Dear Students,
As this is a half semester course we are at the end of our semester! It has been a pleasure teaching you. However, before you leave you must do these few task in order for me to finalize your grade for the class.
1) Edit your TV portion in Final Cut Pro w/pictures/text/transitions. This will be done IN CLASS during your midterm days.
2) Respond to the last 2 blogs by the TV producer in Alaska.
3) Write an essay about what you learned in this class.
For instance, talk about the skills you learned, information, and how might it be applied in the future.
Essay must be at least 2 pages, typed. Hand one "hard" copy to me and post it in this blog.
DUE ON THE LAST DAY OF CLASS.
Questions? E-mail MSVENTURAWHS@GMAIL.COM
9 comments:
Tori Munger
1/22/09
Mass Communications
Through the course Intoduction to Media, there is a lot to learn about all the technologies that help people communicate with one another. Also, there is a lot to learn about how to use technology and what each of them do.
A long time ago, it was hard for human beings to communicate. People had to write letters to each other or see each other in person in order to talk to each other. Newspapers and magazines were very popular to see what was going on in the world. They both had ads for readers to see that pressured people to buy certain products from all different companies. Once the telephone and telegraph were invented, people communicated much more easily through these technologies. Sometimes it was hard to use these technologies though. People had their own ring tones for their telephone and when your ring tone rang, the phone call would be for you. Sometimes people's phone would ring and it wouldn't be for them because all of the telephone lines in one neighborhood would be connected.
After the telephone was invented, the radio was discovered and it became a hit. Everyone loved listening to radio talk shows, drama shows, music, and even love and comedy show. There was just about everything on the radio that a person could imagine. Millions of people would come home after school or work and sit down in their living rooms staring at the radio like it was magical. The stories that were on the radio made people feel they were actually in the story and they would get a rush of excitement. Producers of radio shows always found good ways to entertain the people that were listening to the show. Every day items were used to make specific sound effects and they would write a really interesting script for the show. Usually the radio was made to look nice as if it was a piece of furniture because so many people had radios. It was typical for the average family to have at least one radio in their home.
Right when people thought the radio was the biggest invention made, the television was invented. The radio was a brilliant idea, but television was better. Not only could people listen to program, but they could also watch the program. Being able to see the show made much of a bigger impact on viewers than the radio did. Instead of having to imagine what was going on throughout the show in your head, you could see it right in front of your eyes. People could now see what the actual characters looked like and what kind of a setting the story took place in. Radios soon didn't play many radio shows, but they played a lot more music. Also, people communicated through the television as well. Adds and commercials were always played throughout shows and they advertised different products that businesses wanted the viewers to buy. These commercials make a huge impact on people and what they buy. If there were never ads or commercials about smoking, there probably wouldn't be as much smokers in the world than there are today.
The internet and computer were the next biggest inventions. People started to read articles off the internet instead of buying a newspaper everyday. The newspaper slowly started to get not as popular. People also write emails and instant messege people instead of calling or writing a letter to someone. Blogging is another great way for people to communicate through the internet. Not only can you use a computer to learn new things or communicate through the internet, but you can use it for other things. The computer is used for playing games, making your own website, listening to music, and even watching video clips and movies.
Technology has made the world a better place to live for people. Without it, it would be very hard to do a lot of things that people do everyday such as doing work on your computer, relaxing and watching television, talking to one of your closest friends on the telephone, or even reading an interesting article in a magazine. It has made the world so much more advanced and modern than it was when there weren't these technoogies.
Carolyn S. Intro To Media
1/26/09
In Intro to Media, I learned a lot about how to use cameras and a lot about programs in Macs. In our class my favorite part was being in the studio and using cameras for our television projects. But closely behind was the editing in all of the computer programs we had learned. My least favorite part of the class was writing the scripts for the projects, it just took a while and it was really difficult for me to put my power point into words for the camera.
One of my favorite programs that we learned in class is iMovie. It took about a week for us to totally understand and be able to navigate everything by ourselves. After a few days, it was the easiest program to use and be able to upload pictures and video. Another program that we learned how to use was Garage Band. In Garage Band there are so many different sounds and clips to piece together and create a nice clip. Although I liked the program, there was just so many options that I got a bit confused and flustered with all of the different sounds. Though it was great to use I would have had to had more time with the program to adjust to it and actually like it. Mainly because it takes more time than we had to know where all of the different sounds were and how to navigate throughout the program. Finally my favorite program is Final Cut Express HD. I just love being able to upload the clips and piece everything together. Though you can do those things in iMovie, Final Cut was better because it was more complex and you could do more to the clips and pictures. Also in Final Cut you can add pictures with ease and it only took me about twenty minutes to upload them, crop them and put them into the video.
A few other things we learned about were everything in the studio. The cameras, teleprompter, and lighting. The best part of this class was definitely to be in the studio. My favorite part was probably being the person sitting in front of the cameras and making sure everything is all set. My least favorite part was definitely the teleprompter. When I was doing it my class mate would go fast and then slow down and it was really hard to change the speed so quickly.
When I’m older I will definitely be able to use these programs effectively. Maybe someday for the company I work for they will need someone to work in Final Cut, iMovie or Garage Band and I will be able to do it. Also when I’m older I can use cameras. Because in this class we learned so much about how to use the cameras and the teleprompter. All of the things we learned in this class we can use in the future. We wrote our scripts, edited them, recorded them, edited the video and in the future we will be able to make videos and things of that nature with these programs.
Emily Dinjian
1/25/09
MID-TERM ESSAY
Over the last couple of months, Mass Communications has taught me some valuable skills that I can use in the future. At the start, we learned the simple aspects of media and then progressed into more modern programs. I hoped to learn how to edit videos, film a little, and learn some media-related programs. Throughout the semester, I was able to achieve what I wanted to and a lot more.
We began with the basics, and learned the basis of media and the main uses of it. I learned about the origin of newspapers, magazines, radio, and television. Starting from the beginning of media, I was really able to grasp the whole concept of Mass Communications and how it evolved from simple drawings in a cave to today’s modern television and even more importantly the internet. With the knowledge of media’s past, we were able to advance into the present and again learn the basics of that too. I learned how TV works (although I was a little bored and confused at times) and how internet affects the masses. But, above all, I learned how to operate a TV studio, which was my favorite thing all semester. I worked a camera and teleprompter, played the role of TV producer, and even performed as the subject of a program (although not very well). From there I learned to effectively edit a TV program to a point where it was presentable. Even the writing, which I usually do not enjoy, was fun during this particular project.
Garage Band and Final Cut are some of the new programs that I have learned. Both are equally complex. With Garage Band we worked on our radio broadcasts. In this program, musical possibilities are endless. I can create my own song with a real instrument or a virtual one, or I can choose from the hundreds of available loops covering every genre of music. We imported our voices then picked from the special effects to make an amateur project seem almost professional. In Final Cut we perfected our TV project. I liked this program the best because of its many options of creativity. Here, we cut out the bloopers from our video and added in text and pictures. Final Cut is used by professionals so learning the basics of it could prove essential in my future career.
After learning all of these skills what can I do with them? If I ever wanted to pursue a career in the film industry or anything else along those lines, the skills that I learned from this class would be infinitely helpful. I could even do a school project using Final Cut if I wanted to really impress my teachers. Also, some of the knowledge I obtained earlier in the year about muckrakers has already proved to be useful when it came up in my history class. Media is a large part of life so I would not be surprised if it popped up again in my classes. With the multiple presentations that we had to do, I learned to speak publicly more effectively. Almost every career requires you to speak in front of a crowd whether it big or small. I consider this the greatest skill learned as it is the most commonly used. Thanks to Mass Communications I am now a lot better off in the technical and modern world.
Eddie Smith
1/26/09
In the beginning of Ms. Ventura's class Mass Communications I barely knew anything about this class. I didn't know how to blog or what to expect. I wanted to learn more about Mass Communications. As time progressed we started writing blogs online, and even creating our own. We made accounts and blogged on different subjects we were learning about in class. Also we started looking on websites that talked about everyday media, news, and politics. Instead of reading the newspaper we went on websites like www.newyorktimes.com, which was like an online newspaper. We explored other websites and looked at some of the advertisements and how they affect everyone's opinion on certain products today. Another subject we focused on in class was the beginning of Mass Communication. We studied that back in times of the Egyptians started to communicate with one another by drawing walls. We looked more into the symbols and characters and found that each picture and symbol represents a word making complete sentences. Moving on through the course our next project coming up was a radio project involving a made up storyline. This project was pretty fun in my opinion. For my project I did a radio show with me being the special guest and my partner hosting the show. We had to write up scripts and find sound effects for our skit. By the end of the project everything sounded good together. After we put took our projects and burned them onto DVDs. Next project coming up next was our history of television project. Each one of us had to find information on our assigned subject and present it in the Watertown High television studio. After our first try of presenting our scripts on camera we found it difficult to do so. To make everything easier we took our scripts and loaded our work onto a teleprompter, which made everything easy. The teleprompter has every word on a screen attached to the camera so the reader wont have to look down every 5 seconds at their paper. My segment was on public broadcasting. I had to summarize the beginning of public broadcasting on how it made an impact on the media today. There were two parts to this project. Next we were assigned to a partner and had to summarize another segment of television. During this project people had to edit and fix each and every mistake. Editing each part on the computer makes everything look good before it hits the big screen. Adding and editing was fairly easy. My part of the video had pictures and text to make it look like news show was on TV. Throughout half the year I had fun and hope to come across something like this in college. I’m going to college for radio broadcasting and want to learn more about what I need to do in order make it in the studio.
1/27/09
Ariana Zito-Wolf
Media period 4 Midterm Essay
What I’ve Learned
I learned a lot in this class about mass communication, which I now know is when a person or group relays information to a mass of people at once. We learned about all the forms of mass communication, focusing on radio and television. We learned how to make our own shows for each of these using computer programs, which, at least for me, were new. All these things, especially the computer programs, will be useful in the future.
The first thing we learned was the history. Mostly using the cyber college website, we learned about all the forms of mass communication and how they have evolved throughout the years. First we studied the history of print, which started way earlier than I had thought-2,500 B.C. or earlier! We discussed early forms, like hieroglyphs and cave paintings, as well as more modern ones like books, magazines and newspapers. Then we moved on to radio, and film last. While reading the site, we would each be assigned a section and make a PowerPoint to present to the class, if the reading was too long or complicated. This made it easy to understand. We also talked about the most popular form of mass media today-the Internet. We discussed how it is taking over newspapers and other print with the visiting author, and throughout the class have talked about how it has greatly influenced today’s society. During the first half of the class, I learned many new things about forms of mass media. I feel like I understand more about their development through history, and their uses today.
We focused primarily on film and radio, which makes sense, as they are two of the most commonly used today. These are the two we did projects on. The radio project incorporated two new computer programs; garage band and imovie. We did the audio in garage band, and I found out I really enjoy the program. It was easy to use, once we were taught the basics. Knowing how to use garage band may not be useful in the far away future (I doubt I’ll be using it much in whatever career I choose), but I’m glad I learned because I have the program on my computer. Now I can, and will, create my own songs easily. Once we had the audio done, we imported it to imovie and added pictures with transitions, and text. We learned to do the same sort of things on Finalcut while doing our film project. We edited, and added pictures too, the raw footage of us talking about our sections from the history of T.V. on cyber college. Being able to use imovie and Finalcut will be useful in the future if I want to edit a film I shoot. I could choose to use either, since we learned booth.
We also learned how to actually produce a show, which will definitely be useful if I make a film of my own. We filmed the raw footage for our film projects in the production studio. While filming others, we learned how to use the cameras and the other equipment in the back room of the studio. While being filmed, we learned how to be on camera, and how to read a teleprompter-which we also learned how to control. All these will be useful skills in the future, especially if I get a job producing. I prefer being behind the camera to being in front of it, and didn’t enjoy editing much. Filming and producing or directing (which we learned from the T.V. producer in Alaska, are basically the same thing) sound like the jobs I would enjoy. If I end up with any of these, I will be prepared due to the many things I learned in this class. I know how to film and produce, and use the computer programs I would inevitably have to deal with. Also, what I learned about media history definitely won’t hurt!
Even if I don’t get a job in the film industry, I’m glad I took Intro to Mass Communications because I learned a lot of interesting things about its history. In addition, I have a better knowledge of new technology-something that is essential in today’s society.
~Ariana
Greg Rohlicek
Mass Communications Essay
Intro to Mass Communications. I can confidently say that I have been thoroughly introduced to mass communications in that class. That's a lot, considering how many fields mass communications stretches into, be it in TV production, or business. We covered and learned about a huge number of things in the mass communications world, from working with computers to being on camera. The great thing is that later in my life, I can come back to these skill for nearly any career in the media world, and a few beyond that world.
Early on (and for the rest of our time in the class), instead of receiving textbooks, or taking pages and pages of notes down, we were instead given a computer, where all of our work would be researched and kept. Later on, we began working with a wide array of programs on the computer, from GarageBand to FinalCut. Each program really let us be creative with it, which resulted in having incredible end results from working with the programs. I guess what I'm getting at is that this class taught me about computers – their importance in the world, how to use their many programs, and more! I now see how important computers are in real life, and how huge a leap they are from previous technologies. After having this class, I now know how many professions really rely on computers. Not just programmers, but even doctors, or architects – in this era, ESPECIALLY architects! -- and nearly any other job you can think of. The short answer is that computers are a huge part of today's professional world, and should not be taken for granted.
Along with knowledge about computers, we also worked with quite a few programs. It was great being introduced to so many new programs; I had no idea what was sitting on my computer, never being used. Programs like GarageBand, for example, I never used on my computer. After working with GarageBand for a number of projects, I now have a sparked interest in the program. I can easily see myself using GarageBand in my down time, making music to pass the time. GarageBand is a surprisingly diverse program; it doesn't just have to be used for making music, it is also used for editing voices in TV productions, and more. I had never realized how greatly a relatively simple program like GarageBand can be applied to many fields of mass media.
I learned about much more than the technical side of mass media in this class. Another huge part of media I learned about in this class is the historical side of the media in incredible depth. By depth, I mean that we started all the way at 2,000 BCE, at the very earliest point in communications' history, dealing with cave paintings. That's how everything we know today started – language, culture, etc. -- I'm so glad that I now know about how human communication began. To know how life as we know it started out as simple little pictures on cave walls, and evolved into figures carved into stone walls, into letters written on paper, and finally into letters typed on a computer is incredible. Looking back on this mass media course, I am amazed at how much time we covered in such a short amount of time.
In conclusion, if I ever choose to pursue a career in mass communications, This class will serve as an excellent and solid foundation for which to jump off from. From this point on, really any career in the media is an option for me, be it a more historical look into the media, or a more active, live TV show. This class was much more than just a high school elective, but closer to a college level course. Despite any non-mass media professions I may choose, that does not mean that the information I learned in this class was useless; it was in fact quite valuable. Not necessarily valuable for a non-media job, but valuable for my personal gratification.
Isilay Yalcin Intro To Media
Mass communications has been a very fun class. Not only because we had a lot of fun discussing about random things in class or the funs times we had in the studio but because we learned so many interesting programs like Final Cut HD and Garage Band. Programs weren’t the only things we learned in this class though, exploring the itunes store and learning about applications that I didn’t know even existed like pod casts was very amusing to me.
I will never forget the Gina’s (Greg’s) and Keith’s skit that they did on our last day in the studio. That was probably the most funniest thing to watch and it was amazing how they came up with everything to say in one sitting. The studio may have been fun but I learned many things about it too, like the teleprompter, I didn’t realize that all you had to do was copy paste it into the black page. Being to camera man was also fun like how Someone from the studio who was wearing headphones could command to go left or right or whatever way necessary. Being the person who counts down was probably my favorite part as people may have noticed it already since I would do that most times. It was probably because I liked learning hoe to work with those levels if it got to high, and just telling the people who where going when to go. I guess I felt like a director when I was doing when I was saying the countdown which is always fun. I remember how when I first was filmed with my cable and satellites topic I couldn’t I was to nervous that I forgot to breath. When it was time to be filmed with my partner I felt more relaxed that time because it wasn’t my first time doing it anymore and I knew that it wasn’t that hard and so I remembered to breath which is a good thing because I hardly messed up.
Garage band was also very fun to learn. I had heard the mane “garage band” so many times before but I never knew how to work it, I didn’t even know what it was really! It was kind of confusing at first but its really easy to learn. The thing that fascinating me most about garage band was probably that you could create a whole song on their, I couldn’t help but think that singer could have used this program to when they were going to create their song. It just seemed so cool to me.
Final cut HD was very hard to learn probably because we had so little time to learn all the cool functions about it. I hated editing my video though because it was hard to but together since I messed up so many times in the one I did alone. How to create a title on the video and add pictures to the video was what I learned form this program. Even though I didn’t learn how to work the whole program I learned something. Some people say that its always nice to know a little something about everything and in this case it very true. This class has helped me learn to much about technology from the past, present and future. I know learned a lot about the history of radio and television and the social impact of television. Now I know when the first antenna television was built and which country was the first to launch a radio station and even what the first radio station was! Now I can put my two cents into conversations about these topics!
This class was a very fun and interesting experience I had. I learned so much I can’t even tell you and I made new friends which is always good. I remember the first couple of days in this class, honestly I thought it was boring but it turned out to be a class I always looked forward to. Now I can’t help but wonder what the I would have thought of this class if I had stayed in the third period class I was first assigned to. But I knew almost everyone in that class already so I guess I have no regrets.
Riwaj Thapaliya
Mass Communications
27th January 27, 2009
A Memory
I remember my first days of school. I was asked to choose the subjects for my sophomore year. I had found it really difficult to choose my special classes; there were too many choices. And since we didn’t have extra classes in Nepal it was even harder for me to decide on what to choose. When I first saw the subject, ‘Introduction to Mass Communications,’ I was very impressed. I was told that it teaches us how to deal with new technologies regarding mass communications. I have always been interested in editing and making my own videos; I have always wanted to express my creativity. And this class seemed to be just perfect!
During my first classes with Ms. Ventura, I wasn’t sure whether I choose the right class or not. I was not good in expressing myself, in other words, I had very little confidence when it came to talking with people. It was probably because I had just arrived from Nepal, and had difficulties in speaking English, or it was just because of my rather shy personality. But whatever it was, I was really nervous when I was told that we had to make a video of ourselves. And in addition to that, the video that we make would be broadcasted in a television channel!
As the days passed, I learned many things. I learned how to use Mac computers; I learned to use different software of which I hadn’t even heard of. Above all, I learned to be more confident. I acquired and developed a skill, in fact an important skill: a skill of being more confident. Although I cannot say that this class was the only source for building my confidence; my other classes have also helped me. But I express my sincere acknowledgement and gratitude to Ms. Ventura because I think her way of having a ‘college-style-class’ has helped me a lot. We were very few in numbers in the class and it was easier for everyone to know each other. It was much more efficient in sharing experiences with each other. We not only learned from Ms. Ventura alone, but rather with the whole class, by interacting with each other. It was definitely a new and a unique way to learn, especially for me.
Learning new things with the computer has always interested me. I have always been fascinated with the new things that I learn. For instance, when we were doing our television project, I was extremely interested with the way it worked. First we wrote our script, and then we reviewed it thoroughly. Then we memorized some parts so that we would be familiar with it, and finally we put the script in the teleprompter. After that, we read our script from the teleprompter, which was one of my worst parts. It was dreadfully nerve-racking for me; getting in front of the camera and talking was like a nightmare, but somehow I managed to get over it. I had to take and retake many parts, which was a very bad thing when it came to editing. Although I enjoy editing, I had a really tough time to finalize my project. I had too many errors; but with the help of Ms. Ventura and other friends, I was able to do every thing well. Over all I enjoyed the television project.
Introduction to Media (Mass Communications) has been a great choice. The only thing I regret is that this class is a half-year class, only for a semester. I love the experience that I have gathered in this class: it is just incredible. It is rather disappointing to know that soon we won’t be having this class anymore. Although I might be taking the second level class of Mass Communications, I know that I won’t be with this same class. I know that I won’t be seeing Ani, PJ and Arriana, and I know that I won’t be seeing Ethan, Carolyn and Emily, at least not in the same class. I know that I won’t be seeing them together with Ms. Ventura and I definitely know that I won’t be seeing them in a class full of computers and excitement. I would probably be with some other students and be making new friends, even if I take Mass Communications next year. My final words for this fabulous class are: I will always remember the experience.
Ani Vosganian
January 25, 2009
Period 4
Media Essay
I really enjoyed what we had done in Introduction to Mass Communications - or as we still call it intro to media - this semester. It was a lot of fun and I learned some new things, and about new applications. I also learned about the history of television, radio, and magazines. At first I thought that these were all just things that we had for our entertainment for today, but I’ve learned more about them, and appreciate them as well.
When I had first heard of this class, it was last year, when I was a freshman. I had seen what the kids in the class were making - which were music videos. I thought about it, and thought that that would be really fun to make! That’s what interested me in the semester course. And I always use the internet, and watch television, and read magazines, so I am really into Media and everything. Considering the fact that this class was all about media, I knew that I would do a good job. I wanted to learn about how to make music videos, and I also wanted to learn about the internet and television and making videos and stuff like that.
Even though we didn’t make the music videos, we still did a lot of other stuff, and some of it was really fun. I really enjoyed my classmates, as well. Ariana, Carolyn, and Emily are already some of my close friends, so it was a great experience to be with them. I knew Courtney because she had been my friend over Facebook and during eight grade up until now. It was great to meet PJ and Chris, and Ethan. Beside from that, there were a few things that I was really happy we learned about: Garageband, Imovie, and Final Cut HD. Garageband was fun because of all the sounds and music that you can create on it. It was really amusing when we put some beats and sounds together, and then we could add piano, and other instruments, to create like, a band. It was a great learning experience. I’m glad we used Imovie because I always wanted to know how videos were made, and how we could add pictures over our voices, etc. But I learned that a much easier way to create videos is using Final Cut HD. It is faster and more quick than Imovie, and more fun, to be honest.
Those were just the applications we used on the computer. We also learned about newspapers, magazines, radio, and television. We researched many different topics, and I was surprised to learn so much. This class really helped me understand the use of all the media we have today, and the impact everything has on the world. Without media, I don’t think we’d be able to communicate and exchange information the way we do today. Overall, I’ve also learned that when you work with a group of people, or either in pairs, that each and every individual has their own part in a project, and without their contributions, nothing will be perfect, or in sync with everything else.
Without media, the world would be totally different. Now that I’ve learned about everything that media does, and how it affects our news and decisions we make today, I’ve gotten to appreciate it more, and I’m glad that we’ve all learned more ways to use media and to get our voices heard. An example of media, would be Youtube, or the news, or newspapers. Though some have had a decrease in their popularity, it will still affect our lives greatly.
I am glad I took this class, thank you for teaching me, also the rest of the class.
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