Matthew Shirley AS webdesign

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

A website is laid out in a particular way, this is called a convention. Most of these are noticeable, however, as a member of the general public, can sometimes be difficult to spot, or even find at all. They are there for a certain meaning. For exa

mple, most logo’s and catch-phrases are located in the top left. This is a general rule for a campaign website, although you can find some websites that challenge this rule. My website contained most of these conventions but at the same time challenged a few of them. I located my logo at the top but positioned it slightly to the left, so in some ways is very similar to these prime examples. Another noticeable convention is the navigation bar and menu. This is generally found to the left of the page or located at the top of the page. The logo plays a big part in the identity of a website. It instantly shows the audience what and who the website is about. Without the logo, the identity of the website would be missing, therefore would reduce the amount of customers/supporters.

This is my logo design. Compared to a lot of logos it is very conventional. I feel, it could be improved, however, the overall effect that the simple, clever logo gives off is brilliant.

My campaign looks and acts very similar to a real HTML website however, and is done using a very basic programme (iWeb).

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

My campaign tackles a very serious and quite worrying subject. It is raising awareness of smoking and what effects it has on you, your friends and your family. I am representing a nation that wants to curb this habit and brush it past and up over our heads. Smoking is now a very serious social issue. Children are being brought into this world around smokers, and are being taught that smoking is perceived to be cool. This is wrong and my campaign hopes to embark upon stopping this national addiction. It is not just the younger generation I am aiming at as well; it also involves the older generation and the younger adult. My images and language support this, yes the colours that I used are bright and cheerful; however the text is very meaning full and contains a lot of facts and useful knowledge, that one day will guide and advise someone or even make someone give up this disgusting habit. I used four images on the ‘how to stop page’ of my campaign. These four images represent the younger generation and show just how happy they are without a cigarette in their hand. I also have a caption underneath these images saying ‘Giving up changed our lives, it can change yours’. Just this alone sends out a very powerful message, and that is what I wanted to get across when designing my website.

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

Seeing as I am touching upon such a sensitive and major subject, institutions will want to distribute it to show that care about it too. This is a great advantage for not only my campaign, but for the public as well.

I located a search bar in the top right of my website. This was purely for the fact that a search engine is my number one priority when it comes to distributing my campaign website. These search engines use popularity as a key means of gaining business. They rely heavily upon websites to be affiliated on them. They would then expect SmokefreeUK to put some sort of advertisement for them in the website. This can be anything like a small link or a search box just like mine.

Other media forms such as newspapers and magazines will also want to distribute my product. This is a great advertising strategy, however will cost SmokefreeUK a fair amount of money for a regular advertising spot. This wouldn’t be seen as a major problem though, purely because of the fact that all the papers and magazine companies wish to achieve is raise awareness to the problem. The same applies to other forms of media advertisement as well, such as television adverts or radio slots. A television advert would require a bit more money to create, compared to just one advert that is used in a paper.

If SmokeFreeUK gained enough money from charities, I would hire an ad-agency to create and distribute the campaign itself. This would require a lot less time than me doing it myself, however would require a lot more money. Not only will companies want to distribute my media product, but other charities would want to get involved to. They too are raising awareness for something that they believe in. This then would create a very healthy relationship from charity to charity, which would then get SmokefreeUK Invited to fund raisers, events and meetings hopefully involving the government policy and laws.

There are also small things that SmokefreeUk could do; these could be anything from handing out leaflets/flyers to the general public in the local area and schools. We could also carry out events and small meetings just to boost and raise this awareness that is so desperately needed in small and large towns/cities.

To sum up then what and who would distribute my product would be to say that most companies would happily involve their selves in my project, but not all would do it for the same reason. Some companies would advertise and distribute my campaign for money, others would do it for charity and because they care about the subject and lastly, others would do it for popularity and to show that they do care about the issue.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

The type of person who my media product is trying to represent and get through to is absolutely anyone. It doesn’t matter on your social class, ethnicity, age and gender. Smoking can affect absolutely everyone. People are dragged into smoking and even the people you least expect, I bet a family member or friend smokes.

The website itself is very easy to read and understandable. This then is attracts the younger people of this era and promotes the dangers of smoking. It’s not just children/teenagers that need to know the dangers of this habit, some adults don’t fully understand the dangers of smoking and the kind of effects it can have on your body and on your family and friends. I would then by lying if I said it was just aimed at children then, because I tried to focus it on adults as well because of this reason. This is shown by the type of language that I use and the overall feel of the website. I hope that all age groups, no matter on your class, gender or ethnicity feel welcome and are able to open up and gain something from their visit to the media product.

How did you attract/address your audience?

When researching similar campaign websites, I noticed that they contained very long, hard winded paragraphs. I didn’t want my website to be like this, it puts people off. I looked at other campaigns such as the NHS smoke free website and the British Heart foundation.

I feel that my target audience need to be able to read the text with ease, and not feel that it is an essay like task. I doubt people would enjoy reading something like this and would just simply look at another website.

This is my home page, I did the complete opposite to what I tried to avoid. The colours alone don’t make the reader feel at all depressed and created a very good first impression of what it contains and is about. My text isn’t long winded and is short ‘n’ sweet. It s

hows clearly exactly what it is that SmokefreeUK want you to gain and achieve out of visiting it.

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

To begin with, my media product looks very professional, however the programmes I used limited to some extent on what I could achieve and create.

Creating this product, I have learnt a great deal of skills and technical knowledge. These range from software and hardware.

The main programme used was iWeb. This programme took some time getting used to, however, this is a very easy and effective way of creating an HTML based website. It allowed me to create a professional finish to not only my home page, but the rest of my links. The home page the hardest to develop due to it having many key aspects. One of these aspects was getting the layout perfect and the positioning of the pictures, texts, logos and the navigation bars. The best part of iWeb is that it takes such a short space of time to learn all the basics. You can then quickly develop these skills to create a brilliant piece of work. I like how when the programme is started, there isn’t anything you need to go through, as soon as it is open, you are instantly there.

There are downfalls to this programme though. It is an excellent piece of software for a student or someone who just wants to play about with website building; however, it’s very difficult to create a brilliant product for such a serious web builder/designer. They would struggle greatly due to it having limited features. For instance, iWeb doesn’t allow you to create something like a hit counter, which most websites contain. The only reason my campaign website contains a web counter is because I managed to created an HTML code which I’m sure, most people would struggle to do.

I also used Adobe Photoshop CS4. This programme is the world’s best photo and digital image editor. There are major downfalls to this programme, because it is so complicated to use, you need to be so familiar with this programme to create anything of a high standard, This takes a lot of time though. I only needed to use this programme for a few pictures; these included the logo and the design for the image next to the logo.

The last programmes I used were iMovie 6 HD and Garageband. These are fantastic for creating a simple, but effective small movie. The main downfall to garageband is that you are limited to a small range of features. I would have liked to create a more complex song for my campaign video; however it is still a perfect programme for a student.

Lastly the overall use of an Apple Mac was very enjoyable. I already had an understanding of an Apple Mac from be being a graphic design student as well as Media Studies. This would have been a major problem though if I hadn’t had this knowledge and be able to work my way around an Apple Mac do easily. They are very complicated and are completely different to Windows. They have better features; however we have all grown up with Windows. Simply Macs are more reliable, faster and applications and programmes are a lot easier to use.

To conclude I learnt a great deal from the technologies I used to create my media product. The programmes that are available to us now for our time is exceptional and quite something. It’s such a shame that we were limited with the programmes that we used, especially iWeb, on the other hand, we were so lucky in which that we had such brilliant facilities to create a website of such a high standard.

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

For our preliminary task we were asked to create a two page website, containing information for a school. We had to create the design our self and were asked to come up with a school name and logo.

At first, I had major difficulties getting used to iWeb, but suddenly managed to develop and enhance my skills in website designing using this programme. I am very proud of my preliminary task as it looks very professional, however, the thing that differs from my campaign website, is that i used a template in my preliminary task, which in a way took the fun out of designing it.

I also looked at other school websites, and got my idea and information from my school, Ravenswood. This was brilliant because I could get ideas for my campaign task; the preliminary task was just there to get us used to the programmes, which I think worked brilliantly.