7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it full product?

There is a lot of difference between the preliminary product to the full product, just in the amount of detail and care that has been taken to perfect the site.

From the technology part of the learning process i have learned how to edit videos using Final Cut Express which includes adding audio and text, how to make logos and buttons using Photoshop, how to use HTML to my advantage to better my site etc.

To help further my understanding about conventions of sites and why we use them them and how we use them to attract a certain type of audience. I also learned how the use of colors, text, language of text and pictures can be used to attract certain types of people. For example i made sure that the language that we used when writing the text was simple but gets to the point without being too complicated. Doing this ensures that the range of audience we can get through too is greater than what it would be if we used complicated words and terms that some people would not be able to understand. Another example would be the pictures we used. As you can tell on the site we used the most natural but beautiful pictures we could take in the local area. This helps people understand how beautiful our planet really is and why we have to save it.

All these techniques are essential to making sure that the final product has not only improved with the different and varying technologies we have used, but also shows we have a greater understanding behind what actually makes a charity site successful, and how certain conventions can be used to our advantage.

6. What have you learned about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Our original task was to create two pages for a school website. There was only two pages that needed to be made so much thought wasn't needed as one was to be a homepage and another a media page. The pictures were simple to get as we were already in a school so all the picture locations were close by. We got ideas for our website by researching other sites for schools as shown by pictures below:

In total we researched 6 school sites to help us get a grip on what conventions they used and how they used them. We ended up trying to use the conventions of The Charles Darwin Homepage with a black and white theme. This ended up being quite hard as you can only confidently using those two colours with out it being too in you face.

The main aspect of the of Darwin's site we used was the header and menu bar in the header.

In a way we done the same research process for our charity site. We also researched 6 charity sites, below is a few of the sites we researched:

As the WWF site is the most similar to our charity we decided to use the conventions and style of it, as it provides a very clean and crisp look.

As a lot more research and time was spent planning this site a lot of the ideas we had got a lot more complicated to actually do. For example we needed to create a logo to use on every page of our site and for our intro page. Below is a screenshot of the process we had to go through to make our into logo on Adobe Photoshop.

This is how we used the logo on our actual site, we hyperlinked both parts to take

consumers into our homepage.

Our second task was having to create a video to do with the topic of the environment. The first problem we had was coming up with the initial idea. The idea was to film clouds over over night but set the camera to take a frame every 30 seconds so when finished and played over would give the impression that the clouds are moving faster than they actually are. As we didn't what the trouble of having to record a voiceover we decided to add text into the film using Final Cut Express. As another part of the video we have to use audio, for this we used an audio track that was suitable for the video.

This is a screenshot of how i added the text and mp3 to my footage that i recorded.

Another part that of the website that was hard to grasp was applying html. To make the site more realistic i decided to add an official donate button that linked up with Pay-Pal.

This is a small part of what it looked like when making it on iWeb.

This is a shot of what it looks like when the site is published and when clicked on donate.

5. How did you attract/ address your audience?

Again knowing that i had to keep the site conventional to help appeal to all kinds of people i had to stick to simple ideas that would creat maximum effect. The colour is kept simple through except for when adding in the donate button as this was supposed to stick out to the audience so they are sure where they are able to donate and this button will appear on every page of the site to enable easy acces to the page. The key to making sure you address a wide range of people is to keep it smart and a simple this way everyone can understand it.

The font size was enlarged for logos to make it clear for the audience to read what it said and to get it to stick in their head. For the Titles pages the text was slightly enlarged to let the audience know that these are the places that you can navigate to and also highlighted the box around them to let the audience know where they are on the site, it was highlighted with a contrasting colour to the the background to help improve the visibility of the title.

I positioned most of they heavier text on the left hand side because it is human nature to read from left to right so it only makes sense to have it this way, this also means it is a conventional way of having text on the left and pictures an links on the right as it is with most sites like mine.

With the rollovers on our site we did not go to mad on how the rollovers looked. Simply all we did was made sure the audiences knew that it was a link to a different page. We did this by simply changing the colour of the text as the pointer passes over it.

Step by step to making a hyperlink on my site.

3. What kind of media institution might distribute you media product and why?

The kind of media institution and the only institution that would distribute my site would be an ISP (Internet Service Provider). Examples of ISP's would be AOL, Madasafish, OneTel, TalkTalk etc. These companies are also dependent on another two main companies (British Telecom and Virgin Media) which are responsible for allowing people to access them through their cables. These are the main sources of direct distribution. The main reason why these media institutions choose to distribute media products is for money. If i want to have my media product distributed i would have to pay an annual fee, which in return they make sure my site and everything on it runs smoothy and works properly.

A screenshot of British Telecom's media distribution.

All other forms of distribution are indirect. For example Google are indirect because although they may find the website you are looking for they still have to go to the ISP to retrieve the product for your viewing. Although you have to pay to be listed on Google, the listing will be pointless if you are not being hosting by an ISP. Google simply makes your site available for people to search for, thus making it instantly more available for distribution.

This is very difficult to justify as distributing would be a lot easier if my media product was a film or radio programme rather than a web design. This is because distributing through a media institution like BBC is a lot more simple. To receive a TV program or film all you need is an aerial that can receive signals from the media institution which plays directly through a TV.

Just making sure that your site is being hosted on the internet by an ISP is distributing but also adding it to an indirect distributor like Google, Yahoo, Ask and Bing just increase the chances of your product being seen and therefore increasing the rate of distribution.

2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

The social groups i am hoping to represent in my media product are Age and Gender.

As i have already explained i have tried to keep my website conventional so it appeals to all ages from ten and onwards. We do this by keeping the language i write in simple and easy to understand, and by keeping the text clear to read, i use Franklin Gothic Book, Size 12 to do this.. The pictures vary throughout the site, while keeping the same characteristics,which are making sure they are not to extreme, good quality, beautiful to look at and trying to use them in a special and slightly unconventional way. The colours on the site are basic and mostly primary colours to make the site look fun and bright to appeal to the younger audience but sophisticated to appeal to everyone else at the same time.

The other social group this website represents is Gender. To make sure we represent gender effectively, we have made sure there is no differentiation between the two. By making sure we use a variety of simple colours and structuring the text so it is directed at everyone. Doing this we make sure we appeal to both genders, this in turn again secures the maximum amount of donations from the audience.

The main point of our website is to secure the the maximum number of hits, by doing this it is more than likely that we receive the most donations possible.

1. In what way does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

The media product that i will be evaluating is my charity website called Thinking Green. It is calling upon people to donate money in order to save the environment.

USE

My website uses conventions from the WWF website. Although it is not an environmental website the layout looks very smart and it is easy to use and read. Firstly i tried to imitate the header titles they used which was ' What we do' and 'How you can help':

MY WEBSITE

WWF HOMEPAGE

This is a good thing to use as it shows that their website is to the point and not full of unuseful things. I used this on my site but added one more title and worded it differently; Who? What? How?. I did this with emphasis on the question mark as it will be used thorughout the site, it will almost be used as a logo as it will be unique to our charity.

Also on WWF's homepage they have a picture with a topic that they are concerned about over the picture, i have put this on my homepage, but will also continue to put it throughout all of the pages,but instead of having notes for concerns it has a picture of nature and over them qoutes and question to get the audience thinking about why they are donating, while they are browsing the site.

I have also tried to keep this site as conventional as possible while still trying to make it my own. The reason why it has to be conventional is because it has to cater for all age and types of people. Doing this will help increase the amount of money donated as it will be targeted to an audience on a large scale.

DEVELOP

I liked this site at first but after looking at other websites and decided that it was conventional but just to busy to really get my point across, it has almost take the from of an internet shopping site. This is not ideal as i aiming for it to be short, sweet and to the point.

CHALLENGE

The way i have challenged the forms of convention, is the way that i have used picture to try and secure the donations. Every page the viewer will be greeted with a picturesque view as this is an environmental site it should have pictures of the things we loike and want to keep . The picture will be of a beautiful natural environment to make sure they know what they are trying to save. This will also be the emphasis of Thinking Green?, the pictures will get them thinking about times where they have seen something natural and beautiful (Green) or maybe even get them considering to go and visit somewhere where they can.

Green London Charity Research