Introduction Assignment Evaluation

For this assignment, I was asked to create a piece of journalism on the topic piracy, and had to voice my opinion on the matter on whether piracy was destroying the music industry and to argue against the opposing view. After I had wrote my piece journalism, I had to create a double page spread, which will feature my piece of journalism. The first thing I had to do was some research on the topic of piracy.

For my research, I had to bare in mind the side of the fence I was standing on; I either had to be for piracy or against it, I therefore chose to be against illegal downloading. I then went on to the internet to gather some facts and figures to add in my article, as I need evidence to support my argument and also to dismiss the opposing view. I also looked on the internet, to find celebrities who where also against piracy, this was important as it would kind of endorse my argument, and it would also show the reality of piracy as you would actual see the affect piracy had on these artists. Moreover, I also had to do further research by looking at existing magazines to get an idea on how actual magazines laid out there articles. This was beneficial as when it came to my double page spread, I would have a general idea in advance.  I believe my strengths in my researched skills where, looking for facts and figures efficiently, as I collected the relevant information quickly and was ready to incorporate it into my journalistic writing.

While writing my piece of journalism, I had to bare in mind my chosen target audience, which was 12-25 year olds. This was important as I had to write in a style which would keep the reader interested as it had to be engaging. So I therefore use a lot of rhetorical question to make it seem as if I’m actually talking to the reader, and I also used some informal language so my writing would be similar to the way they speak, but I had to be careful about on how much “slang” I used in the article as it may take away the seriousness of the actual article. I believe my weaknesses in writing this piece of journalism was, actually trying to balance the seriousness of the article and the use of informal English, as the article had to make sense but also engaging for the younger audience. However, I did over come this problem by doing a few drafts and getting people to read my work, in the end I actually wrote an interesting youthful article. Furthermore, I believe my strength in this written piece was, adding the facts and anecdotes in the correct places within the argument. After writing my article I then went on InDesign to create my double page spread.

Using InDesign was a completely different experience for me, as I have never used it before. While still figuring out how to use InDesign, I had to think of how to design my two pages. I then stated to experiment with some text boxes to form columns and picture boxes, I then decided to have the main artist I will be talking about to be on one page, and on the other page I would have my article. I then decided my page to contain two columns and two images; these images are the two artists I wrote about, Angel Haze and Britney Spears. For my main image of Angel haze, I decided to use a pull quote and layered it on to my main image. I thought this was a good idea because a lot of existing magazine do this and it brings the attention of the reader to the actual quote, which will make them want to read the full article. I believe my strengths in this task were actually meeting the deadline of this task. My main weakness was figuring out how to actually use InDesign, as it wasted some of my time.  

Publishing my double page spread on to my blog was pretty straightforward and didn't take much time, as I am use to the format of blogger.

After completing this task I gave myself 4 targets for improvement, so when I do this task again, I will do it more efficiently. My targets are as followed;

-          To learn all the functions and tools on InDesign so next time I will have no problems so I could work faster

-          Getting familiar with different types of writing styles so I can adapt to different aged target audiences

-          To further experiment with the layout, so I wouldn't use the same design repeatedly

-          To have a person to constantly give me feedback so I know which places I still need to improve as I may not be able to identify every error in my work.

This is my Evaluation for my Media AS Induction Assignment