Tuesday 3rd December 2024
Component One - The Radio Industry
LO: To explore the content and structure of the unit.
Do Now: 3/5
1) Paper 1 - 1hour 30 minutes long.
2) Two parts of section B - Industries & Audiences.
3) Media Language & Representation.
4) Each question - 1 mark a minute.
5) HOW FAR - Make a judgement / come to a conclusion.
Radio: The Archers
Public Service Broadcaster - Broadcasting intended for public benefit rather than to serve purely commercial interests. It is financed by public money.
Commercial Radio - The channels on your radio set that use advertisements for monetisation.
Community Radio - Radio stations that are operated, owned and influenced by the communities they serve. they are non-profit.
Podcast - A digital audio file made available on the internet for downloading to a computer or mobile device, typically available as a series, new instalments of which can be received by subscribers automatically.
DAB Radio - Digital Audio Broadcast is a digital radio standard for broadcasting radio stations.
RAJAR - radio Joint Audience Research is the official body in charge of measuring radio audiences in the United Kingdom.
License Fee - They are a hypothetical tax to fund public broadcasting. An annual fee used to finance the BBC, which is payable by each household in which television programmes are watched.
Royal Charter - A formal document that gives an organisation independent legal statue and defines its powers, constitution and objectives.
Remit - Something that outlines a broadcaster's area of responsibility.
Convergence - The coming together of previously separate media industries and / or platforms often the result of advances in technology whereby one device or platform contains a range of different features.
In the UK, radio falls into three categories: Public Service | Commercial | Community Radio.
Research:
1)
Radio 1 - 15-29 year-olds.
Radio 2 - 35+.
Radio 3 - 35-54 years-old.
Radio 4 - 55+.
Radio 5 - 25-54 years-old.
2) BBC REMIT - To inform, educate and entertain people in the UK and around the world.
3) Tv License - £170 a year.
4) A mixed speech radio station, covering news, current affairs, but also offers drama series, readings, comedy, factual and magazine programmes.
5) Two largest biggest commercial radio organisation are Global and Bower.
Ofcom - Regulates radio in the UK.
Friday 6th December 2024The Archers
Lo: To explore the context and production of a radio drama.
Do Now: 4/5
1) Public Service Broadcaster - Intended for public benefit, as it is funded by the public.
2) Commercial radio is funded by advertising.
3) BBC Radio 4 broadcasts content like mixed speech / spoken word.
4) Ofcom regulates radio in the UK.
5) The development of technology caused the popularity of radio to increase as it made the radio more portable as seen also in cars. Technical convergence / streaming platforms.
Why DAB Radio?:
- Digital radio is widely used due to better quality sound and wider access to more stations.
- Digital technology allows media organisations to offer audience many ways to experience a programme in addition to listening on a radio:
Streaming Live
Listening again via a catch-up service
Downloading a podcast
Accessing content on social media platforms (e.g. YouTube)
- All this content across a range of platforms offers audiences the opportunity to choose where and when they listen to the radio.
Podcasts:
- Podcasts are now regularly produced by radio broadcasters, offering the chance to download a programme.
- Many offer additional content or edited highlights form the original programme.
- Increasingly, podcasts are produced independently of a radio broadcaster: these include drama series, comedies and factual shows.
Statistics from RAJAR from 2023:
- 88% of the UK's adult population, or 49.5 million people, listened to the radio each week.
- Commercial radio's share of listening was 54.1%, up from 50.9% in 2022.
- 17% of total listening was on smart speakers, a 22% increase form the previous year.
- Total combined digital listening is now 72% of all radio listening. This is predominantly DAB which is 42.7% and online which is 25.6%.
- Some BBC Radio stations saw a decline in listeners, including:
BBC Radio 1: Down 6% from 7.7 million to 7.3 million.
BBC Radio 3: Down from 2 million to 1.8 million.
BBC Radio 4: Down slightly from 9.3 million to 9.1 million.
BBC Radio 5 Live: Down slightly form 5.5 million to 5.25 million.
BBC Radio 6 Music: Down from 2.75 million to 2.5 million.
Audience Appeals:
- Radio fulfils a range of Uses & Gratifications for audiences.
Personal Identity - People who like listening to the radio (if they were brought up with it).
Information - Things going on in the world.
Entertainment - Music and songs for people to listen to.
Social Interaction - Talk to other people about things being talked about on radio.
- There are different pleasures associated with different genres of radio, such as speech or music programmes, but some of the main appeals are:
Companionship & background sound.
Relaxation, entertainment & escapism.
Information & education.
The Archers:
- The Archers is the world's longest running radio soap opera.
- Broadcast since 1951, it was famously billed as "an everyday story of country folk" and is now promoted as "a contemporary drama in a rural setting".
- One of the original intentions of the programme was to communicate information about modern farming methods to increase food productions, as food was still being rationed after WW2.
- Today, it is very carefully researched and is informative about many issues to do with farming, rural issues and wider contemporary social issues.
- It's drama, but not as you know it.
- It's slow-moving, subtle and gentle.
- It is set in the fictional village of Ambleside.
- Storylines are sometimes serious - e.g. rape in marriage, racism, drug addiction, family break-ups.
- More commonly, stories focus on daily rural life - e.g. caring for animals, marmalade-making competitions, harvesting crops.
Soap Opera Conventions:
- Open ended narrative.
- Long-running series.
- Themes of drugs, domestic violence, pregnancy, homosexuality, and crime are often represented in soap operas.
- Well-known theme tune.
- They never begin and never end.
- Large cast.
- Set around a small central area.
- Each episode ends on a cliffhanger.
- There is always more than one storyline being shown at a time, (multi-standard narratives).
- The traditional target audience for soap operas is females and so they often feature strong female characters or MATRIARCHS.
- Stories focused on family / work / relationships.
- Designed for regularly listening, (e.g. daily).
- Ongoing stories to keep viewers 'hooked'.
- Multi-standard narratives to reflect real life.
- Set in specific locations where characters come together (pubs, cafe, workplaces, etc).
- Tend to feature more dialogue than action - drama arises out of conflict between characters.
How can you listen to The Archers?
- Short running time - 13 minutes.
- Broadcast on the radio in regular timeslots - 7pm every day except Saturday, repeated at 2pm the following day.
- Weekly omnibus every Sunday morning.
- Also available online on-demand for 30 days after broadcast.
- Weekly podcast of the omnibus available to download.
- Available on BBC Sounds app internationally.
How do the listening options offer flexibility to a wide target audience?
People who are listening the radio are able to obtain the information needed to hear about the show resulting in them wanting to watch it. It is international which means that people are allowed to watch it from many different places concluding in a larger / wider audience.
BBC Radio 4:
- The Archers is aired on BBC Radio 4, the BBC's main spoken-word channel.
- This means it is funded by the license fee.
- Although one original function of the show was to educate farmers (linking to the BBC's public service remit), it soon gained a large audience not just people from the rural communities.
- However, the show still prides itself on the quality of its research and its ability to portray real rural life.
Tuesday 10th December 2024The Archers - Set Episode.
LO: To explore a specific episode of the set text & the target audience.
Do Now: 4/5
1) The Archers - First broadcasted 1951.
2) The Archers broadcast is on BBC Radio 4.
3) Soap Opera conventions - Large casts, open ended narrative.
4) The Archers broadcast 7pm everyday except Saturday, repeated at 2pm the following day on radio.
5) BBC's remit is to inform, educate and entertain.
- The Archers is aired on BBC Radio 4, the BBC's main spoken-word channel.
- This means it is funded by the license fee.
- Although one original function of the show was to educate farmers (linking to the BBC's public service remit), it soon gained a large audience and a source of entertainment for a wider audience not just people form the rural communities.
- However, the show still prides itself on the quality of its research and its ability to portray real rural life.
Listeners:
- The Archers has approximately 5 million listeners - PLUS 1 million online.
- Historically, radio soap operas have always focused primarily on women's lives, particularly family relationships, domesticity and marriage. Therefore, the target audience was traditionally females who looked after the home.
TARGET AUDIENCE ---> ADULT AND OLDER BRITISH WOMEN!!
The Archers is the longest-running and still ongoing radio soap opera that was first broadcasted in 1951 and remains one of the largest radio soap operas with 5 million listeners and another 1 million online listeners. Each episode would be broadcast on an omnibus at 7pm everyday except for Saturday, repeated at 2pm the following day on radio. The episodes revolves around a rural farming community that focuses on relationships and many other aspects.
Production:
- The programme is produced at the BBC studios in Birmingham.
- The producers consult specialist advisors when developing storylines.
- Different scenes are recorded in different areas to ensure that the sounds match the scenes.
- The authenticity of the Ambridge world is very important - from the sound of walking right down to which birdsong you would hear at different times of the year.
- Just like life, there is usually one big storyline going on all the time, and smaller domestic ones running alongside. Family feuds, violent relationships and affairs co-exist with cake baking and the Village Show.
Notes from watching an episodes of The Archers:
- Storylines - Helen left. New neighbour coming? Gavin got released from prison and been in hospital.
- Main Characters - Julie, Emma, Helen, Joey (Julie does not like her?), Mick, Gavin (Creepy & very clearly sick (coughing)). Emma is a parish councillor. Jordan lost / missing? Mackenzie lost / missing / dead? Joy. Linda. Someone is Santa for a show.
- Genre Conventions -
- Audience Appeals - Christmassy.
- How does the episode "inform, educate or entertain"? -
- How does the episode show the impact of social or cultural contexts? - Christmassy.
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