For our LEAP 2 project, my partner Carly Nasznic and I discussed how exactly media companies make money. In our animation, we discuss the different ways in which media companies make money and how the United States media and entertainment industry is the largest in the world. We discuss the different economic models media companies use to make money, the different types of media systems, and media regulation through censorship and content moderation.
When choosing our topic, we came down to either choosing something from chapter 6 which is about why people create media and share stories or chapter 10 why media companies make money. After choosing to focus on chapter 10, Carly and I started to create an outline for the chapter as well as for our actual animation. Creating the outline was the easiest part. We contributed via a Google Doc and everything was done within a few days. After the outline was finished we decided to start the animation. As both of us were unfamiliar with any of the animation sites provided on the create to learn website, we ended up choosing to use Animaker as it allowed us to both collaborate at the same time. It took some time to get use to this website and at times I found myself very frustrated as the site would crash due to connection errors or it would just be slow and lagging. We found it easiest to complete our parts at different times and then in the end, we both went over to make sure the slides lined up with what we were talking about. I did my section first and then Carly did hers as I talked about more of the topics in the beginning. I felt that the outline really made this step easy as we knew what sections we would each be working on in the animation. Carly and I communicated over text very frequently. We talked about issues we were having with the animation and helped each other out with anything needed, which was very helpful! I am involved in a lot of group projects this semester and have found that sometimes it is difficult to work on a group project virtually, but working with Carly went very smoothly. We were both very open to hearing the ideas of each other, both responded to texts if any issues arose and contributed and shared all ideas. All around, even though we had some issues with the animation, this project went very well.
