TV News case study 2: BBC News at Six

Basic details

1. What do the letters BBC stand for? British broadcasting channel.
2. How is the BBC funded? The BBC is funded by TV licenses across the UK.
3. What is the BBC's famous mission statement? (Clue: it's three words) Informing, Educating and Entertain.
4. What is BBC1's programme remit? BBC 1 has a remit to be the BBC most popular channel and attract high viewing figures.
5. How does the BBC News at Six fit into BBC's remit? The BBC news at 6 fit into the BBC at 6 they high viewers.             

Presenters

1. Who are the presenters of BBC News at Six? George Alagiah, Sophie Raworth. 
2. What are the presenters wearing? What does this communicate to the audience? The presenters are wearing every smart clothes.
3. Why might a TV News programme use a variety of presenters? They have variety of presenter because one presenter present at ten and 6 or 5. 
4. How are other reporters or presenters used in the TV news programme? The other presenters are used to tell the news another time. 
5. Is there a balance between male and female presenters? What about race/ethnicity? What effect might these aspects have on an audience? While at the 6 o'clock news they are actually balanced and they are 1 male and 1 female. 

Opening sequence

Analyse the opening 2 minutes of the programme.

1. What is the very first shot? The very first shot is the BBC news logo and on the logo it has a 6 to show that it is on at 6.
2. How does the opening sequence use graphics or images to grab the attention of the audience? They use graphic and camera movement to grab the audience attention.
3. How is music used in the opening sequence? As the news comes on so does the music so the audience know that they are watching the news. 
4. How are news stories introduced in the opening two minutes? Is there just one story or are the audience told what will be coming up later? 

Studio mise-en-scene

1. What aspects of the studio can be seen by the audience? You could see the whole studio and you could also the the camera in the studio to show that the news the audience are getting is live.
2. Are the presenters standing or behind desks? Why do you think this is? The reporter is standing up with the background of nature and this may be to keep the audiences attention on.
3. Are journalists or technology visible? What might these things suggest to the audience? Technology is only visible when it's purposely being shown possibly to emphasis the fact the news is recent.
4. How does the studio use colour? The studio has a colour scheme uses red and blue.

How news stories are presented

1. How does the news programme typically present a story? Represented and voice  over.
2. What difference techniques does the programme use to present the news? (E.g. presenter to camera, reporter on location, interviews, graphics, images, video etc.) Presents are more formal than usual but they are at real locations which is different. Images and graphics were typical like every other news story.
3. What types of news does the TV News programme typically cover? Give five examples (e.g. politics, international, sport etc.) politics and sports.

Running order

1. Watch the first 15 minutes of the programme – as recent as you can find.
2. What is the top story? The top story was Tesco,
3. How long does the top story last for? Scottish international party
4. How long is each story shown for? It is about 5-10 min
5. Why do you think each story was shown for the time it was?  It was shown for the time it was because it goes from most important to least important.

Audience

1.What is the target audience for this BBC News at Six? Research online - you should be able to find plenty of suggestions to the target audience if not the official target audience of the programme.

2. What are the viewing figures for BBC News at Six?  4 million.

3. Why might someone choose to watch this TV news programme over others? It is at a time that everyone gets back home or have done something and want to watch the news.

4. Is there an opportunity for the audience to get involved in the programme or comment? showing the hash tags or the links for their page.

5. What audience pleasures (Uses and Gratifications theory - Blumler and Katz) does the programme offer? The Gratification theory would be Blumler because the audience are watching it to get some information.

Institution

1. What other news programmes and services does the BBC offer in addition to the BBC News at Six? They have the Breakfast news and news at 10.
2. What role does OFCOM have in making sure TV News is fair and accurate?  OFCOM see if BBC news are showing news stories fairly or if they are not going against the rules. Rules such as showing anything that is violent after a certain time.
3. The BBC has been accused of 'dumbing down' the News at Six. What does this mean? Do you agree with the accusation that the news is 'dumbed down'? I agree, they are using a lot graphics. BBC has defended themselves by saying that it would help the audience understand what the news is about.

TV News and New/Digital Media

1. Does the TV News programme have a dedicated website? Yes
2. What does the website offer viewers? BBC's website offers many thing on their website such as the news stories that had be on at 6.
3. Does the TV News programme have a Twitter feed? BBC News at six do have a twitter feed.
4. How does the Twitter feed promote the programme? hash tags or the links for their page.
5. Is there an opportunity for the audience to get involved in the programme or submit news stories? no there is not 

index

1) TV News case study 1: Channel 4 News

2) TV News case study 2: BBC News at Six

3) TV News case study 3: coverage of the General Election across different news programmes

4) TV News case study 4: independent case studies (BBC3 60 Second News and Newsround)

5) News Values blog task

6) TV News audience - creating a running order

7) TV News representation - analysing Sky News coverage of the 2011 riots

TV News Case Study 1: Channel 4 News

Basic details

1. When is Channel 4 News on? Channel 4 is shown on Mondays- Fridays, 7pm duration is 55 minutes.  
2. When was the programme first broadcast?  2^nd of November in 1982.
3. What awards has the programme won? Channel 4 news has won a lot of awards such as; International Emmy Awards for news, British Academy Television Award for best news coverage and British Academy Television for best news and current affairs journalism.

Presenters

1. Who are the presenters? Jon Snow, Krishnan Guru-Murthy, Cathy Newman, Matt Frei.
2. What are the presenters wearing? What does this communicate to the audience? They are wearing smart clothes, the male are wearing suit and the female is wearing a dress. 
3. Why might a TV News programme use a variety of presenters? A TV News programme might use a variety of presenters to prevent it from looking discriminatory, race-wise, age-wise, sex-wise, etc. They may also do this to keep it interesting for the reader.
4. How are other reporters or presenters used in the TV News programme? The way the reporter and presenters the new for different type of other news so they could presenter to the target audience so they have a knowledge of the news.
5. Is there a balance between male and female presenters? What about race/ethnicity? What effect might these aspects have on an audience? There isn’t a balance between the male and female presenters because there are 3 Males and 1 Female which makes it unbalanced. With the race and ethnicity there is one British Asian and 3 British presenters which makes it unstable.  These aspects make the target audience mainly white British viewers due to this mentioned above.

Opening sequence

Analyse the opening 2 minutes of the programme.

1. What is the very first shot?  The first shot is channel 4 logo,
2. How does the opening sequence use graphics or images to grab the attention of the audience. The first sequence is a moving animation that introduces channel four news.
3. How is music used in the opening sequence? There is dramatic news music at the start of the animation to make it look professional.
4. How are news stories introduced in the opening two minutes? Is there just one story or are the audience told what will be coming up later? All news stories are introduced at the beginning.

Studio mise-en-scene

1. What aspects of the studio can be seen by the audience? (Desk, cameras etc.) Desk, cameras, and the camera in the studio.

2.       Are the presenters standing or behind desks? Why do you think this is?  The presenters are standing up to create a casual feel and to help move away from the traditional seriousness related to TV News

3.       Are journalists or technology visible? What might these things suggest to the audience?

4. How does the studio use colour? The studio is purple and white and Jon snow is known for wearing colourful ties.

How news stories are presented

1. How does the news programme typically present a story? They don't put any interview or an introduction except the 3d graphical shot of the graphical logo for channel 4 news. They only showed the leaders debate between Nigel farage and Leanne then in the end they show an advertisement of their channel.
2. What difference techniques does the programme use to present the news? (E.g. presenter to camera, reporter on location, interviews, graphics, images, video etc.) channel 4 news is aimed at teenagers, so they will not be formal they will be informal and they way Jon snow lead form the desk.
3. What types of news does the TV News programme typically cover? Give five examples (e.g. politics, international, sport etc.) Channel 4 news covers political, international, UK, celebrity news and the weather.
4. Give two real examples of how news stories presented to keep the interest of the audience.the use picture and video to show their news.

Running order

Watch the first 15 minutes of the programme – as recent as you can find.

1. What is the top story?  Immigration crisis
2. How long does the top story last for? 5 min long
3. What are the other stories the programme does or will cover? List them in the order they are presented in (the ‘running order’).
4. How long is each story shown for? Each story is 5 min

Audience

1. What is the target audience for this TV News programme? Research online – you should be able to find plenty of suggestions to the target audience if not the official target audience of the programme. The target audience for channeal4 news is 16-35.
2. Why might someone choose to watch this TV News programme over others? It is less formal then other news channel.
3. Is there an opportunity for the audience to get involved in the programme or comment? There are Hashtag for them to get involved and they would comment.
4. What audience pleasures (Uses and Gratifications theory – Blumler and Katz) does the programme offer? Channel 4 News is used for surveillance and could also be used for personal identity.

Institution

1. Who owns, runs or produces this TV News programme? ITV
2. Does the institution own, run or produce any other TV News programmes, channels or newspapers? E4 and E4+1
3. How does the programme fit the TV channel it is on? It does not really have any thing that specifically fits Channel 4.
4. What role does OFCOM have in making sure TV News is fair and accurate? OFCOM make sure that T.V channels do not have air anything that is violent or sexual after 9 and if any of this does happen then the T.V channel will get a fine or they even take away the T.V channels T.V licenses.

TV News and New/Digital Media

1. Does the TV News programme have a dedicated website? Channel 4 News have a separate website.
2. What does the website offer viewers? Their twitter page and
3. Does the TV News programme have a Twitter feed? Yh, they do have a twitter site.
4. How does the Twitter feed promote the programme? It  lets peopleto catch up with the news on youtube.
5. Is there an opportunity for the audience to get involved in the programme or submit news stories? Channel 4 news do not have anything on their website for their audiences to get involved.