Conventions of News Bulletins

In this post I will be looking at the different ways in which news articles are reported, illustrated and elaborated. These convections include:

• Correspondent
• Voxpops
• Soundbites
• Outside Broadcast
• Experts/Guests
• Archive Clips. 

This task will help me prepare for the developing of my final news stories, as I will include these features across my news stories in order to make them sound realistic.

Below I have given a definitions of each factor, what station I found an example on and how it helps illustrate the story.

Definitions:

Correspondent - "A correspondent is someone who is employed to report for a newspaper or Broadcasting radio station". When I listened to  a number of news stories on stations such as Radio 1 and Radio 4 I heard a number of correspondents or specialist reporters. A news storie I heard on Radio 1 contained a sports correspondent. The sports correspondent added additional facts to the sport stories and was more specialised than the main news presenter.

Vox-pops - "A Vox-Pop is used when journalist or researcher goes onto the street to ask the members of the public for their views on the matter at stake". When listening to Radio 1 it contained a story of 'Banning hands free, for mobile users'. The story contained Vox-pops of the general public and their opinions. The article contained an audio clip of the public's thoughts.

Sound Bite- "A sound bite is a short clip of speech of music that is extracted from a longer piece of audio. A sound bite is characterised by a short phase that captures the essence of what the was trying to portray". Soundbites often come from someone who is an expert on the issue in the story or from a prominent member of society such as a doctor or an MP. When listening to an article about 'Google' on Radio 1, I noticed the used of a sound bite. The sound bite was two opposing views on Google attempting to prevent child abuse.

Outside Broadcast - "An outside broadcast is a radio or television program that is not recorded or filmed in the studio, but in another building or open air". A Radio 1 sport story went directly to the sports correspondent who was live at the Etihad Stadium. This can help illustrate the news story as it creates an atmosphere for the story.

 
Expert/ Guest - "A guest is a person who is invited somewhere, in order to attend a particular occasion. An expert is someone who is very knowledgeable about skilful in a specialised area". Radio 4 contained an expert on health from the NHS to comment on a breaking story. This can help illustrate the story as it makes it more realistic, as an expert is justifying the point at stake. This can make people believe it more as someone who is specialised in health field will have a better knowledge of the issue being discussed.

Archive Clip - "An archive clip is a historical recording of a specific person".
Often archive clips feature when the story involves the death of a prominent individual (like Margaret Thatcher) or when someone prominent has fallen from grace or contradicted a point the made in the past. An archive clip is used in order to reinforce the fact the health service has not lived up to their promised the story includes an archive clip of a former health minister outlining plans of the NHS that they have failed to see through.

Representation

In this post I am going to compare and contrast representations taken from two different news bulletins. I am going to comparing Radio 2 (News Beat) and Radio 4. I will  analyse the language, repartee (banter) and the different type of voices used.

I noticed that the representation of people is different depending on the audience and the type of station. In my final script, I know that I am going to have a number of voices in my extract. I know that it will be import to choose the appropriate actors to represent my characters in order to make it sound authentic, and so that the representations appeal to my target audience. I am going to carry out a series of listening tasks, where I will be focusing on the representation of news presenters, but also show presenters, and people in voxpops and adverts.

The first factor I noticed when analyzing both news bulletins is that Radio 2 is less formal in comparison to Radio 4. I noticed this as Radio 4 uses longer sentences, a higher range of more sophisticated vocabulary and accurate pronunciation. Whereas, Radio 2 uses more colloquial language in comparison to Radio 4.

The second factor I noticed is that Radio 2 uses a younger range of presenters, whereas Radio 4
does not. Radio 2 tends to use female voices as they are trying to address a more diverse audience in terms of gender. Radio 2, has three main presenters; one for the main news stories, the second for the gossip stories and the third for sport stories. However, in comparison,Radio 4 only had two main presenters. The first presenter focused on general news stories and the second presenter focused on political news stories.

The tone of voice differs in both news bulletins. The tone of Radio 2 seems to be animated, whereas Radio 4 uses a more serious tone of voice. This has the effect of making Radio 2 sound more cheerful and less formal and indicates that the station targets younger listeners than Radio 4.

Radio 2 also incorporate music bedding behind the reading of their news headlines and news stories. However Radio 4 does not contain any 'music bedding' in their news bulletins. This can have the effect of making Radio 2 sound a lot more informal in comparison to Radio 4, again appealing to a younger audience.

Target Audience

When I was thinking about creating my own radio station, I realised there are various factors about my target audience which my radio station must consider:

• The gender of my audience.

• The location of my audience.

• The age range of my audience. 

• The lifestyle of my audience.

• How often do my target audience listen to the radio?

The underlining factor that is crucial for the success of any radio station is the understanding of the audience's needs. When creating a radio station one must ensure that the audience are completely satisfied with the service that the radio station provides.

My radio station is going to be targeting a specific group in terms of gender, females. My radio is more of a combination between Capital FM radio station and Heat Magazine. When thinking about my audience, it is evident that I will be targeting a more female niche. The age range of women I believe it will appeal to will be between 18- 35. My radio station will also be targeting young mothers.

My Radio station will focus on celebrity gossip and scandal, this will be the main theme of the station. However, at the same time, my station will cover different types of news stories informing my audience of both current weather, current traffic and traffic updates. My station is going to be very modern, playing UK Top 40 hits to an audience based in the London area.