convention of Radio

Conventions of Radio:

This is what I learned from my research into other radio stations, specifically Heart FM, Bolton FM and BBC Radio 1.

Pauses/slang/catch phrase:
Slang and pauses are more common on Local radio such as Bolton FM due to smaller audiences who feel more like a community or even a family. Nation radio such as Kerrang or Heart FM use better English as they speak to a more unknown audience as they are reaching people from all over the UK instead of a smaller area, despite this one of the main catch phrases of 1Xtra, a London based radio station, is ‘get funky’. This is because both national and local stations use catch phrases to attract audiences’ and appear ‘down to earth’. The more informal the station the more informal the catch phrase.

DJ talks about him/herself:
Usually DJ’s will talk about stories or music, but on occasions they will discuss their own lives. This will usually happen on a Monday morning while the presenters discuss their weekends. I researched and analysed this as I listened to Kerrang Radio where the presenter reported on a music festival he’d visited at the weekend. One thing i did pick up on from listening to both national and local radio station was that the audince are more intrested in hearing about someone like Chris Moyles than hearing about an alomst unknown presenter this is because of the influence the media has on our everyday lives through the Medium theory McLuhan (1964) the main idea of this is that the media has affected our preseption of what is intresting and what is not so through Chris Moyles new found stardom the audience now want to learn more about who he is and what he gets up to this has allowed the station to give a larger subject of the topics discussed on his show to be based around him.

DJ talks about the record:
The discussion of records and music comprises mostly of phattic utterances (small talk) which is pleasant to listen too. They will normally talk about the artist and how well the track is doing in the charts. As our course work will be a news show we won’t be focusing too strongly on this, but can use some of these skills while discussing news stories by giving our own opinions in short sentances as with a news show you are meant to stay impartial.

DJ talks about or to the listener:
On most radio stations, local and national, listeners can phone in to give opinions, such as sport opinions on Radio 5 Live, or answers quizzes on BBC Radio 1. This gives the listener an opportunity to be part of the radio experience and hopefully keep audiences’ listening and phoning in (often there are chances to win prizes). Obviously listeners are more likely to get through to the station on local radio as there are less people ringing in, yet less people will hear what they have to say in this instance. however a more intresting way to look at this is using the Dependancy Theory Ball-Rokeach and DeFleur (1976) in which its discussed that the media depends on the social context and through using interviews and phone ins the broadcaster get valuble knowledge about what people in the audience are thinking on a whole and can then shape there shows to appeal to the modern day audience

DJ digresses to another subject:
Topic shift is frequent during radio shows as it keeps stories fresh and listeners interested and listening. Within our news piece we will discuss different news stories to meet the large variety of interests.

DJ promotes another show:
Usually DJs will promote other shows on the same station, for example Chris Moyles from Radio 1 may promote Reggie Yates who does a later show. Promoting shows form the station in an obvious business technique to boost audience ratings. They will not normally promote other stations, and they are the competition This is a key example of the gatekeeper theory (Lewin 1947) in radio as the gatekeeper as it were is who decides what shall be put out on the radio so in this case a radio show such as BBC Radio 1 will not advertise for a kerrange so the gatekeeper only allows for the adverts about other shows to be BBC shows and broadcasts so to keep the audience intrested in what the BBC has to offer.


Jingles:
Jingles are used to attract audiences’, they are catchy and if a listener hears a snippet of your jingle while scrolling through radio stations they will stay and listen. Both national and local stations use this tactic, and example is Kerrangs jingle and slogan ‘Kerrang: Live Life Loud’ to a snappy tune.

Vox-Pop:
A Vox-pop is an on location report made outside of the station, such as an ‘on-location’ news report. They are recorded using handheld recorders. we will try to use two Vox Pops one in a local news report and one in our global affairs section.

Although not particululary a convention of media i decided i wanted to touch on how the radio has embrassed the changes in modern day technolgies and social changes through the Modernization theory (Giddens 1991) a key example that i picked up on when listening to all of these radio shows was the idea of mentioning the latest technologies such as the blackberry and i-phones thus connecting with the audience as these technologies are sweeping the globe however more importantly was the use of the social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter as during the shows the presenters are constantly asking for peope to join Facebook groups and to add the 'follow' the presenter themselves on Twitter this shows how media have recognized the potential marketing value of these sites in what is fast becoming a social networking society with these webpages no longer being just aimed at young teenagers.