4. As part of my Media Studies course I was given the task of creating a 5 minute local news bulletin. We created groups of 4 which were to become our Radio news broadcasting teams. We were required to, “multi-task” by acting as researchers, producers and presenters whilst making the bulletin. The task continued:
6. An anchor/ presenter Title music It had to include many factors in order for the radio production to be a success: Vox pops Location/ studio interviews Specialist reporter
7. 5 Months later… And here we are 5 months later with the deadline speedily approaching. This evaluation is going to look at the work we have completed and see whether the tasks were met and challenge completed. Its going to finally conclude the many weeks of hard work that was poured into the creation of the Radio News Bulletin and see whether the hours spent were useful.
10. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge conventions of real Media products? Our Radio News Bulletin is very traditional as a result of using similar conventions to real Media Products. At the beginning of the coursework we decided that our target audience was going to be young adults between 16- 25, therefore we took conventions from similar stations such as Radio one, Signal one and Real Radio. In my textual analysis I discovered that the structure of a news bulletin is very important. We decided to use the popular structure of starting with International, Hard news and then going to the Softer more Trivial pieces of news. We also, like Radio One, used idents to separate the different sections of the bulletin. Our radio bulletin is very traditional as it uses conventions from already existing productions. For example we gave our first main story weight in the form of an interview like Radio One did with their main story of the “BNP”. We decided to do this as it has proven to be very successful with Radio One and other similar broadcasting stations.
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12. However before we even began to record or produce our bulletin we unintentionally stereotyped our own audience in terms of what they want to hear, for example information about the Haiti earthquake, are teenagers and young adults really interested in world affairs and disasters? Or are they more interested in what affects them and their lives directly?How does your Media product represent particular social groups? Stereotypes!
13. What kind of Media institution might distribute your media product? When I first considered this question I was torn between Bauer Media and the BBC, as both institutions are very popular. Bauer because it is the second largest magazine company in the world and therefore the radio station will get much attention nationally! But on the other hand the BBC are very popular and have much power at their disposal. But I decided to chose Bauer Media as the institution that would distribute my media product. OR After much consideration I chose Bauer for many reasons. Firstly Bauer attracts a vast audience especially younger people which is who my bulletin is aimed at! As well as this Bauer would use synergy to advertise my product in other formats, like Magazines, TV channels and other radio stations, for example my news bulletin could be aired on Magic 105.4 or the brand new Q Radio which are both owned by Bauer!!!
14. Bauer Media! Synergy: Bauer could advertise my media production in any of the following Magazines and Radio stations. The also have TV channels, such as Kerrang, that could also be used to promote this new radio station!
15. From the very beginning we have kept a younger audience in mind. We decided to aim the bulletin at young adults between the ages of 16 – 25. We decided to choose this group of people to target as we are all of a similar age and will therefore find it easier to target people who are interested in similar things to us. We also have a vast sample of people, who attend our college, between this age range who could support us during the creation of the bulletin. Who would be the audience for your Media Product?
16. How did you address/ attract your audience? CONTENT STRUCTURE MUSIC This collage was a mind map for us to develop our ideas on how to attract our audience. We looked at what interests are audience and what they would like to listen to on the radio. This answered the problem of content. JINGLES SFX In our questionnaires we also found out that our audience like enthusiastic jingles and presenters. Language They also like interesting SFX and would prefer to listen to an informal languagethan standard English.
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18. To answer these questions we completed some questionnaires and came to the conclusion that:
19. The language had to be less formal, more natural and include slang and colloquialisms.
20. The jingles and beds had to be upbeat and create an almost, “jazzy” effect!
21. The structure was going to be like the one on radio one which is very popular amongst all radio stations.
22. We also chose to include stories that we felt would attract our audience. For example “Mylene's loosing her class” and football stories such as, “Pompey’s debt” and “Leeds united beating Manchester United” How did you address/ attract your audience continued...
23. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product? At the beginning of the course I had never used a piece of radio production technology before, I had never recorded my own voice or the voice of others, I had never used a mini disc and imported the recordings onto a computer. And finally I had never edited a piece of work on Adobe Audition. But now I can use with great confidence all of the above, and for me that is a great achievement. Throughout this challenge I have learnt a lot about technologies used in radio production. I have learnt:
24. How to record Vox pops using a portable mini disc player! Being able to use this piece of equipment was very useful for me as I had to record the interview with “Peter Storrie” for the sports section of the news!
25. Set levels and use the studio board in the media studio!
29. What do you think you have learnt in progression from your preliminary task to the full product! My preliminary task taught me a lot and I felt that it was very successful! I learnt a lot about recording and working in pairs. I also developed some skills that helped me to write a successful script. The task also appealed to my creative side as I needed to make my own structure. The recording was very clear and my nerves didn't show during my piece.
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31. I now know how to use many pieces of equipment confidently such as a mini disc player and adobe audition to edit on.
32. In terms of script writing, I have learnt how to construct a thriving and enjoyable script. I have learnt that the script has to paint a picture for the audience as they can’t actually see what is being discussed like on TV. This means radio presenters have to be very creative. You also have to speak directly to the audience and make it personal.
33. I have also learnt that clichés, and hyperboles should be left out of scripts as they are not needed in radio production!
34. Also fillers such as, “like” and “know what I mean” should be omitted also!
35. Finally I have learnt that the more natural your speech sounds the better it is, so the use of elision, “wanna” and occasional ellipsis is good during a radio broadcast.
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37. We took into account what our research showed us.
38. We recorded with very clear voices and gave stories weight appropriately.
39. The audience was targeted and included in the making of the bulletin.What do you think of the final product?
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41. 2.I would have more production meeting with my group so we know exactly what we are doing and how much we have progressed.
42. 3.I would do more textual analysis so that I could find and use more traditional radio conventions.
43. 4. Finally I would create a script where the Anchor speak less, which will give us more time to include more stories and give weight to more stories, like soundbites, interviews and Vox pops.Next time...?
