Student Radio Association

CAMPUS CRUNCH

We wanted to produce a one-off special newslink programme at the end of the year. We decided that the credit crunch would be a good topic to cover. although it might seem like an obvious choice as it has been the main story in the news for over a year, most students didnt believe they were affected by it and we wanted to look into whether or not this was true. So we covered the recession in way that students could undersatnd and relate to. 

NUS had done a survey on students and the reccession so we used this as a basis for some facts and figures, but we also did our own investigation into how the recession had affected the union at Leeds Univeristy. We wanted to see how the societys had been affetced and how things like food and drinks prices had been affected but after speaking to the people from mine bar and fruity we decided that would be a better angle to go down as there was a real story there, where the union had been lying to the students. we covered this part of the programme in what we hoped was a unbiased way but which made it clear to the students what we were saying, instead of making it into a package we covered it in the style of a two way. 

They way we presented the programme was chatty but still serious at the relevant places. We wanted students to be able to understand what we were telling them so all the cues and scripts were written in language students could relate to, for example when we spoke about students noticing if they had less money now, we asked it in terms of if they would have to buy one less drink on a night out. We understand the importance of knjowing who are audience were and making everything we did appeal to them.

As often as possible we wanted student voices in the piece so all our case studies and interviewees were students. We found the girl who had stolen by speaking to people about what we were doing and discovered her story. we havent named her to keep her identlty a secret. 

For the content of the rest of the show, we thought about what was going to bother students the most as a result of the recession. We decided that student life itself, as in socialising, was a massive part of uni life so we looked at how this was being affected by the reccession. Also one of the main worries for studnets, especially third years would be what they are going to do after university, so we looked into graduating and what some alternatives were for studnets and also what was the best way for students to make themselves appealing to students. 

We also wanted to offer some advice to students on how to save money and survive the recession so we had top ten tips to cut down your food bill and top ten ways to save money. Both of these were highly produced we wanted them to be quick a fun part of the programme.

We think we got the balance right between serious news stories and lighter part of the programme. We felt this was important as we know it can often be difficult making news enetrtaining enough for students to listen to, therefore we tried to produce the programme so that it gripped students attention whilst remaining a news programme.