Introduction to Newspost

Your first post for the news assignment should focus, briefly, on the basics and key conventions of a news broadcast. Include clips and images where relevant.

Part 1 (using the broadcast you watched yesterday)

• Watch a news broadcast and state which one you watched, e.g., Look East Monday 18th March 6pm.
• What stories were covered and in what order were they shown?

   Conservative David Cameron announces he will open 3 more free schools, 2 in Norwich and 1 in Great Yarmouth if he wins the election. This has come under strong criticism from the largest teaching union, free schools are free from local authority control and Thetford: Wild Lynx         

• What happens in the starting sequence and why do you think the visuals and audio have been used?

  The title sequence involves an Earth shape edit, it broadcasts news from the East of England, and it’s shown with the names of cities in England. Scenes of local landmarks, labour and historical events: the Cambridge boat race is seen. We get these shots to show relevant parts of the East of England because it’s a show about the East of England watched by residents of the East of England.

Part 2 (referring back to the Anglia documentary you watched yesterday)

• Who are the newsreaders / presenters in the broadcast you watched? (Name, age, gender, etc.)

  
 Amelia Reynolds- a woman in her mid-forties, presenting the news singularly. 

• What is the role of the newsreader / presenter in a news broadcast?

The role of the newsreader/ presenter is to get the important topics across to the audience, in a slot of time and to report it clearly - avoiding vocal or grammatical hiccups.

• What skills are necessary for newsreaders / presenters?

The newsreaders/ presenters should be vocal, grammar wise and should be able to improvise if a new story is added without messing up.



Part 3 (using the Huw Edwards / BBC short video and your notes from the broadcast)

• What is meant by the term news ordering?

The order the stories appear on the programme, containing key details about each of the reports.

• What is the term given to the list of stories that will likely appear on the broadcast?

The term likely to be given to the list of stories likely to appear on a broadcast is a storyboard.

• Which story is likely to be shown first and how / why is it selected?

The 'David Cameron' story is likely to be shown first because it affects more people than the 'Thetford' story would.

The other stories - Thetford - are more local in the sense that they only affect the people in that place, the 'free schools' story affects more people also, so it would come before 'Thetford'.

• How do the other stories appear?

The other stories appear as little or no importance compared to the headlining story, these stories are the ones that affect a smaller group of people, where as the first story is probable to affect a wide range of people.

• Why is the ability to think and act quickly important in news?

The ability to think and act quickly is important in news because a story can develop and it's their duty to get it out as soon as possible - e.g reading it off the teleprompter.

• What is meant by the term 'slow news day'?

Slow news day means that they publish things of lesser meaning to anybody due to the lack of substantial news. 

• What is the final story often called and what is its function?

The final story is often called 'and finally' it's function is to let the audience know that they will be informed if any changes occur, it also gains more viewers as people will check in with the news story to see if there is any changes.

• What is meant by the term 'news values' and which G & R wrote about them?

News Values are guidelines used by media outlets e.g newspapers, news stations etc. to determine how much importance to give a story. G and R wrote 12 guidelines for a newsworthy broadcast, from frequency to data, 

• Find a topical example for each of G & R's news values.

• Frequency: These are the stories that are covered repeated such as, Terrorism.

• Familiarity: This is your local news/ national news or news that affects you, such as strikes (Buses, teachers, trains.)

• Negativity: This is the negative stories, such as murders, deaths or news that has a sad outcome to the audience. Like, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-33159106 

• Unexpectedness: These are stories that are surprising and out of the ordinary, like natural disasters and accidents.

• Unambiguity: Stories that are clear and doesn't have more than one interpretation make for better copies. So stories from one point of view or straight forward.

• Personalization: Stories that can be empathized by the public, that involves human interest are favored over stories that have no human interest.

• Meaningfulness: An event that is considered relevant and important to the audience, stories that are local are more meaningful to those who live in that area. 

• Reference to elite nations: Stories that involve global powers and the more popular nations than the lesser nations. Like China, America etc.

• Reference to elite persons: This is the coverage on popular and high up people, like senators, presidents, rich and powerful people. Like, Barrak Obama, Km Jong Un etc.

• Conflict: Stories that are high in conflict are quite newsworthy, it's the opposition of people that in return causes dramatic affect. Like, Wars, Politics etc.

• Consonance: Stories that fit with the media's coverage and the media's readiness to report them, stories that defy them are less covered.

• Continuity: A story that is being covered, and new facts and stories are added to it. Stories like Politics, Wars etc.

• Composition: Stories that compete for coverage, so foreign news/ recent news is more likely to be aired or domestic news that affects the public.

• Competition: Competition may refer to competition against journalists to have their story covered or competition against news stations. 

• Co-optation: Stories that are less newsworthy but may still be aired due to their link to a larger newsworthy story.

• Prefabrication: A well written story that is not all that important or relevant will be selected over a story that is more newsworthy but not researched. .

• Predictability: An event is more likely to be covered if it has been pre- scheduled.

• Time constraints: This is the time slot for television, radio or newspapers to get their stories across, it is a limited amount and is meant to be reached.

• Logistics: The simplicity of getting the story and publishing it, determined on technical resources and reporters getting to the story. 

• Data: Is what you need to keep a story interesting, this is your facts, your knowledge of the story and the data itself makes the story more reliable and relevant.

Part 5 (using a broadcast you have found) -  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wWWu5l9-oE

• What was this story about?

Oxfordshire fires, 3 fires - originating in a burnt out car, in foyer of council building.

• Who is involved in the story?

A 47 year old man, who is said to be in connection and his being held until further evidence is shown.

Eye witness', Karl Shead, Ian Negus.

Katharine Da Costa 

• How are the people in the story represented?

Karl Shead is represented as the voice of an eye witness as is Katharine and Ian.

• How did you feel about the people in the news story?

I feel that they are presented easily, without their faces it doesn't take any of the light off of the fires at hand where as; showing their faces most probably would have.

• Was the news story narrativised? i.e., was there a construction of a narrative to help the audience follow the news event?

There was a construction of a narrative, the woman voiced the story over the clips vocally well, it started off showing you clips of the two story line then went into depth for both the Oxfordshire fires and BP job cuts.

Part 6 (using this site)

• Discuss bias through selection and omission - find an example

Bias by omission can be seen when a news story shows a study that proves a point but neglects to tell of other results or possible testing issues. Selection of sources can be like a news station doing a story about an election where they show polls that reflect most kindly to their selected candidate but neglect others.

• Discuss bias through placement / order - find an example

Placement can be seen on any newspaper. The story on top of the front page is considered more important than the bottom one. A story about a certain type of person can be on the front page but a similar story about a different type of person may be buried in the paper. E.g Race, class or gender.

• Discuss bias through headlines - find an example

Headlines are what capture your attention, they are often at the top of the page in a larger font that the rest of the text, headlines are sometimes misleading as they portray to be intriguing and important but turn out to be boring or irrelevant.

• Discuss bias through shot selection and camera angles - find an example

An angel of a picture taken of a person may portray them as good, bad, immature, mature and so on. The photo that is chosen by the newspaper is highly influential to the readers views on said person.

• Discuss bias through names and captions (how you describe a person) - find an example

Names and Captions often use labels or titles to describe someone in a story, like for criminals they conjure up a name that is often scary/ interesting. Like 'Jack the Ripper.'

• Discuss bias through use of language (phrasing and emotive language etc.) - find an example

The audience can be highly influenced by the tone of a reporters voice or positive/ negative things they hear or read about, or the connotation of how things are said.