RADIO PROJECT - Radio Room

 AS Media RADIO PROJECT - Radio Room

Group: Ilona, Sera, Rania, Sharon
> Blog is written by me (Sharon)

Image 1.1

On our 4th week, we visited the school's radio room to get introduced to radio equipment and tutorials on how to utilize them by one of our IT teachers. For the basics, the equipment for audio are a laptop, microphone (dynamic), and audio interface.

The basic radio equipment

Image 1.2 (Credit to Rania)

Microphone.

Image 1.3 (Credit to Rania)

Audio Interface.

Image 1.4 (Credit to Rania)

The microphone connected to the XLR connector.
Image 1.5 (Credit to Rania)

Steps:

• Connect the audio interface to a laptop with a USB charger
• Connect one of the XLR connectors to the microphone's XLR plug
• Connect the other XLR connectors to the audio interface

Note: To know that the audio is coming from the microphone, it shows feedback when you apply sensitivity onto the studio/individual microphone (tapping/speaking) (Image 1.6), whereas it doesn't show feedback when you exert sensitivity (such as tapping) on the laptop's microphone, near the webcam (as seen on Image 1.7)

> Apple's Voice Memos is used to test for the result of the connections

Image 1.6

Image 1.7

Note: other pictures/videos can be accessed via https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1w7m_9mYl3ww9NKTitQERD0oUa___VV_E?usp=share_link

RADIO PROJECT - Progress/Changes

 AS Media RADIO PROJECT - Progress/Changes

Group: Ilona, Sera, Rania, Sharon
> Blog is written by me (Sharon)

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1m1P7YZJ7FuLABnJ7L_pJS_mfj2CO8nkg?usp=share_link
Here is the link to some of our radio recording drafts

Feedback on the radio show from my teacher after the first draft:

• Add a jingle at the very beginning, before the song (a new jingle, not the same as the other jingles used throughout the show)
  Changes we made: using the longer version of the radio jingle first thing on the radio show, and a quicker jingle in between the shows
  
  
• Insert the jingle in the dead air between the two songs
  Changes: made
  
  
• Introduce the song/artist before or after the song(s) - make the radio show more conversational
  Changes: Rania has recorded an introduction and a comment after the song was played - to the first song by Arctic Monkeys, with a lively tone in order to make it more casual. Another improvising she has made would be an introduction to another song
  
  
• A weather report on the final 3 minutes - make it conversational between 2-3 speakers
  Changes: it has been recorded, although it was just 1 speaker due to time restrictions
  
  
• Include a quiet/no-lyrics song playing in the background throughout our discussion
  Changes: we have featured a calm/relaxing song played for the duration of our conversation
  
  
• Too much time for songs and not enough speaking/conversation
  Changes: additional recordings regarding a forecast on the weather, and more introduction to the songs
  
  
• Remove a song
  Changes: we have decided to keep all 3 songs, however, we included more conversations in between
  
  

Feedback on my blog from my teacher on the 7th week:

• Making the images larger in my blog posts
  Changes: made
  
  
• Mention how your content will fit the results eg. in the morning time, thus, have a morning recap, what will happen in the day, traffic alert, etc.
  Changes we made: including a weather outlook on the day to inform and give awareness to our audience
  
  
• Include more information about what influences we have from each one of the radio research (radio shows, podcasts, etc.)
  Changes: made
  
  

Feedback on my blog from my teacher on the 8th week:

• Adding more images (screenshots) in the editing process
  Changes: made

RADIO PROJECT - Survey Results

AS Media RADIO PROJECT - SURVEY RESULTS

Survey link: https://forms.gle/XAH7KjDRUVpr26qg7

Group: Ilona, Sera, Rania, Sharon
> Blog is written by me (Sharon)

Rock music placed first, RnB, and pop culture stood third. We have chosen to go towards this particular result by including pop music, K-Pop, alternative, and RnB on our radio show

Creating this radio would be a good choice as 60% listen to the radio, although we'll try to not bore them by perhaps, making the news segment quick and include songs that are trending now and according to our target audience (teenagers, young adults)

Nearly all listen to the radio in their car - so it could be good to update our target audience on pop/western culture throughout their way, as well as input pop songs, K-Pop, alternative, and RnB occasionally

A majority have said they listen to the radio on their way to school, so our decision to insert pop music and some other exciting songs on our radio could be a desirable way to get their day started and to at least feel more energized. In addition, we've also included morning news, such as weather predictions for the day.

Getting a maximum duration of 15 minutes for our content in this radio project, with all information to be summed up all at once, including news and pop music, might not bore or get the audience too fed up too quickly

A news section is wanted by most, therefore, we settled on retaining the news. Moreover, the news segment will be short to avoid boredom on the audience

Gladly, pop culture placed first in the survey, that being our initial plan. We are not going against the result, hence, including pop culture discussions and news on our radio

To sum it all up, quite a lot have mentioned radios are boring and the speakers/hosts are monotonous or blabbering too much, along with the lack of freedom as you're restricted to choosing what you want to hear. Solving this problem and avoiding this occurring in our radio show, the speakers will be lively enough to entertain the audience, as well as ensure they aren't blabbering on irrelevant topics. Additionally, our radio is mainly leaning towards the western culture for the news segment and a few western songs, so I believe the audience must acknowledge this information so they know which radio station is to their preference

Our speakers are leaning towards the lively bit and/or sarcastic, but you might also come across them being a balance of it all from time to time! This will exhibit a variety of personalities in our radio team

More than 97% of them prefer English to be the language used on radios, thus, we aren't going against the result

NEWS VALUES

 AS MEDIA NEWS VALUES

News Agenda

Agenda setting - what is chosen to see / news shown chosen by the media

Media gatekeepers - who chooses them to show / those who choose (e.g. editors, the government, news companies)

News stories are selected based on:

1. Negativity	‘Hard’ News - bad news will almost always be prioritised.
2. Proximity	Things that happen close to home (domestic news) or that involve people from a local area.
3. Recency	“Breaking News’
4. Currency	The ‘value’ of a story. If it is useful for people.
5. Continuity	Stories that are likely to continue for a long time.
6. Simplicity	The easier the story is to understand, the better.
7. Personality	Often ‘soft’ news surrounds personalities in whom the public has an interest eg. Royal family, celebrities, athletes
8. Uniqueness	If a story is unusual or surprising
9. Expectedness	Includes diary events - things that happen at a particular time of the year.
10. Elite nations/people	Western societies such as European countries and the USA will tend to dominate the news.
11. Exclusivity	When a news channel has footage or information that is not yet in possession of others.
12. Threshold	How many people are impacted on by an event.

CNN, Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld

"'Paris is booming': New art fair attracts multi-million-dollar sales"

• Proximity - As the news specified on the location of the "art fair" - Paris
• Recency - The "art fair" has just been introduced
• Currency - It could be useful to those who enjoy going to art fairs
• Uniqueness - The story may seem surprising to some due to the choice of words of "attracts multi-million-dollar sales"
• Elite nations/people - European countries will dominate the news, specifically France
• Exclusivity - CNN could be one of the publishers of this news as they have access to capture images in the art fair - seen on the cover
• Threshold - People will be impacted by this new art fair event - "attracting" the population

"What We Do in the Shadows": Applications of Binary Opposites + The 5 Narrative Codes

 AS MEDIA "What We Do in the Shadows": Applications of Binary Opposites + The 5 Narrative Codes

Binary Opposites identified:

• Calm vs. Chaos
• Supernatural vs. Mankind
• Day vs. Night
• Past vs. Present
• Modern vs. Ancient
• Humans vs. Vampires
• Predator vs. Prey
• Modern vampire vs. Traditional vampire
  
  

Barthes' 5 Narrative Codes identified:

• Hermeneutic codes (enigma, mystery) - Why do vampires strike in the nighttime? Do all vampires see humans as prey?
• Proairetic codes (action, plot points) - The vampires, mainly traditional vampires, adapting to present life/days (modern)
• Semantic codes (connotation, meaning) - The dark/secured shelter connotes that specific type of vampires cannot be exposed to the sunlight
• Symbolic codes - Vampires wearing dark clothes (cloaks/coats, vest) also to symbolize the 17/18th century and fangs to represent vampires
• Cultural codes (referential, prior knowledge, reference) - Fangs and consuming blood, as well as dark clothing illustrate vampires

Genre Conventions (vampire):

• Unnatural
• Fangs
• Blood (sucking)
• Horror/thriller

Credits: Rania's notes

AS Media: Identity Theory - David Gauntlett

AS Media" Identity Theory - David Gauntlett

Young Women and Material Consumption

1. Make notes on how groups are being represented and how these representations have been constructed.

Young women tend to be represented by:

• Social media (celebrity influences - trying to appear a certain way)

• Fashion magazines

• Makeup (trends)

• The female and the male gaze

• Beauty standards (likely to be perceived visually and physically)

• Fashion standards (as in people should follow the trend) 

• Photoshop

• Fake lifestyle (being rich)

• Shopaholics

    

PUBLISHERS: 

• Vogue: Condé Nast

• ELLE: Hachette, Lagardère Group

2. Consider how they might be read by their intended audience, possibly contributing to the sense of their own identity.

The intended audience being young women and girls, who are likely to be influenced by what they witness in the media - they are still searching for their own identity at that age -, and how the media represents them, in this case, young women. For instance, a women’s magazine, as seen in all the examples above, could influence how a young woman’s mindset would work and develop, resulting in an unrealistic and unachievable beauty standard for young women nowadays. This could have a great impact on young women’s identities, simply through the media

3. How has the identity been constructed? (+ examples)

How women dress (femininely), jewellery, make-up, calm-mannered, elegant

4. What are the readings of the text?

These women are beautiful and are the standard of beauty, besides, women should build their confidence. 

5. What effect does this have on the audience? Good/bad?

Both, good as young women are able to express themselves in the way they want and find their own identity, but bad as it creates an unhealthy standard of beauty and living in general. They would have to put more effort into looking in a way that is unrealistic and damaging to their body and mind because, in reality, no one naturally looks that way. The bad effect on young women is they might push themself to look like certain artists or models to be called ‘beautiful’ or fit into the beauty standard, telling young women should be skinny, or if they are plus-sized, they should be thick and perfectly curvy. Besides, this may help young women find inspiration to build their confidence. Help them to develop their character and express themselves within different media, such as fashion, and makeup.

JUMP CUTS (Assignment)

 AS MEDIA JUMP CUTS (Assignment)

JUMP CUT

A jump cut is when a single shot is broken with a cut that makes the subject appear to jump instantly forward in time. It is a stylistic choice that makes the edit completely visible

Example:

RADIO PROJECT - Radio Research List

 AS Media RADIO PROJECT - Radio Research List

Group: Ilona, Sera, Rania, Sharon
> Blog is written by me (Sharon)

All were evaluated at around 8am WITA (midnight in the UK)

Contents heard on the radios are listed in order

Radio X:

- Starts off with relaxing/calm music

- Host/speaker gives information on the queen's death and funeral

- Transitions to mellow music, perhaps in relevance to the queen's death

- "Radio X" jingle

- Country music plays (a change in the genre)

(Audience > possibly middle-aged, young adults to adults)

How it influenced: music can be correlated to news that is to be informed, such as how mellow music is applied in the background when the speaker is reporting about the queen's death

Classic FM:

- Classical music

- "Classic FM" jingle

- Transitions to another classical music

(Audience > adults/elderlies)

How it influenced: this radio sticks to one genre/type of music, which is very similar to our initial plan for the radio show

Gold UK:

- 00's music

- "Gold UK" jingle

(Audience > young adults to adults, middle-aged, elderlies)

How it influenced: not entirely since we've only listened to a song and their jingle

LBC News:

- Speaker/host gives information on crimes in Ukraine

- Additional information on the queen's funeral

(Mostly news than music)

(Audience > the general public)

How it influenced: the news is simple and quick but recaps as a whole; they won't bore the audience. We're attempting to make the news as brief as possible

Heart 80s:

(Mostly music compared to news)

(Audience > adults, middle-aged, elderlies)

How it influenced: nothing much as it was just music playing

Heart Dance:

(Audience > teenagers, young adults)

How it influenced: nothing much as well

Anything Goes (Podcast) - Emma Chamberlain:

Uniquely, Emma doesn't use any lyrical jingle to switch between topics, it is merely a ring she does to cue between segments (discussions, advert) of her podcast show. She doesn't include songs either, simply discussions on relatable topics, along with teenagers and young adults as her target audience as well! Her podcast show is quite well-known among teenagers in this present time due to how she interacts with her audience/listeners - in a relatable and realistic way, such as ranting. This has reached the target audience since she, herself, is still in her early 20s, making it easier to connect with teenagers and young adults. Therefore, it has influenced us from that point of targeting audiences our age, that being teenagers to young adults

Diary (Weekly Progress) [TERM 2]

AS Media Studies - Weekly Progress [TERM 2]
> Blog is written by me (Sharon)

WEEK 1 (3rd Oct 2022)

• M1: Section A practice (Movie: The Queen's Gambit) and chose a group for the radio project
• M2: Positive and negative representations in media
• M3: Representation theory (Stuart Hall) and connotation of different representations
• M4: Psychographics and demographics, radio project discussion and setting up a survey for further analysis and research of radios

WEEK 2 (10th Oct 2022)

• M1: Introduction to a new editing technique, "jump cuts" and filmed a short clip applying the editing technique (due on the 17th)
• M2: Discussion on representations we should be aware of (gender, sexuality, LGBT, race, age, social class, place, etc.), along with a group discussion towards a designated representation, where my group did representations on social class
• M3: Class discussion on stereotypes, analysing stereotypes in "When They See Us", passive (desensitization, Hypodermic Needle Theory) and active (Reception Theory (Stuart Hall)) audiences. Lastly, an introduction to the audience theory (Cultivation Theory (George Gerbner))
• M4: Analysis of Radio X's "Who Are You?" series and continuation of the radio project: psychographics, breakdown of the radio project, concept, as well as the name

WEEK 3 (17th Oct 2022)

• M1: Binary Opposites - Levis Strauss and Barthes' 5 Narrative Codes
• M2: "What We Do In The Shadows" analysis + application on Binary Opposites and the 5 Narrative Codes
• M3: Identities - David Gauntlett, cultural + personal identity
• M4: Finalising the radio project's timeline + script and worked on the audio recording (script intro) (trial and error), along with experiments on sounds/jingles in BandLab
  
  

WEEK 4 (24th Oct 2022)

• M1: "Stranger Things" movie analysis
• M2: News values
• M3: *PUBLIC HOLIDAY*
• M4: Radio room (introduction to radio equipment + tutorial)
  
  

WEEK 5 (31st Oct 2022)

• M1: "Top Boy" movie analysis
• M2: New Media
• M3: "Inside Man" movie analysis
• M4: Radio logo research design, sketching (trial-error)
  

WEEK 6 (7th Nov 2022)

• M1: Netflix's interactive show "You vs. Wild"
• M2: Unit Test - Camera angles + movements
• M3: Section B practice
• M4: *NO LESSONS*

WEEK 7 (14th Nov 2022)

• M1: Case study research for the question "To what extent is profit more important than creativity to media companies?" (essay to be written in M2)
• M2: Section B practice (essay)
• M3: Introduction to the self-report to be made for the radio project, Mr Nick's feedback (re-record as there is some interference in the background of the recording), blog organisation (making sections for projects (radio)), continuation on blog posts (completing the to-do list requirements for the radio project)
• M4: Continuation on the radio project: discussions on how we can re-record the audio

WEEK 8 (21st Nov 2022)

• M1: Practice planning Section B questions
• M2: Introduction to Component 1 (film intro/magazine)
• M3: "How does the media target, build, and maintain audiences?" through lessons of genre, demographics, agenda setting, as well as intertextuality
• M4: Radio project > re-organizing our blogs in a specific order, how to source the songs used, writing a brief, feedback on blog posts, team photo, embedding our presentation (self-reflection)

RADIO PROJECT - TEAM INTRODUCTION

 AS Media Studies - TEAM INTRODUCTION

Group: Ilona, Sera, Rania, Sharon
> Blog is written by me (Sharon)

Our group consists of Rania, Sharon, Ilona, and Sera.

We are a group that came together as we share a passion for the pop culture and all things related to that. Everyone has a speciality that helps round out our groups, such as Ilona as our art expert, Sharon in the advertising department, Rania in the news department, and Sera as our team manager. We all have different personalities and points of view that may contribute to developing a unique conversation.

Links to each of our blogs:

• Ilona: https://ilonaginarthams.blogspot.com/
• Sera: https://nayshasera.blogspot.com/
• Rania: https://raniasurimulyadi.blogspot.com/
• Sharon: https://sharontann.blogspot.com/

RADIO PROJECT - Brief

 AS Media RADIO PROJECT - Brief

Group: Ilona, Sera, Rania, Sharon
> Blog is written by me (Sharon)

We are given 8 weeks to create a 15-minute radio segment in groups of 4, from the 3rd of October to the 21st of November 2022. In addition to that, an advertisement on a canteen stall must be featured on our show and the creation of an original logo. Progress throughout the 8 weeks will be posted and tracked on each of our blogs.

REPRESENTATIONS IN MEDIA

 REPRESENTATIONS IN MEDIA

Representations are the ways in which the media portray particular groups, communities, experiences, ideas, or topics from a particular ideological or value perspective

For instance, it is widely perceived by the media that females are seen and conveyed as the "weaker", emotional beings in comparison to males, where illustrated, females generally "lack" the power to control over matters. Opposingly, males are pictured as stronger and more dominant. A cliché move Hollywood maintains to apply is how "vulnerable" and "powerless" female figures would end up being protected and saved by the dauntless, "came to rescue" male figure(s). Accordingly, the media gives a representation, either positively or negatively, to us audiences established on their piece. In this case, the media invents a representation on how females are portrayed as wimps.

Positive representation of women

Some films have developed a positive representation of women, in which they are depicted overpowering the population, instead of longing to be saved by the heroic male character. Such as, Diana Prince from the movie Wonder Woman. Diana, the woman, is perceived as the one with dominance and control. Without in-depth analysis, we can anticipate whether the movie will show us a positive or negative representation of women, given through the people who has helped invent her character, the directors, a woman named Patty Jenkins.

Wonder Woman - Rise of the Warrior [Official Final Trailer] - Warner Bros. UK

Negative representation of women

In contrary, an example of a negative representation of women to society, where the male figure rescued the female figure, from the recently released film, "Venom: Let There Be Carnage"; Carnage (a man) saves Shriek (a woman). We can see that Carnage is portrayed as the more dominant figure and relatively, Shriek, the woman is depicted as weakened. This is apparent for the possible reason of, again, seeing from the person who created their characters, Venom's director, a man named Andy Serkis.

Venom: Let There Be Carnage (2021) - Carnage Saves Shriek