Is TV news boring? 

My personal opinion is mixed, sometimes news can be boring depending on the news topics being broad cast such as stories involving politics and the government, but this is from a teenagers perspective, so those whom work up London and in the upper class, this sort of information would interest them and allow them to put their time into watching the news due to it maybe involving a story involving politics and government happenings, such as an economic change. However if the TV news involves a story on a well known celebrity or a death or war story, this is what would allow a large or deal of interest as it adds suspense and interest, making the news interesting rather than boring, as well if the news was to involve a headline involving a celebrity this would interest many of the younger generation as this is the kind of news they are interested in now days, compared to years ago where the news just focused on purely the "important" aspects such as war and death rather than stories which are shown now such as "drug use by Justin Bieber" or " Cat saved from 10 ft tree" . 

Another huge role that makes the news depend on if it is boring or not, is how it is presented, if the story just involves a news presenter discussing it this is what I would name as boring, however if the news used live footage or interviews and vox pops this would make it more watch-able and more interesting.  PersonallyI believe the type of person you are and your interests and the type of news being shown allows you to decide if TV news is boring or not. 

Key Points 

"NEWS IS ALL TRUE, BUT SHOULD WE QUESTION HOW IT IS SHOWN AS BIAS?" 


What is a Gatekeeper?
This is someone who selects the news which is going to be broadcast. 

What is Mediation?
This is where news can only present a certain version of events.

Contemporary News includes: 
- Sensationalism
- The generation of fear
-Drama and conflict
-Speculation to create interest
-Simplification to ease the audience understanding

The usual TV news uses the following; soft news, hard news, celebrity news, vox pops and personal identification, by including all those it would create a successful TV news programme. 

News Story

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MsAYl3ofhvE&safe=active


This story was broadcasted on channnel 4 news, and involves a teenage youtube star being accused of sexual assult, this then caused CONFLICT over the social media, allowing this story to be broadcasted globally. Also in this news story Sam Pepper the youtuber himself is accused of being the VILLAN and the young teenage girls who discussed thier experiences with the youtuber are seen as brave and HEROIC as they allow their stories to be shared globally. This is a typical news story which would attract the younger audience as it involves a celebrity that they would be interested in, and due to it being broadcasted at 5'oclock it would attract the teenage audience.

This story also did create a "SCARE FACTOR" as it allowed people to become worried about the type of people they connect with a view online, this is also shown to be soft celebrity news as it involves no form of death or war.

Websites and their uses?

http://www.ofcom.org.uk/ - Ofcom is responsible for licensing all UK commercial television services, they monitor all the footage that is shown on the television.

http://pcc.org/ - PC Community supports users of personal computers running various versions and monitors what they view.

https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/the-committee-on-standards-in-public-life  - The Committee on Standards in Public Life (CSPL) advises the Prime Minister on ethical standards across the whole of public life in the UK. It monitors and reports on issues relating to the standards of conduct of all public office holders.

http://www.atvod.co.uk/ - ATVOD is the independent co-regulator for the editorial content of UK video on demand services that fall within the statutory definition of On-Demand Programme Services.

http://mediastandardstrust.org/ - The Media Standards Trust is an independent registered charity that fosters quality, transparency and accountability for the digital age. We develop digital tools, conduct research, organise debates and contribute to public policy.

http://churnalism.com/#legacy - Churnalism.com is an independent, non-profit website to help the public distinguish between original journalism and 'churnalism'

Definitions

Bias - inclination or prejudice for or against one person or group, especially in a way considered to be unfair
 
Gate keeping - the process through which information is filtered for dissemination, whether for publication, broadcasting, the Internet, or some other ode of communication.

Agenda Setting - in “ Mass Media, Mass Culture” is the process whereby the mass media determine what we think and worry about

News values and their definitions 

Conflict - A news story involving conflict from war to relationship
Hardship and Danger to community - Refers to threats from people, nature or events
Scandal - News story on misconduct or discreditable behaviour, usually involving celebrities
Individualism - Refers to individuals and their achievements



Fact - the rise of media is said to be having an impact on the way people view the news.

Is the news an unbiased window to the world?

sources - http://www.owenspencer-thomas.com/journalism/newsvalues




What makes a story newsworthy

Information arrives in the newsroom from a wide range of sources minute by minute. 
A news editor cannot report all this material, so he must be selective and filter out information that is not newsworthy. Because he is in competition with other news outlets, he highlights only those stories he considers to be of greatest interest to his readers or audience.  Reports, which are interesting and newsworthy, are distinguished by a broadly agreed set of characteristics called ‘’news values’’. These values provide journalists with a mechanism to sort through quickly, process and select the news from that vast amount of information made available to them. In practice, when a journalist makes a judgment as to whether a story has the necessary ingredients to interest his readers, he will decide informally on the basis of his experience and intuition, rather than actually ticking off a checklist. Even so, many studies of news production show that most of these factors are consistently applied across a range of print, broadcast, and online news organisations worldwide.

 

Important definitions

Continuity- carries on with a story that is already in the news

Familiarity – to do with people or places close to home

Elite persons – to do with a famous or important person

Negativity – bad news or suffering

Conflict – to do with war or fighting or argument

Unexpectedness – a sudden or unusual event

Personalisation – a story that has a human interest angle or can be shown through how it affects a person

Example news story / headline involving all of the above - Mental riots continue to grow into mass hysteria in Ruislip as local gang leave 20 people with gun related injuries and 1 dead, after David Beckham claims Ruislip to be the worst area to live.

Key terms

Narrativisation - A news story usally with a beginning and an end, involving villans and heros.
News agenda - The basics of the news, and what it is about, describes the ability of the news to the viewers.
News- Nearly recieved information that is broadcasted through media or speech.
Gate Keeping - the process through which information is filtered for dissemination, whether for publication, broadcasting, the Internet, or some other mode of communication.
Objectivity - a lack of bias, judgment, or prejudice
Impartiality - is a principle of justice holding that decisions should be based on objective criteria, rather than on the basis of bias, prejudice, or preferring the benefit to one person over another for improper reasons
Visual Imperatives - We need images in order to get the comnplete news story, without media footage there might not be any interesting news.

I took the goverment political test and was shown to be a left Authoritan, this means that I am a favouring or enforcing strict obedience to authority at the expense of personal freedom.

Nepal Mountain Hikers, news story annotated shot

This is a shot taken from the BBC news broadcast of the story, it shows the rescue team carrying a found mountain hiker from a eye level, wide shot, the use of the wide shot shows the surroundings and the background of the snow covered mountains allowing news viewers to realise the extreme conditions the hikers and emergency workers are having to work in order to rescue the "lost or dead" hikers.  This footage is all realistic and uses no huge editing, apart from the smooth exchange from one piece of footage to another.

This shot uses non-digetic sound as while the footage is shown a voice over of the news reporter is used as he explains the current news affair and reports live on the event.

Mise En Scene - This footage uses no props or designed setting as it is a live recording showing the general positioning and area of where the global broadcast is occurring, the people shown in this footage are wearing no costumes, make-up or certain hair style, it is a natural shot showing the event live. The lighting of this shot is very natural and bright revealing that this search for the hikers has been carried out during the day, the facial expressions of the people in the scene are serious or in pain, this reveals how much effort and dedication the survivors and help services are going through in order to rescue them from the collapsed Nepal mountains.

News Story Summary
News Channel - BBC News
18/10/14

At least 39 climbers have died and more than 40 are missing after blizzards and avalanches on a hiking route in Nepal earlier this week. Helicopters and Nepali troops are searching for missing trekkers in the snow-covered terrain. At least 175 people have been injured in what is one of Nepal's worst ever mountain disasters.

This news story was broadcast on the global news and was the starting story discussed, giving it the largest time spread (8 minutes) within the show, the headline story was discussed in a serious tone, with the single presenter being sat behind a desk, giving all important details, facts and figures on the event, he spoke seriously due to story involving the death of people and because of this it also makes it a global headline. At one point during the broadcast images of the Nepal mountain hikers are shown on the back screen while he continues to discuss the news story, this allows viewers to get a better understanding of the situation. 

The story is then shown through video clips ranging from the safe hikers to images of emergency services desperate to try find the remaining hikers, both clips have the use of a voice over, by showing these clips it allows the viewers of the news to understand the seriousness of this global story.

After the video clip is shown we are taken back to the studio where the presenters is speaking live with one man from Nepal, during there live speech they discuss the affects of the remaining people up the mountain and how this issue is severe and the people need to be saved, the presenters also discuss the search mission being held in order to rescue the remaining loss hikers, by speaking to someone live it the country of occurrence it helps to get awareness for these people and makes more people alert for future references.

This news story was spoke about for the first quarter of the show and then were left with the information that people are still lost in the mountains showing the seriousness of this story and revealing how the news story will be spoke about again in order to give information whether the loss hikers have been found.

19/10/2014 - BBC Breakfast News

This story is discussed once again but briefly on the BBC news morning tv show, the presenters are more relaxed and sat on a sofa, but once this story is discussed they reveal their serious tones and their posture become upright. However this time the global story has a more positive outlook as some hikers have been found, while the presenters speak about this images of hikers and family being reunited, images are shown of the happy families being reunited (down below) .

However once the positive story is discussed we are told that "It is the fifth day that Nepalese army and private helicopters have been searching for stranded climbers.It is not clear how many people may still be missing in the country's worst-ever trekking disaster. At least 39 people are known to have died" . Once this is discussed for a further few minutes, the news swaps to live footage of emergency services searching for the remaining hikers. This news story is presented differently to the previous day as details on the event are brief and the story is shown through either live footage or images with the presenters saying minimal information on the issue, this is because it is a morning weekend Tv programme which is watched by the target audience of woman and younger people before they go to work or after they have just woke up, so by showing the live footage it would show the seriousness of the event and make them pay for attention to the story.

This global headline was not broadcast live again, but was put on the BBC news website for a following 3 days, this is so people who had an interest in the story could look it up in order to find out if the remaining hikers had been found, and also more relevant and severe headlines were discussed such as continuous information on the ebola outbreak, this then left little information for the Nepal mountain hikers story, being the reason it was therefore posted on-line rather than globally broadcast on the news.

Interesting news fact of the day

 - The Cable News Network was founded in 1980 by Ted Turner and 25 other original members, who invested $20 million into the network.Upon its launch, CNN was the first station to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television network in the United States. 

- Lowell Thomas hosted the first-ever news broadcast on television in 1930

How does a story get to the news?

News channels such as the BBC and ITV can make sure that they have the latest up to date information because If something happens during the newscast or throughout the day they can send someone right out to get a live report of the story, this person is what is called the reporter and is followed by a large group of cameras and lighting and sound staff, this group of people record the news and the reporter or either allow it to be broadcast live meaning the people in the news studio building can quickly right out a script for the news presenter and allow the live news to be broadcast onto our screens. 
Pre-recorded news which may be shown the day after the story has the same kind of production however the news piece is sent to the studio and has a deadline so that it then has enough time allowing it to be edited before its live broadcasting. Also it takes hundreds of people, working in a range of different capacities, to produce a news bulletin of any scale. Each person fulfils a specific role, and in a smaller TV station, may fulfil several. The process of gathering and presenting news is one that is subjected to constant change, most recently in terms of technology. As equipment becomes smaller, lighter and needs less people to operate it, the nature of the news team has changed - teams of three (reporter, camera & sound) can now be despatched to cover an event. However, the demand for instant news means that broadcast quality footage may need to be relayed live from location. and that three person reporting team may need the backup of some serious hardware and software

Jobs in news 

Camera operators - film on set in the studio or go to record the live news story
Graphics - these allow the news to have a starting scene and ending scene and animations. 
Production systems - produce all news stories and edit them
Editors - edit news stories so pieces of the story is cut out or added in, usually for the benefit of the viewers

Reporters, Correspondents and Anchors - A career in news is attractive to many - but it's a competitive business. News reporters outside the studio must be well-informed, resourceful, and prepared to put up with harsh conditions that may range from wind and rain to gunfire. These brave men and women are often identified as the 'face' of the news, and many of them take their professional responsibilities very seriously indeed. 

Hwk - News story and News values

1 – “Murder of Alan Henning is unforgivable – David Cameron” was the top headline storyline shown on BBC news at 10 and the story was broadcast and discussed for a total of  eight minutes. This headlining story is about a video that was released onto the internet to show Mr Henning the Syrian aid worker being beheaded by the Islamic murderers after being kept hostage since December 2013, the video had been released by Islamic State (IS) militants.

2 – The presenter broadcasting this news story is a female dressed in a blue blazer and an a-line skirt; she shows no facial expression and keeps to her serious tone as she speaks about the global news story. As she broadcasts she is sat behind a desk, while holding a piece of paper, the piece of paper is used to connotate seriousness and sophistication. The backing set of the studio is the layout of all the computers and people hard at works who are working on other varied news stories; this would connotate that this BBC news is aimed at the working class. The target audience the BBC news at 10 is broadcast too would be middle aged adults within the bracket of 30+ from the social class of A-B, who are wanting to increase their knowledge on every day global happenings. The style of the BBC set and the way the news story is broadcast influences the content as it shows no humour just seriousness so it would not appeal to the younger generation who would prefer to watch soaps.

3 – The news story is told very Clearly and is broadcast with video footage of the man himself, and use of maps showing his destinations throughout his hostage, and also disturbing and upsetting clips of people making appeals in order to save the other people kept hostage, these clips and images are shown with a male voice over explaining the situation and quoting David Cameron’s view on the situation. The voice-over is extremely clear and can be understood easily. After the clips are shown, we are taken back to the studio where the woman presenter is joined by a security correspondent behind her desk who discusses the global story in more detail also explaining what is going to be done towards the Islamic murder group. After this we are then taken to live footage of the RAF Norton where David Cameron’s response to the situation is discussed.

4 – The footage used for the news story ranges from images of the country where Alan Hennings was beheaded to disturbing distressing footage of an ill father giving a appeal to try allow his son to be released from hostage before he himself passes away. Another main piece shown was video clips taken of Alan Hennings while he helps the ill children of Syria where it then moves onto friend of Alan’s who went out to Syria also to help, this footage is of him giving his view on the situation and explaining while he still remains alive due to himself being a Muslim, whereas Alan was pure white British.  The effect of the footage shown, is to give away the appeal of how horrible the Islamic State are, and how we as a country need to be prepared for war with Syria if they continue to keep our British hostage. I am also going to discuss the voice over used whilst video clips are shown, the male voice is clear and speaks in time with the footage being shown allowing the viewer to have an idea of what exactly is going on.

5 – The news values used in this global headline are; Recency, currency and continuity as we view how the situation effects people (family members)  such as the government due to the prime minster getting involved with the situation and deliberating on whether to go to war or not. Continuity is used as this story is on going due to the Islam state still holding British people hostage, meaning this news story will still be spoke about and broadcast until all British have been returned home or killed. Another news value shown in this story is; Negativity and human interest, as the story itself is overall negative and involves no good interest for anyone. Also human interest is used as many people want to keep up with the global news and be kept updated with the situation towards the Islamic State.

6 – The BBC news at 10 is meeting the needs of its target audience as it full fills all information categories of those of the upper working class; it also discusses only the top headline stories so it allows those who want to gain knowledge gain it within the late night live broadcast. I believe the BBC news at 10 is effective as it is a live news channel which keeps you up to date with global happenings and it only broadcasts the serious news stories making the show, quick and easy to watch of an evening ( for many of the upper working class before they go to bed) . 

News piece - http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b04httny/bbc-news-at-ten-03102014

What are news values? - News values are sometimes called news criteria, these values determine how much prominence a news story is given by a media outlet, and the attention it is given by the audience.

The media researchers Galtung and Rudge came up with these varied values used to give news its agenda and what kind of attention and audience would give a news piece.

News Value	Description
Negativity	Bad news - involving death, tragedy, bankruptcy, violence, damage, natural disasters, political upheaval or simply extreme weather conditions - is always rated above 'positive' stories (royal weddings, celebrations etc)
Closeness to home (Proximity)	Audiences supposedly relate more to stories that are close to them geographically, or involve people from their country, or those that are reported that way(eg '12 Hong Kongers aboard Australia Crash Plane'). News gatekeepers must consider carefully how meaningful a story will be to their particular audience
Recency	Newspapers are very competitive about breaking news - about revealing stories as they happen. 24 hour news channels such as CNN and BBC World also rate this value very highly. However, as we have seen with the events of September 11, stories may take a while to develop, and become coherent, so recency is not always the best value to rate.
Currency	This is almost opposite to recency, in that stories that have been in the public eye for some time already are deemed valuable. Therefore a story - for instance about the abduction and murder of a child - may run for weeks and weeks, even if nothing new really happens.
Continuity	Events that are likely to have a continuing impact (a war, a two week sports tournament) have a high value when the story breaks, as they will develop into an ongoing narrative which will get audiences to 'tune in tomorrow'.
Uniqueness	'Dog Bites Man' is not a story. 'Man Bites Dog' is. Any story which covers a unique or unusual event (two-headed elephant born to Birmingham woman) has news values
Simplicity	Obvious, but true. Stories which are easy to explain ('Cat stuck up tree') are preferred over stories which are not (anything to do with the Balkan or Palestinian conflicts)
Personality	Stories that centre around a particular person, because they can be presented from a 'human interest' angle, are beloved of newspapers, particularly if they involve a well-known person. Some say this news value has become distorted, and that news organisations over-rate personality stories, particularly those involving celebrities ('Kate Middleton Goes Shopping'). What do you think?
Expectedness (Predictability)	Does the event match the expectations of a news organisation and its audience? Or, has what was expected to happen (violence at a demonstration, horrific civilian casualties in a terrorist attack) actually happened? If a news story conforms to the preconceived ideas of those covering it, then it has expectedness as an important news value
Elite Nations Or People	Any story which covers an important, powerful nation (or organisation) has greater news values than a story which covers a less important nation. The same goes for people. Barack and Michelle Obama are newsworthy whatever they do.
Exclusivity	Also a major factor when setting the news agenda. If a newspaper or news programme is the first and only news organisation breaking a story, then they will rate that very highly. The UK Sunday papers are very fond of exclusives, and will often break a story of national or international importance that no one else has.
Size	does matter when it comes to news stories. The bigger impact a story has, the more people it affects, the more money/resources it involves, the higher its value. This is also known as threshold

Question 1 – The ITV evening news headline story differs from the BBC breakfast story due to the Itv headline being about the murder of a man; whereas the BBC main headline focusing on how the government’s plan to boost the housing market. The second main headline spoke about on ITV is about another murder involving 5 men and this headline clearly states all details, whereas BBC has a completely opposite second headline news due to it being about the Euro vision song contest and how the British singer let down England. 

Question 2 – The news stories were covered neither the same on each channel, the murder headlines shown on ITV evening news, were shown right at the beginning of the programme for about 30 seconds each and explained briefly, but later mentioned again in the news for a longer period of time, going into exact details and suspects with a very serious tone. The BBC morning news also went for the same format and showed brief clips of the main headlines but later within the programme spent a small amount of time discussing the Euro vision song contest mainly showing footage from the event, however the housing benefit news story was spoke about over a period of time also with a live interview from the prime minster giving his opinion on the situation. 

Question 3 – The images that went with the ITV evening headline murder story was live film footage from the area with a voice over discussing the situation giving details on the murder and the explanations of the suspects involved, and for the 2nd murder headline story one image was shown with a voice over briefly describing the situation itself. BBC morning news headline story – The housing benefit story was shown live from the disused area using the same format as ITV news where the voice over discusses the situation, where as for the Eurovision headline live footage was shown from the pre recorded clip which then had a voice over which spoke every now and then to give the facts on the event, however once the footage had finished the two news reporters remained seated and discussed their views on the opinions for a small amount of time.

 Question 4/5 – The ITV news presenter is a male dressed in a formal suit, sat behind an empty black plain desk, with a backing screen of the city at night. He spoke to the audience in a very serious tone and only explained the news stories without giving his own opinions or showing minor facial expression. This differs from the BBC breakfast news which involves a male and female presenter sat in every day work clothes upon a sofa with a table filled with newspapers and cups of coffee, they are also interacting with the audience in an everyday conversation tone, and also expressing their opinions on the less serious news headlines. The backing screen on the BBC breakfast news is a large window which shows the morning sun rising over the city of London, the scene is very casual and the presenters are sat in comfy positions rather than formal back right position that the ITV evening news presenter is sat in.

 Question 5 – The target audience for the ITV evening news would be the upper/middle working class mixed gender who would have just arrived home for work, this is because the set of news is very sophisticated, the news stories are all of a serious topic and all get straight to the point and the male presenter is seen wearing a suit sat behind a plain desk giving away the idea that the news is going to be serious without any normal chat. This is what an upper/middle class worker would like to watch of an evening once arrived home from work to catch up with the global happenings. The BBC breakfast news however would be for the target audience once again of the mixed sex, but of the middle class (-B bracket), whom may have time to sit around in the morning and watch the news while drinking a cup of tea or eating some breakfast. The casualness of the news presenters would appeal to the target audience of woman or the middle aged bracket as they would prefer to watch a laid back episode of the news rather than a serious broadcasting show presented in the evening ( when this target audience would most likely be watching soaps ).

Itv evening news - case study

BBC morning news - case study

Definition

News - News is the communication of selected information on current events. It is shared in various ways: among individuals and small groups (such as by word of mouth or newsletters; with wider audiences (such as by publishing, either in print or online or broadcasting, such as on television or radio); or in ways that blend those traits (such as when social media sharing starts among individuals but goes viral.