Radio and Television Programmes
Senior 6 · English (Languages)
Radio and Television Programmes
Lesson 4 of 4
35 min
Let's begin
A radio play has no scenery, no costumes and no faces, and yet listeners can see it vividly. That is why radio drama is often called "the theatre of the mind". Television drama has pictures, but the camera decides exactly what we see and how close we stand. This lesson studies how each medium tells a story, looks at a radio drama that has shaped public life in Rwanda, and turns the same scene into a radio script and a television script.
Since 2004, Rwandans have followed Musekeweya ("New Dawn"), a radio soap opera produced by the Dutch non-governmental organisation Radio La Benevolencija with Rwandan writers and actors. It tells the story of two imagined villages on facing hills, with a history of conflict between them, and of the slow, difficult work of reconciliation. The programme was designed with psychologists to help listeners recognise how manipulation and violence develop and how communities can resist them.
In a field experiment published in 2009, the psychologist Elizabeth Levy Paluck compared communities that listened to Musekeweya with communities that listened to a different drama. Listening did little to change people's private beliefs, but it changed what they thought was normal in their community, and how they behaved: listeners were more willing to express disagreement openly and to cooperate in solving shared problems. Drama, the study suggests, works less like a lecture and more like a neighbour: it shows us what people like us do.
Definition
Key terms
Written for this lesson.
SCENE 1. A BUS PARK. NIGHT.
SFX: Heavy rain on a tin roof. A bus engine revs, pulls away and fades into the distance.
UWASE: (off, running closer, out of breath) Wait! Wait! (close) Oh no. No, no, no.
SFX: Footsteps on wet gravel, slowing. A small radio plays quietly nearby.
KAGABO: (old, unhurried) That was the last bus to Rubavu, my daughter. You can shout louder, but it won't turn round.
UWASE: Twenty-two forty. The board said twenty-two forty. It's only twenty-two thirty-five!
KAGABO: The board says many things. Come under the roof before the rain finishes you.
SFX: Her footsteps on a wooden step. The rain is suddenly louder, directly overhead.
UWASE: My interview is at eight tomorrow morning. In Rubavu. At eight!
KAGABO: Then you have more than nine hours. That is a long time, for someone who can think.
SFX: A match is struck. The hiss of a small kerosene stove.
KAGABO: Tea first. Then we think.
MUSIC: The programme's theme tune rises, then fades under.
NARRATOR: Will Uwase reach Rubavu in time? Find out next week.
| Technique | Example | What it tells the listener |
|---|---|---|
| Sound effects that set the scene | Rain on a tin roof; an engine fading | Place, weather, and that the bus has gone, all before a word is spoken |
| Microphone perspective | "(off, running closer)", then "(close)" | Uwase moves towards us; we "see" her arrive |
| Dialogue that carries information | "Twenty-two forty. The board said twenty-two forty." | The time and the unfairness: a camera could show a clock, but radio must say it |
| Characters naming places and stakes | "My interview is at eight tomorrow morning. In Rubavu." | The conflict and the deadline |
| Voice and direction | "(old, unhurried)" | Kagabo's age and calm, contrasting with her panic |
| Change in sound | "The rain is suddenly louder, directly overhead." | She is now under the roof, beside him |
| Music and narrator (non-diegetic) | Theme tune; "Find out next week." | The episode is over; a cliffhanger brings listeners back |
On screen, the camera does much of what the dialogue did on radio. Here is the opening as a television script.
EXT. BUS PARK – NIGHT
Heavy rain. EXTREME LONG SHOT: a bus pulls away, its tail lights shrinking into the dark.
LONG SHOT: UWASE (22), soaked, a plastic folder held over her head, runs into frame and stops.
CLOSE-UP: her face as the lights disappear.
MEDIUM SHOT: under a tin roof, KAGABO (70s) sits beside a kerosene stove, watching her.
KAGABO: That was the last one.
The folder over her head hints at the interview before she mentions it; the close-up shows her despair; the wide shot makes her small and alone. Kagabo's line can be shorter than on radio because the picture has already done the work.
Worked example
Choosing shots for meaning
Tip
Writing for radio: the "blind test". Close your eyes and listen to your scene read aloud. Every important fact (where, when, who, what is at stake) must reach you through sound alone. But avoid the opposite fault: characters who describe what they are doing ("I am now picking up the kettle") sound absurd. Use sound effects and natural dialogue instead.
Warning
Ultimate Guide to Camera Shots: Every Shot Size Explained, episode 1 of StudioBinder's The Shot List series (about 13 minutes). It shows each shot size with film examples. Watch the first half and note how the choice of shot changes what the audience feels.
Practice
Further reading
Sources and credits
