Q7. What Do you think you have learnt in progression from your preliminary task to the full product?

My first site was plain and very conventional, following the rules of school site design. I knew how it should look but I wasn't very creative in the way it was constructed or with the images and the colour scheme. I understood the conventions of a school site from my research but I wasn't creative in how I used them. I would say our designs were safe and boring. I think the final draft of the new site shows how much I have developed creatively and that I'm not afraid to challenge conventions to make a product more appealing to an audience. A school is very corporate in a lot of ways but it doesn't have to be. If I was going to do the school site again I would make it bright and exciting for young people and not focus so much on the parents. I think I would aim it at the students and then have a section for parents to get information that was a bit more formal.

I've also learnt how to use blogger more effectively as time went on. I think I was a bit afraid of it at the start and I've been a bit lazy about getting posts up on time for the first draft. Once I realised what I could do and saw what other people were doing I started to get my work scanned and uploaded and get my blog organised. I think there's still a lot of work I've done that I haven't uploaded but when I do my A2 blog I'll keep it organised like a portfolio to show my ideas more clearly.

Q6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

The things i have learnt from constructing my product have been a useful in the process and will help me to make re-corrections to my website in the future.

I have learnt how to use iWeb on an Apple Mac which I used to make my website, this is useful to me as I can easily change parts of my website if my partner and I don't like it for instance the layout of it, pictures changing information due to changing events moving pictures around or even getting rid of unimportant things. For our first draft we got quite a few things wrong but we found it much easier to make the changes than we did building the site because our skills in PhotoShop and iWeb had developed so much in a short time.

I have learnt to use PhotoShop to edit and crop pictures into the website which is extremely useful as when adding new pictures to the website it will not be as time consuming as the first time I tried using it. Also i was able to edit the titles of my pages to a style and colour i wanted it which i believe makes my website more aesthetically pleasing.

I leaerned how well the different creative programmes worked together too so it was fairly straightforward to make a slidshow in iPhoto, drag it into iWeb and then add sound. It was also simple to move images from PhotoShop to iWeb and make adjustments so I was surprised that everything worked so well together.

Q5.How did you attract/address your audience?

The way my website attracts my target audience is by using simple colours which are easy on the eye such as green, yellow and light brown. These colours also have simple connotations of nature and happiness. The colours have been chosen also like this to link in with the pictures of the horses which is also another way my website attracts my target audience as the pictures are of horses which a relatively cute. The language used is very easy to read as the target audience is mainly for young girls so we have not put in many big or hard to understand words. This is good as it is also very easy to understand by any type of reader of any age.

The positioning of the pictures and writing have been set out in a conventional style as we did not want to have the reader looking in different places for different information, the links to other pages and websites and labelled clearly so it makes the website more efficient and easier to use. The navigation buttons are fun with a western theme and there are easy to spot and click on for young site visitors.

Other things that i think could attract more people to view my website is different fonts for the titles of pages and for the actual written information. The website also has a picture slide show on its front page which is a conventional look to a charity website as some of them have sliding pictures of what they're charity is about.

I expect the people who visit my website to be happy with the content and information given about the horses and how they can help. It would also please me if the viewers liked the layout and pictures on the website as it was very time consuming and my partner and i think it is aesthetically pleasing.

/Users/40060/Desktop/Hoorses sound.mov

Distribution

What is a domain name?

A domain name is what people will type in to the browser to find you or your company online. This is what you will type into your browser to find a certain website.

To buy a domain name you must first think of a name which you believe would best describe your website and what people would remember, many website names are short so it is not hard for the audience to forget what it is.

What is web hosting?

Web hosting is used to publish yours and others websites on the Internet. If you build a website and wish for people to be able to view it then you must upload it into a web hosting service so people can see it and search for it.

There are many things you can use form web hosting, from hosting personal websites to your hobbies type of websites, however for people to see your site you will have to use a web hosting service otherwise people won’t be able to find your website.

Survey Results

In the survey that i had done we asked 100 people girls and boys to answer a simple questionaire. The age range of the people who answer my survey where between the ages of 8-16 and where mainly girls.

I found out that 50% of the girls and boys we asked strongly liked horses and 10% watch the Nickelodeon, 40% watch the CBBC and 30% watch others.

23% of the people asked like horses and 60% of this number put down into watching Nickelodeon.

7% of the people who did my survey came back with the answer of ' sort of ' and all of these answer said they use the internet to catch up on missed programs.

20% of people came back with the answer ' definitely not', most of the people that answered this way also lived in built up towns and highly populated areas away from horses and country sides.

Q1. In What Way Does Your Media Product Use, Develop or Challenge Forms and Conventions of Real Media Products?

My media product looks and performs like a basic HTML website. The website I am making is not of the best quality as the software I am using for it is iWeb which only allows for basic HTML editing. It has no PHP and JavaScript.

The layout of my website, as you can see uses real and conventional forms that a lot of other websites use:

-A image which relates to the website- the image that is on the front page is taken from stables near us. It then has links to other pages on the website and links to other similar charity websites. It also has a donation button on it to make the donation to the charity.

Like my website, the WWF has an image going across the page horizontally, with the links to different pages at the bottom. The only thing it doesn't have is a hit counter, which as a professional website, should - to show the public how many hits it gets to increase popularity.

Each page on Help Our Hooves uses similar and basic forms and conventions that professional websites use. For example the pages setup and design of it will all look similar.

Sketches for our site

These are the first sketches we've done for the website and they show how we are planning to use the conventional 3 column layout and I've used lots of images to represent the issue and show the how we have helped the horses. We have also included a navigation bar so the site visitor can easily navigate through the site.

Q4. Who would the audience be for your media product?

The audience for our website will be horse riders, young girls and horse buyers, this is because our website gives information of how to groom and care for horses. I choose young girls as they are more likely to want to make a donation to the charity and horse riders as they have a influence on the popularity of the website which will bring in more donations.

It could be thought of as stereotyping young girls as those who would be most interested in horses but after visiting the stables to get the photographs it was clear to see that 9/10 of the children taking riding lessons were young girls between the ages of 6 and 12. This age of children may not have money to give to the charity themselves but they will have 'pester power' so if we can catch their attention with the right promotion then they will get their parents involved. The parents are likely to have disposable income because they can afford to pay for riding lessons.

Q3.What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

A domain name is what people will type in to the browser to find you or your company online. This is what you will type into your browser to find a certain website.

To buy a domain name you must first think of a name which you believe would best describe your website and what people would remember, many website names are short so it is not hard for the audience to forget what it is.

Web hosting is used to publish yours and others websites on the Internet. If you build a website and wish for people to be able to view it then you must upload it into a web hosting service so people can see it and search for it.

There are many things you can use form web hosting, from hosting personal websites to your hobbies type of websites, however for people to see your site you will have to use a web hosting service otherwise people won’t be able to find your website.

The web server i will be using to publish my website will be Apache. I choose Apache as it seems to be to be the most commonly used web server on the Internet, with a high reputation. The research my partner and i gathered when searching for websites such as www.wikipedia.com that Apache would be the sever that came more frequently therefore making in reliable.

I will have the website published through google as the service they provide can make my website visible and easy to find. The way i would make my website visible on the Internet is to go on to Google and type into the search box 'how to make my website visible on google' and then click on the first link which appears, then i will click the link that reads www.google.com/addurl.html, which will then take me to the page where i will be able to make my website visible on the Internet.

Q2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

The particular social groups/ people that my website targets is mainly young girls to horse owners and riders, this is because we believe that most of our donations will be from these type of groups/people. The layout of the website is design to be very user friendly so therefore easy to us by old and young.

The layout of my website (www.helpourhooves.com) is to represent other charities who are trying to put a stop to horse abuse and cruelty. Our website helps horse owners by giving information about how to care for horses in the proper and humane way. It also gives links to other horse charities and foundations with different information by using hyperlinks.

The layout out of the pages on our website i think are aesthetically pleasing this is because it will attract more viewers resulting in more donations. This is a point which my partner and took a long time to agree on to get it to a way we both agreed on. We had trouble deciding on what font style our titles should be written in and what colour it should be in so it didn't contrast with the backgrounds.

The photographs my partner and i have used have been taken and chosen by us, this is because we wanted to use photos which will intise the viewer do donate. The some of the photos are cute in the way that it shows horse in the correct and wrong environment.

The language used is in a style where any reader will understand it and get what the charity wants to do and is doing. It does not use any long winded ways in putting the point across it is very simple.

Research for campaign site conventions

Through the research into websites, especially charity websites i have noticed that they all follow the same conventions such as their layout and how they are used. This will give make a template on my own website and how i will set up my own website. The conventions on these websites include such things as;

Logo- on all the websites the logo is situated in the top left hand corner of the page, this is a eye-catching part of the page which makes the audience drawn to it. This means it stays in the audience memory and he/she will therefore be able to associate the logo with the cause of the charity. These logos differ from being pictures, letters and words.

Slogan- not many of the websites have a slogan next to their logos. Slogans are used in the website to help the audience remember what the website aims are and helps the audience to remember the website.

Navigation toolbar- This is usually situated along the left hand side under the logo, of all the pages on the website. This is the best place to put the navigation toolbar and it makes looking around the site easy.

Images- the images used in the charities websites all are relevant to what the website and charity is about and their cause. Websites such as the RSPCA show pictures of all healthy looking animals with their stories of the ordeals that they had been through with previous careers.

Colour Schemes- the colours used on all the websites have the same colours as the logos. This is so the audience will remember the website. Usually the donate link is in a standing out colour like yellow to draw the attention of the audience.

Language- the language used in many of the websites similar to mine is descriptive and to the point. It will tell the audience what the charity has done and what it plans to do in the future. The way the websites is worded is informative and persuasive to make the audience feel like they need to donate money to the charity.

Brief for our website

For my main website my partner and i want to do a website which is about a world wide animal charity, similar to the charity RSPCA. We want to do it on a animal based charity as we both have a number of pets of our own and are extremely interested in animals all across the world.

Our target audience for the website is mainly young children as they are at an age where they care about animals and still believe that they can make a difference. The colours used in our website will be bright as it will attract many of our target audience and the pictures will be nice to look at but with a deeper more hard hitting meaning to them, this will hopefully persuade the viewers of the website to make a contribution to our charity. RSPCA: They work by making every thing on their website simple and easy to understand what the charity is and how they help.

The appearance of our site will catch the our target audience's eye straight away with the use of bright colours, pictures and sound. It will be very a very interactive website with the user having to click on pictures, captions and tabs to find out more information about the charity.

Research for school website conventions

1.I had not done any media studies before this course. I had chosen media studies for a level as I felt like it would be an interesting experience for me. As I started this course I knew that I would have a lot to catch up on.
2.My perceptions of media studies has not changed as i am still eager to continue with this course, this is because i have always been very interested in the design part of websites and how they are created using media.
3.I think that many things have gone well for in my media studies lessons such as i have learnt about lighting such as the different types of light used for different types or settings.
4.I haven't understood some of the contrast between light and dark such as in the hollyoaks scenes. If i was to ask for something to be done again it would be to have sir re-explain how different scenes can change from light to dark and how i would be able to pick out the key differences such as clothing and scenery.