P. Joel Durkin S8260
Evaluation- AS Media Studies Group 3
For my media project, I worked on a 5 minute radio broadcast called Live FM with Michael Middlehurst, Rachael Dennis and Jade Gibson. We aimed to give the broadcast the style and feel of local radio, by making it informal and chatty, and by dealing mainly with local issues.
I believe the radio broadcast mainly kept to the conventions of real media products. It had pre-recorded interviews, outside broadcasts etc. as do real radio broadcasts, we also had a jingle as real radio stations do. However, our radio broadcasts has some features such as sound effects which challenged the conventions of a morning radio news broadcast. The sound effects we used added humour and an informal style to the news bulletin, but challenged the conventions which would place it mostly in a radio chat show. We also had humorous comments in the broadcast, for example Rachael stated about the sport section of the broadcast it was “the favourite part of the news, for the men anyway.”
Our media project represents several social groups. We represented teen mothers with the interview about sex education for children. I believe we represented them as responsible and sensible. We also represented working class people and the general community with our VoxPop from the streets of Wigan. I believe we represented these people as sensible and moral as well, as we didn’t feature any inappropriate comment or offensive comments and all answers were serious and meaningful. In contrast, we featured a nurse in the pre-recorded interview. In contrast to this, we also represented the people of Wigan, and played on the stereotype of them as “Pie eaters” by including the outside broadcast of the pie eating contest.
I think our radio broadcast would be very suitable for as a local radio station, similar to the likes of Wish FM. This is because it deals with many local issues. It has local news, and features a VoxPop and outside broadcast from Wigan. And deals with issues affecting people of the area, for example sex education for young children. However the radio broadcast also deals with global issues such as the election of US President Barack Obama. The broadcast is also quite informal, more suited to a local radio station. Also, the sport section of the broadcast, the football scores featured only games that involve Local teams, such as Wigan, Manchester United, and Everton, this is because the broadcast needed to be quite short and we felt the local teams were of greater importance to listeners.
The target audience for our radio broadcast would obviously be mainly local people. In addition we would expect to attract listeners commuting to work for example, as this radio broadcast would be a morning broadcast. We would hope the product attract listeners of all ages, but possibly more younger people would be interested in listening as all the presenters are young. The sport section of the broadcast is also quite detailed, so sports fans may well be interested in the broadcast. The broadcast also deals with issues like the sec education for young people, and therefore parents may be attracted to listening to the broadcast.
The audience were addressed in quite in informal and chatty style. We aimed to make our broadcast quick and punchy but retain an informal style so that it is easy to listen to. This is reflected in some of the comments made by Rachael and Jade during the news bulletin, such as “we all remember those cringe worthy talks about the birds and the bees.” This is also direct address to the audience and is to add a touch of humour to the broadcast, and allows the listeners to relate to the presenters, and issues being dealt with. Another example of humour is when Mike states in his outside broadcast, “I’m going to eat myself stupid now.” implying he is a typical Wiganer.
I have learnt quite a lot about the different technologies involved in radio production. I learnt about the recording, and the recording studio, and that it is important to record several takes so you can choose the best one. I also learnt about the importance of editing and how to use programs such as Premiere Pro and Audacity, I used these programs to add a clip of the F1 Grand Prix to illustrate the news being given in the sport section. I learnt how to avoid have crackling sounds on the broadcast and how to eradicate variations in the volume of the broadcast. This is done my finding a volume level which is a good balance on the volume, and also by talking into the Pop Shield of the recording microphones. I also learnt to use these programs to cut out as much unnecessary sound as possible, so that the broadcast is of the very best possible quality.
I learnt a lot from the preliminary task. I believe the preliminary was quite poor quality in contrast to the final product, and I gained a lot from my mistakes and from what I heard when I listened back. I learnt about how important it is to cut out in unimportant information, and make the broadcast punchy, to fit in everything that is required, as the preliminary was quite loose, with unnecessary gaps between sections of speech. I learnt also that I needed to add variation to my voice to make the broadcast more entertaining, as my voice is the preliminary was quite monotonal. In addition, I learnt that the transition between different parts of the broadcast needs to be swift, to avoid awkward moments of silence. The final thing I learnt was that it is important to have background music in certain sections of the broadcast. The preliminary sounded quite rawe and empty with no background music, and so we made sure to add background music to sections in the news in the final broadcast, in particular the sport.
We got feedback on our radio broadcast from several people in the media department. On the whole the feedback was quite positive and people were impressed with the professionalism. In particular James Stott said,
“I like it, its quite fast paced.” Which referred to the news headlines and the sport section.
Also, Chris Jones said,
“It’s good, the stories are good,” which is referring to the actual material we covered. However Chris also said, “I’m not to keen on the pie eating contest though.” This is a fair point, as it was refreshing to receive some constructive criticism, as I believe the quality of the background noise could have been improved on that particular section.
I was very pleased with the feedback we received, and I believe myself the broadcast was of a good quality, and was successful.