Me, Gemi, Elang, and Baskara worked together to produce a 16 minute radio segment. We
were issued this project in the end of term one. This project involved us making three things:
a 15-minute radio segment, a logo for the radio station, and an advertisement segment to be
featured in the radio. We were able to split our tasks to maximise efficiency, so I was
assigned to create the logo, the rest were assigned to create the advertisement segment,
and we all worked on the 15-minute radio segment together.
How does your project use or challenge conventions and how does it represent social
groups or issues?
Our radio is a morning segment targeted towards a younger audience between the ages of
13 to 17. Therefore, we conform to the conventions that exist regarding media products
made for that particular audience group. The conventions regarding media products targeted
towards a teenage audience would mainly be music and the latest and most trending news.
Therefore, we decided to consult our audiences directly by sending out a questionnaire to
further represent our audience better. We used the music that is trending and still respected,
such as hip-hop and rock music, and also presented the latest news. Because we are a
morning segment, we also try to discuss issues such as weather that may aid these kids in
their commute to school. Our radio show reinforces stereotypes about teenagers, such as
including slangs in their everyday vocabulary, hence the radio show name ‘No Cap’. As
Steve Neale has mentioned in his Genre Theory, it is great to give the audience a hint of
what your product is about, in this case it would be the name ‘No Cap’, but also be different,
which is why we decided to become a rock and hip-hop radio station, an unanticipated pair.
How does your product engage with the audience and how would it be distributed
as real text media?
Our target audience are 13 to 17 year old high school students who would like to listen to
stories and songs that are currently relevant and talked about. We know that because our
team consists of four 16 year old males and if you know anything about a homogeneous
workplace, they tend to produce negative stereotypes that may be harmful, as mentioned
by Stuart Hall in his Representation Theory. To combat this issue, we decided to hold the
aforementioned questionnaire, consisting of questions regarding matters such as favourite
music genre, number of hosts, stories to tell, etc. Since this is a morning segment targeting
high school students, our stories and news are all related to those things. One example
of such a story was when we interviewed a student and asked to share his plan for his
future career and university choices. Another is when we were discussing weather, which
would help inform them about what they might expect on their way to school or at school.
We have decided to choose this specific age range because we belong to this age group
and therefore find it easier and better to produce a media product that reflects our views
and wants. We know what our peers want better than any other people from other walks
of life. I believe that our radio fits all four categories in Bulmer and Katz’s Uses and
Gratification theory, we will have people who listen to our radio as a diversion to relieve
their stress from school, we might also get guests into the radio who audiences might see
as a role model which fits personal identity, the similar age and interests will produce a
connection between the audience and hosts, and finally people who listen to just observe
the news and affairs of school and the world, or surveillance.
How did your production skills develop throughout this project?
Before this project, I have not touched any editing software in over a year. This project gave
me an opportunity to rekindle back with these softwares. We were also very fortunate to be
given a short but informative introduction to sound equipment by a teacher, and were also
given the ability to use the radio room. Although we ran into a problem which did not give
us the time to use the room and utilise professional equipments to produce a higher quality
radio show, it was still very educational regardless. Another production skill that I improved
in is in teamwork, where despite the drawbacks we experienced, through good teamwork
we were able to overcome them.
How did you integrate technologies into this project?
We used a wide array of softwares and hardwares to produce the project. The recording
process took place on Discord, which allows us to go into a group call and record our voices
there. To edit and splice the audio together, we used the online audio editing website
Soundtrap, a free but professional-like site. To design our logo, we used the Adobe Illustrator
software. Aside from the editing and recording softwares, we also browsed through YouTube
to search and find various sound effects, background music, and the music we were going to
play for the radio. To conduct the survey, we used Google Sheets. We are very blessed to
have access to these technologies, without them, we would have to resort to lower quality
mobile editing softwares, or possibly even abandoning several ideas.
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