NEWS HAS BEEN TRANSFORMED IN THE ONLINE AGE “TO WHAT EXTENT DO YOU AGREE WITH THIS STATEMENT. APPLY CONTEMPORARY EXAMPLES TO THIS STATEMENTS”.

     I agree with this statement, news has changed significantly in the online age. It has become easier to reach audiences with news through posting articles online. It has also become more accessible for the public to view articles they are interested in, we have the vast amount of news websites, which focus on a wide range from politics to celebrities.

     A modern example that you could apply to this statement is the new campaign “Kony 2012”. This first surfaced by the effects of a short film premiered (March 5^th) on you tube created by the charity ‘Invisible Children’ and directed by Jason Russell. The video has now reached over 85 million views in less than a month. Online news has also allowed the public to comment on the articles. The Kony 2012 campaign disabled the comments section on you tube as the public were disliking the video and posting negative comments.

     The public have become much more important for the news in the online age. To grab an audience and to compete with other news companies the articles they put out have to be accompanied with either images, audio or video or all of these to make them stand out and be as interesting to the audience as possible. News doesn’t only get distributed on the companies websites but also via a twitter or Facebook feed allowing the audience/public have news delivered to their phones.

     The news in much more constructed and put together. The gatekeepers choose which stories to show and which to dismiss. They then construct the news stories with pictures/audio/videos and then they sell the story through having it has their headline posting it on their twitter site. Breaking News has become more accessible for the public as you are able to hear about it as soon as it is announced. The main aim of the news company is of course to make money. They achieve this through advertising revenue, this has an impact on news values and news selection.

     Tim Lee invented the internet thinking it would bring people together, which is what has happened through Facebook twitter etc. David Gauntlett says “He imagined that browsing the web would be a matter of writing & editing, not just researching and reading”. More than 1/3 of people in the world have a facebook account, this lets the news companies reach an audience through online networking, cheaply and effectively. More and more people and participating in online communities, which regularly revolve around current news stories (what happened with Kony 2012).

     Mark Poster says the internet provides a “Habermasian public sphere”, which means a cyber democratic network and points of view, which ultimately lead to a ‘public opinion’. The internet is also a huge source for the news companies to retrieve information. Also as the internet creates communities these communities are also brought together through news stories. Now the public/audience participate in news stories and contribute to the news. For example after 9/11 many videos/photographs/statements captured by the public were then transferred and printed/displayed across the globe.

     The online age has had a huge effect on how News is delivered the public. It is much more accessible that how it was before Web 2.0

Using Photoshop

When constructing our CD digipak and poster we had a photoshoot this allowed us to have initial material to work with and to manipulate. During the photoshoot we used a Cannon 500D, this allowed us to capture the detail and the clarity, which then gave us more flexibility when editing and manipulating the image.

We turned to PhotoShop to edit & perfect our pictures. We needed to create a 6 panel CD digipak and an  poster to compliment our pop promo video. Photoshop is a image manipulation device which allows us to create new images from outstanding ones. Perfecting our star image is crucial for us as her image is what will sell her.

The first thing we did before using photoshop was to chose the images we wanted for our products. We then started work first on the CD digipak. We sourced a template from the internet of a 6 panel CD pack and then layered all the images we previously selected up against this. The main image for us to edit was the front cover which we did by selecting the picture and then cropping it to fit the square frame. We then duplicated the layer to enable us to airbrush the image of our artist to create a flawless 1920's look. We the decided to create another layer to add the text. We chose a font that we wanted throughout the ancillary texts to create a sense of synergy. We got pictures of art deco frames and lines which we added ontop of our own photos to highlight the 1920's era and link the text back to our video. We then used the colour manipulation tools to alter the lighting and contrast of the image to look like the colours we used in the video. We did similar things for the other panels where we used the 'eye dropper' tool to choose a colour from our video and then place this on the panel.


As we were aiming to create an art deco/modern twisted album cover we needed to research and get inspiration for our album cover.

Modern album cover, showing iconic status (Marilyn Monroe), Sexual.

Art Deco design, Use of block colours, straight lines, squares, precise.

When creating our poster we chose to follow the idea of one of our digipak panels which would create a sense of synergy. We used the eye dropper tool to select the same colour as the panel and then chose the same silhouette image of the dancer to place on our poster. We did this by using the marquee tool to draw around one of the three silhouettes and then copy and paste it onto the poster. We then used the transform tool to scale it to the size we wanted. And added the same font in the similar positioning on the poster as on the digipak. We created a new layer to add text to the poster which included tour dates where the artist would be performing. We saved images of the twitter and FaceBook logo to place on the bottom of the poster in their own layers and then found a barcode on google to place ontop of the poster. Once we had created it we though somethig was missing so we added a new layer and used the brush tool to add a signiture of the artist in a similar colour as what would be found in the video, over the top of the silhouette.

We also created a few different posters in photoshop that we decided we didnt want to use as our final poster. These followed the same similar ideas as the final poster, we just used the colour contrast and highlighter tool to get the block effects which we then selected and added different colurs to.

Photoshoot & Digi-Pack

After we had finished the shoot we then started the photoshoot. We 

decided to keep the "Dancing Girls" as we felt they would compliment and create a more interesting frame around our leading cast member (Georgina).

We then decided to get shots of the Dancers so we could possibly use them in the digi-pack. When editing we colour corrected the photos so they looked old fashioned but still classy.

  We then needed to capture more shots of just Georgina as she is the artist/band we are selling. When editing this photo again we colour corrected the image like the one above to make it look classy and old fashioned.

In this photo below instead of correcting the colour we decided to put the photo into black & white, which made the photo look more sophisticated. This seemed to fit well with the theme of the music video.

For the photo below we tried editing it and changing the colours in the photo but none of them could match the original colour photo. This photo is a close-up of Georgina. We all agree that this photo has potential to be used for the digi-pack or the poster.

In the photo below of Georgina we tried to edit to make it seem aged and grainy to portray the era of the original track "Why Don't You" by Peggy. I feel the photo is slightly to edited but think it has potential to be used somewhere in the digi-pack or poster if we spend more time on it.