Before I began to construct my news broadcast and the accompanying radio advertisement, I have decided it would be necessary for me to do some planning and in depth research as a prelude to my final broadcast so that my final product is produced to a high standard. I began by researching into the TV news category as a whole, by looking at various examples of news programmes such as BBC News, Newsround and Channel 5. From this I was able to gain an understanding of what a stereo-typical, successful news broadcast should look and sound like. It was also pivotal for me to understand the importance of Newsworthiness and News Theory in order for a broadcast to communicate effectively to an audience. Although the codes and conventions are reoccurring and similar in all of the news extracts which I analysed, I also identified their differences. For example, when looking at a Newsround extract in great detail, I found that this news programme in particular differs in order to appeal to its target audience. As well as this I identified the differences between National and Local News. In the following Prezi I have researched the codes and conventions of Local TV News as well as the ways in which it attempts to target its audience.
When looking at the types of news programmes, I also chose to research the differences between National TV News and Local TV News as well as the ways in which they attempt to appeal to their target audience. I considered what types of stories are most appropriate for which type of Broadcast and also how the stories appeal to the programmes target audience. The Prezi below documents my research into Local TV News and the following Prezi entails my National News research.
CBBC Newsround Analysis - 4th October
I then decided to research a type of News programme that had a completely distinct target audience from the rest, I did this in order to identify the different methods used for appeal as well as the difference in the presentation of stories. Newsround was perfect for my research as it has a specific target audience of children and is distinguishable from all other types of News Broadcasts. The Prezi below consists of my analysis of an episode of Newsround.
Codes and Conventions - 8th October
I chose to research the codes and conventions of TV News as I felt it would supplement my current knowledge and give me a greater understanding of what it would take to produce a broadcast myself. I looked at the reporters, structure, terminology, mode of address, shot types and sound in order to fully understand every aspect of the production process of a TV news broadcast. This will also be of assistance to me when analysing my next 2-3 news programmes so I know exactly what to look for. I have used slide share to display my research.
Codes and conventions from connerbmedia
Sport Report Analysis - 10th October
After looking at the different types of news broadcast, I decided to then look into the different genre's of news so that I could identify the different ways in which a story is depicted to an audience. I chose to research a sport based report and an economic report which allowed me to identify the differences in the presentations of the reports, the tones used as well as the language used.
Economic Report Analysis - 16th October
I decided to present my research on an economic report with a video narration as I found it displayed my ability to identify events within the broadcast as they happened. I used it as an opportunity to present my research in a variety of different ways using different technologies.
Differences
Narrative Theories - 20th October
After having researched 5 different TV News broadcasts, I chose to research narrative theories. Todorov, Claude Levis-Strauss, Barthes and Propp all contributed towards the discussion about the things that you can expect to find in different moving image formats. Here I have conducted my research on their individual theories along with application of some of the theories to a news broadcast for demonstration.
Galtung and Ruge Research - 28th October
After looking at different narrative theories I decided it would be a good idea to supplement my existing knowledge with research into news values. I decided to research the work of media theorists Galtung and Ruge who's theory is seen as the benchmark for new worthiness, identified as being world renowned for its accuracy. I felt it would be more practical for me to verbally communicate my knowledge of the theory as I could explain it better in this way. Galtung and Ruge's research is broken down into 3 categories, Impact, Audience identification and Pragmatics of Media Coverage. The media theorists stated that these are the 3 things that media institutions will use to decide whether or not a story will be covered in a broadcast.
3rd November
Before we organised a filming day to capture shots and video recordings around the city centre to use for our title sequence, I felt that it would be of benefit to create a possible news bulletin/potential story. I wanted to choose a topic that would make it easy for me to take images and recordings related to it in the city centre so that I could use them when producing my own actual broadcast.Thus, I created a planned script for a story about the growing number of apprenticeships consisting of an interview with an apprentice who works in the city centre.
Additional Analysis - 4th November
I then decided to round off my research by analysing one more news report so that I fully understood the codes and conventions, the values and the expectations of a successful news broadcast and specifically a news story.
Production
This is an image of me recording my voice over for the previous video, in this image is the technology that I have at my disposal when it comes to recording and dubbing sound. I will look to utilize this technology when it comes to my final news report as it acts as great equipment to create a voice over with when creating a news story. I could also possibly use these microphones to dub the out of view narration for the reports in to my own news broadcast. As well as this I can use this equipment to make videos of myself when it comes to the evaluation, as this will be a more interesting way to present my research.
Questionnaire - 6th November
For my next piece of research I felt that it was imperative to create a questionnaire to give directly to my audience in order to garner a greater understanding of what they expected from a local news broadcast. As well as this I wanted to find out about the public's consumption or lac of consumption of news in general along with the reasons for this. For this task I decided to develop a sheet consisting of 10 questions which I handed out to my form group consisting of 11-18 year olds and also to parents, teachers and some members of the public. I made sure both males and females were surveyed. By doing this I was able to receive feedback from a range of people which I intended to do in order to make my research broad so that it was representative of all groups and thus reliable as a piece of research.
Something that I haven't included in the voice over is that one person commented that they felt it was a convention of any news programme to have a male anchor. However, this does not adhere to my research into existing news programmes where the majority of anchors are actually female, something that I will keep in mind. My audience research also shows me that only 2 news reports are expected by the audience, this allows me to go into a lot more detail when recording for my broadcast.
SurveyMonkey - 17th November
I decided that I wanted to broaden my audience research therefore I created a surveymonkey which is a form of an online survey. I embedded this survey onto my blog below so that anybody at any time can come to my blog and fill out the questionnaire. I have intended for this survey to reach a wider variety of people in terms of age and gender to get a better consensus for my queries.Sport Report Analysis - 10th October
After looking at the different types of news broadcast, I decided to then look into the different genre's of news so that I could identify the different ways in which a story is depicted to an audience. I chose to research a sport based report and an economic report which allowed me to identify the differences in the presentations of the reports, the tones used as well as the language used.
Economic Report Analysis - 16th October
I decided to present my research on an economic report with a video narration as I found it displayed my ability to identify events within the broadcast as they happened. I used it as an opportunity to present my research in a variety of different ways using different technologies.
Differences
- The sports story uses a much more upbeat tone using positive language
- The economic story uses a downbeat, serious tone
- The economic story uses a hand held camera to connote spontaneity and franticness
- The reporter is much more involved in the economic story being a prominent figure throughout
- The economic report shows more interaction between the reporter and the interviewee during short interviews
- Economic report displays elements of the ambiguity news value; the sports report shows attempts to impose the broadcasters opinion throughout the narration where as the economic report purposely gives people multiple angles on the story, allowing the audience to speculate meaning
Narrative Theories - 20th October
After having researched 5 different TV News broadcasts, I chose to research narrative theories. Todorov, Claude Levis-Strauss, Barthes and Propp all contributed towards the discussion about the things that you can expect to find in different moving image formats. Here I have conducted my research on their individual theories along with application of some of the theories to a news broadcast for demonstration.
Galtung and Ruge Research - 28th October
After looking at different narrative theories I decided it would be a good idea to supplement my existing knowledge with research into news values. I decided to research the work of media theorists Galtung and Ruge who's theory is seen as the benchmark for new worthiness, identified as being world renowned for its accuracy. I felt it would be more practical for me to verbally communicate my knowledge of the theory as I could explain it better in this way. Galtung and Ruge's research is broken down into 3 categories, Impact, Audience identification and Pragmatics of Media Coverage. The media theorists stated that these are the 3 things that media institutions will use to decide whether or not a story will be covered in a broadcast.
3rd November
Before we organised a filming day to capture shots and video recordings around the city centre to use for our title sequence, I felt that it would be of benefit to create a possible news bulletin/potential story. I wanted to choose a topic that would make it easy for me to take images and recordings related to it in the city centre so that I could use them when producing my own actual broadcast.Thus, I created a planned script for a story about the growing number of apprenticeships consisting of an interview with an apprentice who works in the city centre.
Additional Analysis - 4th November
I then decided to round off my research by analysing one more news report so that I fully understood the codes and conventions, the values and the expectations of a successful news broadcast and specifically a news story.
Production
This is an image of me recording my voice over for the previous video, in this image is the technology that I have at my disposal when it comes to recording and dubbing sound. I will look to utilize this technology when it comes to my final news report as it acts as great equipment to create a voice over with when creating a news story. I could also possibly use these microphones to dub the out of view narration for the reports in to my own news broadcast. As well as this I can use this equipment to make videos of myself when it comes to the evaluation, as this will be a more interesting way to present my research.For my next piece of research I felt that it was imperative to create a questionnaire to give directly to my audience in order to garner a greater understanding of what they expected from a local news broadcast. As well as this I wanted to find out about the public's consumption or lac of consumption of news in general along with the reasons for this. For this task I decided to develop a sheet consisting of 10 questions which I handed out to my form group consisting of 11-18 year olds and also to parents, teachers and some members of the public. I made sure both males and females were surveyed. By doing this I was able to receive feedback from a range of people which I intended to do in order to make my research broad so that it was representative of all groups and thus reliable as a piece of research.
The questionnaire
Questionnaire Results
Evaluation of my results - Voice Over Presentation - 15th November
Something that I haven't included in the voice over is that one person commented that they felt it was a convention of any news programme to have a male anchor. However, this does not adhere to my research into existing news programmes where the majority of anchors are actually female, something that I will keep in mind. My audience research also shows me that only 2 news reports are expected by the audience, this allows me to go into a lot more detail when recording for my broadcast.
SurveyMonkey - 17th November
Create your own user feedback survey
I have made decisions on certain aspects of my final local TV news broadcast using the results collected from the questionnaire and the surveymonkey. Although, these decisions are subject to change in accordance to future audience research that I will carry out. I have decided as of yet that the tone of the report will be mainly formal/professional and informative with small elements of colloquialism through the use of play on words and puns. I have also decided that I will have 2 news reports and 4 interviews along with a weather report conducted by a female at the end of the broadcast.
To conclude, the results of my questionnaires mostly correlate with my research into existing news programmes.
I screen recorded using Corel ScreenCapx8, a feature of Corel Videostudio, which was extremely easy to use.
Independent audience Research - 21st November
My work partner and I then decided to carry out some independent research so that we were aware of what people generally expected from a TV news broadcast. We asked pupils within the school and members of staff their opinions and filmed their responses. This helped me to understand audience expectations thus assisting me in my capability of producing a professional, industry standard product.We interviewed a fellow sixth former as he is of the same age as us and we also interviewed a teacher at our school to get an idea of what an adult would expect to see from a news report. This helped me garner greater knowledge of what to include in the news report. The results of my research were that I should have a young female correspondent for any weather report and an older male as a sports correspondent, as it was suggested that this is more relatable to the audience. Finally my research would suggest that within the 5 minute news report I should include between 3 and 4 news stories and as my report will be a local news the stories should be soft/positive news. It was important that I carried out this research as now I have a solid set of guidelines that I will stick to and refer to when creating my news report.
Target Audience: From my research my target audience would be people of all ages. I have deduced from the research that older people consume more local TV news, although there is only a few amount of people under the age of 18 who regularly consume local TV news. As a result of these findings I will utilise the codes and conventions of local TV news within my own programme to appeal to adults. However, it is essential that I personalise my programme to the younger generation in order to specifically appeal to them.
Next I looked at existing title sequences to see what a professional title sequence for a TV news broadcast would look like. I chose to look at the nations largest news broadcaster the BBC.This prepared me for the creation of my own product as it gave me an understanding of the necessary features/components that a title sequence consists of. I identified a news tune, graphics, locations and the continuity of the broadcasters house style.
Storyboard For Title Sequence - 24th November
After some personal research and a class discussion I found that there are 4 main things which should be included in the title sequence. They are...
Rural areas, Urban areas, Ethnicity, Iconic Landmarks
This allows me to include a variety of different imagery for my opening sequence so that I am able to capture the personality and landscape of the West Midlands.
I have short listed 9 potential shots of which I will condense into 7 shots for my actual opening title sequence. Of these 9 separate clips for my opening sequence I will choose only two out of the three night scenes of Birmingham's city centre and only one of the football stadiums. I have also considered changing the order of these clips so that they transition from day to night rather than having no daylight order as they currently do not on my storyboard. As well as this I may reconsider the order of the shots as a whole. These are things I will decide on when actually creating my opening sequence.
1. I plan to start my opening sequence with a scenic shot of town at night. I will try to make the Birmingham Library the centre of this shot with the Birmingham Rep along side it in order to capture the recognisable landmarks of the West Midlands. I will have to capture this from a long shot so that I can get the whole of the buildings in one clip. As well as this I will take the shot from an eye-line match view/angle as this is achievable for me to do and it is aesthetically pleasing for the audience. I am going to try and capture youth in this shot to reinforce that it is an urban location. Finally I will use the wipe transition as it makes the movement into the next shot almost unnoticeable, giving little impression of a change in angle or location which is the case with the two shots.
2. For my second shot I will have yet another scenic view of the Birmingham city centre but this time I will film the iconic land mark selfridges. Once again I will use a long shot for this clip in order get the whole of the large building in view. I will pan up to a high angle of the building which will hopefully translate to the viewers the sheer size of the building. This will present the industrial side of the West Midlands and when amalgamated with the first shot of the library and the rep I will have successfully captured the iconic landmarks, within the West Midlands, in the opening title sequence. I will use a dissolve transition as my next clip will be shown from a different angle thus the dissolve transition fits best for this evolution of shot angle.
3. For my third segment I will either use the bull ring bull or Colmore Row. The bull ring bull is iconic however the shot of Colmore Row will allow me to show the real industrial side of Birmingham. I will capture the shot of the bull from a medium distance and a low angle as that is where the actual public have seen the bull from, making it identifiable for the viewer, potentially striking a chord within them. I have said on my storyboard I will use a fade transition however after further inspection I think it would be better to use a fast pace cut to distinguish it from the upcoming shot which is an a rural location. I will use a long shot from a high up angle to capture Colmore Row as it is a large industrial area and I want to capture it all. I will use a dissolve transition and a pan up for this clip so that once again I can show the scale of the land mark in the succeeding shot.
4. For my fourth clip I plan to use the iron bridge as this will cover the rural aspect needed in order to cover the 4 main areas required for a professional title sequence. I already have some professional shots of the iron bridge from a family trip that I went on so obtaining this shot will not be difficult. I personally like this shot because it is a combination of the West Midlands rural areas and its industrial aspect, with the Iron bridge symbolising the industrial revolution as the West Midlands is a proud industrial region. Once again I plan for this image to be a long shot as it is the best way to capture the essence of the rural area. This shot will be taken from a low angle and then I will pan up. I was going to use a wipe transition for this shot to take the viewers to an urban clip however a cut acts as a good separation between the two entirely different images and the dissolve animation will work really well with the peaceful country side/rural area, therefore I am undecided on which one of these to use.
5. For the 5th on screen image I will present the urban side of Birmingham by showing the locally famous 11 bus. I have decided that I will try and capture different ethnicities boarding the bus in order to incorporate ethnicity into my opening title sequence, something that is a key feature especially of this diverse region. I will use a medium shot with an eye-line match angle, the typical view when boarding a bus. The transition I will use will be a pan up to the top deck of the bus and then a fast cut so that I can pan down in the following clip.
6. For the sixth clip I wanted a sport venue in order to relate to my audience. I have decided to opt with the Ricoh Arena rather than St Andrews stadium as I felt the opening titles would be too based around Birmingham. I would like to capture the Ricoh Arena from a long shot, high angle as I hope this will highlight the size of the Arena acting as a metaphor for sport in general in the West Midlands. I did not originally decide on a transition but now I have decided that a dissolve transition would be the most aesthetically pleasing.
7. For my final segment I have opted to showcase the newly built New Street Railway Station as it is a new industrial development in the West Midlands. As well as this the iconic railway station reinforces that the region is industrialised and prosperous. The audience will instantly recognise the building as it is brand new and has had a lot of media coverage making it a current attraction within the city. It will be captured from a low angle by panning up from the ground, from a medium distance away.
Completing this storyboard has made me feel better prepared and I now have a clearer idea for when I go into Birmingham City Centre as to what shots to take and how to take them in order to produce my desired title sequence.
Emailing Big Centre TV - 29th November
As a class we decided upon doing some further research. Our teacher tweeted Lois, a video journalist from local news broadcaster, Big Centre TV, asking her for her email, thankfully she responded. The class and I compiled an email where we told her our task at hand and asked for advice on making a professional TV news broadcast. we chose specific questions to ask her in the email, asking a full range of different queries.An industry experts advice would benefit me, and the class as a whole, an awful lot in creating our local news broadcasts. We were hopeful she would respond as her passing on of knowledge would be an invaluable, positive influence on our work work.
Below is Lois's response to my email
The advice she gave was to keep news packages around 1 minute 30 seconds to avoid losing viewer attention. She also advised us to let the images do the talking, she used the example of some one making a cup of tea, "close up of the water pouring into the cup, followed by a wide shot of the person pouring the water into the cup and then maybe a close up of the persons face and then a close up of the spoon stirring the tea/coffee in the cup". She also said that visual stories are always better. Lois said that it was important that an interviewees eyes were in the top third of the screen and that they were close up to the camera. She has written we should be colloquial in the voice over giving the example of "if you wouldn't say it to your mate in the pub then don't say it in the voice-over. Keep it simple so everyone can understand it". Lois said we should always have at least two interviewees, a topical expert and a case study. We should ask everyone the same question. We should be impartial broadcasters and also we should speak to people in the local community to hear their story. She concluded the email with two example links to opening title sequence and recommended a piece of editing software.
Creating my Logo - 6th December
Originally I had wanted to use the West Midlands coat of arms or county flag to use for my logo. However I decided against this as I felt this would make the logo too complicated and the colours would make it unnecessarily difficult to create brand synergy with. I have gathered from my research that I have to consider what I will wear for my broadcast and as I want to wear formal clothing that also includes colours from my logo (brand synergy) I could not use these images. Thus I decided to opt for a different final logo. Below are images of my chosen logo with my annotations ...
Deciding On Final Logo - 10th December
I had to work with a partner to create my final broadcast. It was crucial that we could decide upon things as a team so that we were both as equally as happy with our final products. Our first task was to decide upon the appropriate logo to use for the broadcast. We both agreed that my partners logo had a much more professional design and was more eye catching, which would make it instantly recognisable to the audience. All of this would increase the appeal of the broadcast and the identity of the broadcaster, it is for this reason that we opted to utilise my partners logo.
Using Corel Video Studio - 10th December
Today our class has a practice session using the newly purchased school software Corel VideoStudio X8. I will use this programme to create my final opening title sequence so it was important that I was fully acquainted with all the tools and features that Corel has to offer. To do this I was given help from one of my teachers who was very experienced with Corel and I also watched Youtube tutorials.
Here is a link to the tutorial I used: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjOqkfgYx70
Bob Hall Question Time - 12th December
Our media class agreed upon 6 questions to email to the local news broadcaster based in the West Midlands, Big Centre TV. We particularly chose to email this broadcaster because it provides local news, this is specific to our task.
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