Forms and Styles of News Reporting

Forms and Styles of News Reporting

Headlines: Gets the main stories across in very few words. This is teasing the main story for later. Does not contain any audio clips.

Bulletin: The news links within a radio show.

Copy only:  This contains just speech and has no extra audio. Often stories about public service info and local events. Sometimes has funny one liners and can be known as an “and finally” story.

Copy & audio: These are clips form an interview which are 8 to 20 seconds in length. These are used to make an impact and letting the audio tell the story. They also help build atmosphere and sound effects used can give you an idea of the location.

Vox pop: Latin for voice of the people. Gauges public opinion of people on the street in short snippets of audio. Ideally each vox will contain 3 to 5 people. They will often have a different person from each demographic.

Wrap: Completely wrapped up package which slots into a bulletin. These are made up of another reporter making an intro, then an audio clip and finally a conclusion from the reporter.

Voicer: A short report made by another reporter. Unlike a wrap this does not include an audio clip. It allows more details to be included in a story. Can often be introduced with the line “our reporter …. Has more”.

Live cross: Goes to a reporter live on the scene who describes the event and what they can see. Some may also include a live interview with a witness or someone involved.

Two way: Conversation between news reader and reporter about one story. Used to explain details of more complicated stories and issues.  Can be in the studio or on the scene.

Ident: Short for identification, these are pieces of audio or music which are used to introduce and close a news bulletin.

BBC R1 Newsbeat from 24/06/14

1.       Ident

2.       Headline - Phone hacking (audio from David Cameron)

3.       Headline  - Slimming drug (audio from two guests)

4.       Headline - Low pay

5.       Headline - World cup (live cross to reporter in Brazil)

6.       Ident

7.       Phone hacking story – Wrap including audio from the PM and News of the World journalists. Then went to a two way between presenter and reporter.

8.       Ident

9.       Headline – Pro gamers

10.   Slimming drug – Wrap interviewing users of the drug and medical experts

11.   Low pay – Wrap to a reporter interviewing people with added audio effects

12.   Pro gamer – Wrap with audio from video games and interviews with gamers

13.   Ident

14.   World cup – Live cross to reporter in Brazil talking about the live England game with fans. Could be counted as a vox pop

15.   Ident

16.   Repeat of phone hacking headline

17.   Ident

BBC R4 News from 24/06/14

1.       Ident

2.       Headline – phone hacking

3.       Headline – deaths in Iraq

4.       Headline – Interest rates

5.       Headline – fraudulent language certificates

6.       Headline -  EU president

7.       Phone hacking – Long intro and then a wrap from a reporter. Audio clips used and interview with victim. Another reporter goes into another part of the story including interviews and audio clips.

8.       Deaths in Iraq – Intro from presenter including audio clips. Goes to another reporter who has more information and audio. Shorter than the first story.

9.       Interest rates – Wrap from reporter

10.   Ident

11.   Recap of headlines

12.   English language certificate – wrap including audio clips

13.   EU president – Yet another extended wrap featuring lots of audio inserts

The BBC R 4 has more serious stories with bigger news values compared to the BBC R 1 Newsbeat such as talking about the next EU president over news about pro gamers. The R4 bulletin is aimed at a more educated audience so it does not need to add lighter stories in. Both use a lot of wrap stories but the R4 news goes to more reporters to give it more in-depth analysis. Only R1 uses a Vox Pop which does not surprise me because R1 is more likely to value opinions over only including facts. R1 uses a live cross to Brazil for the World Cup but R4 does not have any live links, this could be because their stories are more methodically researched and you lose that element from live links.

David Burd

BBC news style broadcast

This is the link to the recording of my BBC news style broadcast.

Link here.

or here

https://soundcloud.com/david-burd/dave-burd-and-dave-g-bbc-news

This is my evaluation for both the local and BBC style news broadcasts. 

News Broadcasts – Evaluations

To select our groups news stories we first discussed what kinds of stories each kind of broadcast would be expected to have. We decided that because local news bulletins contain a lot of news which only targets people in one area we would make sure that all of the stories were from the north east or affected that community. For the BBC style bulletin we looked at the biggest national news stories as we had a more general target audience. As part of this we found one report which was on a lighter note to be our “and finally” story which usually has human interest values. I then looked at the biggest sports news for the north east and included two bulletins at the end of the local news because they did not have as higher news value as the other stories. The sports news I added for the BBC style script was much bigger (title win and international retirement) so I decided that they would get a much higher order in the bulletin. In my opinion all of the stories which we chose were right for the target audience and hit on the right news values each kind of report would look for.

When recording our broadcasts we did encounter a few problems, mostly with the delivery of the scripts and the time it was taking to record them. I had my speaking section of the broadcast recorded to a standard which I was happy with considering the delays. It took a while longer for the other members of our group to record their parts and I needed to help them with pronunciation of difficult names. If we were to do this task again I would have ensured that all names were spelled out phonetically. We actually worked well in the group as we divided the writing of stories well and everyone knew how many stories they had to cover and I made sure that the final script layout was consistent. As a group our editing process could have been much more coherent but again due to time restraints I thought that I did an okay job on the recording I edited.

The audience feedback we received was generally positive with people remaking that our selection of stories was good. The only thing which other people said we could have done better was taking more time to edit and make it sound that little bit more professional, a view which I share.  The technical quality of my presentation was much better than previous recordings I’ve done on the Myriad System. My tone was clear and I felt that I sounded quite professional considering I had not done this kind of thing before. We could have maybe rehearsed the scripts a few more times before we recorded so if I were to do this again I would make sure that the whole group was well prepared. In comparison to professional broadcasts there is still obviously a long way to go but with more time taken in editing and just a little more work on microphone techniques I don’t think I would be far off that standard.

The local bulletin was fit for the target audience because of the stories we featured. They were all local and current covered a varying range of topics from crime to sport. The sport section of this broadcast covered the range from top level sports to smaller teams like Gateshead football club going to the playoff final at Wembley. The major weakness with this broadcast was the varying quality of presenting styles and the quality of editing. Given more time and more team work we could have made sure that the local report didn’t have the feeling that it had all been stuck together, which it had. As for the BBC bulletin I felt that it was stronger than the local report, it had better editing and I felt that the main news stories were much better written. The shows weaknesses came from lack of preparation in front of the microphone which lead to me having to heavily edit Dave G’s parts due to stumbling over words. As I’ve said before more preparation would majorly help with this so next time rehearsal will be key.

David Burd.

Local and BBC news scripts

This is my news script for the BBC bulletin and the Local news.

BBC News Bulletin

After one of the most exciting Premiership seasons in history, Manchester City have clinched the league title on the final day. The sky blues only needed a point at home to West Ham to finish above Liverpool  but Manuel Pelligrini’s side took all three with a 2 – 0 win. Despite a 2 – 1 victory over Newcastle, Liverpool’s 24 year wait for the title goes on. Here’s what the reds skipper Steven Gerrard had to say.

GO TO AUDIO NAME: Steven Gerrard

DURATION: 0:08

IN WORDS: So Steven

OUT WORDS: Next Season

After thirteen years and 107 caps, Chelsea left back Ashley Cole has announced his retirement from international football. The statement came from the players twitter account after he was told by head coach Roy Hodgeson that he would not be part of England’s 23 man squad for the upcoming World Cup in Brazil.

David Cameron has denies requests for Garry Barlow to hand back his obe after it was found the take that singer put money in to a scheme ruled to be set up for tax avoidance porpoises’.

There has been a significant increase in the amount of uk veterans from the afganistan conflict seeking mental health treatment  according to the charity combat stress  says there has been a 57% rise in 

veterans in 2013.

The governor of Nigeria’s Borneo state says he has information on the whereabouts of the 200 kidnaped school girls taken by the Islamic extremist group boko haram governor Kashim Shettima said he had passed reports of the sightings of the girls to the military for verification. Mr Shettima added that he did not think the girls had been taken across the border to Chad or Cameroon.

Austria has been crowned the winner of the 59th annual Eurovision Song Contest held in Denmark's capital, Copenhagen.

Drag act Conchita Wurst won the competition with her song, Rise Like a Phoenix, with 290 points.

Collecting her trophy she said: "This night is dedicated to everyone who believes in a future of peace and freedom. You know who you are - we are unity and we are unstoppable." 

Local News Bulletin

Two bodies have been found in a search in the river Tyne, police were alerted when 3 men from south shields failed to return home on Sunday after going kayaking in Hexam

GOTO AUDIO NAME:  interview with supt Steve Howes
DURARTION:  0:10 seconds
INWORDS:  two bodies have
OUTWORDS: and RAF Boulmer

A 14 year old student from Cramlington threatened two other pupils with a knife in his cookery class on Tuesday.  Police have said that no physical assault actually took place however the incident has been dealt with by the school under normal discipline procedure.

On a more positive note, Nissan has seen profits jump by 10% due to sales, cost cutting and a weaker yen. Japans second biggest carmaker forecast more growth this year which will be boosted by sales in emerging markets of its re-launched Datsun marque.

And finally today whether is expected to have light showers with the highest temperature of 11 degrees and a lowest temperature of 4 degrees.

Now over to Dave with the sport.

Newcastle United ended the Premiership season with a 2 – 1 defeat away to Liverpool. The Magpies gained the lead at Anfield through an early own goal from Martin Skrtel but the home side struck back with goals from the two Daniels, Agger and Sturridge. Pardews men finished the game with 9 men after Shola Amiobi was sent off for decent and substitute Paul Dummett received a controversial red for a challenge on Luis Suarez.

And finally Gateshead FC captain Ben Clark says he can’t wait to lead the side out at Wembley stadium next Sunday in the Skrill Premier Promotion final against Cambridge United .

GO TO AUDIO NAME: Gateshead FC

DURATION: 0:10

IN WORDS: I’ve had some

OUT WORDS:  Will suit us

News Values

News values are the considerations which news producers use when deciding which stories to run and in what order

Negativity:  Something bad such as death, crime, finance troubles, damage, disasters, violence, bad weather. An example of this is 'Trojan Horse': PM calls for snap inspections by Ofsted .

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-27757070

Proximity: People relate more to stories that are geographically close to them or which involve people from their area or country. News story example - 12-year-old boy who saved friends from Stanley bus wreckage tells his story.

http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/cameron-davison-who-called-ambulance-7233884

Recency:  If a news agency breaks a story first they will sell more papers, so they are all competitive over breaking news stories first. New story example - Taliban claim deadly attack on Karachi airport.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-27758029

Currency: This is the opposite to recency, these stories have been in the public eye for some time and are already valuable. Example – Madeleine McCan: Police conclude scrubland search.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-27759098

Continuity: These are about continually breaking stories which will develop and keep audiences coming back. Example is the same as the example above.

Uniqueness: A story that covers odd, unique or unusual events. Headline “Dead Crocodile Found On Scottish Golf Course”

http://news.sky.com/story/1276984/dead-crocodile-found-on-scottish-golf-course

Simplicity: Stories which can be summed up easily are preferred to ones which are harder to explain. For example a story about the world cup opening ceremony would be preferred to something about the political situation in Brazil.

Personality: Used for a human interest angle, these stories circle around one person often well known. A lot of people say that these types of stories are overvalued by the media.  “Sandra Bullock at home as burglar breaks in”

http://news.sky.com/story/1278310/sandra-bullock-at-home-as-burglar-breaks-in

Expectedness: Does an event adhere to the expectations of a newspapers audience or did the expected result actually happen. (Violence at a demonstration, civilian casualties in an attack, political victories).  Iraq's second city Mosul burning and overrun by Islamic insurgents after government forces run away

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2654294/A-threat-Middle-East-Families-flee-warning-terrorists-overrun-Iraqs-second-city-Mosul-seen-gateway-Syria-set-hundreds-prisoners-free.html

Elite nations or people: A story which covers an important person, nation or organisation has a higher value than a story which covers bigger events in smaller. "Beckham faces MLS setback in Miami".  

http://news.sky.com/story/1279737/beckham-faces-mls-setback-in-miami

Exclusivity: If a news organisation is the only one that has a story then it will rate very highly as the story is only available there. “Exclusive: Fresh doubt over Michael Gove’s version of ‘Trojan Horse’ affair”

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/exclusive-fresh-doubt-over-michael-goves-version-of-trojan-horse-affair-9524627.html

David Burd.

Legal and ethical constraints on News Production

This is my report on legal and ethical constreints.

Unit 41: Legal and Ethical Constraints on News Production.

 

There are many legal and ethical constrains which media producers have to take into account when reporting news. If you break a civil law, such as deformation of character you are liable to being sued in court. Matters of criminal law such as breaking the official secrets act are governed by criminal law, which if you break you could end up with a jail sentence.

Defamation

Media producers can be sued for defamation of character if they say something negative about someone which they cannot prove in court. This can be in the form of slander which is used when describing verbal defamation, such as a radio broadcast. When it is printed in a newspaper for example, it is referred to as libel.

Social worker Sylvia Henry sued the sun for libel in the amount of £300,000 after they wrongfully said she had an involvement in the well publicised Baby P case. A famous case of slander in radio was when MP George Galloway sued Jewish radio station Jcom after they made a sketch saying he was anti-Semitic. The station had to pay him £15,000 plus damages and as a result they had to shut down. Even the publicly funded BBC can by fined for slander and libel, after they and ITV wrongfully implicated Lord McAlpine in the recent child sex abuse allegations. The BBC had to pay £185,000 and ITV paid £125,000 in damages.

Court reporting

When reporting on court cases media producers have to be careful that they don’t break laws regarding the protection of the accused’s right to a fair trial. In a case of a murder trial, the defendant must be referred to as either ‘the accused’ or ‘the alleged killer’. According to the law court reporting should provide a fair and accurate summary of what happens in court. They cannot use recording devices so instead notes are taken and a court sketch artist is used. Court reporters are prohibited from naming children under sixteen years of age or any alleged victims of sexually offences and blackmail. When reporting on a court case you cannot report on the on a person’s previous crimes or convictions, however in some cases and injunction can be placed on the media. This can be to protect national security or protect the privacy of members of the court.

To stop potential jurors from being swayed, the law also applies to a case before court proceedings have started. A high profile example of this would be Michael Jackson in 2005, because he was in the public eye early reporting could have stopped him from getting a fair trial. In 2003 two radio presenters from Beacon FM (Mark Peters and Lisa Freame) were sacked from their jobs after they remarked on the trial of Ian Huntley, referring to his testimony Peters said “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.” Because of this the station itself also ran the risk of being held in contempt of court.

 

Privacy

Although there are no laws in the UK specifically regarding privacy, Article 8 of the Human Rights Act 1998 states that people have “the right to respect for private and family life, home and correspondence.” Some people decide to go to court to get an injunction prohibiting anyone from revealing something specific about them, two high profile cases of this are footballer Ryan Giggs and Television presenter Jeremy Clarkson. Because of these injunctions the media could not report on what had gone on, even some users of social media site Twitter were threatened with court proceedings after naming people involved in the injunctions.

Election Law

Broadcasters have to remain impartial to all political parties when an election is called. This only applies to radio, TV programmes and news coverage. Restrictions do not apply to the print media meaning papers, magazines and websites can take whichever political side they like. A big problem with this is that rich newspaper owners can massively affect the result of an election, an example of this would be when the Sun reported that it had won the 1992 election for the conservative party by printing the headline ‘’It’s the Sun wot won it’’. Weather they actually did affect the outcome is not clear but it is generally perceived that they had a hand in the victory.

Ethical Considerations

Due to The Racial and Religious Hatred Act 2006, it is an offence to incite religious or racial hatred. This means that media producers have to be careful of what they say even when quoting someone else. When footballer John Terry made a racist remark to Rio Ferdinand, BBC’s ‘Match of the Day’ had to blur out Terry’s mouth when replaying the clip on television or else they could have faced legal action. You have to be careful on chat shows and phone-ins because even if someone not employed by the broadcaster makes a racist comment, the broadcaster would still face criminal action because they are one providing the platform. Even balancing out the anti-racist view is not enough, because racist remarks have been broadcast.

Official Secrets

Due to concerns about spies and saboteurs the official secrets acts was introduced in 1911 and revised in 1989. The act covers security and intelligence, defence and international relations. It also covers things containing information from other governments or international organisations, information which could be useful to criminals and information about opening and reading suspect’s mail. An example of a breach of international official secrets is the well-known case of Edward Snowden who blew the whistle on the USA and posted information about the government online. On June 14, 2013, United States federal prosecutors filed a criminal complaint against Snowden, charging him with theft of government property, and alleging he had violated the US's 1917 Espionage Act through unauthorized communication of national defense information and "willful communication of classified communications intelligence information to an unauthorized person”. Snowden has not yet been imprisoned as he has claimed asylum in Russia.

Industry and professional codes

OFCOM (Office of Communications) is the regulatory body which covers broadcasting and telecommunications, it’s funded by the government and is held accountable by parliament. Members of the public can complain to OFCOM if they are offended by something which they see or hear. OFCOM covers rules regarding content for children, the watershed (the time after which it is acceptable to swear). It is designed to protect the public from “harmful and offensive” content.

Another professional code is the BBC Editorial Guidelines which are imposed by the corporation to its employees. An example of one of the guidelines is impartiality, according to the BBC this consists of “Impartiality lies at the core of the BBC's commitment to its audiences. We will apply due impartiality to all our subject matter and will reflect a breadth and diversity of opinion across our output as a whole, over an appropriate period, so that no significant strand of thought is knowingly unreflected or under-represented. We will be fair and open-minded when examining evidence and weighing material facts.”

David Burd