November 2017 – Page 2 – Have You Heard The News- The Year In Review

November 14, 2017Simon Nunn No Comments

Social Media usage

As one of my learning objectives revolves around getting a better understanding of how social media works as it is vital that I understand how effective social media is created.

In regards to Radio 1’s social media output, this spans Facebook, Twitter and Instagram with each of them having a different way of being approached and vastly different content on each platform. For example with Radio 1’s Facebook page, it heavily utilises video content which has varying places it has come from, for example, some clips from a BBC Music tv programme or small extracts from programmes that have been commissioned for BBC Radio 1’s Iplayer channel, or things that have been filmed in Radio 1’s own studios. This shows that Radio 1 in terms of its Facebook output utilises a heavy amount of video content rather than static pictures to keep the viewer engaged. It is also worth noting that the video clips do not normally exceed 1 minute in length so that that viewer stays engaged to the content rather than switching off halfway through due to it becoming boring.

BBC Radio 1 (2017) BBC Radio 1 Facebook [Facebook] 31st October- 5th November. Available from: https://www.facebook.com/bbcradio1/ [acessed 6th November 2017].

The next social media site is Twitter again this is used very differently to that of the others. Twitter does use video to an extent but this is not to the same level that the Facebook page uses however the length is still under a minute and there is often cross-promotion of videos as some videos that appear on Facebook may also be on Twitter. The differences are though that Twitter uses more links to other content such as BBC blogs or full online content such as Live Lounges etc. The other thing that Twitter is used for more heavily is the usage of gifs that have come from relevant content such as music videos or interviews to make people laugh or interact with the content more. Finally, the advantage of the Twitter is that is that it is a lot easier to cross-promote content as Radio 1 can subsequently retweet things such as one of their presenters tweeting about the show or an artists tweet about them being on a show.

BBC Radio 1 (2017) BBC Radio 1 Twitter [Twitter]. Nov 4th- Nov 6th. Available from: https://twitter.com/BBCR1 [acessed 6th Nov 2017].

The next site that is worth mentioning is Instagram. Instagram is utilised mostly for short-form video content that goes in tandem with radio 1’s actual radio output, meaning that these clips directly promote the show rather than say another BBC programme or service. Alongside this are the photos that are put up on Instagram, these are not just photos of everyday things in the studio but more focused around events, e,.g when I looked there were photos from the Radio 1 rocks event alongside photos of presenters with guests etc to encourage people to listen.

BBC Radio 1 (2015) BBC Radio 1 Instagram [images]. Available from: https://www.instagram.com/bbcradio1/?hl=en [acessed 6th November 2017].

Ultimately what I need to grasp is that all the social media platforms have different roles but all of them should be utilised. This means that for our programme we would potentially create a 40-second video of the funniest bits to try and encourage the listener to tune in which would go on all 3 social media sites, to support this we could then take some photos of the recording session to place on Instagram to build a social media presence for our programme and get people to listen to the programme which is ultimately what you want to happen.

Gaining an understanding of how social media is used in Radio 1’s current output also allows me to fulfil my learning objective which is based on social media and learning how it is used in its current context to produce a multi-media presence for radio which is now more important than ever as has been demonstrated above and the frequency of the content that is outputted.

November 9, 2017Simon Nunn No Comments

Week 7 tutorial

This week with Zara we discussed what we had been doing in the previous week and told her what we had decided, the most noticeable one of these was that we had changed our project idea again due to the idea being consistently redeveloped, this time we were set upon creating the project for the radio 1 podcast commisioning opportunity that had just become available. We also discussed whether our learning objectives had been impacted heavily by us changing our target audience and in reality, they had not. Once this had been discussed Zara told us that we should be actively contacting people in both the script side of the project and those on the side of commisioning to allow us to gain first-hand research and at the same time develop our industry links which is important for my learning outcome about my portfolio piece as if I can get connections that would listen to it already this would be beneficial. Zara also set us some objectives to get done for the end of the next week, as we had to have contacted people and tried to find the final contributor for the project who was a female to make sure that we have a gender-balanced panel, rather than it being dominated by males which should be avoided at all costs.

November 9, 2017Simon Nunn No Comments

A change of idea

The Change

After two tutorials with Zara it was decided that we would change our idea again to make it more achievable and at the same time make it more relevant, this means that our idea will now target BBC Radio 1’s new podcast series that focus on comedy and are half an hour in length, rather than an hour programme for Radio 4. Ultimately this is because me and James both are young so it means that we would be able to relate more to what young people are thinking about rather than that of people in the older generations. One of the other reasons was that it is also much easier for us to source a panel that is relevant to young people as we know these type of people and when we tried to source contributors for our original idea the majority of these were young enough to be in Radio 1’s demographic. Furthermore with radio 1 launching a new podcast series in January 2018 and the commisioning guidelines being released in October it makes perfect sense for us to attempt this as from my point of view it makes significantly more sense to try and fulfil and actual commission rather than say doing an ad hoc commission which is what we had originally intended. This Radio 1 commision also makes the medium become more multiplatform based as we are now producing a podcast rather than a traditional radio show, this also allows us to be more creative with how we use social media, as we would need to be very active and forward thinking in terms of radio 1 whereas for radio 4 we would have been a slower pace and less of innovative.

Overall Learning Objectives

In regards to how this affects the overall learning objectives, they will be impacted modestly as we will just adapt it to the network that we are targeting which was origninally radio 4, but this has now been revised for Radio 1, the outlined length will also change due to the podcasts only having to be 30 minutes per episode rather than an hour programme. In regards to the other learning objectives, they will not need to change as we can still have a five-person panel that is interesting and varied in their opinion, we will still attempt to achieve a balanced programme that fulfils the BBC guidelines alongside making sure the programme is entertaining to the majority of the audience and make sure that they can relate to it. finally creating strong supporting content now becomes significantly more important due to Radio 1 outputting a lot more content via social media channels

Personal Learning Objectives

In terms of my personal learning objectives, they will stay the same as I will still be improving my project management skills and gaining the confidence to find contributors and talking to them. In terms of developing a better knowledge of pitching to BBC networks, this will be improved as I will have looked at both Radio 4’s commisioning process and Radio 1’s and learnt how these differ from one another and the justification still remains the same with independent companies being vital to the BBC. In terms of being experimental, this will also be more achievable as the commissioning document stresses the importance of being innovative and 100% new, making this again more achievable than it was originally. The learning objective regarding social media is now more important than ever as we can be experimental with this and it is much easier to implement due to Radio 1 being social media heavy. Finally having a strong portfolio piece is the same, however, it will most likely be more relevant due to me most likely applying for the Radio 1 internship after university.

*how does it affect plo’s*

November 8, 2017Simon Nunn No Comments

Radio 1 commisioning

The Radio 1 commissioning process is largely similar to that of Radio 4’s as we must again follow all the steps to become accredited as a BBC supplier which you find about here.However, in regards to how we would be pitching the idea, it would be vastly different and the final product would be significantly different from our original idea.

COMMISSIONING GUIDELINES

Radio 1 are looking for podcasts rather than that of traditional radio and the commissioning guidelines stress the importance of the finished piece being a podcast, not a radio programme that is turned into a podcast like with some of there pre-existing podcats e.g Greg James’ That what he said or Movies with Ali Plumb. BBC Radio 1 has been lacking a dedicated comedy slot for many years and this is aimed at changing this by making sure that it shows that BBC Radio 1 is ”unruly, infectious, and honest” (BBC,2017). The podcasts are also supposed to be talent lead meaning that in our podcast will revolve mostly around James leading the panel and the discussion as a whole alongside scripted elements that he delivers.

The guidelines also stress the importance of these podcasts being distinctive and being 100% original in regards to the ideas that are put into them and I would argue that our revised programme which you can find out about here is, especially for Radio 1’s audience has not had any political comedy let alone comedy for many years.

Another element that is stressed is that comedy has the potential to converse over areas that young people are interested in i.e politics as shown by young peoples engagement in the election and this means that we believe our idea would be suitable to pitch to radio 1 and politics allow us to fulfil the need being stimulating, exciting and require focused attention, as well as have spontaneity, energy and be provocative. For us, our panel members will also be crucial in whether we hit these goals as we will need people who are spontaneous and are provocative in their way of thinking at the same time as being funny, and i believe that we should potentially abandon the idea of it being clip lead and more conversationalist for these guidelines.

In relation to this is that the tone podcasts should be unguarded conversation be informal spontaneous again this will heavily relate to the way the piece is scripted as well as the contributors that we use with us needing to prioritise someone who can be spontaneous and speak their mind but at the same time be funny.

In terms of how many podcasts there are two options:

The first is a series based podcast which spans 12 episodes and the series needs to build a following for digital listening at the same time as having a strong narrative over 12 episodes, they must also be engaging and risk-taking by either innovation or being provocative alongside being informal and spontaneous.

The second option that we have is to produce a ‘mini-series’ of 2 to 3 episode that are riskier and/or play a role in developing new talent, this type of series lends itself to potentially becoming a longer series.

I believe that due to the nature of project we will be unlikely to fill 30 minutes on each month meaning that a shorter series of potentially six or three episodes would be much more likely for us to produce and allow us to not run out of material at the same time as not making the podcasts become dull and boring for the listener, as it should be engaging. Due to the nature of the audience, it also means that we would need to find political news stories that related to a young audience so that they can relate to what we are talking about.

This ultimately means we would pitch our podcast as a series of 3, due to its nature and the problem of potentially boring the listener if we had too many episodes due to the fact that they do not interrelate with one another. This type of series also lends itself to an extension outwards after we have more experience as

The Process

In terms of how we physically commision this again very similar to that of the process of Radio 4, we are required to submit a 250-word proposal for the first stage and fill out a questionnaire as to why we are an eligible company to work with. Once we have done this we would then be required to submit a full proposal which outlines all the relevant information for the following sections:

1- A detailed proposal responding to the commissioning brief that has been discussed above.

2- A section detailing the following:

The name of the person who would be dealing with the BBC on behalf of the production company.

The location of the production team

Evidence of that team having experience making relevant content

Talks with any relevant third parties that may be needed in order to fulfil the brief.

A strong budget outlining the cost per episode and where funding will come from if other sources are utilised.

Once this is submitted we would then pitch the idea in person to the commissioning team where we discuss and elaborate on the idea and answer any questions that may occur. This would then lead to us either signing a contract or not being offered a contract and if we were unsuccessful in the project we would then be offered feedback.

Assesment Criteria

The BBC will then assess our pitch in relation to three areas, these being: editorial proposal and capability (75%), value for money (20%) and risk (5%). In terms of the editorial proposal and capability, this means the programme must fit the network alongside a strong format that demonstrates innovation. It also outlines what experience a team should have, as they should understand the tone of the podcasts, have a knowledge of youth culture alongside having experience of on-air talent managing, plans for social media and have an appreciation of podcasts and spoken word programming.

We would also be assessed on Value for money meaning we would need to demonstrate a price per episode and have a strong financial plan to back up the project.

Finally, we would be assessed on the risk that it represents, with areas such as the BBC’s reputation, conflict of interests and the project complying with BBC policies.

Ultimately we would need to consider the criteria as to what the BBC commissioners are looking for in what we create and make sure that our project hits these as otherwise, we would never get the opportunity to put the programmes on.

This also allows me to fulfil and gain an understanding of the commissioning process for my learning objective as I now know what the BBC will expect from a finished product that they air and the process that commisioning a show goes through. I have also seen the differences between item to item as has been showing the difference between commisioning an ad hoc programme for Radio 4 that we initially decided upon before changing to create a podcast for Radio 1.

November 7, 2017Simon Nunn No Comments

Radio 1 Target Audience

Why am I talking about radio 1… (answers here)

Radio 1’s target audience is much easier to define than that of Radio 4 for example, this is because Radio 1 is demographically based meaning that they target young people in the age range between 15-29-year-olds, however what is key is that it should have a distinctive mix of music and speech-based content and be a place for new music (BBC,2016). This means that the treatment we utilise for the programme will be significantly different than say that of our original idea for radio 4 due to the fact that it will have to be a snappier piece with music beds underneath the piece and make use of music throughout the piece. It will also need to be shorter first off all due to the commissioning but also due to the fact that younger audiences will most likely lose interest.

In terms of Radio 1’s audience for Q3 RAJAR results it had 9,697,000 listeners which is a significant amount of listeners (RAJAR 2017). In regards to the makeup of this audience, it is split via the following:

This shows that most of Radio 1’s audience is within its target demographic of 15-24-year-olds being equal to that of 25-34-year-olds. In regards to the number of hours that people consumed it was 6.3 per listener which is not a bad average rate, however, has it declined from 6.7 from the previous quarter of 2017 proving that there is an uphill struggle for Radio 1 (Rajar 2017).

In terms of the gender profile of Radio 1’s listeners, it is roughly equal and has been since 2010. This ultimately means that we need to try and make our panel as gender balanced as possible with two males and two females on either side to make sure that we do not alienate half of audience due to us not having a balanced panel.

Alongside this, it is also important for us to have an understanding of when Radio 1’s listeners tune in and when they don’t even though our programme is going to be podcast based meaning that it will be accessible whenever someone wants. Despite this though the programme will still be being broadcast ‘traditionally’ from 3AM-4AM on weekday

What this shows is first of all the Radio 1’s audience has gotten smaller than it was in the second quarter of 2015, however, it also shows that Radio 1’s audience is not significantly breakfast show based with it being roughly equal until 17:30 where it starts to drop off significantly with overnight show not getting massive listenership. This does also imply a potential positive as it means that our podcast may get listened to instead of Radio’1 mainstream output.