LO3 - Task 4 Evidence of Carrying out a Specific Production Role for a Chosen Media Production

My contribution to the production of the Critical Hit Magazine Print based Media Product

Roles and Responsibilities

Throughout the production of my print based media product Critical Hit for Unit 14, I was in control of all levels of production. Pre Production, Production and Post Production I had the role of the producer and editor, photographer, and journalist as I mainly focused on creating the magazine in InDesign and producing all of the pre production material. I made sure that I was consistently on schedule (by using the Gantt chat below) to ensure that I was completing all of the tasks which are involved in the development of a magazine.

Contribution to Media Product

Taking on this commitment meant that I had to create initial concepts for the magazine logo and and essentially flat packs for the magazine design, the ideas and potential narrative that my writing was trying to push, as well as the photography. Later once I had finalised all of my ideas through a series of sketches and drafts I began to create my layouts and drafts on photoshop before transferring my ideas onto InDesign which really brought my ideas to life. This helped me wrap text and format images in a way that worked as I will explain below. I also had to research into the legal and ethical aspect of this entire unit, while following OfCom rules to avoid offending the masses.

Gantt Chart

This has been used to make sure that I get all of my work done to an efficient standard that will meet the deadline. Essentially ensuring the idea that I will have all the key elements to create the final product.








Mood Board

I made a mood board to help communicate my ideas in an efficient manner to my peers, to get accurate feedback. This also helped me keep in mind my target audience though out the production of the magazine.

Flat Packs

Flat packs were very critical for me to envision my idea coming to life. The flat packs were very useful for the initial photoshop mockups before moving my entire Idea to InDesign.

Initial Planning for an Article

The initial planning for an article is essential if I want to do the designated role of a journalist to an accurate level. This helps guide me when doing a draft for the editorial and then eventually will be discarded when I get to writing the final draft.

Evidence of Proof Reading

Proof reading is very essential because it ensured that my magazine quality was correct. Here you can see me copy and pasting one of my original draft articles into word. So I would be able to ensure my magazine would be to a decent quality as far as quality, spelling an grammar.



Recce Forms and Risk Assessments 


This has been done to ensure that everything is done to a safe standard, these in particular was for the images that I took for my magazine.

Images Taken at CEX

These images were taken to help connote what I was writing about, and add to the narrative that I was trying to push.

LO2 - Task 3 Understanding Skills Needed to Fufill the Role of a Magazine Journalist

Skills required to fullfil the role of a Magazine Journalist

Introduction

I will be looking at the personality, qualities and skills possessed by a Magazine Journalist. I will specifically be looking at their physical contribution to the production of a magazine and the variety of communication between the individual and the rest of the development team they are working with.

Written Communication

The written materials which are produced for a magazine is mainly draft articles, this is essentially pitching your ideas and concepts to an editor who will look over your work and decide if you need to add, change or develop any of your ideas. It is important for a Magazine Journalist to be able to translate their ideas onto paper for higher management to look over to save the journalists time and to ensure that the magazines needs have been fufilled. It is a creative skill for the writer to make the narrative exciting and engaging for the target audience. Pre-production is a key aspect of  being a magazine journalist development and looking into the legal side has to be well documented in order to ensure that the writer doesn't come across any problems in the future, making everything he/she does politically correct in order to not offend anyone (this mainly applies for publications in the mainstream media). During the magazine unit I ensured that all written documents about the magazine clearly explained and outlined my ideas and what they were about and how I am ensuring that I stick to rules set by Ofcom. I also made written notes of my feedback to ensure that I could improve  them to a decent standard which I would hope engaged the audience.

Verbal Communication

Between each member of a magazine production team, there can be a varied number of specialists, depening on the publication. The journalists and photography team as well as the chief editor need to be able to verbally communicate and explain their ideas for the product, to both colleagues and publishers .Throughout my unit 14 I have been able to use verbal communication effectively to explain my ideas to the people around me in order to gain feedback and improve my articles and concepts for relevant articles. For this I also needed good time management skills to fufill the dealine for this specific unit. I think that I had fullfilled this role successfully from my planning of magazine, with key wire frames and flat packs to the actual production of the magazine using industry programs like InDesign. 

Practical Production

The responsibility of a Magazine journalist is to write a set ammount of articles for a magazine, such as reviews.I used other magazines to help inspire me and show me what industry standard was for magazine reviews. I looked at gaming magazines like Xbox magazine and music reviewing websites such as RollingStone Magazine and Billboard. This really did help and guide me to making key descriptions and giving the reader insight on my opinions on games. After I did this I created graphics, layouts and all the other essentials needed to create a magazine.

Creativity

I created draft articles and wireframes, for the magazine articles and their placement on my page, as well as looking into key features that are essential to each seperate piece of writing. For example an ediotrial has completely different conventions when compared to reviewing a piece. I believe that this use of creativity and effort put into each article will help me stan out as a writer compared to a fair ammount of writers who specialise in reviewing, or giving step by step guides. The most essential tool I used to help guide my creativity besides the interent and other magazines was simply Microsoft Word, a program that is very basic to use but is really powerful. The way you can change sentences without worrying about making a mistake is so ideal and helpful when looking over weach sentence to see what works better. Microsoft Word also has the essential spell checking too, as I am not the best speller int he world this is a great use of the program for me.

Areas for further Development - Skill Gaps and Action Plan 

Reviewing my performance as a magazine journalist. In evaluation, I think that I could have improved my work in the role of the magazine journalist by researching more into more different words by using a thesarus, expanding my vocabulary is a great way of helping a writer to ecxpress themselves while getting there message out more clear to the audeince. I would have also chosen a few different topics, and maybe change the entire concept of my magazine to a music magazine, as that aspect of journalism seems more interesting to me rather than gaming.

If I would have spent more time improving my planning by creating extra articles, then I wouldnt have had to settle with the ideas that I did havem this would have helped expand my ccreative process and vision and may have completely improved the magazine all together. With my main review on GTA V, this page was initially a review for Command and Conquer. But after careful consideration I went for the GTA V idea as I had more interest and knowledge on this game. I was very pleased with the final product and all of the articles, and graphics which I created. However, in order to improve the overall look of the magazine I would need to improve my design skills and knowledge on InDesign as I did struggle a fair ammount. This would be beneficial as the magazine did look how I wanted it to, and read very well. It just simply took longer than it normal would have to produce. I would improve my skills and knowledge mainly by YouTube tutorials like the one below in order to improve my designing skills and knowledge.


Another improvement that I could use would involve me using programs like Grammarly, which catches up to 10 times the ammount of spelling and grammar issues that word finds. This would be able to help improve the quality control of my magazine, though Word did a more than adequate job for this Unit. The best way to become a great Magazine Journalist is to gain experience in the industry and constantly practice your specialism so that you can bring something unique and impressive to employers. I think these skills will come to me over time with tons of practise and dedication to the craft of writing. Another great way to improve my skills is to constantly read other peoples work and potentially pastiching great techniques professionals have used to help influence and upgrade my own style of writing. Essentially adding my own twist on other great techniques used in the industy to make myself unique, but up to industy standard.


In order to gain a more in-depth understanding of magazine journalism and gain key contacts and skills within the industry; my action plan is as follows:

2016 July

I have booked a short 3 day course; 'Effective Writing for Journalist' at London College of Communication ( 11/07/2016 - 13/07/2016). This course will sharpen my writing skills in order to prepare me for my degree and future in the competitive world of journalism. By the end of this course I should be able to demonstrate an understanding effective writing for journalism, write a good headline, have the confidence to develop my own writing style and effectively and efficiently communicate a story

2016-2019 

Study Journalism (BA Hons) at Kingston University London, starting September 2016, succeeding my media course at UTC Sheffield. I first gained an interest in journalism during my experience of studying Media at UTC, aswell as my creative writing A level. I was able to develop my writing skills, exercise critical and analytical skills in filtering information, investigating facts and presenting them on public platforms (such as personal bloge, and blogger etc). I have realised that this is something I really enjoy and as for higher education, I am eager to progress further in multimedia journalism. This is reiterated from my work within Unit 14. I have had the opportunity to expand my understanding of journalism from people who work or have worked for successful newspaper agencies / mass communication organizations such as the BBC which happened in creative writing where we got to talk to a journalist. I am also planning to volunteer for a few weeks at a local news agency, such as The Star, while studying at university, during term breaks.So that I can begin as soon I finish my course. This shall be beneficial to my studies and experience in the industry.

2019

There are many options from which I can decide after graduating university with a 3 year degree in Journalism (BA). I may try to obtain a job in journalism, or perhaps secure an apprenticeship at companies. I also have the choice to continue at university onto a Masters Degree, PhD.

LO1 - Task 2 Job Roles Report

Employer Input

As part of Unit 14 I was asked to create a print based media product (a magazine) with up to 6 different pages. I was given key tutorials and advice in how to produce  a magazine. Work the appropriate software such as InDesign and Adobe Photoshop to make some of the essential graphics to create my magazine of choice. 

Job Roles Report

Topic of Research

I will be investigating roles of the development teams in the production of print based media, more specifically the role of a Magazine Journalist and a  production manager.

Inductory Description

• Duties
• Contribution
• Equipment
• Skills

Magazine Journalist

This member of staff is responsible for all of the writing and articles within a magazine. This includes generating ideas for topics, researching topics in depth, and fulfilling a specific word count. They help to shape and mould the main content within the magazine. They use programs such as word to help correct any spelling, and to help keep track of their word count. They also use pen and paper to gather notes and draft articles to make sure they are sticking to the specific agenda that a magazine has. The journalist helps to make a narrative interesting and also trying to create a specific idea wether it be advertising or reporting on a specific story. They attempt to make the reader feel a certain way wether that be happiness, anger or a general interest . Their role leaves them responsible for creating some of the largest bulk of a magazine and essential content.

One of the main issues which a Magazine Journalist goes through is getting across a specific point while fulfilling the entire word count. This is a particular issue for them due to the fact that the Chief Editor and Production Manager.

My suitability for the role

Personally, I believe that I could have the required attributed that would allow me to be a successful Magazine Journalist. Journalists need to be dedicated and have a huge interest in reading and crafting their work to fulfil the needs of the company that they are writing for. They need to know how to captivate an audience and then hold their attention. They also need excellent communication skills as they will need to be constantly reporting to magazine editors and Production Management to ensure that the¥ are fulfilling the the job that they have been given. A Magazine Journalist needs to be incredibly passionate about the industry as a lot of the time their work may not be used as it isn't to the specific requirements, they will need to dissociate themselves from a lot of their work as a lot of things may be edited out, due to lack of space, not fulfilling the agenda, or the director simply thinks the standard is weak. I believe that I am passionate about the industry and have a thick enough skin to be able to make a career within the industry. However, in order to achieve my goal of working for large scale publications I would need to practice my writing in any way possible. This will help me build up confidence and the range of skills I will need to be successful in a variety of different forms of writing. The best way about doing this is practising as much as possible . It is said that in order to become successful in this industry you would need to be working during your job hours, and a lot of your own time to fulfil assignments and briefs, as the industry is very fast paced. 

Production Manager

The production manager for a magazine company has one of the most intense roles in the entire industry. There responsibility is to oversee every aspect of the production of a magazine, they have to create production plans and time scales as well as ensure the magazines is following the correct guidelines that head management need. One example of something they might work is guiding the entire Journalist team and pushing them to ensure they meet specific deadlines. They would need to make the wheels turn, and push the entire production team to their fullest potential, ensuring the entire production of the magazine comes together as smooth and streamline as possible.

Role Comparison

Both of these rolls share vital importance with the production of a magazine, as without each other they wouldn't be able to craft or make a full magazine. Without the direction of a production manager none of the ingredients would corollate and create the magazine and without the Journalist the actual bulk content of the magazine would not have been produced. I believe that the Magazine Journalist is why a magazine can be enjoyable and interesting however without the guidance of a production manager a full product would not be achieved, and all of the key elements would not be within a magazine to the correct ratio that would be needed.

LO1 - Task 1 Research of Jobs within the Media

Editors - do their job during Production of the magazine

Directors - do their job during Pre Production & during the Production of the magazine

Writers - do their job during Production of the magazine

Web Content Manger - do their job during Pre Production, during the Production and Post Production of the magazine as they have to constantly update the websites to keep the websites current.

Marketing - this job is done during Production, but mainly during Post Production of a magazine

Advertising and Editorial Photographer - this done during Pre Production and during the Production of a magazine

Advertising - is done during Production of a magazine, but is planned during Pre Production and during the Production of a magazine

Technical Author - They are writers which simplify information such as instructions, guides of breakdowns of information for the reader. For example a cooking magazine, with step by step guidelines. 

Journalist - They are the writers of all the magazine/newspapers content. They research into news stories and topics designated by the director of the magazine.