Unit 1- Research techniques and media industry

Market research is the process by which companies investigate the market and the competitors of which their product is placed in. The process by which this is gathered varies dependent on the market sector of the company and will range from data analysis such as questionaries, surveys, interviews, customer feedback to finding out information gathered on existing products with a similar target demographic. The purpose of this is to gather information on what customers want, and what doesn't work in order to make the new product as successful as possible in it's target market.

In completing my radio productions I have used various forms of market research.

Production research is the process in which companies gather information about the production side of creating a product. For example they will investigate into finance, regulators (OfCom), locations, resources, marketing, publication and competition. This side of research has little involvement on the customer/ audience and instead focuses on what is needed to produce a successful product realistically. Production research may be gathered by investigating competitor's production techniques or using primary research in to gather this information specifically for their company/ product.

	What researched	Examples of this can be found in units:
Content	Research was carried out on radio advertisements to help me understand the typical codes and conventions of adverts which are placed on the radio. Research took place to help find out more about the voice over’s which are used in radio. Creating a client brief meant I had to find out the typical codes and conventions for this genre of advert. Task 5 required me to find out about the typical codes and conventions of radio. Genres of speech packages were researched to help find the codes and conventions which would be required in my speech package. I researched the typical conventions of radio here.	Unit 44- Task 1 Unit 44- Task 4 Unit 44- Task 7 Unit 39- Task 5 Unit 39- Task 6 Unit 41- Task 2
Resources	People and resources required to be involved in the voxpops of my speech package Who is to be interviewed and what information if required Resources which will be required to make my radio drama Finance for the advert from the client and finance for the station itself Guidelines for the radio as to what can be included in my advert	Unit 39- Task 6 Unit 39- Task 9 Unit 41-Task 6 Unit 44- Task 7 Unit 8
Audience	Competition figures, audience geography, remit of stations and market share of stations were researched in the understanding industries task. Researching the typical target audiences for speech packages helped me understand more clearly what mine should be Target audience for my speech package I researched the remit of the BBC stations to gain a clearer understanding The suitable target audience of my radio drama was researched here Typical codes and conventions for the target audiences of adverts We researched the most suitable target audience for the advert of my client for the radio advert made for them in order to be most useful for the client	Unit 8 Unit 39- Task 2 Unit 39- Task 3 Unit 39- Task 7 Unit 41- Task 2 Unit 44- Task 1 Unit 44- Task 9
Placement	Placement was researched for shows on specific radio stations. Placement of local ads and the stations suitable for these was discussed. Regulatory bodies for these adverts was also researched Placement of shows for each station, placement in community radio and the role of regulatory bodies in radio was researched in this unit	Unit 39- Task 7 Unit 44- Task 2 Unit 8

QUALITATIVE AND QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH

Qualitative research is research which is asked with an open ending and therefore allows opinions/reasons to be given and the answer to be expanded on to give reasons why.

Quantitative research is research to which the answers are closed and the overall results to these are in the format of figures and do not allow reasoning.

	What researched	Examples of this can be found in units:
Quantitative	Voxpops gathered were asked in a quantitative way Commercial stations listening figures Geographical job roles and the figures of job roles in the radio industry Finance for adverts Ages of the target audience Primary quantitative research gathered to find out the station rating Market share of stations	Unit 39- Task 9 Unit 8 Unit 8 Unit 44-Task 7 Unit 44-Task 1 Unit 44- Task 3 Unit 8
Qualitative	Voxpops gathered were asked in a qualitative way Analysing radio drama Secondary qualitative research of the remit of stations Primary qualitative research used Primary qualitative research used Secondary qualitative research used Feedback from the client of our radio advert Interviews with galaxy presenters on their career All evaluations include feedback from audience	Unit 39- Task 9 Unit 41- Task 2 Unit 8 Unit 44- Task 1 Unit 39- Task 6 Unit 39- Task 12 Unit 44- Task 12 Unit 8 All unit evaluations

Unit 2- Pre-Production in the media industry

Unit 8- Understanding the radio industry

My radio industries presentation: 

Unit 39- Speech Package Production

Features of speech packages:

• Voxpops
• Variety of voices
• Interviews
• Music beds
• Change of ambience
• Detail

Task 1:
Have a listen to the speech packages above and match each one with a genre, from the list below.
You should also comment on the audience reach; Local, Regional, National, International.(P1, M1, D1)

The BBC 5 live podcast on the topic of the Beijing Olympics fits the genre of sport/ news and current affairs. It has a national audience reach.

The Business Daily podcast fits the genre of business and news/current affairs. This is an international service with an international reach.

The BBC 4 apple food program fits the genre of consumer and lifestyle and had a national reach.

Task 2:
Have a look at the topics below and decide which genre, each issue would belong to and what the reach and target audience might be.(P1, M1, D1)

1) The Olympics- 2012
2) Alcohol Price Rise - Risen for safety
3) Asda- Where do they stand in the supermarket league tables?
4) West Leeds Council owned gyms- comparisons to national gym chains.
5) Smoking Ban - Have the pubs and clubs suffered? What else has the ban affected?
6) Leeds UTD - History, administration, what's been happening lately.

1. The olympics- sport, news and current affairs. International story. Target audience of males and females, possibly more male, aged 20-50 with the social class of C1 or B.
2. Alcohol price rise- lifstyle, news and current affairs. This would be a national story. The target audience of this would most likely be men and women aged 30-40 with the social class of C1 or B. It could also possibly have a secondary target audience of younger males and females aged 18-30 with the social class of E or D.
3. Asda- Consumer and business. This would be a national story. The target audience to this speech package could possibly be men and women aged 30-50 with the social class of A or B.
4. West Leeds Council owned gyms- Consumer/ lifestyle Regional story. The target audience of this could be men and women aged 20-40 with the social class of C1, C2 or B.
5. Smoking ban- Lifestyle, news and current affairs, consumer. This would be a national story. The target audience of this speech package may be men and women aged 18-50 of the classes, E, D, C1, C2 and possibly B. However, this could be extended to all social classes as it is people of every class who smoke, and so the topic is relevant to people of each class. This may become more singled down dependent on the formality and content of the speech package itself.
6. Leeds UTD- Sport, consumer. This could be either a regional/national story, but would most probably be regional. The target audience may be predominantly males, aged 16-40 with the social classes of E, D, C1, or C2.

Task 3:

Decide on a topic for your speech package, you can choose one of the titles above if you wish.(P1, M1, D1)

I will create a speech package on the topic of primary school. The main issue of the package will be, 'How has primary school changed in the last decade?' The target audience of this will be parents and men/women aged 25 plus and the genre will be lifestyle/education.

Task 4:
Choose an example of a professional speech package in your chosen genre and write a detailed analysis….(P1, M1, D1)

Task 5:

Have a listen to the news speech package which is broadcast on PGS Media
and below and answer the following questions…..(P1, M1, D1)
In the speech package on PGS Media, there are many different people interviewed. The topic of the speech package is firstly river dams and then moves on to the subject of a fire in Brazil. One of the first people interviewed in this piece is the owner of the river dam which is featured in the news. This is recorded via a telephone interview which is prerecorded on location. By interviewing owners of focal points to the news stories, it gives a personal account of the news story, adding a much deeper insight to the story than a presenter is able to give.

There are also other correspondents from around the country such as Brazil, where a Brazilian reporter is featured in news report on the local forest fire. This is not carried out on location, instead, this is a pre-recored interview in a studio. The same studio environment applies for the main news presenter, who broadcasts a pre-recorded interview from a studio.

Task 6:
Think about your chosen topic and identify the interview materials you will require to produce your speech package:(P1, M1, D1)

In my speech package there will be various interviews with the headteacher and other teachers of a local primary school. There will also be interviews with primary school pupils from this school (Stanningley Primary) and students from Pudsey Grangefield 6th form. I may also choose to gather interviews and voxpops from people in the education sector and/or parents of primary school teachers- these could be carried out by telephone interviews. I may also decide to use various correspondents on 'education' and 'children' to give further insight into these areas, for example, how the UK school systems work and a short background on the skills and abilities of the primary school children interviewed. In order to produce a creative speech package, I will use a variety of ambiences and music beds. Ambiences will include primary children in the classroom, a public area (Leeds city centre,) high school classroom/ 6th form room. These will include various noises which will make the speech package interesting to the audience, however, for the narration and presenters, I may use a recording room to give no ambience. The interviews of the teachers and students will not be scripted and will therefore be live with live ambience in the background. Typical traits of this genre include a variety of ambience, experts on the topic area and voxpops with people experiencing it.

Ambience: playground, classroom, playing, singing, cafeteria, bell ringing, teacher introduction of lesson

Interveiws/voxpops with:

Primary school teachers, headteacher, sixth form students, primary school students, members of public.

Generating Ideas for Specific Contexts & Target Audiences

Task 7:
Create a short report focusing on a variety of Radio Stations that broadcast speech packages and provide the relevant information for each station...(P2, M2, D2)

• Target Audience?
• Genres covered by the station?
• National/regional/local station?
• Commercial or BBC?
• Analogue/Digital/Internet?
  
• Speech Packages played in what type of programme? News? Magazine? Educational? Entertainment news? As downloadable podcasts?
  

Radio 4 is one of the many stations which broadcasts speech packages. It is a BBC national station which broadcasts across the whole of Britain, with a target audience of the ages 50 plus with a high interest in arts and drama. This station broadcasts shows in drama, history, money, religion, science and politics, with speech packages used in all of the shows in these genres. These shows can be downloaded as podcasts from BBC iPlayer.

Radio 5 is another station which uses speech packages. It is a BBC national station with a target audience or predominantly males aged 25-60 with an high interest in sport. It also features programs on politics, money and current affairs, but specialises in sports. It uses speech packages for most of the programs it broadcasts as it is a 100% speech radio station, with speech packages used for features of sports news matches and news features.

Radio 7 is a BBC national station with can be reached by the BBC online iPlayer. It broadcasts programs in the genres of comedy, genre, childrens and drama, with a target audience of young children and adults with an interest in arts and lifestyle. Speech packages are used in most of these programs, except children's shows.

Task 8:

Write a treatment for your speech package, use the template below as a guide to your headings…

I am producing a speech package focusing on the question, ‘How has primary school changed over the past decade?’ The primary target audience for this will be predominantly women aged 25-50. The social positions of these people will be middle- upper class with an interest in current affairs and lifestyle issues. They will not fit specifically into social group of people such as ‘emo or goth’, but instead may be labelled by the media as mums or business women. As the topic of my radio speech package is on primary schools, I am aiming it specifically at mums, rather than those without children.

It is important that producers are aware of their target audience in order to make their work suitable for a specific target demographic. =Readers/viewers of a product specifically made for a target demographic of a specific social group, may sometimes feel that they are being forced to like a certain type of media product because of their social situations. However as their social situation (social group of people such as emo/goth) is decided by themselves, they may also feel pleased that a type of media is being made specifically with their interests in mind.

Another deciding factor is the gender of the audience member. As many programs are created for a stereotypically gender, such as sport for men, many women who listen to the programs created specifically for men may feel excluded. I believe that members of both genders feel they should be drawn to a type of genre which is stereotypically made for them, such as sport for men, despite their true interests. I believe that the media have the power to further enforce the typical stereotypes-which are created from a young age. Texts are created specifically for a gender, with many media texts following the stereotypes of genders and having little variety to choose from.

Age is yet another factor which influences the media. It is largely noted that the younger the viewer, the easier they are influenced by the things they see in the media. This is important as producers of media texts as they must factor the age and interests into consideration as some ages may find different media inappropriate and offensive where as a different age group may not.

A family audience contains people of all ages and genders. This may be young children right up to pensioners and grandparents. Texts and programs such as the ‘X Factor’ and ‘The Chris Evans Show’ are family shows with the primary/secondary target audience of a family. These are quite rare on the radio, as not many family shows are easily made into a radio format.

The social hierarchy of class also influences the type of radio watched. Those in the middle and upper middle classes work in the higher paying jobs and so have different interests in life than those in the working and skilled working classes, so therefore, watch and listen to different forms of entertainment. Class also influences the station of radio of which you listen to, as each station has a different target demographic with programs to suit the interests of each class group. In many situations, people listen to stations which they feel people of their class should listen to, as they feel they need to ‘fit in’ socially with people of their class. The stations which each class feels they should be drawn to is usually decided by the remit of the station, as they target their shows at a specific target demographic- singling out this sector of people as their audience.

Ethnicity also effects the type of radio listened. There are many stations which are specifically targeted and created for certain ethnic groups, therefore dividing radio between different ethnicities. People of the same race often listen to the same or similar type of radio, allowing them to build personal relationships as said in the uses and gratifications theory. By listening to the same genre of radio it allows people to ‘fit in’ with other people from their ethnicity. As with class, ethnicity is often decided by the stations, as they decide on their content and target demographic and aim it specifically at this sector of people.

Producers of radio have to be very aware of the religious denominations of their target audience as different things may offend different religions. The media often tackles the difficult task of representing religion and people who are intrinsically linked by religion, this may be risky as people may consider different views as offensive or stereotyped of their religion or ethnic background. Complaints made by listeners can often be expensive and damaging to the station.

Education plays a role in the way in which people receive and interact with media texts as those of a higher education will also often fall into the higher social classes, so will often fit into the higher classes to begin with. Those who are more educated often have an improved knowledge and higher interest in more politics and lifestyle knowledge and so interact with the media more than those who are less educated and listen for entertainment rather than to interact.

Media producers often aim texts at higher educated people as this group commonly has more money to fund the products associated with the media and so are more rewarding financially. However, media texts are created for all target audiences, both highly and less educated.

The location of the listener is often considered important by the producers of radio stations as the class of people they are targeting their station are often divided by the area in which they live. Therefore, dependent on the target demographic, the producers of station may advertise their station to a certain area specifically.

Overall, there are many deciding factors as to the content of a radio show and it’s target demographic including ethnicity, location, class, education and religion. The content of the show and station must be handled carefully as the attitudes of these divides of people varies with the cultural and class codes.

My speech package will be feature interviews with both male and female interviewees in order to allow the audience to build as much personal identity as possible as having both male and female voices allows the audience to feel they can relate to the people speaking. As the subject of the speech package is primary school, the listeners to this will probably feel it is quite nostalgic as they will have experienced this in their past. Therefore to add to the nostalgia and theme of childhood I will add children's nursery rhymes and singing. The voices will be of both teenagers and children and so will be very varied in their tone and pitch. This will make the speech package interesting to listen to as the voices are easy to differentiate between. Another feature this may achieve is that the children's voices may sound quite 'cute.'

The music beds in my speech package will be both modern songs, old songs and children's songs. The modern songs will make the speech package more recent and modern, however, the older songs will allow the audience to recognize some of the music which was from their childhood, thus adding to the element of nostalgia. The children's songs will be placed as music beds when the children are speaking, connoting the age difference between the people being interviewed. I will use ambience representative of primary schools such as school bells and classroom noise etc to connote to the location of the recording. This will also anchor the location in relevance to the topic itself.

Task 9:

Carry out the relevant research and document the techniques you have used....

In my speech package I will include primary qualitative research with people who have experience and knowledge on the topic being spoken about. I will interview a teacher at a local primary on the changes that have happened in primary schools and may use the information gathered from this as facts, however, I may also use some recordings which I produce as interview in my speech package. I will also gather some primary qualitative research in the form of gathering voxpops and short interviews with sixth form and primary school students, which I will use as part of my speech package. I will speak directly to the students in both sixth form and primary school and gather their opinions and comments on their experiences of primary school.

I will also gather research in the form of secondary quantitative research as I will source information from the Internet and sites such as the BBC and Education Leeds- information and facts from which I will use in my speech package. I may also gather some secondary qualitative research in the form of quotes from experts in the topic area of primary schools, which I will source from the internet/ print media/ television/ radio.

It is doubtful that I will use any primary quantitative research in my speech package as I will use quotes rather than pubic opinion as the basis for my speech package. However, I may use some questionnaires to gather the opinions from a large group of people.

Task 10:
Complete the appropriate health and safety paperwork which can be found on...

PGS Media : Risk Assessment Report

Following my risk assessment (at the location identified below), I have decided on the following actions :

Working with young children:

The situation in which I will be recording will mean that young children will be present at all times. Due to the fact of which the children may not understand the safe behavior which is required to be safe around the equipment being used, I will have to ensure that the equipment is kept at a safe distance from the children in order to prevent accidents or injury.

2. PGS Media : Risk Assessment

Title of production: Speech Package Location: Stanningley Primary School, Pudsey Grangefield School

Name of producer: Sarah Kerry Tel : 0113 3368704

	Hazard	Present?	Severity?	Likelihood?	SEVERITY SCALE Negligible : N Low risk : L Moderate risk : M Severe risk : S Very severe risk : VS LIKELIHOOD SCALE Very unlikely : VU Unlikely : U Possible : P Likely : L Very likely : VL RISK FACTOR VU U P L VL VS 3 4 4 5 5 S 2 3 3 3 5 M 2 2 3 3 3 L 1 2 2 3 3 N 1 1 2 2 3 Risk Factor
1	Alcohol/Drugs	N	N	VU	1
2	Animals/insects	N	L	L	1
3	Audiences	N	N	U	1
4	Camera/Mike cables	N	N	VU	1
5	Confined spaces	N	N	VU	1
6	Derelict buildings/dangerous structures	N	N	VU	1
7	Fire/flammable materials	N	N	VU	1
8	Hazardous substances	N	N	VU	1
9	Heat/cold/extreme weather	N	N	VU	1
10	Laser/strobe effects	N	N	VU	1
11	Machinery/industrial/crane/hoist	N	N	VU	1
12	Materials – glass, non-fire resistant	Y	N	VU	1
13	Noise – high sound levels	N	L	VU	1
14	Public/crowds	N	N	VU	1
15	Scaffold/rostra	N	N	VU	1
16	Smoking on set	N	N	VU	1
17	Special effects/explosives	N	N	VU	1
18	Special needs (elderly, disabled, inexperienced)	Y	L	VU	2
19	Stunts/dangerous activities	N	N	VU	1
20	Tall scenery/suspended ceilngs	N	N	VU	1
21	Vehicles/speed	N	N	VU	1
22	Water/proximity to water	N	N	VU	1
23	Working at heights	N	N	VU	1
24	Dangerous prop	N	N	VU	1

Task 11:

Produce a voice over script incorporating a cue sheet, with timings.(P4, M4, D4)

Task 12:

Produce a professional sounding speech package using the relevant technology.(P4 M4, D4)

Task 13:

Evaluate your product....(P4, M4, D4)

Purpose :

The original aim of my work was to create a professional- sounding speech package in the style of those used on commercial radio stations. I aimed to create a product that was of similar style and contents to those created by radio producers such as the BBC- with typical codes and conventions of these.

In my opinion, I believe I have achieved my purpose as I have included elements that are typical of speech packages which are used professionally on commercial radio. I have used a variety of technical elements which incorporate the codes and conventions of speech packages such as music beds, vox pops and narration.

I played my speech package to various people to gather feedback and their opinions on how I could improve it. They commented on the use of music beds, saying that the use of these was cleverly included into the speech package and they do not distract from what's being said, but add to it with the lyrics and tone of the music chosen. Comments were also made on how the speech package was very appropriate for the primary target audience as the content and casual tone of the piece suited this target demographic very well. The sound levels were said to be very well controlled as there is no part where speech is hard to hear or too loud, this was edited after earlier audience feedback comments suggested it was too quiet in some areas.

The speech package I created gives a fair view of whether primary school has changed over the past decade as I have used expert opinion, gathered views from ex-students and current students and compared them to give an unbiased view of the topic.

I used a variety of people when creating my speech package as I interviewed both boys and girls when speaking to the primary school students and sixth form students. I also spoke to people of different ethnic groups to avoid discrimination and allow all listeners to relate to the people they hear speaking.

I used music which was light and upbeat to add to the happy mood and tone of my speech package. As I have frequently spoken to primary school students of a young age, I made sure the music I used was positive as to enhance the positive image of the pupils speaking. I also used music beds which included lyrics relating to primary school such as the Jack Johnson song which features as a music bed. This adds to the topic of primary school by including a relevant subliminal feature which plays alongside the speech.

I interviewed people in an environment which is relevant to the topic of my speech package to add relevant ambience to the piece. For example, I interviewed both sets of students and the teachers in a school classroom. This anchors the setting to the audience, as the background sounds are those that are closely relevant to the speech package and anchor the setting of where the interviews are taking place. The narration was recorded in a studio so that there is no background ambience. This allows for clear and precise speech of the narration which the audience can clearly hear. It also anchors the difference in settings between the studio and interviews as the audience can clearly hear which parts are recorded on location / in studio.

As the target audience of my speech package is men and women aged 25 plus, the language I used reflects this. I used some subject specific lexis such as ‘webster Stratton,’ however, I ensured that this was explained by the teacher as not to confuse the audience. Another feature of the language used in my speech package was the contextual factor that I interviewed primary school pupils. They language which was used by these interviewees was representational of their young age, so some of this is simple. However, this can still be understood by the audience despite it’s simplicity.

When compared to a professional speech package, the speech package I created is of a similar standard as I closely followed the codes and conventions of professional products. I feel I created a professional-sounding product as I ensured the main factors such as the interviews and voxpops were done in a similar way as to those used on professional radio stations.

The voice levels in my speech package were often very unlevel in regard to the volume of each clip/voxpop. II had to change the levels of each of these to ensure that when played they sounded of equal volume. On some of the clips from the primary school children were very quiet, so I had to raise the volume levels in the program ‘Audacity’ to make them of an appropriate volume for the rest of the speech package. The microphone work I used was done quite well, as it was very rare that the voices were of an inappropriate level as I positioned the microphone at a good distance from the speaker. When editing my speech package I had a large amount of voice clips and music beds, therefore I was required to used multi-track editing as many of the clips were overlaid and required a range of tracks to allow this to happen. This also allowed for more concise editing, as the clips were easier to differentiate between.

In the overall editing I ensured that I edited the speech package to allow for the volume levels to remain equal throughout. I used lots of fade-ins and fade-outs to the music beds to make sure they didn’t immediately start and were introduced to the audience gradually- this was a common feature in professional BBC speech packages. I did not use any sound effects in my speech package as I felt they would add a more informal tone to the piece, which would not be appropriate. Despite the sometimes ‘fun’ tone which can be seen in the music beds, I wanted to keep the rest of the speech package serious as the target audience is men and women of 25 plus.

Typical conventions of this genre include lots of narration, ambience, voxpops and interviews throughout. To make my speech package of professional quality I ensured that these conventions were used frequently in my own, therefore the voxpops and interviews, ambience and music beds would be similarly used in a professional product. However, the creators of a professional speech package will have the advantage of an increased budget, more time and resources in regard to professional narrators, and easier access to professionals that could be interviewed.

In creating my speech package I learnt more about gathering interviews and voxpops, especially in mrore challenging conditions such as a primary school where there are many distractions for the young children I was interviewing. I feel by gathering these I have greatly improved my interviewing skills and have further learnt how to gather the content required in a short amount of time. In editing the speech package to a suitable length I had to be very strict with the content which I kept, this helped me learn how best to edit footage to keep the most important pieces whilst still

In my opinion I feel I worked very well on creating my speech package. I worked very hard on collecting a wide range of clips and then selecting the best ones to include to make my speech package the best it could be. I have regularly collected audience feedback and then altering my speech package accordingly to the improvements which were suggested. I think my strengths were my time management as I have organised gathering the clips from various sources and the edited these into the final product in less time than I anticipated. I also think my strengths lie within the editing of clips and choosing where to place them within the speech package. One area which I feel I could have improved upon was the narration, as in some areas there is a slightly unclear narrative arc.