Producing Factual And News Programming

Producing Factual And News Programming



There are three different kinds of radio in the UK, these are; public radio private radio and community radio. The different types of radio differ greatly in what they offer to their audiences and how they present the information. There are four different types of radio; satellite, internet, digital radio and low powered radio stations. There are both commercial and non-profitable types of radio. The BBC is an example of non-profitable radio, this is because it is publicly funded. Commercial radio is different from the BBC because they are not publicly funded and must make money in order to keep running, because of this they target a specific audience and have advertisements to fund themselves.

Public Radio

All public radio is owned by the BBC, which receives its funding from the public, this means that the BBC does not make a profit from its radio programmes. The funding is received through the use of a monthly TV license fee. Since the BBC gains the necessary funding to produce programmes through the TV license, they have to make a multitude of programmes for different audiences. The different programmes on offer by BBC radio include sevreral radio stations that focus on delivering music to the public, these include; Radio 1, Radio 1xtra, Radio 2, 6 music and Asian Network. Several other genres of radio programme are also available on other stations such as; news and sport on 5 live and drama on Radio 4.


Private Radio

Private radio Stations are owned privately, this means that they're not funded by a TV license and must receive funding from adverts and people from their audience entering competitions. Since most of their money comes from advertising, they must maintain a large amount of adverts in their radio shows to make a profit and keep the station running. On average there are about 3 minutes of adverts on every 15 minutes on a typical radio show.


Community Radio
There are many community radio stations around the UK (roughly around 200). Community radio differs greatly from region to region as each of them is designed to suit that regions needs. Community radio stations generally only cover a small area each, around 5km. This is because each region has their own, so community radio doesn't really need a big area of influence since it is designed for that community. Community radio stations will often talk about what's going on in the local communities and may be targeted at a specific cultures or people with certain interest within that community or the community as a whole.

Speech Programming
News Packages
A formal type of speech package designed to inform, they're usually straight-forward, to the point and unbiased. They are designed to provide information on what is currently happening across the world to listeners. Sometimes they are short and snappy and fit between other radio programmes and some are longer and go into much more detail on each story.


Listening Diary 1

Station: BBC News
Show: BBC Minute
Target Audience: Adults
Genre: News
Programme Style: Formal
Programme Structure: The programme begins by the two presenters introducing themselves, they both then read out each of the news headlines, giving a brief explanation. Some sounds are also played in the background to help the listeners visualise an image.
Contributors: News presenters, inputs from interviews
Legal/Ethical Considerations: Unbiased, the purpose is to inform people rather than sway them to either side of a topic or offending. Taking into consideration the target audience, warn people of any harmful or possibly offensive content beforehand.

Factual Packages
these can be formal or informal in the form of a discussion, documentary, magazine or music sequence. The primary purpose of these is to inform but they can try to be more exciting by adding certain sounds and actuality to help tell a story to the listeners.


Listening Diary 2

Show: Thirty Years Man And Boy - a calmer chameleon
Target Audience: Boy George Fans
Genre: Documentary
Programme Style:  Informal
Programme Structure: This show begins with a short melody, this melody helps to separate it from the last show and lets the listeners know that the show has changed, followed by the presenter introducing the show. While they talk about some of his songs they quietly play them in the background. The story of Boy George is told through interviews with people who were in some way each involved in his life or had experience with him. Everyone involved in the show is introduced, all except Boy George who does not need an introduction as he is the subject of the show.
Contributors: The presenter, people being interviewed
Legal/Ethical Considerations: Personal details of people involved cannot be released.

Listening Diary 3

Station: BBC Radio 4
Show: Maggie Smith: A Biography
Target Audience: Maggie Smith's Fans
Genre: Documentary
Programme Style: Informal
Programme Structure: The show begins with a short melody which fades out as the presenter introduces himself and the show. No music is used in the background during the show, he does however occasionally put on a voice when quoting any person involved with Maggie Smith. The show is the presenter reading her biography aloud to the listener. 
Contributors:  The presenter
Legal/Ethical Considerations: Not including any personal details.


Target Audience
 The content a rasio station creates can be very different depending on their target audience. A target audience is the group of people that the radio aims to produce content for. This means taking into consideration their age, gender, race and where they live to produce content appropriate for them that they will enjoy and not be offended by.


Contributors
The term contributor refers to the people who are involved in the speech package. All of the speech packages I have looked at have a presenter, this is the person who has to report everything in the speech package. Potential contributors for a speech package are; correspondents, politicians, experts, interviewees, reporters and vox pops. Contributors are very common in speech packages especially on topics that the listeners may not know a lot about, this is when they bring someone in to speak about it and help inform the listeners. Speech packages can also include; sound effects, actuality and music beds. Sound effects are used to assist with telling a story to the listener as it helps them build the image in their head of what is being described to them. Actuality is the use of background noise to help create an atmosphere. Noises like cheers from a stadium or cars in a tunnel are examples of actuality, these are useful for telling a story to the listener and helping them get a feeling of the environment. Music beds are used to make the speech package more interesting and also to transition to a new show.


Ethics And Regulation
Ethical rules are rules of responsibility and conduct that are expected to be complied with by all radio shows. Whilst they are not actual laws failing to comply along with these rules can result in complaints and disapproval from peers or even the company. Whenever making a speech package care must be taken to ensure that what you are producing is not harmful or offensive to any potential viewers. To ensure this you must take into account everyone of different races, gender, sexuality, religion and income and decide how best to avoid offending anyone who could possibly be offended. Offensive jokes are sometimes not a problem unless they become too offensive at which point the general public becomes genuinely offended by them, which means that they have breached ethical rule. Care must also be taken to ensure you are not showing any sensitive content such as forms of abuse which may lead to harmful effect on the listeners as they may have a traumatic response to it. Breaching ethical rules with a show can result in the station itself being taken off the air. Radio stations have rules set in place by OFCOM that must be followed to remain on air. No stereotypes can be used on radio as it can cause great offence to the public and there must be a fair representation of all subjects talked about, especially those of a sensitive nature.


OFCOM
OFCOM is in charge of regulating radio, TV, tele communications, fixed line, mobiles, postal services and airwaves. OFCOM deals with the complaints issued for a programme after its broadcat however if a person complains about a programme before its broadcast they contact the broadcaster directly to deal with the situation. Since OFCOM deals with complaints about roadcast programmes complaints can be issued to OFCOM by filling in an online complaints form. OFCOM will examine the complaint with The Broadcasting Code to see if the programme is in violation of any of the rules. If a programme seriously breaches the code or does so multiple times then they have the right to impose sanctions, these sanctions can take the form of a large fine or even the removal of their broadcasting license altogether. The Broadcasting Code is applicable to TV and radio and covers standards in programmes, product placement, sponsorship, fairness and privacy.The code was drawn up after extensive research of viewers, listeners and broadcasters.

The ten sections of The Broadcasting Code are as follows:

 - Protecting under 18's
 - Harm and offence
 - Crime
 - Religion
 - Due impartiality and due accuracy and undue prominence of views and opinions
 - Elections and referendums
 - Fairness
 - Privacy
 - Commercial references in TV programming
 - Commercial communications in radio programming


BBC Trust - Editorial Guidelines

Since the BBC is a publicly funded radio station the criticisms and complaints of the general public are very important to them. They aim to listen to all of the criticisms given and improve where possible to create good quality entertainment for the public. Since the public is their main audience they must respect them, they do this by following certain guidelines to not harm or offend anyone, including not giving out anyone personal information unless personal consent is given. The BBC has a set of 'Editorial Guidelines' which has been put together as a set of rules for all BBC stations must follow so as not to harm or offend anyone. The guidelines can be found here http://www.bbc.co.uk/editorialguidelines/guidelines/

Secondary Research

Secondary Research


I have looked on the internet to research various existing popular directors. I have looked at the films they've made and if they work primarily independently or in Hollywood. I researched directors like Neil Blomkamp, Ridley Scott and James Cameron. I then looked at directors who work primarily outisde of hollywood such as Park Chan Wook. I also looked at examples of well known influential directors such as Alfred Hitchcock.

 

I also researched what independent film and hollywood film actually are in order to gain an appropriate understanding of the differences between them.

Treatment

Treatment

I am going to produce a five minute radio speech package including vox pops and an interview. The subject of my speech package will be directing. For this I will talk about directing and different directors and ask relating questions in my vox pops and interview. The questions asked will be about directing as a profession and their favourite directors. For the interview the questions will be more formal e.g; Do you think directors have to have their own style to make themselves and their work stand out?

The target audience for my speech package is teenagers between the ages of 16-19 with an interest in films. A large segment my target audience is in college doing film related courses. My speech package will appeal to its target audience because it is on directing and may contain information helpful to aspiring directors. it will also appeal to film students interests, the speech package will talk about films and heir relative directors, something that should interest film students.

For the speech package I will interview Andy Harrison, I will interview Andy because he has a good amount of knowledge on films and directors and knows a great deal about the industry, I know this for sure because I have had previous conversations with him on this topic. I have also seen some the films he has created.

For my vox pops I will talk to other members of my course, I will do this because they also study film and will at least have an interest in films and directors. Through vox pops I want to find out what film students think of some of the most well known and less well known directors and what they think about the actual profession

The music I will use in my speech package will be 'The Last Waltz' from the soundtrack for the movie 'Oldboy,' I chose this song because it is a relaxed song that won't draw too much attention away from the speech package itself, it is also however not too boring as that would make the speech package harder to listen to for the audience. I think this song is good as background music, as if this is the background music too much attention will not be drawn away from the speech package itself however people can still appreciate the music at the same time.