radio: the surgery

Radio: The Surgery CSP

Listen to the extracts from The Surgery and Life Hacks above and answer the following questions:

1) What do the titles The Surgery and Life Hacks suggest?

Suggests that the show is aiming to help people better their lifestyle by giving them life advice relating to different topics. 'Life hacks' is also terminology associated with the youth demographic - suggests that thi sshow is targeting a youth/millenials.

2) How are the programmes constructed to appeal to a youth audience?

• The content discussed in the show is mainly focused on topics that concern the younger generation - for example, issues surrounding mental health and anxiety, as well as university and student life.

• The presenters offer the opportunity for personal relationships to be formed as they give the audience some insight into their personal life, which helps the listeners to feel more connected and supported by them - they seek relief in the fact that other young adults are going through the same thing.

• The music is usually upbeat and pop - matches the pace of the show and appeals to the mainstream audience

• Vox pops and interviews are typically done with young adults and young people to ensure that the perspectives offered are suited to the thoughts of the current generation.

3) What does the choice of presenter (e.g. Katie Thistleton) and Dr Modgil suggest about the BBC’s approach to diversity and representation?

I think that their choice of presenter highlights the fact that they are attempting to make The Surgery appeal to a youth audince. The young ages of the presenters means that their opinions and insight offered is more likely to be well received by their audiece. Also, the combination of their different reigonal identities and heritage helps to represent the diverse audience that the BBC are attempting to target.

4) Look at this promotional graphic produced by BBC for The Surgery. How does it construct a representation of a youth audience?

• Use of emojis suggests that they will be targeting those familiar with technology, and it also links to the concept of the decline in radio and traditional media. There is no FM dial or indication of how the show can be listened to on an actual radio, which implies that it is aimed at those who have moved away from traditional media

• The subject at question: "How does social media make you feel?" - links to the increasingly profound impact that social media is having/has had on the younger generation. Also subtly hints at the discussion of typically taboo topics like mental health and anxiety.

5) Now look at the graphic from a digital media perspective: how does it suggest audiences are listening to and interacting with BBC broadcasts in the digital media landscape?

The fact that there is no reference to the actual FM dial of the BBC Broadcast reflects the fact that the BBC recognise the fact that the media landscape is changing. There is now more focus on the use of video and social media, hence the emojis of the phone and the use of emojis in general.

Audience

1) What is the target audience for BBC Radio 1?

15-29 year olds

2) Who is the actual audience for BBC Radio 1?

Only 41% are in the target audinece age range, and their median age is 32.
90% white
58 % ABC1 in comparison to the population average of 55%

3) What audience pleasures are offered by The Surgery and Life Hacks? Apply Blumler and Katz’s Uses and Gratifications theory.

• Relief - the feeling of support that is experienced as a result of knowing that there is  a place that you can turn to for advice, knwoing that poeple are going thriugh the same as you
• Personal identification - being able to relate to the stories being told and seeing your character reflected in said stories.
• Surveillance - learning about the different ways of tackling the problems being discussed
• Diversion - from the entertainment aspect of the show - particularly met by the new Life Hacks version of the show, demonstrates how the BBC are reinventing their brand to suit the needs of their audinece.

4) Read these Guardian reviews of The Surgery and Life Hacks. What do the reviews praise the programmes for?

The Surgery Guardian review

• Provides "practical advice"
• discusses "teenage life with sensitivity"
• 
  

Life Hacks Guardian review

• Providing the listeners with insight into the truth surrounding many topics - i.e. Stomrzy discussing discrimination in higher education

5) Read this NME feature on Radio 1 listener figures. What are the key statistics to take from this article regarding the decline in Radio 1 audience ratings?

• Raido 1 lost 200,000 weekly listeners (May 2018 - August 2018)
• Used to attract approx 9.4m listeners a week
• Officially has the second-lowest ever recorded ratings for the BBC Station.
• Steady decline since 2012, a time where they used to attract 11.1m listeners.

Industries

1) How does The Surgery and Life Hacks meet the BBC mission statement to Educate, Inform and Entertain?

I think that the Surgery meets the aspects of the remit in terms of inform and educate more than the entertain aspect. The Surgery acts as more of an informative, advising style show; on the other hand, Life Hacks does this while offering entertainment through playing more music, featuring celebrities and having the discussions condensed into smaller chunks/segments. It mainly meets the educate and inform aspects via advising the listeners on different topics and issues related to the lives of teenagers/young people: e.g. mental health, anxiety, FOMO and student finance.

2) Read the first five pages of this Ofcom document laying out its regulation of the BBC. Pick out three key points in the summary section.

• Shaped by their role as a public service broadcaster, the BBC have a remit to "inform, educate and entertain the public"
• For the first time, the BBC will be held accountable for meeting or not meeting these expectations and the expectations listed in their new Charter. The Charter gives Ofcom the job of setting the BBC's operating license which sets the standards that have to be met by the BBC.
• From March 29 2017, the BBC have been regulated and monitored by Ofcom. Ofcom are in charge of ensuring that the BBC are performing to a high standard.

3) Now read what the license framework will seek to do (letters a-h). Which of these points relate to BBC Radio 1 and The Surgery / Life Hacks?

• Support national and regional audineces
• Reflect the full diversity of the UK population
• Secure a more disctinctive BBC

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

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

• That their content reflects the lives of younger and older audiences 
• Diversity in the on-screen programmes 
• How different audiences are portrayed and represented.

Read this Guardian interview with BBC 1 Controller Ben Cooper.

6) What is Ben Cooper trying to do with Radio 1?

Attempting to "make BBC Radio 1 like a Netflix for radio"

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

He argues that while the numbers for radio listeners are decreasing, their audience numbers across their platforms has increased significantly. For example, the station's YouTube channel has almost 3.5 million subscribers and 1+ bn views.


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

He believes that they are distinctive from commercial radio as they play 4,000 different songs whereas commercial radio plays around 400.

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

Because traditional radio is suffering a decline - people (especially young people) do not listen to the radio as much as previous generations did. Younger audiences enjoy video content and an ability to form relationships with the people telling the stories. R1 fpocusing on Youtube shows their acceptance of the decline of the traditional media landscap and the fact that they are attempting to reinvigorate their brand.

10) 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 this content should be left to commercial broadcasters because it enables them to diversify their audience and compete with he BBC on a more even playing field.The BBC are already an extremely powerful media institution; therefore, I think that if they did not target a youth audience, they would still generate a significant amount of rveneue based on their older demographic, Their audience is predominantly older, so I think that they should continue to focus on appealing to the majority of their audience, rather than trying to grow the minority.