another quotation from another theorist that relates to the question and confirms what you said in your introduction.

Remember it's only half an hour and you need to range across all your work!