How did you use New Media Technology in the Construction & Research, Planning and Evaluation

Stages

Internet

The internet provided the most effective means of getting our video published and commented on by the public. The platform provides excellent resources and comes with unlimited storage capacity. It is also more globalised in a sense that now anyone (with a modem and router) can access the internet. Making it the best way of obtaining feedback.

Why Internet?

• The internet only promotes more user interactivity, where audiences are actively participating in the content and delivering their own comments in regards to my music video.

• It also has multi media experiences for the user to enjoy. So not only can they watch my music video, but they can also partake in blogging and commenting.

• The internet also grants the audience more control and empowerment to look at the music video and comment on it whenever they wish. This is more convenient for them as it is for me to obtain the information and make the right adjustments to the production.

• The internet is virtually free for audiences to access media texts (provided they have connection).

• This benefitted me greatly as I was also able to obtain and download a track online rather than locating and buying the CD single, which will cost me time and money.

• It also allows audience to view my music video and comment straight onto its page rather than having to wait for a release , to buy the album and send me feedback via telephone or post which is slightly more expensive.

• The internet also makes streamlining of media text easier. Given the benefits of a media convergence, audiences can now access the radio, TV and online newspapers online. Instead of the traditional way of buying media texts e.g. newspapers from the newsagents.

• This is also beneficial to me as audiences are more likely to comment on the music video with more speed which is time saving for me and the production crew to look at their feedback and make the necessary changes.

• The internet (as touched upon in the earlier slide) comes with an increased storage space. In blogging websites, a user could potentially upload unlimited materials on their page without the storage space ever running out.

• The internet has also allowed for increased efficiency. Audiences can now search and obtain individual tracks even quicker than traditionally buying a whole single which takes up time and money. This is of benefit to my product as users can now reply and comment on my music video without the need of other lines of communication.

• Finally the internet has Globalization. It allows audiences to access individual media texts removed in time via archiving.

• Nowadays audiences are able to read an edition of their favourite newspaper and/or listen to their favourite radio station online while travelling abroad (which also allows for increased efficiency.

• Blogging and podcasting have now become popular methods of reaching a worldwide research

• In the last year’s main task, we had to obtain our feedback by gathering a group of people into the screening room in the media suite, for them to watch our 2 –minute video then answer the questions provided on the questionnaire we gave them, maybe even getting their statements on film.

• Whereas in this year’s media task, all we had to do was to simply film the project then upload it straight onto websites like YouTube and Facebook and obtain feedback that way.

• Comparing the results we got now in terms of audience feedback compared to that we got last year , this method has proved far more effective . It was more efficient and cost effective. Whereas, last year’s we had to produce flyers and posters to advertise and promote this 2-minute video. This way is more cheaper and is eco-friendly too, which is another added benefit of the internet.

• In the last year’s task our method in obtaining solid feedback wasn’t as feasible. With the questionnaire we provided there tended to be more closed questions than open questions, which made the individual audience members a bit sceptical as to what to write down as an answer.

• In addition to this we may have also used video camcorders provided by the school to record these responses. This was also a very implausible method as the audience were new to the school and some hadn’t even taken up media as a course, so recording them ended up in us obtaining slightly weaker feedback.

• The whole process for last year’s project on the whole would have been very time consuming, as not only did we have to analyse the results from the questionnaire, but learn how to edit the video responses and analyse that.

• A n advantage of this year’s method is that we could also potentially reach our target audience collectively. Last year’s project entailed that we had to we audience of our age group, therefore it was restricted to only those of our year.

Youtube

• The website ‘YouTube’ allowed me to upload my music video production onto my profile so that it could be viewed at one’s own convenience by our audience.

Why YouTube?

• I chose this website because it’s a very popular video sharing platform that is used by millions of user worldwide. This ensured that feedback responses weren’t simply restricted to the local community but readily available for anyone to view and comment on.

• We were given the option to set the privacy of the video to ‘private’ (only 25 people can view on private) , however this was slightly constricting as we wanted a more diverse range of people commenting on the music video so that we could make the necessary adjustments.

• Another good thing about using YouTube as a means of obtaining feedback was that there was an option for users to post ‘Video Responses’ so that they themselves could illustrate the problem with the video as opposed to simply text where we must determine what it is exactly the user is commenting.

• Also, the anonymity YouTube provided its users allowed for more honest feedback ,which improved the validity of our results.

• In comparison to last year’s method where members may have felt a bit pressured to give a response.

Facebook

• Facebook is a highly used social networking site. Millions of unique users log into the service everyday, creating surges of online web traffic.

Why Facebook

• I chose this website to publish and share my music video as a high volume of our target audience use this provider. This was a more charismatic way of receiving feedback as our viewers were also able to interact with other users and the comments they provided. This helped not only to solidify points, but also build upon them; and occasionally criticize them.

• Another benefit of Facebook, is that users could then share the same video with others and collect comments that way.

3G Phones

• The evolution in 3G phones also made it possible for me to obtain more feedback on the product.

Why 3G Phones?

• Its capabilities allowed me to not only store the same quality video on my phone, but transfer it to other computer via Bluetooth. The 8Gb internal memory of the phone allowed me to retain the same quality video without the need of first compressing it.

• 3G Phones also have another benefit. With it, I was also able to access the internet and share my video through the phone onto websites like YouTube and Facebook.

• The portability of the phone allowed me to share the video also with people who didn’t have access to computers, thereby increasing my volume of feedback.

Video Sharing Websites

• For the research and planning stages, I used video sharing websites like Yahoo videos to research real media music video products.

• By entering in the search bar, the name of the artist or the song, I was instantly given search results to scroll through and locate the one I needed.

• This was more efficient as one didn’t have to wait for a showing of a specific video on music video channels such as MTV Base or Kiss which may have contrasted with my own schedule.

• This was more effective a method as all I needed to do was use the ‘Grap’ function (on Mac PCs), or ‘Print Screen’ (on Windows PCs) to capture key moments in the video and paste them straight into my analysis section.

Document Sharing Websites

• The research carried out for existing magazine adverts and digipaks were documented using presentation software (i.e. PowerPoint) and then uploading them onto ‘Slideshare’ .

• Slideshare is a document sharing site, which allowed me to upload presentations, documents or PDFs onto the site.

• It could then upload the documents straight onto my blog pages on Blogger (if I was logged in first). Or alternatively, I could copy the code under ‘embed’ and paste the same code onto my blog page.

• This proved a useful tool as I was able to upload my documents whilst maintaining its overall structure as opposed to using the blogging feature which lacked some design and alignment features.

Google TM

• Google is the internet’s most powerful and widely used search engine.

Why Google?

• I was able to use Google to search for existing magazine adverts and digipaks (or album covers).

• By entering into the search criteria keywords such as ‘Funk magazine adverts’. The engine returned numerous results so that I could pick and choose the adverts I felt were most related to my funk genre.

Integrated Camera Phones/ Cameras

• During all stages of my production, the use of camera phones or cameras came handy.

• I used the camera phones to take pictures of the locations, props used, characters and the magazine and digipak designs.

• I was then able to share the images and footage with my video with others in my group, as well as the YouTube website and Facebook.

• This was much faster to do than to upload and send the images via email or YouTube direct on the computer.