Audience survey analysis: R15

How to write a good radio script: R14

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/school_report/6180944.stm

From this research task on how to write a good script for radio news, I learnt that it is important to consider the audience of the news report while writing a news script, to consider the length of the entire newscast and how long each report will be. A typical news bulletin is around 2 to 3 minutes long and each report is around 30 seconds. Secondly, if certain words are hard to say, then it would be helpful to write the word out phonetically, and there is certain rule that radio news presenters typically stick to when writing a script. This is the 3 words a seconds rule. thus if a script for a 30 second report is written, then the script of that report should contain around 90 words. When writing my script I will consider these rules and tips, to ensure a sufficient script is written for our radio newscast.

How to be an original Radio Presenter: R13

From this video I learnt that, in order to be an authentic presenter I should present in a way that shows who I am and not who I am meant to be. For example, I could present to the viewers things I like and enjoy instead of things that I should like, for example if I am presenting a pop music radio show, I should recommend and play music that I like, although it may not be pop. Lastly, in order to carry this out should follow the idea “being personal is the key to creating connection” mentioned by Kate Cocker (the speaker of the video). 

How to write a good News Headline: R12

From this video I understand that the headlines that we will be presenting in our radio newscast are extremely significant, as it has the power to invite listeners, but also deter listeners. Thus, from the headline types listed in the video, I may choose the numbered headline, because this implies that there is “valuable, to the point content”(as mentioned by Jesse Forest, the speaker in the video) in the story that will be covered, which I think will increase the value of the story and therefore garner more attention.

Bias in News: R11

Bias in News

Example of biases in news

http://umich.edu/~newsbias/index.html

http://www.studentnewsdaily.com/types-of-media-bias/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_bias

News bias refers to the bias approach news journalists and producers within news in, how news events and stories are selected to be reported and how these chosen stories/events are covered in news.

News may be biased because of government influence, such as overt and covert censorship. Overt censorship refers to open and recognizable censorship, such as military appearance to carry out censorship, while covert censorship refers to censorship that is concealed and not easily recognizable, such as censorship of the internet.  Countries that practice censorship would be North Korea and Burma. News may also be biased due to market forces, for example pressure from companies, such as, if a news company is owned by the company Disney, then news covered will most likely present positive news about Disney. Another example of a market force would be, the preferences of the audience being targeted, for example if an audience consists of mainly females, the news covered will most likely support news on perhaps female empowerment. However, to ensure that such bias does not occur there are several national and international watchdog companies that regulate institutions, such as news institutions and an example of a watchdog group in England would be OFCOM. 

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/covert

Planning images for R15

The first image is of how we planned to edit the videos we took for R15 on IMovie and the last two images are the scripts for the videos we took for R15.

Research on OFCOM R10

ofcom - Kizoa Video Maker

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Interviews on representation of teenagers: R9

What are news ethics? R8

What are news ethics and give case studies of news ethics?

Link: http://www.alliance.org.au/code-of-ethics.html

http://www.unesco.org/new/en/communication-and-information/freedom-of-expression/professional-journalistic-standards-and-code-of-ethics/key-concepts/

In this research task, I will be explaining my findings on ethics in journalism and the general codes of ethics that all journalists are obligated to follow. Ethics of journalism are essential device of self-regulation in the industry of journalism, and provide a necessary reference for journalists to understand their roles, rights and how they can perform their best at their occupation, in the same time providing a standard against which journalist work can be assessed. Moreover, Ethical codes of journalism contribute to the fairness, accuracy and credibility of information, which overall is beneficial for the public.

1)       Journalists must report and interpret honestly, making sure everything is accurate, fair and all facts essential are included. Journalists must not leave out essential facts or give distorting importance to something. They must strive to give a fair opportunity for reply.  An example of a case study whereby this code was ignored would be

2)      Journalists must not place unnecessary emphasis on personal characteristics, such as race, ethnicity, nationality, gender, age, sexual orientation, family relationships, and religion, physical or academic disability.

3)      Journalists must attempt to attribute their information to its source. If a source wants to be anonymous , then  do not agree to use the source until inspection on the sources motives have been inspected and alternative sources have been viewed as well.

4)      Journalists must not allow personal interests, beliefs, commitment, payments, or personal benefits undermine the accuracy, fairness and credibility of news.

5)      Journalist must remove conflict of interest that affect, or could affect, the accuracy, fairness or credibility of journalism.  They must not use their journalistic position improperly for personal gain.

6)      Journalists must not allow advertising or other commercial influences to affect accuracy, fairness and credibility of news.  

7)      Journalists must do their utmost best to present any direct or indirect payment made for interviews, photographs, stories or information.

8)      Journalists must use fair, responsible and honest way in gathering information and other material. They must identify themselves or their employer before obtaining an interview for broadcast or publication. Journalists must not take advantage of a person's vulnerability or unawareness of media practice.

9)      Journalist must present pictures and sounds that are accurate and have been obtained fairly. Any misleading content should be disclosed.

10)   Journalists must not plagiarize.

11)   Journalist must respect personal privacy and grief. Journalists have the right to resist force to intervene in private matters.

12)   Journalist must do their best to achieve fair modification of errors.

News Values in Sky News. R7

In this research task, I will be analyzing the news values found in a newscast. The newscast that I will be analyzing is a clip of Sky News Radio at 1:00, broadcasted on 30th September 2015. This is a radio station that is broadcasted by the institution SKY. News presented in this radio station is targeted towards adults; this meant that formal, professional language and minimal intonation was used by the newsreader to present news. Moreover, the newscast was only for 2 minutes, this meant that the newsreader was presenting news with an increased pace and did not use words that required time to pronounce. This would be because, the newsreader is attempting to fit in all stories within the two minutes of broadcast, and therefore the newsreader must increase their pace of talking so that it is possible to cover all news with enough detail.

To begin with, all news presented in this newscast was hard news, because they all contained a sense of urgency or dealt with matters regarding life and death. The very first news that was presented was about how the German car company Volkswagen was caught rigging the emission tests. This news story may have been presented first due to it having the greatest news values. For example, this particular international news covered news values of negativity and conflict in terms of the economy. All of these news values seem to emphasize the idea of a clean reputation being tarnished, thus it would have a great threshold on the audience, as they may consider twice before purchasing a Volkswagen car. Therefore, due to this impact, this news story was possibly covered first.

The second news that was presented was about Russian forces being called out to fight the Syrian president, President Assad. This international story was covered after the Volkswagen scandal and shares similar news values as the Volkswagen news scandal. For example, this news covers news values of negativity, conflict (especially), timelessness and further currency. As a result of this news story covering all of these news values, this news story was considered the second most valued news and thus was covered second during the news cast. Moreover, the currency of news surround Syria and Syrian refugees, has provided emphasis on the currency of this news story.  Therefore, it would have more public interest which is possibly why this news story was covered second. However, this news story possibly did not have as much proximity to the audience as the story on the Volkswagen, because people will worry more about sudden negative news their cars, rather than war in a country where conflict is always on the surface. Thus for this reason, this news story has been placed second after the Volkswagen scandal.

Lastly, the last news that was covered by the news reader of Sky news was national news on 10 women in the UK getting womb transplants, which is a first for the UK. This news story was covered last but still had news values to allow this news story to hit the headlines in sky news. For example, this news story covered news values of human interest, oddity and proximity. All of these news values seem to create a great threshold on the audience specifically women, as now it is possible for women who wish to have a child, but did not have a womb do so, for their wish to come true. Therefore, this news story plays with emotions and seems to emphasize a biological breakthrough that will benefit mankind, which is perhaps why this story has made it to the headlines. To conclude, Sky news has followed one of the conventions of radio news and that is to cover news stories in order of significance, according to their news values.

Sources:  http://news.sky.com/info/radio

News Values R6

News Values:

In this research task, I will be explaining the news values that news rooms use to select news stories to be covered in the media.

1: Threshold/ Impact/ Amplitude: This news value refers to the measurement of importance and impact a news story will have on the audience.  For example, news about a law that makes it illegal to smoke completely will possibly be more important and have a bigger impact on the audience, than news on the health effects of smoking. This means that, in news the bigger the news the better.

2: Negativity: This news values refers to how bad news is good news. For example, news on the death of civilians in a natural disaster may have a better news value, than news on how much money a movie made. This is because, good news is considered ordinary and taken for granted, while bad news like catastrophes, plays with feelings, thus is cared about more by the public.

3: Timelessness/ continutity: This news value refers to news that is budding on the surface of all news. For example, news that is currently constantly covered by most news agencies is the Syrian refugees travelling to Europe. Such news is generally more news worthy, because it relates to the time right now.

4: Familiarity/ proximity/ closeness: This news value refers to how proximate news is to an audience. For example, there was news on Sky news radio that talked about a women that had acid thrown on her by two suspected brother in Southampton. This means that, this paticular news would be more news worthy to those living in Southhampton, than to those living in Manchester. This is because, that paticular news is closer and thus more relevant to those living in Southampton, than to those living in Manchester.

5: Prominence: This news refers to the appearance of important people in the news. For example, news about David Cameron will be more news worthy than an ordinary citizen on the news. This is perhaps because, people that are generally in the public eye ten to be more news worthy.

6: Conflict: This news value refers to news that features conflict, that can either be between poeple or things. For example, news about war between a country will possibly be more newsworthy, than news about

The key concepts of TV news. R5

To begin with, TV news and Radio news both are similar, because they both are modern day communication systems that work with scripts to present information to an audience. However, it is the difference between how news is presented that allows the two to be distinguished by the audience as two mediums.  The very big difference is that, while TV news is visual, Radio news is auditory, this means that Radio news works with sound codes of media more so than with TV news, but that may not always be the case. Another difference to point out would be that in radio news, the focus is more on speech thus a theme song is conventionally not played after headlines have been presented. However, with TV news after the anchor of the news has presented the headlines of the day, the theme song of the news channel is conventionally played. Moreover, along with the speech of the anchor, approved and factual images are also presented to the audience, in order to support the anchor with their speech. In addition, to point out another similarity, both TV and Radio news conduct interviews, but the difference is that while in Radio news a lot of interviews are internally conducted, but in TV news interviews can be conducted outside of the studio.

 Due to these differences and similarities, there are certain advantages that both TV and Radio news hold over each other, for example TV news has the advantage of being visual, because directors can include images and appearance of celebrities being interviewed to create emotional connections with the stories of news being presented, which helps the institution to be active, as the audience will be passive to the news being presented. On the other hand, Radio news cannot use images that will aid their anchor when presenting news, which may make the audience become active, because instead of being distracted by images and celebrities, they may pay more attention to the content of the news and thus make effective conscious decisions ad questions upon the content. In contrast, Radio news has the advantage that it can be produced cheaply, thus institutions of news like the BBC can broadcast news on the radio, knowing that radio can be accessed almost everywhere, such as in a car for a small amount of money, thus doing the institution less damaged if the radio broadcast is not received as well as expected. However, it takes a lot of time, money and accuracy to make a TV broadcast, so emergency broadcasts cannot be made quickly, and mistakes in live broadcasts become a lot more obvious in TV broadcasts, unlike in Radio broadcasts.

As a future radio news producer, I will attempt to produce quality news that includes all sound codes possible. Moreover, I will attempt to make the radio news broadcast as unique as possible by imputing some unconventional details, like imputing a theme song. This is think will help my news broadcast to sound more pleasing to my audience than current radio news. However, I will also be making sure that my news broadcast, still however fits into the genre of radio news, by imputing conventional details, such as using minimal background music.

Key concepts of News Round

Date: 9/09/15

The very first important key concept of media that could be observed in News round would the fact how the broadcast was tailored to suit the audience of the institution of News round being CBBC. The target audience of CBBC is those aged between 6 and 12, due to the young target audience, there were several elements in the News round broadcast that made it differ from News broadcast on the BBC channel. For example, at the end of the broadcast when the anchor was interviewing one of the CBBC team members, the anchor and the person being interviewed high fived each other. This is important, because it breaks the convention of formality in TV news broadcasts and such an action would not be seen in a BBC news broadcast. In addition, the reason for the informality would be the fact that the audience is young (unlike the BBC who audience range from young adults and onwards), thus the informality created a funny and infant like atmosphere, that most children would feel most comfortable and enjoyable to view. Furthermore, the informality would perhaps input the uses and gratification theory, because not only will the audience gain up to date information of what is happening in the world, Britain and in News round, but the audience will be able to enjoy the experience of gaining knowledge that could be used in aiding their school education.

In addition, another important key concept that is noticeable in News round is the idea of representation. Due to the fact that CBBC is part of the BBC children’s strand, this means that the CBBC must make sure it does not discriminate in who the audience of the content is targeted towards except the age, because the BBC is a public institution. Therefore, representation in News round is very important, as the mis en scene in the broadcast of News round must be well represented to avoid discrimination. News round, is able to successfully do this by using an anchor that is not only female but black. Through the use of such an anchor, News round is able represent women as being professional and sophisticated, through the use of smart clothing worn by the anchor, which happens to challenge the stereotypical role of women in society as being solely domestically able and the stereotypical appearance of wearing aprons and holding rags. Furthermore, through the use of an international (specifically a black) anchor, News round is able to represent the black community as being successful and intellectual, which also challenges the international stereotype that black people cannot prosper due to the common problem of poverty in countries where the black community may be from and also challenges the rather western stereotype that people in the black community are criminals with no interest in education.

Moreover, another key concept of media that is found in the clip of News Round is the idea of institution. News round airs on the channel CBBC, which is a channel that is part of BBC’s children’s strand, therefore it would follow the same principles of its parent institution, the BBC. This means that, the CBBC channel runs on TV license and as a result does not feature any adverts. This is seen through News round, as in the clip of the news broadcasting agency there were no commercial breaks. Furthermore, due to its parent institution being the BBC, the news content in News round would feature news stories covered by the channel BBC news. This was evident in the News round clip, because on the same day that the BBC news covered news on Queen Elizabeth’s 2 longest reign, News round also covered this story. However, the covering of the story was constructed differently, as the news story was simplified by News round, so that it could ne watchable by its target audience (children between the ages 7-12).

Another key concept that could be identified in the News round clip is ideology. Throughout the entire clip, there were various ideas, themes and messages that were being put across.  For example, one of the stories covered in the News round clip was about Queen Elizabeth’s 2 longest reign. By covering a story on royalty, the idea of nationalism and imperialism was represented as being positive. Therefore, this put forward the message to the audience that, they should be proud to be citizens of a country where nationalism and imperialism work in harmony, which has ultimately led to the national celebration of evidence of this harmony (the Queens longest reign).

Furthermore, another key concept that could be identified in News round would be the narrative and this would specifically be about the order in which news stories were presented. For example, in the clip of News round, news on the Queens longest reign was covered first, then news on the refugee crisis was covered and lastly news on celebrating the 30th anniversary of the CBBC “Broom cupboard”. News round may have decided to cover news on royalty first, because it has a status of being national news, therefore more significance will be put on that particular news. In addition, conventionally in TV news, news with more importance and value will be covered first and so forth.  Secondly, News round may have covered the news on the refugee crisis after the news on royalty, because it is news that does not directly impact Britain as a country unlike the news on royalty. Moreover, news of the refugee crisis may have been covered before the news on CBBC’s anniversary, because it has the status of being international news that has more public interest, thus News round has once again adhered to conventions of TV news. Lastly, News round may have decided to cover news on the anniversary of CBBC last, because it is news that is important to a small number of people and this being the audience of CBBC and those involved in the production of CBBC, thus once again following the conventions of TV news, News round has structured the order of news covered in a specific way.

Lastly, two more key concepts that could be identified are genre and language. News round is a news broadcasting agency that belongs to the genre of TV news. This is because, it’s broadcast mainly occur on TV during week days and weekends, also News round targets to provide news to children who view TV regularly, which is why it appears on the CBBC (with a target audience of children between 6 and 12) so often. Furthermore, News round also appears on the CBBC website, to also allow online viewers to catch up with latest news on News round. The last key concept language refers to the codes and conventions of media. News round follows many codes and conventions of TV news. For example, News round has a studio news reader Leah Boleto, actual footage of news being covered and an outside broadcast. All of these are conventional of TV news broadcasts and have been used by News round, so that the audience can recognize that they are watching news.

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CBBC

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b069rpxf

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10318089

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newsround

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-34177107

http://www.slideshare.net/teddiebmxa/conventions-of-a-news-show

How do News rooms get their stories? R4

How do news rooms get their stories?

News rooms find their stories through the work of journalists who find stories from many different places and they are referred to as stories. For example, BBC news journalists always read newspapers, check news websites, listen to or watch the news to find out stories that they can pass on to the news rooms, who will develop he story and put it on their agency of news. Other ways of doing this will be explained in detail below.

Another way of news rooms collecting their stories is though press releases; this is a public announcement that is provided to media news agencies and other targeted publications for the purpose of informing the public of specific news or developments of news.  For example, the SMNR is a press release format that is designed for the online media world. Through press releases, journalists can gain crucial information on a story that can be passed on to News rooms to be published as news.

In addition, news rooms can collect stories though press conferences, which are media events in which newsmakers invite journalist and news agencies to hear them speak about a story and often allow those how have been invited to ask questions.  For example, a press conference may be held by the Prime minister to discuss his views on international crises. Through these events, journalists can attend them and ask questions to gain statements or pictures on a story that they may be covering, so that it can be passed on to the News rooms.

Furthermore, news rooms can gather stories through reporters or journalists going on eventualities as they happen and sometimes report live from the scene. For example, a reporter may report live on news from a murder scene. Through this reporters or journalists can make firsthand experience notes on a story that they may be covering and provide this to their news room to publish as their own story.

In addition, news rooms can collect stories by looking at trusted sources.  For example, journalist can build a network of sources, people who they trust and build a relationship over time, such as secretary of states that can provide information on the activity of the prime minister. By having such a network, journalists can refer to those in their network for trustable sources to help them cover stories they are trying to cover and also receive confidential information, that may produce more public interest in stories that they are going to cover in the news rooms.

Another way news rooms may collect information would be through citizen or audience journalists, this may happen if someone in the community contacts a news agency and gives them sometimes witness information on stories. For example, the BBC news is contacted by people through social media like twitter and phone calls to provide the BBC with information. This allows journalists and news rooms to get direct information from those in the scene or event, but facts must still be double checked in order for the story containing these facts to be published.

Lastly, news rooms may get stories through reporters or journalists conducting their own investigation by going out and investigating using other sources. For example, a reporter or journalist may conduct individual investigation on recent events in the hope of digging up new information surrounding the event. This will allow news rooms to present news as their own, because information has been found and not taken off from other sources, thus may garner further public interest in their news.

Sources:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schoolreport/19272270

http://www.entrepreneur.com/encyclopedia/press-release

https://www.realwire.com/servicesSMNR.asp

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/News_conference

 

Codes and conventions of Radio news R3

Conventions of radio news - Kizoa Online Movie Maker

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