OFCOM

The above Google Slides presentation is all about OFCOM. The presentation includes many facts about the company and also includes some of the broadcasting rules. I found research into OFCOM very interesting as I had heard about it many times before and yet did not know many of Ofcom's other roles. Through making this presentation, I also was experiencing Google Slides for the first time and really liked using it, it was easy to use and made embedding into my blog far easier than some other sites and so I would be very tempted to use it again.

Alex Dyke and OFCOM

At the time of learning about OFCOM, there was a case featuring local DJ 'Alex Dyke' on BBC Radio Solent. As mentioned in the final slide, he was saying potentially offensive views over the air that meant many complaints were sent to OFCOM. As a class we discussed the appropriate punishment for the DJ and looked at the OFCOM rules. We looked at different types of punishment appropriate and then listened to the clip. We all agreed he was in breach and we referenced the 2010 Inequality Act which we felt he might have broken, we looked at what was included in this act and others and found this to be suitable. In and out of media lessons, we checked to see if OFCOM had made a decision. I was quite surprised at how long this took, the rules were very precise and so I thought it would be quick to decide but in a few weeks OFCOM published what rule he had broken, and it was the same as we had said as a group. It was interesting to learn about OFCOM and to experience the consequences of going against the regulations at the time of researching.

Radio Questionnaire

For the radio questionnaire task, I wanted to find out what stations people listened to the most, what time of day they listen to them and where they listen to them. I created a survey using Google Sheets which is an online piece of software I have not used before. However I found it very useful as it was quick and easy to make a survey that could be both sent to people online and printed. I gave the survey to 20 people, I purposely gave them to a wide range of ages and backgrounds so that the results would be fair and give a reliable result.

Once I had received the responses, I used Microsoft Excel to insert the statistics and create pie charts from them. I found the results very interesting and in some cases very predictable but in others not. When I come to make a radio broadcast, I will remember this information as it may change what is played over the air, e.g. most people listen to the radio in the car so I would not use siren noises in case it confused drivers. The results are posted in the pictures below.
We also decided to look at gender and age, as a team we all were the same age and was a mix of gender with 3 boys and 1 girl. We wanted to make sure we understood what differences there were between interests from girls and boys and so we separated the responses and found a key difference being which radio station they listen too, we found more boys listened to Radio 1 than girls and more girls listened to Capital, although both have similar target audiences, this is interesting and can make us consider why there are differences, possibly the slight difference in music or maybe the more chat shows featured on Radio 1. We will remember this when creating and targeting our own station because we will not want to isolate one gender and instead create a product equally aimed at both genders.

We also made sure we looked at age, the obvious difference here found was what the radio was listened too, older people listened more in the day and also a big difference was the choice of radio station. Although it may seem obvious, we wanted to challenge the idea of Radio 2 being listened to more by older people than young. However, from our research we found this was the case and there seem to be heavy links between age of listeners and age of music played as well as the age of the DJ. As young people ourselves, this therefore means a youth based radio station could be well suited for us to create.

UK Radio and Target Audience

Media Studies - Target Audience

"EVERY SINGLE MEDIA PRODUCT IS AIMED AT A SPECIFIC TARGET AUDIENCE!"

• The primary target audience is the people that the product is aimed at.
• The secondary audience are another group of people that might like the product but not the primary target.
• The tertiary audience are a group of people who the product is not aimed at but could potentially be enjoyed by.

When a media text is being planned, perhaps the most important question the producers consider is "does it have an audience?". If the answer to this is 'no', then there is no point in going any further. If no one is going to enjoy the product, the producers aren't going to make any money or get their message across. They use questionnaires , focus groups and comparisons to existing texts, and spend a long time finding out if there is anyone out there who might be interested in their idea.

Demographics - This is a way of grouping people together based on certain factors such as race,age,gender,economic status,level of education, income level and employment among others.

Psychographics Table

NRS Social Grade Classification Scale

The NRS Social Grade Classification Scale is a measurement of social grade, social status and occupation.

Social Grade A = Upper Middle Class = Higher managerial, administrative or professional.

Social Grade B = Middle Class = Intermediate managerial, administrative or professional.

Social Grade C1 = Lower Middle Class = Supervisory or clerical, junior managerial, administrative or professional.

Social Grade C2 = Skilled Working Class = Skilled manual workers.

Social Grade D = Working Class = Semi and unskilled manual workers.

Social Grade E = Those at the lowest level subsistence = State pensioners or widows (no other earner) , casual or lowest grade workers.

What are the Pros and the Cons of Demographics and Psychographics?

	Demographics	Psychographics
Pros	- If you use several categories together and use the NRS scale it can create a generally similar answer. - It can be cheap and easy to get information.	- People can quite easily fit into this category. - People can put themselves into this category more easily. - It doesn't constrain people to their education or gender.
Cons	- It generalises too much for example somebody in category B may have different interests to another person in the category. - It could be difficult to fit people into the NRS scale. - People can change professions quite a lot. - People could fit into more than one category on the NRS scale. - It could be outdated.	- People may feel that they fit into more than one category. - The information cannot be found on the census and therefore would take more time, effort and money to get this information.

How to radio stations use this?

Radio stations can use both methods of obtaining information and create an 'ideal' radio listener. An ideal listener is a radio producer's imagines, intended audience. It could be a group of individuals that will be addressed, persuaded or affected by what they are hearing. Imagining such an audience allows a producer to TARGET a particular group - thus ensuring their radio news bulletin appeals to those who are tuning in. This is so that every thing put out on their radio stations (song, news, chat and interview) should be aimed at this ideal listener because the output needs to be appealing to those who are listening and therefore listeners can be lost which means money can be lost. The BBC's ideal listener was 'Dave and Sue' who were the ideal listeners. The BBC local radio concept of 'Dave and Sue' became controversial saying that 'Project Bullseye' had turned radio into a 'blandly uniform comedy' and that the BBC were following these rules too strictly and not focusing enough on the local listeners.