Introduction to the news

Part 1

I watched sky news on Tuesday the 10th, the stories that were covered were mainly basing around terrorist's such as 'Jihadi John' and about Islam and ISIS and ISIL, the news started off with big bold lettering and the title started at the start of the news broadcast emphasizing that it was the most important news story at that time underneath the short previews of the news would be 'TOP STORIES' and shows short clips it started off with Jihadi John and then showed a clip about two girls that had recently gone missing then moved on to short stories that have been spanning over the weeks such as the poisoning at crufts. Whilst this was happening there was a bar panning the screen below showing info such as the stocks and contact details about sky news, also some of the less important stories or breaking news involved in the stories such as "missing body part found in Amelia case" alerting the viewer that a new discovery has been found. I have put a link below of the current Sky news intro, it is a compilation of special effects whilst the sky news logo is moving around the screen but the dominant colors are white and blue to fit in with the brand. The narrative has been constructed in the way that it will start off with the most shocking part of the story in this case it was about a witness coming out and speaking about Jihadi John as he knew the guy so to everyone watching this was breaking news in the coverage of Jihadi John. the structure made people more aware of this.


This picture here is a screencap of the news broadcast i watched as you can see straight away the bold lettering with a red box around it 'BREAKING NEWS' emphasizes the point of the broadcast, this was the opening scene when i first switched on to watch the news. 










https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0oMMi-iUpcw
The audio used is a dramatic sounding one where it is emphasized at certain points such as when the logo appears, sometimes they will include story's in the title sequence so the intro music will be playing then it will be interrupted by the top story of the hour with the banner 'breaking news' below. I think the visuals have been used in a way that is dramatizes the title 'Sky NEWS' it makes it seem important and informative the way that it moves forward almost as if it is in 3D and trying to reach out to you, like they are with the news. 



Part 2
News readers in the broadcast are often given a brief in the morning and then with that they will have to write their own script which they will be presenting on air, it is all about creating an impact and engaging with the audience almost relating because if the audience doesn't feel as if they can relate to you in any way they will because dis interested and change the channel. For news readers it is like a constant interview they have to maintain a formal posture during the whole broadcast and keep eye contact with the audience to engage them into what they are saying. News readers who present from the front lines are often called reporters they will often be live at a location or it will be shot before time so they can edit it and fit time allocated to visual stories, they also have to be dressed for the job usually wearing formal and well put together outfit which fits the dress code so not showing too much skin or having a lack of personal hygiene as they will be on camera infront of thousands of people, also hair and makeup has to be clean cut and up to professional standards. Skills that are necessary for a news reader is; An understanding of issues, names, geography, history and the ability to put all of these in perspective for viewers, because if you had no idea about what you were presenting it would be obvious about your lack of understanding. The ability to process new information such as sorting, organizing and retaining mass amounts of incoming data, Sensitivity to unconfirmed information, graphic video, words that potentially panic, endanger public safety or security or words that add pain to already traumatized victims and those who care about them. A command of the language they need to have proper pronunciation and tone which is good enough for story telling. The ability to simultaneously: take in a producer’s instructions via an earpiece while scanning new information from computer messages, texts or Twitter; listen to what other reporters on the team are sharing and interviewees are adding, being able to multitask is very important in presenting as there are loads of voices telling you to do certain things. 

This is what a typical news studio will look like from a by standers point of view and slightly similar to what you see on TV but you can see all of the cameras infront and all of the technical things above, this is what normal news sets look like with all of the technical equipment seen, but behind the scenes it is just loads of desks and computers like an average office layout.




Part 3
News ordering is to make a tv or radio news bulletin or series of text based reports, the idea is to put them in a order that will appeal to the audience that interests them and keeps them watching and interested. There is a running order in which the programme editor makes the final decision, the most important story will be the first story on the broadcast in which they call the lead story the stories that follow them are ranked in terms of interest to your audience and they aim for a good mix of different kinds stories, which makes for a good news broadcast. Stories which are further down the running order seem to be of similar significance and then you can group stories together in what they call a news round up, could include a group of national stories, international stories, sport stories, weathers etc. The lead story is often the longest because it contains the most information, but it shouldn't be too long to bore the audience, stories further down the line can be short because of the round up. The length of the bulletin should be right for the audience, you must be flexible and ready to change the running order if the news changes, a slow news day is a time when media organisations publish trivial stories due to the lack of more substantial topics. The final story is normally an 'and finally' story ending on a light note or a news round up. 



Part 4
The story that we watched was about the government hiring interest rates so the number of houses that have been repossessed have doubled this year, the people who are involved are a family from Hertfordshire two parents and a baby and she is pregnant with another child. They are one of the families involved in the repossession of houses, the way they are represented is we as an audience are meant to feel sympathy towards them the way they do this is by using and saying certain things to make us feel sorry for them especially after finding out that the reason Pierre doesn't have a job is because of ill health. At the start of the broadcast they show us Pierre walking to his house and he slips over twice on the pavement this makes us feel sorry for him because he fell over, could symbolize his life that he doesn't have it together and he keeps messing up. There is also several shots of them playing with their child and the toys and all lying on the sofa together looking like a perfect family scenario so as instinct we feel sorry for them because there family could be ruined, they use these techniques on purpose so we as an audience are intrigued in the story and their pain. I personally don't feel much sympathy towards the family because i feel as if they could of sorted things out earlier instead of getting so caught up on their bills, also having a new baby making the family bigger whilst they know they cannot pay bills is quite a foolish idea to do, also they even admitted themselves that they were first time buyers and didn't know what they were doing they should have looked more into mortgages and houses and what they could and cannot afford, especially if he knew that he had health problems that would affect his job in the future. The way that it was put together made the audience more aware of what was happening because they included a narrative over the whole news story to help differ what was happening and what was not, if it wasn't for the voice over throughout it would be confusing to tell what happened. Also the ordering of the sequence showed us different parts or their life and joined them together, such as showing them with their baby at the start and various shots throughout of them bonding and playing with games together to emphasize the normal happy family narrative which has been constructed for us to almost play at the heart strings and win sympathy points instead of feeling anger and bitterness towards them.                                                                                     

Part 5
I watched a news broadcast which was about a whale which had been washed up on shore dead and was impossible to move so they put explosives inside the whale and it blew up in front of everyone, in the story involved is the whale, the news men, and the men who were supplying the explosives for the whale. The people in the story are represented as curious by standers who wanted to witness something interesting and the director who was in charge of the explosives George Thorton seemed very confident and formal about the situation, addressing it as a success before they had even started it represented as an intelligent man. I personally felt curious and envious towards the people because I was curious as to why they would be wanting a watch a whale blow up but then again envious because I think it would be a once in a life time sort of thing and it would be rather intriguing, there was a construction of narrative throughout the broadcast because to start off with we have a news presenter standing infront of the scene and making a pun then stating statistics/facts about the situation e.g. a 8 tonne whale deal on arrival at a beach near florence. Straight away the audience knows what the problem is and how it is going to be resolved, it then goes on to state why they need to blow it up and how it will be resolved. 


Part 6
Bias through selection and omission for example, an editor can express bias by choosing whether or not to use a specific news story. Within a story, some details can be ignored, others can be included to give readers or viewers a different opinion about the events reported. An example is editor might believe that advertisers want younger readers—they spend more money. Therefore, news of specific interest to old people will be ignored. 

Bias through placement/ order is where the readers of papers judge first-page stories to be more significant than those buried in the back. Television and radio newscasts run the most important stories first and leave the less significant to later, it is all where something is placed which influences what the audience thinks about it and it's importance. For example some murders and robberies receive front-page attention while others receive only a mention on page twenty.

Bias through headlines, headlines are the most read part of a paper, they summarize as well as present carefully hidden bias and prejudices, they can convey excitement where little exists; they can express approval or condemnation; they can steer public opinion.An examples The Wall Street Journal's "Court Backs Loaded Guns in Public" contains the reporter/editor's opinion. It not only tells the reader what the news story is, this headline gives the opinion that the Court made the wrong decision; has created a dangerous situation.



Bias through shot selection and camera angles- Television can show film or videotape that praises or condemns. The choice of which visual images to display is extremely important.Newspapers run captions that are also potential sources of bias and opinion.

Bias through names and captions, news media often use labels and titles to describe people, places, and events. In many places around the world, one person's friend is another person's enemy.
For example, a person can be called an "ex-con" or be referred to as someone who
"served time twenty years ago for a minor offense."

An example of news biased is Fox News who have done this plenty of times especially when discussing political issues, an example is when Fox lied about military access to voting in Ohio. This year Republicans in the state of Ohio sought to amend their early voting law so that only members of the military would be permitted to vote early in the three days prior to the election. Democrats objected to this as it discriminates against certain voters, and they filed suit to preserve the right of every Ohio citizen to vote early. Fox News picked up the story advancing the premise that Democrats were seeking to take something away from our military. Anchor Shannon Bream falsely declared that “If President Obama gets his way, the special voting rights of some of America’s finest will be eliminated.” The truth is that Democrats in Ohio were suing to ensure that nobody’s rights were eliminated. The Ohio GOP was deliberately attempting to suppress the votes of citizens they presumed would vote Democratic. And Fox News helped them in that mission by brazenly lying about the substance of the debate.