The Third Wheel: The Relationship between Radio, the Record Companies, and the Government
Working in radio this summer, I came to realize that no one in the general public knows what REALLY goes on behind the scenes in radio. I would like to create either a fun DVD or website that will explain how radio works, how the record companies work with radio, and the kinks that new payola regulations have thrown in this relationship.
I'd like to set it up as following:
- a diagnostic quiz to figure out what, if anything the user knows.
- an explanation of what payola is. a definition, history, and the current regulations
- a choice of whether to act as a record company or a radio station manager. the record company view will allow the user to act as a record company in dealing with radio, and learning about that relationship. the radio will act as the radio and view the relationship from the opposite perspective. throughout this exploration examples of radio/record company interaction will pop up, allowing the user to learn what to do. for instance, a box of CDs will appear in the radio office, and you will have to log them in the system in order to continue.
- finally, a quiz with consequences. if you pass, you'll get a raise, and if you fail, you'll get fined!
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5 comments:
This sounds really interesting!
I actually found an old book at NYU that has all these essays from the 1930's. It's hilarious because they're extremely technology nervous about "the effects of radio on opera!" There's also a lot of social commentary about radio.
If you'd like I could e-mail you the book's title and info?
this is really intriguing since, I confess, I don't really know what goes on in radio
I'm really interested in the whole "you can either be a record company or radio manager" experiential aspect. I guess I want to know is how exactly you're going to go about doing it. Is it going to be using like Flash avatars?
I like the set up of your thesis, especially how you're designing it to make it fully interactive. It would be cool if you could have "radio callers" who ask you to complete certain tasks, or need tough questions about the industry answered-- this could take you into a short mc quiz or something. Are you trying to argue a point about the record company/ radio station relationship, or are you simply describing it?
this is really great! i agree radio doesn't get enough attention, and it would be awesome for people to be able to see what goes on behind the scenes. it could go either way with the DVD or website, both would be excellent - i think if you're going to use it as an educational tool, a website might be better, though.
The more I think about it, the more exciting it sounds! I love how it seems to use a game to teach the user about the radio industry.
I think a website would be much better for this project, partially because it would make it a lot easier to get the word out, and partially because it would allow it to be dynamically updated, instead of having a static copy that wouldn't be able to be easily revised.
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