Analysis

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
I believe my media project conforms to the loose codes and conventions of a dance music radio show in more ways than one. I chose to bring in a guest who I named 'Gary'. Gary was a relevant guest of the genre of show I had produced as he was a dance music artist and would be an iteresting guest to have on the show if it were to be real. I believe most of the elements of my radio show were appealing to my target audience of the 'younger generation'. This is due to the style of music and therefore changes the way in which dialogue, intros and editing is produced. The most basic of conventions when talking about a radio show in general were all met as well. There was an introductary jingle that the show can be recognised instantly by, A distinctive and interesting host, back ground music whilst this host was in conversation with the guest and a song that followed their conversation and played out to a fade for clip size purposes.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?
My host has a broad german accent and is rather steroetypical of a certain era of dance music that came from Germany. This music is called 'house' and this is repeated several times throughout the piece. When the host introduces Gary to the show, he puts a condecending tone on the way in which he pronounces 'Gary'. This shows he is looking down at a Gary as an englishman and a possibly lower class citizen. This is rather steroetypical and has been portrayed many times in other forms of media such as comedy films or tv series. Gary (Gaz) is a typical, modern day, lower class music artist that seems to have an ego to large for his talent to fill. This is portrayed in my short clip by the way in which he comments on the amount of time it took for him to travel to the radio station to hold the interview. Basing my two characters on stereotypes makes them easier to relate to for the audience and where humour is involved, easier to find funny.

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
There is only one type of media institution that could 'distribute' my media production as it cannot be modified to suit other forms of media like other print or video forms can. My media product could only be distributed by radio stations. This category is even more specific however, as the nature of the show means that it appeals only to the younger generation of listeners and small percentage of older. This would mean that it would have to be placed on a radio station that already has a reputation for being appealing to this certain age group.

Who would be the audience for your media product?
There is a very obvious category of dance music loving teenagers that this sort of show would appeal to. This however, is a stereotype and there are many more categories of people that would enjoy this style of show. There are members of the older generation that may have had an early interest in this sort of music and would enjoy seeing how the genre has progressed through time. This would be helped along by a witty and entertaining host that can call upon well known names to bring in as guests. The show would not however, be one that would be particularly attractive to passive listeners that would tune in just tho have something playing in their office car or home as the style of music and pace of conversation would be very difficult to listen to without conciously taking in like a soft-voiced, presenter such as Terry Wogan would play on his show.

How did you attract/address your audience?
Although repeating myself rather a few times now... I addressed my target audience of younger dance music fans by having their chosen style of music on the show. This is complimented by the host and guest who are both young themselves and speak the 'language' of teenagers today. This means that teenagers would not feel threated or outcast from the show and would instead by intrigued by the 'banter' and popular music choice.

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
Before I started on this audio project, I did not know how to confidently use the programme 'GarageBand'. This is a programme exculsive to Apple Macs which I do not use in my day-to-day life. This meant that I had to learn not only the programme it's self, but the way in which the Apple Macs function in comparison to a PC. I now feel that I can confidently use GarageBand to create not just a radio jingle, but to produce original music with the musical typing function, and then export this to an .mp3 file that could be played on almost anything. I now also feel much more confident using an Apple Mac as I have learnt some valuabe shortcuts and operating tips from some more experienced members of my group.

Overall I have enjoyed this project, and feel I have learnt more from it that any of my other preliminary tasks such as print, video and website design.

Production

This is the main screen and also the beginning of my jingle. The programme is purposefully laid out and easy to work around whether using musical keys or loops. The first action is to create a new track which will allow you to insert a certain musical instrument or sound effect.
This is the drop-down menu that reveals the shortcut keys and tab for creating a new track. I had to do this a total of eight time for a range of sound effects, two different song clips, two voice over track and an original riff that i created using the programme.

To insert a pre-recorded song or sound clip, the clip first needs to be put into iTunes on the computer. I found it easier putting the ones i needed into a playlist of my own. Once they are in iTunes, they can simply be dragged and dropped into the track space from the small iTunes window below that is situated in the bottom right hand corner of the GarageBand window.

Once inserted, the track looked like this:
or like this for a sound effect played on the keys.

The other two alternative inputs to pre-recorded tracks and sounds are GarageBand 'loops' and original composition via the musical keys feature.

The loops menu looks like this
It is very well organised and easy to find exactly the style, instrument or effect you would like which is useful when creating a track for the first time in a time sensitive environment.
I didn't use the loops at all however, my composition was made entirely from one externally sourced song and the musical keys function.

This is the magical musical typing that was the main producer of my radio jingle. It is very clever and can be used in conjunction with all manor of different effects to create a totally unique riff, with off the shelf sound effects. I wanted to use this to make my peice more interesting as it would be an original composition as apposed to the mixing of someone else's hard work!



To accurately find the timings of when certain tracks should fade out and others fade in, i found myself using the popup time counter very often.
This clock came in very handy as it told you where your cursor was exactly, as apposed to
reading the small numbers at the top that only give you a rough reference of where you are. It allowed me to make sure all fades came in and out perfectly in time without clashing at all.

Once tracks and effects were in place, I experimented with tweaking and altering the sounds slightly. Again, this is very easy to do and more importantly reverse when I got it wrong!

There is a selection of tools that opens up in place of the mini iTunes window when selecting the 'eye' button as showed below:
The functions that can be completed on this editing bar include echo, reverb, wah-wah and a mutitude of voice accessories which i used in certain places in my jingle.

After editing my clips and getting the sounds i wanted, the next step was to get the fades in the right positions so that the jingle linked flawlessly with the background music of the 'chit chat' section. This can be seen below.
The volume (the blue angled area) can be seen dropping away at the end of that particular song creating a professional ending to the piece.

I now have a beautifully crafted and totally complete radio jingle in GarageBand...
so what do I do now?

SHARE IT WITH THE WORLD...or just iTunes!

selecting 'share' in the top menu, then selecting 'send song to iTunes' turned my GarageBand tune into an actual .mp3 file that can be played on almost anything. This is on the brand new mac in the small room sir, and I heartily invite you to check it out.

Planning

My plan is to produce and catchy and memorable jingle for a radio show of my own. This jingle should be well produced with no sounds clashing, random off beats and no sounds going into the 'red'. This will ensure that my radio jingle is pleasant to listen to whilst being theoretically correct in all areas. The jingle should then be followed up by a radio host (myself) introducing a guest (myself). This will need some background music that will continue on from the initial jingle keeping the same rhythm and feel for the show whilst being barely audible so as to make the voice-overs nice and clear. I plan to make the show european, but not english as some of the best artists that I have an interest in are from Germany, Sweden, Spain etc. This should then be followed by an 'archive clip'. To make the show as real as possible, I will use a track that my guest has produced and let this play out to a gradual fade. This is something I have heard many times on the radio and I think has a good, professional vibe for my piece.

Similar Media Text Analysis

Radio 1's New Essential Mix
This jingle is a very electronic orientated and technical sounding piece as the show is based around dance music. The jingle also 'namedrops' by using lots of short voice overs from famous DJs. This is an interesting technique as usually, there is a single archive clip and it fits in near the end of the piece. This method arrouses listeners who are fans of the musicians greeting them which is almost a marketing ploy. yet a very well disguised and professionally performed marketing ploy. The other noticable thing about this jingle is the unbelievable amount of times the words 'trust' (9), 'radio 1' (7) and 'essential' (5). Without listening out for these phrases however, they are very hard to realise as every radio show does this on a n obscene scale. Without realisisng, anybody passively listeneing to the show is having 'trust''essential' and 'radio 1' drummed into them. The trust and essential are examples of emotive language as they are the feelings that they would like their listeners to associate them with...very clever stuff!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/b00h3mgj

The second of my three jingles to analyse is again from Radio 1 but this time from a racial minority show. MistaJam's 1Xtra mix tape is targeted directly at the black minority of U.K residents. This means that the show has far more exclusive sounds and commentary directed at this target audience as apposed to a wider more comman audience. This show could have been created for two reasons: to show that Radio is in no way racist, that in fact it has devoted many radio shows to different racial groups creating a more inviting reputation and a trustworthy image. This is proved by the excessive amount of times the word trust is said (17). The jingle it's self is more relaxed, hip-hop style which is the stereotypical sound of this ethnic group. The sound is fresh and uptempo which works well for the style of the presentation and the technical ability of the presenter.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/b00h74fw

My final textual analysis is from Radio 2 this time, Terry Wogan's morning show. I personally really enjoy Mr.Wogan's drivetime show in the morning as in a half daed state, he has a calm and soothing voice, muuch like David Attenborough. This is worked upon by the producers of the jingle with a stark contrast to Radio 1's 'in your face' electronic sounds. Soft orchestral ans string instruments are used to create a mini symphony that sets the tone of the show for the style of music to be played and the type of presenter Terry is. The warm, bass sounds of the cellos and the sharp, precise sounds of the acoustic guitar make this a both catchy and soothing intro to the show.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/b00h8n9m

Target Audience

My target audience is a rather specific one. yet has hundreds of thousands of fans. The style of radio show that I am going to aim to produce is one of a classic dance/drum&bass feel. This is mainly down to the fact I like this genre of music so am more passionate about it and feel I could produce better work in this area. The target audience is not age limited as there are plenty of older members of the public that do get on with this sort of music, but on the whole it appeals to the younger generations. Men tend to be more into this genre than girls, whether that is an unfair stereotype I couldn't say, but in my experience, it is a true one! There is no real racial favouring with drum&bass and the same can be said for religous views. All in all, the target audience is based largely on taste, rather than specific credentials, yet there are certain stereotypes that appear to be true on the most part.