Introduction to the news

The news that I looked at was A BBC News live broadcast, 15:00- 16:00 on the 21st May. It started with the channel’s typical logo, a spinning red globe alongside the name of the programme. The music used is short and loud. I feel like these have been used as they are instantly recognisable and the audio grabs the attention of viewers, prompting them to watch.

BBC opening logo

 The main stories covered were David Cameron talking about the wages of working Illegal Immigrants, the ‘rail strike off’, the Hatton Garden heist, Fall of Palmyra, and the Dunkirk anniversary. This were frequently interrupted by new stories that were being covered as it was a live broadcast,this included a man found guilty of a bombing case, and a convict being released from prison.

The stories opened with some of the most prominent stories, the first being one about David Cameron. This is because most people will be watching at the start, so the more important clips will need to be there. The stories in the middle are a mixture, with some being recent tragedies and some being simple nice stories. The end story, this time one about an anniversary, will usually be something light-hearted so that viewers do not feel so overwhelmed by the more hard hitting stories.

In a news broadcast, there are many people involved.  The Reporter is filmed on location, where the story takes place, and is in charge of telling the story from a different perspective. This includes asking people on the street for opinions and going to the location themselves to get a closer look. Reporters are accompanied by Camera operators, who work the equipment to film them but don't play a role in presenting the news story.  They also work in Studio filming the main presenters.

Directors work in the studio control centre during live shows, checking over all the camera feeds and instructing others about what needs to be changed, such as camera positions or the order of the stories. This is a very central job as they are involved in every aspect and have to respond to any section in real time.

In terms of editing, there are two main types. Craft and Prospects. Craft works in Post Productions, adding effects to the footage, such as blurring out faces or adding text. Prospects are at the very start of the news process, they scope out possible news focuses and stories. The Producer is the one who selects which of these stories to use, and is in charge of the 'Creative Construction decisions'. They look over the various new reports and decide which are most interesting and meaningful, as well as selecting the amount of focus each one will be given.

The presenters are similar to the reporters, though they work from inside the studio. There is usually only two of them at any time, though sometimes stories are presented solo. They are filmed live in the studio, with an earpiece in for directors and producers to speak to them through.

BBC presenters

Necessary skills needed by presenters are confidence to talk in front of a camera, an ability to plan what they’re saying, a clear voice and the ability to swap schedules very quickly in the event of breaking news. Being able to think and act quickly is important in the business as you must be able to change the running order as new stories come in. They often have to alter their script while on air.  The news readers in this were an older man and a younger woman, both dressed in smart clothes. The use of people from different age groups lets the viewers know that they are getting a dual perspective on the events. Also, having a younger and usually attractive presenter is likely to well received by teenagers and young adults.

In news, the ordering of the stories is very important as you need to have a variety of different information that is not too overwhelming for viewers, but is also not too confusing. This means having a mixture of light-hearted and hard-hitting stories, thinking carefully about where they should be placed in comparison.

The story likely to be placed first, the lead, is one that is deemed most important, this may not necessarily be the most tragic or unusual one, but one that greatly effects the area which is being covered. In the one I’ve watched, for example, it’s one about the prime minister. The following stories are listed in order of interest to the audience. The last story is known as a ‘and finally…’ , this is usually something a lot more simplistic than the earlier stories, such as a piece on someone locally or for an anniversary.

News values are the basic guidelines that media outlets try to follow, according to Galtung and Ruge, two media researchers. These are: Impact, Audience Identification, and Pragmatics of media coverage. Each of these have subcategories that relate to them.

Impact refers to how much it will affect people, so anything to do with politics or taxes will be strongly shown as it be affect a lot of the country.

Audience identification, this means understanding the audience and giving news that they will be interested in. So if the target audience is mainly older people, then reporting on the death of an actor who was very famous in the last few decades, it is likely to affect them more than it would for a younger audience.

Pragmatics talks about what is typical to see in the news, relating to composition and continuity.  The Madeline McCann case was one of these as it continued on for many years, and people were interested when new information was uncovered.

When creating a news story, it is easy for a news crew to fabricate the truth behind a story through bias. There are many ways this can happen, and it is usually done to create a false perspective on a person involved. Bias through selection and omission is when the reporters specifically choose to not include an aspect of the story. An example of this is a story from a few years ago, which featured Catholic organizations suing the president due to some of the laws that they found unfair, but instead of this being covered it was only given a few seconds of airtime on popular news channels, as they felt it wouldn’t help people’s impressions of the government.

Omission through placement and order is when an item or story is in a specific place in the broadcast or text. People will understand that the first stories are most important and will likely ignore the rest. This can be seen with the one I watched, in which the story about the prime minister was seen to be more important than a story about the loss of Palmyra. There are people who may believe this should be the top story, but the news has made it so that less people think so.

Bias through headlines is when the title of the piece is misleading. An example of this is the headline “Man with syringe arrested in hospital.” The way this is phrased makes the story sound like something quite entertaining, as it makes it out to be a simple mistake, as people tend to link syringes and hospitals so the two of them together do not seem unusual, and somebody being arrested for holding one is strange. However, this story actually went on to talk about someone injecting an unknown substance in a hospital bathroom, a much more serious idea than the headline portrays.

Bias through photo, captions and angles refer to how someone can be made to look more, or less, impressive through the images chosen. A good example of this is how a lot of reporters showed pictures of Ed Miliband during the election, usually looking ridiculous, as a way to increase popularity in other candidates.

A well known photograph from during the elections

Bias through titles is when someone is described in a way that changes their appearance. In the Ferguson case last year the victim, Mike Brown, was often described as a ‘thug’ in order to get people to distrust him, despite witness claims that he was nothing of the sort.

Bias through word choice is a technique in which specific words are chosen to alter the meaning of a sentence. A few years ago, an article was released stating that: “Before departing the White House early Monday for a farewell tour of Europe, President Bush stole a page from his predecessor and suggested he feels American consumers’ pain.” The word steal has been used, instead of a more typical word such as take. ‘Stole’ gives the impression of something bad and criminal, so readers get this impression of th person. The meaning fully changes when just one word is substituted.