Is Television News a Window On The World?

Is Television News a Window On The World?

Is television news a window on the world? A debatable question. Some would agree it is, news studios would tell you it is, in fact the law requires TV news to be impartial. However in reality the question is not so easily answered. News is heavily constructed and filtered before it reaches the viewer. The final product we see as a news consumer is not a completely transparent projection of the world as its shown. Stories are very carefully selected, the majority thrown away in the 'history bin'. Even when an important story does make it to air, it can be chopped up and edited in an order where the news studio can portray it however they want. To begin we will look at & analyse some TV news starting sequences in order to see how news studios try to suggest we're seeing a raw, unmediated and impartial view of the world right from the moment the program starts.

That was a compilation of the all the BBC News intro's starting from 1954 right up to 2015. We will use some of these as examples to explain how the news stations try to manipulate us as a viewer from the very beginning. You can see in the 1985-1986 opening (1:16) you see a shot of the earth from space and some whizzing graphics that join to make '9 O'Clock News' above the earth. They do this opening sequence this way to try and depict them having a broader, more superior overview of everything going on in the world, offering you, the viewer, a look into that 'telescope' if you will. This way the news studio is portrayed to be neutral & impartial, when actually its really not.

Then with the 2008-2013 (2:55) you can see a lot of transparent spinning graphics of the globe. You'll notice almost all the graphics are at least somewhat transparent always allowing you to see the background behind. This is to suggest to the viewer what they're seeing portrayed on the news is as close to reality as possible. All the graphics fly past at fast speeds as well with the names of countries transitioning past and colors going in all directions. This is to create a sense of urgency and importance for viewer so they think everything to follow is going to be the top most highly rated stories out there. When in truth stories will (generally) favor the people who are writing them, middle aged, middle class, university educated, white, heterosexual males.

News Values 
(Galtung & Ruge):


Here are some examples of the 'rules' Galtung & Ruge came up with that determine which news stories has the best news values of the others. They analysed a mass of different news outlets and these we're some of the most common factors between them:

• Frequency - Events that occur suddenly and fit well with the news organizations schedule are more likely to be reported than those that occur gradually or at inconvenient times of day or night. Long-term trends are not likely to receive much coverage
• Familiarity - To do with people or places close to home.
• Negativity - Bad news is more newsworthy than good news.
• Unexpectedness: If an event is out of the ordinary it will have a greater effect than something that is an everyday occurrence.
• Unambiguity - Events whose implications clearly make for a better copy than those that are open to more than one interpretation, or where any understanding of the implications depends on first understanding the complex background in which the events take place.
• Personalization - Events that can be portrayed as the actions of individuals will be more attractive than one in which there is no such 'human interest'

Gatekeeping Process:

The gatekeeping process in news is the process through which information is filtered for dissemination, whether for publication or broadcasting. 'The gatekeeper' will decide which information will go forward, and which will not. Gatejeeping can be dangerous since it can lead to an abuse of power by deciding what information to discard and what to let pass. Nevertheless, gatekeeping is often a routine, guided by some set of standard questions. 

Here is the 4 criteria for choosing a new story; the first being local stories. Local stories impact the public far more than regular stories. Violence, conflict, disaster or scandals are the second criterion. Topics containing such things as murder, wars, shootings, hurricanes etc. capture the attention of the audience. The third is familiarity, news stories gain more attention if they have issues pertaining to the public or if they include familiar situations concerning a large audience. The fourth element is timely and novel. News should be something interesting that does not occur everyday or an event that is not a part of peoples lives. Events such as hurricanes or new store openings capture the attention of many.

There are also other factors that are massive players when its come down to deciding which stories will make it to air. Variables such as the time the story breaks in the news channels financial year, the reliability & integrity of the news source and the amount of narrative continuity a news channel is able to construct. These all play a huge part in a new story being put onto your TV screen.

Continuity System & Narrative Structure

The news will use certain shots in a specific order to try and create a narrative structure. However the problem with this is that they'll exaggerate or wrongly depict how an event is actually being played out. For example in 2003 when the west invaded the middle east, the media depicted Saddam Hussein as being the evil tyrant villain and George Bush as being the hero protagonist which created the typical light vs dark narrative. However in reality is wasn't as black and white as made out to be and it is up for argument however some say there were a lot more economic/political and profitable factors involved rather than just 'the war on terror'.

They will also incorporate the typical 'Problem/Climax/Resolution' template for a narrative.

They do this in order to make it more interesting to watch for the viewer. With such a high number of news sources all outputting information 24 hours a day/7 days a week they all attempt to create the most interesting & intriguing segment all out of exactly the same story. So when they to do this to an extreme level this is where the 'window on the world' starts to become blurred.                                                                                                                                                                                                       

Conclusion:

In conclusion I think one could say TV news is a 'window on the world' however I would argue its very obscured. Rather than just being a direct depiction of what is happening on the outside (what a window it is) as we can see stories are filtered down to be more important over others then even when they do make it their narrative is chopped & sliced up by the editors to play out a more interesting story than there rival news station is.

Documentary Mini Task

Documentary Mini-Task 

A documentary is a film, television or radio program that uses pictures and/interviews with people involved in a real event to provide factual report on a particular subject. There are many different types of documentaries, in this post I'll go over and give some examples of some of them;

Expository Documentaries:

The expository documentary on the other hand constructs a specific argument or a point of view for the audience. Generally, the formula is a resonating, authoritative voice that tell you something with corresponding footage proving that it is, indeed, true. An example is David Attenborough's 2016 Planet Earth 2;


Observational Documentaries:

An observational documentary is when a filmmaker refrains from engaging or interacting in the subjects daily life and the circumstances surrounding them. By maintaining an observational mode, the director/filmmaker allows the subject to forget the presence of the camera and behave naturally, thereby letting the audience empathize with the subject/situation easier. Here is Frederick Wiseman's Hospital, one of the earliest examples of observational documentaries.
 


Interactive Documentaries:

An interactive documentary that is made well will allow the filmed people to express their opinions and views, however it will heavily feature the filmmaker interacting with subjects to show contrary opinions, therefore offering the spectator a balanced view.
 
Reflexive Documentaries:

In a reflexive documentary the filmmaker will attempt to expose the conventions of documentary to the audience. They are built of shots that try to capture everyday life in order to document for the audience exactly what is taking place as it would happen.

Performative Documentaries:

Performative documentaries are the opposite of observational and will put emphasis on the filmmakers personal involvement and engagement with the subjects and topics in discussion. This is usually used too enable the audience to empathize on a social and emotional level.


Conclusion:

3MW Subject Research

‘Malum Discordent’

 The Highs and Lows of Texas Hold Em’ Poker - 3MW

Introduction:

• Poker’ is a variety of different gambling card games, but is often considered a skill-based game.
• All variants involve some sort of betting as a core part of play & determines the winner of a hand according to the combination of the players cards.
• Some popular poker games include Omaha, Seven Card Stud, Razz, however the most popular version and the one in question is known as Texas Hold 'Em. 
• Texas Hold 'Em works by two hidden cards being dealt to 2-9 players, and then another five are dealt face up in the middle of the table at specific moments.
• The key to the game is having a better combination of cards than your opponents, then the gambling side is implemented when you decide to bet on whether you have the best hand or not. As long as your generally right more often that your not, you will be winning.

09/03/2017: Watched the short YouTube documentary 'Drawing Dead', was really useful because this is the sort of thing I'm aiming for. 

Primary Research:
Primary research is new research, carried out to answer specific issues of questions. It can involve questionnaires, surveys or interviews with individuals or small groups. Secondary research makes use of information previously researched for other purposes and publicly available.

Some examples of primary research would be going out and interviewing members of the public, creating a survey/questionnaire or arranging scripts.

08/03/17 - Met and spoke with my brother about interviewing him in the following weeks. Looked in his office to discuss and go over possible shot angles, what would be taking place in the shots and what would be discussed.

10/03/17 - Created a questionnaire on 'SurveyMonkey' to see how aware and how much people my age know about poker. This was to give me an idea of how detailed I would need to make explanations about the game.

Secondary Research:
Secondary research involves collecting data from either the originator or a distributor of primary research and then assessing the numerical data to draw conclusions.

Some examples of secondary research would be collecting or reviewing survey/questionnaire results from pre-generated data made by a 3rd party and looking at demographic figures or anything involving numerical data.

13/03/17 - Reviewed the answers and data collected from my survey that was posted round the class. Was able to draw some pretty useful and helpful conclusions straight away being able to note the fact the large majority of people my age don't even know what poker is. So I'll definitely now consider adding in a demonstration sequence.

Quantitative Research:

Quantitative research methods emphasize objective measurements and the statistical, mathematical, or numerical analysis of data collected through polls questionnaires, and surveys. Some common sources of data would be TV program ratings, hits on a website, CD sale numbers etc.

09/03/17 - Looked into and researched already existing poker documentaries. Compared hits on videos between sites such as Vimeo and YouTube to see where the biggest audience would be once published.

Qualitative Research:

Qualitative Research is primarily exploratory research. It is used to gain an understanding of underlying reasons, opinions and motivations. Some common methods of collecting qualitative research data would be to hold focus groups, engage in individual interviews and also even participating/observing the subject at matter.

08/03/17 - Spoke with my brother and constructed a few questions I would be able to ask in the interview. This was before even writing a script so I was better able to construct how the interview would fit in & be a part of the rest of the documentary. 

Data Gathering Agencies:

'BARB' or the Broadcasters Audience Research Board is the organisation that compiles audience measurement and television ratings in the United Kingdom. It was created in 1981 to replace two previous systems whereby ITV ratings were compiled by 'JICTAR' or the Joint Industry Committee for Television Audience Research). 

'RAJAR Ltd' or Radio Joint Audience Research was set up in 1992 to align, design and operate a single audience measurement system for the UK radio industry serving both the BBC and licensed commercial stations.

There are also sites such as 'IMDB' otherwise known as The International Movie Database that collect and provide free information on all relative creative media production in television and film. Users are also allowed to rate and review shows/films which creates a ranking. This has now become a cliche to say "its in the top 100 on IMDB'.

Audience & Market Research:

Audience research is an important tool to study the characteristics of target audience for various media including demographic and psyco-graphic details of the audience, their exposure to various media, listening/viewing /reading habits, needs and tastes for various media contents and moreover, to estimate the size of audience for various programs and program ratings.

Market research is for discovering what people want, need or believe. The strengths market research outlines are the target audiences psycho-graphics. Its the process of gathering, analyzing and interpreting information about a market, or a product offering to be sold in that market. Its the research into the characteristics, spending habits, location and needs of your business's target market, the industry as a whole, and the particular competitors you face.

09/07/17 - My audience research involved looking at content similar to the documentary I want to make on multiple different video sharing platforms & then taking into account how many hits each video had. From this I was able to draw a conclusion where my product would be able to reach the largest audience. 

Production Research: 

Production research is research to help give information on the characteristics of the product. It focuses on the production of a product, in other words, how its made. When done properly production research can be used to help see and overview of the commercial vitality.

14/03/17 - Got hold of a talent release form and took it home for my brother (who I'll be interviewing) to fill out.

08/03/17 - Met and spoke with my brother about interviewing him in the following weeks. Looked in his office to discuss and go over possible shot angles, what would be taking place in the shots and what would be discussed.

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