Elaine's Presentation

News sourceBy: Elaine Liman

Thursday, November 3, 2011

Investigation


News Client: My client is the students in SWA. They are curious about what the the teachers and administrators are not telling them.

Time allowed: 8 weeks

How I’m going to spread the news: I’m going to make a news paper

Specifications and limitations:

1. It needs to be reliable, factual, entertaining and informative.

Unit question: Can we trust everything we see and hear in the media?


IntroductionMy client, the SWA students age from 10-19 years old/grade 6-12. They’re curious about what the teachers and the administrators are not telling them. So my job is to spread the news and tell them the truth about our school. Since my clients are MSHS I can make my vocabulary more advanced because they’re not ES so they’ll probably understand.

Throughout this semester, I am going to design and create a news source that is interesting for students aged from 10-19. To be able to make a good news source, I will have to go through various steps which are, investigation, design, plan, create and evaluate. I will try to find out how I could make this news source interesting and understandable. I will have to plan out my time carefully before going to the create stage so that I can be conscious of how efficiently I’m working. When I start creating my product, I will try my best to satisfy my client.


AOI (Areas of Interaction)This project relates to Community and Service because I will be designing and creating a product that meets my client’s requirements. Community and Service is about helping other people in our community and I will be using interviews with my clients, researches about different types of news websites for middle schoolers and high schoolers, and my own knowledge to investigate, design, plan and create this product, which shows my imagination and creativity. My own abilities to make a news website will be shown from this project. Therefore, this project relates best to Community and Service.


Client InterviewWhat type of news do you want to hear in my news source?I would like to read about the events that are happening around the school.

Do you think that the teachers and administrators are actually hiding something from you? Sometimes, I do think so. Somehow, there are never bad news going around SWA and how is it possible that nothing bad ever happens?

How effective would you think my news source will be? This depends on who reads your news source.


Client Interview (cont.)

How often should I re-print or update my news source? Daily? Weekly? Or every time something new comes up? I think you should update your news source daily.

Would you like to focus on all the grade levels or just the administrators and teachers?I think your news website should cover everything that’s going on.

Who do you think would actually read it?For sure teachers would read it and your friends will too. This depends on how good your articles are


Client Interview Summary

From this interview, I found out that SWA students want to read about the events that are happening around the school. She also thinks that the teachers and administrators are hiding something from the students. She thinks that its weird how there are never bad news going around SWA. She recommends that I should update/re-print my news source daily. She said that teachers and my friends will read my news source. According to her, the people that will read it depends on how good my articles are.


Brainstorming

News for SWA students

InformativeEasy enough for

everyone to understand

Appropriate words/pictures

NeatGood

illustrationsGood layout

Aesthetically pleasing

Reliable

Factual


Case Study

1 2 3Customer All ages All ages Children

Form Website Newspaper WebsiteAesthetics Matching Eye catching Too contrast

Cost Thousands of dollars Thousands of dollars

Function To let people know all around the world about what’s happening

To let people in Jakarta know about what’s happening around the world

To get kids interested in reading news

Ease of Creation Difficult Difficult Medium


Bibliographyhttp://www.cnn.com/

Jakarta Globe Newspaper

http://blogs.swa-jkt.com/swa/brianduffy/

http://www.pitara.com/news/

http://www.ibo.org/myp/curriculum/interaction/

http://www.pearsonified.com/2006/06/how_much_should_a_design_cost.php


http://www.cnn.com/

http://www.cnn.com/











Design


Design 1Pros:

It categorizes things neatlyThere are 3 editions

It lists the upcoming events on the home page

Cons: It’s too normal and not creativeThe links take too much space


Design 2Pros:

The space for each picture/video/category is even

There are 3 editionsThere’s enough pictures and videos

Cons: Not a# the spaces are fi#ed and it’s

not structured very we#


Design 3Pros:

The way it’s set up is quite organizedIt provides a lot of the newspaper

essentials

Cons: The newspaper set up is too normal

It’s not very neat


Design 4Pros:

The way the title is set up is not too normal

It’s aesthetica#y pleasing

Cons: It would take too much money to

print it in color but if it was black and white it would look less

aesthetica#y pleasing


Design 5

Pros:Clearly structured storyboard

Easy enough for people to understand what’s going on

Cons: It’s too normal


Design 6

Pros:Carefu#y planned Quite organized

Cons: It’s too normal


Evaluation of design (website)

Design 1: This website layout makes it easy for people to find the news they want. However, there’s nothing very special about the layout compared to other websites. When people go to the home page, they can see the upcoming events straight away which comes in handy for us SWA students. There are too many links on this layout and all that space would probably be wasted later on.

Design 2: This layout is a little better than the first one because the space for the categories, videos and pictures are even and the links don’t take too much space. The bad thing about this design is that the spaces aren’t filled very well. Some things are too small and they could’ve been made bigger.


Evaluation of design (newspaper)

Design 3: The way this design is set up is quite organized. This newspaper layout provides most of the newspaper essentials. However, if you buy a newspaper and compare it to this one, it’s not very special.

Design 4: The way this design is set up is not as normal because the title is printed sideways which gives it a nicer look. However, if you didn’t print it in color then it won’t look very aesthetically pleasing but if you do, then it would cost too much money.


Evaluation of designs (movie)

Design 5: This storyboard is clearly structured and it’s easy enough for people to understand what’s going on. However, it’s too original, nothing special goes on.

Design 6: This storyboard is carefully planned and it’s quite organized. However, like my other storyboard, nothing special is going on so it’s not different to other news casts.


Peer evaluation

I think that design 2 is the most convenient design for both the creator and the client. Your clients are students and more and more kids have become attached to the internet. So maybe, by putting your articles up online, more kids will read it while they are doing other things online. -Thalia


Summary

I choose design 4 because I like that it’s different from other newspapers and it looks organized and neat. The way it’s set up is also interesting. Also, newspapers are easier to make and they’re much easier to access. A lot of people could afford daily newspapers but maybe not internet.


Plan


Gantt chart


Step by Step plan1. 2. 3.

6.4. 5.


Step by Step plan (cont.)7. 8. 9.

10.


Evaluation of planWas the plan detailed enough and why?

In my opinion, my plan is detailed enough because I included all the steps required to get the product.

Could it be followed by someone else?

Yes I do believe it could be followed by someone else because I asked my friend and she said she could understand what I meant in my step by step plan.

Have I used all the resources available to me?

I do think I have used a lot of the resources but not all of them.


Create


Journal 04.10.11This lesson was the first time we started our create stage. I thought about what article I should write about first. I decided to write about something that had just happened which was our camp/field trips. Since the main idea was “a week without walls,” I decided to name my article that. I visited the week without walls website and got some information from the booklets from every grade. I did actually finish the article, but I was expecting to finish 2 articles that lesson. Next time, I will gather all of my information for the article first and then make the actual article because then, I won’t be so confused.


Journal 06.10.11This lesson wasn’t such a successful lesson for me because halfway through the lesson the fire alarm went off and about 10 minutes of our time was cut off. I organized myself better this lesson than last lesson because I made a word document before putting it into my newspaper. I decided to write about the Da Vanci building in one of my articles. I got the information by one of the SWA websites and also Mr. Brian. For the other article, I decided to write about the student council. I got the information from my friends and I also heard about it from one of the candidates. Since I’m also in middle school, I know about it when it happened because I was there too.


Journal 07.10.11Today, I finally got my first page done. I thought about international news that’s been going on lately and I remembered Steve Jobs’ death. I thought that it would be necessary since our school is using MacBooks and iMacs. I knew some things about his death from the newspaper already so I just summarized what I remember and did a little researching. Also, I put in an advertisement. I was a little confused about what I should put in my advertisement and then I remembered an item that was a little unusual. I thought it would be interesting to put in my newspaper and so I made up a price and put in a slogan. This lesson I didn’t have a lot done and I was a bit disappointed in myself. I was aiming to finish the first page and start on the second page at the end of the lesson but I did’t accomplish that because it took me a long time to think of a topic to write about in my article.


Journal 11.10.11This lesson would probably be the most disappointing lesson so far. I started on the second page and only got 2 short articles done. I think I could’ve done a much better job if everything was more organized, like I’ve said before. I got a little bit confused on what to write on the second page, and that did take me a while to think about. I came back to my first page and decided to write about the articles that had “read more on page.” I started my research on Steve Jobs’ death and also the Da Vinci building. The Da Vinci building was hard to research on because most of the SWA websites didn’t have any information on it. I only found pictures and information on when it would be finished so I had to make the article short because I didn’t have enough information. The article about Steve Jobs’ death was pretty easy to research on because it’s one of the biggest news so far. Next lesson I should focus more and organize the questions I’m going to ask students or teachers and then e-mail them.


Journal 13.10.11

This lesson was quite a productive lesson. I wrote about the MS basketball games and also the inter-murals. I got information from powerschool and since I’m in the basketball team, I know about the scores and other information. I also got an interview with a grade 10 student done. It was hard to think of an article because nothing much is happening in SWA at the moment.


Journal 14.10.11This lesson, I got a lot of things done. I started my 3rd page, and I’m halfway done too. This lesson was a huge challenge because I ran out of ideas for my article. I visited a lot of news websites like Jakarta Globe, CNN and BBC but I couldn’t really find an article that would be interesting for the students and also relate to school. I finally thought about what some students wrote about in social networks such as twitter. I finally decided to write about the recent earthquake in Bali since some students talked about it. I also went back to my design stage and saw my designs. I remembered that I wrote something about music news so I did a short research on a music website and decided to write about Justin Bieber’s new christmas album since a lot of students talk about him. I also decided to do a short information section on the mid-semester break.


Journal 22.10.11This lesson, I was really confused of what to do. I did the same thing like last lesson. I went back to my designs and saw that I wrote down something about movie information. So I went on to the cinema website and saw the movies playing and coming soon. I decided to write the name of the movie, a brief storyline and the type of movie such as action and comedy. I didn’t finish the 3rd page yet but I really wanted to write about a halloween event but the MS student council aren’t sure about what type of event they’re going to plan and the HS student council aren’t going to plan one. So I decided to skip the rest of the third page and make the movie information on the 4th page. I didn’t get much done since it was a little bit hard for me to process the information of the movie because I haven’t watched some of them and I wanted to keep it short.


Journal 25.10.11This lesson, I finished more than half of my 4th page. I got a little bit frustrated because I couldn’t think of what to put on my page so I tried getting some ideas from my friends. She suggested me to put a jobs column. I didn’t want this jobs column to be normal and boring, obviously. So then I tried thinking of mythical creatures and making a job out of it such as a unicorn tamer or a fairy finder. As I got to my last one, I ran out of ideas so I searched up unusual jobs. I found out they had a water slide tester and I thought it was pretty cool, so I added it in. I also added in a mustache designer job. Since I had a little bit of space left, I decided to add 2 advertisements. I added 2 real advertisements. One of them was a perfume and the other was a unicorn fart scented soap. Next lesson, I will have to finish the rest of my 4th page and work on finishing up my third page.


Evaluation


Evaluating My PerformanceInvestigation: My goal is to make a newsletter to end the SWA students’ curiosity. In this stage, we clarified the time limit, target group, client, what type of news they want to read and the areas of interaction. I think I did pretty well in this stage because I tried my best. I made the information pretty clear so I don’t think I need to improve anything.

Design: In this stage of the process, we had to make 6 possible designs. We had to make 2 newspaper/newsletters, 2 websites and 2 storyboards. For each design, we had to write the pros and cons and choose which design is our final one. In my opinion, this was one of the stages that I’m not so good at because it’s hard for me to make pros and cons. I think I could’ve made more pros and cons so it would be easier for me to choose which design I want.

Plan: In this stage, we needed to make a gantt chart and also a step by step plan to guide us through our create stage. We had to make sure the gantt chart matched our time limit. In the end of this stage, we had to ask ourselves questions such as would other people make this product too by reading our plan. I did pretty well in this stage because my plan was detailed enough for people to understand. I think I could make my gantt chart clearer.


Create: In this stage, we had to start making our news source and we had to make journal entries on our blog. In each journal entry, we had to put a screenshot of our work so far and write a bit about what we did and also what we could do better. I think I did well in this stage because my journal entries were detailed enough and my screen shot showed the work that I’ve done so far.

Evaluate: In my opinion, it’s important to evaluate on your work because it’s good for future reference. If in the future, some of us are actually going to be working in news companies, then we could have some experience on making our own news source.

Evaluating My Performance (cont.)


EvaluationMeeting specifications: In my investigation stage, I wrote that my news source needs to be reliable, factual, entertaining and informative. I think I’ve met these specifications because I have a good balance of entertainment news, SWA news and also worldwide news. My information is reliable because for each article, I took information from several websites.

Successful points: In my opinion, my most successful point of the cycle was my design part because my design was colorful and informative. I also think I did quite well in my plan and investigation stage because my information was clear. My newsletter was aesthetically pleasing because it was colorful and it would attract peoples attention.

Least successful points: I think my least successful point of the cycle is the design stage because I didn’t write a lot of pros and cons so it was pretty hard for me to make a decision. Also, if my designs look more different to each other, I would have a wider variety which is always better. I could work on researching more news websites and newsletters to get more ideas for my designs.


Evaluation (cont.)

Modifications/Improvements: If I could make this product all over again, I would be more organized so that I wouldn’t be confused and I would plan everything out neatly so I don’t panic during the last lesson to get my newsletter finished. If I had more time, I could’ve made the set-up of my newsletter more aesthetically pleasing.

Client and peer to peer:

The impact to society: After I distribute my newsletter, my client, the SWA students will finally get the real SWA news and the things administrators and teachers aren’t telling them. It will also prepare them to read more advanced articles in the future.

The impact on the environment:


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