Q4How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning

and evaluation stages?

Research• I utilised web 2.0 extensively for my research. For

my magazine research, I used the official websites of a lot of regional magazines as many of these websites contained free PDFs of past issues, which was easier than finding a niche magazine store and individually scanning images in.

• For my radio advertisement research, I had to use Youtube recordings of advertisements for other products, as finding radio advertisements specifically about regional magazines proved impossible.

• For regional magazine billboards I encountered a similar problem and had to use websites such as Google Image Search and Bing Image Search to find billboards advertising non-regional magazines.

• I analysed all of these in Microsoft Powerpoint as it was easier to arrange text around the image than in Microsoft word, and also the slideshow format meant it was easy to refer back to.

Planning• To collect the images needed for my magazine

pages, I used a Canon 600-D and a Lumix camera to take the photos of the venue and the band photos. The Canon was used for the band photos to keep a high level of clarity, because otherwise the small image would appear blurry a2nd unprofessional. The Lumix was used on the venue photo because even though it would lead to a lower quality photo, it was easier to carry and use - important when taking photos in a public place.

• The planning of my product generally involved pencil sketches of image and object placement and general structure of the magazine pages, which were then transferred in two ways: one, via scanner, to preserve the original sketches; and two, recreating them in a program with simple vector graphics such as PowerPoint, so each section of the page could be easily manipulated and moved around to test out different styles

• After this, we again mocked up the fonts and general placement of text over an image in a similar style to what we eventually intended to take, in Photoshop. This also had the added bonus of allowing us to experiment and properly learn photoshop’s tools and layers before we started on the real image.

Construction(Magazine)

• For the creation of our main media product, Adobe Photoshop was used most as it allowed us to manipulate the images and colours on our magazine easily and effectively to a very precise level, or change the shape/size of images without compromising the whole piece (useful for when an intended photo didn't work as a front cover, for instance). Other than that, only Microsoft Word was utilised to write the main article. Other image manipulation software like GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program and a free alternative to Photoshop) and Paint.net were used to create small images or work on Photoshop files at home. For my advert page specifically, I used a painting program, Paint Tool Sai, to hand draw my images of guitars with a Wacom drawing tablet. This allowed me to get a detailed comic style and control over the colours that Photoshop's filters didn't allow.

Construction (Radio Advert)• For the radio product, we used

Celtx to write the script, Cubase to record and Garageband to edit and add in sound effects. Celtx was useful as it allowed us to write the script in a professional manner, teaching me valuable skills about scriptwriting and layout and conventions. Cubase's ability to export to multiple formats meant it was useful as we could export our recording in a file format recognised by Garageband. Garageband was chosen to edit the files as it's simple and basic and easy to pick up and not much work was required on the radio advert other than cutting the files to have a better flow, tracking their volume throughout the advert and adding in a simple music track.

Creation (Billboard)• Our billboard was

created in mostly the same way as the magazine pages, with Photoshop used to edit the photos taken on the Canon cameras. Photoshop's layers and effects functions were the components that allowed us to get the 'London within an eye' look we had envisioned.