TV NEWS; IDEAS FEEDBACK

This week, we had a tutorial with Helen to go over our ideas, cast and locations to make sure everything is running smoothly and planned as it should be. From the feedback session there was two main things that Helen gave us to think about
1) Argos - would it be right for us to film with them? Due to the fact Laura works there, there could be a conflict of interest because we wouldn't be able to be objective in interviewing Argos, for them it is purely a bit of promotion and they would only want to talk positively about their Argos card rather than anything else.
What We've Done About It; Having this discussion with Helen made us realise that perhaps it wasn't the best idea to have an interview with Argos; within our piece we don't want to glorify Argos Credit Cards, something they may want to do therefore there is an extreme conflict of interest. Furthermore, instead of this we are looking for a case study. Someone we can interview and in essence someone we can tell a STORY about. Ideally someone who has or has been in debt, because they will be able to talk objectively and from experience about whether or not credit/store cards are a good thing. 

2) The second issue we had when talking to Helen, was what the issue were trying to deal with in our news piece was. We aren't 100% sure of what the issue is, the problem we are trying to deal with within the piece and what we are actually talking about
What We've Done About it; I looked into some research and the best, most reliable source was the bank of Englands website. From there, we found that on average, people spend an extra £500 a month on in November and December as Christmas preparations get underway; this includes presents, christmas food and alcohol. At the moment we have narrowed the problem down to this; With Christmas starting earlier and earlier every year within shops, and so many finance offers and cards being offered, are people getting into debt too easy?

CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES; WORK

How can you incorporate the impact and implications of media freedom or censorship into your own work?
We can look at how an adaption has changed, for example within a book it is only the written word, therefore they have more 'media freedom' within a book, they can be a lot more explicit because there is less restrictions on what can be written and published, rather than filmed and shown. For example with the Fifty Shade of Grey films, there was a lot of critical response that said a lot of film didn't reflect the true nature of the books

What censorship laws/organisations can you explore with reference to your own research/essay?
Within my own essay I'm not 100% sure on what texts i am going to be looking at for my essay, but at the moment i am doing some research into 13 Reasons Why. With this i could look at some suicide charities and organisations, because within the Netflix programme the main character kills herself, she slits her wrists and the way in which is was filmed including the sounds made, is extremely graphic. From this the critical response that was made was that it was far too graphic for the audience and there were many complaints that it 'glorified' suicide.

What are often the hidden cultural contexts which might impact upon what is possible in terms of both drama and news journalism?
Within 13 Reasons Why, it is set within the 21st century where this is such access to immense technology and social medias, therefore the bullying that takes place within the programme is a lot more intense. Within that, the reason she kills herself is because she believes she has no friends, it could be looked at that without all of the bullying that takes place she may not have thought that and ultimately not killed herself.

What themes can you explore? differences in the written word and moving image?
Within 13 Reasons, i think the main theme to consider will be death; something i think that will be really interesting to look at is how the TV production team managed to translate the death of Hannah, from the written word to the TV screen.

Find sources to utilise and add to your reference list
https://contexts.org/blog/13-reasons-why/
https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2017/apr/26/netflix-13-reasons-why-suicide

CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES

Independence within the Media
-We will be examining the implications of freedom within the births media
-Mary Whitehouse - media mediawatch UK
-Censorship - BBCFC

Is it important for the media to be 'independent'?
-What even does the question mean - is anything we read or watch really free from opinion or conjecture?
-Is it really possible to have a network of media platforms which are free?
-And if so, what is the price of that freedom and who does that benefit and disadvantage?


'Danger - television can be bad for your moral health!'
-Ever since the early days of photography and film, people have viewed the visual media as potentially 'dangerous' to viewer's morals.
-The written word has also been subject to moral scrutiny - obscenity is, relatively speaking, a modern invention
-During the industrial revolution in Britain (late 1800s) such notions became particularly widespread

Case Study; Lady Chatterley's Lover
-Lady Chatterley's Lover was first published in 1928 and almost immediately banned
-Caused outrage because of its graphic descriptions of sex
-It became a test case for the 1959 Obscene Publications Act, it stated that publishers could escape conviction if they could prove the literary merit of the work
-The jury decided it was fine and that publisher Penguin was not guilty of publishing an obscene article, within a year the book sold more than 2 million copies

Mary Whitehouse vs TV
-With the advent of TV came a new voice for censorship, Mary Whitehouse - formed the 'National Viewers and Listeners Association' now called Media watch, in 1965
-She had the BBC firmly in her sights, even Doctor Who did not escape her criticism claiming it contained 'some of the sickest, most horrible material'
-She campaigned against what she perceived as the broadcast medias negative influence on moral standards
-21st Century - Media Watch UK, the National Viewers and Listeners is now known as Mediawatch UK
 -Mediawatch campaigns for socially responsible media and against content which is potentially harmful

Mediawatch - stated achievements and aims
-Legislation which made images of child pornography illegal
-Encourages people to talk and think about the effects of violent entertainment and pornography on society
-Regularly called upon for comment by the media
-Much of their current focus is online content and they created the website 'safeonline.org.uk' in response to a government consultation on the subject of child safety online

OFCOM 
-Is the government approved regulatory and competition authority for the broadcasting, telecommunications and postal industries of the United Kingdom
-Stated regulations - Transmissions should not include anything which offends against good taste or decent or is likely to encourage or incite to crime or to lead to disorder ro to be offensive to public feeling
-Licensees should take note of the guidance contained in section 1 of the ITC programme code, in particular that relating to the use of bad language and bad taste in humour

Censorship and Film; some cinema history
-In terms of cinema, the Hollywood Production Code - 1930s is an interesting case study in moving image censorship
-In 1922 the Hays Office was set up to Police Hollywood, if filmed in bedroom a man and woman had to have one foot each on the floor
-During the 1930s the Hollywood Production Codes basic premise was that
'Hollywood did not have the same kind of freedom accorded book authors and Broadway playwrights to produce artistic work.

TV NEWS; WORKSHOP

We had a workshop around scripting and filming, for this we were given a news article and from this we had to create a script with the intention to film. The article we were given was about a conservation project to increase the population of a rare species of butterflies. We created a script that involved a news anchor introducing the story, and then engaging in a live interview with a ranger from the project, engaging in conversations about the project.

We decided to film at 2 different angles, firstly we had our main anchor (Laura) standing up looking directly toward the camera as she read out all of the current headlines for that day. Then as she begins to delve deeper into the information of the main story of the programme, the camera cut to further out as Laura walked to where she was standing up over to a desk, at this point when Laura reached the desk we zoomed in to a close up shot as she started to engage in conversation with Natasha (Aimee) our news ranger).

With the interview we used the same shot for both of them as that is quite a normal classic shot for any news programme, to have the person you're filming in the middle of the screen filming them straight on in a close up. We used split screen because it made it a bit different, as Natasha greeted the news anchor (Laura) we decided to use the split screen effect. However when the actual interview started we cut between the two, because we thought this would engage the audience more. In terms of editing we edited it together and used some special effects that Aimee created. We did the normal tagline on screen to introduce the newsreader and Natasha, and we also had a headlines bar at the bottom, this was because in the script we introduce 3 main headlines of the day so we thought it would be quite a normal convention to put this in.

Feedback - Today we showed our edit of 'Nature One' to Helen and Ferg and received some things to work on

What went well
 - Using words GVs was a good addition because it keeps the audience engaged, people like to see examples of what they hear the news reader talking about and it brings the story alive
- Good direct shot sizes, keeping the newsreader int he middle of the screen
-Good use of creativity using the split screen effect

Improvements
- Don't leave too much headspace, in our shots of Aimee there was quite a bit of headspace and the makes the shot look less balanced
-The titles we used on screen, move them down and make sure they aren't too thick that they cover too much of the screen, only put them on the lower third of the screen
-Always think about timing, make sure that you understand when you're actually filming someone it will take them a lot longer to answer the question when you think.

TV NEWS; IDEA UPDATE/DEVELOPMENT

After running into a few issues we have had to change our idea. The reason we have had to do this is after conducting some research, we found that although young people are still getting into debt, they aren't actually using as much credit/loans as we thought. We basically decided that there wasn't enough evidence for us to continue with the idea of younger people and loans, therefore we have gone back to one of my previous ideas. As i couldn't be there, Laura, Katie and Aimee, took the idea i had a few weeks ago regarding christmas and advertising, and adapted it to fit a different concept.

NEW IDEA
We are still continuing with the name 'Guidance 2 Finance', however we are now focusing on targeting adults, with this particular episode we are looking at how the stress of being prepared for Christmas can affect adults financial situations, due to the immense early advertising by retailers now and the amount of different finance schemes that are offered by many different companies now. With this idea we wanted to talk to a few different people in order to gain some more information regarding Christmas. Laura spoke to department store Selfridges, who are already have their Christmas stock out, a whole 137 days before christmas. From this conversation we found out 2 main things
- They put their christmas stock out early for customer who come over from overseas and to keep up with competition of other stores
- Sales are pretty steady now however they are nothing compared to how busy they get during the actual festive period.

This leads us to wonder how much influence the early christmas advertising actually has on shoppers habits and how effective it is. We decided from this that we wanted to talk to and actually interview two different people for our news piece, someone who can offer financial advice and someone from a retail store. We believe these types of people will be able to give us the right answers and contexts to form a good story. I also spoke to the money advice service (pictured above) who emailed me with some more information for us to use.

Who do we have?
So far for our news piece we have 2 confirmed stars and one waiting to be confirmed. As a presenter we have Joel Blundell; he is a graduate of radio and broadcasting who also has a youtube channel, we believe he is a very confident person who will be able to successfully lead our news package. Secondly, we have financial advisor Rosemary Evans, who is the director of the Medway Credit Union, myself and Laura got in contact with Rosemary and have exchanged some emails to with her, she is very interested in the project and we have settled with October the 9th as the preliminary filming date. The last component that we are currently waiting on, is confirmation to be filming at a retail store, we are in contact with Dobbies and Argos and are hoping to be able to interview a manager from one of these stores.

Developments
We have all contributed to writing the script and that is almost done, we have written all sections apart form one. We have written Joel's opening link, the voice over that we would like him to introduce the subject with, as well as the interview questions for Rosie and the ending link for Joel. So far i think we are quite organised with this project, we have all equally had some contribution to the work and are quite organised in terms of getting our cast and filming dates together. Katie has created a possible logo for us to use also. The last thing we need to do is find a location, we are thinking of creating a studio set within one of our university classrooms but are still waiting to confirm this.

TV NEWS; RESEARCH INTO NEWS

'News broadcasting is the medium of broadcasting various news events and other information via television, radio or internet in the field of broadcast journalism. The content is usually either locally produced in  a radio studio or television studio newsroom, or by a broadcast network'
The term news within TV, is quite a broad term because of the different types of  news television programmes that there can be. As well as that it is quite important to look at the same codes and conventions that apply to other genres such as dramas, things such as mis en scene, colours and branding are just as important in a news piece as it is in a drama; just because it is factual it still serves the purpose to be there to be watched by an audience; the directors/producers still have to appeal to an audience. Its quite important to look at the different types of news programmes there could be;

1 - Breakfast News;
-Morning show that broadcasts nationwide
-Often running from about 6am right through till about 8/8;30
-Aimed mainly at adults, hence the title its on before people are leaving for work and school runs etc
-Often it will be a mix of normal news, as well as some more light hearted informative entertainment through celebrity guests
Example; There is three main examples of this type of news programme that comes from three of TVs biggest broadcasters, you have Good Morning Britain (ITV), Sunrise (Sky) and BBC Breakfast News (BBC). The main one that i have looked into is Good Morning Britain - as i believe it fits mostly into the above described attributes of a 'breakfast news' TV show. For example, Good Morning Britain has 2 main anchors, who hold the show throughout; however they have other presenters there for different reasons. There will be a newsreader there who sits at a desk with a direct mode of address who would read out the top main headlines, in a way the more serious stuff. Moreover they also have an 'entertainment correspondent' who would be on screen on the sofa, talking to the two main presenters filling them in on all of the most recent 'celeb gossip' and entertainment news. An important aspect in Breakfast News, is branding, for example Good Morning Britain is very bright in its colouring, the title has an orange background and the sofa they sit on, the walls of their set and everything else is included in this theme by taking the same colouring.


2 - Regional News;
 -Can be anytime through the day
 -Appeals to a local audience and is usually from a specific county
 -Often includes a lot of local images and videos, names of the local towns that that                                           particular story applies too
-Often a mix of hard and soft news stories depending on what news has broken that day                                 and what is relevant to the specific town the news would be about
Example; The BBC as a broadcaster is the main example that would link to this mostly, they have programmes such as BBC News London, Midlands Today and BBC Look North etc. The format of this takes the same as that of the normal news programmes; a main news anchor at a desk running through the headliners, passing onto different news anchors to present their own packages.

3 - Rolling News;
-Constant 24 hour news, access to the top stories of the day
-Mainly includes breaking news items as they are the most engaging and accessible;                                       breaking news stories often have numerous updates through the day so this item fits in                                    perfectly with rolling news shows
-Unlikely to feature any soft news but likely to feature celebrities if they are relevant to the                               story
Example; Again mainly from the BBC and Sky such as BBC News 24 and Sky News Live.

4 - Entertainment/Magazine
-Looking at mainly lighthearted news
-Would sometimes crossover to main headliners but would look at a different aspect/talk to someone with a different perspective.
-Usually presented by 2 people on a sofa, quite informal and causal
-Normally a daily programme

Example; there are a lot of different examples of this type of programme across a lot of the different broadcasters, you've got ITVs This Morning which is a mid morning programme that follows the news on a more lighter side, if there was a major news story running they would talk about it but from a different perspective, for example in the Manchester Bombings earlier in the year, This Morning interviewed a parent of a child who died in the attacks, thus talking more about the tragic loss that the attack caused rather than focusing on the terrorist attacks themselves like the normal news programmes would.

TV NEWS; SOURCING STORIES AND STORY TYPES (LECTURE)

Sources and Contacts

A broadcast journalist relies on a wide range of sources and contacts in the never ending search for 'new news'. The best journalists go and find the stories themselves rather than sitting there and waiting for something. For example, search through UGC or going out and talking to people can help a journalist find the story for themselves. Fisherman (1997) called 'beats' - 'patrolling' much like a police officer on recognised chains of information to supply potential stories with 'News Values', a story has to be exciting and new; though its still news it can still very much so be treated like a drama in the sense that it is still being made to be watched by a viewer. Where to find stories

Primary Sources      - Your own direct contacts

                                - Original sources direct from source material e.g. archive material 

                                - Public Appeals

                                - Press Releases/Stats/Official Statements

Secondary Sources - Stringers (freelancers)

                                - Other platforms/media

Developing Your Story

-Copious research needs to be matched with copious note taking, be organised and ensure you keep your contacts and relevant information somewhere you can easily access it. 

-Whenever you are delivering information, ensure you attribute the information to reliable sources - simply saying 'allegedly/apparently' is not enough without saying WHERE the information is from

Setting up Your Story

-Just as with the documentary unit, the proof of your journalistic skills is the you try to set your story up to shoot it

-By the time you set it up you should be clear about:

                   -what your story is

                   -who is in your story

                   -where it is

                   -when it is to be shot

                   -how you will tell ti

                   -why you are making the story

Following Up Leads

-the contacts you make in the early stages of research should lead you to the final elements which you will include in your news story

-Inevitably there will be decisions made on the basis of availability, location, cost etc, but bear in mind thesis decisions frame your story for the audience - be sure you are including elements which are a fair and reasonable representation of the facts and stay OBJECTIVE

Television News Story Forms

-5 basic types: 1 - Readers - a short story which the presenter reds out with no video to accompany or any other screen graphics. 2 - OOVs - stories which the presenter reads which also includes video material i.e. the voice over is performed by the presenter live whilst the video plays for all or part of it, adds variety of pace to the newscaster. 3 - OOV/SOT - combination of OOV and SOT - sound on tape, good for varying pace of the programme and allows a more in depth news report, but not as in depth as a full news package. 4 - News package - full formed self contained news pieces, unlike OOVs the news presenter is not involved in the story itself but rather in introducing and wrapping up the story, the reporter takes the lead up on the story.