TV NEWS - Content Research
Initial Ideas - Tuesday 20th October 2020
As we received our brief today, it was important we began brainstorming ideas within the groups we had chosen. Like our documentary unit it is important that we ensure ideas are super relevant to the current climate and interesting. Especially as news is so fact paced and ever changing, we wanted to ensure as a group that the topic we chose is currently relevant. After having a lecture today touching base on the importance of news and also how quick and current news needs to be, this is something I will ensure I refer to throughout this unit and also if I were to work on any future news items.
We brainstormed three ideas as you can see below, this was useful and exciting as it was interesting to see what sort of topics were interesting to each individual within our group.
IDEA ONE (CHOSEN IDEA LIVE OB)
The first Idea came from team member Matt P, he had an idea in which we researched and covered the closing down of cinemas. Due to the current pandemic this is super relatable and relevant for everyone. Due to some cinemas unfortunately not making it through the current financial crisis which was imminent for some business due to the pandemic. He felt this was an important topic to cover and we as a group, agreed.
As Cineworld which is a main cinema chain especially within the UK announced last week they would be closing their doors for a hibernation period until earliest January 2021, it meant thousands of people unfortunately lost their jobs.
I feel this would be a great topic to chose, especially due to how current and relatable this is for a majority of people who attend cinemas. I also feel this is a great opinion starter and it would be really interesting through interviews to tell the story of how it has impacted people individually. I also feel personally attached to this story as I work at Odeon which has luckily so far survived this period however, I feel deeply for any workers in the cinema industry that haven't had the same chance to work like I have.
IDEA TWO (CHOSEN IDEA NEWS PACKAGE)
The second Idea came from myself in which Stan then elaborated and we came together on the idea. Apple are under fire yet again as we have found out that they have decided for environmental reasons not to include the charger plug within the new Iphone 12 release.
The company have stated that they wish to reduce packaging by just including the wire and no headphones, which once came within the Iphone box when you purchased a new phone. We all felt this was an incredibly good idea as we all had our own individual opinions on why we feel Apple have decided to do this.
Although you get the wire for the new Iphone you have purchased within the box, the wire is not compatible with any previous iphones, which means you have to actually buy the individual plug which does not come with the box to be able to charge the new phone.
So although, for environmental reasons as they claim, is the reason to why they do not include the plug. You still have to buy the plug for a cost of £19.00.
We have decided to choose this idea as we feel this is a news report that would be relevant to masses of people. With the amount of people who have iphones and also comparable to other phone users like Samsung or Android who may have strong opinions on Apple as a company, we feel this would be current, relevant and relatable to masses of people which I believe is three aspects a news story should conclude.
IDEA THREE
Our third Idea was based on recent pictures being published of Billie Eilish which was an idea that came from Sydney. Although, I feel this is such an important subject which is current and relevant news. I don't know if it would of been accessible as body shaming within social media etc, is such a huge and broad topic for our specific brief.
Billie Eilish is known for wearing baggy clothes as she doesn't want to give people a chance to comment on how her body looks. Within the past week she has received disgusting comments, commenting on her body shape. As she was spotted in a tight vest top and tight clothes which was then posted all over social media, it has highlighted how easy it is for people to body shame and write hateful comments online with no repercussions.
Although again, I feel this is current and relevant for many people who have suffered from this with an important message, I feel this could be to broad for us to cover within a news piece and better suited to a documentary which I want to ensure I do not get confused with.
Ideas Briefing Conclusion
From the ideas above and from what Beth told us in relation to the pace and factual correctness of News pieces, I think it's important that as stated, our idea is incredibly current and relevant. What is News today can be old news tomorrow. Which is why our chosen Idea of Iphones, I feel will be relevant to the masses and also be current. As the Iphone is set to be released, this is News I would personally want to hear in relation to making a decision on whether the phone is worth purchasing and if Apples values are in the right place.
From this creating ideas exercise, I have learnt how important it is to ensure that I'm always looking at the core values of news throughout this unit as this is what makes the piece of information news. I plan on ensuring I research within my content research the ins and outs of news ensuring it influences my work, so I can get the best out of this news story.
Potential Challenges
Although, I feel confident on both the stories we have chosen to cover within our news piece, It is so important for me to understand how News and Current affairs is produced and how production and format is run. I want to explore the different avenues of current mainstream news channels and the difference in how they deliver news, so that I can understand the best way for our news channel to deliver news to our target audience. So although, I watch the news regularly, I feel it is going to be challenging to ensure the format of our news channel is continually relevant and ticks all the boxes for a reliable news channel.
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Ideas Development
It was then important we started going through our idea to ensure that it was relevant and that it worked within the channel we wanted to produce. During a tutorial with Beth T, she advised how important it is that News is based on factual information and is reliable. Although, I am aware Fake News is very much a known thing and is everywhere on social media and is very accessible, I only ever really watch BBC News which I personally, deem one of the most reliable sources. I want to ensure throughout my group is making sure all information we put within our news channel is from a reliable source. So that I have more knowledge within the topics we wish to include, I wanted to conclude some research on both our Live OB which is the Cineworld story and also our News Package story following the release of the new I phone.
Iphone Research (News Package)
With all the hype around the new Iphone being released, I wanted to look into what it means for it not to have a charger or headphones, the reasoning behind this and also peoples opinions. So that I could start looking into this, I began looking at articles and press that was being released about the Iphone 12 Pro.
The Iphone 12 Pro is the newest Iphone to be released by Apple. Within the article written by Terrence Gaines for PC Mag he explains about the controversy surrounding the new Iphone and the differences compared to the other Iphones that have been previously released.
Gaines begins by explaining the items that do come with the Iphone which is basically just the wire which is a "Lighting-to-USB-C cable, and that's pretty much it" (Gaines, 2020). The Iphone 12 also is set to come without ear pods, which is also the first phone to not include these within the newer Iphone releases.
Gaines then goes on to explain the reasoning behind why Apple have decided to make this decision mentioning that "Apple explained during its iPhone 12 event, excluding the power adapter reduces the size of the box. This means 70 percent more devices can fit on a shipping palette, which means more iPhone 12 devices can ship to users. Smaller boxes also allow Apple to reduce yearly carbon emissions by 2 million metric tons".
Although, Apple are claiming the reason behind not including the wall plug is because they want to environmentally help and lower their carbon emission usage, they actually are charging £19.00 for the wall charger in which you have to pay on top of the phone cost obviously, as it does not now come with the phone.
Personally, I believe that although it will be beneficial for Co2 emissions to be improved by such a large company, charging an extra £19.00 for a wall plug you have to buy as it has never been sold with any previous Iphones and is not compatible with any others, I feel is extremely selfish and lowers the morals of the company in my opinion.
By doing this research, it has brought out my own opinion's within this topic as I am an avid Iphone and Apple user myself which I think proves to me how relevant this story is for our news item which makes me pleased as I believe it will work really well and as we have been told by Beth T, it is so important for the news story to be relevant and current, which this definitely is. Especially as Apple is such a known company with billions of users worldwide.
The challenge that comes with this news story is ensuring that our own personal opinions do not come into play within the story telling we are needing to do within this news piece. I need to ensure I remain unbiased to ensure that we tell both sides to each story and gain opinions from people pro and against.
So that I can ensure that both of the stories we have decided to feature within our channel meet the right criteria, I am going through the three parts of News Beth T has advised us on, to ensure all three things are ticked and meet the needs of the news format we're trying to produce, which is a reliable, relevant and factual news piece.
Timeliness - Why Now?
This story is extremely relevant as the Iphone is being released in the month of November, meaning that when our news piece is being released and formatted we will have access to all the latest scoop regarding the Iphone 12 coming out. It also means that our news story is happening and impacting people right now as they receive their iphones or look into and research about the new Iphone.
Resonance - What does it mean for our audience?
Our news piece will be extremely beneficial for the audience, as we will be informing the audience on the new Iphone changes, the reasoning behind it and giving opinions from interviewees with honest opinions on their thoughts. Personally, as an Iphone user and I have been ever since I got my first proper phone around 7 years ago, the fact they're charging customers more for something they have to purchase to actually use the phone is awful. However, do people mind paying slightly more if it evidently helps with carbon emissions and the environment? and that in itself is why for the audience it is such an important news stories as its something people can discuss and decide within themselves.
Impact
The impact of the news story will be mostly surrounding how the audience perceive Apple following their changes in having to pay extra for a charger and also not receiving headphones within the box. Although, I clearly have my own personal opinion which will not be reflected in our news piece to ensure we all remain unbiased and consistently factual throughout, I think what I've stated above about my opinion shows how this will impact people, especially as I'm one out of billions of Iphone users.
Last thoughts
As I've conducted my research surrounding the release of the new Iphone 12 Pro, I have found that this would be a perfect news story for our channel, it's relevancy, impact and relatability for the audience will ensure that it is the right choice for our news channel and should connect with the audience how news should.
Cineworld Closure Research (Live OB)
I then went on to conduct research in relation to the closure of Cineworld and the news reports surrounding this. I wanted to research this story to make sure that as well, it was relevant and current. Due to the current pandemic which is causing many businesses unfortunately to struggle, I knew this is the right avenue to look down due to Cineworld being closed due to the struggle of the pandemic creating its current relevancy and relatability to the public. This in which, make its news worthy in my opinion.
I started by looking at the BBC, as I stated earlier, I find this a reliable news source in which I know the BBC has a public service to ensure that their information is factual and correct due to us being license payers and funding the service. Therefore, it would be morally wrong for the BBC not to have intense checks on ensuring information is factual and precise as technically its a service we fund. So I deem the BBC a reliable source which will help to ensure any information we use within our News Channel can also be deemed reliable.
The article written by Bill Wilson who is a BBC Business News reporter touches on the main reasons Cineworld has had to shut and concludes that the company "has been hit by delays in the release of big-budget films, putting 5,500 jobs at risk." (Wilson, 2020).
The article continues to explain that unfortunately with films like James Bond being delayed and with other production companies making the same decision, cinemas like Cineworld have no new films to show, which means that the customers and profit isn't their through old films that guests have already seen.
Cineworld have made the decision to temporarily close until the new year, they have also made the decision to make their staff redundant "in the hope of rejoining the company when theatres open again." (Wilson, 2020)
Timeliness - Why Now?
Due to current circumstances with Corona Virus, everything surrounding this virus is completely relevant within the news. Unfortunately, both positive and negative stories are released in relation to people going above and beyond to help others during this time to also stories surrounding the fall of businesses who cannot financially cope. As this story is based around Cineworld which is a successful entertainment company who are clearly struggling throughout the pandemic, this makes the story extremely relevant and up their with the main stories of our current news which is the Pandemic.
Resonance - What does it mean for our audience?
The relatability of this news story again I feel will resonate with the audience which ticks another box for why this should feature on our news channel. Whether a audience member knows someone who works at Cineworld and has been made redundant or is unaware that this has happened, they will most likely be aware of Cineworld as a company since they have 99 theatres in the UK. This means that its extremely likely to be a talking point 'Did you see our local Cineworld has shut'. This in itself justifies to me why this would resonate with the audience and provoke emotion and a response.
Impact
Again, like the Iphone, the cinema is somewhere everyone goes or has been. During this pandemic it has been a struggle for everyone both physically and mentally, when the cinemas opened I'm sure people were excited about attending their local cinema and losing all thoughts about the pandemic while being lost in a film. Therefore, the impact on cinema goers and Cineworld card holders is massive, again making the impact of the news stories current, relevant and needing to be told.
Last thoughts
I feel it's important that this is our Live OB, as we are reporting the story that is not as current as the Iphone being released and Cineworld is now shut and this has happened, I have suggested we use this news story as a way to interview a Cinema goer on how they are coping with the cinema being shut and what they will be doing to get their Cineworld fix. Although this is a negative story, people have lost their jobs and financially its clear the company wasn't managing. I think it's important we report the story however in a more positive light, giving factually details on what's happened and an interview with a Cineworld limitless member on how they're coping and things they're doing to still get their film fix.
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Developing Continued
Now that we had decided the stories we were including within our news piece, we decided our job roles and went onto channel branding. Firstly I will be speaking about our Job roles and researching how relating to News I can get the best out of my job roles with tips and how to correct or help with anything I'm unsure off.
These are the Job roles within my group.
Katie - DOP/Graphics and Design
Matt - Director/Pre-Production Manager
Syd - Researcher/Presenter
Stan - Producer/Researcher/Editor
As I chose the role of DOP and Graphic and Design, I think it's important I look at News formats, how they're structured and filmed. I also as Graphic Designer want to look into the branding of different news channels and how this will affect my decision for our own news channel.
News Structure
I decided to look at some information regarding News structures and how we wish to structure our news and the impact the research had on choices we made in relation to our own news piece. I started by watching the news nightly to see the difference in other news channels. I noticed firstly the difference in stories dependent on what time of day it is, my research then backed up this theory by advising that 'Main broadcasters have deliberately shifted the editorial agendas of their early and late evening bulletins to suit changing demographics' (Barnett, 2011). This now makes complete sense to me as I didn't quite understand why the news would change due to the time of the day if it was so important, however my research has taught me the reason why.
For example while watching a piece of the BBC News at 1pm, they featured a main News Package on how Breast Feeding babies as new research shows can actually damage the health of the Mum, however, this news piece then didn't feature on the six pm news. By looking at the research now, which proves news stories are put out to certain demographics at each time would make sense, as it's more likely a mum would be watching the news at 1pm if they're at home on maternity leave etc. Then at 6pm when everyone is home from work meaning its a much larger demographic. This has made me have a think about the type of things we will want to show on our channel and which time is best to upload videos. It has also made me realise how important our story is and that we did the right thing in choosing a story that will have such a large demographic.
Branding Of News Channels
I started of with looking into news graphics from other news channels, straight away I could see that they match the title graphics and follow the theme/colours of all the news channel. Here are some examples below.
Channel Four
Channel Four have rebranded in the last ten years for a more modern theme of purple, As you can see from the Studio the purple runs throughout the studio showing the theme and the logo clearly.
As I have mentioned above, you can see how important it is to ensure that the running theme throughout our news channel is consistent and all related, this will help not only commercially with our news channel but I also feel will help with our credibility, as we're following the regular news theme format. I have made the decisions with the backing from my group to ensure our graphics are relevant to our news channel theme, which is Business and Tech news, straight away I relate the colours blue and dark blue, which I feel display both a business and technical side as you can see below.
What went well in regards to graphics
As you can see from the template, it was defaulted at red which was definitely not the colour pallet I was wanting to use, as I've mentioned above, we feel that the blue resembles our channel focus well. I then changed the colours and felt that we needed to add also the breaking news box. I felt this was important to continue to follow the traditional news format and give the audience a top line of what was to come within our news package.
Update 25/11/2020
With Stan editing the decision has been made for him to continue work on the graphics for the final piece, although I had created title graphics and graphics to feature within the final piece, due to technical issues and not being able to meet in person, we were unable to transfer my work onto his computer without exporting the footage. We didn't chose to export the footage as once sent to Stan he wouldn't be able to work on it, which would be silly as while editing he may need to cut something down or extend the time it is on screen which he won't be able to do if I export the video and send it to him, instead of the timeline which we can't sent to work on. This is the reason for why the graphics are different within the final piece, however everything created has been done with my research in mind to ensure we're following the correct news theme for our channel we have planned too.
Developing Our Channel and Platform Research
Although, I have written an AV script before, it wasn't related to News and therefore I was apprehensive to begin with about writing the script. I drafted the AV script and as a group we began speaking about how we wish our presenter to come across and speak throughout. Throughout my research in regards to News, their formats and also the research I have completed in regards to our news stories. I felt confident that we knew how to deliver what it is we wanted to get across within out story. As I have mentioned previously, it's important we are unbiased, otherwise it takes away from us being a factual channel, as coming across biased would mean we had allowed our own feelings and opinions to creep into the script.
Here is the Script below:
As Beth had told us and as my research has shown, directing the script to the audience specifically and individually is how the typical news format is scripted, which is what we're going for. While researching the script I came across a video from the BBC Young Reporter part of the BBC website.
'It will be read aloud, so it will need to be pretty conversational' (Edwards, 2019) is the direction in which Huw Edwards advises a news script should go. This backs up my theory 'Broadcast journalists should aim to write as they would speak to an individual member of the audience, using a clear and accurate version of the spoken language.' (Thompson, 2010) which I researched prior to writing the script. For example, in the intro which I wanted to write to ensure we capture the audience within seconds, I have written for the presenter to say 'We provide the link between you and your entertainment News'. This not only references the name of our channel Global Link News but also as Edwards advised, I feel is a conversation starter which is directed to each person at home individually by using 'providing you' instead of allowing the audience to feel that the News isn't specifically for them.
Huw Edwards then goes on to explain the 3 C's when writing News Scripts, you want your report to be Clear, Concise and Correct. When writing the script I continued to go back to these three values to ensure I had taken on board what was mentioned within my research with the BBC Reporter video.
The idea of ensuring our script is clear allows it to be suitable for every audience, if we were to be using words or long words that maybe not everyone would understand, we would potentially lose our audience. |It also meant to be 'writing simply and straightforwardly usually means writing sentences that are not too long' (Thompson, 2010), this also backs up Edwards theory of keeping it concise and dense as I will go on to speak about below.
The second part I continued to ensure we were doing throughout the script writing stage, following the research I had learnt, was that we needed to ensure each report was concise. If we were not to follow this stage, we could end up with a news report or Live OB that is too long, or has information which is irrelevant and an over share. We want to ensure by keeping concise all information is relevant and there for a reason to deliver the best story.
The final piece I took from the video that I continued to refer to when writing the script was that we always needed to be correct. We need to ensure all information that we put into the video is a reliable source and is factual information. I did this when writing the script by ensuring the sources we had used were correct, for example all information in regards to the Apple release came from sources we deem reliable such as BBC News and Apple itself. This way I knew what I was writing in regards to statistics was correct, as this was from Apples websites itself.
I'm really happy with the script, as I mentioned at first I was worried about the script as I hadn't written a News script before, however by researching and coming across the BBC News Reporter, script writing video, this gave me the power to be confident in what I was writing, as I had followed what I had learnt from this video to follow the 3 C's to keep the audience engaged and the News Package format correct.
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Filming the Promo/ Promo Meeting
Part of our decision making within this group meeting was how we wanted to shoot the promo, obviously a promo is the first thing you see on youtube as a channel trailer, so it's important it was engaging and explains exactly what our channel is about in a short space of time.
During production, I had an idea that I wanted to convey our channel as somewhere you an get the 'inside scoop'. I feel as research has shown, there are so many different News Channels all breaking similar stories, we have to stand out. By having one of our slogans as 'Bringing you the inside scoop'. I feel already our target audience could be more engaged as they feel they're getting something they may not from any other channel.
I started brainstorming Ideas with Stan on how to convey this to an audience. I then told the group my idea, of making it look like the beginning of production, almost giving them a sneak peak as to what happens before the cameras start rolling.
At this point me and Stan began bouncing ideas of each other, we had lights going on at certain points, Stan acting as producer, Sydney then looking as if she was getting ready. I was then on the camera and zoomed in just a few seconds before we 'went live'.
I also then wrote the script for what Sydney would be saying, using the research I had already gained from scriptwriting, I wanted to make sure it was engaging but also conversational for our demographic. As the platform we are using is Youtube, it allows us to have lots of videos up at once. In the script I wrote for Sydney to say 'Come in and take a look around'. I felt this was a really good opener, it allows the audience to feel as if our channel is theirs and they can watch and comment on everything related. I felt this was extremely suited to the target audience of our channel and youtube.
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Preparing for the Pitch
To ensure that we are able to explain and promote our channel, we conducted a Pitch to explain the reasoning behind our decisions. This was a really good exercise for us, as it allowed us to be able to view what we had decided and continue to discuss if this was the right decision to then promote and get feedback on.
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List Of Illustrations
Fig 1. Forbes (2020) Iphone 12 Promotional Campaign [Photograph] At: forbes.com/sites/gordonkelly/2020/09/01/apple-iphone-12-pro-price-price-cost-release-date-iphone-11-pro-max-upgrade/?sh=2f1172047753 (Accessed 25/10/2020)
Fig 2. Cineworld (2020) Cineworld Closure Advertisement [Advertisement] At: https://www.cineworld.co.uk/#/ (Accessed on 05/11/2020)
Fig 3. Channel Four (2020) Channel 4 News Studio [Google Image] At: https://www.channel4.com/news/channel-4-news-moves-into-pioneering-new-studio (Accessed on 05/11/2020)
Fig 4. Channel Four (2020) Channel 4 Website Banner [Banner Printscreen] At: https://www.channel4.com/news/ (Accessed on 05/11/2020)
Fig 5. Channel Four (2020) Channel 4 Youtube Logo [Youtube Logo] At: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=channel+4+news (Accessed on 05/11/2020)
Fig 6. Pinterest (2020) Technical Desktop Background 1 [Background] At: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/322148179578787044/ (Accessed on 05/11/2020)
Fig 6. Pinterest (2020) Technical Desktop Background 2 [Background] At: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/788481847235709525/ (Accessed on 05/11/2020)
Bibliography
Barnett, S. (2011). The Rise and Fall of Television Journalism: Just Wires and Lights in a Box?. London: Bloomsbury Academic. Retrieved December 2, 2020, from http://dx.doi.org.ucreative.idm.oclc.org/10.5040/9781849666473
Boyd, A (2008) Broadcast Joirnalism:Radio and Television News [Online] At: https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ucreative-ebooks/reader.action?docID=1074583 (Accessed 08/11/2020)
Chapman, J & Kinsey, M (2008). Broadcast Journalism : A Critical Introduction 2008. ProQuest Ebook Central, https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ucreative-ebooks/detail.action?docID=362312.
Evening Express (2020) Channel 4 News (Doubles it's audience among you viewers) At: https://www.eveningexpress.co.uk/lifestyle/entertainment/channel-4-news-doubles-its-audience-among-younger-viewers/ (Accessed on 05/11/2020)
Gaines, T.(2020) 'No Charger in the Box? Everything You Need to Know About Charging the iPhone 12' In: PC Mag At:https://uk.pcmag.com/mobile-phones/129523/no-charger-in-the-box-everything-you-need-to-know-about-charging-the-iphone-12 (Accessed 29/10/2020)
How do you write a news script? BBC Young Reporter (2019) [Youtube Tutorial] At: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypZG5NrhArQ (Accessed on 08/11/2020)
Thompson, R. (2010) Writing for Broadcast Journalists. (2nd Edition) Routledge (Accessed 01/11/2020)
Wilson, B. (2020) 'Cineworld to shut down UK screens after Bond film delay' In: BBC News At: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-54407213 (Accessed 25/10/2020)
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