NEWS - History P1 - Newsreels.

intro

as a part of the NEWS unit I will be having a short look into the history and development of the news format of programme, Television news, like documentary developed from the newsreels of the early 20th century, as a precursor to modern news programming, newsreels are crucial to note in the development of the modern television news package.

early newsreels

the earliest newsreels predate audio recording, however even in these early times, some of the standards of modern news are already visible, images are only used to progress the story, with cuts to titles to enunciate the images, an early form of writing to images.

The next development in the genre is the adoption of sound, this pathe newsreel expresses the power of atomics i the mid 20th century, this newsreel was created during the initial years of atomic development,  note the better use of images and sound, the use of dramatic music sets the tone, this newsreel sits on the border between documentary and news, its short form like a news package however its also dramatised like many documentaries.

it was around the time of the above newsreel that the BBC started broadcasting, and thus the first television news programmes were invented, often using newsreel cameras on location. the editing is clunker than the earlier newsreels, this may be because of the relatively new technology, editing without cutting the film may have been difficult. this shows an early example of the use of a news anchor and studio.

the next example further blurs the line between documentary and newsreel, this example is a short newsreel by the rand corporation, look at life. I'm using this as an example because the rand corporation makes the best use of colour film in their newsreels, something that television news at the time couldn't do, Rand would also sometimes use some of the earliest examples of 'Vox pops', and thus is relevant to the development of modern news programming.

the next section will be upon the later years of the development of the modern news style, it will cover modern news and the methods by which it keeps the viewer entertained, informed and educated.