Evaluation

We were tasked to do a short radio show for the Radio channel 'Chadwell Radio' targeted at a family audience. In our Radio Programme, we decided to cover topics of mental health and real world problems and show how a regular person (like the audience themselves, in this case a young teenage girl) can get into a situation like this and what to do and how you can get help. The Radio show is a dramatization with an educational aspect to it describing what catfishing is and what will typically happen in a situation like this. The Radio Programme also gives interviews to the listeners from regular people asking what they would do in a situation like this.

To smoothly transition to each scene, we used sound effects and different types of music so that the listener knows that they are moving onto a different section of the show. We also attempted to use music to convey the mood in that current situation, which I believe to be effective as the listeners would be impacted by the current feeling of the scene. For example, when the girl is alone in her room crying we added a slow sad song to convey how the girl was feeling in that moment and make the listeners feel pity for the girl. We also toned down the music or completely silenced it when we wanted a serious atmosphere, for example when the happy music fades out into silence to focus on what is happening. 

I believe the use of sound effects was effective as it brought more life into the radio program, I also believe that through this it would help listeners envision the story in their head as everything was happening. For example, when the girl was texting the 'boyfriend' typing sound effects were played to make out that they were texting on the phone. The sound effects also make the radio programme more engaging and fun, because without them I believe it would be hard to make out what was going on for the listeners and that they would have to try and figure it out in their head, which would be off-putting for some.

Overall, I believe that we had done a good job with the acting and that it felt realistic and not over-exaggerated or effortlessly done. We had incorporated aspects of Radio such as: A Jingle and Opening Sequence, an introduction to the programme and a content warning for what topics were going to be handled in the radio programme as some may find it distressing.

However, areas that I believe we could improve upon were: some scenes were too quiet. At some points, the audio is loud and clear and whilst going in the next scene it just seems too quiet and some people may find it hard to hear. I believe going back we could decrease the volume so it's lower on some of the music as it may seem too distracting and hard to focus on the scene going on. Some audio felt muffled and you could hear loud background noise which is very distracting, so to improve upon this we could re-record these sound effects in a quiet place so that there is no background noise. 

Some audio is cut out before it finishes, so listeners may find this dissatisfying at the quick cut out. 

For our Radio Programme to be effective, we attempted to incorporate typical conventions of a Radio Programme so it feels like the listeners are listening into a real broadcast from a radio station. To start, we used a 'Jingle' sound effect to start the radio programme off. We introduced the program and told the listeners what to expect. As it was a family radio station, I believe the usage of the viewer discretion afterwards was a good warning for the sensitive topics being present in our radio programme. This was added as some listeners may find this distressing (and possibly many younger viewers.)  We said the name of the Radio Programme too, so if anyone wanted to listen to the programme again they would have to search for 'Dark Secrets'.

In the radio programme, we had an informative documentary to help educate the listeners (especially our younger audience) about the dangers they may find online and what to do if they need help and how to be safe which would help children if they did not know what to do. To get different opinions on the situation the main character found herself in, we conducted on-site interviews to make these opinions sound genuine and not just from people in the studio. For example, the background of a kitchen can be heard whilst conducting an interview or the sound of the wind blowing. This makes it seem more genuine as the viewers can see that we had gone out and got real opinions from people. 

 

We wrapped up the radio programme with an outro, stating once again what the Radio Programme does in case someone just tuned in and to signify the end of our radio programme. We also thanked the listeners to make them feel more included with the radio show and that they are partaking in in. At the end of the programme, we gave information about what show is going to be aired next and why they should tune in for the exciting next channel so that they say on the Chadwell Radio Station. 

We used music to emphasize the scenes. For example, upbeat music is used when the main character is having a good time to convey her mood and when she is upset we used melancholy music. To make a dramatic effect, we faded in and out music to create a focus on what is happening and to make the scene serious unlike it's previous upbeat scene. This gets the listeners attention as the fun music suddenly stops and the programme wants them to listen into what is going to happen.  

In conclusion, I believe that we have been able to stick to our planned content and stick to conventions within the Radio genre through our planned content. We were able to have elements of a radio show embedded into our own such as: jingles, dramatizations, a narrator describing the story and an outro concluding the radio programme and what is going to come up next and what the next show/topic is going to be about.