The document analyzes radio trailers and identifies typical codes and conventions. It discusses three student documentaries that were listened to, noting that effective trailers use intriguing quotes about the topic at the beginning without revealing it. Sound effects are also used that relate to the topic. Most trailers include background music, titles, air dates and channels to promote the full documentary. Trailers also use clips like interviews and opinions to represent different viewpoints.

1. Baldeep Gahir
Analysis of radio trailers:
I have listened to many radio trailers, in particular past student examples such as the ones
shown below so that I am able to identify the typical codes and conventions of one and so
that me and my group can reduplicate these rules and apply them to our own product.
Main documentaries I listened to:
- Education vs appearance
- Debate on homework
- 12 going on to 20
Listening to all three of the trailers, some of them seem to include some quotes at the
beginning on the topic that are interesting and engage the audience without giving away
the topic. For example, in 12 going on to 20, they use quotes such as “young girls look older
than they are”, and “how much can really be wrong with your skin at ten.” This is the same
for Education vs appearance, for example “Gucci, Prada, Boss, Armani…” This leaves the
audience intrigued and is likely to get them to carry on listening to find out what the
narrator is speaking about.
Another point that is interesting to note is the sound effects that are present in each
documentary that link to the topic, for example “debate on homework” is about whether
students are getting too much homework. At the beginning, we can hear a loud school bell
and this links back to the idea of a school and education and this has an impact on the
audience as they are able to familiarise with that sound and it makes a more effective trailer
radio trailer. This is also the case with another student documentary called “too much
horror” where the famous instrumental music for the film “Jaws” is used and this is once
again associated with the theme of horror and once again links to the topic of the
documentary.

2. Baldeep Gahir
The majority of the documentaries use background music which is used at a low volume to
make sure it doesn’t overpower the narrators, and still keep the radio trailer lively and
exciting.
All of the radio trailers, included the title of the documentary, the date and time of when it
would be aired and the channel (for example, bbc3, channel 4 etc.) This is so that the radio
trailer and the documentary are linked together and it sounds more professional and
realistic.
The radio trailers all used snippets of the documentary, for example some of the vox-pop
and the expert interviews were used to present feelings and opinions from a variety of
people, and could even be included to signify a contrast. For example, in the radio trailer
“Menenism”, some of the quotes included more light-hearted /jovial comments in the vox
pops such as “It was a joke on twitter”, to more serious views expressed in the expert
interviews such as “I didn’t chose to be born this way.”
A summary of the codes and conventions present
In a radio trailer:
- title of documentary
- date and time of being aired
- TV channel
- Background music
- Sound effects
- Clips taken from the documentary