1. Evaluation Georgia Woodward – Jugular FM

3. Q1. In what ways does the media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?  Our newscast uses a number of forms and conventions of those of real media products. News is a report of information on recent events; due to our news show being a local radio show, our news is based around South Cheshire and the surrounding area. In this case our product is a news show, an audio medium, therefore our target audience have to visualise what we talk about through sound with the use of dialogue, ambient sounds and edited sound (such as special effects). During the vox pops, where we ask students of South Cheshire College on their thoughts on the Nelson Mandela story, there is a variety of ambient sounds such as talking and chairs being moved. This creates a sense of realism and verisimilitude as well as creating an atmosphere. Our edited sounds are our jingles and news beds where electronic music can be heard making the local news programme much more interesting to listen to.  We have both challenged and developed the typical forms and conventions of a news radio show to keep it realistic and professional. For example, our jingle is beaty like a heartbeat due to the relevance to the name of our station and radio show – Jugular FM, as well as being relevant to the importance and urgency of the news we broadcast. The presenter reports stories that fit news values, our international story comes first due to it being massively important and not only being local. Our second news story is a national story, again because so many people are effected by what is going on, we believe it is important for local areas to be informed. The next two stories are local news stories and we end on a more cheery, uplifting note so that listeners aren’t put down by it. We balanced the stories in a way that would keep the audience interested and entertained. We have challenged the forms and conventions of real media products by keeping it local as well as introducing international stories and keeping it relatively formal throughout. However we have also challenged the forms and conventions as we have aimed it at a younger audience, similar to newsbeat.

5. Q2. How does your media product represent particular social groups? AND Q4. What would be the audience for your media product?  Our news show is for the local area (South Cheshire) which consists of a mixture of urban and rural located people and working class and middles class as well as both female and male, therefore a number of different social groups. We can represent our audience with the use of presenters, new stories and guests through knowing their interests, age, location, class, gender, occupation and income - demographics as well as knowing the psychographics which are their interests, lifestyles and behaviours. The presenter of our news show is young, local and friendly due to our target audience varying from a younger generation to and older generation as well as being local. Our vox pops (which are known as the voice of the people) take place in local areas, such as South Cheshire College, where we ask students on their opinions on the Nelson Mandela story. As well as this our stories range from a youth to an older target audience. We use and elaborated code however maintain a chatty mode of address, this is extremely important in representing or particular social group. Initially we believed that our target audience would only be aimed towards a younger generation, we questioned people of south Cheshire college on what they like to see in a news show and so on, because of our results consisting mainly of 16 to 19 year olds we decided that if we questioned a larger group of people of different ages then our results wold differ. In conclusion to this we summarised our results to be of an audience age ranged 16 to 45.

7. Q3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?  The target of our media product would be aimed at an age range of 16 to 45 year olds we chose this after we questioned people on what they like about radio news shows as well as or team being able to relate to them. We analysed radio shows such as BBC Radio 5 Live, The Cat, BBC Stoke as these stations have a similar target audience, however when we initially pitched our idea to Jeff (or lecturer) we took a different approach, due to Jugular being a station not just a news show. Therefore we named the station Jugular FM. We chose to be a commercial radio station meaning that we would make money from adverts broadcasted on the station, if we chose not to advertise then we would have been a PSB – Public Service Broadcaster. We would air local advertisements such as eating at local places, promotional codes, competitions, charity events and so on. Because of being a commercial station, like signal, we become more of an institution and in conclusion to this make more money from advertising because of our wide target audience however we would continue to broaden this. We are different to a station distributing someone else’s news show as they only air a short clip of the news, whereas we have a whole news section that is broadcast on our station. Opposing institutions can’t afford to take the risks therefore do not advertise.

9. Q5. How did you attract/ address the audience?  We have attracted our audience by our chosen music, such as idents, jingles and stings which are electronically synthesised sounds. The name of or station and news show, Jugular, was chosen due to the jugular vein being important and vital to your body, without this you would die, therefore the name emphasises the importance of our news. Because of this we have chosen sounds in the form of a heartbeat to complete the show. This instantly attracts the audience as it sounds professional, important and urgent! The structure also attracts the audience, with an ident followed by the formal, chatty presenter, music beds, editing in vox pops and interviews with our guests that accommodate our stories. We have this structure so that there are a number of different, exciting sounds going on constantly throughout. If there was one person talking non-stop throughout then people are more likely to tune out from boredom. The breaking up of the sounds keeps the audience entertained as they have to visualise what we are talking about through sounds and sounds only. The interviewer also plays a role in attracting and addressing our audience due to the sound of her engaging with another human, company of others. Inviting other people that link in with our storied brings in a personal opinion which is much more interesting for our audience.

11. Insert picture of me holding question –Q6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?  During the process of constructing our product I have learnt how to use a number of different technologies such as a Tascam, Adobe Audition, Weebly and the studio. In order to create a professional radio show we have benefitted from using this equipment by staying up to date with the world of technology.  A Tascam is typically known as a voice recorder which we used when interviewing students of South Cheshire College on the Nelson Mandela story. Previous to creating our radio news show I was able to familiarise myself with this technology due to having 4 hours where I was able to interview students on made up topics, such as their thoughts on whether the media pushes young celebrities to grow up too quickly. I got a number of great responses as well as a number of not so great responses, but this was my learning process of how to use the Tascam. When using these I learnt that you have to maintain a clear voice when speaking through the microphone to not only be recognised by the Tascam, but the studio as well – If the background noise (ambient sounds) was to overpower the sound of my own voice then this would not be worth using on the show. Adobe Audition was the programme that I used to piece together our show, in order to do this I had to be able to fade in and fade out the right percentage of the clip, crop down the less important information during a 10 minute long interview so that it a suitable amount of airing time. As well as this I had to order the information in a way to entertain the audience and place music beds underneath the news stories. I really enjoyed using this equipment and had previous knowledge as I had used it at home myself. As well as these technologies I also used Weebly to create a website for Jugular FM to document the progress of the radio show and present my research and analysis’s. All of the above technologies were vital pieces of equipment in the process of constructing our media product and I felt as though I have achieved this well due to the understanding of what is important during what progress – which I believe mainly relies on levels of sounds.

13. Q7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?  When given the task to produce a five minute radio news show I had no clue where to begin nor what to do. I have learnt the crucial forms and conventions in order to create a successful radio newscast as well as learning how to use a number of different technologies. The fact that the audience rely entirely on sound to visualise what is being spoke about and how to piece together and structure contents to prevent boredom. I planned and researched In order to know what I was aiming to achieve, which was a radio news show, which we discovered (in our case) applied to a wide target audience ranging from 16 to 45 year olds. I have learnt that volume, distance and voice of a microphone is necessary in order to achieve a successful vox pop as well as becoming a great presenter. I have also learnt that different radio stations use different modes of address to address the audience due to their audiences being different to other radio stations. Overall I believe that the progression and development from the preliminary task to our final product was significant in showing how hard we worked to achieve this. I enjoyed creating our product and thoroughly enjoyed listening to it for the first time complete, which gave me complete satisfaction.