Representation (News Presenters)

In this post I am going to be looking at how presenters on the radio come across to the audience. I am going to be looking at  how news stories are presented by news presenters in news bulletins, choosing two very different radio stations. I will be listening out for the age, gender, language, register, tone of voice and interaction with other presenters, to help with the scripting of my own news bulletin.

The first radio station news bulletin I looked at was Kiss. The presenter was a young female and she spoke in a relaxed voice, at a fairly fast speed. She used informal language. An example of this is when she was introduced by the show presenters and she answered "cheers guys".

The second radio station news bulletin I listened to was Radio 4. The presenter was an older male and he spoke very slowly using formal language. He also spoke very clearly.

Representation is very important on a radio station as after listening to the two completely different radio station news bulletins I discovered that the way the stories are presented play a main role in indicating who the target audiences is. For example, the fact that the news presenter on Kiss is young and used colloquial language suggests that the radio station is directed at a younger audience whereas on Radio 4 the presenter is older and the news is presented in a more formal way, which suggests that station is directed at an older demographic (something that was supported by the types of news stories on the bulletins).