The Structure of TV News
“Storytelling”
Structure is central to all communication, whether nonverbal
or verbal. All art – painting, ceramics, sculpture, furniture making, stained glass, weaving, whatever form it takes – has structure. Even deconstruction calls for a structured, disciplined approach to the task.
Structure is involved in the way individual television news stories are produced, shot, edited, and aired within the larger framework of the newscast, itself a structured unit. This concept of structure is the single most important idea you will need to grasp because it is central to how journalists communicate with their audiences. For the television journalist, structure is an even more important concept because of the way the communication with the viewers takes place.
The task of journalism is also to explain and interpret the importance and significance of news events. There are reasons why the rhetoric and actions of one person are more important than those of another, why strategies and ideas expressed might or might not work.
These reasons are revealed by interviewing, digging for facts, taping, editing and writing stories that probe the reasoning, the motives, and the strategies of those involved. These elements are processed into news accounts and provide structure – the “how” and the “why” of the news as well as the “who”, “what”, “when”, and “where”. If we left the “how” and “why” out of our reports, the audience would be less well informed.
With this concept of structure in mind, we look now at some of the ingredients that make up the structure of television news communication, five distinct aspects are involved: showing and telling, the relationship between the people on the air and the viewers watching their television sets, storytelling, linear clarity and visual structure.
Showing and Telling:
As local and network television news has expanded and all-news cable channel have developed, the common dialogue today is:
Did you hear about ….. ?
Yes, I saw it…….
The important word here is saw. By using it people seem to mean they either “saw” a newscaster telling them about it or, because the technology makes it possible to bring pictures of a news event to people as it is happening, it is also more and more likely that they really did “see” at least some of it. Instant replay and other production techniques also make it possible for the audience to “see it” again and again, to analyze it in slow motion or frame by frame.
Pictures & Words:
Television news is more than just pictorial coverage. It “tells” the news with pictures in motion including news sounds, and with words spoken by anchorpersons, reporters, and news makers. The link between the pictures and the words is crucial. At the basic level that wedding of the right words with right pictures is at once the greatest potential strength and greatest potential weakness of television news. When that link is right the communication may be a whole new experience.
1. Television News ConventionsArchival Footage
Archival footage is used to give evidence of what’s going on; makes it more believable to the public.
Interviews
This helps make it more believable to the public because it gives evidence that there at the scene of whatever happened and if they’re
eyewitnesses then it will reassure the viewers that the information is reliable.
L cuts of over visuals
They use L cuts because it gives the viewer some footage as the anchor speaks about it to give lots of information very fast.
Titles to tell us names
Showing us their name and professions shows the viewers personal information which will subconsciously make the viewers comfortable with
the person.
Music at the beginning
This will make the audience get into a serious mood which gets the audiences full attention. This also gives a sense of Recognition and
individuality.
Ident
A TV news programme can be familiarised just by the intro, it normally consists of a shot of the world to jog your memory that its world news
time.
Mid shots of anchor behind the desk
This shows that the anchor is in charge, they hold all the information and they are ready to share it to the world.
Seeing the newsroom behind
This shows the audience that the news team is constantly working to the get the right information for you.
Photos – Slow zooms
Using photos gives the audience reassurance and evidence of the information they are giving out.
Rack focus
Representation of anchor – Serious, Formal
The anchor is wearing a suit which makes them look smart, important and Serious; This makes the audience feel safe receiving information from
these people.
Form: TV news bulletin
· Structure: Headlines, news reports, sport, weather
· Content: Current affairs
· Technical conventions: Codes and conventions
· Mode of address: Formal, serious, informative (Commercial tv news a bit less formal) Tries to be objective