NEWS - examination of Evening News

BBC NEWS


'The news' is a fairly general term, so when approaching working on a news project it pays to understand how such things are presented, to do this I will be examining the core features of a news package, in this case, I will be using BBC news as an example.

BBC NEWS at 10 - 26th of October 2016

The program had eight news packages, each announced in the studio, each signed off by the presenter, by doing so the program clarifies the packages and recenters the audience after each story, below are the topics expanded upon.

Calais jungle eviction
the first package was regarding the Calais jungle and its demolition, positioned here, in my view as its the strongest as far as public interest goes, people want to know what's going on there at the moment and the story is exceptionally current, the BBC shies away from informality so this package didn't allow for much audience empathy with the refugees, to maintain unbiased reporting, the BBC used three different perspectives, cut from interviews taken in Calais. the three perspectives were those of a french official, a refugee, and an aid worker specializing in vulnerable people.
one notable thing that happened was, after cutting back to the studio, a live feed from the journalist is picked up, providing an update on the situation.

Iraqi military ops
this package was again, reasonably current. the reporter was walking in the remains of a village previously held by IS fighters, tonally this package seemed to be designed to make the audience emote with the villagers, who had previously been used as human shields against Iraqi artillery, the reporter's voice seems far more emotional when compared to the previous story. In this package, there is a lot of translated speech from Iraqi military officers who are leading the production crew around the location. following the package is a brief update regarding the situation in Iraq, talking about the possible destruction of a school.

Politics - UKIP debacle
the programme then moves on to UKIP news, talking about the recent allegations regarding the striking of an individual, this package is primarily GV's of the location of the possible assault, instead of interviews this package appears to use primarily statements from party members, and evidence from an internal enquiry. some emphasis is put upon the UKIP official turn of events, visiting the exact location of the possible assault.
this story isn't as current as the previous ones and the way the incident is explored informs the audience of a hint of truth editing on the party's part. the reporting and story appear bland compared to the events pictured in the previous packages.

Non-package italian earthquake
a short, studio-led and spoken cutaway regarding another earthquake in Italy follows the UKIP report. using in equal measures actuality and graphics to express the event visually.

US politcs
 an extremely current and balanced piece, this report is made up[ of a large number of GV's recorded over the course of the presidential race, produced by two embedded reporters, one likely senior to the other. This piece expresses how each party candidate seems to connect with their constituents, noting TRUMP's use of His plane as a prop to aid him in his campaign, this package also notes Hillary's recent use of allies to combat TRUMP's dogmatic approach, the package ends with a series of vox pops regarding trump and his supporter's comments regarding American electoral corruption and whether they'd accept the results. this report may divide the audience depending upon factors regarding their politics, tonally this report is very balanced and to the point, the presenter speaks with authority and appears to be a senior journalist.

money 
a short package regarding an apparent positive change in the economy
this piece, for a money related story, used very few statistics, relying almost solely on government figures when they did use them, simplifying the current state of the economy and almost misleading audiences by not mentioning contributing factors to some of the situations mentioned in the package. politically the package initially appears mute, however, there does seem to be an undercurrent of the ruling party's point of view and a small bias in their favor.

Sport
skipped - irrelevant to general news and uninteresting, of note is the shift in tone, from adversarial during the US package, this story is more generalized and speaks of the most popular sport in the country, football, as well as the most popular team, manchester united. I would say this piece is populist.

Bakeoff
the final package seems to be designed to round off the program with a 'fluffy' story, to round off the show with an emotionally easy, unpolitical piece.

the program follows the standard modern news format, starting with headlines or hard hitting pices before moving onto politics, sport, and financial information. the stories are almost listed both in order of importance (in relation to the perceived audience) and emotional effect, this helps to retain the audience in some ways as it almost shocks them into attention before slowly bringing the alarm back down to base levels.

from a purely mechanical point of view, the program again follows normally accepted tropes from the news genre, introducing packages in a studio, signing off on location, and smaller news updates regarding time critical events or ongoing events.

in relation to our project, this layout can be seen in miniature, starting on our biggest story and then going through to our live.

 news packages have several key mechanical features, without these, a news package doesn't necessarily fit the standard, however, some variance is observable and often preferred. the list below outlines a few of the codices that I believe to be core to making a news package.


Writing to pictures
the bulk f the package is a series of 'general views', or in other words a series of shots that visually tell the story, often the spoken script is written after the filming of most if not all of the footage, thus a wide variance of shots and interviews is key.

Voice over
the voice over tells the story as the footage illustrates it, a key component as the story would be unclear and lacking definition with only interviews and GV's alone

Filler
some evidence of a story is boring to an audience, this is particularly prevalent in the reporting of the recent recession as news reports started using almost overly-well made graphics to illustrate story's that primarily derive their worth from statistics and numbers.

interviews
 two types of interview are observable in news packages, the repeated interview and the 'live' interview
the repeated interview utilizes multiple takes in order to allow for better editing and to allow the interviewee to improve their answers with every take, this type of interview is often planned further in advance and is more often used in documentaries.
Live news interviews are mostly used in live segments, however As-live interviews can be seen in full news packages, one of the reasons for this may be contributor availability, precluding the reporter from staging a full interview.

NEWS - Ideas and concepts Part 2, formal Story Research and story hypothesis

NEWS - Ideas and concepts Part 2

in this post I will explore the changes in my news story since reconvening on Thursday, these changes have been produced in response to input from Helen, Our primary tutor for the year, and input from my team mates.

Changes

the biggest changes occur in relation to the primary focus of my story, broadening and diversifying the possible content and locations. it was made clear that London may be outside of my group's collective travel distance, thus I researched further in an attempt to find evidence and examples of gentrification in the form that London exemplifies-(The removal of lower class/income housing and subversive venues/cultural centers to be replaced by High income/super high income/high-class venues and housing.) in the wider Kent/south-east area. I found several locations in Kent where the process of gentrification is at its midpoint.

Story Core Research

The Great property race
an episode of the BBC series 'inside out' from the BBC's London region, explores the reason behind London's serious housing issues, explores difficulties of first-time buyers in London.

website regarding correct episode:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03tqzqt
viewable version:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-jUY8khIoQ

seen in the show is the rate of change in housing prices in the capital, with evewn green belt land going for extremely lucrative sums of money, this trend as seen in the show could spell disaster for the south-east as its accessibility to London is high.
("The Great Property Race, Inside Out London - BBC One")

an effect of London's insane residential property bubble is the movement of anyone without a triple-digit yearly income out of London, this breaks up local cultures as communities of low-income locals, artists, and small business owners migrate into the countryside, their communities broken up and dissolved as people move to different areas of the country.

one part of the UK hit hardest by London's middle and lower class diaspora is, in fact the south-east with areas of Eastborne, Hasitngs, Folkestone, Ramsgate and Margate seeing huge increases in their housing markets and urban renewal not seen by the kent coastline since its origins in the 19th century.  ("Coasting Along: The Kent And Sussex Renaissance - Belfasttelegraph.Co.Uk")

this causes house prices to rise, nothing on the scale of the rises in London, however across the wider country incomes are far behind those of central London, if the towns and cities of the wider country are treated like greater London then where will anyone live? will the local low-income families have to move out of these picturesque towns and cities as their houses are sold to developers? will London repeat across the country? with international money pushing a virtual housing market of empty flats and estates?

in London the process appears to work in stages, a major developer buys residential property, legally pays off the local council to get out of its responsibilities to provide local, affordable housing, then sells it to international clientele.
 ("Planners’ Fury As Firm Axes Affordable Homes At Luxury Development | Camden New Journal")
("113,000 Council Homes Could Be Sold Off, Says Shelter")

as Kent becomes the "poor man's" London, will London's housing market follow? there is some evidence that this process is beginning along the Thames estuary, with areas such as Dartford and Ebbsfleet becoming targets for developers.(Spittles)

My hypothesis, based upon the trends seen in London is that the process through which residential property becomes "shares" or stakes based investments is as follows:

1. area is lower income (E,D,C2)
2. artists/countercultural people move into the area, out of university or from other areas wherein the property market has forced them out. these people are often renting from local landlords.(C1/C2)
3. area is targeted by developers
4. area is advertised as up and coming
5. Middle-class people move into the area, renting and buying from larger firms, often moving into new developments as they spring up.(C1/B)
6. it's by this point the areas is considered renewed, a local culture has sprung up, there is a sense of community, the artists are still there and the lower income people still live on the periphery.
7. by this point the area is shifting from affordable (for mid to upper-middle-class professionals, B/A ) to " to investable property.
8.  the property developers then start to advertise to international investors, developments are less new housing estates and more like the areas within the new Olympic village. modern, new build apartment complexes, privately owned, sold internationally. its at this point that any expression of the local culture has been dissolved, the original low-income residents are all gone, the middle class is suffering due to a lack of wage inflation to match monetary inflation, this causes remortgaging and the selling of the now lucrative property back to the developers. the artists have been moved out as their landlords have also sold to the developers.
9. empty buildings, owned offshore, lack of income from the now missing populace causes local businesses to suffer or close down, cultural loss is complete.

the chain above is a hypothesis, one that started in the central boroughs of London and moved to the old industrial areas, then to the old slum Burroughs, the council estates, and now anywhere inside the M25. now with the high speed link into London, kent is looking more and more appealing to the big city developers, with time, kent may go through the same as London is now.

"113,000 Council Homes Could Be Sold Off, Says Shelter". This is Money. N.p., 2015. Web. 26 Sept. 2016.
   .
"Coasting Along: The Kent And Sussex Renaissance - Belfasttelegraph.Co.Uk". BelfastTelegraph.co.uk. N.p., 2013. Web. 26 Sept. 2016.

Perry, John. "John Perry: The Council Housing Sell-Off Disaster". LRB blog. N.p., 2016. Web. 26 Sept. 2016.

"Planners’ Fury As Firm Axes Affordable Homes At Luxury Development | Camden New Journal". Camdennewjournal.com. N.p., 2016. Web. 26 Sept. 2016.

Spittles, David. "Leafy Retreats: Revitalised Suburbs Are Getting Their Mojo Back". Homes and Property. N.p., 2016. Web. 26 Sept. 2016.

"The Great Property Race, Inside Out London - BBC One". BBC. N.p., 2014. Television. 26 Sept. 2016.


useful links: https://noisey.vice.com/en_uk/article/londons-culture-death-what-the-citys-best-music-venues-look-like-now?utm_source=vicefbuk

NEWS - Ideas regarding story and Ident

STORY AND CHANNEL IDENTITY


In this post, I intend to overview a few of my ideas regarding channel identity and the story which I intend to pitch to my group on Thursday.

The Idea

Broadly speaking my idea centers around the plight of Londoners who are being priced out of their own homes by BtL landlords and the rising tide of international super rich who are a leading cause of this forced gentrification.

to be more specific we'd be looking at the death of london's counterculture and the rise of gentrified "culture" in the capital.

the story germinated through a contact of mine whom I visited Tuesday evening, a long-time member of the counterculture. someone who is sad to see the city he moved to twisted and redesigned to cater to the super rich and upper classes.

the other aspect, the aspect regarding house prices comes from my experiences near to the isle of dogs, now canary wharf. the disparate cultures of bui8sness and slum meet at the excel center's DLR station, dirty, underbudgeted slum housing on one side and the sleek, false corrupt corporate side of the business centers and expo space.

The channel would take on an industrial, cyberpunk feel, uses of large amounts of blacks, rusts and reds in graphics and web presence, the use of lots of dystopian imagery, a political skew away from the institutionalized news companies to provide for the counterculture that simmers beneath the overly advertised, and advertised for 'hipster' pop culture. a deeply cynical political outlook with no real political allegiance.

an example of this idea can be found in the iconography of the festival, Boomtown. an event that exists as a living hypocrisy in the form of an anarchic institution.

more to do with the tone, anexamplee of BTN or the "Boomtown News" is below.

2016 - Y2 Post one

YEAR 2.0

In this Post. I aim to examine what went wrong last year, how I can work past it and some of the plans I've put in place to do so.

timekeeping

my biggest issue last year was in regard to timekeeping and scheduling, this is mostly apparent when reviewing the directions unit wherein admittedly minor extenuating circumstances resulted in a lack of time to finish my work by the hand in, this resulted in the resitting of that unit. to combat that issue plans were  put in place during the final unit, these were thankfully effective.

another example of this issue made manifest is  in regard to punctuality day to day. most of the time I can arrive for a given non-regular event, on time. However my ability to regularly arrive on time regularly has been a problem since my childhood and relates to the following section of the post.

the final issue I had with time keeping was task scheduling, on a given task I'd prefer to work through the night as I am easily distracted during the day without a focus provided by a third party. this interferes with my ability to work individually during the early evening or late afternoon. to try and combat overly late hours I have put into place a task schedule that enforces work attention during the hours in which i focus best. (between 21:00 and 02:00)

people management,

I feel like if I can't offer something physical or tangible to a prospective teammate they either won't turn up or won't want to be involved at all. this feeling comes from experience in secondary school and my time at college. I feel awkward asking things of others outside of a shooting setting, even in a professional environment it's hard for me to ask people to do things, like it's not my place to ask others.

last year this resulted in my extremely small production teams and using unprofessional but trusted friends rather than "untrustworthy professionals" as actors. as stated earlier this comes from some deeper social issues that I'm working through.