Introduction to the news

The News

I watched a news broadcast from the eighth of March, 2015. The broadcast was originally shown at ten o'clock at night and was for the London area. The stories covered in the broadcast were the following, in the following order; A man managed to get on the roof of the Houses of Parliament, the Mayor of London has been criticised for his failure to crack-down on cyber crimes, there was a march across London for International Women's Day to highlight equality and finally the weather. The starting sequence for the news showed a rotating globe with shots of people and local landmarks. The accompanying music was fast paced and played on lower notes, giving it a deep, bassy quality. The rotating globe is used to signify that the news is connecting with and displaying the news of the whole world. The music used is very iconic and is easily recognisable and is deep and loud to attract attention of viewers, for example if someone was flicking through channels the theme would attract the viewer to stay and watch.

The Role of Presenters

In the broadcast I watched the presenter was "Sonya Jessop", a woman who appeared to be in her

An image of Sonya Jessop from
BBC News

early thirties with blonde hair and blue eyes. She welcomed the audience and linked stories while other presenters read the stories. The first story was presented by "Mark Ashdown", a man in his late thirties to early forties who had dark, balding hair. The second story was presented by "Tim Donnovan", who was not seen in any shots and was a voice-over, giving structure to the piece. The third story was presented by "Sonya Jessop", the studio presenter. The news was then handed over to a woman named "Elizabeth Rizzini", a woman in her late fifties with dark hair. The studio presenter, "Sonya Jessop", then ended the show.


Presenters of the news are often middle-aged, between forty and fifty. In the example we watched, there was one male and one female presenter, the man appeared to be late to early fifties and the woman was much younger. Presenters perform a difficult task as they have to not only present the news as according to the script but also adjust the way it is said and at what rate. The presenter's job is to read the script to the camera, almost a storyteller role - informing the audience of the news that has happened that day. Presenters tell the story by reading the news story to the camera to inform the audience of what has happened that day, they must present it impartially. If a certain piece is taking too long the presenters may be required to speed up their rate of speech to fit it in. Presenters have earpieces with a number of different people, such as directors and video mixers, instructing what should be done at what time. The presenters of the news link stories by rounding off the topic they are currently on fully before beginning the next topic, so that each story has a logical stopping point  - despite them not being related. This helps to keep the structure clear for the audience. They maintain a formal address and wear smart-casual clothing. The news presenters must be able to work quickly and listen to multiple people talking to them at once as well as speaking.

The Order of Stories

One of the most important factors when it comes to creating a factual news bulletin is deciding where each of the news stories should go in the broadcast, or as it's known in the news - ordering. The term given to the list of stories likely to appear in the show is the billing. There is, much like in many other industries, a standard way that the vast majority of news channels follow. The first story is determined through an algorithm of relevance, the more relevant the story is to the potential audience

the more likely it is to be featured first. Stories that are deemed to have a high level of relevance will be featured higher up on the list. Factors that are likely to affect this are things such as international, national or local events. Recent examples of big stories are things such as the Ebola outbreak. This story is selected as it will hopefully hook the audience and keep them watching. The other stories are selected through relevance, the least relevant coming further down the list. The final story in the news is called the finisher or the "and finally" which is often a much more lighthearted story to leave the audience feeling happy as opposed to worried or upset about the news they have just seen. In the broadcast I watched the "and finally" is likely the march for International Women's Day as it is a happy, good occasion and would leave the viewer feeling good that lots of people have gathered to support equality. An important skill in the news industry is the ability to act quickly. This is due to the fact that news moves very quickly and certain points often become invalid, or irrelevant by the time it comes to broadcasting. If a story about a court decision is planned to be broadcast on a certain day and the jury have not finished deliberation by the time it comes to broadcasting the news team have to quickly schedule a different story to fill the slot. There is a final term for the order of stories that is deemed a "slow news day". This is where there are very few stories that are of relevance to the audience, or stories that have very little international impact. In these situations news is shown to fill the spot, most likely very lighthearted.

The term news values is used to determine how newsworthy a story is, and therefore where it will appear in the ordering. This term was coined by Galtung and Ruge. The list of news values, set out by the media researchers Galtung and Ruge, are still in use today as the test for newsworthiness. For all of the examples herein I viewed a news broadcast from the 12th of March 2015. The first value is negativity. Negativity, as the name suggests, is negative news such as death or tragedy. An example of this from recent news is where author Terry Pratchett's death was reported, this was the third story in the broadcast. The second value outlined is the proximity. News that is more related to home is always broadcast higher than unrelated foreign affairs. An example of this is the first story in the broadcast which reported on two British men joining the fight against the Islamic state, despite

Two British fighters, joining the fight
against Islamic state.

having very little training. The third value is recency. This means that stories that are more recent will have a higher level of relevance to the audience. An example of this from the broadcast would be, as previously used, the death of Terry Pratchett as it had happened only a few hours before the news was reported. The fifth value is currency. This is where a story that has been in the public eye for a long time is shown as it is still relevant to the public. An example of this is the story I previously mentioned about the Islamic state, this story has been in the news for a long time and it continues to make headlines due to its currency. A further value is continuity. This is a story that has a continued impact on the audience so persuade the audience to keep on watching, day after day. An example of this would be the news section of the broadcast I watched, where various sports are updated daily. Another news value is uniqueness. A story that is more unique is much more likely to make the news due to its obscurity. An example of

An image of Terry Pratchett from the
news report.

this is the story, from the broadcast I viewed, of a couple who were reunited with their daughter 17 years after her kidnap. This is an unique story as there are so few examples of this happening. A further news value is simplicity. This is where the news will favor stories that are easier to explain. There are many examples in the broadcast I watched, such as the story that the police abandoned evidence of sexual abuse in Sheffield, which later turned out to be true. This story is easy to explain to the audience over other stories that could be a lot more intricate in the facts. Another news value used in determining newsworthiness is personality. This means that stories that revolve around a celebrity or well known person will also make the news. An example of this is the death of author Terry Pratchett. As he is well known this story makes the news. Another news value that was defined by Galtung and Ruge is predictability. This is where news that would be predictable would be shown, such as news that it is expected to be shown. There is no example in the broadcast that I watched but an example that would be valid is if something like a terrorist attack were to have taken place, this is big and is expected to be featured. A further news value is where something features an elite nation or person. An example of this, from the broadcast I watched, is where Nigel Farrage public said that anti-discrimination laws should be scrapped. As he is in the public eye as an important figure, this is newsworthy. Another news value is exclusivity. This is where news stories that are exclusive to a news network will be featured. This is because all news channels attempt to be the first to report certain stories. The final news value is size. The bigger the story the more newsworthy it is as it makes more impact on the audience. An example of this would be where the broadcast included a story involving the Islamic state, as this has big impact with the viewers.

Using an old broadcast

In class we watched an old news broadcast to help to learn about the news. The story we watched was about a couple who had fallen behind on their mortgage, leading to a cut in interest rates. There were five people involved; Pierre Chowles, Christina Chowles, their baby, a council worker and the voice-over. The main people in the story, Pierre and Christina Chowles, were represented as quite weak people that needed help. The way that this was done was, for example, in the first scene Pierre was seen slipping in the snow, to almost represent that he was in trouble and that he needed help and was, quite literally, on a slippery slope. Another scene which was intended for the audience to feel sorry for the people features in it is where there is a shot of their baby playing. This was done to show that they had an innocent, defenceless, young child to look after and that without their home their child would not have anywhere to live so that it could grow up. Their worry is also very visible in the way that they talk and the way that they are seen in the shots given. They were talking in very calm and downbeat tones, demonstrating that they were worried, and they had very neutral, almost down expressions, keeping their eyes down also. There was a definite selection of shots where certain shots such as Christina Chowles playing with her child and shots of them having fun with their dog were chosen as they invoke the most emotion in the audience. I felt sympathetic towards the people represented in the story as they were innocent home-owners whom had managed to lose their home through no fault of their own. I personally felt sympathetic towards the unfortunate homeowners due to the way they were portrayed as well as the fact that they had lost their home. The news story was narrated by a voice-over to help the audience follow what was happening on the screen. Without the narrative the story would not flow from one one point to another clearly, nor would extra information that cannot be sourced from the interviews, or seen on screen, be accessed. Having the narrative helps the audience to follow and gain information on what is happening to the subjects of the piece and the overall story about the cut in interest rates. The narrative is also used to make viewers feel a certain way about the subjects. The narrative in this piece used emotive language regarding how they had lost their home.

Using a broadcast I have found

In this section I will analyse a broadcast that I found and watched. For this I will use the story of two British fighters joining the anti-Islamic state fighters. The story revolved around the fact that people from other countries were joining the Kurd fighters in helping fight against the Islamic state, and importantly two British citizens had joined. Involved in the story were the two British citizens whom were interviewed about their involvement, the reporter who was visible and active in the

An image from the news report of two
British men, fighting Islamic State.

conversations and a third person who had joined the fight. The people in the story were represented fairly and equally, and overall impartially. The story was interesting and kept my attention throughout the whole piece and opened my eyes to something that I didn't know was happening. I felt quite sympathetic towards the people in the piece as they were fighting against something they didn't believe in, however I did feel like it was their choice to fight so I was not completely sympathetic towards them. The news story made me feel this way by the way that the two men were presented and the questions asked by the reporter to them. One of the questions asked was directly asking the men why they decided to join a fight that was not theirs which casts a certain light on the situation. The story went on to discuss whether they would risk prison time if and when they returned to the United Kingdom, potentially painting them as outlaws giving them a negative connotation. The piece used narrative to help structure the footage and the reporter was also talking to the people therein, face-to-face and his presence was visible. The reporter was actively seem on the camera and talking to camera about all of the issues as well as performing interviews with the main subjects, the two British men, as well as people from other countries that had joined the fight such as an American man and two Swedish men. The use of narrative helped the story to flow appropriately and without it the transitions between talking to the different people would not have made much sense. The reporter helped to provide the clear story throughout providing not only links between footage but a descriptive narrative in the background on what is happening and giving extra information.

Bias

The act of being biased is, in basic terms, being swayed towards a certain viewpoint or way of thinking through a number of different techniques. I will discuss the ways and techniques that news could be biased. The first way in which news could be biased is through selection. The news network will choose what they want to show and what they want to omit from the programme. An example of this would be where certain stories would not make the headlines due to them not being deemed newsworthy or simply because they want to sway the audience a certain way. A further technique of bias utilised by news networks is through order and placement. The news network will decide where things are ordered, things that are higher up in the order will be top stories and will therefore get more coverage whereas stories that are lower in the order will get less airtime. An example of this would be in the news broadcast I watched in the previous section, stories of British men joining the fight against the Islamic state was given more airtime, as it was the first story, and further stories had less airtime due to this. Another way in which a news network may use bias is where they will choose the wording of a headline carefully as to sway an audience a certain way. An example of this would be the way the main headline was announced saying that "a teacher and a city trader, the Britons gone to Syria to fight against Islamic state". This is the first headline of the show and it is not mitigated at all, it jumps straight into the action. A further way in which the media uses bias is the camera angles. The way in which different scenes are shot can affect how the audience interprets what they are being told. An example of this would be in the story about the British men going to fight in Syria where camera angles are used to show close-ups of their faces. This shows people their emotion in a close, intimate way that could sway their opinion of the men. Another way in which news networks can be biased is through the use of captions. This would be where the description of experts used on the news could sway the public's opinion of some, if someone had the caption "paleontologist" they would be more respected than if they had the caption "dinosaur expert" as it sounds more

An example of how giving a guest a title
can make them sound more professional.

professional. An example of this would be in the news broadcast I watched a police officer that was investigating alleged sexual abuse was described as "Former Officer, South Yorkshire Police". The use of this title makes him seem a more reputable source than had they used "Former Police Office" as it gives where he was a police officer, making it feel more authentic to the viewer thus potentially swaying their opinion. The final way in which the news can be biased is through their choice of words. Nothing is as expressive as the English language, simply due to the sheer number of synonyms and words in the dictionary therefore the choice of words can have a huge impact on how something is interpreted. This can be seen throughout the broadcast as only formal language is used to make everything feel more professional. This could sway the audience's opinion as the way in which it is said, and the words used, can change opinions. A specific example of this, however, would be where the presenter says "A British teacher and former soldier has traveled to Syria to join the fight against so called Islamic state". This uses certain phrases and words that are seen as formal such as "former", "so called" and "traveled", where if it were in an informal setting the presenter could have said "a British teacher and ex-soldier has gone to Syria to join the fight against Islamic state". Therefore removing the formality, this would be exactly the same sentence but it would give off a much different message to the audience.