These past few days I have learnt the importance of using mis-en-scene and camera framing in images to communicate meanings and narratives. In order to fully convey ideas and narratives in media texts you should consider the use of:

• Mis-en-scene (this helps to convey a mood, represent a character, and convey a genre) it includes costume, lighting, acting, makeup, props and setting. For example if the makeup is dark around the eyes it could represent a mysterious aura, the setting could be unknown territory supporting this mysterious feel and the lighting could be dark symbolizing danger and hidden secrets.
• Camera can also be used to do the same through the use of framing (composition/rule of thirds), angles (high angle,low angle, looking inside from outside, side on) and distance (close up, medium close up, long shot). For example a low angle creates the illusion of height which can make the subject look powerful and thus intimidating to the audience. A close up of a person reveals the emotion of the character to the audience e.g anger, sadness.

Learning about these techniques will help me when it comes to making my music magazine, I will keep these techniques in mind whilst I am producing images in my media text.  I will make sure that I include the use of mis-en-scene and camera which will help me to convey ideas and narratives to my audience.

• In order to present the media which I, a 17 year old girl from Guernsey consumes I created a collage. 
• My collage consists of media I consume in the forms of:

Entertainment I watch/use e.g Youtube videos, Music, magazines, programmes, social media and films. 

Social interaction which mostly consists of social media; Snapchat, Facebook, Twitter, Tiktok, Instagram, Reddit. 

Personal identity including news in my location (Bailiwick express), Music (spotify), and social media platforms which as a 17 year old girl I use to interact with others of similar age (Snapchat, Twitter, Facebook, Tiktok, Instagram)  

Informative  e.g news, (sky news), Facebook, Reddit.

All of these forms of media are part of a theory which explains the reasons why an audience responds to different media texts, this is also known as the ‘Uses and Gratification Theory’ which was brought about by Blumer and Katz. My collage in many ways supports this theory as most media I consume which is shown on my collage is either; Entertainment, Social interaction, Personal identity or Informative. This theory will impact on the production of my music magazine, as in order to maximize my audience and response of the audience, I will be sure to include media which fulfils as many of the four main reasons of using media as possible.

Media ecology refers to the study of media, technology, and communication and how they affect the human environments. The components in the system include:

• Money (profit, expense, revenue)
• Institutions (media companies)
• Audience (consumers)
• Government (rules and regulations)
• Creators (musicians, actors, youtubers, designers)
• Distribution (platforms that deliver media to an audience)
• Social media
• Technology

Just like an ecosystem all of these components are all linked and rely on each other to keep functioning. The media ecological system is a process which keeps the media world alive. For instance, without an audience (consumers) there would be no money which helps keep institutions running which give creators a platform to engage audiences.

Task 1: Creating our own system lego land style!

Using lego with our partner we made our own machine/system where all the components were linked together and relied on each other to carry on functioning. Me and Dave created a ticket office which depended on travelers to remain existent, the boat which took the travelers relied on the ticket office to get the travelers onto the boat. This boat took them to the island which relied on the boat to transport the visitors onto the island. The government of the island relied on tourism to make money in order to successfully make schools and jobs etc for people living on the island.

Task 2: Partnered up and given one component of the media ecological system. The component I worked on was institutions. We had to come up with three arguments as to how our component works with or affects other components in the system. Our three arguments were:

Without institutions..

1. Government wouldn’t be able to as successfully share news (without Sky, BBC etc) this includes news such as latest elections/ parliament decisions.
2. Creators would loose the ability to make media for institutions.
3. Audiences would loose the ability to use search engines (Google) and insight of latest news (from institutions like Sky and BBC )

Task 3: An info-graphic including all of the components in media ecology, showing at least one impact/benefit each component has with the other (institutions).  

In terms of my music magazine I am the creator, therefore when publishing media I as a creator rely on money from audiences (who pay for my magazine). This money makes it possible for me to carry on creating new media and, in terms of my music magazine, pay for popular artists to feature in my magazine. The media that I create is made mostly by technology, which means without it I wouldn’t be able to create my music magazine. Popular musicians will bring in more audiences and depending on the success of my magazine musicians may even pay to be featured in it. In order for my media to be delivered to audiences of the public I need distributions, as my media is in the form of a magazine I will be using printing press. As the creator of a music magazine I need to be mindful of the things I put into my magazines, making sure my magazine is appropriate and government will approve.

Media is something I have always been fascinated by, as someone who regularly creates and consumes media I would refer to myself as a media enthusiast.

During my time in Media Studies I hope to learn all about the techniques which are used to create messages in media texts, how influential media is in our society, and how media has evolved.

As a 17 year old who has been on social media from a very young age I would like to think that I have a good knowledge and understanding on some aspects of media, particularly social media. I am a very creative person and hopefully this means I will be able to create some good designs e.g for magazine covers, album covers, and more which we will be doing later on.

I think media will help me a lot with letting my creative side come out and helping me understand better what goes into creating various types of media. I think it will also help me with my communication skills as we will all be communicating as a class, from giving each other feedback and working together to complete tasks etc. As this is also partly a coursework subject I think it will help me with my time management by completing work weekly with deadlines.