Wednesday, 28 January 2026

Work for first and second year students Wednesday 28th January 2026

First year - The radio industry


  • In order to complete these tasks , you will need a BBC Sounds account, so please set one up if you do not have one already. You can set one up by googling 'BBC Sounds' and taking things from there. 
  • Go to the BBC Sounds web portal
  • Many people, especially younger people will access BBC sounds using either the web portal (basically an old fashioned term for website: a 'portal' to other pages, or the BBC Sounds App, which can (and should) be downloaded for free for your phone. This approach is called convergent media, and it brings together different industries to target new audiences. In this case, it means the combination of internet and radio. [MICHAEL VOICE: WRITE THAT DOWN!]
  • These questions may seem a little weird, because you'll be briefly analyzing a website or an app. However, a significant amount of time and money has been devoted to making these as user friendly and enjoyable to use.

Please answer the following questions with screenshots from the site or above, as well as your own bullet point notes


Task 1 - How does BBC Sounds appeal and meet the needs of it's audiences? Make reference to:

  • Thumbnails (the preview images that suggest programme content)
  • Lexis
  • Images
  • Font
  • Colour
  • Hyperlinks (the words or images you click on to access content)
  • Engagement (these are techniques that keep you engaged with the website, and stop you from leaving it. Engagement is a very important concept for online media!)
  • Accessibility (is this website suitable and easy to use for people of different ages and abilities?)
  • Plurality (the ability to appeal and meet the needs of multiple audiences)

Task 2 - How does BBC Sounds meet your needs?

This next task is important, and it's fun. In order to explain how BBC Sounds adopts a pluralistic approach to media production, you are going to find an example of how it meets YOUR needs. You will then refer to this briefly in the exam.

Find a podcast, show, music mix, anything on BBC Sounds that is 'made for you'. Not something you 'sort of' like, something that meets your needs and interests in a specific way. You will need to listen to lots of different things.

Then, make notes on how it appeals to you, and meets your needs.

Using me (Michael) as an example, my perfect show is The New Music Show on BBC Radio 3. It's absolutely crazy! It plays some of the most challenging and experimental music I've heard. It's brilliant, and I can't believe it's played on national radio. Why? Because it meets the need of a very niche audience (experimental music fans). But from a financial perspective, it also encourages me to keep paying the TV licence, as I feel represented.


Task 3 - How does BBC sounds meet someone else's needs?

Final task! Find a podcast you ABSOLUTELY WOULD NEVER LISTEN TO. Listen to it. Sorry. How does this podcast meet the needs of a completely different audience that ISN'T YOU?


IMPORTANT: Next session I will be asking you about your favorite podcast/show on BBC sounds, so make sure, as a bare minimum, you have found something that explicitly appeals to you!



Second year - magazines (adbusters)


For this task, you will be exploring the Adbusters website, and making detailed notes for the following questions. In order to do this efficiently, you should make as many screenshots as possible!

This will involve digging around the website to find explicit examples. There may be 'challenging content', for example strong language.

1 - How does this website establish a target audience? How can this website engage and position an activist audience?

2 - How can audiences use this website to construct their own identity (Gauntlet)?  What examples can you find where audiences can construct a challenging, diverse and DIFFERENT lifestyle?

3 - How does this website provide diverse experiences? What are some things you can see, do, hear on this site which absolutely would not be possible with the physical magazine?

4 - Preferred readings - Find an example of an article that speaks to an anticapitalist, activist audience. How is this reading anchored?

5 - Oppositional readings - With the same example from 4, list some ways that this audience may engage oppositional to this

6 - Controversy, transgression, abjection - find what you consider to be the most controversial aspect of this website. Why would the producers include such a thing??

7- Style and aesthetic - find a particularly 'out there' section of the website, screenshot, and make brief notes on the aesthetic using the textual analysis toolkit

8 - power and profit???? - all media exists to make money. Perhaps Adbusters is no different??? FInd some examples of how this website can achieve additional revenue for the Adbusters Media Foundation1 Hint: what can you buy?