TV News Text: Categories

• medium: television ,so governed by Communications Act 2003 and regulated by OFCOM

• purpose: inform, educate, public sphere, attracting audience to ads, (entertainment -> soft news, ‘infotainment’ or ‘dumbing down’)

• form: news so selected using news values • genre: TV news programme: syntax (see narrative structure); semantics:

newsreader(s) at desk/standing, insets behind, location reports, special correspondent reports & interviews, graphics, captions

• style: slick with verbal links and continuity editing techniques to ‘hide’ the joins; colour schemes used to give a unity to the programme

• tone: serious with soft news to provide balance

Key Terminology Issues:

Reflecting on prior learning

In groups discuss the following key terms and feedback your understanding of the terms to the rest of the class

o Accuracy and Balance

o Impartiality, Opinion and Bias

o Objectivity and Subjectivity

Feedback show include:

Definition, examples and relevance to own productions

TV News Values

Contract to the viewer is to deliver a stories that are driven by a range of news values which include the following:

• Frequency/magnitude: the bigger the better • Unambiguity/clarity: event is unambiguous and makes storytelling easy • proximity: what is familiar to us is more important • predictability: e.g. demo stops traffic, demonstrators riot • surprise • elite: ‘top’ people, organisations, teams, nations, etc. • negativity: bad news is good news • human interest/personalisation: personalising stories; pictures of villains,

victims or heroes have greater impact • balance: soft news to balance hard news • visuals: TV news needs strong visuals so will prefer stories that use

location reports and actuality footage

Case study You are required to look at how one of these networks covered the story of the 3 missing girls that were found last week

• BBC

• RT (Russia Today)

• CNN

• Channel 4 News (ITN)

• ITV News (ITN)

• SKY

• ABC

• CBS News

News Clips • http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/m

ay/08/charles-ramsey-interview-cleveland-race-

issues

• http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/22429826

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/may/07/mis

sing-teenagerss-amanda-berry-gina-dejesus-found-

alive

http://rt.com/usa/ohio-missing-girls-found-alive-915/

Group Discussion • Having identified the key differences, consider whether or not you

feel the pieces/broadcasters you have seen are meeting their public service responsibilities. Can you see any signs of infotainment in the bulletins they have observed?

• Does news as entertainment matter?

• Does news as sensation matter?

• Consider the impact on public attitudes and emotions of US news bulletins that serve up a constant diet of shootings and car chases without providing any context? (an issue raised very effectively in the documentary by Michael Moore, Bowling for Columbine).

The future of News? Supporter/advocates of the public sphere have identified a number of reasons why their ideal may never be fully realised:

• Increased commercialisation leading to news as entertainment and reality television rather than serious documentaries.

• Limited public access to the media particularly in television.

• Concentration of news agencies to a few powerful companies thus limiting the range of opinions.

• Public relations and spin leading to a public scepticism over political debate.

• Government censorship.

• Journalists’ self-censorship.

Contract to viewers Market model Public sphere model

What is the concept of the media? Private companies selling products Public service

What is the purpose of the media? Profit Active citizenship, social integration

How is the audience viewed? As consumers As citizens

What audience effect is desired? Be entertained, watch ads and buy products Education, active citizenship

What is in the public interest? Whatever is popular Diverse, significant and innovative content

even if not popular

How is regulation viewed? Interference with free markets Protection of public interest

To whom are media accountable? Owners and shareholders Public and its representatives in government

How is success measured? Profit Serving public interest

Adapted from Croteau and Hoynes (2001) The Business of Media: Corporate Media and the Public Interest. Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge Press. 2001, p37.

TV News Text: Language

• technical codes: e.g. MS/MLS newsreader to connote objectivity, 3/4 shots of interviewees to connote subjectivity, high-key lighting more objective; edits e.g. cut, wipe, dissolve; use of continuity editing e.g. establishing shot, shot/reverse shot in interview by presenter

• cultural codes: e.g. suit, voice, RP to suggest authority; minimal body movement and expression to suggest objectivity; clock; computers to connote up-to-date, hi-tech; colour codes; sans serif font connotes up-to-date; connotations of words, active voice

• anchorage: use of music to create sense of drama/urgency; use of voiceover to explain actuality footage

• mode of address: ‘objective’ newsreader & reporters use direct address; other ‘subjective’ views indirectly addressed to reporter; different modes of address for mass audience or to more educated social class ABC1s

TV News: Technology

• use of satellite technology to get instant reports worldwide

• ENG (electronic news gathering) using lightweight digital video cameras

• non-linear editing and dubbing

• ENPS (Electronic News Production System): can combine text, video and audio; functions include search engine, script-writing, programme timing, prompting, news wires, on-air control, remote access to staff in the field

• virtual studios

• multiskilling and bi-media working

• changing technologies of reception e.g. multichannel television, webcasting

• implications of technological developments

Channel 4

• government-owned corporation that uses advertising revenue to create and broadcast programmes for viewers rather than for profit

• required by Communications Act 2003 to innovate, appeal to culturally diverse society, educate and be distinctive

• 7 channels (C4, 4Seven,E4, More4, FilmFour, 4Music, 4OD)

• most expensive advertising for programmes that attract 16-34 adults or ABC1 adults

• companies can also sponsor programmes

• does not make its own programmes but commissions programmes from over 300 independent companies

• committed to 30% of production spend outside London

• Channel 4 News committed to foreign coverage and multicultural journalism

• Channel 4 News produced by ITN in London