Monday 15 December 2014

Link your photos to your flickr account

 flickr 

Using flickr is use of another technology which is really useful for your for developing your skills and it will also help you to put lots of evidence into your evaluations.

When you have taken photos upload them into your flickr account and then embed the link or slideshow into your blog.

Basic Photography Hints and Tips from OCR

It is worth taking a look at this to get some basic tips to help you with your photo shoots.

You will need to take a lot of photos, from a variety of angles, with a variety of shots.

Don't forget to book a tripod out with me when you are ready.

Variety of costume, hair, make-up and props will also be very important.  As will backdrop, setting/ location and lighting.  DO NOT JUST TAKE SNAPSHOTS.

You will need to direct your subjects and ensure that they are posing for you the away you want.  Direct their body language, facial expressions as this will be key to constructing representations.

Remember the quality of your final products is dependent upon these photos so you must get it right.  Planning is the key to success.

Tuesday 21 October 2014

Ideology- what does your magazine stand for?

Ideology is a concept that we need to understand and apply to our analysis and construction of media texts.

Ideology is defined as a world view, a system or set of values, beliefs or attitudes that an individual, a group or society hold to be true or important.  

When analysing or constructing a media text you might look to identify a dominant ideology.  These are ideologies that are repeatedly communicated to us by important social institutions such as the media, the church, the Government, the law and educational establishments.  These are ideologies that we live by in our day to day lives and often do not question as they have become natural common sense things that we believe. 

These dominant ideologies effectively dissuade us from rebelling against these beliefs and help to maintain an air of moral stability within our society.

Dominant ideologies include beliefs about gender roles, marriage, family, sexuality, religion, about tradition and heritage, about the economy and about social institutions.

Consumerism has become a dominant ideology in the western economies since the industrial revolution.  It is based upon the principle that a person is happier if he or she has more material possessions and by consuming more and more material goods.

Common examples of ideologies include;

Committing a crime is against the law and if you commit a crime you need to punished.

Education is to be valued and you should go to school to gain qualifications to become a valued member of society with a responsible job.

How could you identify the ideology of a music magazine?  What does it value or hold as important?

Does it value new music? Does it value live music events?  Does it value up and coming artists?  Does it place importance upon particular genres or styles of music?  Does it value promoting particular lifestyles or products?  Does it value a narrow range of music or a broad range of music? Does it value influential artists from the past?  Does it value a particular social group?  Does it believe that music is important?  Does it believe that buying music is important? Does it believe in technology supporting the development of music?  Does it believe that live music is important?

How is this conveyed? How do you know this?  What evidence do you have to support your view?

Answering these questions will help you to establish the ideologies present in the media texts you analyse and in those you construct.

You will need to construct a clear ideology about your magazine and identify what it stands for and who it is communicating to.

Thursday 11 September 2014

Welcome to the AS Media Blog



This blog will be used to help you with your coursework and some of your exam work for AS Media Studies this year.


You will need to create a link to this page and use it to keep up to date with deadlines and assignments to ensure you know exactly what you should be doing.

You should by now have already created your own blog page where you will upload your coursework this year.  You also need to create an account with thinglink.

The first post on your blog should be an analysis of music magazine mastheads

Thinglink is a great tool for you to use on your blogs.  It allows you to make your products interactive by adding hotspots.  These hotspots will allow you to upload text or to link audio and video content.   The examiners really like you to use both of these tools.

To attach audio you will need to do this via soundcloud by creating an account on www.soundcloud.com and recording a clip.  You can also add video through youtube.  You should create an account on youtube that is purely for your media work, once you upload files these can be linked to hotspots on thinglink.

You will be using thinglink to do one of the first research activities.  An example of this………..