Final Product

Final Product:





Preliminary Task:

This is my preliminary task that I did with my partner before we actually started writing our script and recording. This gave us an idea of to expect and also experience in using the different technologies to record and edit.

Question 1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms of conventions of real media products?

Question 2: How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Question 3: Institutions

Question 4: Who would be the audience for your media product? DRAFT

draft

Question 5: How did you attract/address your audience?

How did you attract/address your audience?

Question 6: What have you learned about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Question 7: What have you learned?

My actual script

My script:

A new school called Arts and Music is to be opened in 2014 allowing 16 to 19 year old's to sign up for free and learn about the music industry. So you might be thinking whats so controversial about this? Well it turns out, untrained teachers are to be employed by the school to teach the students. Fusion FM spoke to a fully qualified teacher in East London who is completely against this and also a local student who thinks its a good idea.

(Voice clip from teacher and student)

We want to know what you think, so tweet us @FusionFM or text in to 82625.

Draft of script & our radio station

DRAFT:
East London Arts and Music school is about to open in 2014 allowing a chance for 16-19 year old to sign up for free and learn about the music industry. What is so controversial about this is that it will have untrained teachers being allowed to teach the students there.
We have two different views on this news cast one is from a fully qualified teacher who is totally against this and the other view is from a student who thinks its a good idea.

Voxpop for the radio news cast

Summary of what I am going to say to the teacher, parent and student:

East London Arts and Music college is a new free school which is to be opened in 2014 it is offering 16-19 year olds the chance to sign up for a series of free taster days even though it has untrained teachers. The school will feature state of the art facilities and  aims to provide young people with a greater understanding of the arts with experianced music industry figures.

I have put my original recordings here which I will later edit to make it any shorter if necessary. 

This is a Voxpop with a parent.

This is a Voxpop from a teacher

This is a Voxpop from a student

Audio recording for my story

Questions I am going to ask the Parent, student & teacher relating to my newscast:

First I will tell them the news story about ELAM to the them.

Do you think having untrained teachers could have an effect on students?

I will be recording this while they talk so I can insert it in my news cast when I talk about this story.

Risk Assessment for my Vox pop

Risk Assessments 

• I need to consider any risks that can take place with my Voxpop. I will be asking students, parents and teachers about this story and will be getting their views. I will ask them politely if they would like to be recorded as the risk could be that the parents could turn aggressive. 

• I have to also protect the identity of the student by not saying the students name so it remains confidential and they're privacy is maintained.

• I need to be aware that I don't influence the decision of the person that I am recording. This ensures that they can have their own opinions expressed. 

• I will choose locations that are suitable and safe for the voxpop to take place so for recording the students I will do it in a room, for the teachers I will do it in the classroom and for parents I will ask them to come inside the school where its a more suitable environment.

My story I have chosen for the radio news cast

My Story:

Controversial 'free school' offering taster days to London teens

ELAM (East London Arts and Music) college, a new ‘free school’ scheduled to open in September 2014, is now offering 16-19 year-olds the chance to sign up for a series of free ‘taster days’, despite criticism from some quarters regarding the employment of unqualified teachers.

Based in London’s Tower Hamlets, ELAM was founded by one half of UK pop act Chase & Status (William Kennard) and Sir Nick Williams, who served as head teacher at the BRIT School for ten years. The school will feature state-of-the-art facilities and aims to provide young people with “potential but no direction or knowledge about the industry” a greater understanding of the arts via a group of experienced music industry figures. All, of which, will be free of charge to the student, yet, although stated-funded, will operate outside of local authority control.

While some have championed free schools such as ELAN for their potential to educate children and teens who otherwise wouldn’t have access to such educational facilities, others have called into question the notion of employing unqualified teachers and not teaching the national curriculum.

One such dissenting voice was that of deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, who said that free schools and academies should only employ professionally qualified teachers. He also said in an interview with the BBC that "children using taxpayer-funded schools had a right to expect basic standards."

In contrast, Mayor of London Boris Johnson has been vocal in his defence of free schools and their right to employ unqualified teachers. Speaking to the BBC, Johnson commented: "Some of the greatest teachers in the world don't necessarily have the full set of qualifications.I think you need to be flexible, look at the individual and see what they have got to offer the pupils.

"I think back to my own childhood and the people who taught me and many of them didn't have an educational qualification at all, some of them were in Japanese prisoner of war camps... and they were fantastic."

In its first year, ELAM will offer 72 places, with the selection of candidates based on a standard application form process and an assessment day.

source: http://www.mi-pro.co.uk/news/read/controversial-free-music-school-offering-free-taster-days-to-london/018240

My views on this story:

I personally think that the school should not have untrained teachers because I am a student studying in school and I wouldn't want any untrained teacher teaching me because I want to pass my exams and having someone not trained to teach a subject means that they don't know that subject inside out to teach it properly to the students.

Planning

Our radio station is called Fusion FM

This table shows what me and my partners story are which we will use in our newscast:

• What angle we are going to take
• How we will we attract our audience
• How our newscast will be different from other newscast's
• How our news will be interactive

There are 4 people in our group consisting of myself, Tahera, Asiya and Ouarda. We decided to divide the group and do it in pairs to find our story.

I have decided to do another angle which will be a Voxpop on a teacher a parent and a student to get their personal view of what they think about untrained teachers.

* Tahera is not present in our group anymore

My Preliminary Task

Preliminary Task:

Me and my partner did our preliminary task by writing a short script for our radio and then recording it to edit on audacity.This was our final audio after it was finished.

Our script involved an interview whereby my partner was the radio presenter interviewing me and i was the guest who was the author of a new book for teenagers. She asked me a couple of questions where I answered them and then read a few lines from the opening chapter.

We added music to the background to make it more interesting to listen to and we also edited it to make the music not overlap our speech so the listener cant hear, so we put the music lower than our speech so its clear to hear.

What I learnt from doing this preliminary task is how to choose a story that was suited to my audience which was teenagers and how to write the script so that it contained the important parts and also information that was relevant to my audience. I learnt how to sound clear and loud whilst I was recording which ensured that I know how to sound in the final product. I also learnt skills from using Audacity as I became more confident in using it and was able to successfully edit my audio properly.

How to use Audacity: Practice

Audacity The Basics:
Audacity is a free audio recorder and editing software which is also free. I will be using this software to do my radio show as it is simple to use once you get used to it, I already have experience with this software from my ICT GCSE controlled assessment where I had to record a short advert for a charity event I was doing.

Once you have downloaded Audacity you will also need a decent microphone you can plug in or you could just use the microphone built into the computer and also speakers.

Recording:
Click the big red button and start speaking into the microphone. 
The stop button is the yellow square and the pause button is the 2 blue lines if you have paused you can play it back and continue pressing the green button.

Adding audio to the background of your recording:
To add another audio such as music you should click File then Import and then Audio. Your audio will appear under your recording. 
You can add background music to your audio by inserting a sound clip of your choice and it will appear under your audio.

Deleting mistakes:
The selection tool is shaped like an 'I' once you have chosen what to select you click on the area and drag your mouse up to the part you want to stop at and then press the 'delete' button or press 'cut' from the 'Edit menu'. You can do the same for copying or pasting by right clicking your mouse or going on the 'Edit menu'.

      Before the cut                 







After the cut

Distribution of Stories for our News cast

As a group we chose our news stories for the radio.

Me: Controversial 'free school' offering taster days to London teens.

Asiya: 55 year old man that raped an 8 year old girl

Ouarda: Cyber bullying 

Doctor Who 50th Anniversary: Asiya & Ouarda 

Equipment research: How Microphones Work

How Microphones Work:
Microphones are a device that converts energy from one form to another, this is called a Transducer.They convert acoustical energy known also as sound waves into electrical energy.All microphones share one thing in common called The Diaphragm which is a thin piece of material which vibrates when it is struck by sound waves. In a handheld mic in the diaphragm is located in the head of the microphone.When the diaphragm vibrates other components in the mic also vibrate. These vibrations are converted into a electrical current which becomes the audio signal.

Types of microphone:

Liquid Microphone:

This was invented by Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas Watson, It was the first working microphones to be made. Early liquid microphones used a metal cap filled with water and sulfuric acid. A diaphagram was placed over the cup with the needle on the recieving side of it. Sound waves would cause the needle to move in the water. A small electrical current ran to the needle which was regulated by sound vibrations.

Ribbon Microphones:

Ribbon microphones are bidirectional meaning they pick up sounds from both sides.A thin ribbon usually aluminium is suspended in a magnetic field. Sound waves move the ribbon which changes the current flowing through it. 

How do Microphones Work?

How they convert sound waves into electrical energy:

What I learned from this video: 3 Types of Microphone:

• Dynamic Microphone:
The Inductor and Magnet in the mic creates an electrical signal for loud and soft waves and can pick these up.

• Condenser Microphone:
It uses a Capacitor and Battery  or other source of voltage to create an electrical audio signal. It is most widely used to record human voice and it picks up mid to soft sound waves. 

• Ribbon microphone:
It uses a Metal ribbon and Magnet combined to create an electrical signal. It is extremely fragile and picks up soft sound waves. 

Audience Survey Results Analysed