The document analyzes the forms and conventions used in a real radio advertisement and compares them to the student's own radio advertisement for a documentary. It finds that the student's advertisement follows conventions in its use of a consistent background music track and sound levels, length of 60 seconds, inclusion of snippets from interviews, and clear presentation. However, it challenges conventions by using two presenters instead of one, to avoid listener boredom. Overall, the student determined they mostly followed industry conventions to make their advertisement appear professional.

1. In what ways does my media
product use, develop or challenge
forms and conventions of real
Media products?

2. Introduction
 I am going to assess the codes and conventions from an existing radio advert. I am then
going to compare these with the radio advert I've created as part of my advanced portfolio.
I am going to do this as I want to see how we have either used, developed or challenged
these forms and conventions that are shown in the existing product.
 The real product I have chosen to compare forms and conventions against is a Radio 5Live
advert where they are providing the viewer with a weekend schedule.
 I will compare my radio advert which advertised our documentary that was created for BBC
Radio 1 with the real product in order to find out what forms and conventions I have
followed, challenged and developed.

3. Music Track and Sound Levels
One convention the 5Live radio advert followed was the consistent background music track that
was heard throughout; this creates an upbeat tone for the listener and keeps their focus and
attention on what they are hearing. The sound levels are also consistent in this particular advert
which is conventional to hear. The presenter, the background track and any snippets from the
shows being advertised are consistent in their sound levels therefore, this creates a professional
and conventional radio advert.
We have followed conventions in terms of music track and sound levels. We have followed the
form of keeping a consistent background track throughout our 60-second advert. We also used
the same background track for our background music on our documentary; this created a clear
synergy between both products. We have also followed conventions in terms of sound levels
with them being consistent from the presenters, to the snippets and the background track; this
again creates a professional and conventional radio advert.

4. Length
The conventional timing for a radio advert is 30 or 60 seconds with the 5Live advert
being 30 seconds long. If it exceeded the length of 60 seconds, you would create the
potential of losing the interest of the viewer which is something I certainly didn’t want
considering I was trying to persuade the listener to watch our documentary.
Therefore, we have followed the convention of length however ours was 60-seconds
long which still fits the conventions of what a radio advert should consist of. We
decided to make ours 60-seconds long in order to fit in more snippets and
information than what the real product did.

5. Snippets
Another convention used by this radio advert was the short snippets used in their
weekend schedule. During these snippets, you hear small clips from the shows they are
advertising in order to give the listener a brief message of what they would witness, if
they were to tune into these particular shows.
We have followed the conventions of snippets in our radio advert as we take small clips
from the vox pops and experts interviews from our documentary and have placed them
into the radio advert. This gives the listener a brief idea what to expect in our
documentary based on what they hear in these snippets.

6. Presenters
In the real product, there is one main presenter who is the only voice heard other
than the voices heard in the snippets. This man is clear and slow in his tone in order
for his audience to gather the information he is providing on the upcoming weekend
schedule.
We have both followed and challenged conventions of a presenter when comparing
ours with this real product. We have challenged conventions in that our radio advert
has 2 main presenters with one being heard before the snippets are introduced and 1
being heard afterwards; we did this in order for the listener to hear 2 separate voices
therefore they don’t get bored of hearing the same voice throughout.
We followed the convention of having the presenters relatively slow and clear tone of
voice; this is conventional because the listener wouldn’t be interested in attempting
to listen if they cannot understand what the presenters are saying.

7. Conclusion
 Overall, in terms of our radio advert, I would say we have mostly followed
forms and conventions in terms of our radio advert. We have followed
conventions in the music tracks, sound levels, length, snippets and the use
of presenters. We followed conventions as we wanted our radio advert to
appear as professional as we could possibly make it and following
conventions was our way of attempting to make this happen.