Monday 24 March 2014

Saturday 15 March 2014

Task 3 - Forms and Styles of News Reporting

Assignment 3 – Forms and Styles of News Reporting
·       Bulletin
A news bulletin includes 3-6 stories, showing international and national news, local news, sport, entertainment and weather.

·       Headline
A brief outline of the big news stories at the time, including a small amount of information.

·       Copy Only
Copy only stories have no need for audio; they are often used for public service information and local events. Sometimes they also include funny one liners when concluding the story with a “and finally.”

·       Copy with Audio
These are stories that are made up of clips from an interview; these clips would be 8-20 seconds long each. These clips would create an audio impact – it lets the audio tell the story. To make the audience feel the sense of atmosphere, the microphone would be placed somewhere there is background noise.

·       Wrap
This is a completely wrapped package, everything into one; it includes another reporter plus audio. It slots into a bulletin and is set out ‘intro – clip – conclusion’.

·       Vox Pop
A vox pop is recording of a member/members of the public discussing their views on something that is being discussed on the radio. It would usually be recorded outdoors usually in a city centre where there’s a lot of general public.

·       Two Way
A two way is when there are two people talking in the same room.

·       Live Cross
This is when the presenter goes live to another presenter in a different location, for example a report from the war in Iraq, which would include the background sound of the war-taking place.

·       Ident
This is a small recording to remind the audience what radio station they are listening too, this can go in-between the news stories to break the news broadcast up.



·       Voicers
A voicer is a short report read by another reporter and unlike a wrap it does not include an audio clip.


Metro Radio
The news report began with a story about a convicted murderer on the run, he has also escaped twice before, this was a copy and audio broadcast as it included a recording of a police officer giving some information on the situation. This is to show the public that they are in safe hands and the police are working hard to get the situation under control. The next story was a Murder enquiry by a 37-year-old man in Huddersfield, there are currently children being treated in hospital. A 39-year-old man has been arrested. This was an audio report, as they couldn’t include audio, as they haven’t got enough information about the situation yet. After, there was a story on how BT are creating 1600 engineering jobs, and 180 of those are in the North East, this is appealing to Metro Radio’s target audience as it is based in the North East and people in the North East would find it useful to know there are jobs going near home. Next, there was a story on Ryan Air and how they have had a fall in profit, they made £426 million; this was also a copy piece as it didn’t include an audio clip as it wasn’t a very important story so it didn’t require one. The next story was about Ant and Dec and how there should be more acting jobs for children in the North East and how they are thinking about buying the building Byker Grove was filmed in, to help the cause. This was a copy and audio story as Dec was interviewed and voiced his opinion on the matter. This is an effective story to feature on Metro Radio as it is specific to their target audience as it talks about the North East and includes Ant and Dec – some of the biggest stars to come out of the North East. The broadcast then continued by talking about how they won an award at the BAFTA’s and then continued onto talking about the other winners of the night. This was a copy file, as it didn’t include any audio, as it didn’t require one. This was the last news story but the weather followed, this was jus general weather.

BBC Radio 1

This news report began with a story on how police want ticket inspectors for concerts to be stricter as more and more people are making it into the concerts with fake tickets, this is specific to the stations target audience as the ages range is 16 – 24 which is the most common age of people who go to concerts. This story was a two way as there were two presenters talking. The next story was on Turkey and how there have been protests against the government because of the worst mining experience, killing 200 people, this story was copy as it didn’t require any audio, it was all information. Next, was a story on how charities are working with paedophiles helping them with their ‘views’ towards children, and how the charity can’t cope with the amount of offenders who require help. This was copy and audio as it included a female charity worker talking about how they can’t deal with the amount of calls they are receiving. Next, was the sports reports which were all copy, which lead straight into the weather which was also copy.

Monday 10 March 2014

Task 2 - News Values

News Values
In 1965, media researchers Galtung & Ruge analysed international news stories to find out what factors they had in common, and what factors placed them at the top of the news agenda worldwide. They came up with a “scoring system” of news values, with stories that score highly in each having more chance of making a lead / front-page story. Every media organisation will have its own news values, based upon what their audience expects, and what is important to the organisation. News Values are separated into 12 different sections which are; negativity, proximity, recency, currency, continuity, uniqueness, simplicity, personality, expectedness, elite nations/people, exclusivity, and size.

Negativity:
This states that bad news is better than good news and it will always be rated higher as people enjoy hearing that other people are worse off than them. An example of bad news would be floods, bankruptcy, natural disasters and violence etc.

Proximity:
This is stories close to home that audiences can relate to, for example anything that happens locally or within the same country, stories with local geographical values will have better ratings.

Recency:
News will get a better audience if they have very recent stories so most news broadcasters try to get the most recent stories to get the best ratings. For example, Justin Bieber’s court case was streamed live on the news to keep the audience completely up to date.

Currency:
Currency would be stories that stay in the public eye for a long period of time. An example of this would be the Madeline McCann story as it has been in the news for 7 years now.

Continuity:
Continuity stories have a continuing impact on readers with every single development on the story.  An example of this would be the floods and bad weather in the UK as every development would affect the audience in some way, whether it be affecting them personally or people they know.

Uniqueness:
Unique stories are stories that you wouldn’t expect, they are there to intrigue the audience and shock them, unique stories are usually humorous. An example of this would be Miley Cyrus’ performance at the EMA Awards as this was completely unexpected and shocked the world.

Simplicity:
These would be stories that are easy to explain and easy for the audience to understand. An example of this would be the story about the Galleries in Washington being rebuilt as it requires no thought when reading it and it is a very easy story to understand.

Personality:
These are stories you can relate to which centre around a particular person, mainly celebrities. An example of this could be Khloe Kardashian as she is currently going through a divorce.

Expectedness:
These are stories you predict will be mentioned. An example of this could be the floods down south as it has been on the news for quite some time now and the audience would be expecting updates on what is happening.

Elite Nations/People:
These are stories that are close to Britain e.g anything to do with America, Germany etc. An example of this could be the conflict between Russia and Ukraine as it affects Europe.

Exclusivity:
These would be stories that are breaking news that no one knows about yet, they are exclusive stories and are there to surprise and shock the audience. And example of this would be Sky News as they are always the first to have breaking news stories.

Size:

These are stories that rely on how big the story is. The news teams rely on these stories as the bigger the story the bigger the value. An example of this would be the plane that has gone missing and completely disappeared off the radar as this affects many people so it is a big story.

Sunday 9 March 2014

Task 1 - Legal and Ethical Considerations


Lauren Gaudie

Assignment 1 – Legal and Ethical Considerations

In this assignment I will discuss the various legal and ethical considerations facing media producers. I will provide an overview of the area and explain why it important to the media industry using examples as I go.

 

Defamation (Libel/ Slander)

Defamation is a term for hurting someone’s reputation. For it to appear on radio it would be ‘slander’ as it would be spoken, whereas if it is on a website or in a newspaper it would be ‘libel’ as it would be written down. It is important to the media industry as they could easily be sued if they word something wrong, so they would have to be very careful. An example of this would be when The Daily Mirror accused Frankie Boyle of being racist, as they had no actual evidence of him being a racist and the court referred to him as “a comedian who tells jokes about race rather than being a racist”, he successfully sued the newspaper for £55,000. Another example would be the Rolf Harris case, stating that he allegedly molested young girls over the many years he’s been famous. If a newspaper or a radio were to assume he is guilty, this would be libel and slander defamation.

 

Court Reporting

The law on court reporting is designed to protect the accused’s right to a fair trial. The court reporter must always refer to the suspect as the “alleged” or the “accused” and never the “killer” until proven. You also cannot report on any previous offences mentioned in court. You also cannot mention any names of children less than 16 years of age linked with the crime. An example of this would be when the Ian Huntley trial was on-going and 2 Beacon FM radio presenters Mark Peters and Lisa Freame discussed Huntley’s testimony, with Peters saying...

It’s almost like the most unbelievably made-up story in the world ever, really, isn’t it? Well, I personally think it is. I can’t believe any member of the jury is going to believe that story.

The pair were immediately sacked from their jobs at the radio station, while the station itself ran the risk of being held in contempt of court.

 

Privacy

This is the invasion of privacy, such as reporters standing on private property. It is important that the media industry know this is unacceptable as the individuals privacy you are invading could easily sue as you are on their property. In the UK there are no specific laws to privacy, although Article 8 of the Human Rights Act 1998 is designed to provide “the right to respect for private and family life, home and correspondence.” An example of this would be when Kate Middleton was spotted topless abroad on a holiday and the French newspapers showed the pictures whereas the British newspapers didn’t out of respect for the royal family.

 

Election Law

The law regarding the elections are that if you are a presenter on a radio stations you can’t favour one certain party, you must have a neutral view to make it fair to the listeners and for their opinion on to be tampered with. This law doesn’t apply to newspapers and the internet as the law doesn’t include them. This is important to the media industry as it affects people’s views towards the politicians.

 

Legal and Ethical Constraints

It is an offence to incite racial or religious hatred. All media producers must be very careful what is said on the air or in newspapers, even if it is a quote from someone else, the law stating this is The Racial and Religious Hatred Act 2006. They must be careful not to allow racist remarks on phone ins, chat shows etc. because they could be prosecuted. Even balancing with anti-racist views is not enough, because racist remarks have been said.

 

The Official Secrets Act

This is the legislation that provides for the protection of state secrets and official information, mainly related to national security; it was brought in due to concerns over foreign spies and saboteurs. It states the media cannot mention any of the following in any form:

       Security and intelligence

       Defence

       International relations

       Confidential info from other governments or international organisations

       Info that could be useful to criminals

       Info about interception (opening and reading suspects mail)

 

If mentioned, this is a crime and the media producer will be punished by the courts as it is classified information about the safety of our country.

 

Industry and Professional Codes

OFCOM is a regulatory body, meaning it is accountable to parliament (and funded by the government). Covers broadcasting / telecommunications – the public can complain to OFCOM if they are unhappy about something they see / hear. It covers rules on...

      Content for children

      Watershed

      Protecting the public from “harmful and offensive” material

 

It is important to the media industry as if they are showing/saying something that the audience do not approve of, the public will go to OFCOM and the radio show/newspaper etc. will get a very large fine.