Evaluation Questions

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

Listening back on the radio production we have composed as a group, it appears likely that a local media institution such as Heart FM Oxford and BBC Oxford would hopefully distribute our product. I say this because obviously the news being broadcasted is local so therefore would not be as much of an interest to stations such as Five Live, which is broadcasted all over the UK.

Heart Fm Oxford have a jingle of 'Heart Breakfast, with Matt and Gisele' or the most common 'This is Heart, This is Heart!'. The SJDJ radio station also has a jingle which is adjacent to our news piece, 'This is the SJDJ show with Sam, Jack, David and Jenni'. Also, Heart talk about international news to begin with and then move on to local news as well as weather and travel, all in a small amount of time. The SJDJ show has used the ideas from Heart to construct our own finished media product.

Who would be the audience for your media product? And how does it represent particular social groups?

Overall the mass media, demographic audience suitable for our production ranges from around 16+. 16 is probably the most common age for people to start taking a better interest in the news and all the things that are happening around them. Also for those who are travelling to work in their cars and other vehicles with radios during drive time. This is because we have a traffic and weather update which is a big interest to those travelling back and forth from work and for those who are generally commuting.

How did you attract/address your audience?

As our piece of news is likely to be broadcasted at a prime time, we have included different forms of news such as local, national and also weather and traffic. By listening to a different range of local radio stations we noticed that the main thing they have in common is the variety of news. This helps attract different and bigger types of audience. Celebrity news may be more of an interest to the younger generation whereas traffic may attract the older, working type. Informative news such as the Haiti news is aimed to engross everybody. By having different types of news is a big advantage to attracting a large audience.

Something that other local news stations also have in common is the use of a jingle. Jingles are actually a very good way to attract an audience. Even though to an audience a jingle is just a short piece of music played now and again throughout the day on the radio show, it is actually a very clever idea. Having the same short jingle played at specific times, the audience begin to recognise that when they hear it either a news piece is coming up or a song. It is also to inform the audience that they are listening to that specific radio station. Jingles are used in radio and also on TV. For example Eastenders' themetune and the famous 'Dum Dum!' informs the audience that Eastenders is playing and to come and watch! Our jingle is short and catchy which is important in attracting the audience.

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

In order to successfully construct our piece of local news we first of all needed a programme that we could record onto and then use to edit. The programme we used is called Audacity and is a free programme that can be downloaded from the Internet. It allows you to record your voice and edit it to make (in our circumstances) a good quality news piece. Over the course of around 5 months i have learnt how to master Audacity, how to record myself and how to dub in voiceovers on other speech pieces. I have learnt how to use a microphone properly without creating a 'breezy' effect by standing too close to it! I have been taught briefly how to use a large piece of equipment that allows me to speak live and have the whole of my school listen to me (our very own live radio station at school!)

I have learnt how to use a handheld voice recorder which was used to create the outside broadcast and also how to add sound effects into our piece of news. For example we found a short clip of a helicopter which we then added into our traffic news.

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Our preliminary was just a play around and helped us to start grasping how we were going to make a really interesting piece of local news that would attract our target audience. Looking back, i have learnt a lot more on how to edit voices and how to copy them into Audacity. In the preliminary we did not have an outside broadcast nor a voxpop. I have learnt what a voxpop actually is as i didn't really understand it at first! I have learnt how to record my voice outside of the media room using the hand-held voice recorder and then how to upload it onto the computer to then copy it into Audacity. I have learnt how to merge voice clips into our local news station when we felt we needed to add more so it made more sense.

The best thing i have learnt is how to work with other people and making sure everyone has a say in order to have a really enjoyable time whilst making this piece of work. I have found this task really entertaining and realise that working together as a team is indeed the way forward!

Example of a Local Radio Clip

Theories That This Clip Fits Into:

Galtung and Ruge (1965) described the practices of journalists and editors as the use of 'news values'. These are some of the news values described:

• Continuity

The first piece of news given is about the soldiers fighting for our country and how the amount of compensation given is said to increase. This is continuous news in a sense that the local radio are always informing its audience on the soliders fighting in Afganistan.

• Simplicity

The whole of the local community will understand this story. The stories will always be written with a positive slant on our soldiers.

• Human Interest

Such as boy being found badly injured at his home and his Mother being arrested since he was found. These types of stories are the main highlight of local news as the target audience can relate to them and are found more interesting. Also the story of obesity and how it is on the rise is also of human interest as obesity is becoming a bigger interest to the public but of the significant increase at the moment.

Finished Piece

This is our final, completed piece of coursework.

Finished Preliminary Task

The preliminary radio task is finally up!

Conventions of Local Radio News

Pauses/slang/catch phrase
Usually on less recognised radio stations slang is used. For example, “lil” and “ennit”. Also words like “ent” and “mate” are used. One of the main catch phrases 1Xtra uses (a London based radio station) is “get funky”. Pauses do occur sometimes. However on local stations such as Heart FM, slang is less common and DJs and presenters usually speak in good quality, standard English.

Dj talks about him/herself
The radio presenters talk about themselves at times but they mainly discuss other peoples affairs. The chat is mainly about the listeners and music. On most radio shows the Djs do not talk about themselves as people, just what they will be playing next. Radio 1 and Heart FM presenters sometimes talk about themselves, this is usually on a Monday morning however when they discuss their weekend and what they did. Their own personal weekend usually relates to something in the radio show that is already being spoke about e.g. gigs, concerts, festivals etc.

DJ talks about the record
On most local radio stations they explain what record is on, who sings it, if it is good and whether it is new. There is sometimes a bit of general chit chat on the artist and their albums (if they have one out). Also if the artist is in the studio which is not unual, then the DJ will discuss the record with them.

DJ talks about or to the listener
In near enough every local radio station, listeners get the chance to either text, phone or email into the show. If they are lucky then the presenters will read out or talk to the listener. They will usually spend a couple of minutes on the phone and the listener will usually request a song to be played. Also, on radio stations such as Radio 1, listeners will take part in fun games on the telephone.

DJ digresses to another subject
DJs like to change the subject constantly! This is to keep their listeners interested and entertained. Radio presenters will talk about music then change the subject onto something else completley (when Janet Jackson’s nipple came out at a music award show!) Topics and subjects are changing all the time on local radio stations.

DJ says what’s coming up
Presenters will talk about what music is coming up next as well as any guests who will be appearing on the show.

DJ promotes another show
Listening to a fair few radio stations, no, they do not really promote other shows, but they do however promote other DJs who will be appearing on that specific radio station later that day. e.g Chris Moyles from Radio 1 may promote Reggie Yates who presents the Sunday top 40 chart show.

Jingles
Near enough every local radio station will have a 'jingle' which usually includes a short catchy catchphrase such as 'This is Heart!' used for Heart FM. A catchy backing track is usually played and overall lasts around 5 seconds, if that! Jingles are meant to be short, snappy and quick so it is easy to remember and is a reminder for the audience that a specific radio show is playing.

Vox-Pop
This is where the radio station gets a person's point of view. this could be done by going out into the local community and asking the general public for their views. This is mainly used on local news stories but also international stories. Radio stations like Radio 1 like to go out and get opinions from the public whereas Heart FM usually has the public call in for their views.

Outside Broadcast
This is where presenters will interview or present their news stories outside of the studio. When presenters read the weather it can sometimes be recorded outside as well as interviews with people who perhaps cannot make it to the studio.

How I Contributed To The Task

When we first started to plan at the beginning of the year i helped organise how we would lay out our radio show with help from all of the other members of my group.

When we started recording our preliminary task, i helped with the editing and getting everything sounding good. I spent about 10-11 hours of my own private study time out of Media lessons to piece together our preliminary task.

I researched into local weather and traffic ready to present my findings on the preliminary radio task and also looked into local and national news for all of our group so we all had a story we could discuss. I also found music from my own computer at home and put it onto my memory stick so we could transfer it onto the schools website, ready to play on our radio show.

I have researched and looked into a variety of local radio stations, varying from Heart FM in Oxford, to Red Dragon in Wales! I have looked into the typical conventions of all of these radio stations and how they vary and differ.

Timeline of My Radio News

Jingle (Introduce Hosts) 0.30

David with Headlines: 0.10

Haiti 1.00

National Television Awards 1.00

Jen with local news 0.10

Local Headlines 1.00

Outside Broadcast/Voxpop 0.30

Sam with sport 0.15

Football 0.15

Rugby 0.15

Olympics 0.15

Jack and Jen with weather and traffic 0.30

Ending credits and jingles 0.10

Total: 6.00