BBC Radio 1 Newsbeat

Newsbeat analysis

Use BBC Sounds to listen to Radio 1. Select a Newsbeat bulletin (8am or 12.45pm are good options) and then answer the following questions: 

1) What news stories were featured in the bulletin you listened to?

• Sports, music news
• Politics
• Celebrities

2) How does Newsbeat appeal to a youth audience?

Framing the content through an informal tone, quick overviews, upbeat links, and audience participation.

3) How might Newsbeat help fulfil the BBC's responsibilities as a public service broadcaster? 

Radio 1's remit states that it must provide news and not just music. 

Media Factsheet #246: BBC Radio 1 Newsbeat

Read Factsheet #246 BBC Radio 1 Newsbeat. You'll need your Greenford google login to access it. Answer the following questions:

1) How is the history and launch of Radio 1 summarised in the factsheet? If you studied this as part of GCSE Media you will already know much of this.

Newsbeat started in 1973 but to understand this CSP you need to know a bit of history around Radio 1, the home of Newsbeat. For many years BBC radio had a monopoly of the airwaves, it was the only radio station that people in the UK could legally listen to. However, this monopoly was challenged in the 1960s when pirate radio stations such as Radio Caroline and Radio Luxembourg started illegally transmitting commercial programming via ships in international waters and on land.

2) Look at page 3 of the factsheet. How is Radio 1 attempting to appeal to its 15-29 age demographic? 

It aims to entertain and engage young listeners with a distinctive mix of contemporary music and speech. The programmes showcase a wide range of new music styles and support emerging artists, in particular those from the UK; with at least 60 hours a week dedicated to specialist music programming. News, documentaries and other speech content focuses on areas of relevance to young adults in the UK today and aims to help them make sense of the world around them. BBC Radio 1Xtra is Radio 1’s digital ‘sister’ station, shares some programmes and a similar passion for new music. The station has a particular focus on serving BAME (British English, Black, Asian and minority ethnic) communities, offering its young listeners programmes that span RnB, hip-hop, dancehall, drum & bass, and a range of other urban music genres. They also broadcast weekly documentaries under the ‘Radio 1 & 1Xtra’s Stories.’

3) What did young people used to get from radio? Focus on audience pleasures / Uses & Gratifications here (see top of second column on page 3).

• To build para-social relationships with media personalities (both musicians and DJs) – create fandoms.

• For pure entertainment.

• To connect themselves to popular culture products (identity).

• To gain an insight into the world beyond their own experience: relationships, romance, politics (information and surveillance).

4) How has Radio 1 and Newsbeat in particular diversified its content for the digital age? 

Radio 1 has diversified its content beyond the studio, from Live Lounge sessions to a Big Weekend of live music, its output is wide and diverse.

5) How is Newsbeat constructed to appeal to audiences? 

The way young people access both music and news has irrevocably changed and traditional radio stations are struggling to compete with other platforms.

• Simplifying of language and content.

• Personalisation and anecdotes.

• Use of sound beds/effects: also known as imagining, that run underneath the voices. These are used to maintain interest throughout the broadcast.

• Code-switching from formal to informal is used in order to target and appeal to different demographics.

• Recorded interviews with diegetic sound.

• Multiple voices, regional and national accents; Welsh, Irish, Scottish.

6) What are the three key ideas from David Hesmondhalgh and which apply to Radio 1 Newsbeat?

Content production is made by ‘symbol creators’ because  The diverse output of Radio 1 and Newsbeat is huge. Creators are governed by professional guidelines but they are also free to be creative to make products to excite youth audiences. The internet has not challenged the centralised power of providers or allowed audiences to challenge content because Radio 1 and Newsbeat is finding it difficult to challenge the social media giants in targeting a youth audience, but it does try to utilise these platforms with its content. Cultural Industries are made to create profit because The BBC is a PSB provider, free from commercial impulses. All profits go back into making more content for the people.

7) Now look at Curran and Seaton. What are their key ideas and can they be applied to Radio 1 Newsbeat? 

The key ideas: 

The media is concentrated in the hands of powerful commercial media giants. Culture is controlled by social elites. They cant be applied to radio because The BBC has its remit written into The Royal Charter, which states that it must remain independent and that the mission of the BBC is to act in the public interest, serving all audiences through the provision of impartial, high-quality and distinctive output and services which inform, educate and entertain. Also Furthermore, the BBC is funded by the licence fee which is set at by the government.

8) What key idea for Livingstone and Lunt is on the factsheet and how does it link to the CSP?

Media can have a citizen- based approach to regulation it links because the BBC is an example of a citizen-based approach to regulation. Citizen-orientated regulation is concerned with content-based issues. Citizen-based regulation is a positive form if regulation that directs media content so that it can improve the lives of citizens and contribute the wider well-being of society. Citizen-based regulation promotes forms of media that can hold powerful groups to account.

9) How can we apply Stuart Hall's Reception theory to Radio 1 Newsbeat?

Media producers encode media products in a way that they think will appeal to them. This is not always successful. It links as the BBC tries to appeal to young people with its content, but it faces competition from other platforms that appear to be catering for them in a better, more appealing way.

10) Choose one other audience theory on the factsheet and explain how it links to Radio 1 Newsbeat.

Uses and Gratifications – Blumler and Katz

News beat allows people to gain information and so surveillance can be applied as Radio 1 has talks of politics and other contemporary issue but also provides diversion through sports and other popular events that are occurring at the time.

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, they 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.

• The BBC is the UK’s most widely-used media organisation, providing programming on television and radio and content online. The public has exceptionally high expectations of the BBC, shaped by its role as a publicly-funded broadcaster with a remit to inform, educate and entertain the public, and to support the creative economy across the UK.

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?

f) Support a wide range of valued genres. The BBC must support a wide range of genres across its channels and services, such as drama, comedy, factual programmes and different types of music. This is because so it appeals to wide range of audiences and all different age types including young and teen audiences as they like listening to music and use the radio for entertainment while the older audiences use it more for surveillance and news. 

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

A,E,H

This is because I believe that it is important to make sure that people are as educated as possible on the environment so that they can make decisions that are beneficial to not just themselves but others around them. Moreover I believe that safeguarding the arts is important as their safety is not guaranteed by the everchanging algorithms and objects of virality in the modern digital age such as AI. Finally I believe it is important to reflect diversity in order to fully and fairly represent all of those who live in the UK but also spread awareness of differences between people in order to remove stigma. 

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

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. We will take into account the outcomes of the review as we shape our future oversight of the BBC, and we will take further measures where needed to ensure that the BBC is delivering for all its audiences.

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

I believe that it can be seen as pricey but overall its the right value for the variety of content that it provides ranging from sports to politics and appeals to the very many tastes of many people.