Semester 1 of my second year at uni has now finished, and I’m now home for the 4 week Christmas break.
Each year there are 2 semesters, both 12 weeks long, so the fact that I am half way through my second year means I am now half way through my time at uni. That’s a scary thought.
Particularly over the last month, there has been no shortage of work. In the last week alone I’ve handed in a 20 minute radio show to for assessment, and a 3000 word essay on music radio. Writing all those words meant that I didn’t have much time for anything else!
Earlier in the semester, I had a 2000 word essay to write. It was all about how radio stations attract and retain audiences. I used BBC Radio 3 as my case study, looking partly at their Breakfast Show.
I got the marks back earlier this week, and I have to say that I was quite pleased with my mark of 71% (a first). Quite how I got that mark, and similar marks in my first year assignments, I don’t know. I don’t think of myself as being very academic. I’m just someone who has a love of radio.
This year I am planning to upload all my university essays – but only once they’ve been marked by the lecturer. There’s 2 reasons for me doing this: one, so that I can find them again in the future, and secondly, in case they may be of use to future Radio Production students working on similart assignments.
So: if you want to read the essay that got me that mark, I’ve uploaded it here in PDF format.
Next semester, ‘Radio Magazine’, ‘Interviewing for Radio’ and ‘Radio Advertising’ are just 3 of the modules we’ll be studying. Looking forward to those.
For now though, I’m at home for 4 weeks. Tone Radio has closed down for Christmas as well. I’ll be doing some special programmes for MixCloud though. Otherwise, I’m going to sit back, relax, watch my Wallander DVD box set, and listen to the radio (not all at the same time though).
I’ll write again soon,
FH.
