Index.

1) TV News case study 2: BBC News at Six

2) Channel 4

News Evaluation.

Testing what you've learned...

1) What is the angle of a news story? Give an example to explain your answer. It's a side of an story. E.g, Labour's point of view in the election.

2) What is the difference between tabloid and broadsheet news coverage? Tabloid is a non-serious form of news. Broadsheet is a formal, serious form of news. 

3) What would be an example of a tabloid-style TV news programme? BBC Three 60 Second News.

4) What would be an example of a broadsheet-style TV news programme? BBC One News at Ten.

5) What is the difference between international, national, regional and local news coverage? International is worldwide news. National is news regarding the whole country. Regional regards cities. Local regards your nearby area. 

Answer the questions on the election coverage clips...

BBC News election story - via YouTube

1) Is this international, national, regional or local news? How can you tell? This is national because it's about the Prime Minster election.

2) What angle does the report take on the story?

3) Is this more tabloid or broadsheet-style coverage? Broadsheet.

4) What kind of audience would you expect to watch this type of TV news programme? Why?


Sky News election story not available online - use your notes

1) Is this international, national, regional or local news? How can you tell? This is national because it's about the Election.

2) What angle does the report take on the story? It's biased because it focuses more on David Cameron's side of the election. 

3) Is this more tabloid or broadsheet-style coverage? More Tabloid than Broadsheet.

4) What kind of audience would you expect to watch this type of TV news programme? Why? Middle Aged viewers because they're involved within deciding who the Prime Minister is going to be. 


STV (Scottish) coverage of the election story

1) Is this international, national, regional or local news? How can you tell? This is a mixture of regional and national because it is talking about the election but it's normally referring to the Scottish candidates. 

2) What angle does the report take on the story?

3) Is this more tabloid or broadsheet-style coverage? Mainly Broadsheet.

4) What kind of audience would you expect to watch this type of TV news programme? Why?


Channel 4 News coverage of the election story.
1) Is this international, national, regional or local news? How can you tell?  This is national because it's talking about the Election.

2) What angle does the report take on the story?

3) Is this more tabloid or broadsheet-style coverage? Broadsheet

4) What kind of audience would you expect to watch this type of TV news programme? Why? 18-35 because it's the Channel's age range but it could expand to an older age range since the election concerns them too. 

BBC News.

Basic details

1. What do the letters BBC stand for? British Broadcasting Cooperation
2. How is the BBC funded? Through TV Licence
3. What is the BBC's famous mission statement? (Clue: it's three words)  inform, educate, entertain.
4. What is BBC1's program remit?   BBC One's remit is to be the BBC's most popular mixed-genre television service across the UK, offering a wide range of high quality programs. It should be the BBC's primary outlet for major UK and international events and it should reflect the whole of the UK in its output. A very high proportion of its programs should be original productions.
5. How does the BBC News at Six fit into BBC1's remit? They show content that reflects the views of the whole UK rather than just their own personal views.

Presenters

1. Who are the presenters of BBC News at Six? Fiona Bruce, Sophie Raworth and Huw Edwards
2. What are the presenters wearing? What does this communicate to the audience? They're wearing formal clothing.
3. Why might a TV News programme use a variety of presenters? To bring in a more diverse audience.
4. How are other reporters or presenters used in the TV news programme? There are different presenters who do different tasks. e.g Main Headlines, Out of studio reporting.
5. Is there a balance between male and female presenters? What about race/ethnicity? What effect might these aspects have on an audience? 

Opening sequence
Analyse the opening 2 minutes of the programme.

1. What is the very first shot? Different and quick clips showing a globe and the news that will come up
2. How does the opening sequence use graphics or images to grab the attention of the audience? It a globe type of shape to show that it covers stories from around the world.
3. How is music used in the opening sequence? There's music but then fades out as the reporter goes on to speak.
4. How are news stories introduced in the opening two minutes? Is there just one story or are the audience told what will be coming up later? Information is given about the stories and the audience already know what is coming up but not everything which is probably what tempts them to stay.

Studio mise-en-scene

1. What aspects of the studio can be seen by the audience? Some cameras are shown as the reporter is being filmed.
2. Are the presenters standing or behind desks? Why do you think this is? The reporter is standing up with the background of nature and this may be to keep the audiences attention on.
3. Are journalists or technology visible? What might these things suggest to the audience? Technology is only visible when it's purposely being shown possibly to emphasis the fact the the news is recent.
4. How does the studio use colour? It uses red and blue at all times.

How news stories are presented

1. How does the news programme typically present a story?  It uses presenters and voice overs but also images.
2. What difference techniques does the programme use to present the news? (E.g. presenter to camera, reporter on location, interviews, graphics, images, video etc.) Presents are more formal than usual but they are at real locations which is different. Images and graphics were typical like every other news story.
3. What types of news does the TV News programme typically cover? Give five examples (e.g. politics, international, sport etc.) They usually cover politics and sports.
4. Give two real examples of how news stories are presented to keep the interest of the audience.
5. The Scottish international party and female football.

Running order

1. Watch the first 15 minutes of the programme – as recent as you can find.
2. What is the top story? The top story is the Scottish international party
3. How long does the top story last for? About 10 mins
4. What are the other stories the programme does or will cover? List them in the order they are presented in (the ‘running order’). They also cover sports. Female football.
5. How long is each story shown for? Usually about 5-10 minutes depending on how important they are.
6. Why do you think each story was shown for the time it was? I think the most important stories are usually shown for the longest.

Audience

1. What is the target audience for this BBC News at Six? Research online – you should be able to find plenty of suggestions to the target audience if not the official target audience of the programme. Around 35 year olds.  
2. What are the viewing figures for BBC News at Six?   9.6 million on average per week.
3. Why might someone choose to watch this TV news programme over others? It has a great amount of different news stories about the world we live in and many will find that useful to engage in.
4. Is there an opportunity for the audience to get involved in the programme or comment? They can get involved on social network such as twitter.
5. What audience pleasures (Uses and Gratifications theory – Blumler and Katz) does the programme offer? People get to know what is happening around the world.

Institution

1. What other news programmes and services does the BBC offer in addition to the BBC News at Six? Sports news and radio news but also entertainment.
2. What role does OFCOM have in making sure TV News is fair and accurate? It makes sure that news, in whatever form, is reported with due accuracy and presented with due impartially.

TV News and New/Digital Media

1. Does the TV News programme have a dedicated website? It does.
2. What does the website offer viewers? It gives them a detailed version of their stories online incase they missed it.
3. Does the TV News programme have a Twitter feed? It does
4. How does the Twitter feed promote the programme? Yes
5. Is there an opportunity for the audience to get involved in the programme or submit news stories? They do.

Channel 4 News.

Basic details

1. When is Channel 4 News on? It's on Monday - Friday, 7pm -7.55pm
2. When was the programme first broadcast? November 2nd 1982
3. What awards has the programme won? It's won 8 awards ( Including awards Jon Snow has won for his presenting )
4. What is the media institution that produces Channel 4 News? Independant Television News (ITN) 

Presenters

1. Who are the presenters? Jon Snow, Krishnan Guru-Murphy, Cathy Newman and Matt Frei.
2. What are the presenters wearing? What does this communicate to the audience? They wear formal clothing like most TV News Anchors. However, Jon Snow is known to take an alternative spin and wear quirky ties. 
3. Why might a TV News programme use a variety of presenters? To keep us interested in the way different presenters present the story in different ways.  
4. How are other reporters or presenters used in the TV News programme? There are different segments where they change the presenter after a certain story has finished. This can be used as a relief for the presenter and maybe a new introduction to the broadcast for the audience.
5. Is there a balance between male and female presenters? What about race/ethnicity? What effect might these aspects have on an audience? The programme not biased by just having mainly white male presenters. This is could be said that the programme is not discriminative but instead balanced by having two white male presenters, one female presenter and one male of colour presenter. 

Opening sequence

Analyse the opening 2 minutes of the programme.

1. What is the very first shot? The first show are graphics of the channel's logo.
2. How does the opening sequence use graphics or images to grab the attention of the audience? It grabs attention of the audience because it gives the audience mini previews of what's going to come up on the programme. 
3. How is music used in the opening sequence? There is a crescendo in the first second in the music. There are a lot of brass instruments used in order to create a serious vibe which the show presents. 
4. How are news stories introduced in the opening two minutes? Is there just one story or are the audience told what will be coming up later? The show gives off mini clips of the stories to come as Jon Snow voiceovers. This is before the opening sequence begins. 

Studio mise-en-scene

1. What aspects of the studio can be seen by the audience? (Desk, cameras etc.) They can see the seating area where interviews can be held, the studio behind the tinted class and also a huge screen they can use in order to communicate with those who are reporting from a certain location/ shows stills from the story that they're reporting.
2. Are the presenters standing or behind desks? Why do you think this is? The show has the presenters standing up. This fits the remit of Channel 4 News to be different from other traditional news.
3. Are journalists or technology visible? What might these things suggest to the audience? The large screen is visible but there is no other technology visible.
4. How does the studio use colour? The studio uses only two colours in the show: Purple and White. Which is creates synergy with their Channel's brand logo. 

How news stories are presented

1. How does the news programme typically present a story? When channel 4 present the stories they talk about it for a little while before showing a short clip which is usually what most news shows do in general.
2. What difference techniques does the programme use to present the news? (E.g. presenter to camera, reporter on location, interviews, graphics, images, video etc.) The difference with channel 4 is that the presenters behaviour is much different and the way he acts but also the reporters too. The camera is usually facing up at the presenters making them seem bigger or more powerful in any case.
3. What types of news does the TV News programme typically cover? Give five examples (e.g. politics, international, sport etc.) Some news stories that channel 4 covers is to do with British journalism or ever interviewing film directors. Some news stories are also talking about violence and even though channel 4 do not go too much into depth with politics it does have the opinion of others on it.
4. Give two real examples of how news stories presented to keep the interest of the audience. One example is the story about Habbo Hotel which is about a game which has pedophiles playing despite the fact it's for kids but no one actually seems to notice. This would interest the audience as they would be indulged and quite shocked so they would want to know more instantly. Another example is a story about a young man on youtube named Sam Pepper who does pranks but is being accused of sexual offences. This would interest the audience because they would most likely be on social media and hearing about famous people on youtube or Facebook would grab their attention.

Audience

1. What is the target audience for this TV News programme? The target audience for channel 4 are young adults around 18-30 and this is mainly because Channel 4 have been obsessed with young people watching their tv news.
2. Why might someone choose to watch this TV News programme over others? Channel 4 do everything quite differently. Their presenters talk differently and act different much more relaxed. Their stories are engaging but also interesting to the younger ages especially when it involves social media. Additionally, it involves talking about shows such as 'friends' or 'big brother' which would interest a young audience.
3. Is there an opportunity for the audience to get involved in the programme or comment? If their show is on social media audience may leave a comment but other than that I don't think there are any sort of quiz for them to engage in.
4. What audience pleasures (Uses and Gratifications theory – Blumler and Katz) does the programme offer? The programme offers controversial views on a certain story which other TV News programes wouldn't dare to do. 

Institution

1. Who owns, runs or produces this TV News programme? ITN.
2. Does the institution own, run or produce any other TV News programmes, channels or newspapers? No they don't.
3. How does the programme fit the TV channel it is on? Because it's controversial, it breaks barriers of traditional TV.
4. What role does OFCOM have in making sure TV News is fair and accurate? They make sure Channel 4 News report both sides of the story.

TV News and New/Digital Media

1. Does the TV News programme have a dedicated website? Yes it does.
2. What does the website offer viewers? It sections out several stories by topic so the viewers can find news that fits with their interests. 
3. Does the TV News programme have a Twitter feed? Yes it does.
4. How does the Twitter feed promote the programme? Yes it does.
5. Is there an opportunity for the audience to get involved in the programme or submit news stories? Yes it does as Channel 4 is known for investigative news stories. 

Narrative theory: Precious.

The trailer for Precious uses many narrative techniques typical of Hollywood urban dramas. Applying Propp's character theory, we have a clear protagonist in Gabourey Sidibe's character Precious. In many ways, even though some scenes, she is shown to be weak enough to be reduced to tears, she still braves it out as it is her quest (to find happiness and appreciation her miserable surroundings) that drives the narrative. Monique Angela Hicks offers the classic abusive mother portrayal while Paula Patton plays the Mentor role as Precious' teacher and Mariah Carey plays the Helper role as Precious' social worker Ms Weiss. These well known character types quickly help establish the urban drama narrative and allow audiences to understand the protagonist's hardships within the two-minute running time of the trailer.

The film's narrative is clearly introduced in the trailer and follows Todorov's theory of equilibrium. The state of balance is the character of Precious explains her dreams of her wanting to have a singing career and appearing on the channel, BET, also mentioning that she wanted to have a 'light skinned' boyfriend with good hair. The introduction of her abusive mother, Mary and Precious' thoughts fading into reality creates the disequilibrium - along with the physical violence from others towards Precious. The new equilibrium is not shown in the trailer - this is critical because even though a standard Hollywood urban drama narrative would suggest Precious would get a happy ending, the audience have to watch the whole film to enjoy this resolution.

The trailer is full of Barthes' enigma and action codes. These are designed to draw the audience in and encourage them to watch the whole film to resolve their questions. The major enigma codes the audience will ask would revolve around whether Precious would get away from her abusive mother and will she ever find happiness in her life. However, there are other enigma codes such as what has happened towards Mary to make her so abusive and who is the father of Precious' two children. Although action codes aren't that associated with urban dramas, there are still plenty of violent scenes such as Mary chasing Precious up the stairs after Precious kicked a shoe down the stairs which Mary threw at her. This suggests there will be moments of drama and tension in the film and the only way to see these resolved is to watch the whole movie.

Representation - Questions.

How is the traditional dysfunctional American family represented?  As it's mentioned in the film, the family have to make some sacrifices as there is now only one parent providing her children/grandchildren instead of two parents, which could make them struggle emotionally and financially. 

How are black people represented?  Black people are normally represented as an aggressive culture who are often linked to antisocial behaviour. This is a result of media's influence on people and how their racist views can be broadcasted to everybody because of their power.

How are obese people represented? Another result which had a cruel influence by the media is that obese people are lazy and are often blamed for their weight because of their poor diet. In a thin approved society, obese people aren't often recognized as human being and are often insulted by their weight; Precious shows that even some parents can verbally abuse their child for their weight issues.

How are women represented? Women are represented in films to be a slim, light skinned, deemed 'beautiful' damsel in distress. In Precious, it shows the opposite as it shows the mother to be a very blunt character whos strength is subversive when it comes towards female stereotypes. Another reason that the movie is subversive is the protagonist is a woman of colour, something that isn't common with female characters in films and that she is neither slim or deemed 'beautiful' by her peers in the film or by the general audience because the media has mislead them on what 'beautiful is.

How is disability represented?  Disability is represented in two ways; depending on how the disabled person behaves. In film, if the disabled character is a good human being who is likeable to the audience, then the audience will take pity in the character and the actor themselves (depending if they're disabled in real life also). However, if the character is a villain or a person who does not have good qualities, then they will not be liked by the audience.

How is American life represented? Similarly to the disabled issue, it depends on how it's represented It could be like hard, gritty dramas and view a rough, American ghetto where the unfortunate live or it can show a nice, area where often the rich/semi-wealthy would live in. This could also affect how the characters behave as well as their area could influence their nature while growing up. 

Exam topic: TV News

Research 

1) I researched on Newsround and BBC One News Breakfast

2) Watch your two different TV News programmes on three different nights. Watch the whole bulletin each time and make notes on the following:

• Title, date and time of bulletin: 6:00am (BBC News Breakfast) & 8:15am, 3/3/14 (Newsround)
• Presenters: Ayshah Tull (Newsround) Sonya Jessop and Kate Kinsella (BBC Breakfast)
• News stories covered: Problems in the Ukraine, Oscars, Cricket Match, Pool Championships and Climate's affect on penguins (Newsround) Heathrow Terminal 2 Grand Opening, Car crash in Clapton, Weather and Strikes (BBC Breakfast News) 
• Use of graphics, animation, video packages, interviews and live links (key conventions of TV News) Live links, video packages, interviews, graphics to introduce the interviewee and show the map (Newsround) Video packages
• Use of modern or digital technology (cameraphone footage, audience tweets, hashtags, website links etc.) Website promotion (Newsround) Green screen (BBC Breakfast) 
• Anything that encourages the audience to keep watching (dramatic video, animated graphics, previews of news or features later in the programme etc.) Viewer interactions (Newsround) 

3) Research the institutions behind your two TV News programmes. Find out the following for each:

• Who owns or controls the institution: BBC (Newsround) BBC (BBC Breakfast) 
• How the institution is funded or makes money:  They get money from a TV License but they're a non profit company.
• Any controversial issues or complaints that the institution has had to deal with in recent years: Paedophile scandal regarding Jimmy Savile. 

4) Find out the target audience for your two TV News programmes. You should be able to find a detailed breakdown online if you search intelligently. If you cannot find anything, write what you think the target audience for the programme would be and why.


Planning

1) Brainstorm ideas for a new TV News programme aimed at young people. Plan out the following:

• Title: Newsflash
• Channel, day and time broadcast: E4, Mon-Fri, 8pm
• The length and structure of the programme: 15 minutes, 3-5 minutes for each segment. 
• The presenter or presenters: Ina Geraldine, Ashley Blake. 
• The types of news the programme will cover: Celeb, Sport, School/Uni/College, TV (e.g X Factor) and Music Charts.
• The brand identity for the show - logo, slogan, colour scheme etc: 'All the latest news in a flash' (Slogan), Red&Silver (Colour Scheme), NEWSFLASH! (Logo)
• How you will package the news - video, images, graphics, live links, interviews etc: It will be in a random order but every news segment will contain Videos and Images to introduce the story and graphs to introduce what's the story about. 

2) Plan how you will make your TV News programme interactive with opportunities for the audience to submit photos and video and comment on the issues covered.

3) Prepare for the creative task in the exam. Plan, sketch and draw the following:

• Logo and graphic identity for your TV News programme
• Website homepage for your TV News programme
• Storyboard for the opening 30 seconds of your TV News programme
• A storyboard for a TV advert for your TV News programme