BBC Radio 1/ Newsbeat Blog Tasks

 Media Factsheet #224: Industrial contexts of Radio

Read Media Factsheet #224 Understanding the Industrial Context of Radio. You'll need your Greenford google login to access it. Answer the following questions:

1) Read the first two pages of the factsheet. How does the Factsheet argue that radio still has cultural significance in the digital age? 

The medium of radio is the trail-blazer of twentieth century broadcast forms of communication and even though digital platforms such as iTunes, Spotify, YouTube and many more platforms may be challenging it, it still reaches billions of people. In some developing countries in Africa where people still have limited or no access to the Internet – radio is still the dominant medium to inform and entertain them.

Radio is a global medium. Radio is also a medium for all sorts of formats: drama, comedy, variety, magazine format, zoo format (a show where presenters chat informally), shock jocks (deliberately provocative talk show hosts), soap operas, (named after the soap companies who sponsored the shows) and advertising itself (with jingles and catchphrases) all started on radio. Intimate conversations and huge spectacular productions all carried, in real time, across the airwaves to your wireless – or what we call your radio set. Radio content sparks the imagination in totally different way than visual mediums and this is why it still remains hugely popular with audiences.

2) Look at the page 4 section on media theories. Briefly summarise the ideas of Curran and Seaton, Hesmondhalgh and Livingstone and Lunt.

Curran and Seaton - The horizontal integration of companies and buying up smaller

stations leads to the concentration of ownership in the hands of large

conglomerates.

Hesmondhalgh - Music can uniquely reflect an identity to a listener and smaller stations

do not have to make money for shareholders. For example, Mark Lucke who ran the KHIL station in Willcox, Arizona, personally looks for records that his listeners ask for, he will repair scratched records and play them and also scours e-bay and the internet to find the music they want.

Livingstone and Lunt - The deregulation of radio businesses with the 1996 Telecommunications Act changed the radio landscape dramatically and led to the rapid

consolidation of the industry. The internet is not regulated as such but Spotify and Apple are currently in court about who gets to own what.

3) What is the definition of public service broadcasting?

“In the United Kingdom, the term “public service broadcasting” refers to broadcasting intended

for public benefit rather than to serve purely commercial interests. The communications regulator Ofcom requires that certain television and radio broadcasters fulfil certain requirements as part of their license to broadcast. All of the BBC’s television and radio stations have a public service remit, including those that broadcast digitally.”

4) Look at the list of eight key principles for BBC Radio on page 6 of the factsheet. Choose the three you think are most significant and explain why.

1) Universal geographic accessibility – you can listen to radio

anywhere in the country. This is absolutely essential for BBC Radio to implement. It rejects feeling of being left out and it means no matter where you are in the country, you can expect to have fresh and quick news delivered to you. 

2) Contribution to national identity and sense of community –

programmes which unify. This is also incredibly essential for BBC Radio as well. It helps combat criticisms for diversity but it also makes everyone from any culture in the UK feel seen and accepted.

3) Guidelines that liberate rather than restrict – enabling

creativity. Creativity and creative freedom is ABSOLUTELY a must especially in this day and age. Audiences will kill to see (well in this case hear) something fresh, and something they haven't heard quite enough about. It also helps separate BBC Radio from the rest. 

5) What does the Factsheet suggest is the future of PSB radio and how might Radio 1 fit into this?

The BBC has many radio channels which are designed to reflect the nation’s diversity and each week nearly 35 million people tune in to P.S.B channels. The BBC has developed its Sounds app to converge all its content into one place in order to challenge the new threats to attracting younger audiences offered by streaming sites like Spotify, Apple and Amazon Prime.

As it stands the BBC is surviving but its future is looking more and more precarious, especially it cannot convince the young that it is worth paying for. It could be that P.S.B radio broadcasting might have to have a separate licence fee, or we may see the development of individual subscriptions to stations.

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.

• For the first time, the BBC will be robustly held to account for doing so by an independent, external regulator.

• Alongside responsibilities for programme standards and protecting fair and effective competition in the areas in which the BBC operates, the Charter gives Ofcom the job of setting the BBC’s operating licence (the Licence). 

• On 29 March 2017, we consulted on a draft Licence setting out requirements for the BBC to fulfil its remit, and plans for Ofcom to measure the BBC’s overall performance.

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?

• Require the BBC to reflect the full diversity of the UK population. We are requiring the BBC to put in place a new commissioning Code of Practice for Diversity, approved by us, by April 2018.

• Safeguard vulnerable genres such as arts, music and religious programmes. Our research shows these areas are important for some audiences; but some are in decline. We have therefore confirmed higher requirements for BBC One and BBC Two to show programmes in these genres.

• Support social action campaigns on BBC radio. We are requiring Radio 1 to offer a minimum number of major social action campaigns each year. Providing information and raising awareness of social issues affecting young people.

• Strengthen news and current affairs rules. To make sure the BBC reaches the widest audiences possible with its news and current affairs content, we have increased quotas for news on BBC One and current affairs on BBC One and BBC Two, and set new regulatory conditions for radio.

 

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

• Support social action campaigns on BBC radio. We are requiring Radio 1 to offer a minimum number of major social action campaigns each year. Providing information and raising awareness of social issues affecting young people. Allows people who aren't on social media much to learn about these campaigns and overall help them reach new heights and audiences.

• Strengthen news and current affairs rules. To make sure the BBC reaches the widest audiences possible with its news and current affairs content, we have increased quotas for news on BBC One and current affairs on BBC One and BBC Two, and set new regulatory conditions for radio. Eliminates the chances of either a) People missing out on news or stories; or b) eliminating the possibility of covering the wrong topics or fake news in general.

• Safeguard vulnerable genres such as arts, music and religious programmes. Our research shows these areas are important for some audiences; but some are in decline. We have therefore confirmed higher requirements for BBC One and BBC Two to show programmes in these genres.

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

As part of our analysis we plan to examine the on-screen diversity of the BBC’s programming, including in its popular peak time shows. The review will ask what audiences expect from the BBC to understand whether it reflects and portrays the lives of all people across the whole of the UK, ranging from younger and older audiences to diverse communities.

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

In my opinion, not really. Although BBC Radio 1 Newsbeat has possibly offered something new to the table in terms of radio, that's  what it'll always be - another radio show. On top of that Licence fee payers don't even get specialties like uncut versions of radio shows or anything of the sort. They get the same content as people who don't pay the licence fee.

Finally, read this Guardian interview with former BBC 1 Controller Ben Cooper.

1) What was Ben Cooper trying to do with Radio 1?

“I want Radio 1 to be the Netflix of music radio,” he says, trundling out the catchy soundbite to back his latest plan: taking a leaf out of the hugely successful US streaming service’s book by making programmes available on demand.

2) How does he argue that Radio 1 is doing better with younger audiences than the statistics suggest?

Cooper has a real, and perhaps legitimate, bugbear with the measurement of his audience. For one, Rajar, the official body in charge of measuring radio audiences, only publishes figures on audience survey respondents aged 15 and over, which he feels is unfair. “You have a target age of 15 to 29, but nothing is measured for under-15s but everything is to death beyond the 29 target, which means, using averages, you are going to get skewed much older,” he says. “I think it is an old-fashioned metric for an old radio industry. You have the maths against you.”

The 46-year-old is armed with some statistics of his own to illustrate his point. Using figures based on those aged 10 and up, he reckons the most common age of a Radio 1 listener is 18. And for its YouTube channel it is 12- to 17-year-old females. “There is no holy grail of one single digital footprint figure in the industry unfortunately,” he says.

3) Why does he suggest Radio 1 is distinctive from commercial radio?

“Are we distinctive from commercial radio? Yes we are,” he says. “We will play something like 4,000 different tracks a month, commercial radio plays about 400. We need to play hit music to get audiences in to expose them to new music. I think we need to look at the fact that we are no longer competing just purely with Rajars against Capital and Kiss.

4) Why is Radio 1 increasingly focusing on YouTube views and digital platforms?

“I’m up against Pokémon Go and Minecraft for young audiences. I have to persuade people to switch off Minecraft and watch [Radio 1’s music sessions slot] Live Lounge, get off their iPad and listen to radio. Those are the things that keep me up at night. I’m thinking about tomorrow, not today.”

5) In your opinion, should the BBC’s remit include targeting young audiences via Radio 1 or should this content be left to commercial broadcasters? Explain your answer.

I think that the BBC's remit should still include this for as long as they can because it serves as another opportunity for them to branch out and attract a new demographic of audiences they haven't yet targeted.