Research and Planning

28/09/15

Background Research

In class, we started our research by watching some clips of the news and picking out the codes and conventions in the news. Here is a what I picked out in the clips.

In these Prezi's, I am going to go through 5 television news programmes, from local news in different areas of the country to national and international news. This way, I can learn the codes and conventions of such programmes, and use what I find in my own local news programme. 

4/10/15

Local News

11/10/15

National News

18/10/15

International News

25/10/15

Theories
Todorov's Narrative Theory
Todorov's narrative theory is based upon stories and could be applied to the way in which news stories are organised and structured.  It starts with Equilibrium, meaning that everything is normal/ calm. Then the next stage happens; the Disruption. This is when something happens to stop the equilibrium e.g. a murder. Everyone then realises the problem, which creates chaos and something is put in place to calm this; this is known as the Resolution. In order to try repair the problem and return to normal a Restored Order is created, followed by a New Equilibrium. It should be made clear that the first equilibrium and the new equilibrium are never the same, as something has happened that the people have had to get over e.g. if a murder had happened, the people would get over it but it'd never be the same. 

This could be seen as how a new report runs as the programme starts with a clam introduction by the news anchor who introduces a community, person etc. the (Equilbrium). The anchor continues giving a brief description of the report. Then the report starts, with the correspondent explaining what has happened (Disruption), followed by people's reactions in the form of interviews or vox pops. Then the report will have some sort of authority fix the problem (e.g. the resolution and restored order, by the police, government etc.) Finally, we then finish the report and normally there is still a focus on the incident, but we see the people involved/ coming to terms with the incident and a way forward is given to reassure the audience (New Equilibrium).  

As seen below, the news report about Rebecca Aylward's murder follows this structure. It shows the equilibrium before she was murdered; Rebecca was meeting her ex boyfriend in the woods, before she was murdered. This moves the report to the disruption and restored order, with the murderer being arrested and found guilty.  This then leads to new equilibrium. 

1/11/15

Propp's Theory

Like Todorov's Narrative theory, Propp's theory is also based on stories but rather than focusing on narrative only it focuses on the character types involved in the narrative.  Again, I have tried to apply this theory to TV news looking at the character types found in news stories.  As the new focuses on particular events e.g. binary oppositions in our world such as crime, murder and corruption in the main, there are similar character types evident in each story.  

The character types found by Propp are.  i have discussed below how these could be seen in TV news stories:

• The Hero - Could be someone who saved another person.
• The Villain  - The person who committed a crime.  
• The Donor - Someone who helps the "Hero" e.g. someone who phoned the police, stayed with the victim or was a 'have a go' hero.
• The Dispatcher - Someone who helped the hero on their way e.g. someone in the public who helped restrain the villain.
• The False Hero - Someone who tried to tempt the hero/ help the villain.
• The Helper - Someone who again helps the hero.
• The Princess - The hero's reward e.g. a cash reward.
• The Princess' Father - The person who gives the reward e.g. the family of a missing dog. 

A lot of these characters can be recognised in news programmes, with some such as the Hero, Villain and the Princess, being more easily recognised/ more common than other characters. An example of this is Osama Bin Laden's death in 2011. The news report presents Bin Laden as the Villain, with the Anchor using terms like "masterminded the 9/11 attacks."  They also use clips of him shooting a gun and the 9/11 attacks. On the other hand, Obama is shown as the Hero, as he is the public figure who announced the death. It could also be said that the US Army personal, who carried out the attack and are briefly mentioned, are the helper characters because without them, this wouldn't have happened.  

Binary Opposition Theory

This theory was created by Strauss, who said, "We understand words not for their meanings, but their opposites."  For example, there are many opposites like Good vs Bad, Society vs Outsider, Order (Law) vs Disorder (Criminality). This relates to the news stories as normally the news will show both sides e.g. The law vs criminality as seen in the clip below from BBC news about the riots in 2011. It clearly shows order vs disorder, with the police trying to contain the rioters from further violence. TV news have to show both sides of a story.

8/11/15

In order to gain primary research as well, I decided to email local news stations to gain information from them as they make news broadcasts everyday and have first hand experience. Lois Swinnerton from Big Centre TV replied, and was very useful in what she said. Here is her reply;

I can use these tips when I eventually make my 5 minute news broadcast. Also, some of her tips have encouraged me to start to plan my report, with a focus on the shots that will be used but also how the actual story will be structured e.g. how many interviews, what the reporter will say etc. 

15/11/15

Product Research

I started to look into why people watched the news and if they didn't, why they didn't. I gathered a group of students in my form, two boys and two girls. Also, they are from a range of year groups with there being a year 7, 8, 9 and 11 here. By asking them why they did or didn't watch the news, I mainly found that teenagers don't watch the news as its "boring, too serious" and also doesn't have the content that they see as important/ interesting, such as soap and celebrity news. This information could be used in my own news programme which I will make soon. It should be said however, that the age range of these students is not that of my target audience. The demographic for news programmes is much older but this research was useful, as if I was to explore the genre and make a news programme for a younger audience it could be valuable information. However, the task is to make a local TV news programme and my target audience is adults.

22/11/15

To see what an older audience thought about Local TV news, I went out and asked a few people over the age of 18 about their thoughts on local TV news. This is what I found:

Overall, the key theme that I found from this audience research is that people watch the News to keep "in the loop": they want to know what is going on in the local area. Therefore, this would suggest that if I want to keep my audience's attention, I must use recent stories that are very popular in my TV News programme.

To try and reach out to not just a wider audience, but also an older one, I created a survey on SurveyMonkey. This allows people to answer my interview in a more interactive way and will allow me to collect more data from my target audience. 

29/11/15

Create your own user feedback survey

Here are my results; 

With these results, I will try to include them in my reports. 

6/12/15

Ancillary Task 1 Title sequences

Next, I had to look into the title sequences and in particular pick out key codes and conventions of local title sequences such as what is shown, sound, use of any graphics etc. Here are some clips I looked at;

BBC Midlands Today

The title sequence on a whole, is very short but there is still a lot I could include. Firstly, we see a building which is well known for economics and businesses in Birmingham, with a graphic over the top showing areas in the Midlands such as Dudley and Telford, all linked with white lines. This graphic is used throughout, with the areas changing as the video footage does. Secondly, we see a child playing, followed by a horse in the country side. This not only represents a focus on children (e.g. education), but also involves rural areas. Thirdly, we see an Asian man with a carpet, which also incorporates the multi ethnic communities in Birmingham. The title sequence finishes with a video of Birmingham City Centre, which is a well known urban area and has clear landmarks such as the Rotunda Building. On the side is the name of the programme, with the BBC logo. This, and the use of only white and red (BBC's colour palette), helps to also create a brand identity as it will become more recognisable, especially with the unique non diegetic soundtrack. To conclude, both rural and urban areas but also different ethnicities and landmarks are shown, even in a shortened version of the title sequence. 

13/12/15

Creating my Logo

Having looked at other logos from news programmes, I decided to design an original logo using the Birmingham skyline as my programme is based in Birmingham

I found a silhouette on the internet and by using Photoshop, I managed to change the image into my own logo.

As you can see below, I changed the colour from gold to a dark blue, because the news programmes I researched use basic primary colours like red and blue but also black or white.

I then duplicated and flipped the image, which created a shadow-like effect for my logo. This idea was enhanced by the use of the colour grey.

I decided to therefore put the name of the programme, Good Morning Birmingham TV, in the middle. This made the name stand out, especially when in capitals, bold and in two colours, with the "GMB" in black and the "TV" in red. The main point of a logo is to create an identity for the news programme and I believe my logo can has done that. In comparison to other logos, it is unique as no news programmes in Birmingham are in anyway similar, meaning it would be easy to recognise.

20/12/15

Now I have created my logo, I decided to make a plan for my title sequence. Using found images, I decided to use them not only to give me an idea of what kind of shots I would like to use, but also what order the photos would go into. 

28/12/15

After much consideration, I decided to change my programme's name. I felt that the name Good Morning Birmingham TV was good but making a news programme for the morning would require sun rise shots for the title sequence, Also, with my main story being hard hitting, wouldn't be as suited to the morning audience, as they are more likely to need to know about traffic updates etc and would be unlikely to sit through a detailed broadcast due to time constraints.  The name iBirmingham gives the show a reliable, technological edge, with the "i" being similar to the Apple products like the Iphone, the Ipad and the Iwatch. 

4/1/16

Big Centre TV

Big Centre TV's presenter Bob hall was a great help to me as he gave me a deeper understanding as to what happens behind the scenes of making a news program, how it should be presented, how to gain the audiences attention etc. My Media class decided on six questions and sent it in to him. Big Centre TV are a local TV News broadcaster in my area and, with Bob Hall having 30 years experience in the News industry, this information provided is very useful for making my News programme. Here is what Bob said: