Below is a link to my final assessment idea.
Second semester critical analysis
I am approaching the end of my second year of university and it is safe to say that this year has arguably been the most demanding, yet rewarding year of my education and professional work. For the second half of the academic year I decided to take advanced online journalism over the advanced broadcast option.
Where broadcast journalism is something that interests me, I feel that the rapid development of online media has given me the opportunity to ‘jump on the bandwagon,’ if you may, and be at the forefront of one of the most exciting technological developments of our time.
With this in mind, we had to undertake three assessments for the module. For our first assessment we were asked to research an idea for a new online media strategy or product. We were asked to come up with an idea that would work for either an established media organisation or an up and coming company. The aim of the module was to test our knowledge on the current social media and online industry and to present it, or ‘sell’ the idea to one of our course teachers and an industry professional.
With this in mind, I came up with the idea of using watermark technology for a movie magazine in order to bring the content to life, resulting in the reader having a more in depth experience than just reading what is on the page.
To explain the idea in more detail, I started out by researching and thinking about which technology, if any, is already on the market that does a similar thing to digital watermarking. I found that the use of QR codes have been frequently used in advertising for magazines, newspapers and posters around the country. Earlier in the year I visited an exhibition at Somerset House called ‘Frontline: A Year of Journalism and Conflict’. It was at this exhibition that I first saw the use of QR codes and got the inspiration for my idea.
The exhibition was made up of images from some of the most iconic news stories of the last year, i.e. the collapse of the Gaddafi regime with a QR code embedded next to the image. And once I downloaded the right app for your smartphone, I was able to hold my phone over the embedded code and in doing so bring the image to life. When I say ‘bring the image to life’, I mean that the image would appear on my phone and then turn into a 30 second video; a video depicting the 15 seconds before the picture was taken and the 15 seconds after.
With this in mind, I thought that if there were a way to bring in a similar technology and relate it to the magazine world, I’d have a decent original idea that I believe could be implement at the magazine of my choice.
Following my research, I decided to use watermark technology to bring Empire magazine to life, therefore making it a better all round experience for the reader. I was confident that my idea was original and could be easily implemented by such a magazine. In the presentation I went about explaining the idea, telling the panel how I think it could benefit Empire magazine. I explained how it could be used to bring interviews to life, enable the reader to watch movie trailers and much, much more.
Despite being confident in my idea, the more I researched into it the more I discovered some problems that might arise if Empire were to use my idea. Where the idea would succeed in my aim of giving the reader a more ‘all round’ experience, I didn’t take into consideration the manufacturing process behind my idea. What I mean by this is that when I delved deeper into the required process needed for my idea to succeed, I discovered that the printing process of the magazine would have to change completely.
When talking to industry professionals I was informed that the pages with the imbedded watermark technology would have to be printed at a different place than the rest of the magazine. This is because of the material used to integrate the technology. For me, this would be the biggest hurdle to overcome. It would mean that either a) I’d have to incorporate digital watermarking into every page to make the printing process easier, or b) send away the imbedded pages for printing and the rest of the pages to the original printers, therefore making the whole printing process far more difficult than needs be – as well as more costly.
If I could come up with a way to make the printing process easier and less expensive, I feel that the idea is innovative and has the potential to change the way we read magazines for years to come.
For our second assessment we were asked to develop an online media project that could be used in an innovative and engaging way. We had a fairly open brief to this task, with the options ranging from a text-based blog to a Google Map-based project. We were asked to use the knowledge that we developed over our time as journalist students and show our writing, researching and production skills to succeed in our projects.
With this in mind I decided to develop a website using wordpress, with the intention of it being use as a first-stop news website for football fans. I wanted to almost filter out the stories that I thought would be the more important ones of the day, write about them and publish them in a blog format, therefore being a consistent feed of what I thought were the week’s most relevant stories.
Alongside the news stories I also uploaded videos onto the site. Videos of what I thought were the month’s best goals. I wanted to add videos to the site in order to make it a more enjoyable experience for the visitor. I decided to upload what I thought were the best goals of that month – an almost ‘in a nutshell’ video page for any football fans that may have missed the best goals of the past month.
In order to make the website easier to navigate, I categorised my news stories into different sections, or ‘tabs’ at the top of my homepage. The tabs I created were there in order to help the viewer navigate the site better, and select the news they were most interested in reading. For example, I had a tab for news stories, another one for Premier League only related news, one for transfer gossip, one for videos, one for European news and one for Champions League only news.
With the website I wanted to demonstrate certain skills in order to show what I’ve learnt during my time this year. I wanted to show photo-editing skills, embedding skills, production and design skills. I feel that on the whole I did achieve this however, there are several ways in which I could have improved my project.
I feel that I could have maybe made my idea more original by incorporating other media tools on my website. Although I’m happy with the way the site turned out, I feel that the project cold have been of a better standard if I had started it at an earlier date.
By starting to write the news stories for my project at the start of April, it meant that I was covering the closing part of the football season, therefore being limited to stories and goals from the month of April alone. If I had started it in March, it would give a more concise picture of the intentions of my website. Take for example the video page with the goals. If I had done a similar page for the month or March, it would have given the visitor a clearer all round picture of how that section of the website would have looked.
Furthermore, I could have incorporated other skills that were demonstrated to us this year. The use of Google maps could have made my site a more unique experience for the visitors. By using Google maps, I could have had a separate tab on my homepage documenting where exactly the previous night’s matches took place, as well as using maps to show my visitors where the next games are taking place. By adding this geographical element to the site it would have made it a more unique experience for the visitor.
With the use of Google maps I could have even taken the browsing experience to a new level by bringing the maps to life. By this I mean not just plotting where on Google maps the matches are taking place, but also attaching a pre-match report or any travel news relating to the destination. This would have made the website more of a ‘proper fans’ website by informing them of everything they needed to know about their team before even making the journey to the ground. I could have added on this by then attaching the post-match report that I would have written to the Google map. By doing this, the viewer could visit my site, read through the live streams on my home page to look for any news relating to their club and then go to the maps page to get more in-depth news about their club and any matches they’re to play in the near future.
To conclude, I am satisfied overall with how my projects turned out. I am satisfied with the ideas behind them, even if the execution left a little to be desired for.
First stop football – how to improve on my idea
With my final project I decided to do a football website with the latest news in the world of transfers, gossip and more. I feel that on the whole I am happy with the final outcome of my project however, there are obviously improvements that could have been made.
Where I am happy with how the project turned out, there is always room for improvement.
In hindsight, I would have started my project at an earlier date in order to give a better perspective of what my website would look like over a longer period of time. For example, my earlier posts date back to the start of April – close to the end of the Premier League season – therefore I was only able to publish content for the last six-seven games of the season.
I feel that by updating the website from an earlier date, it would have given a better all round picture of what I was trying to achieve. Take for example my video page. This page had videos of April’s goals of the month. If I had started at an earlier date I could have had February and March goals of the month. I could have then elaborated on this and perhaps put a voting section at the bottom of each month’s selection of goals. This would enable the visitor to vote for what he thinks is the best goal of the month.
Lastly, I could have perhaps mixed things up by using Google maps. Using Google maps I could have showed my viewers exactly where the games were taking place. I could have done it so that the Google map page then linked to the match report that I had written. This would have given the reader an all round better browsing experience.
I will concentrate more on the improvements in my final critical report.
First stop shop for football gossip
For our final assessment we’ve been asked to create an individual online media project. We have to come up with something that uses the potential of the net in an innovative and engaging way. The idea behind this assessment is to give us a chance to develop and demonstrate our practical skills when it comes to creating online content and stories.
With this in mind, I’ve decided to put together a website using wordpress with the intention of it being used as a first stop for football fans’ news stories, transfer gossip and goals. I want to design it so that it would be in a blog format, with the most recent stories coming up at the top of the home page. I want to design it so that it was almost a live feed of information and gossip.
When choosing my website design on wordpress I will look for one the best format which, in my opinion, looks most like a website. I want to have a design where the viewers can visit my webpage and know exactly what sort of website it was just by looking at the homepage.
The use of tabs at the top of the homepage with different categories should hopefully work when trying to make the experience for the visitor all the more easy. For example, the following categories should, in my opinion, cover the most important aspects of football for a real unique fans’ experience.
1. Premier League – any news related to England’s top-flight division.
2. Transfers – any news related to transfers to or from the Premier League.
3. News Stories – covering stories about not only the Premier League, but also the England national team.
4. Europe – news related to any big stories from other leagues in the world.
5. Champions League – news about this year’s Champions League, i.e Fabregas talking about the defeat to Chelsea as ‘unjust.’
6. Goals – with the goals tab, I wanted to post what I thought were the best goals of the month from the Premier League. I didn’t want to put any and every goal on my website as I didn’t want it to be video-heavy.
Once I have all these categorised, it’s just a matter of writing the content and placing them in the relevant categories, with some stories coming under two, or even three categories.
I’m hoping that the website will be used almost as a first stop for any football fan. A website that they can go to before they visit the likes of the BBC. In other words, it’s somewhat of an ‘in a nutshell’ website.
Digital Watermarking presentation – success or shambles?
For my five-minute presentation I was asked to sell my idea to a panel involving an industry expert as well as one of my module teachers.
All in all I felt that the presentation went well in terms of explaining my technology and how I could relate it to the magazine of my choice. By bringing in a magazine with QR codes in the advertising section, I was able to roughly demonstrate how my idea was similar, but not the same as QR codes.
I believe it was important to distinguish the difference in the two technologies as digital watermarking is far more advanced and suits a magazine better than that of a QR code. I also felt it was important to show both David and Tim that my idea could be applied to other publications, such as fashion magazines, sport magazines, music magazines etc. I explained how fashion magazines could use the technology to bring a catwalk to life. Or a music magazine could use it to bring a gig to life.
Despite being happy with how the presentation went, I feel that I could have improved it with more props or a powerpoint. I believe that if I had a powerpoint with various pictures or pages of the most recent issue of Empire, I would have been able to demonstrate in more detail how and where exactly the digital watermarking would take place. Furthermore, I could have done with bringing in one or two different magazines such as Vogue, or FourFourTwo. This way I would have been able to show how the technology would be able to work for other publications.
How did I go about selling my digital watermarking project to the panel?
For our first assessment, we were asked to do a five-minute presentation as well as submitting a written piece of work explaining our idea.
We were asked to do our presentation in order to explain our idea in more detail in front of industry experts, in order to see whether or not it would be a realistic idea to pursue if I wanted. The brief for the presentation was quite broad as we were allowed to present in any form we liked, i.e. powerpoint or note form.
For the sake of this assignment, I decided to pitch my idea in note form. I had prepared some bullet points depicting all of my ideas, as well as bringing to the presentation an issue of Empire magazine and some basic photos of how I believed my idea would work. I also brought in a magazine that uses QR codes in their advertising in order to roughly demonstrate the difference in QR codes and watermark technology.
I started out by explaining what exactly my idea was and how the technology would work. I wanted to sell my idea as something that could be incorporated not just to my brand (Empire) but to any publication with the desire to make their magazine a better experience for their readers.
The important thing to me was to get my point across in the simplest way possible. I wanted to show Tim and David that this was an idea that was realistic as well as desirable. I did this by explaining to them how the idea would work and what it could bring to the table in terms of an ‘original’ idea.
I went on to explain how exactly it could be applied to Empire magazine. I talked them through which sections I felt the magazine could benefit from by using the technology. For example, I said that the technology would work well with things like interviews and film reviews, as it would enable the reader to read the film review, hold their phone over one of the film’s pictures in the magazine and then have the trailer come up on their phone. This, I feel, is ideal as it means movie fans get a far greater in depth magazine experience.
Digital Watermarking to bring movie mags to life
For my first assessment I’ve decided to come up with an idea that would make reading a magazine more of a virtual experience. I wanted to come up with a technology that could be related to the magazine world, in particular movie magazines.
With this in mind, I’m going to take advantage of digital watermarking technology as I feel this would be the ideal technology to bring my idea to life.
Digital watermarking is the process of embedding information into a digital signal that can be used to identify its authenticity, in a similar way to that of a QR code. We live in a society where online media is bringing out new ways to engage the audience and bring a product to life. With the use of digital watermarking, it would give the magazine reader an all-round better experience simply by using their mobile phone to scan over the coding.
As this is a relatively new technology, it still has a long way to go before magazines across the globe invest in this technology. I do, however, feel that this is a technology that can be used to really increase the enjoyment for the reader.
For my assessment, I want to relate the technology to Empire magazine. I believe that a film magazine would be an ideal place to host the technology as it would enable the reader to have a completely different experience to what they’re used to. For example, if the magazine were to imbed a digital watermark code into a photo of Tom Cruise, next to his published interview, the reader could then hold their phone over the coding and watch the video of the actual interview.
Film Review – The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Plot: Following the loss of a libel court case to a successful businessman, disgraced Swedish journalist, Mikael Blomkvist (Daniel Craig), is forced to find work elsewhere. When rich industrialist, Henrik Vanger ( Christopher Plummer) asks him to help write his memoirs, Blonkvist agrees. However, it isn’t long until he realises the real reason why he’s been brought in – to find the killer of Vangers great-niece who disappeared from their family island nearly fifty earlier.
Review: There is no denying that the star of this movie is Rooney Mara. The American actress glistens in her role as Lisbeth Salander, a callow computer hacker who gets drawn into a murder investigation in Sweden’s snow-cloaked north. Salander is hired by elderly industrialist Henrik Vanger (Christopher Plummer) to perform a comprehensive background check on journalist Mikhail Blomkvist (Daniel Craig), whom Vanger wants to look into the unsolved murder of his grand-niece. “Fuck You, You Fucking Fucker,” reads the t-shirt worn by Salander for much of the film, portraying her rather Millwall approach to her film role – nobody likes her, but she don’t care much.
After being on the back foot following his court defeat, Blomkvist, accepts the job and hires Salander as his assistant, realising that her ability to gather information from computers might be as useful as his knack for doing the same thing to people. It’s hard to know how much of the story to give away, the plot takes in Naziism, rape, heavy metal and a Bible-quoting serial killer.
The script, written by Steven Zaillian, is well executed and I’m sure that cinematographer Jeff Cronenweth must be part eskimo, because he has more than 100 different ways to film snow. The notorious scenes of sexual abuse and Salander’s revenge for them prove to be a possible stumbling block: they’re arguably too lurid and sweaty, resulting in the scenes appearing somewhat tonally out of whack with the rest of the story.
Rooney Mara is fearless in the lead role, and Craig, with his bristly facial hair clinging to his chin like flecks of frost on a rock, generously allows Mara to take centre stage. As a result, however, Blomkvist lacks the grizzled gumption that made Michael Nyqvist’s performance in the original version slightly more compelling.
Christopher Plummer’s deliberately fumbling line readings add a welcome note of human imperfection, but a certain other cast member (who will remain nameless here) plays the “surprise villain” part so unsubtly that he might as well be wearing a pair of devil horns and carrying a pitchfork.
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, on its own terms, is a success. When it comes down to it, this is Rooney Mara’s movie. Dark, brutal and intriguing, this version is as troubling and memorable as its Swedish counterpart. Its disturbing tone begins in the opening credits and continues right to the end.
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