Research Pack

3 Media Industry Examples:

1 – Radio Presenter – Nicholas Grimshaw

Nicholas (Nick) Grimshaw, also known as Grimmy, presently hosts BBC Radio One Breakfast Show. He has been doing it for almost six years now as he took over from Chris Moyles on 12 th July 2012.

The Radio One Breakfast Show runs from half six in the morning till ten making it a three and half hour show, which has been going for 51 years this year with a total of 6.16 million listeners a week listening to Nick Grimshaw’s breakfast show. Although, when Nick Grimshaw first took over the show from Chris Moyles there was a big decline in the listeners, making the show get the smallest audience on record at the BBC. It is said to be the lowest the show has had since the first show that was aired in 1967 with Tony Blackburn. Declining to 5.2 million listeners from Chris Moyles 7 million listeners. One of the main reasons for the decline in listeners was the fact that Nick Grimshaw was trying to change the audience from quite an older one that Chris Moyles had built to a younger one that he felt he would be able to appeal to more. This caused listeners to leave when Chris Moyles left, although throughout the years Grimshaw has started to increase his own audience back up.

Nick Grimshaw had joined BBC Radio One in 2007. Where he started off presenting the BBC's Youth Stand "Switch" with friend and colleague DJ Annie Mac. He only co-hosted with Annie Mac for a year then moved on to solo host the Radio One's Weekend Breakfast show from October 2008 to May 2009 before moving again to the 10pm to midnight slot on Radio One which he started 1 st June 2009. He continued to do this show for three years before finally taking over Chris Moyles on the Breakfast show in 2012 where he has been labeled the third longest serving presenter of the breakfast show.

Grimshaw's first step into radio was when he presented the student radio at Liverpool University, which he attended between 2002 – 2005. He studied Communication and Media Studies but failed his final year. This meant he only graduated with a DipHE rather than a bachelor's degree; however this did not seem to matter as the BBC saw he had potential with presenting.

The skills and knowledge required to be radio presenter include good communication and public speaking skills, research and interviewing skills, the ability to work under pressure, a suitable voice for radio, a strong on-air personality and confidence. A job like this requires a high level of creative talent and/or experience. Luckily for most presenters they have an editor who edits the show, if it is pre-recorded or makes sure everything is edited and ready to play before they go live, this means no editing is needed for the presenter to do. Although they may help to put their own input into the editing as it will be their show that it will be appearing on. When creating a successful radio show the presenter has to make sure they have all the research and are prepared for the show. Some shows have themes or certain people in to interview that need to be researched into before the show is aired. Radio shows are most normally a couple of hours long so the presenter needs to make sure the listeners do not lose interest and that they do not keep repeating themselves. Keeping the audience interested in the show for a couple of hours is one of the most important things for a presenter to be aware of as they do not want to lose listeners. Depending on the radio show, most like Nick Grimshaw’s Breakfast Show has music played in between topics or just to keep the audience listening. Although, this is a good idea the

presenter has to make sure the music is the right kind for the target audience that listens to them otherwise the listeners are more likely to turn off and listen to something else.

2 – Producer – Julie Shepherd

Julie Shepherd is a BBC radio producer where she produces Clara Amfo's show, which is The Official Chart Show on BBC Radio One as well as the Radio One Live Lounge.

Julie Shepherd applied to five jobs while in University of Bradford, one of them being the BBC which she then got offered the day after she finished University. Although, this job was a researcher at BBC Radio Two, where she ended up working for two years before she had finally had enough and was getting bored. They then announced about Radio 1xtra which Julie Shepherd was very excited about and knew she wanted to be a part of it. She ended up moving from Birmingham where she had lived for three years to London to start her new job at Radio 1xtra.

Being a producer is a lot of work and means making sure all the equipment is working properly and the quality of both the sound and the content is up to scratch. A producer has to be listening intently to what is going on around them and on the radio at all times as they have to make sure everything goes smoothly throughout the show. Julie said 'this means knowing what feels right and what to change things. That could mean "too much unfamiliar music or too much chat about one thing." As it is the producer’s job to make sure nothing that goes out is insensitive to the listeners.' A producer also includes operating the technical controls, making sure the sound volume levels and recording software is all working and do not cause any problems for the host of the show. The producers use to be in a control room which was separate from the radio studio by a window which allowed visual contact but blocked any noise that might have been made by the producer. Although, nowadays this has changed at some radio studios.

3 – Editor – Sara Sands

Sara Sands is the editor for the Today show on BBC Radio 4.

In 1996 Sara Sands joined The Daily Telegraphy as deputy editor and soon became responsible for the Saturday Edition. She was there for nine years before she was appointed as the first female editor of The Sunday Telegraph in June 2005. However, Sara was then fired as editor from the newspaper in March 2006 which then took her to become Consultant editor at the Daily Mail starting April 2006. It then wasn’t more than two years that she was then named editor-in-chief of Reader’s Digest in February 2008. Sara Sands then left to become the Deputy Editor at London Evening Standard newspaper in 2009 where she soon become Editor of the newspaper in 2012, staying there for another five years before finally becoming the editor of the today show on BBC Radio 4 in 2017.

An Editor for radio has to oversee and directs the work of a news team as well as setting and driving the news agenda. For this job there are many skills required. For example, you have to understand and have an instinct of what makes a good news story as well as have good writing and storytelling skills, be able to generate original ideas and know how to communicate with the audience in new creative ways. They also have to be able to use a variety of recording equipment and to be able to operate in different radio studios.

I have created a mind map with my main question in the middle. Around the outside is all the ideas and skills I will need to answer it. All the different research techniques and industry examples that I will look into.

As well as this mind map I have created others with my theme in the middle. I have also gathered a variety of secondary research with regards of what I need to know. From looking into three industry examples, fashion books on how it’s changed through the years and listening to professional radio shows.

I created a survey asking ten questions about radio. The aim of this is to find out what people's opinions on radio are and how much they already know about it. It is also to see what radio they listen to and why, the things they like and don’t like about radio. From this I can include or exclude the elements they have mentioned. For example, music, interviews and topics. The radio show I will be creating has to be appealing, especially for my target audience as if my end product ends up not getting any positive effect or attention from people then I would not have accomplished in making a good radio talk show.

From my survey results I noticed majority of people listened to Heart, KMFM, Capital or Radio One. This helps me as I can listen to these radio shows and see what they are doing which makes people listen and like them so much. I asked how often people listen to radio and the majority of people listen to it every day while only 25% listen to it once a week. This shows me that people will not want to hear the same old thing on the radio, especially if they listen every day as they will want new and fresh so they do not get bored. From this survey I also wanted to know why people listen to the radio, through this question I found out 58% of people listen to it just for the music with 35% listen to it for music, news, topics and the presenter. This information shows me that most people probably like either a break from all the talking with some music, especially if they are in the car for a long time. This is something I will keep in mind when recording my own show. One of the main questions I asked was what people think make a good radio show as well as what they do not like about radio. Majority of people said that lively and respectable presenters with a decent sense of humour that have beneficial conversations and interesting topics is something that appeals to them. Also a nice range of music is something that a lot of people kept mentioning. The main thing people do not like about radio is advertisement as well as over

talking about the certain topics. When asking what the audience thinks makes a good radio host their answers were quite similar. For example, good communication and people skills, quick witted, happy and friendly personality, confidence and fluently spoken. These answers will help me going forward with doing my own radio show as I now know what the audience expects from a host when listening as people could get bored and not listen if the presenter has no character to their voice.

I also looked into different radio shows and why their audience enjoys listening to them. I looked at the differences and similarities that each radio shows have and why that works for the kind of show.

I listened to Women's Hour on Radio 4 as well as Late Night Women's Hour. These shows are 45 minutes to an hour long and talk about several different topics such as, parenting, working fathers, teenagers and cooking. The start of Women's Hour does not have any introduction music which personally I do not like as I feel like it throws the audience straight into it, and sometimes I feel a jingle could help people remember the show more. However, in replacement of intro music they start with the host talking about what you will hear throughout the show, they also announce their email if anyone wants to email in questions about the topic they are talking about on the show that day. The show is more of a conversation between a group of friends as there are many guests that appear on the show to help with the topic. Most of the time they are professionals on the situation or have been through it themselves. This gives the audience a range of an opinion and facts and could help the audience relate to them which makes them want to listen more. The fact the show is more of a conversation makes it flow as a show much better as no one is stuttering or waiting for their line because they are not talking like they are reading off of a script. The host may have a few questions or a layout of what they need to talk about but most of the time it's a guide line as the audience would prefer more of a normal atmosphere then something that is rehearsed. Something I quite like about this show is the fact they do phone ins within the studio. This is something I have always thought about when doing radio as it is something most shows do. It's a good idea when you want a public opinion or someone who may not be able to get in because of their profession. A phone in gives another eye sight to the topic and could make the audience think more. One thing I did not enjoy about this is the fact they have no music, even between topics. I feel for some people, especially my age might find this long and could get bored as its just all talking and one topic after the other with no break. I think the type of radio show I would end up doing will have music in between topics for breaks as I feel this will attract more of an audience and won’t make people get bored. Also if the topic is interesting enough they will want to stick around to hear what is said about it next. The ending of the show I found to have ended quite abrupt as the hosts thanks the last guest, saying who she/he is again so the audience knows before the show cuts off. Ending a show with maybe what is going to happen next week on the show would be a better way to end as it makes people know what they will be in for next week and would most likely make them want to come back if your next show is interesting enough.

Another radio show I listened to was a drama on BBC Radio 4 called 15 minute drama. This is something that is very different to what I am deciding to do, although I thought it would be a good idea to look into it to see if they do, do some things I could somehow work into my own show. This radio show is an ongoing drama story, each day they continue the story from where they left on the day before. They have a narrator that speaks now and then over the top of music or sound effects; this is to tell the audience what is going on such as setting the scene or explaining the situation. There are then other actors who speak out the drama, giving a voice to each character within the drama piece. Having different people playing the voices gives the audience an idea of when someone new comes into the

piece or when a different person is talking, this is a good technique because no one then gets confused of what is happening, especially if you had two people reading several characters lines. Even though I am not having a physical drama script with characters listening to this radio piece has helped me on how I could do mine. As I want to have guests in my show I will make sure it’s clear about who is talking when and who they are so the audience listening does not get confused. Throughout this show they have sound effects which are something that helps the audience understand the story line and the situation that is happening much better. Whether this is telling the audience if the scene is outside by having wind or bird sound effects or telling the audience what the character is doing from running to writing. These sound effects help the story have more of an impact on the audience as it can help them feel more emotion towards the story. It also helps them understand exactly what is going on and to create a picture within their heads. Another important thing that this radio show has is the voice of the characters. The voice is a big deal as it shows the audience whether or not the character is happy or sad, out of breathe or just fine. It gives the audience a feel for what the character themselves are feeling and could maybe make them sympathise or empathise with them. This is another thing that I will take into consideration when creating my own radio show as my voice when I'm speaking can affect the audience more than you know. Also if you are talking about a sad situation you should not sound happy or excited about it, so researching into this show has helped me think about the small things which actually bring a show together, such as the voice of the presenter or guest.

Apart from listening to radio shows I also looked into radio itself. I find a magazine called Media Magazine, which talks about several different media sectors such as movies, theatre and radio. I managed to find the month that they did a radio section within the magazine. From this I found out what happened through the years with radio, showing me how it has developed.

History of Radio:

1877 - Sound was recorded for the first time by Thomas Edison. 1880 – The electrophone was invented and used to transmit sounds of opera and theatre

performances 1888 – The gramophone (the first record player) was invented 1922 – The first news bulletin was broadcasted (Three times). One normal and two slowly, this

gave people a opportunity to write in and say what version they preferred. 1922 – The British broadcasting company was licensed. 1939 – 1945 – Radio was used during the World War III as it was a powerful tool in the military

and propaganda campaigns. 1955 – The BBC goes local 1967 – Radio 1 was created as the BBC was forced to evolve and play pop. Radio 2, 3 and 4 were

set up along with BBC's first local radio in Leicester. 1973 – Deregulation. The first commercial radio was allowed. 1979 – 19 operating commercial radios were in the UK alongside the BBC and then it raised to

200 in 1990. 1990 – More Deregulation. The broadcasting act relaxed controls on both ownership of stations

and lightened public server obligations on commercial radio. 1990 – Government set up new radio stations such as, Kiss 100, Jazz FM, Melody and Sunrise. 1990 – Commercial stations were allowed to go national.

1990 – More radio stations such as Classical FM, Virgin 1215, Atlantic 252, Talk Radio UK started broadcasting across the UK.

1990 – Relaxation on the rules allowed media companies like Virgin and EMAP to buy into radio. 1996 – 2002 – The digital revolution. Cable, satellite, internet, desktop production and massive

media outlets. 2003 – The first BBC digital radio and TV kicked in; Xtra1, BBC 6 Music and BBC 7, the Asian

network and BBC 4 TV.

This has helped me have more knowledge within the radio industry as it has shown me what radio was like when it first started and how it has evolved since then. The magazine has helped me stretch my knowledge in different areas of radio as it also wrote and explained about the two types of radio and how they differ for example, Live radio and Pre-recorded.

Live Radio shows are normally presenter led music shows with guest interviewees, sometimes having a phone in interview. They also have many ingredients to make a live show, consisting of music, local reports, weather, travel and news. One of the main things that live radio is all about is good research and interview techniques, as the production is all about timings.

Pre-recorder shows are put together in the editing stage, using a whole range of skills having to add sound effects, location material, archive, music and interviews. The sort of radio shows that you will found that have been pre-recorded are;

News reports Features Documentaries Radio dramas

Learning the difference between these radio shows has expanded my knowledge on what is needed for both as well as what shows are more likely to be pre-recorded than presented live on air.

Within this magazine it also tells you what you need to make a radio show with a list of equipment as well as the idea of your show and the attitude you have when speaking.

The equipment needed is;

One minidisc or other digital recorder. A microphone A computer Edit software

With the attitude you should have, it explains how you should have respect for others, humor and a quirky way of seeing things, a way with people, a polite but do not take no for answer mind set, passion, calmness in a crisis and not scared to try new things. This was a good thing to find when researching as it will help me know what kind of attitude you should have as a presenter and also shows that they are the same qualities that the public picked up on in my survey when asked what they think makes a good host. This shows me that the way a host should be in appealing to the public.

It talks about a good idea that you should have within doing your radio show, some of the points they make are;

It should be one that inspires you You should have a theme under it Be topical about it It should be a good story Should be bold and dangerous It should be something that engages your emotion as well as those of your listeners. Should contain personal insights and universal human qualities

These tips will help me now and in the future as it makes a good point of needing to be interested in your idea or theme, otherwise the whole radio show will not come off as interesting for the audience, especially if you, yourself are not bothered by it.

This is my mind map which I created for the theme and topic that my radio show will talk about.

This has helped me a lot as it made me think about what exactly I wanted to talk about as well as look into different clothing stores that may advertise wrongly or do not sell certain clothes sizes. I have also researched into how fashion has changed through the year and from this I can see if any fashion is coming back in.

Brandy Melville is an international shop that originated from Italy. Through research I found out that they only sell one size for every piece of clothing. I looked into their online shop and found every piece of clothing had a different size but you could not change it. The sizes were also all in measurements and not normal size guides, for example the website showed a top with the sizes as 22" waist and 18" bust instead of staying size 8 or 14. From this information I found out that all the sizes they did sell were all petite and unrealistic. I measured out the certain inches of waist and bust that they sold on a piece of string and measured it beside myself and some people in my class, which I found out that no one came close to it being the right size. This made me think about how unrealistic their sizes were and how you could not change them even if you wanted to.

I also researched in Gemma Collins Boutique because I had heard she only sells one size of clothing as well. The difference between her selling one size only was the fact she only sells plus sizes. Finding this

out has made me want to talk about this topic and what affect this has on the public, those who buy it and those who do not. I also want to know if it is unfair to the fans of hers that are not plus size themselves but cannot buy her clothes because of her only selling one size. More so, is she missing out? One of the reasons she does this is because she is plus size herself and thinks just selling plus size gives people like her more of a chance to buy nice clothing.

While researching I found out that an online shop, ASOS, mislabelled their sizes on their website. A product on their website was a size 8 but labeled as plus size. One of the main people to be blamed for this is there management as well as the CEO of the company as they normally have to oversee everything before it is updated. The affect this has on the audience is a negative one as it probably makes people who are a size 8 or more wondered if they are overweight as ASOS had labeled a small size as plus size. It makes them start think about themselves negatively.

Apart from what the companies advertise and do within their businesses I also looked at how the models on every website do not wear the size of the product that you may want to buy as they are normally wearing a fitted one to their body type which makes me wonder if this has a negative effect on the public when they buy clothes and a negative effect on the way the product is advertised. It probably affects the things people buy as they might not think it will look right on them as they might be buying a bigger size. This makes me wonder if it would be better to have models that can wear each size of the product and when you click on your size it changes, that maybe people would prefer the models to be more varied than just 'normal' model size and plus size.

References:

BBC. (2018). Episode 1, A Small Town Murder, 15 Minute Drama - BBC Radio 4. [online] Available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09v2x56 (Accessed: 29th March 2018)

Nobody said its got to sound normal. (2003). Media Magazine, (Four), pp.15, 16, 17. (Accessed: 29th March 2018)

Anderson, S. (2018). Nick Grimshaw to replace Chris Moyles as Radio 1 breakfast show host. [online] The Independent. Available at: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/tv-radio/nick-grimshaw-to-replace-chris-moyles-as-radio-1-breakfast-show-host-7935540.html (Accessed: 29th March 2018)

BBC News. (2018). Nick Grimshaw loses more listeners. [online] Available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-24650892 (Accessed: 29th March 2018)

Sweney, M. (2018). Radio 1's Nick Grimshaw adds more than 700,000 listeners. [online] the Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/feb/06/radio-1-nick-grimshaw-bbc-radio-2 (Accessed: 29 th March 2018)

Plunkett, J. (2018). Radio 1 loses nearly 1m listeners as Nick Grimshaw hits 12-year breakfast low. [online] the Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/may/21/radio-1-loses-1m-listeners-nick-grimshaw-bbc-4-extra-6-music (Accessed: 29th March 2018)

BBC. (2018). Weekend Woman's Hour: Miss Holland, Hanger, Support for Working Dads, Woman's Hour - BBC Radio 4. [online] Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09vyw8w (Accessed: 29th March 2018)

Brandymelville.co.uk. (2018). Brandy Melville UK. [online] Available at: https://www.brandymelville.co.uk/ (Accessed: 29th March 2018)

Gemmacollinscollection.com. (2018). Gemma Collins Collection – Plus Size Fashion. [online] Available at: http://gemmacollinscollection.com/ (Accessed: 29th March 2018)

YouTube. (2018). Julie Shepherd - Radio Producer. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHhKqtV8YcY (Accessed: 29th March 2018)

BBC. (2018). BBC Radio 1's Academy - What does a radio producer actually do? - BBC Radio 1. [online] Available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/1c3cbrk9nryqm33xWFxhFbl/what-does-a-radio-producer-actually-do (Accessed: 29th March 2018)

Sweney, M. (2018). Sarah Sands named deputy editor of London Evening Standard. [online] the Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/media/2009/feb/20/sarah-sands-london-evening-standard (Accessed: 29 th March 2018)

Grierson, J. and Jackson, J. (2018). Sarah Sands named editor of BBC Radio 4's Today programme. [online] the Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/media/2017/jan/30/sarah-sands-named-editor-bbc-radio-4-today-programme-evening-standard (Accessed: 29th March 2018)

Sabbagh, D. (2018). Sarah Sands is new editor of London Evening Standard. [online] the Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/media/2012/mar/30/sarah-sands-editor-evening-standard (accessed: 29 th March 2018)