News Practical Task

1. Explain your role/responsibility within the team and the task. What were you required to do?
Harvey and I were in charge of creating The Telegraph's social media pages within our team, with Dara, Derek and Zain working on The Telegraph Online and Morgan and Andreas creating The Daily Telegraph newspaper. I was in charge of the whole Twitter page, where I chose the story, an image, a post and a Twitter headline, and Harvey and I both contributed towards the Facebook page, where I was delegated to choose the image for the story and the page's cover photo.

2. For one media form, describe the codes and conventions you chose to follow and explain their intended impact.
For the Twitter, I began by choosing the story about the Brexit deal being agreed as this was going to be the main story for The Telegraph Online and so by promoting it on the Twitter, it would be more likely to get more hits overall. I also chose MCU two-shot of Theresa May shaking hands with the President of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, both with big smiles and the UK and EU flags behind them to create a celebratory tone for the post. A very similar picture of the two politicians was also chosen for the Facebook page with a more concise wording of the same story for the post, "Britain is out of the EU after a deal is agreed." This is a convention of The Telegraph's Facebook page and would allow the audience to recognise the same story but perhaps understand it better in the clearer wording. For the Instagram page, Harvey chose a picture of Oxford Street and overlayed it with bars of pink with "Does the internet mean the end for the Christmas high street?" in a black font. This follows conventions of The Telegraph being focused on London and putting a caption over the photo, which they often do on Instagram. As well as this, a professional picture was chosen which would appeal to the target audience, who would open Instagram to look at pretty pictures.

3. Explain how your choices reflect the real newspaper's values and target audience.
Our choice to make the Facebook page's cover photo a picture of the Union Jack flag with the Big Ben and Houses of Parliament in the background reflected the London-centric perspective of The Telegraph's audience. As well as this, we wrote our headlines to signify Theresa May as a good leader and chose the headline "Theresa May feels ‘a weight removed off her shoulders’ after Brexit deal agreed in historic divorce talks in Brussels" as the Twitter headline to allow the audience to sympathise with Theresa May as they would support her government and party. We chose not to feature the Brexit story across all three social media platforms and instead created our Instagram headline around the story that 'Christmas High Street sales figures significantly down as shoppers choose the internet.' This is due to the younger age of Instagram's audience in comparison to the other social medias, and perhaps the fact that they would be slightly more interested with the festive event of Christmas shopping than the more continual talk of Brexit.

4. Explain how your team adapted the news across the three different media forms and the reasons behind your decisions.
We chose to not include the Trump headline about his 'Twitter troubles' on the website (although it featured as a secondary story on The Daily Telegraph's front page) as we believed that it would probably feature under a section of the website rather than on the front page. We also chose different pictures across all the platforms to make each unique, with one large scenic shot of the snow on the print version, two Brexit and one Christmas high street on the social media platforms and 5 smaller photographs for the online version, which is conventional to the style of that media form.

5. In hindsight, is there anything about your team's outcomes that you would adapt or improve?
In hindsight, our team would change the Facebook headline "Britain is officially no longer part of the EU" to something about the Brexit deal itself being agreed, which is what was featured on all the other forms (we realised this towards the end of our practical task and didn't have enough time to change it.) I may have also not had the bold textboxes on the Telegraph Online as they look slightly out-of-place and unlike the website. Other than that, I think our team prepared very well for the task and worked as well as we could, with the tight time restrictions, on the day of the practical task.

My Billboard Magazine Cover

1. Summarise the music celebrity you have created.  Include name, music genre, personality and how they are being used to comment on contemporary celebrity.

I created a rock-pop music celebrity called 'Jess Jones.' She is an artist that isn't scared of her feminine side despite her outer toughness and has power in the industry. I am using the character of 'Jess Jones' to comment that the young female contemporary celebrity can be powerful and tough without being afraid to show her feminine side.

2. Evaluate how you have constructed the representation of your celebrity through your cover image and cover headline/text (denotation/connotation of text and image).

I constructed the representation through my cover image through my choice of costume and make-up. I wore a pink frilly dress and large shiny silver necklace under my black leather jacket, I also had lots of make-up on with pink lipstick, mascara, eyeliner and powder. This choice of dress and make-up could connote Jess' feminine side as pink is associated with femininity whereas the black leather jacket worn over could connote Jess being tough on the outside to get through the tough music industry. She is also posing in a very relaxed way with a small smile and holding her leather jacket. This pose could suggest that she is very powerful and isn't scared of what is ahead for her music and celebrity status.
I chose the cover headline "Power Prodigy" as Jess looks very powerful in her pose and costume. The word "prodigy" also means 'a young person with exceptional qualities or abilities' and Jess' ability is not only in her music but staying true to herself and not wavering from that as her status changed from 'musician' to 'celebrity.' This is something that some other young musicians may struggle with so Jess acts as an outstanding example of how to do it.

3. Analyse how far you have used and/or challenged stereotypes of gender/race/age/sexuality in your cover.

I challenged stereotypes about gender and specifically women in my cover. Stereotypically, women are portrayed as being weak and without any control of their celebrity image (as their managers would control this.) I am challenging this by portraying Jess as a powerful woman, who controls her own image and acts tough to get through this. Despite this, she is not afraid of being feminine, something that stereotypically could be portrayed as a sense of weakness, and wears her pink dress with pride. I am also commenting on age as "prodigy" suggests that she is quite young. In the past, young female musicians have been seen as weak individuals who don't know what's best for them. However I am challenging this stereotype with Jess, who is very aware of her surroundings and the sometimes cut-throat strategies of those around her in the music industry.

4. Reflect on the production/editing process.  Are you pleased with the end result? Identify what is successful about your shot?  What would you have done differently in hindsight?

I took this picture, along with several others with different facial expressions, at our photoshoot before choosing this one and editing it on Photoshop. My editing was mainly to smooth out my hair and the spot healer tool before using it to put all the other elements of my cover in. I am pleased with the end result especially my initial choice of costume which has allowed me to stick with the pink colour for the masthead and her name in the editorial summary. I also think that the placement of the different elements is successful as it almost resembles a real billboard cover.
In hindsight, I would've picked a different font for the cover headline; I just don't think it fits with the rest of it. Although I wasn't sure about the blue shiny background initially, I am growing to like it as it represents the music industry and everything that Jess is being forced to come up against.

Minecraft Pocket Edition Gameplay Video for YouTube

1. How you did it (for example, what videos did you look at, what technology did you use and how?)

I looked at DanTDM's YouTube videos for inspiration, especially his one playing Minecraft: Pocket Edition called 'Minecraft Pocket Edition | I Lost My World...' I liked his relaxed style and casual conversation that he would have that allows the audience to also be hooked on his bubbly personality as well as immersing them into the game play. I think it is very important for Minecraft YouTubers to have an interesting personality, as the viewers could otherwise just play Minecraft themselves.

I used two iPads, one to film myself with and another to "play" on, where I watched the clip that I was talking over. This allowed me to react to it in real-time and do it all in one-take, like the YouTubers would when they play the games. After recording it, I edited the two clips together on Filmmaker Pro where I inserted myself onto the other clip using the picture-in-picture setting before uploading it onto our YouTube channel.

2. How your video might attract the attention of Mojang and/or Microsoft, and how it might influence them.

My video may attract the attention of Mojang and Microsoft as, by playing Minecraft: Pocket Edition, I am essentially advertising the game for the company. As well as this, this video may attract their attention as it is child-friendly and doesn't feature any swearing or violent acts (that Microsoft would be against as they are aware of their young audience.) This video may also influence Microsoft due to my constructive criticism about a glitch which meant that I lost my progress on the game. After watching this video, they may become aware of this problem and try to resolve it to improve the playing experience for their fans.