Radio Journalism Masterclass images

Collage made on https://www.befunky.com/features/collage-maker/

  

Radio Journalism Masterclass notes: Trip to City University London

Taster Lecture notes: This taster lecture was given by Richard Evans who is the Senior Lecturer in journalism in City University London:

• Richard Evans used to work at the BBC as a presenter, but left the BBC for teaching 6 years ago.
• Richard Evans has a lot of experience in journalism.
• Journalism is a broad subject and many things make up its definition such as: journalism is: sticking your nose in other peoples businesses, giving information to people according to what they want to hear also giving information to people according to what they need to hear and other.
• Recently, there is the perception that journalism has become opinion based and this is due to citizen journalists, such as bloggers and vloggers (video bloggers). In these blogs and vlogs citizen journalist broadcast news, but tend to be subjective when  broadcasting information/news.
• The opposite of citizen journalists are professional journalists, and such journalists avoid imputing opinions although, the proximity of news may be close to them. Secondly, another difference between citizen journalists and professional journalists is that, professional journalists make a living out of journalism, whereas citizen journalists do not. 
• Journalism has changed as time has gone on and technological advancement is forcing journalists to adapt, as when Richard Evans was first sent out to find news and report back, he had to first find a public phone, as in the past there were no portable phones or internet to report back to the news station without a payphone.
• From this taster lecture, I have learnt that journalism is very broad, this means that there are many careers journalism can lead on to. In addition, I learnt that it is important for journalists to keep up with time and changes in society, as they must adapt to these changes, because that will be the only way journalists can reach a broad audience.

Radio workshop held by Sandy Warr notes: 

• Sandy specializes in radio news presenting, she used to work as a presenter in the Breakfast show (radio 1 BBC) and currently works as a sports news presenter on radio station "talksport".
• Normally, on the radio a little bit of an interviews is put on broadcast, while the long interview is uploaded on to the radios website. 
• When broadcasting news it is always important to attribute news to the source.
• News is giving people information from both sides of a story to help them decide who they agree with, who they disagree with, or figure out whether they have an alternately different opinion.
• When producing news there is no democracy as the editor is always right, although the editor may be wrong. 

R:23 Journalist Josie Verghese and the Wassup FM team

Journalist Josie Verghese pictured in the middle, is the very journalist that has kindly received and answered our questions that we sent over through email. We enjoyed meeting her and found out other reasons why she enjoys her job, as a journalist, for example being able to interact with young people of London. 

R 23: Questions for journalist and answers

BBC Journalist, Josie Verghese.

1)      What have you learnt about yourself from your time of being a journalist?

I've reiterated to myself how nosey and inquisitive I am - key skills as you always need to be asking questions and wanting to know more as a journalist!

That I am resilient and can work under pressure and to a deadline, and that I love the unknown and unpredictable opportunities and meeting different people that the job involves.

2)      What other career opportunities open up through journalism?

Managing other journalists, being a Media or Press Officer or PR (as you have a really good understanding of how to pitch or promote an event, research a product to get broadcast coverage for it).

Being a journalist is a lot about communication and creativity so any jobs where this is integral, for example I know former journalists who are now teachers, an actor, an events organizer, a freelance photographer, a writer...

3)      How has being a journalist changed your perspective of how news is delivered to the public?

I've learnt to really understand how different programmes or publications really need to know and understand their audience to successfully report, i.e. the same story might be reported on Newsround, Radio 5 Live, the BBC News website and the 6 o'clock news but the way the story is told needs to be different. Until I worked for BBC News I hadn't ever really thought about this. Now the first question I ask myself is "who is my audience?"

4)      How do you deal with criticisms of being a journalist?

I always try to listen to what people have to say as being a journalist understanding different people's opinions is really important!

I might not always agree but it is useful to hear people's criticism to try and see how you might improve in the future - journalists aren't always right!

5)      How do you feel knowing that news you collect or broadcast can change a person’s opinion for the better or for the worse e.g. creating prejudice or stereotypes?

This makes me feel really responsible and committed to what I do - understanding this is possible should be something you've always got at the back of your mind as a reminder your reporting needs to always be true, factually correct and balanced.

P2: Risk assessment

R/P 2: Polar patterns of microphones

Omnidirectional microphones are microphones that can pick up sound from almost any direction. Such microphones are useful in picking up ambient sound or in an environment where sources of sound are moving , but not moving with the microphone.

Advantages of using omnidirectional microphones:

·      They are easy to set up and use, even by inexperienced people who may have never used omnidirectional microphones before.

·      Due to broad pick up abilities of omnidirectional microphones, they can be used in environments where large coverage of sound is needed, or if the sound source is not yet known.  For example, in wildlife, omnidirectional microphones may be used to pick up general background sounds, as the person recording may not be able to predict how the subject or the sound source might move.

·      There are high quality omnidirectional microphones with low costs.
  
   Disadvantages of using omnidirectional microphones:
   A major disadvantage would be the idea that you will not be able to discriminate between wanted and unwanted sounds using a omnidirectional microphone. Therefore, this makes omnidirectional microphones not ideal for presenting radio news in the studio.

Unidirectional microphones are microphones that can only pick up sound from a source that is directed towards the microphone. For this reason unidirectional microphones are useful, when it comes to narration, as it will only be sensitive to the sound coming directly from the narrator.

Advantages of unidirectional microphones:
 Using a unidirectional microphone unwanted ambient sound will most likely be eliminated, as the source of the ambient sound will not be the target source for the microphone to pick up. This makes unidirectional microphones ideal for presenting radio news in the studio.

Disadvantage of using unidirectional microphones:
 Due to the ability to pick up only target sources of sound, unidirectional microphones will not be suitable to used in outside broadcasts or VOX POP's because ambient sound is required in both the recordings of an outside broadcast and VOX POP, therefore the inability of unidirectional to pick up ambient sound will not allow the production of high quality outside broadcasts or VOX POP's.

Sources:
http://www.wisegeek.org/what-are-omnidirectional-microphones.htm

Design of microphones:  http://blogs.articulate.com/rapid-elearning/4-simple-tips-for-recording-high-quality-audio/

P1: Reseraching News Topic