Planning - Reflection of examiners report

Useful points from the report:

 Statement of intent -  

•  Ensure that there is a 'clear link between the two pieces of work' - through the use of digital convergence.
•  'The strongest work had clearly been supported by focused research, detailed planning, attention to detail and a strong, sustained central concept based solidly on the requirements and details of the brief, as reflected in focused, unambiguous Statements of Intent.'
• 'weakest statements tended to repeat the brief without explaining how the requirements and production details were to be achieved' - go in to detail with radio work e.g. soundtrack, voices, sound effects, editing etc.

Radio and Online (my intended brief)

•  The best pieces included a range of content
• Ensure that the voices recorded are not poor quality
•  When using the idea of 'phone-ins' ensure that it wasn't obvious the voices were coming from the same room
•  Good amount of editing
•  Add jingles
•  There was a lack of sound effects or consideration of acoustic space
•  Ensure that there is not long segments of dialogue focused on the same feature rather than covering a range of content 

Websites

•  When using WIX to personalise your website, work from a blank template 
• Radio briefs tended to have embedded videos of behind the scenes footage on their websites
• Link between the two products needed to be strong so adding examples of tweets, Instagram posts, newsletters etc
• Mention website during the radio show

Audience Research - Audience Behaviour

Audience behaviour 3 from MeganSimpson29

I then asked my focus group some questions:
How often do you listen to the radio?
Finn - a few times a week, normally at the weekend.
Ella - I listen everday
Kai - most days 
Susie- Everday
How do you listen to the radio?
Finn - in the car or on the tv
Ella - On my phone, tv and in the car
Kai - in the car and on my google home 
Susie - On my google home
Are you more likely to listen to a podcast than the radio?
Finn- yes
Ella- yes
Kai- yes 
Susie - No

From this I have decided to incorporate the personal and intimate style of a podcast in to my chat show. This will not only help me get the product desired, but it is a podcast is something that my target audience are more likely to listen to.

Focus Group

Focus group (3) from MeganSimpson29

Generic Research 3

Generic research 3 (1) from MeganSimpson29

Generic Research 2

Gr from MeganSimpson29

Generic Research: Textual Analysis 1

I decided to look at topical chat shows that were broadcasted on radio stations for inspiration and ideas that I could and might want to include in my own work.
I started with Radio 4's Women's Hour because it is a talk radio show that is a magazine programme which consists of several items about different topics, people and events. The main genre of the show is focusing on women's issues, much like my idea which is to solely to focus the show on conspiracy theories but to link them to how they effect society etc. 

I was interested in how the topics discussed where all about women or how they affected women. This was how I wanted to format my chat show and talk about conspiracy theories and the affects that they had. So, I decided to listen to part of a show, writing and creating a timeline of aspects they include.

• 00:02 - introduction to the show
• 00:10 - they give an overview of what is going to be discussed in that particular episode, playing video clips that are later going to be discussed 'more on this later', short new segment on what's been happening during the week
• 00:48 - a list of people who are going to appear in the episode and what they will be discussing 
• 01:38 - interview/ discussion on current topics and issues
• 02:12 - asking questions e.g. what do you think? encouraging phone-ins
• 02:20 - receiving and discussing phone-ins
• 08:48 - asking professionals for advice/answers based on the phone-ins, various ages of callers e.g. 82 years old, 17 years old, 25 years old
• 12:42- discussion on topics that are considered more serious
• 16:32- moves on to a more light-hearted topic
• 18:10 - the audience is encouraged to share on social media and this promotes a sense of online community -  'get in touch through twitter or Instagram'
• 18:25 - 'still to come'

I enjoy how they have one main genre of women's issues but each episode focuses on individual topics so that that discussion doesn't get repetitive and indicates how broad the genre is. I also like how the issues are based on topics that are relevant and current and are relatable to the middle to upper class audience. I would like to emulate the same or a similar format in my own work where we have 'debate-style' discussions with opportunities for the audience to phone - in as audiences today have much higher cultural expectations of interactivity and participation, due largely to the development of the internet. 

Audience Research: Feeback on Pitch

The first question that I asked was to ensure that the audience felt that my initial idea would fit the brief and I was very happy as the responses showed that 100% said they would listen to a radio show based on conspiracy theories. 

 The next question i asked was if they thought the radio show should be a more chatty and friendly debate, or take a scientific and serious approach. 88% of responses suggested that it should be more of a light hearted debate, whereas 12% said it should be more scientific and serious. Using these responses, the overall genre of the chat show will be more of a debate - style, whilst ensuring to include some facts and statistics. 

 I then asked whether or not they thought the topic of conspiracy theories would be suitable for a demographic of 16-25 year old who where also middle class. The response was very positive with 100% of people voting that it would be a suitable idea and would fi that demographic. This gave me confidence which allowed me to proceed with my ideas.  

 The next two questions I asked were to gain suggestions on both the name of the chat show and enquired to whether it should be focused solely on the topic of conspiracy theories or to branch out in to other areas. The overall response was to make conspiracy theories the main focus and perhaps try and bring in a news segment or create links with how these theories can affect society.