Introduction to radio

 

Introduction to radio: blog tasks

BBC Sounds

BBC SoundsRead this Guardian feature on the launch of BBC Sounds and answer the following questions:

1) Why does the article suggest that ‘on the face of it, BBC Radio is in rude health’?

On the face of it, BBC Radio is in rude health. It has half the national market, with dozens of stations reaching more than 34 million people a week. Radio 2 alone reaches 15 million listeners a week and for all the criticism of the Today programme (“editorially I think it’s in brilliant shape,” says Purnell), one in nine Britons still tune in to hear John Humphrys and his co-presenters harangue politicians every week.

2) According to the article, what percentage of under-35s used the BBC iPlayer catch-up radio app?

Relying on pensioners to provide the audience is not sustainable for an organisation that relies on convincing the vast majority of the public to pay for its services. Although millions of young Britons continue to tune in to traditional BBC radio stations, Purnell says just 3% of under-35s use the iPlayer catch-up radio app, which will soon be axed.

3) What is BBC Sounds?

A new app and website that formally launches on Tuesday with a glitzy event at Tate Modern. It will bring radio livestreams, catchup services, music mixes and podcasts together under one roof.

4) How do audiences listen to radio content in the digital age?

Convincing people to break their existing habits and put their trust in a BBC-only app will not be easy. Spotify has started to include a large number of podcasts – including BBC material – directly in its app and a growing number of people listen to the radio via voice assistants such as Amazon’s Alexa. Although there is the prospect of commercial radio being added later, industry voices have raised concerns that the app is a solution in search of a non-existent problem.

5) What does Jason Phipps suggest is important for radio and podcast content aimed at younger audiences?

He says there is a need to reconsider the entire tone of how the BBC tells stories, shifting away from rigid formality if it wants to attract the precious under-35 audience: “It has to be a warmer, more story-led journey. You need to report the very personal experience of it.

6) Why does the BBC need to stay relevant?

“The world in which we offer this amazing idea called the BBC has changed exponentially over nearly a century and particularly in the last decade,” he says. “And because the BBC is really important and valued by licence fee [payers] it’s got to continue to be relevant.

Now read this review of the BBC Sounds app.

7) What content does the BBC Sounds app offer?

Music, news, drama, documentaries, true crime, comedy – if you want it in your ears, you start with the orange button. 

8) How does it link to BBC Radio?

The app lets you click through to any live BBC radio station, but it also offers you other forms of listening, from podcasts to playlists. 

9) What are the criticisms of the BBC Sounds app?

Sounds is easy to use, though I found the programme information a little tricky to access, and the search – as ever with the BBC – isn’t sensitive enough. My other main problem is there isn’t enough content. “Spooky Sounds” only offered me 11 shows; “Be Curious” just 10. 

10) Two new podcasts were launched alongside the BBC Sounds app. What are they and why might they appeal to younger audiences?

The BBC launched a couple of new podcasts, including the aforementioned 5 Live Waco series End of Days (make sure you use a capital D in search, or it won’t turn up: insert rolly-eye emoticon here), and Beyond Today, a 20-minute podcast that delves deeper into the big stories of the Today programme.

Tv & Film assessment LR

 

TV assessment learner response 

1) Type up your feedback in full (you don't need to write the mark and grade if you want to keep this confidential).

WWW: Q2 shows some good knowledge of the CSPs so now we need to add exam techniques to push towards the higher levels.

EBI: Q1 is a great lesson in question focus: you need to answer the question! Revise postmodernism and for Q2 you need to discuss ideologies: what is the message to audiences?

2) Read the whole mark scheme for this assessment carefully. Identify at least one potential point that you missed out on for each question in the assessment (even if you got full marks for the question).

Q1: The poster is an excellent example of bricolage: the juxtaposition of old and new texts,

images, ideas and narratives to create new meanings. There are many examples of intertextuality: the main central image suggests a bridge between James Bond and Austin Powers (bond parody) with Tower Bridge in the background reinforcing London as a location; Samuel L. Jackon’s image nods to both Tarantino films and the Blaxploitation genre (Tarantino is also referenced by the martial arts female suggesting the Kill Bill movies); Michael Caine (bottom right) appears to be reprising his role in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight trilogy; the image at the top is visually reminiscent of Matt Damon’s Bourne films (e.g. The Bourne Identity).

Q2: The crime genre – which all the CSPs have elements of – has a long tradition of dealing with

political and social issues in order to construct arguments and positions the construction of representations through audience alignment (such as through the role of the hero) position the spectator to take up a particular view

3) The first question demanded a response using postmodern terminology. Write a definition here of the three main terms:

Bricolage: The juxtaposition of old and new texts, images, ideas and narratives to create new meanings.

Pastiche:This refers to media products that imitate the style of another text, artist or time period. Pastiche is an example of intertextuality and takes a positive view of the original source.

Intertextuality: Reference of different or other media texts in another product. 

4) Read this exemplar answer for the 25-mark question in the assessment. Select a quote from the essay for each of the following aspects from the mark scheme:

a) analysis of the products that focuses on contexts and ideological positioning

 Although the Daily Mail heavily criticised Capital for featuring ‘more leftwing causes than a Jerem Corbyn’s diary’ it could be argued that the focus on house prices and hard work actually reinforces dominant hegemonic ideologies most closely associated with right-wing capitalist values.

B) use of media theory

 Applying Gramsci’s theory of hegemony, this is unconsciously communicating to audiences the value in working hard, earning money and contributing to consumerism and capitalism - maintaining the status quo and reinforcing more right wing ideology.

C) a judgement or conclusion on the question

In conclusion, it is impossible to ignore the ideological positions constructed by television dramas and Capital and D83 are no exception to this. However, it could be argued that different audiences can read these fictional genres in different ways depending on their own perspectives and therefore social, cultural and political contexts are not the only aspect to this process.

D) examples from the TV CSPs

 Capital is a state-of-the-nation drama...

Deutschland 83 (D83), the historical drama / spy thriller genre

E) use of media terminology 

 However, some audiences may challenge this dominant or preferred reading and suggest that other ideological readings are available.

5) Based on this assessment, write three things you need to revise before the upcoming end of Year 12 exams.

1. I need to revise my Film CSP Blinded By The Light as I have forgotten most parts of it.

2. I need to revise postmodernism because clearly I did not put in enough time and effort into it as I did not get the grade I expected.

3. Revise through the media theorists such as Marxism as I still do not understand what his theory is about. 

Music Video: index

 Music Video: index

Your final Music Video index should include the following:

1) Music Video: Introduction - factsheet questions
2) Music Video: Old Town Road CSP
3) Music Video: Postcolonial theory
4) Music Video: Ghost Town CSP

5) Music Video: Postmodernism and music video

Postmodernism in music video: blog tasks

 

1) How does the article define postmodernism in the first page of the article?

If modernism is beginning to question authority, then postmodernism is making fun of authority to its face. Postmodernism takes this concept of questioning traditional structures, representations and expectations and pushes things a step further.

2) What did media theorist and Semiotician Roland Barthes suggest in his essay 'The Death of the Author'?

In 1967 the French literary critic Roland Barthes released his essay The Death of the Author. In it, he challenged tradition when he said that a writer’s opinions, intentions or interpretation of their own work are no more valid than anyone else’s. To give a simple example, this means that just because Ridley Scott thinks Deckard is a replicant, doesn’t mean that you, the viewer, have to think this if you don’t want to.

3) What is metatextuality?

Metatextuality is where a text draws attention to the fact that it is a text. It points to the process of its own creation.

4) What is the repeated phrase on the cartoon on postmodernism on page 28?

"Postmodernism is a cultural movement" 

5) How does postmodernism link to media representations and reality?

Postmodernists argue that the media plays a role in constructing and reinforcing dominant ideologies and cultural norms. Media representations are not mere reflections of reality, but rather active agents in shaping our understanding of the world.

Music video CSPs and postmodernism

Now apply postmodern ideas to our music video CSPs by answering the following questions:

1) How does the music video for Ghost Town incorporate elements of postmodernism?

Ghost Town incorporates postmodernism as in their video their camerawork is out of control when in the car as this can reflect the feelings of young people in Britain at the time having no job and loosing all sense of control. Another way is the intertexuality of 80's horror films due to the eerie organs playing and the under lighting coming from under the band members faces to give off that representation of them being ghosts in a 'Ghost Town'.  

2) What film genres are alluded to in the music video for Ghost Town? Which scenes in particular created these links?

Film genres that are associated and interlinked with Ghost Town is horror such as hammer horror genre and film noir due to how the limited visual of lighting we get in the video and the lighting inside the car we get is all under lighting which helps to support the idea of this being a more horror genre. Furthermore towards the end of the music video we get the sense of feeling that it is also a road trip genre as most their journey is done by car until the end when they get out and start throwing pebbles into the lake. 

3) How does Old Town Road use postmodern elements in its music video?

Old Town Road uses postmodern elements as in the video it shows Lil Nas X doing TikTok dances on stage and then him switching up and doing line dancing too with the elderly to show off that Westernised theme and look. Furthermore the use of the beginning of the music video's setting with Lil Nas X being on a horse with a bag full of money gives off a feel of Red Dead Redemption as it felt like he was trying to recreate a scene from the infamous cowboy game. 

4) How does the Old Town Road music video reflect technological convergence and modern digital culture?  

Old Town Road reflects technological convergence and modern digital culture due to their being screens within screens shown in the video and the use of mobile phones being used to record such as at the very beginning when Lil Nas X comes strolling in on top of his horse and everyone around him are all confused and start taking pictures of him. 

5) What do YOU think Lil Nas X was trying to say about reality and American culture in the music video for Old Town Road?

I feel like what Lil Nas X was trying to get out from his music video and the reality of American culture is that it is time for a change and that it does not matter what race, gender, ethnicity or your sexuality is you can still be welcomed into America which all four of these we see such as Lil Nas X wearing a pink suit along with Billy Ray Cyrus matching with him to subvert and change that idea of the stereotypical cowboy being a white man and then Lil Nas X dancing with the old white people which helps to show even though he is a black cowboy he is welcomed into their society. 

The Specials - Ghost Town: Blog tasks

 Background and historical contexts

Read this excellent analysis from The Conversation website of the impact Ghost Town had both musically and visually. Answer the following questions

1) Why does the writer link the song to cinematic soundtracks and music hall tradition?

Starting with a Hammond organ’s six ascending notes before a mournful flute solo, it paints a bleak aural and lyrical landscape. more attuned to “mood music”, with nods to cinematic soundtracks and music hall tradition, it reflects and engenders anxiety

2) What subcultures did 2 Tone emerge from in the late 1970s?

2 Tone had emerged stylistically from the Mod and Punk subcultures and its musical roots and the people in it, audiences and 

bands, were both black and white.

3) What social contexts are discussed regarding the UK in 1981?

Around the UK in 1981, England was hit by recession and away from rural Skinhead nights, riots were breaking out across its urban areas. Deprived, forgotten, run down and angry, these were places where young people, black and white, erupted. In these neglected parts of London, Birmingham, Leeds and Liverpool the young, the unemployed, and the disaffected fought pitch battles with the police.

4) Cultural critic Mark Fisher describes the video as ‘eerie’. What do you think is 'eerie' about the Ghost Town video?

The reasons why the Ghost Town video was seen as 'eerie' is because of the video being shot in a deserted East End of London, Blackwell Tunnel and a before-hours City of London. Opening with upshots of brutal grey tower blocks to the sound of those Hammond organ chords and flute, it seems as though there is no one in town but The Specials, who are all crowded into a 1962 Vauxhall Cresta, careering through the empty streets and lip syncing. Furthermore the use of the camera being placed on the car bonnet so we see The Specials feels like as if they are crashing into us giving us that uncomfortable and eerie effect and when they all sing “yah, ya ya, ya, yaah, ya, ya, ya, ya, ya, ya…”, they seem like an insane Greek chorus. 

5) Look at the final section (‘Not a dance track’). What does the writer suggest might be the meanings created in the video? Do you agree?

When “Ghost Town” played, the Skinheads sang along with Terry Hall (one of the lead band members in The Specials), smiled manically and screeched. They joined the “ghastly chorus” and became, for a few minutes, part of that army of spectres. Because protests sometimes has no words.

I feel like how the whole music video was structured and placed especially with the setting they used to film this music video does make sense to why they would make a video like this because of everything that was going on at the time such as Margret Thatcher for example being elected and saying a hate speech of Britain is being "swamped" by non-white people and young people were being robbed of their futures and trying to make a living. Because of all these many great factors that happened during the time this music video fits in perfectly well to show and make a stand against racism and how young people should be treated more equally and fairly. 

Now read this BBC website feature on the 30th anniversary of Ghost Town’s release. 

1) How does the article describe the song?

It starts with a siren and those woozy, lurching organ chords. Then comes the haunted, spectral woodwind, punctuated by blaring brass.Over a sparse reggae bass line, a West Indian vocal mutters warnings of urban decay, unemployment and violence.

2) What does the article say about the social context of the time – what was happening in Britain in 1981?

Released on 20 June 1981 against a backdrop of rising unemployment, its blend of melancholy, unease and menace took on an entirely new meaning when Britain's streets erupted into rioting almost three weeks later - the day before Ghost Town reached number one in the charts.

3) How did The Specials reflect an increasingly multicultural Britain?

With a mix of black and white members, The Specials, too, encapsulated Britain's burgeoning multiculturalism. The band's 2 Tone record label gave its name to a genre which fused ska, reggae and new wave and, in turn, inspired a crisply attired youth movement.

4) How can we link Paul Gilroy’s theories to The Specials and Ghost Town?

We can link Paul Gilroy's diasporic identity theory which is the feeling of never quite belonging or being accepted in societies to this day to The Specials and their music video Ghost Town because of the representations in the music video are racially diverse. This reflects its musical genre of Ska, a style which could be read politically in the contexts of a racially divided country.  

5) The article discusses how the song sounds like a John Barry composition. Why was John Barry a famous composer and what films did he work on?

"There's something frenzied and mad about that record," he says. "It has such a kaleidoscope of influences - jazz, (film score composer) John Barry, Middle Eastern music, a solid reggae undertone and stuff that sounds like nothing else.

John Barry was famous because of him being one of the all-time great masters of movie music. His career spanned some 50 years - from Midnight Cowboy and Born Free to Dances with Wolves and Out of Africa - taking in 11 James Bond films along the way. The five-times Oscar winner was born in York on 3 November 1933.

Ghost Town - Media Factsheet

Watch the video several times before reading Factsheet #211 - Ghost Town. You'll need your GHS Google login to access the factsheet. Once you have analysed the video several times and read the whole factsheet, answer the following questions: 

1) Focus on the Media Language section. What does the factsheet suggest regarding the mise-en-scene in the video? 

The mise-en-scene of the Ghost Town video uses the style of British social realist films. This genre is characterised by sympathetic representations of working-class men, the highlighting of bleak (often urban) environments and a sense of hopelessness.

2) How does the lighting create intertextual references? What else is notable about the lighting?

The mise-en-scene of Ghost Town also makes use of a visual style that borrows from expressionist cinema. In the car, the band is lit eerily by a limited interior light source and what looks like a handheld torch to light the faces of those in the back from a low angle. This is a highly effective low budget film making technique suited to the aesthetic.

3) What non-verbal codes help to communicate meanings in the video?

Non-verbal codes play a memorable role in contributing to the atmosphere of the video. The singing of the song with expressionless faces and direct mode-of-address with zombie-like, stiff body movements are suddenly relaxed in the manic middle section.

4) What does the factsheet suggest regarding the editing and camerawork? Pick out three key points that are highlighted here.

Editing is used to control the pace of the video and camerawork distorts our sense of day and night. The band are generally shot as a group, emphasising the relationship between them. Most of the shots are on-board travelling shots and some are in the interior of the car which invites audience identification with the band. The sequence near the start consists of a series of establishing shots and low angle shots which make the scenery loom in an intimidating way. The video ends with superimposition of a long cross-dissolve of the tunnel lights to the stone-throwing shot, to an unsettling effect.

5) What narrative theories can be applied to the video? Give details from the video for each one.

We can apply Todorvs equilibrium theory such as the normal equilibrium being The band setting off together looking for something to do, accompanied by the eerie diegetic sound and the green traffic light with the disruption being  bleakness and emptiness of the streets and then the restoration being  the shadowy figures and ghostly conflicts encountered in the car chase style scenes and then lastly the new equilibrium being their bleak arrival at the river, having found nothing else to do.

6) How can we apply genre theory to the video?

Preformative: The performer or band appears in the video performing it in some way – this could be a literal performance or just one band member lip-syncing.

Narrative: The video has an identifiable story, usually connected in some way with the lyrics (although not always).

Concept-based: There is a motif or idea that defines the visual style of the video – it may be abstract or more obviously connected with a symbolic code defined by the lyrics.

7) Now look at the Representations section. What are the different people, places and groups that are represented in the Ghost Town video? Look for the list on page 4 of the factsheet.

The video represents a number of different ideas, locations and groups including ‘Thatcher’s Britain’, the city, urban youth, race and masculinity. A preferred reading of the video would have seen the protest message at the heart of the video being accepted. In this sense, the video can be understood as intending to have a unifying effect on a sub-culture of British Youth – uniting them in anger at the establishment rather than ‘fighting amongst themselves' , particularly in the case of race riots.

8) How can Gauntlett's work on collective identity be applied to the video?

Gauntlett suggests that media texts may offer us a sense of collective identity, by being an audience member and finding things in common with others via our shared tastes. In this sense the song and video nurture a sense of male collective identity, and share the experience of trying to negotiate identity. This means that the text offers a place for men to see their problems being enacted and perhaps compare them with their own lives in what was a time of economic deprivation for many when many traditionally masculine jobs were disappearing.

9) How can gender theorists such as Judith Butler be applied to Ghost Town?

Judith Butler is a useful theorist to explore in relation to this text. Butler suggested that gender was not defined by the sex we are born with, but is a collection of behaviours by members of a biological sex often based on attitudes and expectations held by society. The total absence of women is a significant point in itself. Feminist theorists might argue that the video eclipses women’s own feelings of hopelessness. Perhaps the effect of unemployment

on their realities, etc. are ignored in this text which frames these as exclusively male issues.

10) Postcolonial theorists like Paul Gilroy can help us to understand the meanings in the Ghost Town music video. What does the fact sheet suggest regarding this?

Post-colonialists such as Paul Gilroy's theory of double consciousness here refers to the experience of being part of

a black minority in a predominantly white culture, seeing black representations being constructed for white people from the outside with very little self-representation. Black musicians, as part of a music industry in the UK which was controlled by the white majority, had limited control in terms of self-representation and were often side-lined in bands which were multi-ethnic