Evaluation

1. In what ways does my media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Know it all radio show is a daily show broadcasted in the morning which is aimed to inform and keep local residents up to date with what is going on and with information about their community. This can range from the the local post office shutting down to the local pubs weekly competition. Due to it being this type of radio show it attracts a wide range audience from young children to a retired age. Radio stations such as http://www.allfm.org/ also have a similar objective as my show however on those types of shows and stations they tend to play more music clips where as the aim for most of my show is to inform residents on all the issues within their community therefore makes my product different from most other radio shows out there. This is where I first got my idea from about my show but I have developed it further in my own way to make it different. Even though I included a music piece in my show, I have still stuck to my aim of keeping the show about the local people as the singer Lauren Peller is from the area therefore I think it is still relevant to my show. The show is constantly updates you with information about everything in the community.

In my product I have used a form of interview with 3 other people where I question them and they answer. I have then developed this convention by keeping the people who I have interviewed locals.

In my local radio station they tend to keep the broadcasts within a certain perimeter for example within the wiganborough area and broadcasts the main news of England in every show. I have developed this convention by really keeping my news broadcastd local as I have only talked about news in the Lowton and and Golbourne area which is covers small areas and made a wigan born superstar the main headlin of the show. My show focuses more on the voice of the people.

Most radio news shows such as the local bbc radio show included the weather that we are expecting in Britain, therefore I used this form in my radio show as it will also be informing local residents of what they will be expecting on that day and also over the next couple days. I have then developed this idea by adding a particular piece of music together with the weather report. The music I have used has a very relaxed, happy and tropical sound to it, making the listeners think it is going to be nice weather.


2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

My product represents the people who want to be involved in their community and want to make sure their opinion is heard and shared with other people therefore my show could represent many social groups. In particular my radio media product would represent the people of Lowton and Golbourne and present their opinions to others.

3. What kind of media institution might distribute your product and why?

I think a radio website could distribute my product as with many radio stations you are able to listen to the broadcasts online on their own website or listen live via a radio.

4. Who would be the audience for my media product?

I think my radio show would attract a range of audiences as most of the news broadcasts concern lots of age groups. As the main headline I used was about the merging of the two high schools I think it would attract the youth in particular as it shows students views on the matter and is a youth based topic. The fact that I mentioned that in the previous show we had already heard from teachers and parents, I would also think that my product would be suitable for young adults as this could affect their jobs and traffic where they live and parents with high school and primary school children as it is a topic that could interfere with their childrens future education. However the type of music I play in the show is aimed more at a youth audience. Never the less the music that is played is performed and by local people therefore it may still attract an older audience to listen to it. As my show is played during the morning between 7.40am and 7.50 am, during a time when high school are get ready to go to school, people with jobs are getting ready for work or are on the way to work in the car or people are preparing their children to go to school it can attract all these people to listen to the show as it will give them a quick update about whats going on whilst preparing to go out.


5. How did I attract my audience?

As I used a casual approach throughout my show, I think that this had a major influence on attracting an audience. Due to the fact that my dialogue is very friendly and not serious I think this made it easy for the youth to listen to without getting bored even though the subject is a serious issue to most of the youth in the local area as it will afect them in a lot of ways. I also used the approach of making my radioshow sound like I am talking to the audience and I think this also eased the pressure to attract somekind of audience. Although the topic is mainly an issue for the youth, the fact that I included the views of teachers, parents in the previuos shows and in this show the views of the students and the local residents of the area helped my show to attract a variety of listeners as I was allowing everyone's opinion to be heard and broadcasted.


6. What have I learnt about technologies from the process of constructing the product?

During working on my product I have learnt a lot about the technologies that are used when constructing my radio show. The main thing I have learnt is how to use the control room and most of the equipment for recording sound.

The portable sound recorder.

As well as learning the basics of how to switch it on and off and making a simple recording on it I learnt that before recording anything I need to consider what needs to be included in it. When recording my voxpops I needed to make sure some background noise could be heard but not too much as it would then overpower the voice. I also needed to take into consideration how much wind there was as if there was too much this could also interfere with the voice.

The recording equipment in the control room.

I have learnt how to use the audacity program on the computer more efficiently. When recording I found out exactly what settings I need to put the mixer on. I also found out how loud I need to project my voice into the microphone as speaking to quietly would result in the audeince not being able to hear clearly what the person is saying even when I had increased the audacity on Adobe Premier. If I spoke to loud into the microphone, when playing the recording back it would sound fuzzy and wouldnt be clear either. I also learnt exactly where each microphone and headphone is plugged into and how to set up the audacity program.

Editing on Adobe Premier.

As I edited my whole project using this prgram I feel that I have learnt lots about editing and constructing a radio project. Aswell as learning the basics of setting up a project and importing my sounds onto the program I have learnt faster ways of deleting and splitting cells into two sections on the timeline. Although I didnt use a lot of effects in my my show I did learn how to include an audio transition. This innvolves making a sound gradually fade out. I also learnt how to use the program in general as I had never used Adobe before. I learnt the basic things such as dragging the music into the editing windows and how to edit different sounds and put them together.

Overall I feel like I have learnt the most about using the sound equipment and choosing the right places to record in and how different things such as background noise affect the actual recording.

7. Looking back at my preliminary task, what do I fee I have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

As I only had a week to produce my preliminary task I think a I rushed my preliminary task. Due not knowing how to record in the right areas I think this affected it mainly. The quality of recording in my main radio show has improved dramatically. When completing my preliminary task I needed help with every stage of producing it but when it came to producing my main show I felt like I worked very independantly as I had more confidence in editing and recording on my own. In my main project I also used what I felt was appropriate music to the topic whereas in the preliminary task I just used what ever I could find and didnt really think about whether it was appropriate to the subject.