Radio

Newsbeat CSP

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Media Industries:

  • Newsbeat is produced by the BBC
  • Newsbeat was launched on 10 September 1973
  • Shows the traditional routine of a radio broadcast however it is available online afterwards
  • Newsbeat as a BBC News product with bulletins (summary of news) are broadcast on BBC Radio 1, BBC Radio 1 Xtra and BBC Asian Network
  • Newsbeat won Gold for Best News & Current Affairs Programme at the Radio Academy Awards on 13 May 2013.
  • The funding of BBC Radio through the license fee – Tax
  • The influence of new technology on media industries – Newsbeat as multi–platform media product. eg
  • Website
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • The regulation of the BBC via Ofcom and the governance of the BBC

Media Audiences:

  • The news is specifically tailored to a younger audience (teenagers- early 20s)
  • The BBC’s mission is outlined, the corporation has to provide “impartial, high-quality and distinctive output and services which inform, educate and entertain”.
  • Accessible to the target audience through their informal mode of address, interactive games, and audience participation
  • The BBC has been criticised for “political bias” as they seem to reinforce a more liberal ideology
  • The main fifteen-minute Newsbeat programmes are transmitted live over digital audio broadcast (DAB) frequencies at 12:45 and 17:45 during most weekdays.
  • Presenters talk simply and use shorter words in order for it to make it easier for younger audiences to understand.
  • 84% of their audience is age 12-15 meaning their actual audience is below their target audience

Possible exam questions:

To what extent is the BBC regulated?

Explain how the BBC attract and maintain audiences? You should refer to the CSP of Newsbeat.

Explain how the social, political and cultural contexts of media may influence how audiences may interpret the same media in different ways.

To what extent do media products target audiences by constructing an ideological view of the world?

Knowledge:

  • There was 9 million listeners in the first week of 2022 – shows how they reach a wide audience.
  • They target audiences from ages 15- 20s
  • Their actual audience is in their 30s
  • Plus, although the BBC is neutral, newsbeat covers things that might interest more left-leaning individuals, for instance, LGBT community, or more normalised modern day values.
  • The BBC is funded through tax.
  • The 21:00 bulletin was dropped in 2020 due to COVID- 19 pandemic
  • A satirist and broadcaster called Christopher Morris created a parody of the 1990s style of Newsbeat and called it “Radio 1 Newsbanger” Some of these parodies were actually broadcast on Radio 1, though most featured in the Radio 4 comedy series On the Hour 
  • Women over 21 got the vote in 1928, and the BBC created The Week in Parliament, to help women navigate their early understanding of the world of politics.

My arguement:

Newsbeat have used new technologies in order to keep up and become more accessible to a younger audience.

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