AS Media Coursework Task Research

After doing the previous media practise task which was to make a short interview with a guest of my choice, I was given the official task. I have to create a 5 minute local news programme.
The programme has to include outside broadcasts and interview as only some it it's features.
The first task is of course the research, I have to look at some news programmes to find out how they are done, and if I would like to do something similar.
I decided to look at 3 radio news programmes, look at the typical features, and then how different are they from one another.
This is what I managed to find.

Radio News Programmes Research

 

Newsbeat

News programme on Radio 1, targeting young audience.

It’s typical features are:

1.   Upbeat music throughout the programme

2.   Pop music used as a background sound in the different reports

3.   The programme features entertainment and music news

4.   The main story is repeated many times throughout the 15 minute show

5.   There’s a slot within the show for news presenter to read comments on a specific news report

6.   Lots of the interviews with the public are young people aged 15 to 29. Radio 1’s target audience age range to which it was changed in 2012 after a BBC trust review into radio 1.

Taken from the BBC Publications website.

 

The World Tonight

A BBC Radio 4 news programme

Typical features:

1.   The news reports featured in the programme are summarised at the beginning, featuring some clips of the reports.

2.   Then the BBC News are read out before the rest of the programme, featuring correspondent material for each news story.

3.   The stories are covered in extreme detail.

4.   The news stories are from the international spectrum.

5.   The main story on the programme is covered for a longer amount of time than the other stories.

6.   The language used is much more extensive and for a young person may sound complicated.

 

Differences between NewsBeat and The World Tonight

1.   The World Tonight does not use upbeat or pop music in the background of the programme or the news reports.

2.   The World Tonight is 45 minutes long unlike Newsbeat which is 15 minutes.

3.   The stories on The World Tonight are covered in much more detail than on Newsbeat.

4.   The World Tonight does not feature sport or entertainment news.

5.   The World Tonight doesn’t feature any comments from the public on the featured news stories.

6.   Both Newsbeat and The World Tonight use different language suited to their target audience.

 

BBC 3 Counties Radio Local News

Typical features:

1.   Main 3 minute news programme every hour.

2.   Short news update 30 minutes past the hour

3.   Main news story across the UK followed by local news and national sport.

4.   The news start with a radio news music bed which fades out at the start of the main news story of the programme.

5.   The news include local travel news every 30 minutes, every 15 minutes on the Drive Time show.

 

 

Preliminary Task Project evaluation

For my AS Media studies, I was given a task to create a short radio show. The show had to contain a jingle, the presenter introducing himself, and the guest, with the guest’s response. Also with a short 4 questions interview.

The first step was of course the planning. I had to think of the guest, the name of the show, ideas for a jingle, the interview questions and the archive sound clip of the guest’s previous work.

After deciding on the guest, and getting hold of a copy of his audio drama, I started to work on the archive sound clip. This involved lots of thinking as I had to pick a clip which would keep the listener’s attention throughout the whole programme. Causing them to listen to the rest of the show after they’ve heard the clip.

The next task, was to think of interview questions. These had to be devised with accuracy, so that the listeners get the interesting and the most important information. There, I had to think from the listener’s perspective. What would I want to know about the play writer if I was listening to the interview?

 The next task was to record the interview. There I just had to make sure that the interview flow is good and that I only talk about the relevant things regarding the drama and the person who created it.

After the interview was recorded. I had to edit it, and remove all the parts of the interview that were not needed, and cut some sections out to make sure that the interview part will fit perfectly with the other parts of the show. Then, I had to join the introduction clip to the interview, and paste the archive sound clip in between the two already joined clips.

The next part was to make the jingle for the show, with this I had help of another student who knows how to make jingles using Garageband, software which I don’t have any experience of using. We used GarrageBand and the middy keyboard to make the jingle.

The final part of the task, was to mix everything together and make any needed corrections. The mixing went well, considering that it was my first attempt at mixing with Soundforge. The only correction I had to make was to choose a different archive sound clip, as the clip I chose wasn’t really good at attracting listeners. However, the next clip I’ve chosen was much better.        

Conventions Of A Radio Programme
When planning the radio programme, I had to think of what does the programme have to sound like, and what approach I should take towards a radio interview like this. I've listened to many shows similar to the show I was working on, so I had a basic idea of what this interview has to sound like.
Most of shows like this interview usually start with a jingle and a short introduction, then the clip shows what work does the interviewee does, and gives listener the taste of it, and helps them to work out what the interview may sound like from the clip that they are listening to. Then of course is the main interview, there is important that with a play writer, the interview is always on the subject related to the guest, and that it sounds formal and professional.
Also ending the interview professionally
is important. However, the main thing of a radio interview, is to keep it flowing nicely and to the point with the guest, trying to get out as much information out of the guest that you need, and that the listeners would want to get.

Here's the link to the interview 

http://www.mixcloud.com/DiverseRadio/media-as-task-interview/