Assignment 1

Task 1:

Assignment One – Task One – Comparing Bulletins

For this task we were asked to listen to three different news bulletins that were broadcasted at the same time on the same day, then compare them and look at why they have used certain codes and conventions.  I choose to listen to a broadcast from BBC Radio 2, Capital South Coast and Wave 105.

Capital

Length – 2:04 minutes

Style – Less Formal than Radio2 but more formal than the radio presenter

Audience – Contemporary Hit Radio station listeners

Top Story – Footballer Gareth Bale sold for $85m

Running Order:

·      News Jingle

·      Headlines

·      Top story (above)

·      PM with war news (audio)

·      Coronations street sex offences

·      David Frost Death

·      Wicked in Southampton

·      Advert

·      Weather

On this news bulletin, capital fm have used audio on a story about David Cameron wanting a second vote on sending troops to Syria. They use the words from a southern MP Mike Hancock. They use Mike Hancock because he is from the south and the audience will connect with that as they are from the south as well.

BBC Radio 2

Length – 5:19 minutes

Style – Very Formal

Audience – Adult Contemporary Radio station listeners

Top Story – Obama pushing congress to take military action against Syria

Running Order:

·      News Jingle

·      Headlines

·      Top Story (above)

·      Reporter on top story (audio)

·      Failed GCSE’s

·      Reporter on Failed GCSE’s (audio)

·      Boy arrested on arson at school

·      Complaint against the government

·      Business correspondent (audio)

·      Vodafone Selling

·      Scientific research on height

·      Reporter on research (audio)

·      Global warning

·      Weather forecast

On this news bulletin for BBC Radio 2 they use audio on a news story for Obama wanting Congress to get military action against Syria. In this story there is emphasis on words such as ‘killing 1400 civilians’ and ‘Victory’ these will catch the audiences ear and make them intrigued about what is being said.

Wave 105

Length – 3:31 minutes

Style – More formal than Capital but less formal than Radio 2

Audience – Adult Contemporary Radio station listeners

Top Story – David Frost’s death on Southampton cruise ship.

Running Order:

·      Jingle

·      Top story (above)

·      Ester Rampson on David frosts death (audio)

·      David Cameron and Syria

·      America and Syria

·      Mike Burgess on Syria (audio)

·      Motor Cyclist

·      Spiderman distracting drivers

·      Free child care

·      Selling contact info to companies

·      Life boats and Bournmouth Air Festival

·      Twitter

On this news bulletin for Wave 105 they use audio on the news story about David Frost's Death. This shows the emotions of a work college of his which brings a sense of drama to the news story. In this story they have emphasis on the word 'dead', although it shouldn't, this draws the attention of the audience into the news bulletins because society has interest in deaths. 

BBC Radio 2 is a lot more formal compare to Capital and Wave 105, it attracts an older audience. Capital is a Contemporary hit radio station which means it attracts the mainstream younger audience which has more of an interest in music and sport than stories about politics and war. Wave 105 and BBC Radio 2 are both Adult Contemporary Radio station so they have similar target audience although, wave 105 is less formal.

Check this out on Chirbit
Check this out on Chirbit

Evaluation 

The target audience for my two pieces of audio is targeted at the listens of a Contemporary Hit Radio station, such as capital and Radio 1. This is because the type of stories I have spoken about would be of interest to the target audience. The target audience would tend to be the younger members of the audience who have an interest in music and celebrities. Each story has different values which make them interesting, the values in my pieces are the fact a drug dealer has been caught and being made to pay back every penny of his illegal dealings, and that a celebrity has been found of drug abuse.

We use audio in news bulletins because it brakes up news stories, making them more interesting to listen to. It also makes emphasis on certain stories, making them stand out from the rest of the stories being told. Audio also adds more weight and information to the bulletin. If I was to of added audio to my first story, whether it was from the mother of the criminal or a police officers opinion it would of made the story stand out from the rest and it would of also been more believable and added weight to it.

A Voxpop is used to get the listeners involved in the bulletin and to show the audience a range of opinions, it tends to be used on lighter stories more than criminal stores as the publics opinion on a criminal story will be pretty similar where as a light story will have a wider range of opinions from the public. I have used a voxpop for the story about nigella Lawson doing drugs because I thought it would get a wide range of opinions, but as you can see from my voxpop they all say similar things as they all think that it is a bad thing that she does it.

When I was recording my voxpop I found some elements hard than others. I found that asking people to give their opinion was difficult because you need confidence to go up to someone you don’t know and ask them a topic they may or may not know about or even care about. Going around college to do this was even more difficult because the other students didn’t really know what to say or like the fact that they were going to be recorded. At radio stations they get the people on work experience to go and take voxpops because it builds up there confidence and shows the station whether they are the right sort of people for radio, it also preps them for interviews later on in their career.

When recording my voice piece for part of a news bulletin I found that you needed to find a really quiet room to record otherwise you get a huge amount of background noise, we recorded in a small closed room and because the ventilation in the room causes background noise. I also found it that it was difficult to speak clearly into the recorder, and to try and make it sound natural and not like I was reading a script, I don’t think I did very well at that.

I tried to write my script so that it fitted in with the conventions of news, I did this by keep my script to 30seconds long, and speaking in a formal way so that it doesn’t sound like the presenter of the show.

I don’t think that my outcomes were that good, this was because there is a lot of background noise in my audio piece, and also my audio wasn’t very clear this is due to me not speaking clearly, smoothly or naturally, these are three factors that could of really improved my audio. If I were to do this again I would change anything about my script I would just work on my speaking techniques and try get a room with no background noise. When it comes to my voxpop I believe that the topic I chose to do it on, Nigella Lawsons drug abuse, was a bad topic because there was a negative general opinion about it so it was pretty one sided. I have learnt that you need a light news story to get a wide range of opinions on a voxpop.

Assignment 2

Law

Defamation
Defamation is the publication of a false statement that could harm a reputation of a person, a company or a group of people.

Libel

Slander

Fair Comment

Privilege

Public Interest


Contempt of Court

Reporting Restrictions
James Bulger Case:
On 12th February 1993, two year old James Bugler was abducted from a shopping centre by two 10year olds, and taken to a near by train track where he was tortured and murdered. The two 10year olds, who were found guilty were Robert Thompson and Jon Venables, they were the youngest convicted murders in modern english history.
Usually in cases where children are involved the Children's Act protects the identities of all persons under the age of 18, but the Judge didn't follow this in this particular case. This case was very public and had a hell of a lot of media attention, the judge was under pressure to give information about the case and for this reason gave the names of the young convicted murders. In my opinion this was wrong, although the law states by the age of ten you are aware of what you are doing and are criminally responsible. These boys didn't have a great up bringing which in my eyes leads to be less educated and mature than other 10 year olds, making them mentally younger than 10. By letting there identities be public, is setting them up to fail in future, no matter how much time they were in side for as soon as they were released their names and photos will be all around the country and even worldwide, being shown in schools, colleges and being studied at universities, this isn't fair in my opinion on their mental well being. In my eyes no matter the crime, the age or gender, the mental and physically well being of another individually should be strongly considered.