Main Task: Creating News Broadcasts

In this section I am to create a full news broadcast, consisting of a number of local and global news, each running for about 30 or 40 seconds. Members of my team have been assigned roles in which they must fulfil to create a realistic, high quality news broadcast consisting of a presenter, specialist reporter and special guest. The broadcast must include the following:

• Title music
• at least one presenter
• at least two specialist reporters
• at least two Outside Broadcasts (OBs)
• at least one interview
• at least one vox pop sequence
• sound effects
• an organised structure

Production Roles:
Presenter: Kenan Prendergast
Specialist reporter/Special guest: Bamba Sidibe
Special Guest/Specialist Reporter: Danielle Elvin

First News Item:

Running Order	Script (Kilburn Literary Festival)	Timing/ Effects
1	Presenter: Today commemorates the first ever Kilburn Literary Festival, We’ll hear further on this from our news correspondent Bamba, who is down at the Sheriff Centre, right now.	7 seconds
2	Specialist Reporter: I’m out here in the Sheriff Centre joined by one of the creative minds behind all of this. So Danielle, tell us some more about the event	7 seconds Outside noise effect: 12 seconds
3	Special Guest: Well, I really thought that by bringing it here to Kilburn would give the area a positive image despite their bad reputation.	6 seconds
4	Presenter: Thank you for taking the time to speak to us today, Danielle.	3 seconds

The sound recording I had used from freesound to incorporate into my first news story

Here are the complete recordings of my first news item for my radio broadcast on Audacity. In each separate audio track, a different person is speaking or there are different sounds. In the bottom audio track, there is the sound of background outside noise during the speech of the reporter and the guest to create a more realistic broadcast with the sense that the reporter is actually outside in the local area. The outside noise had been obtained from www.freesound.org/.

This is the completed audio for the first news story.

Second News Item:

Running Order	Script (Mice Infestation)	Timing/ Effects
1	Presenter: A local newsagent in Kilburn has been forced to close today after it was found to have a mice infestation. A store within the area called ‘Jumbo’s Newsagents’ was shut down by health inspectors doing their routine visit when they discovered that the place was overrun with mice, causing their hygiene standards to plummet. As a result, the owner of the shop was fine £1,195 by Willesden Magistrates Court as well as it being closed down.	21 seconds

This is the recorded news story of the mice infestation at the local news agent, on Audacity. The story runs for 21 seconds which is within the set limit and this particular recording consists of only the presenter speaking, to mimic the qualities of a real radio broadcast. In the broadcasts I had assessed, there were a number of stories within them which did not require a specialist reporter or any further speaker to be included, so I kept this recording with only the presenter, to make it sound more realistic. I didn't feel that a correspondent on the scene was necessary.

This is the completed audio for the second news story.

Third News Item:

Running Order	Script (Railway Prices)	Time/Effects
1	Presenter: Outrage has been sparked today as it has been revealed that railway passengers are routinely being denied the cheapest fares when buying tickets at stations. Customers buying from a machine could pay more than £200 when a ticket for the same destination could be found elsewhere at the station for over £100 cheaper. We have our news reporter down at Paddington station right now.	17 seconds
2	Specialist Reporter: What are your thoughts on the railway ticket prices?	3 seconds
3	Special Guests: (Vox Pop)	22 seconds (Outside noise effect throughout)

Here is a section of the article of where I had obtained my information on this news story from. It presents a headline which would attract many railway users because it relates to what they use as a mode of transport and intrigues them into reading if they are getting the best prices for their train journeys.

This is the completed audio for the third news story.

Fourth News Item:

Running Order	Script (Model Stabbed)	Time/Effects
1	Presenter: Early yesterday morning in Northwest London a 45-year-old model was stabbed to death after a row with a neighbour. This brutal attack took place at 7:45 this morning and news correspondent Sasha James is at a neighbour’s house at harrow who was awoken by her screams.	12 seconds
2	Specialist Reporter: Stood right beside the place where Alison Morrison was murdered earlier on today, I have one of the residents from Alexander Avenue who knew this mother of one. What do you have to say about this dispute that has taken place right outside your doorstep?	13 seconds
3	Special Guest: I’m still in shock and shaken up over the events that have taken place. For her to have been stabbed just because of where her car was parked? It’s ridiculous! It’s sad because I was very fond of Ali and her family. I wish I could have done something to stop this from happening.	12 seconds
4	Presenter: Commiserations goes to the victim’s family and friends at this tough time.	4 seconds

This is the collection of all the recorded speakers for the news item, on Audacity. Each audio track has been labelled to present who is speaking at each point during the 42 second story.

This is the completed audio for the fourth news story.

Fifth News Item:

Running Order	Script (Marylebone stabbing)	Time/Effects
1	Presenter: A teenager has been fatally stabbed yesterday night in Central London. 18-year-old Bilal Mirza was attacked Salisbury Street, Marylebone at 10:30 pm. A 16-year-old has been arrested on suspicion of murdering Bilal. This is the 8th person to die as a result of violent crime this year.
2	Special Reporter: I’m here at Scotland Yard with Detective Chief Inspector Noel McHugh. What would you like to say to those who may have been with Bilal at the time?
3	Special Guest: I know that there were several youths in the area at the time of the stabbing and I am directly appealing to them to come forward and speak with officers.

An image of the victim of the attack to perhaps appeal to those of similar age or bring awareness to other teens of what can affect those close to them.

 


This is the completed audio for the fifth news story

Sixth News Item:

Running Order	Script (Fifty Shades of Grey)	Time/Effects
1	Presenter: A screening of the much-anticipated film ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ turned ugly when two gangs of women clashed during the raunchy blockbuster. The verbal conflict took place at Barnsley’s Parkway cinema on Valentine’s Day when the film was disrupted by a heated row. We have our news correspondent with some of the people who witnessed this screaming match.	15 seconds
2	Special Reporter: So what was the all the commotion about?	2 seconds
3	Special Guest: There were a group of women talking and laughing loudly throughout the film, so someone asked them to be quiet. Then things started getting nasty.	6 seconds
4	Special Guest 2: There were middle-aged women who were just idiots and who didn't know how to behave in a cinema!	4 seconds
5	Special Guest 3: I’ve been in this business for a long time and have never seen anything like this before!	4 seconds

The headline referring to the reported event.

Above is a screenshot of the editing process of my recorded news item. As shown in the image, I had used the envelope tool to ensure that the volume of the speech for each person is at an optimum level. It is important that each person's speech is around the same volume level so that it does not sound abnormal to the listeners of my broadcast and that the audience can hear each person clearly. Audio that is too loud could sound unpleasant to the listener and audio that is too quiet could be hard for many people to comprehend. Also, if the volume of speech was to fluctuate too much between each person it would sound very unprofessional.

This is the completed audacity recording of my sixth news item which amounts to 31 seconds. This recording is composed of five separate people,  who speak at different times and for different lengths of time. The presenter speaks for about 15 seconds whereas the reporter speaks for the shortest amount of time at just 2 seconds. Each audio track is labelled to present which person is speaking at particular moments and the overall time is of appropriate length.

This is the completed audio for the sixth news story

Seventh News Item:

Running Order	Script (The Carlton Tavern)	Time/Effects
1	Presenter: A popular Kilburn pub known as ‘The Carlton Tavern’ has been reduced to rubble after it was knocked down without council permission. The historical pub dating back to 1920 was demolished without prior warning or permission from the authorities. The Carlton Tavern had even survived the blitz only to be destroyed by two bulldozers while all contents were still within the pub.
2	Special Reporter: I’m joined by Patsy Lord, the pub’s landlady, who was kept in the dark about the unexpected event.
3	Special Guest: It’s just so bloody heart breaking! There was no warning beforehand!
4	Presenter: The angry pub-goers have even created a Facebook page protesting that the pub gets rebuilt. The page so far has received more than 1,300 likes.

Displayed above is an image relating to the seventh news story which presents the extent of the event which 

took place.

Creation of the Final Product

In the process of creating our final news broadcast, consisting of all seven news stories obtained, we decided to order the news stories in order of importance and influence on the local listeners because this has been a code & convention previously observed. The end product proved to have improved immensely as the process progressed and the preliminary task was useful in getting my radio show to the point it has reached.



This is the title music used to commence our radio news broadcast, however this was also used to conclude the show, accompanied by a jingle at the end.

The title music was created on an application called GarageBand which allowed us to create music from a combination of provided loops. We chose from the wide variety of loops and tested out different combinations until we found a set which sounded very professional and radio news broadcast-worthy. As you can see, different sounds originating from certain instruments have been used to make our title music. 

This is our created jingle which has been incorporated into our radio news broadcast to imitate the jingles used within the professional broadcasts which I had analysed.

The jingle of the broadcast had also been constructed using GarageBand because it was successful in enabling us to create title music. The jingle consisted of  varying loops to make it suitable for our show.

Above shows the use of the auto duck tool which I had used to allow the audio of the title music and the announcer to be played together harmoniously. This tool meant that the title music would fluctuate to be played at a lower volume whilst the announcer speaks and the volume increases when the announcer is silent. This makes it easier for the listeners to interpret what is being said by the announcer and this tool has been used to start and end my radio news broadcast.

Here is a screenshot showing the use of the sync-lock tool which was very beneficial and time saving. This tool allowed me to collectively move the highlighted section of my audacity recordings. This was necessary because initially, the broadcast contained gaps for audio that would later be added in, so the sync-tool was used once the audio track was added and needed to be aligned with the audio found afterwards. This tool was time saving because it simplified a task which could have taken some time to align each separate audio track.

This was an audacity file which I had created to organise all the audio obtained, using a portable microphone, to gain voices from numerous people. The portable microphone also proved useful in making my reports sound professional and realistic because I could record people with the background outside noise to give the listener the sense of the report being provided in an outside location relating to the news. I labelled each track to make it clear to myself which person was used, therefore I'd know where in my broadcast they belong, according to their speech. Also, as you can see, many of the people have more than one speech in an audio track and this was done to improve my chances of finding a satisfactory recording by enabling myself to choose what I felt sounded more suitable. This is useful because it wouldn't require me to find the person whose voice was used, if it wasn't good enough, and re-record their voice to a better standard. I was able to have a back up voice recording for almost all of the people recorded.

The Amplify tool was a key tool in the production of our news broadcast because it enabled me to keep the volume levels of each audio track at a satisfactory level where nothing contrasted too much in volume. Because our broadcast consists of  so many people of different voice and there were many factors, such as how close the person spoke into the microphone, which would cause the outcome of a variety of noise levels . I used the amplify tool multiple times throughout to keep the recorded audio at a suitable level, whether it was to increase the volume (using a positive number of amplification) if it was too quiet or to decrease the volume (using a negative number of amplification) if the audio was too loud. As a result, the full radio news broadcast was kept at a generally equal volume level.

Presented here is the final full radio news broadcast in which a lot of hard work and time has been devoted to. We strived to make it sound as professional as possible by following the previously analysed codes & conventions of a radio news broadcast as well as being able to challenging these codes & conventions, such as with certain dded sound effects. Audacity was a central piece of recording software which was highly beneficial and allowed me to use a number of its useful tools to get my broadcast to the standard it has reached.