P5 - Contacting Whitechapel Mission

Below are two emails sent from me to Whitechapel Mission regarding an interview with someone that can talk about the issue of homelessness and the response. A message was sent a week before sending this email to their website asking for an interview but I've gotten no reply so this was another attempt to get into contact with the charity.

 

 

 

This is the response I got shortly after sending the email. I managed to successfully get into contact about the matter but unfortunately because of the Christmas holidays I'm unable to get an interview at this time but have the opportunity to do it in January.

 

 

FLY FM

 

P4 - My Stories

MY STORIES

Aspects of the news I've decided to focus and research on are entertainment (soft story) as many of our target audience mentioned that they listen to news more to do with this, and human interest (hard story), which would appeal to our audience because this is where I'll be covering news that affect young people.

For my hard story, I've chosen to look into homelessness in young people in East London. I've decided to look into a charity called 'Whitechapel Mission' which is nearby.

By researching into this story I'm going to interview a person who works at the charity or if possible someone who has gone for help at the mission.

FLY FM

P3 - Phone conversation to plan a meeting (AUDIO)

This is a recording of a conversation between me and another member of my group organizing to meet up to plan and work on our presentation 

FLY FM

P2 - Official logo

This is Fly FM's official radio logo. As seen our logo consists of a megaphone with a speech bubble coming out of it filled with questions. This connotes our newscast is informative as we aim to ask the questions that our audience do not inquire. On the megaphone the name of our radio station is encrypted on there to let people know it is us.

We wanted to make sure that our logo stood out but we didn't want to add too much colour as it would make it look too extravagant. So we stuck to using casual colours but still making look attractive. We used a simple software - Photoshop - to create and slightly alter the picture. The logo originally started out as just a plain white megaphone, but with the use of colours we managed to make it look more professionally done, suitable for our newscast.

P1 - Group Planning (AUDIO)

In this audio me and two other members of my group discuss what each of us should research in local news. I have chosen to look into the entertainment news as my soft story and the issue of homeless in young people for my hard story.

FLY FM

R27 - Script Development

From this script I've learnt how a script is developed, the terminology such as 'Slug' which is the title, and 'conventional ending' which is the usual way of ending a newscast. I've also learnt what the role of each person of reading a newscast are and the structure of reading it, for example an anchor is the person that reads the lead sentence of a story and every sentence is a new paragraph. 

FLY FM

R26 - What's a vox pop? (VIDEO)

A vox pop is where members of the public are questioned about opinions on something, which is a useful source of news.

Down below is an example of a vox pop. The video includes members of the public aged 20+ being asked what the watch on TV.
 

    

 

The media use vox pop for many reasons, such as:

 

to test public opinion and interest

to influence decision-makers

to forecast results of events

to stimulate public debate

to promote the newspaper, radio or television station, and make it more popular

Types of vox pops

There are three types of vox pop, and each has its place in the media - the full public opinion survey, the limited survey and the simple street poll.

Public opinion survey

This needs to be conducted scientifically by a company which specialises in such surveys. The data which they gather from carefully prepared questions is statistically analysed by computer.

All this costs big money. General elections in the UK and USA are now so carefully covered in advance by such surveys that the result on election day is seldom a surprise.

Limited survey

This can be carried out by journalists, using a structured questionnaire, and some statistical conclusions may be drawn from it. Its accuracy is limited, however, so any findings should be treated with caution.

Street poll

This does not attempt to gather statistical information; it is looking for good quotes. A random selection of members of the public are asked for their opinions on a given topic, and the best ones quoted. It is good to photograph them and publish their quote with their picture, or record their voices for broadcast.

R25 - Making News

So... What is news??

 

News tells people what's happening around the world. When talking about it it's often something that people want to know, need to know and be of their interest

 

 

 

>  People must be watching, listening and reading the news

>  There needs to be a good mix of stories

   >  It should include local news as well as national & international     news 

   >  The stories should be chosen with the audience in mind

 

There are 6 steps to making the news:

-  Find

-  Gather

-  Write 

-  Assemble

-  Order

-  Broadcast
 

 

Where do the stories comes from? No not TV... 

To present news and talk about it, it must be found first which is the first stage. You need to look around, listen, talk to people (get more social!). You may commonly hear something in school or in the local area. Think about this; "what was the last thing i found out that makes me want to tell my friends.

 

When finding news it comes from places called 'sources'. It can be a journalist, press/news release, witnesses or people - such as experts, friends, neighbours etc. HOWEVER, when getting information from sources it is important to make sure it is TRUE and ACCURATE. For example, if 2 sources have the same stories told in the same way then it is probably true

 

 

  This shows examples of stories and why they are classed as 'news'



R24 - Sounds Codes

 

 

There are 4 types of sound codes in radio:

-               Music

-               Speech

-               Silence

-               Sound Effect
 

  

 MUSIC

Music is used a lot in radio due to changing scenes. These are called jingles and by using them it makes it a lot clearer for the audience to show there location. An example of this is at a train station as you can use announcements. By using music and sound effects it creates the atmosphere and set the mood.

 

SPEECH

Speech is what is DEFINITELY needed for radio. When listening to the radio the presenters need to have a change tone that would be appropriate for what they are talking about. For example, if talking about a story where someone has been murdered the appropriate tone here would be perhaps mournful or serious. A positive stone would give the complete wrong impression. From a radio that is trying to target young audience may talk or use slang/slang words to relate to their audience, however if it is a radio such as LBC then formal language should be used and spoken as it is covering the news.

 

SILENCE
Silence can have its many uses to create an effect. It can be used to present a new story, but what is more common from observing the news it is often used to present serious news, so whenever there is a silence people will know that a serious topic is going to be spoken about. It's also used to make something sound or seem dramatic. This is useful because it will create suspense which usually keeps an audience hanging in there until they find out what's going on.

SOUND EFFECT
Using sound effects will determine where someone may be. For example, if oyu hear live music playing and people screaming it will be assumed that a radio presenter is at a music festival or a concert. Sounds effects can also be used for comical use, such as audience laughter.

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Overall these sound codes can be used to create and present an effective and successful radio newscast.

This shows how important using sound codes are as they practically make up the radio for what they are. Without them it would be less interesting and amusing. For my radio I need to consider this to target my audience



R23 - Codes and Conventions of Radio

                                

Codes and conventions of radio from SyedaT13

R22 - Rajar

                                

Rajar from SyedaT13

R21 - Is Radio Outdated?

 

 

What's a radio?...

 

Recently I have been going out and observing society and how everyday people gain access to information. From observation it is clear how the most common way of finding out about the news - locally, nationally and globally -is. And that is... the internet. With the internet being accessible almost anywhere people are using smartphones, androids and computers to find out what's going on in the world. There are also other forms of getting information. For example, to find out when a movie is going to released there are Billboards and promotional posters on busses, taxis and train stations to inform you of that.

 

In my opinion I think the radio is more popular with older audiences ranging from the ages of 30+. This may be because people like sticking to the old, traditional way of listening to music, the news etc. The 'Golden Age' of radio is said to have been between the !930s-1940s according to cybercollege.com. And because not everyone could've bought a TV, a radio was another option.

 

 

Over the years technology keeps on improving and creating great impacts on everyone's lives. For example, the iPhone, working robots, electric cars. Taking this in mind, radio is losing its value as there are much more easy and accessible ways of keeping up with everyday news. With music, there are now many ways to access songs, listen to favourite artists and purchase songs. These are all done digitally.

 

From this I've learnt to find ways to make sure that I keep up to date with what is going on so I keep my target audience interested. I think the best way to do so is by using social media such as facebook to reach out to my audience as they are more likely to take interest in something that is relatable to them as they are teenagers/young adults.