Weekly Progress

This is my weekly progress for semester 2, starting from week 1 of semester 2.

Week 1: This week we continued on our magazine project. So far we've collected photos of the locations we might use for our shoots. On our last lesson, I started my risk assessment of my photoshoot locations. I plan on finishing it at home as we don't have much time in class, seeing as we spend 1/2 of the time with studying media and not the project. I am satisfied with the information I've gathered, however I feel a bit worried as they're all in another country and I would need to travel back there again, and have to juggle my schedule. 

Week 2: This week we continued our magazine project, this time we are planning our magazine covers. We also learned more about media ownership and consolidation, doing a lot of group work in class. We researched about different case studies, such as Disney buying 20th Century Fox. We then compared our work with other people and made comments about each other's work (what we could improve, elaborating further, etc). In our magazine project, we made traditional sketches of how we want our magazine layout to look like. Our teacher also gave us a premade layout made by him so we could plan our magazine covers easier. I feel this week was personally very fun and I think I could do well on my project. For my photos, I am planning to shoot all of them (both cover and content pictures) over the weekend (19 - 21 January 2024). I hope that I will be able to finalize all my photos by the end of this week, or next week if I run out of time. 

Week 3: The formatting of my blog has been changed so that the audience could look through it easier. This week we continued our magazine project. We started sketching our plans for the front page magazine cover. In our normal theory class, we have started learning about how news is spread and selected. I personally found it interesting as it included many details about the media that I, as a consumer, normally wouldn't notice. I plan on doing a self-study at home so that I could prepare for my upcoming test. I also plan on doing personal research so that I could come up with more case studies to write about in my exams. I have a lot to catch up on in my magazine project so I will try to do that as well. 

Week 4: I was absent a lot this week because I was sick, but I met with my teacher after class to see what I have missed out on in lessons. My classmates have started on their self-critical reflection so I did that too. I used Canva to create the presentation, but I am having a hard time finding a suitable template that could match with my topic. I could make my own presentation but I think that it would take too much time and I would like to focus more on my magazine project rather than the aesthetic of my self-critical reflection presentation. I have a lot more research to do for my magazine project so I will do it in my free time. Most of our time in class now is being dedicated to doing our project. 

Week 5: This week was our unit test. I felt incredibly nervous as I usually barely pass in media studies, so I studied a lot a few days and the night before. For the unit test, I decided to choose 3 case studies that I could write about, Heineken x James Bond, Mcdonald's x Sanrio, and Mobile Legends x Attack on Titan. They are case studies that I personally found interesting and that I could have fun with writing about. There are also theories I spent time memorizing, such as the Reception theory by Stuart Hall. I have a hard time memorizing things so I did my best and hoped that I could pass this time. This week, my classmates and I started on our front cover research and development. I didn't gather much photos because it was an error on my part and I only gathered a little. However, I am proud that they look good. I chose my final picture for my front cover and started editing it by adding the proper lighting, saturation, article headlines. etc. I think that I have a very good eye for design and my friends have said that the front cover that I've created is good enough on its own, so I don't know how to design other front covers that could rival my first one. I think that I will end up going with my first trial, but I will try my best to create other designs. I will also try to stop procrastinating and create a time slot wherein I could attempt to continue my magazine project at home. 

Week 6: It is nearly the deadline and I am feeling anxious because I have procrastinated a lot of my project. I want to rush and finish it all before Thursday's media studies lesson. I have many things to do, and I want to also add more research and development details to my blog's posts. I plan on at least finishing half of my project during Tuesday's media studies lesson and do the rest at home. Our teacher has allotted one day for each post (double page spread research and development, front cover research and development, contents page research and development). I believe that I can finish before the deadline and I will stay up doing it if I have to.