BBC Radio 1 Newsbeat

 Newsbeat analysis

Use BBC Sounds to listen to Radio 1. Select a Newsbeat bulletin (8am or 12.45pm are good options) and then answer the following questions: 

1) What news stories were featured in the bulletin you listened to?

The Isreal and Iran conflict

2) How does Newsbeat appeal to a youth audience?

The upbeat music and the fast paced news to keep the attention

3) How might Newsbeat help fulfil the BBC's responsibilities as a public service broadcaster? 

its informs and educates

Media Factsheet #246: BBC Radio 1 Newsbeat

Read Factsheet #246 BBC Radio 1 Newsbeat. You'll need your Greenford google login to access it. Answer the following questions:

1) How is the history and launch of Radio 1 summarised in the factsheet? If you studied this as part of GCSE Media you will already know much of this.

They started as a pirate radio station which young people enjoyed

2) Look at page 3 of the factsheet. How is Radio 1 attempting to appeal to its 15-29 age demographic? 

It aims to entertain and engage young listeners with a distinctive mix of contemporary music and speech. The programmes showcase a wide range of new music styles and support emerging artists.

3) What did young people used to get from radio? Focus on audience pleasures / Uses & Gratifications here (see top of second column on page 3).

They use to get diversion as the music was entertaining and they developed personal relationships with the hosts

4) How has Radio 1 and Newsbeat in particular diversified its content for the digital age? 

They let people to listen to their radio on many different apps

5) How is Newsbeat constructed to appeal to audiences? 

• Multiple voices, regional and national accents; Welsh, Irish,Scottish.

• Code-switching from formal to informal is used in order to target and appeal to different demographics.

• Simplifying of language and content.

• Personalisation and anecdotes.

• Use of sound beds/effects: also known as imagining, that run underneath the voices. These are used to maintain interest throughout the broadcast.

• Recorded interviews with diegetic sound.

6) What are the three key ideas from David Hesmondhalgh and which apply to Radio 1 Newsbeat?

Cultural Industries are made to create profit.

The internet has not challenged the centralised power of providers or allowed audiences to challenge content.

Content production is made by ‘symbol creators’.

7) Now look at Curran and Seaton. What are their key ideas and can they be applied to Radio 1 Newsbeat? 

The media is concentrated in the hands of powerful commercial media giants.

Culture is controlled by social elites.

8) What key idea for Livingstone and Lunt is on the factsheet and how does it link to the CSP?

Media can have a citizen- based approach to regulation.

9) How can we apply Stuart Hall's Reception theory to Radio 1 Newsbeat?

Media producers encode media products in a way that they think will appeal to them. This is not always successful.

10) Choose one other audience theory on the factsheet and explain how it links to Radio 1 Newsbeat.

Gauntlett (identity theory) - The media constructs a range of identities which audiences are free to choose from.

Industry contexts: reading and research

Read the first five pages of this Ofcom document laying out its regulation of the BBC. 

1) Pick out three key points in the 'Summary' section.

The BBC is the UK’s most widely-used media organisation, providing programming on television and radio and content online. The public has exceptionally high expectations of the BBC, shaped by its role as a publicly-funded broadcaster with a remit to inform, educate and entertain the public, and to support the creative economy across the UK

2) Now read what the license framework will seek to do (letters a-h). Which of these points could we relate to BBC Radio 1 Newsbeat?

Support a wide range of valued genres. The BBC must support a wide range of genres across its channels

3) Which do you think are the three most important aspects in the a-h list? Why?

Wide range of genres

supporting regional audiences

increase requirements around programmes for children 

4) Read point 1.9: What do Ofcom plan to review in terms of diversity and audience? 

We are also announcing an in-depth review of how different audiences are represented and portrayed on the BBC. All audiences should feel that the BBC offers something for them. we plan to examine the on-screen diversity of the BBC’s programming.

5) Based on your reading and research, do you think BBC Radio 1 Newsbeat offers licence fee payers good value for money?

Yes because they try to represent everybody equally