The Research

Today, Bethan supplied me with research at the meeting that we have had with Justine. She had supplied me with images of posters and websites along with information on how to stay safe. All the research I have been provided with is to a good standard and I will be able to create media that is fit for purpose and would be suitable for our target audience. I have decided that I am going to make: a leaflet, a poster, a facebook and a twitter for our campaign.

Group Meeting With Justine and Our Idea

Today we had our first group meeting with Justine and we came up with our idea for our campaign. Due to a recent assault that happened in Winchester we decided to do a Stay Safe campaign, our idea is called 'Stay Safe, Know Your Place' and we our going to try and complete it within the 2 weeks that we have left.

When we had spoken to Justine about it she said that some of the other groups have already chosen to do a stay safe campaign but that it works and that their is an audience for it at the end of the day.

Again, without the Project manager, these tutorials were being booked by other members of the group.

We are going to meet with Justine on wednesday to show her our research and hopefully get some new ideas for my role as content creator.

Project Manager: A No-Show

After many different attempts, we have not been able to successfully contact our project manager, which is frustrating to say the least. We have emailed him several times, tried to contact him through Facebook and even spoken to Justine about our problems. Therefore, a conscious decision has been made to start the project without him.

New Brief and Group:

Today I got an e-mail from Bethan Clift detailing that she is in my new group with Harry Webb (who is project manger), Sean Grossett who is production and dissemination and she is research. Leaving me with the last of the four roles, Content Creator.

The brief is about starting a campaign whilst trying to impliment the 'nudge theory' and change student behaviours in and around Winchester. The first thing we are going to do is contact our project manager (due to several of us being away) and start the project as soon as possible.

Starting the Magazine

Today, I am going to make a start on the magazine now I have been given all of the information from James on what he has written. The front cover and one of the articles will focus on Ed Sheeran, another on Coachella festival and the contents will obviously cover a wide range of topics.

Meeting Bex and Discussing Ideas

Today we met Bex for the first time in the Learning Cafe on campus and discussed the ideas that we have for the magazine. Overall, Bex is pleased with the idea that we have and that we should aim to make sure that the magazine that we are doing fits purpose. She also made a suggestion that we could maybe focus the magazine in on British festivals so it appeals more to the target market.

I then told Bex that for the layout, I am concentrating on NME as a point of reference for the house style. This is because NME is the post popular music magazine in the UK and that using this as a point of reference to design our own may be helpful to ensure that it is fit for purpose.

Our Facebook Page

Today, Harri created our facebook page in order for us to be able to communicate with eachother easier. Opening up the communication has allowed us to be able to share ideas and post documents for eachother that we can all have easy access too. This is obviously on top of e-mail and phone correspondence that we have regulary to ensure that the project is completed to the best of our ability.

Adobe Indesign CS5.5

The software that I have decided to create the magazine on is Adobe Indesign CS5.5. The reasoning behind this is firstly because I already have previous knowledge of the software when I created my A-Level coursework for Media Studies (see picture), meaning that I know how to navigate around the software and that it will save time when it comes to creating the product.

It's also because the software is what I would deem to be rather professional, which is something that all of us in the group want to come from our final product.

New Brief Set & The New Group

Today I have found out the new brief and the new group for the new project - because I was unable to attend due to personal reasons, I have had to find out in a Monday meeting with my new group. The group first met eachother on the 10th Feb 2012, the members of my new group are Harri Gill (Project Manager), Harry Webb (Researcher) and James West (Content Creator) meaning that I am the Production and Dissemination.

I met the group at Harri's flat in West Downs, here I found out the brief which is creating a magazine for a type of Media. We have chosen to do ours on Festivals around the world which is something that I believe we will be able to create a good, informed piece on. Even though there are not many Festival magazines on the market that we can draw reference to for things like house styles (font, colour schemes etc), music magazines act as a good substitute as the target market and demographic remains pretty much the same.

It was then established by this that Harry would complete the research by the coming Friday in order for James to get started on the Articles and other information that would be needed.

I am going to start looking into the software that I am going to use to create the pages of the magazine that we have been set: (Front cover, contents, two articles). We have a meeting with Bex on Thursday morning to discuss our ideas and in what ways we should take our ideas forward.

Final Presentation: Rectifyed

I can safely say now that the presentation has been completed, but with however, a few digressions to the project brief. Considering that Slideshare was not working for our PowerPoint and due to how many different approaches we had taken, we have come to the conclusion that uploading the presentation to YouTube was our only option.

The above video is our finished presentation and in some ways I am happy and in other ways I am disappointed with the outcome. The presentation has weight, it clear, concise and the design does not inflict the audience with an 'information overload'. However, the sound is extremely distorted. Something, obviously, that could prove to be extremely problematic.
We have also uploaded the presentation to slideshare, meaning that it is backed up, if anything is to go wrong.

Uploading the Presentation to Slideshare: Unsuccessful

Today, Anthony tried uploading the presentation to SlideShare.net. Something, I am afraid, has been unsuccessful. The aim was to have it done for Thursday, ahead of time so Justine could check that the link worked and because I am unable to attend the lecture on Friday morning due to personal reasons.

The PowerPoint has been done in the wrong format, meaning that the presentation is an array of static images and we have lost the audio and animations that we connected with the presentation. Therefore, we are now looking into other methods of completing the project for the Friday 10th 2012 deadline. We have thought about using other versions of Microsoft, using video creation software among other things.

I have also been in correspondence with Justine, as I believe that it is paramount to maintain the contact with our tutor in situations where the project is in jeprody.

The Finished Presentation and Evidence Sheet

Today, Anthony informed me that he had finished the presentation, so we decided that it would be a good oppotunity for me to write the Evidence sheet for each member of the group.

The presentation was done on PowerPoint and really does live up to the expectatations that we had. (See attached print screens).





The colours are very sober, which is something that we all wanted as it makes the PowerPoint appear more professional and does not distract from what we are trying to say. The second image is also a testiment to the success of the design and layout of our PowerPoint, as Anthony and Sammy made a concious effort not to create a PowerPoint that would overload the audience with information.

After having a look at the PowerPoint, I then collated the ideas that Rachel, Sammy and Anthony had given me as to what the successes and faliures were in each role that they had undertaken. I believe that the feedback from each member of the group was too be vital in creating a honest and realistic account of how the project has gone.

Recording the Voice Over

Today, we also recording voice over for the presentation. We did this via the recording booths on the University campus. It was decided by consensus of the group that I was to be the one to record the voice over.

We had booked a 2 hour slot from 11.00am-1.00pm but the recorder wasn't functioning properly, so we used this time to practice the script to ensure that it would run smoothly when it was being recorded. We also discussed whether we were going to have a continuous recording or whether we were going to partitian the voice over per slide to ensure that the information had gaps for the given audience to take the information in.

The recording was done on software called Adobe Auction and this was done been 1.00pm- 3.00pm. I believe that the recording went well and that it was done to a good standard as it flowed properly. I made a conscience effort to 'sound my t's' and speak as clearly as possible as I have a regional accent where I lack both of the aforementioned. This is because I believe that, due to the fact that this is aimed at academics and students and the aim is to educate about the subject, that I should speak as clearly as possible.

Third Group Tutorial with Justine Mortimer

Today was the third group meeting with Justine. This was to make sure that the script was up to scratch and to keep her up-to-date with what we're doing. Justine liked the script and said that the tone was suitable for the audience and that it flowed nicely. However, she believes that the script could include more theoretical and conceptual information in relation to SOPA and PIPA and regulation. This information would need to be sourced by Rachel.

She also agreed with the colour schemes and layouts that Anthony has put forward. These colours are sober and 'professional looking'. We believed that greens and blues are quite naturalistic colours that would not distract from the overall presentation.

Content Creation: Finished Script

Sammy has just finished the script for the voice over for our presentation. I believe that it has been completed to a really good standard and I really do believe that it serves it's purpose.

"In this presentation we aim to answer the question “What are PIPA and SOPA and do they constitute a good or bad thing for personal freedom” Firstly what does PIPA and SOPA actually stand for? PIPA is the Protect IP Act SOPA is the Stop Online Piracy Act Both aim to tighten copyright online and give US law enforcers more power online. Along with a lot of the public, many big name websites have protested against the bills. It is argued that we will have little freedom to express ourselves online, and the amazing access we have now to unlimited information and knowledge will be reduced and diminished. As many of you may already know, wikipedia “blacked out” for a day on January 18th 2012 in protest of SOPA and PIPA (show image of wiki blackout) Sue Gardner, executive director of the Wikimedia foundation said “the Wikimedia foundation welcomes these developments. This is another step towards the destruction of these two pieces of proposed legislation. But lets be clear, these bills are not dead.” She also went on to say "The blackout was led by millions of ordinary internet users, and the people who make projects like Wikipedia possible - writers, photographers, editors and illustrators. They sent a clear message to Congress: don't mess with free expression, don't destroy the free and open Internet, don't do the bidding of traditional corporate interests. This is a moment in history when the people who create and share works on the internet as part of the free knowledge movement, and the people who depend on access to those works, are asking to be heard and to have their freedom of speech protected." (show reddit image) Another website www.reddit.com which refers to itself as “a source of what is new and popular online” also blacked out for 12 hours in protest and also included a link to sing a petition on their blackout page so users could join in the protest Many others joined in such as mozilla and tumblr, and although twitter didn’t there was trending hash tags of “STOPSOPA” and other similar protests circulating the network. On January 18th there were public protests in New York City. Around 20,000 people protested outside the offices of senators Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand who have co-sponsored the bills. Kent McCarthy of the website dysfunction junction.com says that if these bills pass then websites such as face book and twitter will have to petrol user content. (show KM quote in quotation marks, and have our explanation below separate so that it doesn’t all look like his quote) one of the most appealing things about face book, to both is uses and creators, is that the consumer creates the content themselves and can use the space to freely express themselves in (almost) anyway they like. To censor face book would be censoring the users personal spaces. He also makes the argument that this will start a “slippery slope” of control, basically he says “if they can control our internet, what cant they control?” He is proposing that the bills would be the first of many to limit our freedom. The amazing thing about the internet is anything is accessible to anyone as long as they have an internet connection, of course. So if it can be done that we cannot access all this information at our finger tips why cant they stop us from doing other things too? The bills almost seem to be belittling one of the most amazing technologies we have, almost anything can be found online and we can use it to communicate in millions of different ways. Why would anyone want to limit that? However Kent McCarthy also, unlike most others, has some good things to say about the bills. He argues that the government will be able to pursue more copyright violations that happen on the web. Copyrighting is obviously bad for all media industries, but the government are doing what they can to stop this already, why need even more control? Can’t they do their job now? He also argues that in theory it should boost revenue for entertainment industries as there should be less content theft. However there are regulations and laws against copyright and content theft at the moment, the government will have to take extreme measures to enforce that all of this is stopped when, for some people, its just so easy. Even with SOPA and PIPA it is likely that people will find away around this. With anything that censors what we say, so or access online it is safe to say that these bills will constitute a bad thing for personal freedom."

The next step now is to find someone to read the script.

Second Tutorial with Justine Mortimer

Today was the second tutorial with Justine Mortimer and due to illness, I was unable to attend. This tutorial was to talk to Justine about the research that we have gotten through Rachel, as obviously, it determines the route of the presentation.

Sammy filled me in on what happened and it sounded to me that Justine was, again, happy with the direction of the presentation and that we are on the right track towards a successful presentation.

Group Tutorial One with Justine Mortimer

Today we had our first group tutorial with Justine. Rachel was unable to attend due to personal circumstances but we still had plenty of important ground to cover and questions to ask regarding our project.

I had printed off a copy of the groups timetable that I had devised and I wanted to make sure that the work flow and contingency of the timetable would meet the requirements of the brief. Justine seemed pleased with how everything was set up and advised us that Sammy should start looking at examples on Slide Share of different presentations and that Anthony should preempt and make a www.slideshare.net account in advance.

We discussed our choice of question and how we are going to approach it (by using numerous case studies to contextualise what we are saying).

Our next tutorial is booked with Justine for Monday 30th January.

Production and Dissemination

Today, Anthony was on task of booking the recording studio ahead of creating our voice over. This stays in-line with the timetable that I had devised for the group. Despite the fact that the script has not even been written yet, it ensures that we have the recording studio ready for when we need it. The recording has been booked for 3rd February 2012.

Strawberries: A Timetable

I have now created a timetable for the group to access and have uploaded it to the Facebook page. I have tried to accomodate for everyones already existing timetables obviously due to prior university commitments and work and I believe that I fully achieved this when creating the timetable.
I colour-coded the different days and as you can see there is red font on some of the days, indicating that this is when the group will meet up with Justine, or just us as a group on our own.
Even though I had set the dates they were fully flexible, leaving room for any mistakes that could occur. Meaning that there is windows for improvement to the work once it's finished.

Our first group meeting

Today, we had our first group meeting. Here, we were going to decide what question we wanted to do from the brief and how we were going to go about getting the best possible outcome from each member of the group.

We met at the Learning Café on the University of Winchester's campus. First of all, we wanted to decide when we were going to meet and when we were going to have tutorials with Justine. It had already been discussed via Facebook that we wanted to have at least 3 tutorials with Justine to ensure that we are kept on track and that the work we produce is at the best possible standard.

We then moved on to what question we believed would suit our purpose the best and we decided that Question one of the brief was the best: "What are PIPA and SOPA and do they constitute a good or bad thing for personal freedom?" We chose this question because we believe that it relevant to the audience we are presenting it to. The reason for this is because PIPA and SOPA would have a direct effect on social networking and other popular sites such as Wikipedia.

We had decided that the reason should be completed for Friday 27th January 2012. Rachel should then send the research electronically via email and post it to our private Facebook group in order for the other members of the group to be able to access it when needed.

The other peices of work have a 3/4 day gap between when the work should be completed. Giving ample time to be able to fix mistakes.

Strawberries: A Private Facebook Group

To extend the amount of contact and communication that we would have as a group, I created a private Facebook group. I already knew from previous experience from my last project group, that having the Facebook group would be invaluable as, not only can the group stay in constant and consistent contact but we are also able to upload photos and documents that can easily be accessed by the whole group at any point, when needed.

I am going to create a timetable for the group will all deadlines for when each task should be completed that will also be uploaded to the site to ensure that that we have contingency.

Strawberries and the new brief.

Today, we were assigned our new group and our new brief. The members of my new group are: Anthony Amabile, Sammy Lawson and Rachel Simpson. Once we were set our new groups, the next thing we needed to establish was who was going to be in charge of what element of the project.
It was decided that I would be the Project Manager. This means that I will book meetings with Justine Mortimer, set group meetings where we discuss the work we will do and set deadlines for the rest of the group for when certain work on the project should be completed.
Anthony is Production and Dissemination. Thus meaning that he will create the final product, Sammy is Content Creation, so this means that she would write the essay/voice over and Rachel is research, meaning that she will do the research of the facts and theory for the project.

The brief for project is to create an essay presentation for an audience and demographic of students and lecturers (academics). We have a choice of questions in a list and we have decided that we will decide on Monday 23rd January 2012 as to what question we will do for the project.

Like most groups, we struggled coming up with a group name. So Strawberries was the final choice for our project groups name.