Codes and Conventions of Radio

Emily Jones

Wording

Wording are very important in media production and especially in radio drama, words are a audible way of telling a story to the audience or information. Wording is very important in Radio drama, the key to a good radio trail/drama it must be worded in the correct way, or else the interest of the audience is lost.

Voice

Voice/tone is another key important thing, the voice again plays an major role due to their being no visual for the audience. There voice must be easy to understand, clear, strong and well spoken so it is easy for the audience to understand and again not loose interest. If it is for a radio drama it must express the feelings of the character whereas for a trail advertisement it must have a clear understanding voice about what they are trying to advertise/sell.

Ambience

Ambience is a key code for producing a radio trail. For example if it was a radio drama and the setting was in a park there would be the sound of distant children playing, slightly windy maybe and birds etc. Whereas if it was a radio trail of for example the grand prix it would have previous recordings of other grand prix.

Music

Music can determined the mood and style of the radio trail, for example if it is a exciting build up tension it may play something where it slowly gets louder maybe and it builds the tension. If it is a radio trail for a documentary, considering the type of documentary and the target audience, for example a documentary aimed at a older audience may have soft classical music. The music can create the mood and makes the radio trail interesting.

Cliff hanger endings

To build tension for the audience to want to find out more about the documentary or product, this makes the audience want to find out more and will do more research into it or want to watch for example the documentary, it creates the tension and driving force for the audience to want to discover what it is about.

Flashbacks/extracts

Extracts from the tv programme, documentary etc. is a good way to give out more information about what will be said or will be discussed in the documentary (example) and the audience may agree or disagree. For example with a documentary about teen pregnancy, this could have a teenage mom, just a small outstanding sentence that she says about teenage pregnancy.

Narration

• A clear voice that narratives what is happening or what will go on in the documentary/TV programme, what it will be about, this will help the audience understand what is going on and what it will be about, it makes it a lot more clear for the audience, the narration is the story telling for the audience.

Target Audience

Needs to be aimed at the right target audience for example if it is a radio advert for a new band/artist’s album they would small samples of their work, and it would be on the right radio channel, like if it was a classical album it may be advertise on Classical fm.