Production Log

My group now are using research methods to find more about our target audience and what they are mostly interested to help us before we post our first radio show.

Topic 1: TV and Film
I researched a popular  Magazine, 'OK! Magazine'. It has over 30 million readers worldwide. I observed looked on their Twitter and their official website.

From what I saw, it was mostly targeted to women. It mostly followed the life of many celebrities from the U.K and abroad. TV was a topic that was included in many of the articles the magazine was talking about. It included many articles on soaps such as Eastenders, Hollyoaks etc. This shows that TV something that gossips tend to watch a lot of the time.

I observed my form class in form time to see what they gossiped about. TV was one of the main topics of the chat as they were mostly talking about the latest Hollyoaks episode and what they thought would happen on the next episode. I decided to interview Angel as she was one of the ones that talked the most about it.

 

From what the interview, I found out that TV usually was a topic that most gossips like to talk about. They tend to follow certain programmes such as TV Soaps, and Reality TV shows. They like interesting story lines which make them want to watch it again, and of course discuss the story with their friends. I also find out that films are something they like gossiping about.

It is shown that people enjoy gossip about TV when people where discussing the Eastenders' storyline 'Who killed Lucy Beale?'. A lot of people where discussing it all along social media on websites like Instagram, Twitter, Facebook etc. People were discussing who they had thought in mind. More people had place bets on who killed Lucy than the UEFA Champions League Final 2014.

This research gave me information that TV and films are one good topic for our show as people tend to talk about it most.

Topic 2: Gossip Facts

A survey done by the Daily Mail, had researched that men (55%) now are more likely to gossip than women (45%). However, it is clear that men may gossip more as gossip brings a laugh out of men when for women, it can endanger friendships. Men tend to gossip over football, which is expected from the archetypal British man in today's generation. However, women talk about fashion, and other stuff which they are most sensitive about. Females boasting about fashion is more threatening to a friendship, than men boasting about their football teams.





Topic 3: Cara Delevingne

Cara Delevingne is one of the many fashion icons in today's century. She has been modelling for many successful designers and she is only 22. Many people talk about her due to her unique style . I decided to perform secondary research on her. I decided to go on Google and gave me approximately 30,000,000 results. This told me that she was extremely popular, and searching through she was the topic to many stories.


She has won many awards with fashion and most recently 'Model of the Year' in the British Fashion Awards. She has been in the news for something else as well. with Karl Lagerfeld, a fashion designer, who has done several successful projects together did not think Cara Delevinge as 'beautiful'. It sent shock waves through out the whole of the media. Franchesca interviewed one of her friends, he viewed his opinions on how he was shocked with the situation. She also observed a few people to see whether they would refer to Cara Delevigne.

Topic 4: GTA V

Gaming is extremely popular in the UK, with PS4 and Xbox One. It was one of the best selling games in the UK today. Due to it having a large following in players, it is one of the most gossiped games at this moment. From my own experience, my friends tended to gossip a lot about the game - what they did online the previous day, who is the better shooter, who drives the best etc. That was what I observed from the previous few weeks.

In the last few weeks, Rockstar had announced they would add in the anticipated game mode, 'Heists' on to the online mode of GTA V on March 10. Everyone at school would be talking about it, taking about how much money they would receive from it and the new content from the DLC they can get.

Josh, who is a keen gamer, had download the game mode alongside with many of his friends. He did some research before and after the release and he gives his expert gaming views on the 'Heist' game mode. He recommends the Pacific Bank Heist as one of his favourite heist to play. 

 
Researching Institutions

When we create our own Magazine Style Radio Show, we need to research our target audience. In this task, my group will need to create a magazine style radio show devoted to gossip. Gossips are usually big scandals which could be real or a rumour which can be personal or private about others. From my own knowledge, girls and a small amount of boys are known to be large gossipers. This gave me a clear indication that our target audience was girls and some boys around the age of 12-28. I did further research into gossip, and realized that lots of gossip happens in your time in school, especially secondary school and work. Also, people tend to follow their favourite A list celebrity and some even go to a extreme stage of finding their celebrities deepest secrets.

From what I researched previously, BBC Radio 4 was the place to find Magazine Style Radio Show. Using RAJAR, I found out that 10,621 people listen to BBC Radio 4 on a regular basis which was 20% of the total population who listen to radio. Also, as the target audience is towards the younger generation we needed to communicate with them using social media as they are usually active on those sites. Nearly 95% of radio shows offer a online stream of the radio content. Over 1/4 of people that listen to radio listen to it online.

Before we create our own magazine show, we to have some research methods in which would help us be able find some topics for the show.

Researching Audience

Research Method 1:

A way we can research is through interviews. There are many people who buy magazines. We need to ask a equal amount of people of different genders, class, and age to see were most of our viewers would come from. This would help us more as it is going to be more truthful and their would be less bias answers as it would be a more informal. However, it may be difficult gaining answers, because their will be many people who will not want to answer our questions for many different reasons (eg. rushing somewhere, not bothered). This resulted into a structured interviews being difficult so we will be wary of who ask to get a question from.

Therefore, we need to have a semi-structured, or unstructured interviews, so it still sounds like a casual conversation. We still now what we need to ask, but can alter the questions depending on what the person has answered to the previous question to make it informal.

The questions we can ask is

1. Are you a fan of gossip?
2. Do you like listening to radio shows?

These two questions will be the base of our interview and depending on what the interviewee has stated will alter the questions from that. From what I believe I think that our audience will range around younger audience from the ages of 12-44. So I believe that  we should have more of a informal interview to relate to. We do this in order to find out what kind of people will be interested in our new radio show. Also after this we know what topics will be suited for all ages, genders etc.

If they were to agree with the two base questions, we can ask other questions such as

1. What are your favourite topic to talk about in gossip?
2. What gossip do you and your mates always talk about?
3. Currently, what are your favourite radio shows?

These questions we see what our target audience is interested as we can find out all the topics they are all interested in talking about which can give us ideas to what include as one of our topics.The third question can give us an idea of what radio shows what can get inspiration from. This will help us with further research, as we are then able to develop our radio show to how the audience would want it to be.

Those who only agree with one of the questions we can ask them

1. What would you add to the radio show, that will make you want listen to it?

This question will help us develop our radio from critics. Using advice from critics will helps us know what people do not like from our show. Therefore, we can learn and use our advice to mkae our show become better.

Those who say 'no' for both questions are clearly not our target audience however we can still ask a questions to we could do to develop our radio show so we can use it make our show better for our audience.

Research Method 2:

Another way we can do this, is by observing many people talk about gossip. Gossip is everywhere. In work, school etc. There is always someone who creates a rumour which sends a crowd buzzing about what is going to happen. In some cases, it's funny, but if your the centre of the joke, it is extremely frustrating. Observing can be helpful as we can find out what kind of gossip people mainly talk about. From my own knowledge, teenage gossip usually involves someone liking some else which may be true or false, which everyone makes a big deal out of. Observing may be a little difficult as it will be have to be covert observation which involves the subject not knowing they are actually be observed. We do not want the Hawthorne effect to affect our research and planning. So we may have to do all our observations online, however they may lack reliablity or validity.

Research Method 3:

Another way of research is by using secondary research which involves us just using research that has already been gathered from other online sources or books. This may be the most easiest way as we can find lots of statistics which can help us in our research, and it will be easier to get more information from it. However, it may not be a useful source. The statistics they may have gathered may not be useful as it may be old and may not relate to today's society. So we need to be wary of whether most of the research that we gather is reliable and trustworthy.

Research Method 4:

We can use questionnaires as they are quick to make and we can have a large amount of results from it. We can get both quantitative and qualitative data from this to go with our research. We can find what people mostly enjoy, which we are able to apply to our show. This will help with our show as it will help us know what the viewers may want in our show. However, we need to be aware that answers may be biased of false which could be very bad for our research. Some people may feel that even though it is anonymous, some may lie in order to keep their answers







Understanding Genre

In Media, you need to know what genre is.

                                                           Message

Sender                                                                                                            Receiver

In a Magazine Style Radio, genre focuses on

                   

                                                             Code

Encoder                                                                                                          Decoder 

The encoder will be the host of show, giving the code which will be the show itself, to the decoder which will be the audience listening to it. This can be applied to any form of media. A few examples of this is:-

                                                             Games
Game Developer                                                                                             Gamers

                                               TV Comedy and Soaps
BBC Three                                                                                         Youth and Young Adults

Production Log

Before I can make my own Magazine Style Radio Show, I have to know what a Magazine Style Radio Show is like. To do this, I'll be using my research to find out what genre a Magazine Radio Show is, and what is usually included in a Magazine Style Radio Show. From my own knowledge, I know the BBC has a variety of radio shows where there is a large possibility of finding as Magazine Style Radio Show. I decided to go BBC Iplayer to find a radio show that is a Magazine Style Radio Show. I started checking Factual Radio shows to see if was related to Magazine Style Radio Show. I thought as Factual is related to real life, it will be like a magazine radio show, it will show talk about different topics, not one. I will analyse four radio shows to help me do this.

For something to be a magazine style radio show, it needs the codes and conventions. The codes and conventions are the main features of a magazine style and they include:-

• No dead air (so people do not lose interest in the show)
• Clear loud voice (so people can hear you on radio)
• Have a variety of topics for your target audience (has to be relevant to the target audience)
• Tell your audience what their in stall for
• Make your audience interactive (keep your viewers active and interested)
• Chatty presenter (help audience relate to the person)

From my own knowledge, I already knew that on the BBC Radio, there was already many radio shows that are suited for different audiences. However,  I wanted to know which radio channel was I most likely to find a Magazine Style Radio Show. Then I found out that Radio 4 was the best place to find a magazine style radio show, as most of the radio shows were with dialogue.

In this task, I will find four Magazine Style Radio shows and record a sample of the start of the show (around 30 seconds to 2 minutes) using Audacity. Then, I'll use Lame to make the Audacity file become a MP3 audio file. After that, I'll will upload the MP3 file onto to SoundCloud, and embed the link to my blog.

My first example was one of the most well known magazine style radio shows, BBC Radio 4's Women's Hour.

This episode was aired on the 10th of September 2014.

I used Audacity and Lame to get the following 50 second sample of Women's Hour onto my Sound Cloud and placed it here.




The clip talked about:-

1. The first topic is talks about a Spanish magazine called 'Hola' which had been introduced into Britain in 1988 which is now called 'Hello' and is still managed to be a family business to this day.
2. Second topic called about how Andy Murray is embarrassed by his mum, Judy Murray, due to her appearance on Strictly Come Dancing.
3. Third topic was to advertise special guest, Nana Mouskouri later on the show.
4. Finally, it talked about Prince Harry Invictus Games.

I expected a more laid back conversation in this clip, expecting more of a informal language, but soon realized that the target audience may be different to what I expected.  However, there was talk about different topics that all fitted the target audience which are women, which is evident in name 'Women's Hour'. There was also no dead air as she continues to talk continuously, however there was a lot of time where she would take a breath. Also, she talked about all the topics that she will talk about later on in the show so the audience knows what next. She talked with a clear voice in which everyone would be able to hear her.

I then found a radio show called 'Front Row' on BBC Radio 4 which is a Factual radio show. It has been described as a 'live magazine programme on the world of arts, literature, film, media and music'.

I also used Audacity and Lame to get this sample on to Sound Cloud and then onto my blog.



In this clip she talked about :-

1. The comedian Stephan Fry, and his 'cocaine years'
2.  Polly Tonybee reviews Tony Benn: Will and Testament, a new autobiographical documentary about Britain's longest serving MP 
3. The British Library newest exhibition, Terror and Wonder: the Gothic Imagination, and shows her exhibits including a Victorian vampire slaying kit and a stage version of Dracula handwritten by Bram Stoker
4. They then talk to Kei Miller about winning the Forward Poetry Prize. Then it includes a snippet of their interview.
5. Then they do the introduction of Stephan Fry and his cocaine years.

This also had a lot of topics which a Magazine Style Radio Show should have. There wasn't any dead air as she would use interviews to prevent that. Also they allow the audience what their in stall for by talking about all the topics they will talk about at the start. She had a clear voice which allowed the audience to hear her. There was a variety of topics which were mentioned which were all relevant to the target audience.

Once again I decided to look for a factual show on BBC Radio 4

I then found a radio show called 'You & Yours' which is also on Radio 4.

I once again used Audacity and Lame to get this following clip on SoundCloud and then on Blogger.



In this clip, it stated the following:-

1. First of all, how changes to the law have made pensions have made an increase in fraud. A snippet from the conversation is played.
2. They talk about white-collar boxing. A snippet from that conversation is also played.
3. Also they tell viewers to stay tuned to find out more if they want to buy something for their kitchen. 
4. Finally, they talk about in flight films, and told viewers to get interactive and send their opinions on it.

I believe this is one of the better magazine radio shows as she plays snippets of the conversation, but also she teases the viewers in urging them to listen from more to hear about the secrets in buying something for your kitchen. Also, they keep the audience interested and involved, by allowing them to voice their opinions on social media. She has a clear voice and all topics where relevant to the target audience.

I found another magazine style radio show 'Aleena Naylor' on BBC Radio Derby

I took a snippet from her edition on the 10 of October 2014 using Audacity and Lame to record it.

This show talks about:-

1. They introduce the show, by telling her name, time and day.
2. She talks about the weather details in Derbyshire.
3. They talk about the annual Children in Need motorcycle outing. 
4. They talk about a food and drink fayre happening the next day.
5. They talk about a husband and wife who dreamt about having a pipe dream became a reality.
6. She advertise the music they were going to listen to.
7. They talk about Spanish women who has something that comes back to haunt her.

In  this magazine style radio show, there is no no dead air as they insert it with some cool and
relaxing music. Also, they talked about variety of topics that relate to the target audience (in this cases, Christians). She had a clear voice which everyone is able to hear and she talks about all the topics at the start so everyone knows what she is going to say.

The final magazine show that I had research was the James Hazell Show on BBC Radio Suffolk.

I used Lame and Audacity to get this 2 minute sample of the show to then be put on Audacity.

In this show, he talked about:-

1. Talks about an IVF mum, Kelly and her choices for songs on their mixtape.
2. He talks about how the show will become 1 hour instead of 2 hours for today.
3. Nick Kaman is celebrating a birthday, who had a single in the chart over a jeans commercial. 

He is chatty presenter, who is able which is needed in a radio show to connect with the show with his chatty voice. His voice is clear to heard by the viewers. In addition, he has included several topics to relate to all his target audience. He plays a song under his voice to avoid dead air in his show.

Overall, from my research, to have a good Magazine Style Radio Show, I need to have a variety of topics which are relevant to the target audience, a clear voice so people are able to hear me, talk about the topics at the start, have no dead air, and keep the audience involved via social media. These are all the codes and conventions that I need to include in my show.