Introduction To The News

Introduction to the news

The news broadcast I watched was live as of 10-11am on Monday 09/03/15 on the BBC news website the stories that were covered are shown below. The introduction to BBC news features a graphic of a shifting and rotating globe featuring names of both local British locations and worldwide locations in order to demonstrate the widespread availability and coverage of the news.

News Stories 09/03/2015

Lead story: "Campaign countdown" Ed balls discussed financial cuts by the Tories.

Other stories:

David Cameron pledges 500 new free schools

Britain's anti-terror campaign 'a toxic brand'

'No doubt' Crufts dog was poisoned

Ex UUP leader James Molyneaux dies aged 94

Doping in cycling 'still widespread'

Solar Plane begins epic journey

Teenage boys killed in crash named

Mother of alleged rapist lynched by angry mob

Syria girls' parents seek met apology

Baby survives 14 hours in Utah river

Treasury sells £500 million of Lloyds shares

TV news presenters:

News presenters tend to be middle aged and typically one male and one female although some news stations may differ. Stations such as Sky Sports may have a majority male newscasters due to a more male focused audience.  A news presenter’s job is to read the news of the day that is presented to them through an auto-cue (a type of script that can be updated in real time), they are also fed information via an earpiece by a director and various other members of the team. News presenters are expected to both tell the story and keep the viewers interested by making the story more interesting/appealing by using certain words and phrases to captivate the audience. The presenter’s link the stories together with the help from the production team who tell them via an earpiece which story they will have to read next. Presenters typically use a neutral tone to make sure that are clear, concise and easy to understand.

The role of a newsreader is to present the latest news to the audience in a way that they can relate and understand. Newsreaders use clear concise tones and certain trigger words to emphasize the importance of stories. Newsreaders require a certain set of skills in order to be efficient at their job, they are of course required to have the appropriate qualifications as well as some sort of experience in journalism. It also helps for the newsreader to be fluent in the countries language and well spoken.

News ordering is a term used to determine which order news stories will be shown in. This order is normally determined based on the importance of the stories with the most recent and hard hitting stories going first and the lesser stories at the middle and end of the broadcast. Running order is a term used to describe the stories that will likely be featured in the broadcast and which order they will appear in. At the top of this list will be the lead story which is selected based on the audience that will be watching the broadcast and how it has/could affect them as well as how relatable they will find it. Paying close attention to their audience members allows for news networks to choose the story that they believe will gather the largest interest. Other stories in the broadcast will appear in the form of  a 'news roundup' which is simply a collection of smaller/shorter stories that all have a common factor. For example you may have a round-up of all the international news stories or one for all sport related stories.



The biggest/breaking news stories are usually shown at the very start at of the program to emphasize their importance








Since the news is ever shifting as new perspectives are revealed and new events unfold it is useful for the news team and presenters to be able to think and act quickly in order to adapt if new sides to the story are revealed. Presenters are also equipped with an earpiece which allows for the director and other team members to feed information directly to the presenter(s) allowing the presenters to have a constant feed of information that they must adapt to. For example a certain story may have to take up a specific time frame so the director will tell the presenter to add/remove information or speak faster or slower, and obviously it helps for the presenter to be able to think and act quickly to meet the demands of the director and studio.

The term 'slow news day' refers to a day in which no breaking news or important events occur meaning the news stories that will be featured do not necessarily gather as large an audience as they normally would. The type of stories that may appear on a slow news day may be stories that may seem 'boring' or 'pointless' in comparison to regular news stories. For example, a story covering the dwindling number of 'Jedi knights' in Canada.


Most of the time a broadcast will finish with a story referred to as an 'and finally' story meaning that unlike the other stories shown during the broadcast this one will be particularity uplifting or inspirational in order to end the broadcast on a high note.

News value is the term used to describe how much 'attention' a news story gets. For example, a particularly large story that effects the majority will get more attention and coverage than a smaller story such as an 'and finally' story. The scholars Galtung and Ruge discussed news values and put forward 12 factors which indicate how news worthy a story is. These are the factors Galtung and Ruge suggested:

Frequency: events that occur frequently and coincide with the schedule of the news are more likely to be reported on.

Negativity: in most cases a negative story is more likely to be covered in the news.

Unexpectedness: unforeseen/unlikely events will have a greater effect on audience members that things that happen on a daily basis.

Unambiguity: less complex events that are less open to interpretation are more likely to be covered.

Personalization: Events that can be attached to a single individual are more likely to be covered than stories covering companies or organizations.

Meaningfulness: Stories that include people who speak the same language and have the same problems as the majority of the audience tend to be covered more than other stories that demonstrate lifestyles or actions the audience may not be able to identify with.

Reference to elite nations: people and events in larger more influential nations such as America and China are more likely to be  covered than those in 'lesser nations'

Reference to elite persons: people with a certain reputation or celebrity status will get more attention than other individuals.

Conflict: Conflicts resulting in dramatic changes or effects on nations and people will get a lot of coverage in the news.

Consonance: Stories that fit the medias expectations tend to get more coverage than stories that go against them. While this technically contradicts 'Unexpectedness' it refers more to the medias 'readiness' to report a story.

Continuity: A story that is already being reported on gets more coverage as more sides of the story are revealed and new perspectives are shown.

Composition: News broadcasts can only be so long, so if there is an abundance of foreign news networks will try to balance it with some local news.

Other news values (not written by Galtung and Ruge)

Competition: Professional or commercial competition may lead to one network endorsing the news value given to the story by a rival.  

Co-optation: A story that may not be too important by itself might be reported on based on how it relates to a larger story.

Prefabrication: A story that has been already written about and researched into is more likely to be reported on than a story that has to be written from scratch.

Predictability: Events are more likely to be covered if they are pre-planned.

Time constraints: Stories that can be covered within the time constraints of the media are more likely to be reported on.

Logistics: The ability to get reporters and camera crews into locations effects how likely it is that story will be reported on.

Data: Reporters prefer stories with raw unbiased data.

The attacks on the world trade center on September 11 2001 covers almost all examples of news values which is why it is the most reported story in recent memory and entirely changed the way news was reported as a whole.

Broadcast about the Chowles:

This story was about a family; a man, his wife and their baby who had recently purchased a one bedroom house for £57,000 but have fallen behind approximately £6,000 on their mortgage payments. The family in the news report are represented as the victims and appear downtrodden in what can be assumed an attempt to garner sympathy for the family. I personally did not sympathize with the family, as the way they explained their situation it seems to me that they had a part to play in creating this problem. The news storied was accompanied by a narrator who set up the story and lead into the interviews then tied up the story at the end by explaining the families current situation and plans for the future.

Broadcast of Tunisia shootings

This story is about the recent shootings at a museum in Tunisia where 23 people were killed. The people involved in the story included David Cameron who extended his condolences to the families of the victims and a member of the Tunisian parliament who expressed her fear and concern of the sudden attack. The people in the story were shown to be victims of a brutal and unexpected attack naturally allowing for others and myself to sympathize with those who were killed.  The broadcast featured a reporter who explained the chronology and details of the attack and periodically chipped in to provide new details that have unfolded throughout the day.

Bias in the news
Bias through selection and omission: All news networks have control over what content they wish to show which means a news network may choose to report on a certain story based on their on beliefs of the story's value and the interest it will gain henceforth creating bias through selection. Bias through omission refers to a network not including certain details in the stories or simply not including stories as they may not be interesting or worth the time.

Bias through placement/order: News networks also control which order the stories are shown effectively allowing the news to choose which story they believe is the most important.

Bias through headlines: News networks are allowed to right their own headlines for stories meaning that in some cases they can alter the headline to something that is more likely to grab attention without necessarily being entirely related to the story.

Bias through shot selection and camera angles: While a story is being filmed the camera operator can choose what to show and what not too show meaning that they effectively have control over what they allow the audience to see this method can also be used by the editor who can choose to leave out certain shots.

Bias through names and captions: By using certain labels or titles for an interviewee news networks can make their opinions and views have more validity than someone else's. for example saying that someone has a PhD in Nuclear astrophysics holds more weight than simply 'Scientist'.

Bias through use of language: News networks tend to use broader more emotive words when reporting on certain events or people. For example using words such as 'terrorist' allows for the news to emphasize the threat level they believe is present.