Preliminary Task

About this task

For my first media task for this year, I was tasked to get into a group of three people in my class and create a short radio show which would contain:

a) The code and convention of a jingle which will be a short lively music and will be an entertaining and interesting way of starting a radio show.

b) The code and convention of continuity presenter who will start but also present the radio show and lastly introduce and greet the guests.

c) The code and convention of an archive sound which will be related to the guest that my group's radio show will have (Shannel Adams).

d) The duration of our radio show must be 30 - 40 seconds long.

To begin with, me and my group had to find a good and attractive name for the radio station that the radio show would be broadcasted from. As a result, we came up with the name ''Chelsea Fm'' because it was different and therefore interesting. 

This task will help me understand some editing features provided by a sound editing software named ''Audacity'' but also, it helped me learn some kinds of codes and conventions like the jingle, continuity presenter and also archive.

The roles of each member of the group were as followed:

Patricia Tiparu was our radio show's presenter and composer.

Hevi Ali was tasked to be the co - editor of our radio show using Audacity. Moreover, she also had the role of our guest who was presented by Patricia.

My duty was to be the editor and edit the final recording by using the sound editing software named Audacity. Moreover, I was tasked to write the script with the help of the rest of the members of my group and forward it to Patricia and Hevi in order to record the radio show.

The flowchart below shows the planning that me and my group did in order to achieve a successful radio show.

Flowchart of the planning of me and my group

Group Meeting

The video below is a group meeting that my group did in order to organise the roles and tasks of each member.

Script

The table below is the script that I created with the help of the rest of the members of the group in order to have a well - planned radio show and also to know what the presenter and the guest have to say and when.

Name	Content	Sound Effects
Present	Hey guys, this is Chelsea FM. It’s half past nine and we have up and coming singer Shannell Adams. So, Shannell, tell me about anything important going on soon.	Intro Jingle Background Music
Guest	Yeah, I have a tour next week on Saturday and currently writing new songs for my next album.
Presenter	Will we see any of the new songs at the concert next Saturday?
Guest	Maybe, you never know. I love surprising my fans.
Presenter	Well that’s great. Good luck with your career and that’s all we have for today. See you tomorrow!	Outro Jingle

Before the final production of my preliminary task of my group I would like to mention that this preliminary task helped me learn the structure of a radio show but also some codes and conventions which will be very useful in my next tasks including my production. Finally, it helped me with my planning skills in terms of a radio show structure which will be a crucial skill on my production task.

Final Production of my Preliminary Task

Research Methods

Primary Research

Me and my group used primary research in order to explore the news stories in a particular area. Primary research consists of the qualitative research which is accomplished by sources of our creation such as questionnaires, surveys and interviews of any kind. Me and my group interviewed some people in Westfield Shopping Centre at Shepherd's Bush as there are many types and ranges of audience according to certain demographics such as age, gender, religion, social class etc. The following questions are the questions that the interviewees had to answer and we made sure that they were easy so the public didn't have any problems in answering them:

1. How well do you know the area you live in?
2. What do you like to do in your area?
3. What would you like to improve in your area?
4. What news do you like to hear in your area?

Secondary Research

Secondary research includes finding information from sources like books but nowadays people find their information via Internet at websites like Wikipedia and other websites related to the topic that the person is searching for.

Rajar Homepage

Rajar is an important part of the secondary research. Radio Joint Audience Research was created in 1992 to measure the audience of licenced radio news bulletins. I used Rajar in order to find out about the exact number of people that were listening to the radio news bulletin and the time that they listened to it. Below there are pictures of me using Rajar and researching about the ''The Breeze'' at Frome and West Wiltshire. 

Evidence of me using Rajar

Evidence of me using Rajar 2

From the above, we can understand that the difference between The Breeze at Frome and West Wiltshire and The Breeze at South Devon is quite evident at the percentages are different. The Breeze at South Devon had a larger audience (5.2%) than The Breeze at Frome and West Wiltshire (2.7%).

Understanding Genre

Codes and Conventions

Codes & conventions are generic features which can be identified within a radio news broadcast or generally a radio show. According to the theme of the show, codes and conventions can vary. The task below is to record a local BBC radio news bulletin. I chose BBC Radio Nottingham and I am going to explore the codes and conventions that I identified in my recording.

Nottingham shown in the map

Jingle: The jingle is a music tone which is added at the beginning of each radio news bulletin in order for the audience to understand that now it's time for news. This is an example of a jingle from BBC Radio Nottingham.

Continuity Announcer: A continuity announcer or presenter is a reporter who gives trustworthy information to the public. The continuity announcer gives his name in order for his information to be more easily trusted and credible. He is an example of a continuity announcer ID.

 

Time: There are radio news bulletins each hour. This means that the continuity announcer should refer to the time that the news bulletin is on. This is not because the audience has to know the time but because they have to know the duration and stay tuned to listen to the news. The next example is the hour of the radio news bulletin that I recorded.

 

Archive: The archive is the evidence of a report. For example, if the news reporter spreads out a news story he may have to show evidence for what he is saying. Usually, it is the person who is the protagonist of the news story. This is the example of an archive.

 

Interview: Another proof that can be evident of what the reporter is saying is an interview which is some questions that can be either directly answered by the protagonist of the news story or a person that relates to the event of the news story. This is an example of an interview.

 

Dead air: The last code and convention that I identified in the news bulletin of BBC Radio Nottingham was the dead air. The dead air refers to the moment that there is complete silence while on air.  In the radio industry there is no vision of the presenters of the news bulletin. As a result they might think that there is something wrong or they will get bored and change the radio station. This is a very small example of dead air as the reporters and presenters make sure that there is no dead air while they are on air.

The Breeze at Frome & West Wiltshire

Picture of the Local Commercial Radio Station that I am going to identify its codes & conventions

For my next task, I had to choose one local commercial radio station, then record a radio news bulletin, identify its codes & conventions and finally, analyse the content of each news item. The radio station I chose was The Breeze at Frome and West Wiltshire.

Location of the radio station on the map

The codes & conventions that I identified in the radio news bulletin that I recorded were:

Jingle:

Presenter ID:
Time:

The next part of this task is to analyse each one of the news items mentioned in that radio news bulletin. However, it will be much easier to analyse each news item with the help of the news values. Hence, let's explore ''What is news''.

What is news?

''News'' are stories which occur worldwide and they are also heard by people worldwide. Each news story has a different effect to each person according to the interests of each person. For example, people or viewers are not interested in facts that have occured on the other side of the earth.

News can be separated in positive and negative news stories. Positive news are news which make people relieved or happy about an event that they might have been worried about. On the other hand, positive news can be news that people might not be worried about like celebrities' weddings, break-ups , make-ups etc.

News Values

News values are ways that the news stories can be separated. There are different news values and each one has a different and special meaning. We are going to explore each one of the news values below:

Timeliness: Timeliness is a news value which is based on the time that an event or a news story took place. It might have happened the day that the news was spread out or the day before because usually, this time period matters the most to the audience as they are more interested in what happens in the world for the time being.

Proximity: Proximity is different in each country or even town. This is due to the fact that it refers to facts, events and actions that happen in a specific area and it will affect the locals. For example, if schools close in an area because of too much snow or an earthquake it will affect the local students and not the people outside the area or country. As a result, people outside the country will not find interesting the fact that school is closed in one country of the whole world because there won't be a worldwide effect.

Unusual / Surprise: Every journalist chases the unexpected event and he is always in the position to record or report an event that will occur surprisingly. This is because it will be a fresh event that no one will know so the quicker the event gets on the news, the better for the specific channel because it will be named as a channel that brings the news first and quicker than other channels.

Bad news: Bad news are news stories which will negatively affect the audience. Each bad news story can be more interesting to the viewer if other living beings are affected by it. For example, in the area of China, killing and kidnapping dogs or cats around the streets is a world-widely known issue which is really sad to each person and might bring anger to the reader, listener or viewer. 

Impact: The impact is the kind of news value that affects many people in one country. The audience has to be informed about the country's news because they might change some things during the day. For example, the closure of a commonly used by the majority of people highway will affect people's journeys if they travel by car. Stories that usually affect many people, attract many journalists.

Celebrity / Elite: This news value is about stories that have to do with celebrities that are known globally. People around the world are interested in information and gossip about famous people and this is the reason why journalists are ''going crazy'' when they see a celebrity. It's important to them they they have information that no one else has so they can have more viewers who will be interested in those people's lives.

Entertainment: Entertainment is the news value which is based on entertaining people with the news stories. Journalists try to find some news stories that will be entertaining to people and also make an effort to present them the most interesting way as possible.

Follow - up:  Follow-ups are updates of an event or news story that had occured in a time period that belongs to the past. Since people were aware of that this event had occured that time they will now be waiting for an update so they can know what happened in the end. For example, Greek economic crisis is a news story which will be update every now and then mostly in areas in Greece.

After analysing and exploring each news value we can now analyse the content of the radio news bulletin from The Breeze at Frome and West Wiltshire.

Content Analysis

News Item	Content	News Values
Theresa May defends media after some newspapers attacked the high court ruling on leaving the EU. (31 seconds)	Newspapers accused the judges of being ‘’enemies of the people’’ after they decided that Parliament should have a say before the exit process starts. The Prime Minister says that she believes in the independence of the judiciary and the freedom of the press.	Timeliness: The event had occurred the day before. Impact: This event affects the Brexit which at the moment is an issue and a popular topic for all the people that live in England. Follow-Ups: Brexit is an event that did not occur the day before so it’s a new update.
Police are urging anyone who might have taken drugs at a club in Newcastle last night. An eighteen-year-old girl died after drug use and a nineteen-year-old was arrested. (8 seconds)	The 18-year old teenager was ill after taking ecstasy in the Byker area of the city early on Sunday morning. Police rushed her to the hospital and she later died. The officers suspect that she might have taken MDMA and arrested a 19-year old who had a connection to her death.	Timeliness: It’s a new event which occurred the day before. Bad News: In the event, there was a death of an 18-year-old girl after drug use. Unusual/Surprise: It was unexpected that one night in a club could turn into a death and an arrest.
Tesco Bank says it’s working to get a full service back to customers affected by suspected attempted fraud yesterday. Thousands have had their cards frozen yesterday. (7 seconds)	Tesco Bank has been cyber-attacked and the criminals have been taking money from people’s accounts. However, those customers will be refunded by the end of Tuesday.	Bad News: People’s bank accounts are something personal and shouldn’t be illegally accessed. However, since that happened people have to know about their bank accounts’ safety. Proximity: Tesco Bank is known throughout England and many people trust it so they will be affected. Follow-ups: People knew that Tesco Bank network was illegally accessed but the problem seems to be fixed so it is an update.
In sports, Andy Murray is celebrating overtaking Novak Djokovic at the top of the tennis world ranking, winning the Paris Masters title. He also beat the American John Isner in three sets in the final. (25 seconds)	Andy Murray after beating Djokovic and Isner he is the first British champion after many years. The Wimbledon and Olympic champion will be the new No. 1 in the sport when the rankings are updated.	Timeliness + Unusual/ Surprise: Andy Murray will be the first British champion which is really important to England and also it’s an event that had occurred the day before. Proximity: People who live in England will be positively affected because their country holds the new No. 1 champion. Celebrity/Elite: Andy Murray is well-known and his victory is important. Follow-ups: Andy Murray had already won some matches and this is an update on his progress.
In football, Liverpool is the Premier League Leader after thumping Watford 6-1 to move a point ahead of Chelsea. (6 seconds)	‘’The Reds’’ powered to a 6-1 win over Watford on Sunday afternoon. Sadio Mane (twice), Philippe Coutinho, Emre Can, Roberto Firmino and Georginio Wijnaldum all getting on the scoresheet as the Reds raced to the top of the table.	Timeliness: It’s an event that happened the day before. Celebrity/Elite: Most people are interested in the teams, football, and matches which make it a newsworthy item. Entertainment: Football’s target is also to entertain viewers. Follow-ups: This is the final update of the match.
Arsenal drew 1-1 with Tottenham earlier. (3 seconds)	Spurs dominated for long periods and took a deserved first-half lead when Harry Kane broke clear and slotted in. However, Arsenal slowly took control in the second half and equalised when Mesut Ozil provided a deep cross for Gibbs to bundle past Hugo Lloris.
Manchester United beat Swansea 3-1 while Champions Leicester are 2-1 down by West Bromwich in the late kick-off. (6 seconds)	Manchester United dominated from the start and was 3-0 up at half-time thanks to Paul Pogba's stunning drive and two goals for Zlatan Ibrahimovic - his first in the league since September. As for West Bromwich, two goals in three second-half minutes livened up what had been a dull encounter at the King Power Stadium. ‘’The Baggies’’ scored first when midfielder James Morrison, making his first league start since January, headed in from Phillips’ brilliant right-wing cross.
Rangers ended with 1 all when they were playing against Ross Country in the Scottish Premiership. (4 seconds)	Rangers wasted the chance to reclaim the second spot as they were held to a 1-1 draw at the Global Energy Stadium by Ross County.
Green Day was recognized for their contribution to music at tonight’s MTV Europe Music Awards. (6 seconds)	Collecting their award, Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong said it was "really nice to be in Europe right now". He said: "It's nice to be out of America just for a second because of this horrendous election that's going on right now. "Our entire country is about to have one big collective heart attack." He then told fans to "stay sexy" before the group performed their classic hit American Idiot.	Timeliness: It’s an event that had occurred the day before. Proximity: It affects people but not only people who live in England but also people who live in Europe because the awards are about the whole Europe. Celebrity/Elite: Green Day are a worldwide known band which makes it a newsworthy item. Entertainment: MTV Europe Music Awards and the bands are here to entertain.
Beyonce and Justin Bieber had the most nominations while Adele was just behind them. (5 seconds)		Timeliness: It’s an event that had occurred the day before. Celebrity/Elite: Justin Bieber and Beyonce are well known. Entertainment: MTV Europe Music Awards and the bands are here to entertain.

Audience Research

An audience is a group of people who watch or listen to a show such as a play in the theatre or TV shows. However, we are going to emphasise to the audience of radio and specifically during the radio news bulletins. This audience can be separated by demographics. The demographics are criteria which help us make identify our audience. Some examples of demographics are age, gender, location, social class or ethnicity etc. Each of these demographics is different because each person of the audience is different, has a different character, habits, way of living or believes. For example, people at the age of 6-14 could be characterised as children which means that according to their age, producers must create media products with content which is appropriate for their age. The radio news bulletin usually attracts people at the age of 15 and over.

In order to do a thorough research upon audience that listened to a specific news bulletin at a specific time I visit Rajar (as mentioned above) which is an accurate audience measurement website for licensed radio stations.

Moreover, down below are shown the other ways of researching on audience.

Stuart Hall's Encoding and Decoding model

Picture of Stuart Hall

Stuart Hall's theory of audiences could be helpful for our audience research. His theory's purpose was to explain the process of the news in order to be heard by the audience. In order to understand this theory, we need to know the definition of encoding and decoding. Encoding is the production of news while decoding is the interpretation in different ways.

Furthermore, there is a detailed way shown in the diagram on the left of your screen. This diagram is a representation of Stuart Hall's theory.

Diagram of Stuart Hall's theory of encoding and decoding

It all starts with the knowledge of the encoder which happens to be the presenter or journalist and also the social area which the encoder learnt the news story from. This leads us to the encoding of the news item which is decoded by the audience later and it is interpreted by the knowledge and the social area that the news item was found. As a result, this is how the news are being heard by the audience.

Audience's points of hearing news stories

Dominant Reading: Dominant reading is taking place when the receiver accepts the news item with not many objections. This means that the reader fully-understands the news item and what is stated by the reporter.

Negotiated Reading: Negotiated Reading is when the reader who is the decoder may have some objections regarding the news item. The reader argues and examines both sides of the case/situation/event etc.

Oppositional Reading: As its name, the oppositional reading is when the audience disagrees with the news story because they might have different perceptions, views or opinions upon the topic.

The news item above is about a teenage girl that died after a drug use. They also mentioned that they arrested a 19-year old man. The audience can interpret this news story in different ways as explained before.

Dominant Interpretation: The audience understands the event and accepts the fact that the 19-year old man got arrested without any kind of objections.

Negotiated Interpretation: The audience could disagree with the fact that the 19-year old man got arrested because they might believe that ''the girl might wanted to do drugs, it's not the man's fault''.

Oppositional Interpretation: People may disagree completely with the arrest of the 19-year old man because ''they might not be sure whether the boy is mixed in this situation or not''.

Hypodermic needle theory

Demonstration of Hypodermic Needle Theory

The hypodermic needle theory suggests that the mass media can ''shoot'' or ''inject'' a message to the audience which make them create a desired answer for the news item. As it ''injects'' them, people cannot avoid the influence of the mass media and there will also be a significant change on their behaviour because people act according to what's new, and what's on the world (they're getting informed by many types of media such as social media and TV). 

Dominant Ideology

This theory describes the believes, opinions and ideas of one area which could have an impact in the way of living and the point of view of people who live in it. There are many social differences because of religion or laws and this theory is connected to the news by the different opinions which are created from people according to the area that they live. For example, muslims believe that women should not have a say on political or social issues. However, as described in the first news item of my recording of ''The Breeze'', ''Theresa May is an MP so muslims might strongly disagree with her position in the Parliament. 

Active vs Passive Audience Theory

Picture of active & passive audience

To start with, active audience is the audience that interacts with the news item and is actively responding to it while the passive audience is the audience that observes the news story without any kind of response.

They differ at many points such as the opinion. The active audience are allowed to form their own opinion but passive audience is just accepting the opinions that are stated over the topic. Also, active audience after paying full attention to the whole presentation of the news item, has a free will. On the other hand, passive audience has a weak will as people do not pay much attention and just believe what they are told by the mass media.

Effect Theory

The effect theory is about how the mass media can change the opinions of the audience either because they can be easily affected or because it can make the audience observe a little wider in order to discover new truths and new points of view.

Cultivation Theory

The cultivation theory examines the long - term effect that the is causing to the audience. According to this theory, the more people live in the media world (meaning that they watch TV, listening to the radio etc.) the more they believe that life is just like how it is presented in media. This theory was established by Gebner in 1976. 

Me & Media

Nowadays, media has become a very important part of a person’s everyday life. Technology has taken over in many sectors and most of the time we can say that this improves the way of having things done.

Social Media

To me, media is one of the biggest parts of my life. They have become a way of living since I got used to use them every day.

To start with, social media is the part of media that I love most. This is because I love to be connected with my friends all the time even if I’m in another country. We cay say that social media like Skype, Facebook Messenger, Whatsapp or Viber have successfully replaced telephones because people can contact with other people easier and cheaper. Also, it is a fact that social media has moved to another level when you don’t only care to contact with your friends but you care to have the most likes, followers and friends. As a result, people start to get more obsessed than they should. I must confess that I am one of those people too but this is my opinion on the topic.

Icon of Snapchat

One of the social media that I use is Snapchat. There is nothing special about this kind of social media. Mostly, it’s about showing others some parts of your everyday life. This includes trips, adventures, parties and routines. Many people get addicted and they hardly ever leave snapchat. I mostly use it when I don’t have anything better to do.

Example of me using Snapchat

Example 2

Icon of Instagram

Furthermore, I use Instagram. Instagram is more about posting photos. However, recently there was an update and now there are snapchat features as well. I use it mostly to post pictures of my everyday life. I use it in a regular basis not only to post or see other people’s pictures but also to find good quotes or funny jokes as well. My profile is public and as a result, my posts can be seen by anyone.

My profile on Instagram

Icon of Facebook

Lastly, the social media that I use most is Facebook. In my opinion, Facebook is the best type of social media. I use it more than I should. It has become something more than just a habit. I normally use it to chat with my friends. I post pictures every now and then but post even more regularly on Instagram.

Picture of my profile on Facebook

Video Games

Picture of Playstation 4

Apart from social media, I play video games on my Playstation 4 such as Assassin’s Creed Syndicate or Watchdogs. I love playing these games so much because I believe that it’s really fun to do something that does not have to teach you anything but intrigues and entertains you. Also, I love the adventure and the ‘movement’ this game gives you. It makes you think more and maybe this is what it teaches you.

Picture of Assassin's Creed.

Picture of Watchdogs.

Graffiti

There are different types of graffiti. People spray walls and create graffiti because they can express some emotions in it. Other people might do it for  fame or to seem cool. Each person’s opinion is different and anything that he sprayson a wall is a creation of his own personality.

Many times, music can affect people’s minds and create another way of thinking in them. However, not only music can make people more creative to spray graffiti. The effect of society are some of the basic problems. People use graffiti to spread awareness, to protest or to say something to the public.

Graffiti is created mostly by the youth who want to express themselves through art. Anything that teenagers spray will be probably something with a deep meaning but it could also be something that they would spray just to have fun.

Picture of Graffiti

On the other hand, graffiti can be something irritating to property owners because every time they have their stores or even their houses sprayed, they have to pay a lot of money in order to have the graffiti covered up.

My opinion about Graffiti is that they should be made where they are allowed and that it should mostly be a kind of art that can express something new or a message.

Films & Cinema

Picture of films and cinema

Films and Cinema are a very big part of a person's life because they can take all the problems out of the head, they can be a familiar activity and generally connect people. However, I think that there's also another meaning behind the movies. Movies can also turn you to watch another side of the world that you live, show you new things you didn't know and face another reality rather than yours so you can appreciate what you have and see things from another point of view rather the one that you had.

Each movie has another purpose. That's why we separate them in comedies or horror movies etc. Many movies may pass a message and other movies may just entertain. I like both ideas but mostly I prefer the second one especially when I watch horror movies.

Picture of Sinister

I love horror movies because most of the times they are something different to hear and see. I love how people can write and direct something and make it so intriguing and I love the idea of watching a horror movie in the middle of the night with all the lights switched off. I know that they are not real but I would still get frightened if there was suddenly a ghost in the dark behind the protagonist. One of my favourite horror movies is 'Sinister'.

Picture of Ted

Also, I'm keen on comedies but I prefer to watch them with my family rather than myself because it will get really boring. Comedies can pass you a more positive message than horror movies and you also get the chance to see another way of living which will be funnier and a very good way to entertain.  Some of the best comedies are 'Bad Neighbours' and 'Ted'.

Picture of Bad Neighbour

Pitch Perfect

Lastly, I like specific musicals because of their theme and the cast's acting like 'The Phantom of the opera' or 'Pitch Perfect'. I don't like musicals most of the time but these two have got something different from the other movies and I love the fact that they are musicals and they sing especially in 'Pitch Perfect' where producing music and teamworking to achieve their goal is the most important thing to them.

Phantom of the Opera

Movies can be a really exciting activity to do most of the time because they can teach you things, they can pass important messages, they can make you laugh and they can take your mind out of your everyday problems and routine. Movies can also teach you that there isn't only your side of the world and you get the opportunity to watch and understand that other people have problems, other kinds of societies but most importantly they can teach how to teamwork, how to stand up to another person and can affect your behaviour, hopefully positively, in your everyday life.

Difference between ''local, national & international news bulletin''

The radio industry separates the world or even the countries in areas so people can know exactly the news about their area. This is because many people are not interested in knowing the weather or the news about transport of other areas of the country or even another country. The world ''local'' characterises the area which a person lives. For example, a person who lives in Nottingham will want to know the ''local'' traffic, the ''local'' transport news, the ''local'' weather forecast etc. 

The word ''national'' characterises the whole country and national radio station present news stories which can affect the whole country. As a matter of fact, they might present some very important global news such as the USA elections.

Last but certainly not least, the word ''international'' characterises the whole world and international radio station present significant news stories that affect the whole world. 

Hence, the significance of the news is different according to the location and there are many radio stations that cover all three ''local, national and international'' news.

My blog walkthrough

Production Team & Planning Skills

For my next task I was asked to form a group with three other people from my media class in order to create a local radio news bulletin. 

The group members are:

Jason Cueto was responsible for the editing of the jingle as well as the outro of the news bulletin. Moreover, he was responsible for the background music and he managed to create an excellent tune by using Garage Band. Also he was responsible for the Sound Effects which led him to use Freesound.org. As a result, he provided us with sound effects for our news items about Crime, Follow - Up, Travel & Media Agenda. He was also assigned as the Outside Broadcaster of the news item about the Follow - Up. Last but certainly not least, he was the researcher of our news items and ensured that the script writer (me) understands it so I can create the script for the presenter, Patricia.

Alberto Santos Pinto had the duty of the leading editor of all news items of our news bulletin. He achieved that by using the sound editing software Audacity. 

Patricia Tiparu was our main presenter which successfully presented all-8 news items. 

Catherine O'Neil was our sub-presenter for the times that main-presenter, Patricia was not available.

I, Panagiotis Karachalios was tasked to be the main script writer of each news item following the researcher, Jason Cueto. Also, I was the interviewer of the news items and lastly, I was the Outside Broadcaster for the news item about Crime.

More details about the Production task:

Me and my group had to choose a particular area that we would focus on so we can create a news bulletin about events and other news stories that take place in that particular area. Me and my group chose Harrow. After setting the duties of each member of the group we were able to start the process and create the news bulletin.

Picture of the tube station of Harrow

Our plan was that this task should be completed within 8 weeks which means that we had to produce a news item per week. Below, more details about the plan and the duties of each member for each news item can be found:

Week 1: Entertainment / Celebrity: Honey G

• Jason Cueto created the jingle and by using secondary research he made his research upon the news story which was the latest update of Honey G's progress on the TV show named X - Factor. Moreover, by using Freesound.org he collected some sounds such as street-noises.

• Alberto Santos Pinto's duty was to have the editing ready for embedding once the news bulletin was recorded by our presenter, Patricia.

• Patricia Tiparu's duty was to gather 9 to 10 voxpops with me and record her presentation of the news story.

• My duty was to create the script after the research for the news story by Jason was finished and also collect the 9 to 10 voxpops with Patricia.

Week 2: Travel

• Jason Cueto made the research for this news item and also he got an audio clip of a superior related to the news story.

• Alberto Santos Pinto's duty was to have the recording edited and ready for embedding by a certain date using the sound editing software, Audacity.

• Patricia Tiparu's task was to record her presentation about the second news story by a certain date.

• My duty was to take the research notes from Jason and create the script for the second news story

Week 3: Crime

• Jason Cueto's task made a primary research by going to the exact area that the news item's story took place in order to gather information by people who live there.

• Alberto Santos Pinto was tasked to edit the finished recording of the news item and have it ready for embedding.

• Patricia Tiparu's task was to record this news item by a certain date so she can forward the final recording to Alberto to edit.

• My duty was to create a script as soon as I receive the research notes from Jason and also interview an eye-witness of the event that the news item is about.

Week 4: Follow - up

• Jason Cueto's task was to make the research for this news item story and gather any sound effects needed.

• Alberto Santos Pinto's duty was to edit the final recording by a certain date and have it ready for embedding.

• Patricia Tiparu had to record this news item and pass the final recording to Alberto for the editing.

• My task was to create the script for this news item and forward it to Patricia for recording.

Week 5: Business

• Jason Cueto had to make his research for this news item story and go with me to the Bombay Themed restaurant to take interviews of members of staff and lastly, gather sound effects for this news item.

• Alberto Santos Pinto had to edit and have the final recording ready for embedding.

• Patricia Tiparu's task was to record this news item by a certain date using the script that I created and pass the final recording to Alberto for the editing.

• My duty was to go to Harrow with Jason to take interviews from people at the Bombay themed restaurant and later on create the script using Jason's research notes.

Week 6: Politics

• Jason Cueto's duty was to use secondary research in order to collect some information upon this news item and also get an audio clip of Borris Johnson making a statement.

• Alberto Santos Pinto's task was to edit the news item and have it ready and uploaded in SoundCloud for embedding to our blogs.

• Patricia Tiparu had to record the presentation of this news item story when the script is ready.

• My duty was to create the script and have it ready by a certain date and afterwards pass it to Patricia for recording.

Week 7: Education

• Jason Cueto had to make a research and find a news story related to this news value and pass the research notes to me.

• Alberto Santos Pinto's duty was to edit the recording and have it ready for embedding by a specific period of time.

• Patricia Tiparu had to record the script that I passed her and then give it to Alberto for editing.

• My job was to gather some interviews and then create the script and have it ready by a certain time period.

Week 8: Weather

• Jason Cueto's task was to gather information about this news item from BBC news in order to have a complete weather report and provide us with Sound Effects from Freesound.org.

• Alberto Santos Pinto's duty was to edit the news item and upload it on SoundCloud.

• Patricia Tiparu's job was to record the presentation of this news item story.

• My duty was to have the script ready for recording by a certain time period.

Script Draft

The following table is a demonstration of a script draft and then the script final draft. 

1st Script Draft

NAME:	CONTENT:	DURATION:
Patricia	Welcome and thank you for tuning in on ‘Harrow on the Hour’, my name Is Patricia Tiparu.	4 s
Patricia	Our first news item for today is Honey G on the X factor.	3 s
Patricia	Anna Georgette Gilford, born on 198, is known professionally as Honey G- surprisingly the rapper is an English recruitment agent and wannabe rapper in series 13 of the X Factor as part of over 25s, mentored by the most energetic Sharon Osbourne	11 s
Honey G’s music	(Insert Honey G’s music)	5 s
Patricia	Although, majority of the fans were somewhat pleased to see that the rapper is finally eliminated because of her horrible rapping skills and just a wannabe	7 s
Patricia	And now, we have our news interviewer Panos Karachalios live at Harrow road to get the fans opinion about Honey G.	6 s

2nd Script Draft

Name:	Content:	Duration:
Patricia	Harrow girl- Honey G stuns Simon Cowell with unexpected success on X-Factor	5 seconds
SFX	(Insert a music of Honey G)	5 seconds
Patricia	Like Honey G, we have taken the street to discover how our local celebrity is viewed.	4 seconds
Voxpop	(Voxpop)	12 seconds

When me and my group recorded the first news item with the first draft of the script we found out that it would be better if we changed some things in the script. As a result, we decided to make it smaller and shorter in time in order to fit the correct time of the news item. Furthermore, we made other improvements such as removing ''Thank you'' as we realised that it is not suitable for a radio news bulletin.

Flowchart of our plan for News Item 1

The picture above is an example of a flowchart which is a part of our plan for news item one about the progress of Honey G in the TV show of X Factor.

Production

News Item 1: Celebrity / Entertainment

About the news story

Picture of the news story of news item 1

As we can see in the picture above, the news story of this item focuses on the progress of Honey G, a rapper from Harrow, on the TV show named ''X - Factor''. Our researcher Jason Cueto, found this news item at the online newspaper of Harrow named ''Harrow Times'' by doing a secondary research.

Additionally, the reason why we chose to focus on this news story for our news item about entertainment is because Honey G or Anna Georgette Gilford is a local citizen from Harrow which means that the progress matters to the area.

Audacity Tools 

Evidence of my group using the envelope tool in order to edit our news item

The image above, demonstrates the use of the audacity tool named ''Envelope Tool'' in order to edit the volume of certain parts of the recording, the sound effects, the jingle and the background music. Also, my group's editor, Alberto Santos Pinto, used another audacity tool called ''Amplify Tool'' which was useful in low or raise the pitch a certain part of the recording so it doesn't seem too loud or quiet. 

Sound Level Indicator

Last but not least, was the sound level indicator which showed us whether the presenter's voice was too loud or too quiet. The maximum number of decibel that the presenter's voice should not exceed is 12.

Jingle

This is the final version of our jingle which was used at the beginning of our local radio news bulletin. 

Interview

Interview Question for News Item 1

The picture on the right of the screen shows our Interview question which was used in order to ask people in Harrow their opinion about Honey G's victory to the next round of the X-Factor.

Script

As the script writer, I used the research notes that Jason Cueto made in order to create a script to forward to Patricia so she can record the news item. The script had two drafts as me and my group thought that there are some parts that should be fixed. The tables below are a demonstration of the script drafts. 

1st Draft:

NAME:	CONTENT:	DURATION:
Patricia	Welcome and thank you for tuning in on ‘Harrow on the Hour’, my name Is Patricia Tiparu.	4 s
Patricia	Our first news item for today is Honey G on the X factor.	3 s
Patricia	Anna Georgette Gilford, born on 198, is known professionally as Honey G- surprisingly the rapper is an English recruitment agent and wannabe rapper in series 13 of the X Factor as part of over 25s, mentored by the most energetic Sharon Osbourne	11 s
Honey G’s music	(Insert Honey G’s music)	5 s
Patricia	Although, majority of the fans were somewhat pleased to see that the rapper is finally eliminated because of her horrible rapping skills and just a wannabe	7 s
Patricia	And now, we have our news interviewer Panos Karachalios live at Harrow road to get the fans opinion about Honey G.	6 s

2nd Draft: (Improved)

Name:	Content:	Duration:
Patricia	Harrow girl- Honey G stuns Simon Cowell with unexpected success on X-Factor	5 seconds
SFX	(Insert a music of Honey G)	5 seconds
Patricia	Like Honey G, we have taken the street to discover how our local celebrity is viewed.	4 seconds
Voxpop	(Voxpop)	12 seconds

Sound Effects

Evidence of my group's use of Freesound.org

For the sound effects, we got help from a website named ''Freesound''. This website provided us some excellent sound effects that we used for our background noises.

Final Production of News Item 1

News Item 2: Travel

About the news story

Picture of our news story for News Item 2

Our second news item is about Travel and by using secondary research, our researcher, Jason Cueto, found out about the Transport Salary Staff Associations casting ballots on strike over safety concerns. This story will have as a result the closure of Harrow tube stations and this will affects the citizens of Harrow. 

Audacity Tools

Evidence of my group's use of the Auto Duck tool

While editing the final recording, Alberto Santos Pinto, thought that it would be good if he ducked some of the tracks. In order to achieve this, he used an audacity tool named ''Auto Duck'' which reduces or ducks some of the tracks. According to our editor, the ''Auto Duck'' tool is much easier than the ''Envelope Tool'' because the ''Envelope Tool'' takes longer in order to adjust the sound according to our preferences.

Script

The table below is our script for News Item 2. The reason why it is shorter than expected is because we wanted to inform the audience only about the important part of this news story which is no other than the strike that will take place.

Name	Content	Time
Patricia	The Transport Staff Salaries Association is planning an industrial action.	3 seconds
Clip of TSSA
Patricia	And now we will pass it on to Catherine O’Neil who has all  the details to the latest news.

Final Production of News Item 2

News Item 3: Crime

About this news story

Screenshot of our news story for news item 3

As shown in the screenshot above, our news story for news item 3 is that five people were arrested for violent disorder after forcing their way onto Harrow bus station. This news story will make our audience aware about what criminal incidents take place in the area they live in and as a result take precautions in order to avoid any similar event.

Audacity Tools

Picture of the Audacity Tool that my group used

The audacity tool that our editor, Alberto Santos Pinto used is once moor the ''Amplify Tool'' because he had to adjust our presenter's, Patricia Tiparu's, voice was overlap with the soundtrack. As a result, in order for the audience to be able to listen to the soundtrack as well as the presenter's voice, he used the amplify tool so he could low her voice and make it perfect for the audience to hear both.

Interview

As the interviewer, I had to go to Harrow and interview local citizens about the incident. Before that, me and my group figured out the questions and they are shown below on the table. 

Interview Questions for News Item 3

1.       Where you near the bus station when the incident took place?

2.       What is your opinion about this incident?

3.       Do you feel safe in your area?

Evidence of me interviewing people in Harrow

Script

The table below shows the script of our news item 3, crime which was presented by Catherine O'Neil.

NAME:	CONTENT:	DURATION:
Catherine	Five local teenagers were arrested yesterday evening following a disturbance at Harrow Bus Station	3 seconds.
Catherine	Metropolitan Police were called in the incident at 8:30 pm	3 seconds
Catherine	CID officers are now involved in further investigation.	2 seconds
Catherine	And live to Harrow road my colleague Panos Karachalios who is interviewing an eye witness of the incident	4 seconds
Panos	Thanks Catherine, I’m here with busy commuters where a particular individual shares her thoughts about the disturbance in Harrow Bus Station.	7 seconds
Panos	(interview)	21 seconds

Final Production of News Item 3

News Item 4: Follow - up

About the news story

Picture of News Item 4

This news item story is about an 18-year old man named Moammen Settar who was murdered. My group's researcher found this piece of information by accessing the online newspaper ''Harrow Times''. As can be seen in the picture above, this news story is an update which means that it is a follow - up of a previous news story.

 Audacity Tools

Evidence of my group using the sync - lock tool

The audacity tool that my group used in this news story is the ''Sync - Lock Tracks'' tool. This tool was useful because my group's editor was able to control more than one selected tracks at once. As a result, it was much easier but also quicker for him to edit the recording for this news item.

Script

The table below shows the script that I created with the help of the research notes that Jason Cueto forwarded to me, always making sure that the message that we are trying to give is clear and without many words.

Name	Content	Time
Patricia	Over the weekend police underwent an investigation of a murder by an 18-yaer old of the name Moammen Settar. The 18-year old lived near Buddings Circle Wembley and I will pass it on to Alberto Santos Pinto who will tell it in more depth	12 seconds
Alberto	On the 15th of October, Moammen was arrested and to be appear in custody Hendon magistrate.

Final Production of News Item 4

News Item 5: Business

About this news story

Picture of the news story for News Item 5

Location that this news story took place

The news story that focused in this news item is about the award - winning restaurant which represents a Bombay Theme and of course, is located in Harrow. We got this news story by walking in the streets of Harrow when we heard from the locals about the ''crown winning restaurant'' so we used Harrow Times in order to get more information about this wonderful event. 

Audacity Tools

Evidence of my group using the equalisation effect

The audacity tool that my group used in this news item is called ''Equaliser Tool''. This tool can manipulate the sound by frequency. As a result, it can raise the volume of a certain frequency and reduce another. This tool made it seem like the statement of the manager was given via a phone call. This adds a realistic style on the news story and hence on our news bulletin.

Script

The following script table was easy for me and Jason Cueto to create due to the fact that we had well-understood the news story that we were focusing on in this news item.

Name:	Content:	Duration:
Catherine O’Neil	Harrow’s new Bombay themed eatery, located on the High Road, is crowned ‘Restaurant of the year	7 seconds
(Insert SFX)	(Victory Trumpet SFX)	5 seconds
Catherine O’Neil	This is achievement is a special note-worthy because the restaurant has only been in operation for 6 months	9 seconds
Catherine O’Neil	Our food and drinks correspondent Alberto Santos Pinto is on the phone to owner Rishi Lakhami	7 seconds
(Insert BGM)	(BGM	10-12 seconds
Rishi Lakhami	This award means a lot to our people, that worked extremely hard, this is achievement is everything!	5-6 seconds
Catherine O’Neil	And that’s it for the Bombay restaurant Harrow, and now back to Patricia	4-5 seconds

Final Production of News Item 5

News Item 6: Politics

About the news story

Picture of our news story for News Item 6

This news story was taken from the BBC website due to the fact that since it is politics it cannot be a local issue. Hence, me and my group thought to get our news story from a website that has national and international news.

Audacity Tools

Evidence of my group's use of the Amplify tool

Once again, my group's editor, Alberto Santos Pinto, used the ''Amplify Tool'' because he needed to raise and lower some bits of the recorded so that they would sound nice and clear to the audience.

Evidence of use of Clipping Boundaries tool

Furthermore, another audacity tool that was used in order to accomplish a good editing process was the ''Clipping Boundaries'' tool which allows the user to create a clip in a specific place on a specific track chosen by the user. This was useful because my group's editor could place part of an audio on another track easily.

Script

As shown on the table below, we included an outside broadcast in this news item because we thought that it could be interesting to challenge the real local radio news bulletins that are usually not present at the actual events.

NAME:	CONTENT:	DURATION.
PAT	In an effort to ensure good UK and US relations
PAT	Boris Johnson will be meeting Donald Trump’s new cabinet.
SFX	(Boris Johnson making a statement)
PAT	Now over to our political correspondent Jason Cueto who is in the US capital
OB	OB
PAT	While the foreign secretary is in Washington, he will be speaking with Jared Kushner and Steve Bannon

Final Production of News Item 6

News Item 7: Weather

About the news story

Picture of News Item 7

News item 8 is about weather which again, is not a local issue. As a result, my group's researcher, Jason Cueto decided to take the information for this news item from BBC Weather.

Weather Jingle

Picture of Weather Jingle creation via Garage Band

The weather jingle was created by Jason Cueto who was responsible for the Sound Effects. In order to create this jingle he used Garage Band which was really useful because he was able to create a really interesting jingle with the use of a piano.

Script

In order for the audience to have a good understanding of the weather information the script had to be short and clear. This is the final script for this news item.

Final Production of News Item 7

News Item 8: Education

About the news story

Picture of the news story for News Item 8

This news story was taken from Harrow Times as it is a really trustworthy source of information about the area that we are focusing on in this news bulletin. Specifically, in this news item we are discussing about a really interesting event that has to do with a primary school which is located at Harrow.

Script

The table below shows the script that we used for news item 8. Me and my group made an effort to make it as short as possible by taking only the most important information.

Name:	Content:	Duration:
Patricia Tiparu.	On the 21st of March,	2 seconds
Patricia Tiparu.	Pupils from Sinai Jewish Primary and the Krishna Avanti School in Harrow, Edgeware will come together,	4-5 seconds
Patricia Tiparu.	to learn more about respecting and understanding about a religion other faiths and culture, in a form of yoga	5-6 seconds
Patricia Tiparu.	The ‘Three Faiths Forum’ was the project designed to gather the two-primary school together,	4 seconds
Patricia Tiparu.	with the objective to make new friends and understand about a religion other than their own	4-seconds

Final Production of News Item 8

Final Production of our Local Radio News Bulletin

 Evaluation Questions

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

In order to present our answer for Evaluation Question No. 1 we used a presenting application called Prezi.

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

Our answer for Evaluation Question No. 2 was answered using Power Point.

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

For our Evaluation Question No. 3 we used the school's Interactive Whiteboards' software called ActivInspire.

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

Our fourth evaluation question was answered with a very special presenting application named ''Video Scribe''.

5.     How did you attract/address your audience?

This is a different answer in comparison to the others since my group recording me while I was speaking and answering this evaluation question and we edited the recording by using Camtasia.

 Victory Trumpet Sound Effect


Bombay Themed Music

Harrow-on-the-hour News Bulletin Jingle


Honey G rap singing 

6.     What have you learned about technologies from the process of constructing product?

Our sixth evaluation question was answered by a video presentation and Prezi.

7.     Looking at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learned in the progression from it to the full product?

Our final evaluation question was answered by using Adobe Lightroom.