Introduction to Radio Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Introduction to Radio - Essay Example Robert McLeash also asserts that the British radio is riven roughly 50/50 between radio stations owned and run by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and radio stations owned by commercial groups through license given by Ofcom. On the other hand, there are over two hundred stations owned and operated by the community, however, they are also licensed by Ofcom. MacLeash 2007 (14) also asserts that radio stations are characterized in the manner in which they are financed, and not by what they do. For instance, public service radio stations such as BBC operate under the terms of a Royal Charter and are funded by TV license fees. This fee is payable by people in the United Kingdom who watches live programming of television. The license fee is topped up by grants and revenues. On the other hand, commercial radio stations broadcasting in the United Kingdom are funded by payments made for advertisements. They broadcast on AM or FM via DTV, online and DAB (McLeish 2005, pp.13). The mod e of funding influences what is aired on these radio stations. This is explicated in the pressure faced by BBC to educate, be impartial, inform, as well as entertain since they rely on license fees. The first week also enabled us to learn the basics that an individual should know before embarking on recording of for radio or interviews. This is attributed to the fact that some background sounds such as wind, music or people talking in close range to the recording device can bring problems during editing. This is because they are difficult to edit out. In order to prove this point, we visited various locations within the university to ascertain that different reverberations have different effects on recording (Fleming 2002, pp.67). For instance, we visited two indoor and two outdoor locations in order to come up with the best neutral location and the best location with a background noise for recording an interview for radio. WEEK 2 Vox pop, an abbreviation of the Latin words vox popu li meaning ‘voice of the people’ is an extremely important source of news. In this type of news coverage, special researchers and news reporters go out into the streets with the intentions of seeking public views and opinions on matters of current public concern. They do this by asking thoughtful questions in order to: test public opinions and reactions, influence decision makers, stimulate public debate, forecast results of certain events, and promote a radio, newspaper or television station, among others (Crisell 1994, pp. 57). Vox pops have been used in the radio industry from the 1930s. It is also reported that in the initial decades of the 20th century, vox pops acted as a medium for the community to express their views. This is attributed to the fact that radio played an integral role in the community since it created a way for community members to provide, as well as receive opinion. In class we learnt how to make vox pop recordings. For instance, we were taught that questions should be asked with the recorder on pause; and that only responses given by the respondents’ should be recorded (Crisell 1994, pp. 69). Additionally, the responses should be put together in separate bands so that during compilation, the best answers should be at the beginning and at the end. In the middle of the vox pop, the responses should contain a mix up of opinions varying between female and male voices. WEEK 3 During this week we learnt how to edit the vox pops that we had made in the