Monday 1st March Extended Project Meeting

Today our group met for the first session of our extended project. We were given a brief to work with. We were then divided into groups and asked to write down notes of who we thought would fit best into individual roles (results of my choices shown above). After these, the teacher allocated the students in the class their roles due to who was voted to do what, and how many times. I was voted as the Liaison, a role I am very happy with as it was one I voted myself for.

The Brief:

We have been told that we must produce a twelve page, full colour tabloid style newspaper, ready for print by the 1st April. Its contents must be that of study materials to assist lower years with the OCR Media Studies A2 'Critical Perspectives' exam.

As a team we will have to produce a newspaper consisting of our own case studies, learning plans and lesson activities that we will have to plan and research ourselves. It will hopefully be of use to teachers and students for post sixteen education.

The cost of production must be covered by advertisements in the magazine. To obtain these we will have to go around and look for advert opportunities ourselves. Along-side this it is very important that the paper is visually interesting. This is because it is easy for a (especially younger) audience to get bored with unentertaining aesthetics.

It is vital that the paper remains intellectually engaging throughout, possibly by including such things as comic strips and games etc. Concordantly it must be exam specific and be very up to date. This has to include investigations, simulations, timelines, interviews and info-graphics (graphical representations of information).

The paper should have evidence and analysis of my own research and interaction with real audiences and media practitioners/consumers. Possible help with this may come from investigating video games (a constantly evolving media giant).

All ideas and strategies used in the newspaper must be suited to the learning styles of a sixteen to nineteen year old. We will have to go about trying out these different ideas as part of a case study on responsive learning techniques. From the results of this we will edit our paper to match what is the best and most effective way to teach people within this age group.

The Client:

Our client for this project is a woman called Jenny Grahame. Grahame works at the English and Media Center in London, and is one of the people I will be contacting as part of my liaison role. If what we produce meets the requirements of Grahame and the English and Media Center than it will be distributed via their website.

My other contact will be Julian McDougle, a cheif examiner for A2 OCR Media Studies. I am to contact him about any other queries and advice I may need.