Broadcast Unit Blog
The lessons I have learnt throughout the broadcast unit have been invaluable, my skills have developed no end and I have grown into a much more able student. However these successes did not come about without difficulties, and these were key to me learning so much.
Radio
The members of my team in Radio were very competent and as a group I feel we undertook the news days with an eager and ready attitude. There were different requirements for the two target radio stations, South Coast and Talbot FM and we worked hard to reach our audiences well. A range of roles had to be undertaken and here was generally something that suited everyone. Our two practice weeks were extremely successful and we all experienced different roles to see who would be best suited for the different roles in the assessed weeks. Preparation was key in making sure we made the most of our talents; this was why Jess presented for the South Coast and Linzi for Talbot. As both radio stations were local around 75% of the stories in the bulletins were local news, but we had to include the top national stories to make sure our listeners were correctly informed of the day’s news.
In our first assessment day we were broadcasting for South Coast, I took the role of editor. We all followed the news of the week both locally, which included Hampshire, Dorset and the Isle of Wight and, nationally. This meant that we were partly prepared when we first walked into the room, this was important to our success.
As there were eight people in our group we were keen to get some reporters out into the town to get the real stories and opinions from the public; an example of this was when Steve went to the local Court and Jamie went to get interviews on the postal strikes. As a well organised group we produced balanced and legally correct bulletins and gained a first. We were particularly careful when reporting on the court case about Luke McCabe, making sure we stayed within the ten points that are legal to report on.
A problem with the Talbot FM practice and assessed days was that although the target audience was a lot easier for us to relate to, the production was harder and more intensive. We had to make sure we had music beds that didn’t overpower the speech and keeping the stories punchy was a challenge. However, I was extremely pleased with our bulletins that week as I think we prepared ourselves well according to our pre-arranged roles.
Other problems we faced were fitting all the news into the tight deadlines that we had. Working as a professional team meant that we did not want to run over or under our scheduled time what so ever. The ENPS programme estimated the time each story would take to read, but even though this gave a general idea, when nerves kick in people can read faster and stumble more so it is hard to estimate exactly. One of our biggest mistakes was having a story in the headline that we had actually cut, this was something that we learnt from for the next time to make sure that everything was thoroughly checked.
My radio package, was something that I wanted to be creative with and choose a unique subject for, rather than hard news. This is why I chose to do it on dreams. I was always concerned with my package, as it seemed that there was no reason for me to be investigating it. However, that is what a package is all about, it was a feature on something that I was interested in and wanted to find out more about. In hindsight I shouldn’t have put a music bed constantly underneath the whole package as sometimes it did overpower, but this is something I have learnt from. Throughout this whole unit persuading people to do interviews was a massive challenge. However, I was pleased with my range of interviews, as I think there was a truly balanced discussion with a wide range of opinion.
Television
Television was, for me, much more of a challenge compared to Radio, however I thoroughly enjoyed this part of the unit. As I had learnt basic skills on Final Cut last year the prospect of editing my work didn’t seem to daunting, however I was by no means experienced. One thing I particularly enjoyed were our news days, as although there were stressful times, all in all the satisfaction of producing a real Television programme was extremely enjoyable.
My team in TV were again competent and able, however some of the time it felt as though there were only a few of us working as a team. In our first week we had to produce our news programme, so we decided to include some packages and some news of the day. The decision of what my package would be on was extremely hard as I wanted to focus on Christmas, but still wanted to have a newsworthy story. The recession seemed ideal as I could interview local business people and get their expert opinions. However, I encountered some issues along the way; my main interview with Gail Collins from the BIC had no sound when I captured it. I then decided to have a still image of her and rolling text of what she had said. I was pleased when I managed to work out how to do this on my own, but in the end it did not look that professional so I arranged another interview. Small lessons like this are where I think I have really developed; now I would never do an interview without checking and re-checking all my sound and picture. My editing skills were really put to the test in this week and I enjoyed the challenge. Overall I thought my TV package had a strong hard news story behind it but I also made the shots creative and interesting to watch. The show itself was valuable in learning the pressures that I am likely to experience once I leave university, we had to pull together and make decisions quickly and efficiently.
For the Youth Show our main priority was to make something that we, as teenagers, would want to watch. We always wanted there to a balance between hard news and light stories; this is why we had our Twitter feed, bringing celebrities into the show. The People’s Panel also suited the type of show we were aiming for brilliantly. Our production could have been better at times, i.e. the constant ‘The Fix’ behind the presenters could have been more interesting to look at. Overall the main aim of the show, which was to inform the young generation of the news was done and I think was done very well.
The Documentary was the third television programme we produced, here our group struggled with working as a team. It is hard to produce one programme when there are five people working together, as even when you all agree, only one person can edit at a time. However, although we may not have worked that well as a team in this particular project, the end product was one of our best. The arguments for and against sun-bed use were balanced and if people watched it we would not have any worries ethically about the message we were putting across as it warned of all the dangers clearly.
Overall this was a thoroughly challenging and rewarding unit.
