Wednesday, October 22, 2014
Week 7 - International Radio
This is the place for you to post your review of your 2 week listening experience to a radio station from a different country.
As mentioned a fortnight ago:
What am I looking for? What are the immediate differences you notice between this station and the one you listen to most regularly at home? What are the types of news pieces making headlines? What is the focus of these pieces? Is it to be on the alert / be on guard / is there an imminent threat, a pending strike or action, or are they more soft news pieces (i.e. cat fashion / water skiing squirrels)? In what order does the severity of the news piece get presented? Where is the focus? What countries / continents seem to be the focus? (i.e. England, France, China, U.S.A.?) Another interesting aspect will be to listen to how the terrorist acts in Ottawa are presented - or perhaps they aren't mentioned.
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This is my weekly post…
ReplyDeleteFor the past 2 weeks I have been tuning in to CM in Scotland. It was very interesting to see the differences between American music and Scottish music. I was expecting a bigger difference than there actually was. They played a lot of the Adult contemporary and pop music many listen to here, with a low percentage of foreign music. To compare it to a Barrie station I would compare it to CHAY FM, they play older music with a mix of some new stuff. I had a hard time finding any stations in the area that play what I like, country music & talk radio. This station focuses on local news a lot and they tend to not report on things happening outside the region. I managed to listen to the 4 and 5 o’clock news casts on Wednesday, the day of the Ottawa shootings and they were covering it. However it was different from here because the entire news cast here was all about the shooting, while this station quickly jumped to more local news.
They tend to have fairly soft newscasts, not a lot of violence in that region from what I can tell. However in the few stories that did contain a violent offence seemed to be at the start of the news cast. Overall I was fairly disappointed with the station in general, they didn’t play the music I wanted to hear, which is not a big deal but they also didn’t talk about issues during breaks in the music. They pulled the typical radio tactics like telling you about something they will talk about in 10 minutes and leave you hanging. The things they talked about like celebrities and entertainment news didn’t appeal to me and I wish they talked about sports more often.
Central FM website: http://www.centralfm.co.uk/
DeleteThis week I have chosen to listen to the Malaga Coastline FM radio station in Spain. Immediately, I notice the striking similarity in what music they listen to. It seems to be a mixture of all the local radio stations here, combining top 40, rock and roll, country, etc… all onto one station, which makes for a very odd combination, perhaps they have a very broad taste in music.
ReplyDeleteMoving on to the news and the way in which it is delivered. The news in Malaga focuses more on the gossip aspect on news, that is to say they talk about subjects focused more or less on celebrities, as well as things the listeners can relate to (i.e. traffic jams or things they relate to in the workplace). There was rarely any mention of actual world issue news regarding the Islamic State or other issues, as well as no mentioning of the shootings in Ottawa.
The radio in Malaga Spain feels very much like that of a “hit radio station” back home. Where there is a constant flow of advertising followed by pop music. On the hour they talk about the news, however their news is normally local and only issues regarding their country, giving it an inclosing feeling, unaware of what is happening around the world. What shocked me were not the immediate differences, but the immediate similarities between the radio here and overseas. It amazes me how halfway across the world two totally different radio stations are practically the same.
http://streema.com/radios/Coastline_FM_97.6
Weekly post:
ReplyDeleteFor this weeks assignment I chose to pick the country Australia’s radio station. Over the duration of the two weeks I noticed a lot of interesting aspects on Australia’s news and radio culture. In the music world for Australia they have the same type style as we do in Canada, even some of the same music. The radio station I tuned into was called triple J. They play current house music, EDM, indie alternative and folk music. The radio station I would compare triple J to is Z103.5 because they both display a wide variety of music. Some differences between the two are stations are triple J broadcasts a wide variety of news from sports to current events happening around the world. Triple J broadcasts their news the same way in which we do, in the morning, lunch and as the workday is ending. This station is more musically inclined than for the news. Australia is 15 hours ahead of Canada. I found that the best times to listen in was Friday mornings because you got to take in how the Australia nightlife is experienced. For their partying lifestyle they fairly listen to EDM music. The EDM music is similar to ours but like anything it has its own feel to it. For all of the news I listened to I tuned in just after dinner so I could get the morning news.
For the news aspect of this I listened to Steve Chase who talked about all the current events that occurred all the around the world. On Friday October 24th 2014 when the tragic event happened in Ottawa Steve Chase spoke to Senior Political Correspondent at Radio Canada, Manon Globensky, to discuss that occurred in Ottawa. They discussed the event itself and how if affected all of the people of Ottawa and how everyone is copping to it all. As for other news they discussed Ebola a lot, they mainly focused on a story that just broke through that an 18-year-old girl tested positive for Ebola. It was discussed that it is extremely low to get Ebola living in Australia due to the fact that they have a good system at the boarder the catch people who are not well. A few other important pieces of information that the Australian news touched on was on Indonesia president has appointed their first foreign minister for their country. The Australian news covers a wide variety of news, from sports to a missing person’s cases to the Ottawa shooting. It has a wide variety of the information and was very knowledgeable to tune into to.
The past two weeks tuning into Triple J and the news station of Australia was highly interesting and very eye open to see some differences and similarities between Australia and Canada.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/australia/?WT.z_navMenu=abcNavNews&WT.z_srcSite=local&WT.z_linkName=Australia
http://www.abc.net.au/radio/player/beta/#live/triplej
http://www.abc.net.au/newsradio/listen/
Weekly post;
ReplyDeleteFor the past two weeks I have listened to a college radio station based in Missoula Montana. In choosing this station I looked for one that wasn’t affiliated with a religion so as not to pigeonhole Montana radio and unknowingly picked the station for the University of Montana. After listening for multiple days at multiple times I was very surprised with my findings.
The music this station plays is extremely alternative and does not have one song of the top forty in America but was mostly indie bands that rang from hip hop to metal and changes almost with every segment. As to be expected with college radio it is request based especially at night.
The news this station features is mostly regional and focuses on the university but they do have segments dedicated to international news and music. These did have some analysis on events but are mostly just facts from major news sources. KBGA focuses mainly on city and school events and has a very inclusive democratic feel with programs from the Women's Center to The African Connection and Democracy Now. Although I did not get to listen the day of the Ottawa shootings only a recap of known facts were mentioned in the daily news show and they moved on quickly. I would say they have a very American view and by the way the news is delivered -taken from common news sources and without major opinion one way or another- this radio station does not have real influence from government or sponsoring companies.
I quickly looked at other stations in Montana to see if this was just an off the beat station (even if it is the voice of the university) or something larger in the state and found mostly pop-culture based stations which played the hits or religious affiliated stations which played country. It is notable to mention this station also gets very spiritual/deep/metaphysical at night and didn't have a nightlife feel to it.
I was sad to learn this was a very indie station that didn't fully represent the people of Montana or Northern U.S. media but enjoyed their interesting discussions- even if they did sometimes give me chills at 12pm- and found some good music. This would be a radio station I would listen to in my own time if I wanted good music and interesting discussion topics.
http://kbga.org/wp/
DeleteI listened to RIA Novosti radio, which is predominately news focussed Russian station. It has a variety of shows which range from music, to sports, to business. Most of the stories are either Russian or US focussed, with the exception of the recent focus on the Ukrainian election, which will influence Russia’s actions in the region. The US stories are quite critical of the west and often question motives far more than I am accustomed to from western media. At one point there was an entire segment dedicated to Obama’s falling approval rating, and attributed it to his “inefficiency”. They also claimed that Obama was strongly criticised at home for military failure and weak display of global leadership after US airstrikes failed to stop ISIS attacks. Russian stories on the other hand have a habit of spinning negatives into positives. In western media we are taught that Russia’s economy is failing. According to this Russian station, Russian shares are being “scooped up” by investors, implying that their economy is on the right path. Russian media essentially portrays America the same way that our media portrays Russia, even referring to “totalitarian actions that have been going on for years” when discussing raw milk regulations. Listening to Russian media has actually made me question which source is more biased. Both regions of the world are extremely critical of the other while praising their own actions.
ReplyDeletehttp://en.ria.ru/radio/
This is my weekly post
ReplyDeleteThese past two weeks, I have been listening to 987 FM, a pop radio station based in Singapore. I picked this station because I know very little about Singapore, and was curious about how our culture differs from theirs. Most airtime is used for playing music, rather than for discussion.
One of the first things I noticed was how similar the music is to the music that is played in Canada. When I chose the station, I was expecting to hear more pop music out of Asia. Instead, the music that I heard was almost exclusively pop from the US, the UK, and other English-speaking countries.
The station also features hourly news updates. Most of the news that is presented is from Asia, but stories that make headlines worldwide are mentioned, such as developments in the Ebola outbreak. I didn’t listen to the station immediately following the events in Ottawa, but in the days following attack, Ottawa was never mentioned. Overall, the news segment had a somewhat serious tone; celebrity news was never discussed.
Like Canadian radio stations, listeners are able to call in and request songs. There are also contests and games that listeners are able to participate in.
Overall, I noticed almost no differences between this Singapore-based radio station and the Canadian radio stations that we listen to everyday. There was practically no difference in the music that was played; the only real difference was the focus on Asia in the news updates. These similarities really surprised me; it is intriguing that two countries can be so far apart, yet have so much in common.
http://liveradio.mediacorp.sg/meradio/public/xinmsn/player/?station=987fm
DeleteThis is my weekly post
ReplyDeleteThis week I listened to BBC Radio in London England. To be specific I tuned in to 2 different stations which were, BBC 5 Live and BBC 6. BBC 5 Live focused primarily around Sports and News. BBC 6 is a Music focused station. I immediately noticed the English accents not only from the DJ, but the music artists also. I was actually surprised by the artists accents because I've known most English artists to lose there accents through singing. The genres they play are very similar like pop, rock, classic rock, hip hop, but there was a lot more oldies played compared to here. I recognized many songs from North America, but there were a lot more that I had never heard.
On BBC 5 Live there was a significant increase in commercials compared to BBC 6, but compared to local stations like B101 or Rock 95 it was about the same amount. The commercial content was also correlative with our stations with subjects like; local car dealerships, flooring and furnishing companies, and government paid commercials that encouraged safe rides home from a night out, or health concerns for older people.
The most discussed topic on BBC 5 was football, whether it be England ,South Africa or Spain, they found no trouble when discussing football. When the topic shifted from sports to news, the discussions were most of the time about North America. The Ebola "crisis" in the U.S. was a hot topic as well as the Ottawa shootings. The difference i noticed with the news is that there would be some discussion of South Africa and North America. Being that so much has happened in North America that almost the entire world is discussing it, my judgement for how often North America is regularly talked about is clouded. When North America was not being discussed, the main "local" interest seemed to be economics and politics which truly didn't surprise me since Canada and England are parallel to each other in so many ways.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/player/bbc_6music
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/player/bbc_radio_five_live
Hannah's post:
ReplyDeleteThe station that I chose for this project is the Amsterdam Trance Radio Station, to get a better understanding of the re-birth of electronic music that is going on all across the world. This station is specifically for electronic dance music and talks about the music industry as its prime focus of news. This station covers news stories like music festivals and up-and-coming artists, such as the Kuala Lumpur Jazz Festival that is currently taking place. The station mentions to the viewers of albums and EP's being released by electronic artists as well. On a more serious note, this station stays on it's music-culture trend, but talks about Cee Lo Green's allegations for furnishing a woman with ecstasy and the rape accusations that follow it. When they speak of these issues, the hosts gives you the information in a non-biased way, so I don't feel like I'm being swayed in any direction in terms of my opinion on the issue. Also, this radio station has significantly less commercials than what I'm used to hearing here in Canada. I was listening for at least 2 hours without any commercials. This radio station is best for people who are looking to hear simply electronic music and hear news that's primarily music-related.
weekly post...
ReplyDeleteThe radio station i found and have listened to is KIIS 106.5 of Sydney, Australia. The radio station is very similar to B101.1 in Barrie, same music and overall style. One of the first differences I picked up on was the advertisement/commercials. This may sound weird or not sure how to explain it but they sounded to be like TV commercials more so then radio commercials. Just the sound of them, seemed to be trying to sell more things as an actual product.
They had a talk show where they talked about random things going on, more on the funny side with little skits. Talked about some issues locally. I am not sure if they talked about the Ottawa incident or not, didn't hear anything on it though but they have talked about international issues before. One thing they did late last week on friday they started mentioning things about a local girl missing. Before every couple of songs they would mention a girl was missing with information.
The music itself was all pretty much the same as what we were hearing here but had a couple songs I hadn't heard before. Overall I liked the station, it was good to listen too and enjoyed it. The music was good and the hosts were funny and talked very well.
http://streema.com/radios/play/343
DeleteWeekly post.
ReplyDeleteI listened to Hanoi, Vietnam's English-language station, "Voice of Vietnam". There were many key differences I found between this station and ones I listen to here that are exemplary of the difference in Government and social structure of our two countries.
First of all, in the English-language station, there was almost no fluff pieces. Almost all of what I listened to was hard news; not one story on cute cats or babies. I believe this is mostly due to the seriousness of station I chose. It reported mostly national and international hard news.
The music I hear was, evidently, all Vietnamese. This makes sense to me for many reasons. When we listen to radio, there aren't any Vietnamese songs playing. So why should they listen to our music? As well as that, Vietnam is one of the few communist countries in this world. I assume they do not want Western culture leaking into their system on the radio.
Listening to the news was definitely the most telling part of Vietnamese society though. I noticed how strongly the Government influenced the media, often making Vietnamese government and society sounds superior to that of North America or Europe. This is quite different to how our media is run, as all opinions are usually shown in our media (especially pertaining to government). Most of their news was centred around Vietnam and China, which is obviously due to their relatively close geography, but also I think due to their shared socialist government and beliefs. North American countries were mentioned very scarcely if at all. In fact, I found that most of the time the topics of Canada and the U.S. were largely avoided. When they were, it was usually slanderous. For example, the only time I heard
Canada mentioned was during the Ottawa shootings. The host gave a brief relay of events, and then said how it was Canada's fault that we were a target of terrorism due to our involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan. This was greatly juxtaposed with the news I was receiving here, which largely put the blame on the terrorists and their extremist beliefs. Vietnam's take on the shooting angered me a bit at first, but then I realized how maybe my government was influencing my media in the same way- I was instantly lead to believe something solely based on the news given to me. This shows the immense power of media and how it shapes cultural beliefs, even in Canada.
Overall, although I could live happily without ever listening to V-pop again, listening to the Hanoi radio station was a very eyeopening experience. It has mostly taught me to be critical about what it is I'm being made to listen to, and how these opinions aren't the only ones in the world. I am very interested in what everyone else has found out about their countries/ radio stations in the previous week as well!
Station used- http://vovworld.vn/