Self Evaluation

...Attainment...

1 - I have given myself a 1 because I believe that I have tried to reach the best of my ability with the work I do and feel as though I have developed new skills and gained more knowledge in the different aspects of the media industry as I did not learn much of this at GCSE.

...Effort...

1 - I have given myself a 1 because I always aim to complete my homework to a good standard and I always take notes while in class. I also feel that even when I sometimes don't understand the homework that is set, I read it over and over again to ensure that I am doing it correctly.

...Punctuality...

5 - I have given myself a 5 because I know that I have been late to quite a lot of my lessons and I have also been absent for about 4 lessons, this is bad because I miss out on what is learnt and even though I haven't fallen behind everyone else that attends all the lessons I know that I should try harder in getting to the lessons on time.

...Submission and quality of homework...

1 - I have given myself a 1 because I am very happy with the homework I produce as I try to do it to the best of my ability and I have always handed it in on time which has gained me an accommodation within the first term.

...Ability to work independently...

3 - I have given myself a 3 because even though I am able to work well independently I really like working in groups as I am able to share my ideas with other people.

...Quality of writing...

2 - I have given myself a 2 as my homework and the notes of which I take in class are organised into paragraphs and very well punctuated which makes it easy for me when I go back to revise them.

...Organisation of Media folder...

2 - I have given myself a 2 as I think my Media Studies folder is very well organised as I have separated Mr Bush's work and Miss Holliday's work from each other by using dividers, I have also put my work for both teachers in order of date so I am able to refer back to it in a later stage without having to search the whole of my folder for what I am looking for.

...Oral contributions in class...

3 - I have given myself a 3 because I know that I don't contribute orally as much as other people in the class do and even though I talk more when working in small groups, I realise that I could actually talk a bit more and possibly give my opinions on topics discussed and share my ideas with everyone else in the class.

(WWW)

* I achieved an accommodation within the first term due to my homework.

* I am able to understand the differences between the 3 media platforms: Broadcasting, E-Media and Print.

* I obtained a good grade for both my presentation and the organisation of my folder.

(EBI)

* Participate more in class discussions.

* Aim to be to on time for all lessons and attend all lessons.

* Go through notes more often in my spare time so that I am able to understand what was taught more.

Media Awards Evening 2008

...Film Reviews...

Media Awards Evening was a very inspirational and educational evening as I alongside other AS media studies students were able to view the film productions of which last year's AS media students had made. The evening provided us with entertainment as well as education; the videos shown were of a very high standard and taught me a lot about film production and the film industry.

Face of Fear

I personally felt that this was one of the best films as it showed us media students and others what we can really do if we work hard and put our minds to something. The genre of the film was horror; it is instantly depicted by the horror based soundtrack right at the beginning and throughout the film. Even though I knew it wasn't real and it wasn't actually happening to me, I personally felt very scared because of the main character and how he would suddenly appear on screen with an axe or a different weapon.

I felt that the actor who played the killer should have won the best actor award as he had stuck to his character the entire time and he played the role to a good standard providing a lot of the suspense throughout the film. I felt that the camera angles used were very focused on the situation in the film and the surroundings of the characters i.e. the setting and the environment, I also thought that the use of shots were creative, for example, when they went to shots of a fire in a barrel it represented the genre and portrayed the meaning of danger as that is what most people think of when they think of fire. In my opinion, what also gave off the effect that it was a horror film was the use of their make-up and facial expressions, the killer's make-up was very dark, this also gave the effect that he was evil and murderous. The actors and actresses facial expressions gave the impression that they were very scared and frightened for their lives. As the title says, the film truly shows that the killer is the "Face of Fear".

A Rapper's Ambition

This film trailer had caught my attention as it told the story of a small scale rapper who wishes to make it big in the music industry, it tells of the obstacles he must go through and overcome in order to get there. It is an inspirational trailer for maybe those who wish to work in the music industry when they become older and that no matter what the trials and tribulations you have to go through you must follow your dreams and never give up. Those who are trying to become a part of the music industry are able to relate to this trailer as they know what it feels like to be turned away and for people to not take interest in their talent.

The camera angles give off a very great effect as they are mainly focused on the upcoming rap artist rapping which showcases his talent within the film trailer and shows us what he does which enables us to give our own opinions on his skills. The reverse bottle shot gave an aspect of authenticity to this film as no other film trailer or documentary had a shot like this which is also showed it to be very creative, as soon as I saw that shot I wanted to know how directors of this trailer had created it, I then thought to myself that this was due to the use of editing. The editing of the trailer was of a very high standard as were all the other trailers but in my opinion this was the best because the trailer showed the artist rapping with his competition, it showed his background and what direction he needs to go in to get where he wants to be.

Silent Pain

I chose the film Silent Pain as one of my favourites as it tells the true issues of rape within marriage of which may not happen as much as it use to but still has an affect on people in today's society. Even though it doesn't hasn't a lot, there is a 1 in 5 chance that it could end up happening to someone whether it be a stranger or someone of whom you may know, in some cases the police don't take those women have been raped because they believe that if you are married than you can't be raped; it shows us that married women sometimes end up feeling ashamed of themselves because of the situation they have gotten themselves into. Many people appear in the video with the message of "Real Men Don't Rape" written on their hands.

 The documentary shows the real story of a victim of rape and the troubles of which she now goes through due to what happened to her, she had to change her name and can no longer live her life as she use to. The use of editing had also provided us with the real impact of rape as the directors had covered her face so we wouldn't know her identity. If it was to make such a connection with the audience, they may spread the message of the documentary which may possibly prompt those women who have been raped by their husbands to come forward and say something or possibly those who are being abused by their husbands to speak up before it is too late.

Magazine Pitch

!Busty Babes!

Aimed at an audience of men between the ages of 18-35 “Busty Babes” features a whole range of interests that would appeal to men in today’s society. From girls and fitness to cars and gadgets this magazine specialises in only men’s interests and especially fashion for those who like to look good while getting ready for a *hot* date. It is targeted at the type of men who enjoy life and want to live it to the fullest before having to settle down; they are also classified as the C class.

The magazine is aimed at men who want to experience the pleasures of life itself at such a young age rather than facing the obstacles that other men who are in this age category have to go through.

There are many advertisements published in this magazine including both products and brands, from looking at an earlier edition of this magazine you will be able to tell that they all things a man would be interested in especially those aged 18-35.

There are many advertisements published in this magazine all including products and brands, some advertisements that can be seen in this magazine include:-

- Nokia

- X Box

- Topman

- Nike
- Adidas
- Calvin Klein
- K-Swiss
- Lacoste
- "Unforgivable" by Sean John
- "Instinct Intense" by David Beckham
- “True Star” by Enrique Iglesias
- Apple iPhone
- “Usher For Him” by Usher
- BMW X6
- Ferrari 599
- Sony Ericsson T303
- Samsung Tocco
- Toshiba Protégé M700 3G13B Laptop
- “Blue Seduction” by Antonio Banderas
- Samsung P500FA01UK Laptop

Get your chance to win the new Nike Air Force 1 Berlin trainers by just answering 1 question

We have decided to hold a competition allowing readers the chance to win the new Air Force 1 Berlin trainers. It would involve readers having to answer one question based on the manufacturer itself. 

Nike was originally founded in 1964, but what was it originally founded as?

- Blue Ribbon Sports
- Official Sports
- Athletic Run

...PITCH...

As we all know Nike is a major publicly traded sportswear and equipment supplier and I have recently become very interested in the new Airforce 1 Berlin trainer, I would be grateful if you would allow the magazine to run a competition with the prize being your trainers. "Busty Babes" is now the latest magazine aimed around all the latest gadgets and fashion for men today; this is why we have chosen to advertise other Nike products such as the AD Superunner Jacket and the Air Max 1 trainers in our magazine. I don't think this would just be a benefit towards us but I also think that it would be a benefit towards you as those who end up winning the competition may be motivated to enter more of the competitions of which may be host for Nike and they may also urge others to do so, this would earn you a large profit and would possibly double the gross revenue of which you earned last year.

Seeing that Nike as a company has more than 700 shops around the world and has offices located in 45 countries outside the US, we as the owners of this magazine think that it would be very beneficial towards you as this may even prompt those shops to hold competitions of their own.

If you do decide to let us go ahead with the competition, we would ask that we also receive at the minimum 2 Nike hooded jumpers which would be won in the bonus round where readers would have to phone-in and answer the question. We would very much appreciate it if you give us the trainers and the jumpers for £150.00 as half of the profits of which are made would be going back to you which will be earned from the phone-in competition.

This competition may also help attract readers for next month's issue as we wish to hold more competitions in the future. We have made a wise decision in choosing your brand of trainers to be the prize as we know that Nike is very popular among the readers of this magazine already and as a result would have no difficulty in attracting other men who may be interested in not only our magazine but in Nike merchandise.

As you can see our proposal benefits us both and would be very much to your liking as you would be earning more customers and more money. I look forward to hearing from you and very much hope that you do consider our proposal.

Internet Regulation

    Nowadays some people find it hard to do stuff on the Internet without coming across something of which may be of obscene content or something of which may be disrespectful to them in some way. It is now very easy to view ideas from all over the world such as words and images but at the same time it is very easy to gain access into someone's private online information for example, people are able to hack into another person's E-Mail account and gain access into their private information of which they may have entered onto it, this information could include their name, their address, their age and other information about them.

     Issues surrounding being able to access ideas from all over the world are now that anyone can upload anything onto websites which may include images, videos or words, uploading things like these onto the Internet can often cause a lot of complaints and controversy.

    Common websites where people are able to upload things like these are YouTube and Wikipedia.

ANYONE WHO HAS AN ACCOUNT ON A WEBSITE IS ABLE TO UPLOAD ANYTHING!!!

   The system of which would be responsible for Internet regulation is BlockOut, they would be able review things of which are uploaded onto the Internet to see if they were appropriate enough to have been uploaded onto the Internet in the first place such as YouTube where people upload scenes of sexual content, unless these types of things are blocked they are very easy to access by underage people such as children and teenagers who are obviously not old enough to view it. It is now a huge concern for parents.

     They would be able to block any information of which someone is uploading or has already uploaded if they believe that it would cause serious harm to someone or may be disrespectful to someone.

    There is already a system called the ISC Internet Domain Survey, they attempt to discover every host on the Internet by doing a complete search of the Domain Name System, they work by searching the domain system for the name assigned to every possible IP address. They are sponsored by Internet Systems Consortium, Inc. with technical operations subcontracted to 3waylabs which are Art, Technology and Invention; they design and build unique creations for the consumer and entertainment sectors.

     The way in which regulation could be monitored is if they have set words that they have said to be unacceptable, they could have a tracking system that if whenever someone has entered one of those words onto the Internet they are fed back to the system's computers where they are able to find out who has entered the words and where they are, they will then after be able to decide if they need to block the website of which the person has entered the word on.

An Anthropological Introduction to YouTube

0:00 - Introduction, YouTube’s Big Numbers

- Stephen Weiswasser (of ABC) said “You aren’t going to turn passive consumers into active trollers on the Internet”, however since ABC started broadcasting in 1948, YouTube has produced more in the past 6 months without producers but with the help of normal people .i.e. anyone who has ever uploaded anything onto YouTube

- On YouTube, there are:-

* 9232 hours of uploaded videos posted on YouTube a day (which is the equivalent of 385 always on TV channels)

* 200,000 3 minute videos

* 88% of the content uploaded onto YouTube is new and original 

2:00 - Numa Numa and the Celebration of Webcams

- One of the videos created for the song “Numa Numa” (which was a big hit 2003) had travelled from Japan to New Jersey in the USA where a boy named Gary Brolsma also known as “The Numa Numa Guy” made his own video with the use of his webcam and miming to the audio of “Numa Numa” sung by “O-Zone”

- Douglas Wolk had said that Brolsma’s video single handedly introduced the use of webcams

- In February 2005, YouTube had just been created by three PayPal employees , before YouTube was created it was difficult to upload a video onto the Internet, after Brolsma’s video of “Numa Numa” over 58,000 people from all over the world have uploaded their own versions

5:53 - The Machine is Us/ing Us and the New Mediascape

- When making this video Michael Wesch had thought about what it meant to be moving from text on paper to digital text, the video gives you an idea on what the Internet is now about .i.e. socially linking people through ways that have never been accomplished before

- This video has been spread from people to people through the use of their computers, because on websites such as Del.icio.us people have tagged it and when it becomes tagged it becomes bookmarked enabling it to be watched by several more million people across the world, this is “user-generated organisation”

- It can also be known as “user-generated distribution”, if the video is tagged as “Web 2.0” on Del.icio.us it then goes back onto Del.icio.us under the “Web 2.0” list allowing it to be viewed by many other people who come across it

- Through all the social networking sites, such as YouTube, Google, Blogger, Facebook and so on, it shows that we now live in an integrated Mediascape

- We are at the centre of this new Mediascape because when media changes our relationships with people change; this proves the point made by Wesch that media is not just tools of communication 

12:16 - Introducing our Research Team 

- Every spring there are 10 students who study the videos on YouTube, they watch a number of videos on YouTube on one side of the screen where they are then able to upload their own data based on what they view on the other side of the screen, all the data uploaded onto YouTube then goes into a database of which the students can analyse

12:56 - Who is on YouTube?

- In today’s society, people are most likely to think that YouTube is mostly viewed by teenagers because in 25% of the videos posted on YouTube there are mostly 12-17 year olds featured in them 

- People would not expect the older generation to be involved with anything to do with YouTube as younger people are more known to view it, however it is said that 25% of YouTube videos feature a 35 or over year old 

13:25 - What’s on YouTube? Charlie Bit My Finger, Soulja Boy .etc.

- The videos uploaded onto YouTube are usually home videos, a good example of this is “Charlie bit my finger-again!” done by HDYCT which has been viewed by over 30 million times. It has also been remade and remixed over 2,000 times showing it to be a popular video

- “Crank Dat Soulja Boy” by Soulja Boy has famously been recreated by people making videos of themselves doing the dance routine and making their own versions of the dance and song, for example:-

* Crank Dat Harry Potter
* Crank Dat Homeless Man
* Crank Dat Spongebob

By people doing this, it showed that the song and video had become a world phenomenon  

17:04 - 5% of vids are personal vlogs addressed to the YouTube community, Why?

- Vlogs are regular video blog entries made a person broadcasted for the users of YouTube

- People do them because they want YouTube users to know what their point of view on something is, this could be a story in the news or an event that has happened or is happening in the world 

17:30 - YouTube in context. The loss of community and “networked individualism” (Wellman)

- When women joined the work force there was less time for them to spend with their families and friends

- Moving from small grocery stores where probably the majority of communities would shop to big supermarkets has greatly contributed to the loss of community as people are no longer shopping together buy are now shopping apart

- Barry Wellman made a statement that networked individualism is actually “moving from place to place to person to person connectivity” showing that we are extremely networked (by the use of mobile phones, TV, Internet .etc.) but that we are also individualised

18:41 - Cultural Inversion: individualism and community

- The more individual we become the more we long for community because we all want to have that sense of individualism but we also long for stronger relationships with people

- Cultural Inversion is actually formed by what we view on YouTube. In 1995, Robert Putnam said “that meeting in an electronic forum is not the equivalent of meeting in a bowling alley”

19:15 - Understanding new forms of community through Participant Observation

- Michael Wesch had agreed with Robert Putnam’s statement when he and his students started participating in the community by uploading videos of their own

- He said to experience the phenomenon of Participant Observation you have to understand it

21:18 - YouTube as a medium for community

- Michael Wesch and his students went back to the idea that when media changes human relations change, an example of this is how they were able to build a community through the use of webcams

- A video was made by one of Wesch’s students showing that she is actually talking to her webcam and not the users of YouTube and that even though when someone views the video it may appear that she is talking to them but she doesn’t know who they are 

23:00 - Our first vlogs

- People actually find it hard when they create their first vlogs because they do not know what to talk about or it could be viewed by the people watching them making their vlogs as being some what weird because it could easily come across as if they the are talking to themselves 

25:00 - The webcam: Everybody is watching where nobody is (“context collapse”)

- When creating a vlog, it may feel like everyone is watching you but no one is actually there, because a vlog could be created in the most private of places like your bedroom but is broadcasted on the most public places like YouTube where millions of people will be able to view it

- When creating vlogs on YouTube, it is a great place for someone to reflect on themselves and for them to study their identity

- Wesch said that we actually get to know ourselves through the understanding of how others view us, he refers to the “Looking Glass Self” created by Charles Cooley where the three main components of it are:-

* We imagine how we must appear to others
* We imagine the judgment of that appearance
* We develop our self through the judgments of others

26:05 - Re-cognition and new forms of self-awareness (McLuhan)

- The vlog that you created may be viewed by you sometime later in your life where you will be able to re-assess your character by how others view you

- When creating vlogs, people often say that they don’t think of themselves as the way that they appear to others, when Marshall McLuhan talked about re-cognition and new forms of self-awareness, he said that all events recorded by a person are also being replayed and that it offers a means of re-cognition offering there to be a deeper level of awareness than it does the first time when it was created

27:58 - The Anonymity of Watching YouTube: Haters and Lovers

- The whole concept of the anonymity of YouTube is that it is anonymous allowing people to write any type of comments they want to whether they are positive or negative comments because no one will know who wrote them. This leads onto the idea that YouTube is about “Freedom to experience humanity without fear or anxiety” as stated by Wesch

- Through the view of YouTube videos, you are able to watch other people without staring at them, this is because you’re not actually watching them in front of you, you’re watching them over a screen and in those first few minutes of you watching them, your mind could already be made up about what you think of them

29:53 - Aesthetic Arrest

- People can become overwhelmed with what they view on YouTube, for example a person’s looks

- In reality, people are not able to experience others as human beings because it is not right to stare at people, however on YouTube they are able to do this because the other person obviously can’t see them

30:25 - Connection without Constraint 

- YouTube offers us to connect with people over the Internet, it allows us to not feel the deep responsibilities of that connection where it does with meeting people face to face

- This proves the point that “media does not just distance us but it keeps us connected in a different way” allowing us to connect with people who we may never actually come face to face with

32:35 - Free Hugs: A hero for our mediated culture

- The Free Hugs campaign became a social movement when Juan Mann walked around Sydney, Australia with a sign saying “FREE HUGS”, a video of this was made where it was then uploaded onto YouTube where it has now received nearly 30 million views, it bought anonymous people together through the gesture of a free hug

- The campaign has now gone worldwide where people in different countries have filmed themselves doing it

34:02 - YouTube Drama: Striving for popularity

- If you want people to see your channel on YouTube, you have to be one of the most subscribed or most popular for your channel to be featured on the front page

- People are always competing to be one of the “stars” on YouTube so that they can be seen or rather their channel can be seen

34:55 - An early star: emokid21ohio

- He had set up vlogs on YouTube where a girl had viewed his first vlog and through YouTube they had began an “online love story” where thousands of people had tuned into watch

 - On 26th April 2006, it was revealed that “emokid21ohio” was in fact fake and proven that he did not live in Ohio but that he lives in the UK when someone found his real MySpace profile

36:55 - YouTube’s Authenticity Crisis: the story of LonelyGirl15 

- LonelyGirl15 started vlogging in June 2006, many people questioned her authenticity stating that she was fake (like emokid21ohio) but LonelyGirl5 was actually a soap opera created by three writers

- The creators of LonelyGirl15 said that she is a reflection of everyone 

- It later sparked a series of video posts where people questioned if YouTube is really authentic in the content of which is uploaded onto it 

39:50 - Reflections on Authenticity

- Now that we are the producers of YouTube and are able to edit our own histories and play with our identities, people no longer know what is real and what is fake on YouTube 

- People don’t trust YouTube

41:54 - Gaming the system/Exposing the system

- People often post videos that feature a porn thumbnail (even though it is fake) so that people will click on them enabling the videos to get more views

- Lisa Nova says that the “user generated members” of YouTube should have the right to have their videos get the attention they deserve rather than the obscene content people upload onto it 

43:37 - Seriously Playful Participatory Media Culture

- You never know where a camera is and therefore never know when you’re going to be captured, this leads onto say that you never know if anything that features you is going to be uploaded onto YouTube

- Any remixing is illegal

47:32 - Networked Production: The Collab. MadV's “The Message” and the message of YouTube

- MadV became a platform for people to come together and collaborate, he said “make a simple statement on your hand and show it to the World”

- It goes back to the use of webcams

- It became the most responded to video on YouTube when people recorded themselves writing other simple statements on their hands

49:29 - Poem: The Little Glass Dot, The Eyes of the World

- The Little Glass Dot is Wesch’s poem; it talks about the webcam being the eyes to the World

- The webcam can be many things but it cannot just be one thing, it can be there for us to strive for fame or to just simply connect

- The Little Glass Dot is not what you make of it but what we make of it

51:15 - Conclusion by bnessel1973

- Some people believe that the videos on YouTube are created for the hopes to change the world, he made his to help him live in it

- YouTube brought him life again as it became a form of therapy for him and it allowed him to act how he wanted to feel