AS Media RADIO PROJECT - Self-Reflection
> Blog is written by me (Sharon)
THE ENTIRE TEXT
Introduction
As our term project for Media Studies, we were told to form groups of four and produce an original radio show in a time span of 8 weeks. My group consists of me and three (3) of my classmates: Ilona, Sera, and Rania. We must also create a logo as one of the ways to target audiences through appearance, and we must post updates on our development, research, and progress on our blogs. Our team made the decision to produce an R&B, alternative, pop, and K-pop radio show that leaned further towards western culture. There are other tasks involved, including featuring an advertisement on one of the canteen stalls and producing a radio jingle.
1. How does your product use or challenge conventions and how does it represent social groups or issues?
News, music, sound effects, advertisements, and/or gossip are typical conventions (things we typically see/hear on a radio broadcast for their audience/genre) associated with the product — a radio show. We have kept up with some of these, such as news (a news segment on current events in western culture), an advertisement for a new dish being served in the school cafeteria, and celebrity gossip. However, since our radio show is broadcast in the mornings and it would be fantastic to provide our listeners with a forecast for the day's weather, we have challenged typical conventions by adding one.
Teenagers, who make up our target demographic, are typically represented as being drawn to dramas, controversies, or gossip and sometimes going through emotional roller coasters; being understood. By integrating a news segment about the most current events and issues in Hollywood and western culture, we have furthered this point. Second, we have also integrated relatable dialogues or talks about the songs played, such as those that relate to the audience's own lives or experiences.
2. How does your product engage with audiences and how would it be distributed as a real media text?
Teenagers, young adults, and adults interested in pop music as well as other genres including K-pop, R&B, alternative, and western culture make up our target audience. First, we specifically targeted them by regularly playing a range of musical genres on our radio show. Second, the show's choices and selection of news featured current events relevant to western cultures, such as celebrity controversies, celebrity lives, and current celebrity events. Thirdly, we suppose that the name "All Star" would be a great place to start in order to leave a lasting impact on our target audience. Last but not least, the speakers are young people and teenagers between the ages of 15 and 25, which may help the target audience relate to or understand us better, perhaps through our relatable discussions.
By playing songs that are currently popular and featuring advertisements for new cafeteria dishes that they might like, our radio station caters to a specific (niche) demographic. In addition, our news portion features dramas and/or issues in western culture that teenagers may find interesting, as well as discussions of the songs that are relevant to their personal lives and/or experiences. This might encourage our target demographic to tune in to our next radio shows.
Due to the significance of our genre (pop music, K-Pop, and R&B), we feel that our radio will be broadcast in the morning, sometime between 7-9 am, to assist those teenagers, young adults, and adults in getting their day began through the upbeat songs. Additionally, we have speakers who are outgoing and lively to give a positive impact on our target audience. Finally, we think a peek at the weather forecasts is important to get our audience ready for the day.
3. How did your production skills develop throughout this project?
I had doubts about whether I would be interested in or be able to perform this radio project well at first. I think I've improved my ability to be responsible, and organized, communicate with my teammates, and—most importantly—understand the value of teamwork, without which this radio program would not have turned out as I had expected. Along with learning new ways to improve my blog, like creating labels or sections for certain tasks, projects, theories, etc. Unexpectedly, we were also taken to the school's radio room, where we were shown how to use the podcasting and radio equipment, but due to time limitations, we were unable to do so.
4. How did you integrate technologies - software, hardware and online - in this project?
Hardware and how I've utilised each of them:
- iPhone: to record the dialogues, taking pictures and videos when we were brought to the radio room, and communicate with team members
- Laptop: to access all the websites/online resources used throughout the 8 weeks, along with communicating with team members
- Earphones: to improve the sound quality of the voice recordings
Software and how me and my team members utilized each of them:
- Medibang Paint (used by Ilona): creating the final "All Star" logo (Ilona has lots of experience with this app and great features coming across, such as adding details)
- BandLab (used by Sera): producing the jingle, which has many components to compose a rhythm
- Audacity (used by Ilona): editing and compiling all the recordings
- Voice Memos (used by me): record the dialogues for the show; saves time as we don’t have to set time schedules for all team members to record altogether in the radio room (excellent quality with the mic on earphones)
Online (websites):
The presence of online (websites) has made this radio project so much easier, along with all the research that must be done. The online websites I've made use of are:
- Blogger: where I compile all the research done, results, progress, developments, etc. as a part of this project's score
- Canva: making this self-reflection for the project (creative templates available!)
- Google: mainly to research radio shows, target audience, logos, etc.
- Google Drive: to compile all recordings (both trial and error/drafts and finals), and pictures/videos from the radio room visit, which makes it much more convenient for all team members to access
- Google slides: outline of this project (all compiled altogether by the team)
- YouTube: extracting songs (easy as it has all kinds of songs, and easy to search)
- Gmail: where I asked for feedback and receive feedback from the teacher
- Discord: to communicate with my team members by making a group
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