Evaluation - Representions

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Representation is one of the most important things I had to look into when researching for my radio extract, and in its production as well. I had a very good idea after my research of what I wanted my radio extract to be; a Sports radio show. I knew what kind of people my characters are because I have experience of listening to similar sports stations such as talkSPORT, where the presenters are all men who don't necessarily sound like they've had an upper class upbringing. Therefore, I knew I had to be careful who I chose to play my roles. I prepared my script and analysed who my characters are, what I wanted them to sound like, and whether or not they are realistic as people on a sports radio station. Once I prepared my script, I knew roughly the type of people I could use for my radio extract from those who were available for use. For example, at the beginning of the extract, you hear a discussion between 2 presenters, Hill and Marsh, in their show. I knew that I wanted to blend a bit of youth and experience in this pairing. I wanted Marsh to be an older guy, in his 40's or 50's who has an experienced sound and edge to the way he talks. In my eyes, he is a journalist who is very knowledgeable about Football, and he makes a great partner to Hill, who is perhaps a younger person, very likeable, who knows his Football also, but relies on his co-presenter. Therefore, my teacher, Jon, played Marsh. He speaks very clearly, and sounds like the ultimate professional, but also sounds like someone, from a listener's point of view, like someone you could listen to and like. He also has great experience doing this so it was a no-brainer to have him play such an important part. Hill was played by Adam, a classmate of mine. He has a unique style voice, which would make him stand out on radio. He also sends young and raw which makes for an exciting and entertaining mix along with Jon's ability to sound like he is very knowledgable in this subject.



For my news bulletin, I knew that, despite it being a Sports station, that the news had to be taken very seriously, and had to sound professional. Originally, I decided to have 2 news presenters. Darren and Amy. However, after much deliberation with my teachers, I decided that it is very rare that a radio station has 2 news presenters on at the same time, and on the stations that do, the news may be longer and be on bigger stations. Therefore, I decided to get rid of the character Amy, and instead have my teacher Alex play the part of Darren. I chose Alex to play Darren because I knew how important it was that the news sounded authentic and realistic. Alex, like Jon, has the experience of performing in radio extracts and so, with the news bulletin being the most important part of the radio extract, I knew that what Alex could add to my show was necessary and important. Alex spoke fluently, and sounded very professional, which came with experience. I believe that Alex's role was key to the station being taken seriously; it is a Sports show, and the news may not necessarily be deemed important or interesting. However, Alex performed the role in such a way that he presented the professionalism of Darren in such a way that my audience would want to listen to the news and be interested by it at the same time.

The news contained an outside broadcast, and 2 archive clips. For my outside broadcast, I enlisted my classmate Ronit to take on the role of the female reporter. I decided to use her as my reporter because I felt like a woman could add something different to my extract. If I only used men, my station may be deemed to be sexist at the lack of use of women on a Sports station, so Ronit played an important part in the news, and delivered her part very well.

One of my archive clips was of an MP in the Houses of Parliament. I knew that I had to be very careful who I chose to play this part, as it is something that needed to sound perfect so as to maintain its authenticity. I knew this would require a lot of editing to the voice, as well as the addition of background noises so as to make it sound like we were actually in the Houses of Parliament. My teacher Jon took on this role as he was able to display his ability at using various different accents, as well as sounding like he could actually be an MP.

On the second archive clip, the owner of Barnet, Anthony Jackson, was talking to the media. I knew that the owner of Barnet Football Club would speak to the media in a very clear and professional way. He would try to use the correct dialect, and speak in a polite way so as to sound authentic, as people tend to take notice of how they speak when put under the spotlight. Therefore, my teacher Chris played the role of Anthony Jackson, as he was able to put on a very well educated, polite and media-friendly voice. He sounded very professional and was able to sound very authentic.



At the end of my show, I decided to introduce the beginning of another radio show. I felt this was important as a time filler for my extract, as it is not the most important part of the extract. However, I thought I'd use all my research and be different. I thought it would be very unique to have 2 ex-professional footballers present the show. Therefore, I had one ex-English footballer and decided to have an ex-Portuguese footballer, both having played in England. I therefore wanted my English footballer to obviously have better English than the Portuguese footballer so it would make sense for the more comfortable speaker of the language to take on a more prominent role in the show. My teacher Chris played the Pitch, the ex-English footballer as he was able to speak very clearly, but was also able to pass as a footballer. The ex-Portuguese teacher, Vives, was played by my teacher Manni. I decided to enlist Manni as Vives because he is Portuguese, so, despite not having a thick accent in real life, he was able to put on an accent that is very authentic and would make you believe that he was Portuguese.



For my jingles and adverts, I did not decide who I wanted to play these roles as easy as I was able to decide my cast for the news and radio shows. Because of this, I decided to cast the roles for the jingles and adverts relatively safe. I cast my teacher Jon as the voiceover for the Jingles, as well as my second advert. I chose him because I knew what Jon could do and how he could alter his voice for different things. Therefore, for the voiceover for the jingle, I knew I wanted a deep, altered voice, and something that is catchy and would make my audience remember it and try and say as well. Jon was able to do that, and was able to produce a voice that fitted perfectly to the music that accompanied it.



For my first advert, there were only three parts; the Boss, the Worker, and the Voiceover at the end. For the Boss, I played it safe by casting Jon to play a Boss who I based on Matt Berry, who appeared in Channel 4's IT Crowd. Berry played the Boss in that show so when I was writing my script I knew that I wanted to use his characters voice as inspiration for this character. Again, Jon's knack at accents meant he was a necessity for this role, unless Matt Berry was available himself for the role. The worker was played by my classmate Sam. I wanted the worker to sound very upset and worried, as depicted in the advert storyline. The worker had a bad weekend, and Sam was able to produce a voice that not only sounded upset, but also sounded scared of his Boss, which ultimately changed at the end of the advert after he realised his Boss wasn't so bad after all. The voiceover was played by my classmate Zac, who was needed to play a specifically scripted part of the advert. He was needed to read out the offer and the slogan as well as bringing the curtain down on the advert. He spoke clearly and at a good pace, and he sounded very authentic in the process.