Is television news a "Window on the world"?

In short NO

Unfortunately I'm not allowed to be that broad because this is allow a simple answer quite a complex question that throws production, different laws, objectivity, and bias, (Among other things) into the mix.

Starting sequences
The starting sequences of these shows start off with an opening that always follows a selection of key themes.

Satellites connote the use of technology but it also shows the large scale corporation in scale with the size of the earth which usually dwarfs the planet. This shows that the show reaches across the entire world and can pick news from anywhere. The images of earth from space again show the reach of the show taking information from all over the world. The symbol of the eye connotes that the viewer is seeing everything about the world. Technology is another way of implying that the shows is as up to date and superior as possible.  Rushing graphics imply Spontaneous-ness and the speed of the information coming towards the viewer.  Fast paced brass implies the importance of the show it makes it seem really grand even Royal. Male voice-overs connote masculinity and MANLY-NESS.  Phallic symbols like towers are another message of masculinity and the POWER of the news show.  Landmarks of cities are another great example of showing the reach of the program as it implies it could display any part of the wold at once. Of course the joint reason that in showing when showing the entire world is that both the capitals appear most important and deserve your attentions but also people with less of an understanding in geography only tend to recognize things in capitals like the Eiffel tower, the statue of liberty or the Holly-Wood letters they wouldn't have a clue if you showed an image of Multnomah Falls or rural Tibet. Clocks connote the instantaneous of the information coming to you telling you that its delivery had no expenses lacked.

Presenters

The News Presenters/Readers are made to speak in direct address and not too show any emotion whilst presenting the stories.To make them seem completely neutral they must speak in standard English without dialect. News readers tend to fit a specification due to gender. Men tend to be far older between their mid forties to their early fifties as opposed to women who tend to be much younger (In their mid thirties) This shows the sexist side to news production.

Sets

The News studio is as clean as an operating theater and as technologically advanced as a super computer It is made to look Impressive like you genuinely could conceive the notion that all the worlds news is filtered through that one room. To connote this they generally have a large desk (Authority)

Legal framework

The law states that all television news needs to be completely impartial. The 1973 Broadcasting Act states that “ITV-- news will show due Impartiality”. This is highly Un-feasible as know body in the industry cannot make a decision without basing it on personal bias to the world around them.

 The BBC Royal Charter says “The corporation shall refrain from expressing its views on a matter of public concern” This means it must not give views on things the public should decide whether or not to be concerned about.

Libel laws prevent publication and broadcast of unfounded accusations this is my opinion is probably my favorite of the laws I researched as it simply means you can’t knowingly tell lies on air an example of this was during the Boston bombings they said they didn't know who caused the explosions or why.

However there are laws in place which could be interpreted in having objectivity.

 Two examples I have found are The Official Secrets Act which “prevents broadcast of material deemed to be detrimental to the security of the nation” (OK I can understand why in some cases it could be necessarily however it still shows subjectivity).

 The other is the Prevention of Terrorism Act which prevents the broadcast of anything likely to promote terrorist organisations or causes. Both of these rely completely on opinion (Some people could call you a terrorist others would call you a freedom fighter) An example of this could be that Nelson Mandela has recently been admitted to hospital . Even though he ended apartheid in south Africa he was still insulted and called a murdering old terrorist which is both unacceptable and also shows the vary in peoples opinion depending on bias.

Ofcom regulates Television whether it is terrestrial cable or satellite It also regulates parts of the BBC.

The BBC trust sets out to make sure that people who pay for their TV licences get the most out of what they pay.

News selection

The act of choosing what you need to show you are already breaking the rules of Impartiality.  Gultan and Ruge analysed and developed a theory of how things are measured in importance on shows.

•          Frequency

The event must fit in with the agenda and production of the show.

•          Threshold

The size of the event is also important as if it’s to small know body will care (However deciding whether something or not is important is subjective). 

•         Unambiguity

It has to be simple and understandable

•          Meaningfulness

Must be meaningful to a certain demographic (How do you decide what’s meaningful? without opinion impartiality rule broken)

•          Consonance

It needs to fit in with the expectations of the news company.

•         Unexpectedness

It needs to not fit in with the expectations of the news company. A great example is the Boston bombing which I think surprised and made allot of Americans jump out of their seats and run for the panic button

•          Continuity

Have we already got money In that pot? A great example of this is during wars you often get new stories where not alot happens in a war zone however they stil lsay that "There has been another tence day here in ... ect" where tence means nothings happened but if their does we still have a team out here just in case.

•          Composition

How do you want the episodes structure to look? (This is another exploit of bias as if you have to many sad stories people will select happier ones)

•          Elite nations

Are you America, England or Korea? Because know body wants to know if not.Who even knows where Venezuela is? I means seriously If nobody knows where or who your nation are nobody's going to feel sympathy towards you.

•          Elite Persons

Are you famous? because nobody genuinely cares about the little old lady in a cottage on the Yorkshire moors who lost her kitty. Its Emma Watson or Kim Kardashian being hounded by the paparazzi because of a revealing photo that ended up on the internet.

•          Personalisation

Can the story be told in characters? Example A story about a thousand workers being laid off from a car manufacturer is a tragedy but yet again It's not going to have entertaining viewing unless it depicts the (hypothetical) story of working class Greg who can't take his favorite dog to the vet because of his financial insecurity.

•          Negativity

Bad news is good news. People love talking about bad things whether demonically evil or generally scandellous and example of demonically evil. Don't take this the wrong way I'm not calling Muslims evil but somebody who cuts off another mans head in cold blood is a psychopath and a murderer not a terrorist.

Later Amendments

Later Amendments to this theory where made by Dennis McShane and identify five other news values of journalists.

• Conflict

This could mean wars or individual opposition between two people. Example could be the Obama = Romney presidential election.

• Hardship and danger in the community. 

People want to know if what they are seeing is going to effect them.

• Unusual

People both love and hate what they don't understand so it is always good for veiwng figures to have something not scene every day

• Scandal 

OMG I CAN'T BELIEVE THAT HAPPENED! This is more common with tabloid media but people like to be socially shocked by something that's not particularly threatening an example could be anything on the Jeremy Kyle show. 

• Indevidualism 

Are you one of a kind? Then you can be a personalisation really easily.

If it doesn't fit with any of these criteria it’s likely to go in. 

News sources 

New companies get here news from a plethora of different sources to deliver a variety of different exciting stories.  These places include.

• Parliament
• Councils
• Police
• Other emergency services
• Courts
• Royalty
• 'Dairy' Events (Ascot, G8 Summits, Ect)
• Airports
• Other news media (Reuters, Associated Press Television News, Ect)

There are also groups which issue statements and throw press conferences for news compaines. Some of them are:

• Local Authority departments
• Companies
• Trade Unions
• Political Parties
• Non-Commercial Organisations
• Army, Navy, Air Force
• Government departments
• Public Services

News construction

News is constructed to try and show it’s impartiality but at the same time provide the audience entertaining stories. This again unbalances the accuracy of the objectivity .News is constructed on a tight schedule that works in a modular packages that can be chopped and changed until the moment of broadcast.  

Economics
Individual news packages cost quite allot of money to produce so there is always cost saving on the brain. This means news company's often skimp on footage shown and you can generally find stock footage that has been used before making its way into latter shows. As well as this companies are likely to keep a story running as long as possible in Afghanistan they will genuinely have days where all they do is explain the day and some of the eerie quietness and how that makes people thing something going to happen when really they are just killing time till something happens.


Different television companies run on different business years.  An example of this would be in 1989 with the Tienanmen Square Massacre  because this happened in the early part of the BBC's annual budget they where able the expense of sending a team out there.  However ITV (Then called ITN) had already spent most it's yearly budget and could only report the event by telephone with no pictures or footage.  The BBC won multiple awards however ITV were left twiddling there thumbs.

Now that digital technology is available to the masses however events like this are more difficult to occur as people for a relatively cheap amount can have there images bought from them. 



News Construction process

Structure 

Each small news package is a short film in itself. it requires lots of documentary aspects as well as a conventional structure ( Classic Hollywood narrative structure, Todrov). Which shows a person or hero as they attempt to resolve whatever issues has been set upon them. These story's tend to be heavily cut down interviews reedited subtly so that they can tell the story in the broadest, fasted, and most informative way.

When in the studio they often lead into these stories with a short sentence or two then proceed to role the footage. After this they often converse through shot reverse shot to field reporters who are a great way of making an event which happened earlier in the day appear more fresh.

Realism

Its important to give news as honestly as possible if it doesn't seem real or like it couldn't affect the veiwer the emotional connection to the situation is lost.

Witnesses

Witnesses are used to make the project seem more Human like mentioned earlier personalisation is important as it causes the audience to feel empathy for the viewer.   Witnesses can also work as  Vox pops in a situation each giving in a short interview how they felt about the event being shown.


Actuality

Actuality the fact that most of the footage scene in film construction isn't actually the filmed on the spot for the package but filmed months before for another package or stock footage. This footage can be taken from the companies archive as well as other companies, both other news channels and third parties which film their own actuality footage for this purpose. Unfortunately this could be argued as a method of deception as you are being shown footage that isn't actually related to the package shown. 

Structure of the news show on the whole


The structure of a news show as a whole functions in a very similar way to a Mini Hollywood narrative, starting with the safety and normality of the studio, Then it shows the huge disruption to that normality by showing us all the bad news in the world, eventually however it brings us back to the safety of the studio restoring equilibrium with things like the sport and the weather. 


Experts
Experts  provide an in depth understanding on the  viewer they are great for finding appropriate demo and psycho graphics for making sure broadcasts reach the widest audience imaginable. They are used to gain a sense that the news is giving appropriately detailed information to the viewer.

Does it matter?

Yes it matters people need a more diverse opinion of what’s important than one specific demographic. The Majority of people in the industry are older white middle class males and therefore only give one opinion of what’s important too show and what shouldn't be ok. this is a reaching example but In north Korea the media is entirely controlled to contain and control the population I don't mean to say our country is fascist but If such a high demographic out media industry the same they might agree on certain political thing the rest of our country wouldn't.

How could it be changed?

Democratic council covering 6 - 12 broader demographics to help decide on a voting system what is most important this voting system would be carried out by the council all submitting their vote separately to avoid pressures of the rest of the group. This could be divided into things like gender, Political standpoint (Left, Right, Middle, Cat’s Ect), Sexuality, Age, Ethnicity, and Social class / Income then a voting system could be used to make a less biased representation.

The editing mechanics could be changed as well to incorporate a more representative view on how people act by conducting more of their interviews live this means they are more constricted with their editing ability.

The impact of technology upon this empire

It has been revolutionized by Twitter and other digital medias people can communicate faster than ever without restriction or laws restricting them. The best example of this is called the “Arab Spring” where lot’s of political activists in countries like Egypt, Tunisia and Yemen have used websites like Twitter and Facebook to stage group protests. Too quote PolicyMic.com “essential in establishing the democratic movement that has helped guide abused civilians to overthrow their oppressor”

The differences now compared to when news shows came on the air are huge civilian footage Is now as important as people can now upload and share information instantaneously.

Refferences

http://www.policymic.com/articles/10642/twitter-revolution-how-the-arab-spring-was-helped-by-social-media

http://gawker.com/5733816/did-wikileaks-and-twitter-cause-tunisias-revolution

http://www.wired.com/business/2011/02/egypts-revolutionary-fire/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5CMC5V041Y

http://bulawayo24.com/index-id-news-sc-international-byo-31468.html

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:BBC_trust_logo.png

Documentary Mini Task

Introduction

I would define a documentary as a factual piece of cinema or television that engages the audience and specifically makes them learn something about the world.

Expository documentary

An expository documentary is when a footage of the subject matter is overdubbed with the opinions of the presenter this is a great way of showing nature and is often used for Wildlife documentary's.

Key features

• An overseeing voice that directly addresses the audience about whats happening
• Made to look objective and unbiased however it can never be the case
• Generally used for wildlife documentary as it doesn't require an on screen presenter which could make animals react un-authentically .
• Camera sped up or slowed down to add more meaning to the footage showed
• Often given additional meaning through the narrator that you wouldn't feel otherwise.

My example is the David Attenborough series Africa.  Which uses cinematography to turn a fight over territory between two giraffes into something that was as much tension and meaning as a spaghetti western.





Observational documentary

An observational documentary is that of a camera that acts as a fly on the wall to the lives of those it's watching.

Key features

•  No speaking to try and show life with as little variation as possible.
•  Little editing. Obvious camera movements inside shots.
• Commercially very niche film-making
• Camera movements often done by hand
• It feels like there was very little equipment used besides the camera and a shotgun mic on top of it
• Extremely long takes

My example is the 1967 fly on the wall documentary for Bob Dylan.  Don't look back was a documentary Following Bob Dylan on his 1965 tour It was made by D.A Pennebraker who also did the famous Ziggy Stardust and the spiders from Mars a documentary into David Bowie which was filmed in a similar style.




Interactive documentary

An Interactive documentary is that the filmmaker who gets involved in the world they are trying to expose. This is often caused by them expressing their views on camera conducting interviews and even sometimes shaping the structure of the documentary to suit their purpose.

Key features

• A Narrator / Presenter 
• Arguments and different agendas as they are often entertaining to watch.
• Arguably the most popular along with expository
• Can take place over multiple weeks as you see a presenter hunt for some information or somebody else to interview.

My example is a personal favorite looking into the man who eats badges the original documentary 

The man who eats badgers and other tales from Bodmin Moores 

Which follows a group of excentrics inside the isolated Bodmin. This won multiple awards due to its off the wall nature.

Unfortunately due to an issue with You-Tube the intended documentary (Daniel Vernon) was sadly unavailable to me sadly unavailable to me so I made do and found a 20 minute doc on just this man alone.

Reflexive documentary

A reflexive documentary experiments with the classic assumptions of documentary film-making it attempts to challenge and expose these methods.

Key Features

• Breaks the rules of contemporary and logical film making
• Often relies on meaning and subtext instead of what is said
• Often very abstract
• Its possible to have no form of chronology in a reflexive documentary

An amazing example of this I have discovered is the 1929 silent movie Man With A Movie Camera. For a very long time this has fluctuated in the critical top ten best movies of all time list.






Performative Documentary

Per formative documentary is a documentary form where you re-intact a series of events because there is no existing footage of the event, animals or person.

Key Feature

• Staged out too better control meaning
• Based on real events played out like a drama
• Often makes use of presenters 
• Utalisies better production values as they can use extra lighting and effects too enhance mood.

An example of this would be the BBC television show Walking with Dinosaurs which followed CGI representations of the extinct creatures.  This show functioned like a presented wildlife show however all of the creatures shown where CGI models made to interact with the presenter In the style of creatures they inspire.



Dramatizations

People argue whether or not dramatizations are actually viably authentic as a form of informing people.
On one hand it is much easier to clarify the information however the information shown will not be as precise and you cannot guarantee the validity.


Poetic documentary?
Poetic Documentary is another documentary mode I have discovered evidence of it strikes me as very similar as reflexive documentary. Again playing with the conventions of a more con formative documentary it explores with metaphor and suggestion allot more than direct images.

Personal contract with the viewer

I believe that documentary film-making needs to have 100% authentic truth however I am still subjective to my cause as in my opinion telling the truth doesn't mean you have to spout the truth at every oppotunity.  Eg A female friend asks if she looks fat in a dress. Instead of telling a white lie just saying nothing is 100% honest as you haven't made a part of conversation that's untrue.  This attitude to film-making alows me to be subjective in my editing however still ethically viable in my production.

Access and Privacy

All documentary types require specific regulations in the same way dramas do.  Ofcoms polices on personal privacy are the keystone to this however documentary makers are also required to have there own code of ethics for practice.  These regulations are in place to protect people from the eye of public and the forces of documentary makes and paparazzi chasing them.

An example of things in the Ofcom regulations could be. Door stepping ( When you stop somebody outside of there home for an interview where you haven't arranged anything prior like "Vox Pops" )



Conclusion


In conclusion I can't say I can pick just one of these types as I have to pick from authenticity and creativity and therefore I need to pick two.  Creatively I like reflexive documentary as it feels like the director is trying to tell authentic truths through abstract perceptions. Before I worked on a team for an interactive documentary I would have argued that it was the most authentic form of documentary making, however now with experience of making some it feels allot more constructed.  The documentary form that I feel is most authentic might have to be Observational as there is so little done to change the footage already shown.

Not just for Christmas: My finished 3 Minute wonder

Documentary production diary

29th April

I began Pre-Production today by renting he appropriate equipment, drawing out a list of ideas for shots, drew out a list of questions i wanted o ask my dad, and cleaned up my folder by sorting all the out of place paperwork.

I plan to do some shooting and get the talent release filled in tonight.

30th

Today I didn't work on the documentary instead I put my resources into filming princess Anne when she came to college. I also began sync pulling anything that i though could be useful.

Will get back to work tomorrow.

1st May
Today I went on my personal assault of mountains of work I still need to do.

Tomorrows more of the same.

2nd
Don't feel to great today but I will keep going anyway, Going to keep at the paperwork from yesterday.

7th
Today I uploaded and made a rough cut of the footage. I was really surprised that I was able to construct and edit by myself.  Tomorrow I think I will continue editing the footage and begin working on my after effects title and credits.

8th
Today I continued editing more specifically cleaning up the rough cut I made yesterday and designing a title for the beginning of the film. Tomorrow I think I will continue and maybe draw up another shot list for tomorrow.

9th
Today I edited isn't it sucha good way of telling how I
 feel?

10th
Today I worked on my documentary Mini task and discovered Man With A Movie camera.

15th
Sorry Missed a few dates but have finished and restarted editing in the process I think this way be due to the stress of my film exam today :'(

16th
Today I married Godzilla ( If you get the refference you are such a nerd :P )

17th
Uploaded and DONE :D

3 Minute Wonder Turkeys like chickens but bigger

My idea is to look into keeping and rearing turkeys for meat considering we are raising our third generation of turkeys at home this will be an interactive documentary that consists of interviews with my parents about the previous turkey we have and the current new hatch-lings  It will also consist of dead footage of the turkeys  in their enclosure.

3 Minute Wonder Individual Idea

Turkeys like chickens but bigger

1 Interactive Documentary

2

• My documentary is going to be about keeping turkeys as livestock
• I hope to make people who like keeping chickens think about another similar type of pet
• My demographic is middle class people, middle aged with plenty of garden space, who are trying to live more ecologically friendly and be more self sufficient. 
• My proposed interviewees are my parents
• M proposed questions are 

Why did you decide you wanted to rear turkeys?

Was it difficult to hatch them?

Have you had any opposition to raising them for food?

What do you think growing your own food does for you?

Is it expensive?

Is it different to keeping chickens?

Do you think the electric fence is in humane?

Where do you think keeping turkeys for food lies in conjunction to keeping them as pets?

• Where did you get your inspiration? eerrm not sure

3

1st people interested in keeping livestock

2nd people who like quirky pets

3 Minute Wonders

The First documentary is that of a man who came to England trying to make more people happy.




The Second is about the variety's of current street-art.

News Values and Sources

In this post I will be explaining the wide diversity of NEWS VALUES that are used in each story of the news  show above and the sources of this information.

News values and Sources of Information

Our first story is that of the recent high snowfall.
Some key news values to consider are Frequency
(How fast the snow supposedly arrived),  Threshold (It covers the entire country), Meaningfulness (It applies to pretty much everybody) I think this can grab a wide ranges of spectators early on. After some general statements it lowers the information to a community level when they mention that in Best-wood country park council staff where being trained to drive 4 by 4's to assist the local meals on wheels service this shows (Hardship and danger to community making life trickier for everybody). On the whole I think this story stands out due to its Strong visual image (Mostly due to the one recurring color) and Un-Ambiguity ( SNOW IS EVERYWHERE ) The sources for this are the Government departments, Local authority and Public services

Our second story is about Security camera placed near bus lanes to catch people driving car in them and fining them for it Meaning-fullness (It's attempting to tap into the controversy attached as people debate whether or not it's a way for the local government to exploit drivers) It relies heavily on interviews with the public and people in local power (Personalisation) All in all this Story feels like a filler they could have used at any moment and makes me feel like it was a rather slow news day.

The third story is that of increasing funding for disabled entrepreneurs this is great for the "Composition" of the show putting it just before the big shocking story of the show. The source is probably from the Government / Parliament

The Final story before the add break is that a Dog mauled a swan too death outside a nature reserve what was more shocking is the lack of attention the owner of the dog had given to the event. This is important as its a fairly shocking "Negative", "Scandal" story that come about "Unexpectedly" so the audience is both disheartened but also enthralled before the add break takes place to keep people wanting to watch on "Composition".


The First story after the the commercial break is about Stanford hospital and some life threatening neglect for the patients. This is "Continuity" news as this is one of many recent reports into neglect in hospitals have been quite a regular feed. Its very "Negative" as a man almost suffered a large stroke. The source from this is probably that the government and NHS have suffered complaints.




In a change of tone "Composition" to go between dark "Negativity" and obvious self promoting they use information about the play warhorse.








The final story is a little bit of self publicity. It talks about the redesign of the studio and how they are going to evolve there news show.


Questions : What effect could the daily routine have on the choice of stories which get selected for ITV's News at Ten?

New stories could break in the meantime that are more important than the original intention.

What would happen if there is a late breaking story?

The order of the planned show gets juggled around to fit the breaking news and replace the more filler stuff.

ITV News Opening Analysis and connotations

In the Opening for the ITV news at ten you can draw the following stereotypical connotations

•  Big Ben due to its height could be considered a phallic-symbol.
• As well as this Big Ben is a clock so it also implies on the spot current time headlines.
• You can see a revolving image of the earth this implies global communication.
• Motorways sped up (symbolism for fast traveling information)
  
  In contradiction to this however is a female voice over which disrupts the regular stereotypes of a masculine voice over. 

News Readers
There are two news readers in the opening the first is a man in his mid 50's this connotes older wisdom and an intellectual nature the other is a woman in her mid 30's she connotes boobs.

Mise-en-scene

The studio is super modern with all but an out of place wooden floor too contradict the sharp grey and blue plastics of the room. The desk is hyper modern and looks like something from "Tron"  this could connote that it is a hub of information and is constantly full of the worlds news, it denotes they have a lot of money and wealth. The touchscreen tablets/computers on the desks in front of the readers again show this technological advancement and connectivity. All the television screens in the background once again connote the connectivity and bank of information this news show draws it's information from.