Introduction to News

BBC News Channel: 09/03/2015, 8.30-9.00

The Starting Sequence
The starting sequence of the programme covers the main headlines that they intend
to cover within the next 20-30 minutes. The presenters talk over a series of clips related to
the main headlines, giving a rough outline of what they are showing.

The Stories

Conservative plans for 500 new free schools

Breaking: James Molyneaux dying
The Anti-Terror Strategy not working
Dog poisoning at Crufts
Business News RE. HSBC Swiss accounts
The Weather

The Presenters
There are two presenters in the studio, who alternate between each other for each
new story. In this half an hour section on the BBC News Channel, there was one male
presenter, Simon McCoy, and one female presenter, Carole Walker, both aged 53 at time of
writing. Their role is to engage the viewer in the news events of the day, introduce prerecorded reports from reporters on stories, and then interview people relevant to the story
such as politicians or bankers (and sometimes the reporters themselves).
Their aim is to connect all of the stories that they need to tell together, to make
them feel relevant to the viewer, and keep them engaged in the programme. Without them,
the programme is just a series of un-connected events which makes no sense. To be a
successful newsreader, it has been said the biggest required quality is to stay calm and
focused. There is often up to 5 people talking in the gallery which can be heard in the
presenters earpiece, whilst they are trying to read the autocue to camera. In order to
appear calm and collected on television for the viewers they must remain completely
focused on reading, within their allotted time precisely.

News Ordering
The term news ordering involves deciding on an order of the news stories to be
presented throughout the programme. This is particularly important for the 30 minute
broadcasts at 6pm and 10pm (for the BBC) which are watch by millions on BBC 1. Story
Editors in newsrooms have to decide on this order, ensuring it can be covered within the
allotted time slot.

The first item on the news is called the lead story, which is selected based on the
relevance it will have will the ideal audience of the news programme. This will most likely be
the longest story to be shown on the news, followed by shorter segments dedicated to
other important stories. Sometimes it is necessary to just do a round-up of other stories,
giving a quick summary of the events happening. This is often used for sport news, giving an
overview of the final scores of games over a highlights reel. The final story on the news is
sometimes known as the And Finally. Usually this story is something more light hearted
and entertaining to contrast with the typically sad, boring and depressing big news stories.
The ability to think and act quickly is important for ordering the news, because
sometimes things which are supposed to happen that day in the morning do not happen, or
a more important event occurs replacing or pushing down the schedule other stories. The
Story Editor needs to stay ahead of the news, taking into account the relevance of stories to
the viewer at the time of broadcast and ordering appropriately. Some changes occur at the
very last moment before broadcast or sometimes during as well if breaking news is found
out.
The term slow news day is given to certain days where very few relevant events
have happened. For example, a debate in the house of commons over runs meaning it
comes to no decisive conclusion on the day it was supposed to suddenly that is not a
reportable story any more. The Story Editors job becomes very difficult under these
circumstances, trying to find enough stories to feature in the programme. The term news
values assesses how likely an event is to be shown on a news programme. In the 1960s
Gatlung and Ruge wrote about the main factors that made an event relevant for worldwide
news broadcasts. The following table outlines Gatlung and Ruges 12 identified values with
examples.
News Value

Example

Negativity
Expectedness
Currency
Continuity
Size
Simplicity
Recency
Personality
Proximity

Terry Pratchetts death aged 66.

(www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-31855710)
The trapped Chilean miners in 2010. (www.bbc.co.uk/news/worldus-canada-11535245)
Jeremy Clarkson suspended by the BBC for hitting a producer.
(http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-31824040)

Great Yarmouth house fire deaths Inquest.

(http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-norfolk-31853334)
Elite Nations/People Barack Obama condemning Ferguson police shootings
(http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-31864839)
Exclusivity
Exclusive look at Mahatma Ghandi statue before unveiling.
(http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-31862446)
Uniqueness

Analysing a News Report (Part 1: The Chowles)

This news report from the 1990s was about a young couple who had bought a house
in order to start a family but were shortly going to lose it after struggling to keep up
repayments. The people involved are members of the Chowles family, the mother, father
and their young baby. The report also follows the father to the local council in the hope of
them finding council accommodation. The report did have a narrative which helped viewers
to follow the story. It began by describing their situation, leading on to the father trying to
find a solution, and ending with a resolution summed up by the couple themselves which
linked back into the point of the governments statement from the day.
The family is represented as being poor, near the bottom of the social ladder. The
news report clearly wants you to sympathise with the family who are struggling, and risk
losing their home when they have another baby on the way already. The report showed
them to be doing happy family tasks such as playing games with the baby which are
relatable to the viewers. However, I found it difficult to sympathise with them instead I felt
a divide between myself and them (mainly because the report itself was quite dated),
questioning how they had managed to get into such a difficult situation and why they
were about to make it worse by having another child.

Bias in the News

News reports can be influenced by the person or organisation that is reporting it,
which can be bias in the news. One way an editor can express bias is through selection and
omission, meaning to choose whether to even report on the story or aspects of it - or not.
This can occur if the editor wants their audience to think of something in a certain way, for
example choosing not to report on the horrifying things happening during a war because
they support the government and want their audience to support the government too.
Similarly, bias can be expressed through placement/order. Ultimately, the first
headline on the evening news is what the news broadcaster thinks is the most important,
compared to the last item which is obviously not as important. Whilst it can be argued that
broadcasters choose what they think is most relevant to their audience, if they dont want
to go into too much detail about an event it can be moved down the agenda which
expresses bias as they will be able to leave out details.
Bias can additionally be expressed by the headline used, the editor can choose to
put a positive or negative headline on the story to catch the attention of the audience
before giving them the details which may be completely different to what the headline
suggests. Likewise with names and captions; these are used to describe the role people
have, usually written below their name, but it can also be positive or negative depending on
the editors viewpoint. Use of language can also show bias, through the wording of certain
details in a report or the tone a newsreader uses when saying certain words.

Shot selection can also be used to show bias on television news. If the news is
talking about somebody they do not want their audience to like for instance they may use
a particularly bad picture of Jimmy Saville alongside a report on his child abuse. In contrast,
they may use really good looking images of a celebrity they are in favour of, such as Emma
Watson when reporting on her work on the HeForShe campaign.