Thursday, January 23, 2020

PPE - Dirt 1B News Assessment 2020



Grade: A
Mark: 38/50

Question 1: Analyse all aspects of media language, use CLIFT to complete this action as you need to talk about the layout and why its specific to the particular news genre and the style of text and how its been written etc. Discuss the technical conventions such as hard and soft news, the font to image ratio, the mode of address/lexis. MUST consider CUPPTUNE so that news values are referenced in order to get the higher marks, consider what the stories in the newspapers highlight and what they are trying to show. Lastly, provide a conclusion that is relevant to the question.  MARK: 13/15

Question 2: Must include a representation theory of your choice, could have selected either Van Zoonen, Hooks, Gauntlett, Butler, Hall or Gilroy. Could have spoken about how white males are represented, how the Syrians come across, females, age, gender and ethnicity. Also speak about camera angles and consider why the image appears to have been taken from the particular angle, could it represent vulnerability or power?  MARK: 9/10

Question 3: Technology advances, use any examples of:
  • More accessible 
  • Clear format/layout
  • More interactive
  • Ads/subscriptions
  • Similar links to related articles (wider range)
  • Can find any newspaper that you desire
  • Globally interactive audience
  • Portable 
  • Environmental friendly
  • Updates news automatically/Live updates
Include why the print circulation has decreased and use examples of the above to back up and evaluate the question. Refer to the online versions of The Guardian and The Daily Mail and explain how the industry has responded to the decline in print circulation and why the online editions are equally as important.   MARK: 9/10

Question 4: Participatory media was the main part of the question, the audiences are now becoming more involved in the distribution and media and how they want it be written/how it comes across. Us as an audience are the ones which capture the images for natural disasters/new events. We then upload these images to social media where they are then shared nationally and internationally so that everyone has the option to view whats going on. Also due to the fact that uploading news on social media platforms is automatic it means that us citizens are ultimately responsible for being the journalists.  MARK: 7/10

Monday, January 13, 2020

Film Industry - Jungle Book 1967&2016


When considering both film posters of Disney's The Jungle Book its clear to establish that one was produced in 1967 whilst the other in 2016, the differences in the cultural context highlight how computer graphics have advanced over the years. Beginning with the 1967 version the characters appear very much animated and cartoon like whereas with help from CGI the 2016 edition can have more realistic looking animals and backgrounds. Advances in technology enables the audiences to feel more connected with the later version because the scenery and characters appear more realistic and sophisticated however, this doesn't take anything away from the 1967 original version. The appearance of the 1967 version is childlike and sweet, it seems like the sort of film which wouldn't cause any sort of distress to anyone who wishes to watch it. Whereas from the looks of the 2016 version we get a very different vibe from it, the colours are mostly dark making it hard to analyse what characters are in the poster. Only when you analyse the poster are you able to distinguish the other animals in the image because at first glance you only see the boy and the panther however when you start thoroughly analysing you are able to spot the monkeys and the snake - by camouflaging the other characters it creates this idea of suspense and the fear of what awaits them in the jungle. Also another interesting aspect of the 2016 version is the sunlight in the background, this light could signify that something good will come out of the jungle eventually even if there will be some dark moments before the characters get there.

Saturday, January 11, 2020

Daily Mail front cover Evaluation

What was the task you were given and who were your target audience?
- We were assigned the task of creating our very own front cover page for The Daily Mail, every aspect of the newspaper had to be created by ourselves, the only parts which we could copy and paste were the Masthead and the photographs that relate to our chosen stories. Before we were sent away to  complete the task we were given a list of news stories and adverts which we could choose from, by doing this it eliminates everyone creating similar front covers. When considering which stories and adverts to choose from I thought carefully about the technical conventions of a mid market tabloid so that my front cover had representations of this specific genre of newspaper, i.e. hard/soft news, larger text and adverts. The target audience for the Daily Mail tend to have a demographic profile of ABC1 therefore, I had to take my lexis and mode off address into consideration in order to live up to their expectations.

What research did you undertake to complete this task?
- Before designing anything I took to Google so that I could analyse some of the traditional Daily Mail newspapers, I scanned through a few so that I gathered ideas on their layout and the way that they address their audience through their stories, photographs and text. I made sure at all times that I had a legitimate cover page available so that I was constantly referring back to the original source, this ensured that I wasn't creating something that didn't appear to look like the newspaper genre.

Which Daily Mail front cover did you use as your main source?


Which areas did you find most challenging? 
- I found that creating the headlines and the text was the most challenging aspect of the task, it was extremely difficult to mirror the exact font, so in the end I had to design every letter individually and then I stretched them and pushed them close together. Once I had completed this action for each letter I then print screened the page and inserted it as a picture onto the front cover. This was very time consuming however, it is virtually impossible to mirror the exact font unless you print screened from the legitimate newspapers  - which wasn't part of the task!

How successful do you think your front cover page was? What could be improved?
- Overall I am pleased with how my front cover looks, I feel it does have some similarities of a traditional Mid Market Tabloid for example, i am pleased with how my advertisement looks above the Masthead. To improve i need to consider the spacing between text and letters because mine doesn't appear very page filling, i would also need to re think my second advert because the box that the text is sitting in looks quite clearly fake. A traditional Daily Mail cover wouldn't have this type of error fixated with it, overall i should examine the newspaper more to ensure that my finished product portrays a clearer example of this type of newspaper genre.


Daily Mail front cover