Global Media News

Radio Life in the UK

The United Kingdom is located within the northwest region of Europe. It is argued as Europe's most influential country with individual countries of England, Scotland and Wales which is also known as Great Britain. Northern Ireland is a distinct region that make up the rest of the United Kingdom.

Radio in the United Kingdom is a lot like radio throughout the world, where the goal is to reach a broad range of audiences, painting pictures for listeners with the latest news and entertainment and music as they go about their everyday lives. According to Radio and Telly, a team in the UK that provides relevant and accurate information to UK consumers, “Radio in the UK started back in the early 1920’s with just one tiny BBC radio station in Chelmsford, Essex. The last 30 years have led to several hundred radio stations, with a huge variety of formats and audiences.”

On media.info, a worldwide site for media contacts, information and analysis, the top five radio stations throughout the UK are BBC Radio 2 with 15.5 million listeners every week, BBC Radio 4 with 10.5 million, BBC Radio 1 with 9.9 million, Heart with 9.0, and Capital FM with 7.5 million listeners. The BBC stands for British Broadcasting Cooperation, and it is one the most respected broadcasting organizations in the United Kingdom.

There are 11 branches of radio within the United Kingdom mentioned by BBC News. BBC making up 8 of those branches. They include, “Radio 1 new music station, Radio 2 adult music station, Radio 3 cultural network, Radio 4 flagship speech station and news and sports on station Five Live. All five make up 1 conglomerate branch.

The second BBC branch is BBC Radio Scotland, third, BBC Radio nan Gaidheal, a Gaelic-language station for Scotland, fourth, BBC Radio Ulster, for Northern Ireland,  and fifth being BBC Radio Wales. The last three are BBC Radio Cymru, for Welsh-language listeners, BBC Asian Network for Asian communities in the UK and lastly, BBC World Service, a major international broadcaster, heard worldwide via shortwave and increasingly on FM relays, which programs in more than 30 languages.”

The other three divisions that make up the 11 branches not under the BBC include, Absolute Radio a national commercial pop and rock station, Talk Sport, a national commercial sports station and Classic FM, a national commercial classical music station.

Just as here in America, the United Kingdom has radio access online for people who are not in cars or have physical radios. You can pull up your favorite station online and listen in live whenever you like. Radio has had a resurgence in popularity, as stated by EJC, the European Journalism Centre. They claim “more than 90 percent of people over 15 years of age which equates to about 46.3 million people, listen at least once a week. However, it is national, rather than local, stations which have increased their popularity.”

 

Banning Music in Mexico

    The musical genre of Narcocorridos uses sousaphones and accordions to provide a pleasant polka-like backdrop for lyrics that sensationalize the exploits of Mexican drug cartels. There has been a surge of violence against young narcocorridos singers in Mexico, resulting in many deaths and injuries. 

    There's a parallel between Narcocorridos and American Gangsta Rap, in that some say the music merely tells a story based off real life violence and crime while others say it feeds the very crime it sings about. As with all controversial music, there is an ongoing debate over whether or not the art promotes acts of gruesome violence or simply provides a narrative to illegal goings on. It's known that some corridos performers have actually accepted money from cartels to write about them, perhaps this is similar to paying for advertisement. Regardless, Mexican authorities have taken upon themselves to make Narcocorridos music illegal in certain parts of the country.

    This brings up obvious concerns of freedom of speech, but the immediate concern is to limit the distribution of the music. Promotion of the genre has been limited in Chihuaha, with any violators facing fines or jail time. Chihuahua is one of several states that is currently facing restrictions in Anti-Corrido legislation. Prohibition of free speech is a problem throughout the world, but this one seems to be in its own category. One of Mexico's biggest problems is drug-cartel-related-violence, and when shootings happen at concerts it's not just the performers whose lives re in danger. Maybe in this case, free speech can be too much of a good thing.

Cartels Target Narco Corridos Singers

 

  Norteno Corridos is a popular genre of music in Mexico. This folk-like poetic music has a history of telling stories and ballads. As drug cartels have come to power in Mexico, an offshoot genre has been created and is known as Narcocorridos; the music still tells stories and ballads, but the music is about the cartels themselves. Narcocorridos's lyrics glorify the drug cartels and their illegal activities, which often take deadly turns. 

    Rogelio Brambila Lizárraga, 22-year old member of a Narcocorridos group known as Los Plebes de Arranke (Above) was found dead in the driver side of a car in March, the victim of gunfire from at least two firearms. Javier Rosas, another narcocorridos singer is in critical condition after being shot six times during another incident in which he found himself under fire from an AK-47.

    The cartels and corridos seem to work together with one another, albeit in a very deadly manner. The songs help as a sort of publicity for drug kingpins, telling of which cartels are the most dangerous and what horrific exploits they're known for; the narcocorridos singers use a traditional Mexican art to gain a fan-base, but their gruesome lyrics maintain that popularity. It's a well known rule of entertainment that many have an attraction to the morbid, to violence, to shocking lyrics. As the death toll in narcocorridos/cartel related violence rises, perhaps these entertainers will think twice about the true price of fame.

Turkey Temporarily Bans Media Coverage

   

This past week has seen a graphic hostage situation in Istanbul. A prosecutor named Mehmet Selim Kiraz had been investigating the death of a boy who had been injured by police during a protest in 2013. When a group known as the Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front took Kiraz hostage, Turkey banned media coverage on the crisis. The situation ended when both the gunmen and the prosecutor were killed.

    Whereas the turnout was very tragic, one must think why the media coverage had been halted. The prime ministry of Turkey says that a ban can be introduced "under circumstances that national security clearly requires or poses possible threats against the public order." It seems that this ban was a tactical decision put in place to try and dissolve the situation and end it as peacefully as possible. In the event the hostage-takers were able to see how authorities were handling the situation, perhaps they'd have been given an advantage. Unfortunately this ban did not help the situation.

    This is not the first time Turkey has imposed a media ban. The country has a notorious history of banning media coverage of certain events. In the past four years, matters of security and politics have both been banned from media coverage. As a matter of fact, there have been over 150 media stiflings in the past four years. In the case of the hostage situation, this seems reasonable. From the looks of things, Turkey has some more media bannings up its sleeve for the future. It begs to question how are they discriminating between these bannings, if they are at all?

Revolutionary Rap in North Africa

    

    Ever since its inception in New York, Hip Hop/Rap has become a voice for the voiceless, speaking out against social injustices. Urban youth were let down by America and created an art form with which to strike back and claim an empowerment that would help their voice span the globe.

    This is the case in North Africa as many rappers have emerged as a result of corrupt politics, conflict, and revolution. Though their lyrics are not in English, their message is clear: "We want change." Revolution has occurred in places like  Tunisia, Egypt, Algeria and Libya, but some artists feel there has not been any change. They've used their lyrics encouraging people to become more politically conscious as well as call out corrupt government officials and institutions. Rap has now become the unofficial soundtrack for revolution.

    Among these rappers is "El Général" who in 2010 released a song called "Rais Le Bled" which translates to "Head of State" in English. The song spoke out against former Tunisian president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. El Général was arrested in 2011 for this track, and released after three days of interrogation. Social media helped his cause as it does many rappers of the region. The track was released on YouTube and was able to circumnavigate the world. This is the case with the majority of North African rappers who don't need to professionally record and produce their music, lest they be censored by the powers that control media distribution. Using Hip Hop and the internet in tandem have made it an unstoppable force, helping these artists to gain international fame. With that fame, comes their message and themes of political consciousness. These rappers have actually been able to develop an American fan base, and visit New York to perform in the home of Hip Hop.

    In some ways, American Hip Hop has devolved from political activism to promoting consumerism, lavish lifestyles, violence, drug use and sexual promiscuity. It's because of this modern mainstream music that Hip Hop is  berated for having an adverse effect on those who listen to it, primarily modern youth; Parents groups will say Hip Hop has no place as an art form, or even as music. They'll say that it influences listeners to act out the lyrics they hear in songs and take after the rappers that sing them. Hopefully in this case, Hip Hop's detractors are correct. If music can influence listeners that much, then perhaps revolutionary lyrics can shake modern day youth out of apathy and into a role of self-empowerment and self-advocacy; to fight for the future they will one day be responsible for.

Korean Pop becoming a world wide music sensation

Korean Pop aka K-Pop is blowing up the music scene, branching out from Korea to all over the world. It consist of upbeat tempos using drum machines and unique vocals. PSY, The Wonder Girls, and the Girls Generation are some of the notable K-Pop musicians. Korean Hip-Hop has also been on the rise since the late 1990's but hasn't able to gain as much popularity as K-Pop.

A famous Hong Kong native is looking to start his own K-Pop band, the one and only Jackie Chan. Famous for his acting career, this movie star is taking his talents to the music industry and forming his own band. The band will be called "DoubleJC," no other details are confirmed yet at this point. Being a big Jackie Chan fan, I will surely follow his band, and listen to the music they make. I think its great that he has branched out from acting in movies, to now producing music. He sure is an idol to the people ofKorea.

I think it is a great that a new style of music is gaining worldwide recognition. I personally am a huge fan of all music, so to hear something new like this is great. I never heard of K-Pop before i saw the video of PSY's "Gangnam Style," but I have listened to some other songs on YouTube and they are very catchy. K-Pop is in fact so popular that it has its own chart on the Billboard for K-Pop Hot 100 Songs. Through the use of other social networks other K-Pop artists can post music for fans too listen ,to help gain more recognition. 

China Blocks Radio Broadcasts from the BBC News?

On Monday February twenty fifth 2013 the China blocked the shortwave broadcast in english  that was coming from BBC News. This not the first time China has tried to limit the information that was coming into the country from the outside world.  

BBC News quoted their director of global news Peter Horrocks

"The BBC strongly condemns this action which is designed to disrupt audience's free access to news and information."

BBC News are on of the leaders in world information. China is doing an injustice to their people by with holding information form their people. 

According to ABC News:

"The jamming of broadcasts in China is being timed to cause maximum disruption." "In the past jamming frequencies was also a tactic used by communist nations to block BBC broadcasts during the Cold War."

For China to start using old tactics to keep outside information from reaching the citizens really shows the extant that they are will to go control the media within the country. The out sourced information is only to benefit the people of China not put down the Chinese government.  

Can British Prosecutors charge Australian DJs with murder?

British prosecutors have decided that Australian radio DJ's Mel Greig and Michael Christian will not be charged with the death of Jacintha Salandha. Salandha, a nurse that was part of a telephone prank at the hospital where Prince Williams wife Katherine, Duchess of Cambridge was being treated, commited suicide after the call.The pair will not be faced with manslaughter, and the Prosecuter office will not be able to extradite them for data protection offences.

 Greig and Christian posing as Queen Elizabeth II, and Prince Charles called the private King Edward VII's Hospital in early December. Salandha, a nurse at the hospital answered the call and transfered it to Duchess room where another employee gave them information on her condition.

 

According to CNN.com Malcolm Mchaffie, deputy head of special crime at the Crown Prosecution Service said in an email statement:

"Having carefully reviewed the evidence currently available, we have concluded that there is no evidence to support a charge of manslaughter."

He also added,

‘‘However misguided, the telephone call was intended as a harmless prank. The consequences in this case were very sad. We send our sincere condolences to Jacintha Saldanha’s family.’’

The Austereo radio network has taken action and decided to take both Greig and Christian off the air waves permanenty.  Along with this the network decided to suspend all prank calls by its stations and pledged at least $500,000 to Saldanha family. The former radio DJs also made a tearful apology on TV.

Tech News Podcasts

 WNYC has launched a new radio show  that delivers tech news with a local twist:  New Tech City.  This blog and podcast cover how the digital revolution is changing life and work in the Big Apple.   It'a a great source for news and story ideas as well as a model for how to deliver a radio/podcast news story in a tight well produced segment.   Each segment is a little over eight minutes long.  A link has been added to the sidebar so that you can use New Tech City as a source for your research and as a model for podcasting.

Here's a list of some other worthy tech media for your consideration:

All Tech Considered - NPR

PRI - The World -Technology

Popcasts - Pop! Tech

Scientific American's 60 Second Tech

America loses an icon

Anybody who has watched television or listened to the radio in the last 55 years probably knows the name Dick Clark. Most recently, Clark has been known for hosting New Year's Rocking Eve. On April 18th Dick Clark died of a heart attack at 82 years old.

Dick Clark's New Year's Rocking Eve aired on ABC every New Year's Eve from 1973 to 2003. In December of 2004. Ryan Seacrest filled in for Clark in 2004, and the annual special broadcast was called Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin Eve with Ryan Seacrest. In 2005 he officially retired from hosting the New Year's Rocking Eve, naming Seacrest as his replacement, although Clark continued to make annual appearances on the show.

"I learned a great deal from him, and I'll always be indebted to him for his faith and support of me," Seacrest wrote in a statement. "He was a remarkable host and businessman and left a rich legacy to television audiences around the world. We will all miss him." Indeed Dick Clark will be missed, not only by his protegee, but also by the several generations who have grown up watching and listening to his many contributions to the world of media.

According to his death certificate, America's oldest teenager "had very minor prostate surgery," less than 24 hours prior to his death. Long time friend of Clark, Congressman David Dreier said, "all of a sudden, he got a feeling in his arm about 9:30 (Wednesday) morning and he was gone by 11:15. It turned out to be a massive heart attack." Clark's health has been in steady decline since his 2004 stroke.

Dick Clark was a staple in American homes since 1956, when he took over hosting the popular variety show, American Band Stand, until it went off the air in 1987. The impact of American Bandstand can not be underrated either culturally or socially. Even though the show diffused some of the more raucous elements of rock 'n' roll music, it helped to solidify the growing youth culture which centered around this phenomenon. But the show was important in another way as well. Once Clark took over the helm of Bandstand in 1956, he insisted on racially integrating the show, since much of the music was performed by black recording artists. When the show moved to the network schedule, it maintained its racially mixed image, thus providing American television broadcasting with its most visible ongoing image of ethnic diversity until the 1970s.

The popularity of American Bandstand helped ABC reach the top of prime time ratings for the first time in the 1970s. Many top-40 acts performed on American Bandstand including; Jerry Lee Lewis, Ike and Tina Turner, The BEach Boys, Stevie Wonder, Simon and Garfunkel, Talking Heads, The Jackson 5, and Run DMC to name a few.

 

Since Clark's passing it has been abundantly clear the magnitude with which he impacted media, FMQB Publisher Kal Rudman considered Clark a close friend and a mentor. He says, "The passing of Dick Clark removes one of the largest foundation stones of the entire pop music industry for the latter half of the 20th century." This sentiment is echoed by all who knew or even knew of Clark and his illustrious career. Many celebrities' have made statements conveying condolences and touching upon the impact Clark had on them professionally and personally. Joyce Chen reported for The New York Daily News that fellow broadcast legend Larry King wrote. "Dick Clark was a great friend, true legend, & a master journalist, nobody did what he did better. It was a pleasure to be in his company." Rapper Snoop Dogg even Tweeted "REST IN PEACE to the DICK CLARK!! U were a pioneer n a good man!! Thank u sir."

"The Times Square Alliance has set up an area at the Times Square Visitor Center and Museum where fans can share their memories and pay their respects to Clark on its New Year's Eve Confetti Wishing Wall. The messages will be added to the one ton of confetti that will fall on New Year's Eve revelers in Times Square in 2013."

Camille Mann reported on CBS.com, there will also be a permanent memorial to Clark dedicated at Times Square, according to Ben Mevorach, the News and Programming Director of 1010 Wins. It is quite suiting That Dick Clark be memorialized where he has already been immortalized.

Clark was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Hall of Fame and won numerous Emmys over the years. He is survived by his third wife, Kari, as well as two sons and a daughter.