media evaluation

The ways my media project uses, develops, and challenges media products.
My media project uses many conventions of radio news, for example, it uses vox pops, and it uses an introductory summary, jingles, and packages. . One thing that it does is start off with a brief summary of all the headlines and then go into each of them in more detail later on in the broadcast. This enables me to encourage the listener to keep listening if they hear the brief summary and then listen on to get more information about something that interests them. Another convention that my piece follows is the use of a jingle to identify the station with the listener. There are also conventions with regards to the packages that I have used in the assembly of my piece. The first of these is that I have included Vox Pops as a way of getting peoples opinions on the stories that I am covering. My media project does not uphold all media conventions however. The first example of this is that it uses news stories which are not real; because by the time the news stories were devised into a product they would have been out of date. Another convention that my radio project does not adhere to is that my project was constructed in a matter of weeks as opposed to hours., because, we could only access a large amount of the technical equipment within the media sessions. It is important to note that all my stories relate to real issues taking place in the world today, an example of this would be that Harrods closing down relates to the fact that real businesses are closing down because of the credit crunch.


My product and particular social groups.
My media project represented particular social groups in two ways. The first would be that I was representing` the interests of regular Londoners when I was interviewing my guests, because I was asking the questions that they wanted to know the answers to. The second way that my media product represents particular social groups is through social class. An example of this is that Boris Johnson and the ladies from Harrods both represent upper class London citizens through their accents and the language they use In contrast to this, the people in my vox pops for the congestion charge story present classes from all across London, as evidenced through the large range of accents heard in the clips.

Audience and distribution
The sort of media institution that might play my media project would be a commercial station based in London such as Capital FM. This is because my project fits the style used for these stations and covers news stories that are appropriate to Londoners.
The audience for my media project would be Londoners aged 35 and under. This is because they are the people most likely to listen to a station than plays contemporary hits. Another reason this audience would be attracted to this station would be than they news stories actually affect Londoners, such as the congestion charge story.
In terms of distribution, there are many ways that LHR radio would be distributed. These include FM Radio, and digital methods such as through DAB and freeview. Finally, LHR would have a website, through which you can access an audio stream of the station.
Attracting and addressing my audience
I attracted my audience making sure that all stories played were of interest for them. An example of this is that most people will be affected by the congestion charge story because it affects their day to day lives. In terms of addressing my audience, I used an informal style to do this and also ensured that I spoke on the same level as them. I believe the cockney accent in my jingle helped with this because I helped forge a link between the station and its listeners.

The technologies that I used
The main technology that I used in this project as Garage band, Sound forge, I also used R09 portable recorders. A mixing desk and a pair of CD decks. Garage Band is a program that enables me to create jingles, and also edit and assemble the finished package. Other features of Garage Band that I found particularly useful are the fact that you can position sounds on tracks, change the volume of tracks, or add special effects to specific tracks. Finally, it is possible to add various audio clips and sound effects to tracks, if you are having trouble creating a jingle or need to add atmosphere to a project.
Sound forge has editing features similar to garage band, but the big difference is that it is not multi track, meaning that it cannot be used during the composition of jingles. The Ro9 portable recorder is a simple device with two microphones built in witch I used to gather vox pops and interviews.


What I have learned with regards to technology
The first major thing that I have learnt through using this technology is that mistakes through digital media are very easy to correct. This is because if you make a mistake, you can simply use the undo command to start over again, or if the worst comes to the worst, reload the original file. Another than that I have learned form using this technology is the search for the right acoustic setting. , this means that if there is too much background noise, as there may be in an outdoor setting such as by a busy main road, the actual voices of the people talking could be obscured by background noise. Therefore, I have learnt that it is always better to record in a quitter setting (such as inside a quiet room)
And then add the background noise in as a separate track. Finally, I have also learned a massive amount about using the software ad hardware, because before I started doing the course I had no experience in this area at al.

From the preliminary task to the full task
I feel I improved a massive amount in terms of my technical skills. This is because I got to se a much wider range of technology in this project... I also expanded on my skills in garage band, which was the main program I used in constructing my preliminary project. In some ways, I found the main project easier because it was not as rushed as the preliminary project. Another reason as to why I found the main project easier is because by that point, I had a better idea of how to plan my project because I knew by that point what most of the technology was capable of. A final reason as to why I found the main project easier than the preliminary project is that I had a better idea of media conventions by this point.

Audience Feedback
I have received two pieces of audience feedback so far. Both of them said that my radio piece sounded professional and believable. One of the two people made a comment that the levels fluctuated thought the piece. As the comment came from a sound engineer, this is something that I would like to improve on in future.