Analyzing TV News-
Today in class was the first day that I began to analyse TV news programmes. By doing this, I was starting to work out how to de construct TV news programmes, I find what codes and conventions are used. We watched each TV News programme in segments, which allowed us to note down as many key points as possible, while trying to get our heads around what the code and form were needed for and what a TV news programme consists of.
I would say this task was a great way to start of my research section of my course as I now feel more able in analysing more TV news programmes in more detail.
23rd September
Researching codes and conventions of a TV News Programme-
To get myself started on my research and planning for my A2 Media portfolio, I thought the best thing to do was increase my background knowledge on TV news programmes in general, by analysing a variety of news programmes, specifically focussing on how the different kinds of news programmes used codes and conventions in order to target its audience. Even though my Advanced Portfolio task will be based on local news, I chose to analyse a range of different news programmes, so that I could see the contrasts and similarities between different programmes and allow myself to be exposed to as many codes and conventions as possible.
This research will be performed in order to give me a choice about what I could include/eventually use in my own news story. This will ensure that I create a realistic and so successful media text that emulates the ones that I have analysed.
The first news programme that I analysed was ITV Central News, a local news programme for Birmingham and its surrounding areas. The topic of the news story was about the construction of the new and updated New Street Station. Here is what I discovered:
After annotating that local news story, I came across the same topic, the reconstruction of New Street Station, but this time it was featured in a national news programme. I decided that it would be a good idea would be to analyse that coverage too in order for me to see the contrasts between the two news programmes, dependent on their target audience.
From annotating a local and national news broadcast that featured the same topic, I discovered numerous points;
The similarities of the two news stories include:
1. Starts of in the headroom, in which the news anchor(s) give a brief account of the story
2. Features recognised rhetoric of presentation to include interviews, digital on screen graphics etc.
3. The use of a specific colour palette
4. Variety of cuts and camera angles/movement used
However, the differences between the two news stories would include the different colour palettes used to identify the two different broadcasting institutions and thus creating their own brand identity.
Also, I felt the format and tone for the national news programme was more formal than that of the local news; the BBC national news programme included more facts and figures and talked more about economics. Another point to show that the national news was more formal, is that they only interviewed business owners and an academic lecturer, unlike ITV local news who spoke to business owners and also everyday citizens, through the use of Vox Pops. This gave the general public the opinions of the 'everyday man' to help them to identify with the news going on around them.
In addition, another difference between the two news stories includes the message that was given. The voice over mentioned how the regeneration of New Street Station 'is keeping Birmingham as the second city' along with stating all the jobs that were created; thus, they focus on the benefits. This is because, New Street Station is in Birmingham, therefore it is predominantly local people watching it. These are the people who will benefit from the work.
BBC national news on the other hand, solely focuses on how Birmingham is trying to improve their local economy and trying to compete with London and the South East of England, unlike the local news, who portray that Birmingham are already keeping up with London. It seems like that the BBC news are less sure of the economic benefit of such work, as the correspondent asks, 'Do £1 billion developments like this really make a difference?' This is suggesting to the audience that the development of New Street Station is in fact no answer to balancing the West Midlands' local economy.
28th September
After looking at TV news programmes which sought to attract an adult target audience I also wanted to investigate the TV news programmes whose target audience were children. I wanted to do this in order to research whether in fact any younger children watched TV news or were given the opportunity to. After doing research, I discovered that there were no local programmes for such an audience, therefore I decided to annotate a national TV news programme whose target audience are children aged 7-12.
1st October
5th October
Researching media theories- In class today, we went through briefly what makes a story newsworthy. From this, I had the idea that I should research this in more detail so that my end task will be interesting and worthy of TV news coverage.
This slide-share shows the information which I discovered. From this research, I know that in order to create a successful and realistic media product, it should follow the characteristics in the News Values of Galtung and Ruge, and score relatively high in each of them. This will ensure that my news story is interesting, engaging and is worthy of making the news.
6th October
Researching media theories part 2-
After annotating the various TV news clips, I wanted to understand more about the narrative theories behind their creation. Here are the three theories that I have researched:
- Todorov's Narrative Theory
stories (news stories in this case), follow a pattern that consist of 5 stages:
1. Equilibrium- At the start everyone who are involved are in a content state.
2. Disruption- There is now a disruption or problem that will disrupt the happiness amongst the people.
3. Realisation- At this point, the problem is reconsigned.
4. Restored Order- Here, there is an attempt to restore the disruption.
5. New Equilibrium- Finally there is a restoration for the problem, but this equilibrium is different to the first equilibrium.
I could apply this theory to my news story by unpicking the events of each story as it is relayed by the anchor. People watch the news understanding that there will have been various disruptions. However, the important element that reassures an audience is that there has been some sort of resolution and equilibrium which follows.
- Levi-Strauss' Theory of Binary Oppositions
- Propp's Theory
1. The Hero- someone was restores the equilibrium. In this case of a news story, the hero could be the person who phoned the police or perhaps the victim of the crime.
2. The Villain- the person who caused the disruption (by committing the crime.)
3. The Donor- someone who gives the hero something to help, an example could be a phone to make the phone call to the police or a piece of advice which could be telling the hero to ring the police.
4. The Dispatcher- the person who helped the hero physically, so the dispatcher could be help to restrain or apprehend the villain e.g. Police or even other people.
5. The Helper- another person who again helps the hero in restoring equilibrium e.g Police or other services.
6. The False Hero- someone who deceives the hero.
7. The Princess' Father- The person who offers the reward, for example the family of a missing pet.
8. The Princess- the reward which is given to the hero.
25th October
Audience research-
Today, I created a Local TV News questionnaire in order to find out for myself as much information about who my target audience are. I wanted to find out what part of a local TV News programme they were particular keen on, so I could take this into consideration when constructing my own news programme in a few months time.
I used this questionnaire to enquire about whether the younger generation (under the age of 18) take a particular interest in Local TV News. I gave the questionnaire, that is featured below, out to my vertical tutor group which contains a range of year groups as well as two form tutors. In addition, I gave it out to my subject teachers.
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Create your own user feedback survey
- Barthes' Enigma Theory
25th October
Audience research-
Today, I created a Local TV News questionnaire in order to find out for myself as much information about who my target audience are. I wanted to find out what part of a local TV News programme they were particular keen on, so I could take this into consideration when constructing my own news programme in a few months time.
I used this questionnaire to enquire about whether the younger generation (under the age of 18) take a particular interest in Local TV News. I gave the questionnaire, that is featured below, out to my vertical tutor group which contains a range of year groups as well as two form tutors. In addition, I gave it out to my subject teachers.
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Create your own user feedback survey
To prove my primary research, I took images of members of my vertical form group and my form tutors filling out their questionnaires. Instead of just uploading them images straight up on my blog, I decided that a more creative way would be to install the Flipagram app and create a video of all my collected images, along with a soundtrack.
After looking at the completed questionnaires, I decided that the best thing to do was to break them down into sections so that I could consume the information. This way I could focus on each section when it comes to creating my own Local TV News package.
Using Edexcel I created a range of graphs some of the questions which were featured on my questionnaire/
From completing the graph featured above, I felt that I had no insight into who exactly are my target audience, therefore I felt I needed to continue this question on by connecting it with each person's age.
This is the finished result. I can clearly see here the people who watch Local TV News either daily or frequently. From this pie chart, I can see that the majority age group who watches Local TV News daily or frequently is the 41-50 group. In fact there is a noticeable pattern, the older the age group get, the more of them who will be watching Local TV News. Take note that no one in the '51-60', '61-64' and the '65+' filled out my questionnaire, so I removed them from my data as it would of created inadequate results.
Resulting from this data, I now know that my target audience will be that of an older age and therefore I will have to ensure that my Local TV News is:
- Formal
- Contains suitable stories in which young adults/adults will be interested in
- To the point
- Simple (not too fancy)
I know wanted to know is there any specific gender that watches local TV News, and if so which gender would that be.
Here is the proportion of people of whom participated in my questionnaire.
There was 12 females and 11 males, so I will take that into consideration when I separate how often each individual gender watches TV news.
Here are the two graphs showing just that. As you can see there is minimal difference in how often they watch local TV news is comparison to what gender they are. My conclusion from this section of my questionnaire is that gender really doesn't have an input into if or if not they watch local TV news.
From that, I can take into consdierateion when creating my news package that it shouldn't be 'girly' or masculine, just neutral.
Here I looked at the reasons why the people who answered my questionnaire watched either local or national news.
I'm more concentrated on the blue speech bubbles as they represent what individuals have to say on why they watch local TV news.
I can see from this feedback that the people like to watch local TV news in order to find out what's happening in their community.
Finding out about people my age and their views towards Local TV news-
1st November
Researching Title Sequences-
Today in lesson, I research a variety of local TV News title sequences in order to allow myself to get a good idea of all the different components that I should include in my own title sequence.
15th November
Drafting up my own title sequence-
In order for us to get our own ideas about the ingredients of a title sequence for a news programme, we looked at a variety of title sequences from the BBC and ITV. After doing so, on Microsoft Word, we created a storyboard, which featured a selection of images that would be included in our title sequence, along with their camera angle and transition. The images which we decided upon covered the variety of local districts:
1. Rural area
2. Urban area
3. Areas to show ethic diversity
4. Iconic landmarks
This wide range of images are needed for the title sequence in order to create an impact on the wide range of people that watch local TV news in the region; we wished to give them a sense of belonging and contextualise the programme and the news stories featured. To achieve this, I decided to exemplify the rural area with an image of Cannon Hill Park (shot 1.) Moving on to Urban area, I decided to use the images of the canals with the apartments on the riverbank as it is aesthetically pleasing and covers both rural and urban areas in a sense. It also suggests the wide and varied transport links that exist in the West Midlands, some of which are steeped in history.
In order for me to show ethic diversity in my draft title sequence, I featured images of China Town which is also a well known landmark in Birmingham. I also chose an image for a local school to further exemplify the ethnic diversity that is apparent in many school classrooms. Finally, other landmarks which I included were those inside the Bullring Shopping Centre and the Birmingham Central Library.
8th December
Researching TV News logos and creating drafts of my own-
Today, in class, we were set the task of researching a variety of different TV News logos in order to understand the purpose and use of TV news logos. TV news logos are iconic and for me to emulate this, I need to use specific colours, a clear font and have a clear institution. This is evident from the logos below:
Here are a few examples of TV news logos that I annotated. As you can see they are very simple with a small colour palette. In addition, you can see that they are not long and complex and just contain a few letters. The most detailed logo here is CBS News due to the fact that it features the eye symbol which is clear and in keeping with the news reporter keeping 'an eye on' and keeping us informed of the news around us.
No title - Kizoa Video Editor - Movie Maker
12th December
Creating my chosen logo-
After creating my own drafts for the logo of my Local TV News logo, I finally decided upon one design. I then created that design in Photoshop.
I chose my final colour palette for my logo as blue and silver are both colours which are associated with Birmingham, as the Bullring is made form these 2 colours. I then decided that the black complimented these colours, making it even more aesthetically pleasing.
To finish off my logo, I found a silhouette of a train on the internet, and again by using Photoshop, I made the whole colour of it black, so that it would fit well with my colour palette. My reasoning behind the train, which underlines my logo, is because the West Midlands are heavily associated with trains as that network is extend in the region.
This is my final logo completed in Photoshop:
Contacting a local TV News programme provider-
Today in class, we discussed as a group the fact that we didn't really have a lot of first hand experience when it came to local TV News; many of us are not really avid viewers and are not really the average demographic. This was obviously going to be a stumbling block for us, therefore we decided to do something about it. We wrote down our queries and questions about local TV News and emailed them to various local TV news stations in the West Midlands, in a bid to get some much needed advice.
Big Centre TV are a local TV station that are situated in Walsall. It's TV programme delivers to Birmingham and its surrounding areas on Freeview Channel 8.
Below you can see the email that my Media teacher sent to a video journalist, Lois, who works at Big Centre TV.
6th January
Annotating the response-
The response that we received was fantastic; Big Centre's news reporter Bob Hall was filmed answering a few of our pondering questions.
Below you can view the response:
The following is a what I learned from a handful of Bob Hall's responses:
'What techniques do you use to gain the audiences' attention?'
Bob stated quite that simply that, "its not what you say, but how you say it". This short but simple line spoke volumes to me. This means that the anchor of the TV News programme could be describing the most compelling story ever, but if they are presenting in a monotone voice, than the audience will become bored and disengaged. Tone of voice is key when presenting a TV News programme, as well as having to sound authoritative and trustworthy.
'Is it difficult to keep unbiased about a story if you personally feel strongly about it?'
From this, not only did we get the answers that we were looking for, but we also got another feel for what a local TV news studio looks like, similar to our experience of visiting the location of the BBC Local News Studio.
In the response, Bob made it clear that even if you feel like you have a strong opinion about a topic, as a presenter you must ensure that this does not come through when you are delivering the story; at all times the presenter must remain neutral.
'How do you construct your news programme to satisfy your target audience?'
Bob started off his response to this question by defining his target audience; "predominantly it is an older audience"..."the under 10s won't watch any news programmes, 11-15 maybe 1 or 2 will be interested."
We can deduce from this that Bob has got a good rounding off who will be watching his news programme- this is something that I will need to take into consideration when it comes to writing my TV news story script and the language that I will have to feature in it. As my target audience is going to be the same as Bob Hall's, I know that I should be using mature vocabulary in a formal tone as the majority of my target audience are the older generation; however I must ensure that my tone is still friendly and welcoming- it should vary on which news story that the presenter will be elaborating on.
Bob then continues to say "you will always know what the big stories are", so these are the news stories that are most definitely going to be featured in his news bulletin as these stories will be the ones that are the 'hard stories' and consequently, score most points on the Galtung and Ruge's system of newsworthiness.
8th January-
Researching a range of Soft and Hard Stories-
Today, I used my A2 media twitter account ' https://twitter.com/lorettaA2media ', to look at some Local TV News twitter accounts.
Soft stories:
This soft story is based on members of the local community losing jobs. This covers 'meaningfulness' in Audience Identification as this story could be a situation that has effected the audience, if these news story covers the jobs they've lost, or either that they've just recently lost their own job and they will understand the impact that it will have. This story also covers values in the Impact guideline, such as threshold as it will have a big impact on the individuals involved, as well as the local area.
This news story shows kindness in the community, which could be argued that it covers the value 'unexpectedness' in the Impact guideline as it is rare that in this kind of public act occurs alot. It is also an event in which the community would need to be aware of to give it publicity.
Hard Stories:
This story covers 'continuity' in the category of Pragmatics of Media Coverage. This is because this part of the story is a continuation of the stabbing of the victim, which had already been covered by the TV News. This part of the story is identifying the killer of the case, whom used to be unknown.
This story covers 'negativity' in the guideline Impact, as this news story is about a death. Of which this death was of a famous band, therefore the story will also cover 'reference to elite person' in the category Audience Identification.
12th January
Deciding my soft story-
After doing my research on the types of stories that are featured on local TV news programmes and looking at tweets of local TV News providers, I felt like that I could draw up some of my ideas for a soft story.
Below is the mindmap I created including drafts which I thought would be a good idea for a soft news story.
Deciding my hard story-
After doing my research on the types of stories that are featured on local TV news programmes, I thought that I was in a good position to create a mind map, as featured below. Here, you can see how I have drafted a few rough ideas as to what my news story could possibly be and what would be included in the news report. In the top right hand corner, I also included the aspects which will be included in my local TV news package and for how long each individual component will last for.
Looking at my mind map, I decided that the story which will have enough depth is the school attack/murder and the one which would considered a hard story the most.
This is due to the fact that there are lots of different strands that I could embellish in the story, such as the victim being of an afro Caribbean background. This will encourage my target audience to draw up possible questions which will further maintain their interest and keep them engaged throughout the report, such as was this a racist attack? Another strand that could be expanded upon up is the fact the teenage murderer posted on social media threats about how he was going to carry out his attack on the teacher. From this, questions could be asked about why nothing was done about this post. Other questions might be is this teenager in healthy full mental state? Did any of his teachers notice his behaviour? And if so, why was nothing done about it? It is clear that this chosen news story is definitely newsworthy under the guidelines of Galtung and Ruge.
How exactly does my hard story fit Galtung and Ruge's guideline of newsworthiness?:
1. In the words of Harold Evans, what makes a news story newsworthy is that it has to include necessary information and unusual events. I would say that my story of a school pupil stabbing a teacher is definitely unusual. I will make sure that when it comes to recording my story, that the anchor and presenter will include all the necessary information, such as the scene of teh crime, the means of the attack and also whom was the victim. In addition, it should be based on unbiased accounts. To ensure that my news story covers this, I will direct the presenter and anchor to simple explain the story, without their opinion. For example, my presenter and anchor will not include the words 'I think that..' and 'my opinion is...'
2. One of the category of Galtung and Ruge's guideline is Impact. This consists of 5 values:
- Threshold- my story has a medium threshold as the impact is quite large. The result of my incident will result in the closure of the school for days while the investigation undertakes, causing a knock on effect of problems as pupils will be missing days of their education.
- Frequency- the frequency of my story is minimal, there have not been many cases of where a pupil stabs their teacher, making this story quite thrilling. The event will happen suddenly, therefore making it newsworthy.
- Negativity- stories to do with death and violence are always rated more than positive stories as people are more intrigued about thriller stories. My hard story definitely covers this aspect as a violent attack is committed.
- Unexpectedness- if an event is abnormal then it is more likely that it will make the headline more than your average, day to day news. This is because it is out of the blue and unusual, as said by Harold Evans, making the story more appealing to an audience.
- Ambiguity- I would say that my story is ambiguous as it allows to get their own interpretations. This is because they may want to know more about the story, and if the story has a reason behind it. They make in fact feel sorry for the attacker pupil as it could be possible that he has mental health issues, and nothing was done to give him help.
3. Another guideline is Audience Identification:
- Personalisation- my story is focused on a two people. One; the pupil whom was the attacker and 2; the victim whom was the teacher. My story will therefore receive a lot of coverage because the audience like to know about other people
- Reference to elite nations/ elite person- my story doesn't consist to either of these topics, my story could possibly be made better if in fact the victim was that of a celebrity.
- Meaningfulness- hard stories tend to not allow the audience to relate to the topic as they score highly in frequency section in the guideline Impact. Resulting in this, not alot of people will able to relate to my story as it is very unlikely that an event like this has occured in other people's lives.
4. The third guideline is Pragmatic of Media Coverage:
- Consonance- my story will not really cover this due to the fact it score highly in 'unexpectedness', so the media would not being expecting a news story like mine. Although, the media would be ready to report my story as it scores highly in other categories, therefore drawing in more of an audience for their TV News programme.
- Continuity- my story is a new story therefore it hasn't been covered already, so continuity will not be covered in it. However, I will ensure when I am recording my news anchor that he/she will state that we will keep the audience updated on the prosecution of the attacker and the stableness of the victim.
- Composition- as stories compete for news coverage, stories need to stand out from the crowd and cover a range of aspects. My news story is a hard story so will be shown, but also it is a local story for the area, so it will definitely be shown.
To go alongside my TV news package, me and my fellow peer have decided to chose a weather update to be featured.
15th January
Planning the content of my TV News Package-
Before I jumped straight into filming, I needed to get an exact idea of what my TV News package will consist of. Therefore I decided to create a plan of what it would contain and a few key points of each part of my TV News package.
15th February
Drafting my layout for the news studio-
I attempt a few drafts in order to decide which layout I would use for the news anchor in the news studio. The first draft, as you can see is the a mid shot of the news anchor. The table, laptop and a glass of water can be seen. The background of the anchor would be a large screen in which I would display images of landmarks of Birmingham, of which the viewer would recongise.
The second draft is mroe of a close up. This kind of shot can be seen in real media products, fro example Sky News, who tend to use this. The background behind my anchor would be a green screen, which would have images edited onto to it of the editing suite. Again, this is seen in Sky News, in which all the computers, cameras and technology can be seen.
Planning of my TV News Package-
20th Janurary
Creating my scripts-
Here are a few of my drafts of scripts which will hopefully be used throughout my TV News programme.
This script is for my voice for for the hard story. I feel like this script would be fine for my on screen graphics and for my hand over to Chloe. I think that this will be the one that I will use.
Here are my draft scripts for Chloe. As you can see there are annotations on there, this was because me and Chloe sat down before she recorded these. We had a chat about the script and had a go recording. When I was listening to her speak into the recorder, I felt that it wasn't as professional as it could be. So, me and Chloe discussed together ways of changing the script and if she had any ideas herself. By working with the actor, we found better ways of phasing things and making this voice over seem as if a real presenter was speaking.
26th January
Deciding the software to create my TV News package-
Today was the day in which we would chose our desired software to create our Local TV news report and its title sequence. There were a range of options available for me to chose from including iMovie, Windows Movie Maker but I chose to go with the Coral Video Studio Pro X9. I made this decision as I knew that it was used by professionals, therefore I could be sure that it will produce high quality videos and editing. This is what I am looking for as my target audience are the mature audience and they would professionalism when it comes to a TV News programme,
30th January
Planning my recording-
In order to allow myself to be as constructive as possible, I decided that the best idea would be to be to plan my recording days which would allow myself to contact my actors and to see which days they would be available for.
Also, by planning my recording, I could record a range of different storyboard scenes in the same day, if they required the same props. For example, I recorded my story board scene 1 and scene 11 in the space of half an hour of each other as I already had the required props set up. This was the better alternative to recording in chronologically order of my story board as it would too time consuming set up and taking down the props, just for them to set up again.
4th February
Adapting my TV News logo-
While completing my title sequence, I found a perfect filter which consisted of baby blue and white that would allow for my title sequence to look professional. From this I decided that in order to maintain the consistency throughout my Local TV news, I thought it would be a good idea to adapt my news logo. I changed my dark blue 'W' to a baby blue colour and my also changed the colours of my 'M' and 'N' in order to link with my chosen filter.
Below is my new and improved logo:
Here is a screenshot of the chosen filter along with my new and improved TV News logo; here you can see how it looks more aesthetically pleasing than it would be if my old logo was used.
7th February
Creating my Radio Advert Script
Here is my 1st draft of my radio advert. After reading it back, I knew that it was obvious that there were some improvements to eb made, as I felt it was quite 'wishy washy' and never got to the point of what the stories involved in my TV News were.
Here is my final script for my radio advert. Its more consice and to the point about what the stories are in my TV news programme. Also, I have included a rhetorical question for the audience, making them want to know more about my news story, and therefore come and watch my TV news programme.
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