Kim Richards

the media product I produced was a radio news piece, it involved a large amount of group work and team co-operation. The style of radio news piece my team and I decide to create was formal, and aimed at students between We decided to include news items that we felt were aimed towards a ‘young professional’ type of audience, with serious news pieces providing information that we felt our target audience would appreciate, while still managing to keep the programme interesting and relatively youthful.

My chosen media product, a radio news broadcast used typical conventions of a ‘real’ radio broadcast in the ways as follows:  The layout of the bulletin- the broadcast followed the typical structure of a bulletin, with main stories being read first and ending with weather and traffic. My group also decided to include a human interest story to end the news section, as to end the bulletin on a light hearted note. We then developed our broadcast from the basic structure, and added personal touches, such as:  The use of music beds throughout the bulletin, creating a younger feel to the programme-we also expanded on the use of music beds by adding stings and sound bites to maintain the audiences interest.  Vox pops and short interviews featured throughout the broadcast, continuing the personalisation, we also introduced conversation topics throughout, such as the audiences texting in their opinions, we felt that this kept listeners involved in the broadcast, and made them feel more inclined to tune in.  We chose to use different presenters for each significant point in the show, we did this to not only involve all members of our team, but to differentiate between each story, we felt that this made the broadcast more interesting.

My group felt that the broadcast we produced challenged a typical radio news show in ways such as:  A female presenting the sports news bulletin-we felt that by breaking this long, out dated stereotype we could appeal to a wider range of audiences. We found that in our textual analysis the use of a female to present sports is still rare, and we felt that by breaking this stereotype, our broadcast would seem unique, and engage other listeners, that may typically tune out when sports news comes on, to remain interested and continue listening. We felt that by using such a convention, the feature of a female could distinguish us from other stations and attract a broader audience.  Our use of the ‘technological element’ by introducing a text line, and also a phone in, we ensured listeners felt on a personal level with the presenters, and that they could get involved with the topics discussed, we felt that this also added to the social element of radio, if the listeners felt involved, they would get involved. Further research into our textual analysis found that the most popular stations had introduced this ‘personal’ format, and so we adopted this element into our own bulletin.

When we began constructing our bulletin, the group decided to address ‘young professionals’ an group of people, currently studying at university, or working towards careers. We chose this type of people, as our group felt that we could best engage with this social group. To some extent we stereotyped this social group as people who ‘work hard to play hard’ intellectual people who work hard then enjoy the benefits of such professions. Initially we chose this social group as we could then make our broadcast formal, with serious issues that such groups are interested in. A good example of this type of story is our coverage of the developments in Libya. Although our broadcast is in a formal style, we felt that this type of group would appreciate human interest stories, and the light hearted side of news reports. We included a human interest story about a local man and his chip shop to satisfy this section. As our radio show is aimed at young professionals, we have introduced a bias towards such people, this may have reduced our audience slightly as we have, unintentionally, excluded unemployed people, and those who are uninterested in in-depth news.

As I have touched on in a previous slide, our audience is ‘young professionals’ as our radio production is designed in a formal style, with a light hearted edge. The type of broadcast created with this audience in mind involves in depth coverage of stories, both globally and on our doorstep. The group chose this social group as our target audience, as it was a type of people that the group felt they could mostly relate to, we felt that this personal knowledge and opinion could help us to create a broadcast perfect for such an audience.

We addressed our audience in a formal manner, as to engage with their intellectual side, and our use of in depth stories were created to make our audience think about what we were saying and engage with the presenters. Originally, it was a group decision to exclude music beds, stings, and jingles from our broadcast, to make the piece seem extremely formal and professional. This decision was stuck with until we listened to a recording, and each member found the recording rather boring, and a bit too formal for the audience we were trying to attract. We then decided to introduce music beds into our piece, and later the addition of jingles and stings. The introduction of these items made the broadcast much more interesting an engaging, and we thought it would better appeal to our audience. The structure of the broadcast is at first seen as typical of a real radio broadcast, and the language used is standard English. It was a group decision to use formal register and tone, as to keep the professional edge we desired. However, some sections of our bulletin were less formal, as to reflect the formality of the story. Our weather broadcast was more light hearted, with the introduction of some colloquial language, such as ‘folks’ compared to our coverage of Libya and the local story featured in the main news. The news stories featured were a mixture of formal international and national stories,, local coverage, human interest, sports news and weather and traffic news. The divergence of such stories appealed to every aspect of our target audiences life, with professional and social elements being covered.

I feel as though I have learned a lot about the technology involved in radio production since I have started creating this product. Before I began to produce the broadcast I knew very little about the work that goes into the creation of a piece such as this, and have taken many new learning experiences from this task. Throughout this task I have learned how to edit a radio produced piece, and taking the time to make sure my production flowed correctly and was pleasing to listen back to. I have also learned how to store recordings completed by other group members, and use equipment to change sound levels and create effects. I have found the experience of radio production thoroughly enjoyable, and hope to continue expanding my knowledge of radio production throughout the remainder of the year.

“I really enjoyed listening to encore productions broadcast and would definitely listen to it if it was on a real station” “The production was professionally created and obviously a lot of work had gone into making it” “ The broadcast had a really appealing sound, and I thoroughly enjoyed listening to it” “The broadcast was informative And formal, but the listener remained interested throughout”

I found the script writing throughout the preliminary task relatively easy, as being the continuity announcer meant that I didn’t have much of a hand in the writing, whereas in the radio news bulletin I have enjoyed creating and developing my own script and being able to record my own words. I have also learned more about the amount of time it takes to produce such a show, and how much time and effort goes into creating such a short piece of radio. It has made me appreciate the effort it takes to produce a real radio show, and pay a little more attention when I’m listening! I have also learned more about working in a team environment, and taking into account other peoples views and opinions. I feel it has increased my tolerance and time keeping skills, and I feel I am better at working under pressure now.

I feel that my production skills have developed throughout this process as I can now independently record and store work that my group has produced, and am also a competent editor of the radio piece. I also feel I have more ability to make sure a piece of work flows and sounds consistantly good. Before the task I had never been into a recording studio, but was eager to learn, and although it took me a while to become consistantly good inside the studio, I feel confident that I could now produce and store a piece of work, and i feel I can also competently check for correct sound levels, and edit pieces individually to an acceptable level.

Personally, I am pleased with the final product, as it manages to maintain a consistant format throughout, while showing off each members personality. I felt that as a class we had a very short amount of time in which to complete this product, and so a lot of our groups time was spent working on the product in outside lesson time, I felt that most group members were committed to making our production the best it could be, and I think we achieved that. I think that the effort the group put into the production is shown through the final product, and as a group member i am proud of what has been achieved. Although, I feel that if we would have had more time the final product could have been even better but in all, I am positive about the outcome of our piece. The broadcast reflects what we set out to do, appeal to a young audience, that are interested in current affairs, with a formal yet youthful edge to the show. The piece keeps the listener engaged throughout, and provokes thought and conversational topics. We managed to involve a wide variety of stories, and topics, expanding our target audience.