Trip To Media City

This Tuesday our A2 Media class, aswell as the AS Media class went on a trip to media city in Salford. We all participated in a tour of the BBC facilities. It was a really fun, but informative trip, and I personally took a lot from it as it helped me realise what it is like in the media workplace environment. As a student who has applied to various universities for Journalism courses, it was a huge oppotunity and learning curve as I was told about the day to day work, the hours of the job, and the technologies that are used all the time.

The images below are what I took from the first part of the tour. We took a look into BBC radio 6 studio and were told about the technologies used by the radio presenter. My fellow group B member Boj got a little excited by the whole thing and decided to test out what it would be like sitting in a radio presenters chair...










I was quite surprised at the size of the radio studio, it was quite small and I expected it to be a lot larger. However the tour guide informed us that radio studio dont tend to be big, as the technologies are pretty efficient and therefore a large space isnt needed. He then went on to explain, that in fact this studio was quite a large one for a radio studio, mainly beacause radio 6 gets a lot of live bands coming in performing on the station, and so there needs to be room for instruments and recording eqiptment. I personally had never listened to BBC readio 6 before this tour, but it really influenced it to listen top itm and I have tuned in often after the tour, as I was interested in the music. Radio 6 is quite interactive with their audience as anyone can send in their music, and if its good, it might just be played on the station.

After looking as this studio we went to an empty studio, which would be used for Television game shows, such as countdown. I was really amazed by the amounts of cameras and lights on the ceiling. I also learned that, what looks like a solid wall in the backgroud of televison game shows, is actually just a large black curtain that goes around the whole studio.



As you can see its a large and high room, which is of course very bright so that audience at home can see clearly. The tour guide described how it is a very deceiving room, as on camera it may look bigger or smaller than it actuallt is, depending on the lighting and props used.

The next part of the tour was my favourite part. Every morning before sixth form I watch BBC Brekfast, to get informed on the updated news. That morning I did not expect to be standing in the room it is filmed taking pictures, but as you guessed I was...


This was really exciting for me as this is the field of work I want to take part in after university. I learned that there are 5 cameras always set up in this studio, one for the weather and four aimed a the anchors. All around the room, what looks like windows, are actually just large TVs showing slow moving videos or images. The weather that used to be done mainly on a green screen is now done by using these screen. What I found fascinating was that weather reporters dont actually have a planned script of what to say, and also dont have a set amount of time to do their part, and so have to improvise a lot, it depends on the other news and adverts. Fellow group B member Matthew decided to test it out for himself, and see what pressure might be put on you when doing the weather forecast.










The tour ended with a bit of fun, as we took part in a mock news broadcast. The AS students were the ones who volunteered and took part in this. The was extremely interesting and beneficial for me as I went out even more inspired and even more exciting to take part in this field of work, and it has helped me get a better idea of what I will be working like on a day to day basis as a Journalist. I can take the techniques of the BBC and help in influence my further work in this Media course so that I can get the grade I want to push me on, and maybe one day Ill be in one of them studios again, but not participatin in a tour, but working in one!