News report

Is Television News a “Window to the World”?

 

In all news programmes the starting sequences are basically very similar.   Here are some examples of things you may see in these sequences:

·         A globe – this signifies that they are aware of all events occurring around the world and that they will bring you coverage from around the world.

·          Key landmarks   – each country uses their own significant landmarks, for example a French news programme may use the Eifel Tower whereas a British one may use Big Ben.  

·         The presenter(s) sitting at the news desk (usually with the man on the left and the woman on the right)

·         Music – loud and attention seeking, drawing attention to the television and announcing that the programme is about to start.

 

 

The news sets will differ depending on the target audience, the TV channel’s style and sometimes the time of day.   They will usually consist of variations of;

·         A desk/table – this will always have papers or a laptop on the table. It will show that the presenters are hard at working getting all the news to you as soon as it comes in.

·         A backdrop – the backdrop will be behind where the presenter(s) is. It will usually show cilloete or a picture of the city they are broadcasting from. It will signify that they are local and you can trust them

·         Neutral colours – You want your audience to relax and listen to your news show so people use nice colours like brown, reds and blues to make it seem very homely.

·         A large TV or screen – this will always be there if they need to cut away to an interview with someone or if an article came up to watch. They show the presenters watching it too to give the connection that they don’t know everything and they are learning from what they are watching just like the audience is.

Small changes can be seen with the morning news and evening news. To make the morning news seem more relaxed, instead of a deck and a chair, you will see the presenters sitting on sofas and reading information off coffee tables. It makes the atmosphere seem more homely and friendly than having someone sitting at a desk.

 

Presenters are arguably the most important thing in a news program. No matter where you are, there will always be a presenter. This is because it makes the audience feel like they are being spoken to in a personal manor and that they mean something to the show.  The presenters will always have qualities like;

·         Formal clothing – this is because it makes them look like they know what they are doing. You’re more likely to listen to someone who is dressed in a suit then someone sitting in jeans and a top.

·         No accent – very rarely the presenter will have an ascent because some people won’t be able to understand it. Most presenters in England will speak Queens English with no accent to be recognised.

·         No emotions – It is important for news shows to give unbiased impartial news. Therefore, presenters cannot be seen to show any sides in a story.

There are a lot of legal requirements for news broadcasters to meet up with regulations

·         Bias – all news programs must show each side of an argument to make sure that the report has no bias. News shows are not allowed to be opinionated in any way. (objectivity)

·         Stories – Some stories are not allowed to be shown because of laws like the prevention of terrorism act. If the story could promote terrorism, then it cannot be broadcasted.

 

 

 

Obviously there isn’t enough time in the world to put on every single different news story that comes in. This means that there has to be some sort of selection process to sift through the news that is good to show and the news that isn’t. Here are some of the news values that Galtung and Ruge identified that would more likely get a story on to the news.

·         Elite nations – different countries have a sort of hierarchy in news. If America had a story to be told and New Zealand had a similar story, we would most probably hear the story form America as we have more of relationship with them than New Zealand

·         Visual image – Stories that are set in beautiful scenery or even violent are more likely to get into the news real.  This is because they will be more interesting to watch. For example, the late war in Afghanistan was shown a lot on TV not only because it was relevant, but because they were good visual images.

In 1979, Dennis McSane identified 5 more values;

·         Hardship and danger in the community – in local news, something that causes distress in the community relates to a lot of us therefor in is more likely to be shown.

 

When a news report is filmed, it is not all filmed at once. You will see that there are cuts in the shots. This then shows into question how ‘real’ a news report actually is. Usually they will use a narrative structure starting with a problem, then showing how the hero solved the problem an after showing what happened to the hero after he tried to solve the problem. Now one news report is done as one full cut so they use cutaways. Say if you were talking to a gentleman about how he single handed stopped a bank robbery. While he was speaking, you might cut away to a shot of the bank or a reconstruction of how it happened. This is used to create a sense of realism but it will never be reality.

 

Technology has made a huge impact on how we access news and where we get news from. Thanks to technology, we can now receive news from all round the world where as back in the old days, we could only get news from regional or just the county itself. Whereas now, someone can be sitting in the studio and get a live link straight to America to get an interview with someone. We now don’t have to just get news from a TV broadcast or a newspaper. We can get out news from the internet. There are hundreds of different news reporters from every country and we can access it all. That has defiantly improved how much news we intake.