2. Radio Conventions The following is a list of conventions present in radio broadcasts: A Jingle at the beginning to either signify the start of the broadcast or to re-enforce the name of station in the memories of the audience. One or two broadcasters reporting the top stories and are involved in most of the reports either through interviews or by introducing the outside broadcasts and vox pops. Most broadcast begin with a list of headlines that will be reported on during the broadcast. At least one outside broadcast, where a reporter is on location, usually significant to the story he/she is reporting on. Vox pops from the public giving their opinion on the current story being reported. Most broadcast consist of at least 3-5 stories. Usually one story will be light hearted, reported on for entertainment and comedic value.
5. I believe the reason that Choice Fm’s news broadcast was missing a number of conventions that are present in other station broadcast is because the station has a younger target audience then many other mainstream stations. Choice Fm’s target audience aged from 15- 40, the majority being the lower portion of the age range. Usually 15-25 are less interested in news and mainly listen to the station for its music. This means that Choice Fm shortens its news broadcasts so that it appeals to its younger audience. Heart has an older audience, many of which have children or need to travel to work. Heart reports traffic updates which will appeal to their audience and gives a more detailed news report which will again appeal to the older audience. My media product conforms to many of the conventions present in real radio broadcasts. It has music played at the beginning and end of the broadcast. It has a presenter who list the headlines that are covered in the broadcast as well as interviews the studio guests. It has 3 stories and contains an outside broadcast reporting on a story, as well as vox pops from the public on that story. It also has a light hearted story at the end of the broadcast.
6. Audience Representation Before I began constructing my radio broadcast I created a questionnaire to find my target audience and the conventions that would be heard in a broadcast design for that audience. Below is a link to my questionnaire and the results can be found on an earlier post. http://FreeOnlineSurveys.com/rendersurvey.asp?sid=7k3r56b44bz4fxs689987 My product represents the teenage generation. As all the members of my group including me are teenagers and live in the area of London, we all speak in some form of slang on a regular basis and also speak informally to each other. The presenter for my broadcast speaks informally to the audience and guests as well which helps the young audience relate to the broadcast. The music from the beginning and end of my broadcast is similar to a news reports theme tune but with a more up beat and youthful tempo. The stories reported on are mainly things that will interest youths such as test results for students and a youth being stabbed in the area.
9. Usually students with mixed ethnicities My questionnaire shows that the most popular music genres were FunkyHouse, Grime and Hip Hop which are commonly listened to by my target audience. I couldn’t find any music of that genre that copyright free so used the sites I found my other sounds and used music that I thought matched my audience. I also didn’t include a traffic report in my broadcast as many of my audience would either be too young to drive or wouldn’t care too much about traffic. As mentioned earlier, the other people in my group are all the same age as my target audience and so they talk informally, as this is the way we would prefer to be talked to if our roles we reversed.
10. What I learnt Through the process of creating my broadcast I gained extensive knowledge of how to use the programme Adobe Audition. To get the broadcast how I wanted it I had to use the audition continuously to adjust it. Adobe Audition allowed me to cut pieces of sound so that they can be shortened fit into my broadcast. The sounds can be pasted into different areas and arranged to my liking and volume can be adjust to suit my liking. The preliminary task helped me adjust to the programme before beginning my main task and whilst making my main task I was able to perfect my knowledge of it so that the cutting, pasting and general editing I used throughout. My preliminary task was shorter than my main so I didn't need to use as many different techniques as I used in my main however I learnt a lot from it. An example is how close to the microphone you need to be when speaking to get the perfect level of pitch and the least amount of distortion. I also learnt to keep my the sounds in the background low enough that words can be heard over them instead of increasing the voiceover’s volume instead. I made this mistake with my preliminary by increasing the voiceover’s volume so that it can be heard over the sound effect of sirens, this made the voiceover lose quality and so it was still hard to hear.
