R15 - Radio Newscast Analysis

Radio Newscast Analysis

The news cast starts off by a news presenter called ‘Emma’ introducing the radio station and what time it is. She says “Sky news centre at 10” which already shows us that this isn’t a local radio station therefore the news can be national. The first news story introduced is about David Cameron ensuring that if people vote for conservatives, you’ll be able to see your family doctor 7 days a week by 2020 as this will ease pressure on the NHS as well as reduce the waiting times even though this will be costing around £400 million per year. A voice insert is then added to the radio newscast of a GP named Ellie Cannon who disagrees with what the prime minister has to say. She believes the services now are not good enough as people have to wait weeks to see their doctor. In addition, she says there is “no point in talking about Saturday and Sunday until Monday to Friday has been sorted out properly”. This is important to the audience because healthcare is an important thing and since there have been major cutbacks in lots of public sectors like healthcare and the NHS, people will want to know that they can have good healthcare and be looked after when needed to. The news values that cover this story are currency and prominence as this has been an issue for a while now and people will want to know when they can receive their healthcare without any issues from the government.

The next story links onto the theme of healthcare but in contrast to the good news’ David Cameron brings, this story shows negativity as over 200 GP practices are going to be underway for Ofsted like inspections for care quality. Surgeries are going to be put in measures or closed down all around England due to concerns with health regulations. This is effective towards the audience because again, mainly people need healthcare ranging from the elderly/pensioners all the way to new born babies. If local GPs close, people will find it harder to access their rights to healthcare which may become a bigger problem. This also contradicts the previous news cast as David Cameron says he’ll be opening more GPs for a longer amount of time, however is closing down more than 200.

The following story is about Wonga. Their profits have fallen by 53% in the past year and they have to chase customers with fake letters from law firms as they are struggling to repay debts. The news values here are negativity – for those who are joined to Wonga. This may also bring small conflict between the customers and the company as they may feel as if the company are lying to solve their problems.

Furthermore, this news story is about how children as young as 11 are being a victim of revenge porn and only a tiny number of people who are the people posting these pictures are prosecuted. A voice insert is then added of a girl names Hannah Thompson who is also a victim of this by her boyfriend after he posted pictures of her on his blog. This is effective towards the audience, not only because this has continuity as it is always happening but is never really spoken about but the fact that it links to 11 year old children may be a factor of human interest. This may be one of the last news stories because it is only affecting the victim and their family and not the country as a whole therefore may be classed as less important.

The next story is about young children from the age of 3 with tooth decay. Research shows that young children have 3 teeth either missing, filled or decayed. Another voice clip is inserted about a dentist saying the parents must be more responsible for what they feed their children. This is effective because they are directly talking to the parents. The sound code used here is speech which is effective because without a person of authority telling them, people tend to not do as much than when they are being told. This can cause more of a change than just as a news story without a voice insert.

Lastly the news story is about the lack of rainfall we’ve had this September as we have only received 20% of what we’d normally expect. I believe that this links to oddity as this is unexpected for the UK as a whole let alone England as rain is something we get on a daily basis even if it is summer. The conventions given here are data which is expected when being given a fact. The 19.4mm of rainfall can appeal to the scientific side of the audience or the geographers therefore showing that the news casts can relate to different people as well as appeal to them.

Overall not many sound codes were used. It was mainly speech which was still effective enough to provide us with information. Most of the news values used are negativity however some news stories were positive.