Electro Buzz

Media EvaluationLydia Sharkey

In what way does our media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? When researching other radio productions we carried out a lot of textual analysis, this enabled us to explore how many

structures, topics and sounds that are involved. We listened to stations such as Radio 1, Signal 1, century FM and Smooth FM and found each to be different in terms of structure and sounds. As each production we listened to differed we decided to create a structure based around the usual structure with slight alterations, we made sure the main news story was first, as this should be worldwide, serious hard news, gradually turning to softer news throughout the bulletin. This method is what helped to create our structure.

Structure:–Main news – Ashleigh and Lydia –Entertainment- Lydia–Sports- Ben–Weather- AshleighOutside broadcasts- Leanne

We set roles almost straight away as we wanted to be organised so each member of the group knew exactly what they would be doing and how exactly they would be cooperating in they group.

As well as these main subjects we also included an outside broadcast, studio interview and a feature called silly story of the week, to end on a soft story. I feel our production use’s conventions from real radio news bulletins as we recognised all these features in our textual analysis's, as most include a outside broadcast with either a specialist speaker or member of public.

World news

Language

We used formal language to a degree within our news bulletin, however taking our target audience in to account we used colloquial language throughout the production, using less formal language during the entertainment section and silly story of the week feature. We head this type of laid back language being used in other radio productions including Radio 1.

Style

We used intonation of words in each story when introducing the next story or topic, for example:

Sp1: Now the entertainment news

We had to re-record a couple of our tracks in order to apply intonation of certain words. We had to re-record the introduction above as first time round it sounded flat and did not fit with the topic being introduced. It then sounded much more upbeat like the rest of our production.

The word now would be emphasized rising the pitch of voice to keep our audience interested. This method is done in almost every radio show in the media. We would have two anchors Ashleigh and myself, we showed relationship and interaction by being chatty when in the studio, we used this as a convention of real media products such as signal 1 and television programmes such as this morning.

How does your media product represent particular social

groups?When first introducing the idea of a college radio show, we instantly knew our target audience was college students. However, when deciding the type of audience and what the audience would want from our bulletin, we began to stereotype a great deal. We looked a lot at ourselves as we wanted our audience to be a lot like us and our group of friends. To make sure we weren’t stereotyping too much and to help us know just what students from the college liked, we conducted a questionnaire.

Our news bulletin gives a hedonistic representation of students today, by listening to our bulletin we give a comical, and informal version of teenagers. However I feel we have excluded diverse social groups as we represent a strong type/group of young people.

Who would be our target

audience?

We created a poster to write all out ideas down.

We put all our ideas together to create our target audience for our show

Whilst deciding what and who we would cater for we realised that there weren’t many radio broadcasts out there just for students of our own age group, we saw this as a great opportunity

We thought about the niche market for students and a college radio station idea occurred as we saw this as unique and interesting idea

Students at South Cheshire College

How did we attract or address our target audience?

As we had now established our target audience we could then adapt our work around what they would want, which we had previously found out from surveys and with our own opinion being taken into account, as we all fitted into the same category as our target audience.

To address our audience we created a questionnaire, it included questions which asked if, how, why and who listened to radio news, when creating our questionnaire we had to change a lot of the questions to confirm it would find information on radio news bulletins, not just radio broadcasts. We could now confirm the audience to be students o a similar age who liked modern life style, music, fashion and socialising. However, we then needed to know more, we conducted a second questionnaire which would inform us of what our audience wanted from radio new bulletins; what news they were most interested in and which topic of news they wanted to hear. This then helped us to gain the correct information to put in our bulletin that our audience would wish for.

Structure of our show • Main news – We chose The Credit crunch as it is world news and therefore in some ways applies to everybody. • EMA – we linked the EMA cut down into the main news as this was due to the credit crunch and will apply to many of the college students and effect them, therefore they will have interest in this topic. This also included a in studio interview.• College news – As we are doing a college radio station we felt college news was essential, we chose the dance alive news as a lot of the students were involved with this and this then linked into out next topic.• Entertainment – we included celebrity’s which most teenagers are interested in, along with popular music. We included a outside broadcaster in this section, which was about a local gig, which many students may have heard about or attended. • Sports – we included news on local teams, which local students of the area would have interest in. • Weather – local weather• Silly story of the day – we wanted to end our show with this light-hearted humorous story about driving. We chose this particular story as many students will be learning to drive, and can relate in some way.

Language, style and sound

To attract out target audience we used the stereotype theory that most teenagers are loud, energetic and fast paced, therefore the language and style used in our production reflect this.

We were formal and chatty when reading the script, this was so our audience could feel a interaction with our bulletin. We didn’t want our show to sound boring, as teenagers ourselves we know this can sometimes happen when listening to formal news, therefore wanted our show to be informational yet interesting to listen to.

Our choice of jingles, stings and bed were narrowed down until we had the correct sounds which imitate young music flavour.

What kind of media institution might distribute our media product?

• is a public service broadcaster, they are funded by the licence fee, therefore they have to cater for everybody. I believe this would be a good option as there may be a nice market for a younger generation show. BBC own Radio 1 and own many other radio and television stations. Radio 1 has a huge range of shows hosted by different DJs , including Chris Moyle’s breakfast show and the chart show with Fern Cotton and Reggie. They are very popular and well known, appealing all age groups by playing a range of music, using humour and up to date news. They BBC broadcast over the whole of the UK, with people from all over the world listening online to radio 1 shows. They also broadcast a fairly new show called switch, it caters for teenagers, playing the latest music and giving advice on different topics each week. Our show has a similar target audience as switch, therefore would work on radio 1, if it wasn’t a college radio show.

or• the largest conglomerate media companies in Britain, it owns NME which also have a radio station who cater

for a similar target audience as ours. As they are such a big company, owning hundreds of magazine, radio and television stations, I believe they would distribute our product correctly, researching the correct target market as they have the best understanding of today’s media industry.

Looking back at our preliminary task, what do I

feel I have learnt in the progression from it to the

full product? Looking back at past tasks, including the Funky profile and Favourite thing in the world ever productions I feel I have learnt a lot about radio production. I now understand and can complete processes such as outside broadcasts, including vox pops. We learnt how to handle the technology needed, mini disks and microphones, set levels correctly and interview people, we then used this method in our final production. My skills in radio production have developed a great deal, as I am now aware of what is needed to create a successful radio production. When creating my funky profile production I learnt the basic radio skills in recording and levels. I had to create a short script describing myself and interests, I then recorded this using a song of my choice. In contrast when creating our news bulletin we had to discuss what and who we would cater for, undertaking a lot of research including textual analysis to find out about other radio productions. We also had to carry out research to find the correct stories, we used other aspects of media including newspapers and magazines, we also used the internet, flyers and articles about local event and news which we could use in our bulletin. We then had to create scripts for each section of the news, create links between to introduce people and subject. I have learnt how to write a correct script, by not using clichés, describing visually and telling stories as if we were talking to one person to make the audience feel included with our bulletin. I feel I have learnt a lot more about radio production throughout the process of our news bulletin……..

What have you learnt about the technologies from the process of constructing this product?

I did not realise the amount of work included in creating this media production, as I new the basic skills I didn’t expect much more to be involved. However I learnt many skills throughout the process of constructing our news bulletin, firstly I was not aware of the amount of research we would have to undertake in order to gain the information we needed for our bulletin, we had to set time each week for production meetings where we established what we had done and what we needed to do in the following week ahead.. I learnt how to write a suitable clip, taking into account the style and language, not to use clichés and to speak as if speaking to one person. Also, I did not realise that each section of the script was recorded separately then recorded into the computer on separate tracks. I wasn’t aware of the editing element to radio production and I learnt how to use the adobe audition software, record stereo and mono tracks into the computer, I learnt that each section, jingle, bed and introduction had to be on a separate track so we were able to set levels for each.

Furthermore, I now know about the full process included in editing; using the adobe audition software became more of a trouble-free task as we could now cut sounds out we did not want such as extra breaths at the beginning and end of a clip, move each track so everything flows well, and fade tracks out in order for the next to come in smoothly. I learnt about the sound codes and how each stereo track had to have the correct level in order for the presenter to sound right, and use graphic equaliser to make the sound rounder and softer. I am now aware of the research involved including surveys, addressing our target audience, textual analysis, the script writing and interaction needed between presenters. Also, I now know the terminology used in radio production including bed, sting and sound codes. I feel I have gain experience throughout the production and taking up new skills.