Evaluation by Fiona McKeith 1.2.3 WERE ON AIR

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions? Green: Following traditional conventions Orange: Going against traditional conventions Station and time of TX Smooth Radio, UK 4:00pm Number of items 7 News items/order structure Weather  Foreign Office - no confirm nation of death of Nato strike kills Saif al-Arab Gadafi.                                                Britain expels Libyan Ambassador (interview)                          Head teacher strike (interview)                                                 Pope John Paull II beatification                                                 Coalition AV                                                 Bolton lost to Blackburn, 1-0.                                                  West Ham and City to play. Duration 2 minutes Voices & Mode of Expression Clear and slow Sounds & Music No sound bed, jingle at the beginning and the end Target Audience Adults considering stories. Our new stories are fairly similar. We both include hard news and sports yet therefore we are following traditional conventions. However differentiate as we have also included entertainment news. Unlike smooth radio we decided to do the top headlines at the beginning and then continue to the full stories of the headlines and other news stories. Smooth just go straight into the news story. Our radio product duration is longer as were given a specific guidelines too follow. We have included a sound bed unlike Smooth Radio. Although compared to smooth radio we are going against traditional conventions, most radio shows do included a soundbed. Both target audience and our news stories are similar to smooth radio uk, showing similarities between our radio productions. This is also reflected through the voices and mode of expression, with there’s being clear and slow, and ours being clear and formal.

How does your media product represent different social groups? Parents Local people We aim to broadcast our show at 9:00 am as we felt that time represents parents going to work or taking their child to school and would listen to the radio. All our news stories were local as our target audience we local people. We also vox pops and interviews with local people which voices their opinions and gives a sense of involvement with show, perhaps helping listeners to relate to the news. People interested in celebrity news and gossip Social Groups We included a story on Harry Styles a local star who found fame on television show Xfactor. We have subverted stereotypes with this story as Xfactor is a stereotypically a young persons talent show containing mainstream music. Although it may appeal to the 20 – 25 demographic within our target audience, it is unlikely it will to the remain 25 – 40. However, by including the news bulletin is an attempt to subvert this stereotype and potentially generate interest in the subject. Sports for men and women Sports include two news stories on football. This may be seen and stereotypical towards males. As football is often categorised as a ‘male’ sport. However, we have also included an athletic story which is a sport appeals to both genders, this is supported by two interviews with a both sexes. Therefore we have subverted the stereotype for males. Middle aged The hard news stories and stories on new buildings will concern those of the mid age generation. This is also achieved by our tone of voice and formality when reading the stories and also perhaps the simplicity of our show. Such as it is introduced, then straight into the news.

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why? The company most likely to broadcast our news broadcast would be UTV Radio. UTV Radio is a growing branch of UTV Media, Audience of 20 – 50 are likely to listen and as our target audience for our radio piece is 20 – 40, it is therefore suitable. UTV owns other local radio stations including Signal One which is why we thought it would be suitable for our own news bulletin. As our radio production is for the local area as the news is based solemnly on recent local news it is catering for the target audience. Also signal one broadcast in the morning, like our radio production would.

Who would be the audience for your media product? Our target audience is age 20 – 40 and both male and female. Our news consists of hard news, sports, and entertainment. The hard news story is aimed towards more the 30-40 end of the spectrum whereas entertainment news is aimed at to the age of 20 – 30. Within the entertainment news is also a story about local star Harry Styles who took part in the popular talent show X factor. As a story with this context is normally aimed at more teenage audiences, we were worried during producing our radio that the sector won’t appeal to target audience. However, we decided to keep the news bulletin in our show as we felt it added to the ‘localness’ aspect of the show, as he is a local star. Also our radio production may appeal to parents watch X factor show and therefore are familiar with the star. Our football stories in our sport sections will appeal to males within in our target audience. However our section appealed to females by including an athletic story with interviews withy both a male and a female. Our radio shows is aimed to all local people and therefore we chose to do local radio stories. We conducted research about radio when deciding what kind of radio product to create. Results showed that young people enjoyed music radio shows, with chatty presenters and informal tone. Therefore we decided to contrast with that and aim ours at middle aged people, use a formal tone and focus on news.

How did you attract/address your audience? Structure After introducing our news show with the presenter, to the a selection of headlines and then straight to the hard news story. We decided to begin with it as the story is of a fairly serious matter and will catch peoples attention. We then follow with the sports stories and finish with the entertainment news. We placed the entertainment news at the end as it is more positive, and therefore the piece ends up on a positive note. Language and register/script We made sure we used simple, mature and proper English so that it appeals to our target audience (being adults) and to ensure we were clear and fully understood. We were careful to avoid slang and colloquial language for the same reasons. Our register was formal as our new stories were informative and some serious and are target audience is more middle age rather than young, so formal was the better option compared to informal. Jingle/beds We chose different soundbeds for different new categories in order to create a particular atmosphere for each one. For our hard news we kept a simple and pleasant sounded compared to our sports soundbed which was slightly more upbeat due to it being more positive. The use of the stings is to link one news topic to the other, for example the sting from the headlines to the hard news. New stories We wanted to choose a different news stories so therefore to show the radio show offers variety. All our stories our local stories as we decided to create a local radio show. We chose the ‘noisy neighbour’ story due to its importance and stories regarding crime are always important in any news format whether that radio, television or newspaper. We then followed with story about the new college due to its significance to the local area and how large the new college was. We included vox pops with this story to provide peoples opinions on the new build. We then followed with a story about new housed being build, as it would appeal to the target audience of 20 – 40. We also included and interview.

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product? Preliminary Task In my preliminary task I learnt how to construct a piece of work consisting of pass on tracks which was then recorded in the radio suit. In the radio suit I learnt how to position the microphone to ensure that the recording was clear and easy to understand. Our radio production Whilst creating our own media piece I learnt how to record in the studio. I learnt how to record the others news segments and how to save to in order to access and edit it later. As I am a naturally fast speaker and during my preliminary task this was noticeable, I took care to speaks slower when reading out the news segment. The practice during the preliminary task helped improved confidence when speaking during the news bulletin.

What have you learnt about the technologies from the process of constructing the product? We learnt how to edit our radio piece of Adobe Audition. The following is what we did and learnt on the programme: How to insert sound beds so they would play underneath our news readings making it more pleasant and interesting to listen to Soundbed with recording. How to cut off any unwanted sounds e.g breathing at the beginning, within or at the end of a recorded item. How to alter the sound and voice levels so they were all more or less the same volume. How to ‘fade’ in different recorded items which enabled them to flow better. This was particularly effective with the vox pops and also with our Different sections in our script being edited and joined together. Insert the different recorded items on the different tracks so we could successfully produce our radio piece. How to use a H2 Handy recorder which enabled us to record vox pops and interviews.

What do you think of the final product What do you think of the final product? Have you achieved what you set out to do? I am pleased with the final product. With the specific target audience in mind I think we have achieved a suitable radio product that would appeal to it. I am also pleased with the production work which was put into the final product. The adobe programme can be difficult to use, and although we didn’t use all the functions, our quick learning on the parts we needed to contributed to the success of the final product. O P I N M Y I think choice of local news stories was correctly selected. With choosing a variety of stories, it helps engage listeners and the stories appeal widely to the target audience. I am particularly pleased with the our voices and our expression on the product. Although we don’t sound perfect, we took care to speak slowly and clearly so we were fully understood. I think we improved in this area from our preliminary task. A strength of our product was our vox pops and interviews. I think they were needed as they provide opinions on the subject.

What do you think of the final product What do you think of the final product? Have you achieved what you set out to do? Something else I would change if we were to do this again is choose a different jingle. For a jingle, we used the beginning of the sound bed for the hard news, and I feel we should of perhaps used a different one with our slogan ‘1.2.3… were on air!’’ One improvement with our script is that we should have introduced the interview regarding harry styles to ensure listeners understood the purpose of it. With it it would of linked better. O P I N MY We could have followed the information we found with our questionnaire, that people prefer chatty and informal radio. However, we weren’t sure whether our news would be conveyed correctly so therefore went for the more formal and serious layout.