Mission 3 (Methodology) - Creating the Video/ Post-Production

The video was now ready to be created. We didn't know how long this video would take to create but we got together one more time and started it. The plan was to work on our own part and add them together at the end because that would be the most effective way to do it. I would also help the team with my knowledge in Adobe Premiere.

I created the intro using the text tool in Premiere and would play around with the opacity setting to get it fading in and out. I think the intro turned out great and it would lead to Alek's part where he would talk about the history of fake news. We would use some basic transitions to get to the next part which was mine. I added the main goals at the start of my part and then would go onto talking about what went into creating everything.

From here, I would let Justin talk about how they created the articles and go in depth on that. I would cut in one more time to let everyone know that everything was ready but we just had to wait for replies. Justin would talk about all the fake replies we got and how many views there were on the articles. It would then slowly move into the credits where we had everything referenced.

So we had the video mostly ready but we needed to add our voices to this. Luckily, Alek brought in his microphone which we would use to record our voices. We all recorded our parts but it took awhile because there would be some sort of noise or we would stutter which ruined it.

When we finally got all the audio, we would sit down and listen to it but we realized that half of my part and Alek's part the quality was bad because we moved location a few times to record it. We recorded my parts again but not Alek's because we were running out of time.

We then sat down and added all the audio to the video and lined it up as well. I think it went well and all we needed left was a background track which Alek found and we stuck it into it. I played with the audio and made it louder during the transitions as no one was talking and then lowered it when there was.


The video was now complete and all we needed now was to export it. We had an issue with this because it wouldn't export in a high quality setting which was annoying. I tried exporting multiple times while changing the settings for the next hour and a half but nothing was working so we left it and uploaded the video to Moodle.

Overall, I was pretty impressed how the video turned out. It was very relaxing to watch because of the song we used and i'm proud of what we did. It took a long time to create this project and I think it was worth it because I learnt a few more skills in Adobe Premiere. One thing I wished we talked more about was the results. I wish we added more of them and talked about Facebook as well but I guess there's nothing I could about it. Otherwise, I think the video turned out very well and I'm glad I got to work with Alex and Justin.

Mission 3 (Methodology) - Production

For the production, we needed a video to create. We wanted to show our process of how we created everything to promote the fake news site and show the reactions. Alek would talk about the history of  fake news, I would talk about how everything was created and Justin would talk about the results.

We all learned how to use Adobe Premiere and we got to work. For my part, I wanted to create the logo and create the website. Alex set up the email, Facebook and Twitter for us. I wanted to create a logo that would represent an online news site so I used a sans-serif font for the text and pastel colors for the logo. It took me awhile to create the logo and I recorded the whole process from start to finish. It was simple and pleasing to look at and it was everything we needed for this to work.

I started off creating the logo with the font and finding out which would look best. I tried multiple one but one that stuck out was called Avant Garde. I also had a few news logos for reference to get some inspiration from and create a similar style logo. I then experimented with what would look good and I found this V shape that I created look very interesting so I wanted to develop that idea.

I continued developing this idea until I came with up with this.

                            

I would then add the font that I liked and put it below the logo with contrasting weights.

                                                   

I think the logo turned out really good so we would stick with this and add it to all the sites. Also, I created the website using Wix and it was very simple to do. I used a template that they created and I put the logo on that as well. I recorded myself also creating the website which we would use to put in the video. The website was very simple but effective and here we would put the articles up.

                          

From here, Justin and Alek would create the articles and post them on the site and then promote them. They posted a series of them and the site was looking great. They would also record themselves writing the articles out to be used in the video itself. For Alek's part, he would also film himself looking at research and would use the footage to talk over it.

For Justin's part, we needed to create some reactions as we didn't have enough time to wait for people to respond and we also wanted to prove the point that you shouldn't believe everything, not even us! Justin would create some fake tweets using a site called https://faketweeter.com/ We made it seem believable and not make the posts have tons of likes because realistically, that wouldn't happen. He would also create replies to the posts and make them look believable as well. 

Everything was now ready to be put together in the video and we got to work on that as soon as possible!

Mission 3 (Methodology) - Pre-Production

For my final project, I wanted to push myself harder to accomplish more. I was given a few topics to choose from which all but one sounded uninteresting in my opinion. In the end, I chose digital Journalism to do my project on because it was the most interesting out of them and I knew a bit about it. I knew I could do something with this topic.

The difference with this project was that it was a video project so we all had to figure out how to make the video. Luckily for me, I had the basic knowledge on how to use Adobe Premiere and it would save me a good bit of time. Before all of this, I would first need to choose a group to create this with.

I able to find two people to do the project with, Justin and Alek. From here, we would brainstorm ideas as to what exactly we wanted to talk about. This topic was very broad and can be done on many things.

Digital Journalism is essentially news online and how it is shown to the public. It can be spread through many methods such as images, blogs, statistics, articles, news sites etc. It can real or fake and the viewer should do their own investigation before believing in stuff which many people don't do.

I was first thinking of showing some news through the different types of methods but Alek had a better idea. We would create some fake news and spread it to mislead people. This was a starting point which we needed to develop but I was excited for it. We thought of many fake news ideas as we could. We thought of using serious topics like murders but that would be too complicated and would maybe get people under fire which is what we didn't want. We refined our ideas and continued on with the project from here.

We ultimately wanted to create a series of articles we would be convincing to the public and use interesting headlines to make sure people would click on them. We would use serious topics but would include no names and not make it too specific. We would also use light hearted topics which people could spread easier and not put too much research into it.

From here, we need to decide how to spread the information and make it seem that we were a reliable source. We thought of many ideas but in the end we would create social media accounts on Facebook and Twitter and open up a website to post the articles. The articles would be then posted on the social media sites. We wanted to see what reactions we would get from people and what goes behind that.

For the sites to look professional, we needed a logo, a simple website, articles and a name of course. We settled for the Vibe News Network and then we got to work on the production side of things.

Mission 2 (Culture) - Results

With the project finished, we were able to present it and explain well on everything we learnt. We were asked questions and we answered to the best we could. I liked how our project was unlike everyone else's which set us apart. Also, no one was using the story map to present which also added to it and made it look unique.

The project turned out great overall but there is always room for improvement. I wish we had found more evidence and information on the topic we did. There wasn't enough research on Oneplus as to where they source they materials, how do they treat their workers and how they are shipped. My best guess to where they get the materials is from China itself because they are based there.

What I was able to find which was interesting was that Oneplus is owned by a company called BBK Electronics who also owns it's phone competitor, Oppo. This was interesting to see because not many people know about this. BBK Electronic obviously don't want people to know about this because Oppo and OnePlus are in the same market and have created some sort of fake competition. We found out as well that in India, Oneplus assemble their phones in Oppo factories.

One thing that could of helped us to learn more about the company itself was to actually reach out to it. We did't think of this at the time but this could of helped massively. We would have sent them an email or talk to them through their support chat while asking them a series of questions. This would have been great to see the results of that but knowing how business goes, I don't think they would have said much, in my opinion.

Also, I would have liked to find out more about Oneplus' workers. When we did the research, we only found negative stories about factory workers. It does mean that this doesn't happen but I would have liked to find out the truth on what actually happens. Do they get treated fairly or are they not? That is a question I would like to ask them.

One more thing, I wish I learnt more about how the disassembly of the phone worked. It was more Fineas doing the work while I watch but I would have liked to help and understand what tools you have to use to take out the parts.

With the presentation, I did like how it was laid out. It was a clear process which went from the finish to the start. It was very simple to understand and was presented well. I enjoyed making this project and i'm glad I worked with Fineas as I learnt a lot from him and I hope he did as well. I know now about the phone process and what it takes for a phone to be made. I also know how rough it can be for people working in this market and hopefully, it's not the case with Oneplus or any company in fact.