Digital Media - Audio Report  

Áine Reilly, Sam Rickard, Naomi Shofoluwe and Dave Costello told the story of the Supermarket chain Lidl funding state of the art student accommodation only one kilometre away from Dublin City University. We chose to tell this story in the form of a news report focusing on the benefits if has for student life in DCU as well as touching on the issues students are having finding affordable student accommodation. As students this topic is one we can really relate with especially here in DCU where we are continuing to hold protests demanding the government step in and put levies on student accommodation.

Áine took responsibility for creating the script and writing the report. We recorded our scripted pieces individually and came together to upload and edit the news report.

Naomi uploaded the recordings adding sound effects and music to make the report sound like a radio report. She ensured the report was under two minutes and did not include more than 30 seconds of ‘extra’ material. Extra material refers to music and sound effects.

Dave then uploaded all material to our blog.

The script was written in present tense to grab the audience's attention. We added an interview with a DCU student to add variety to the news piece. The use of short paragraphs throughout the piece made it easy to comprehend. Where ever possible the script was written using simple sentences for example ‘Alan Barry, Lidl Property Director says’. We avoided the use of words such as ‘who’ ‘which’ and ‘where’ as they interrupt the flow of the sentence and confuse the listener. As this is a series topic we used a series tone throughout the interview and a professional style.  

This news report tells the promising story of a new student accommodation complex being built. Recently there has been a lot of publicity about the extortionate price rises in student accommodation around the DCU area. This story reassures students that their needs are being catered for. Although this is a news report, the story informs students about information relative to them. The Northern Quarter will be a part of student life when it's complete. The story tells the listener all they need to know about the complex where it's going to be, when construction is planned to start and who is building the complex. Its short and to the point.     

Although our news report concentrated on the positive story of a new purpose-built student complex we felt this could not be reported on without acknowledging the struggles students are facing with massive price hikes in current purpose-built accommodation. DCU students with the help of the DCU student’s union are protesting regularly against the high prices they are paying for accommodation.For this reason, we brought up the price hikes in Shanowen Halls and Shanowen Square.

A radio report has to be kept short and concise, for this reason we split our information into short paragraphs to make it easy for the listener to process. We added an introduction and a name for our radio programme ‘DCU News’, we also used music to introduce and end our programme. We faded our voice into each other as to make the report flow and sound professional. Using audio to tell this story meant the report had to be factual, concise and hooking. Through our short sentences, simple sentences and upbeat music we told this story in a serious, professional tone.