Digital News: Production research

Posted by : Unknown Sunday 28 September 2014

Following up from our workshop we had on the 26th of september, i done some further research into how the News is produced, and some of the key jargon used within the News industry, and what makes up a News story.
(Based off of notes taken from slide and altered)

Where the Newsroom Finds it's stories

Primary Sources

Your own direct contacts
Original sources direct from source material eg Archive material from libraries etc such as Kew (National Archives)
PUBLIC APPEALS ( Public appeal for donations, or for a missing person
PRESS RELEASES ( Could be a company which has sent out a press release about a new up and coming product, or a Government announcing plans for new housing(https://www.apple.com/uk/pr/library/2014/09/09Apple-Unveils-Apple-Watch-Apples-Most-Personal-Device-Ever.html))
STATS ( Official stats released about i.e. the declining rate of unemployment in Britain compared to previous years)
OFFICIAL STATEMENTS (i.e Politician giving official statement towards a subject matter, written or spoken(https://www.gov.uk/government/news/statement-on-murder-of-alan-henning-by-isil)

News agencies ( Reuters, Press association, (A news agency is an organization that gathers news reports and sells them to subscribing news organizations, such as newspapers, magazines, and radio and television broadcasters. A news agency may also be referred to as a wire service, newswire, or news service. taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/News_agency)

SECONDARY SOURCES -

STRINGERS ( a freelance journalist or photographer who contributes reports or photos to a news organization on an ongoing basis but is paid individually for each piece of published or broadcast work (http://handbook.reuters.com/index.php?title=Dealing_with_stringers))
Trending topics on Twitter ( Sometimes they could be unreliable, as someone could be manipulating the trending system to make untrue story popular and of public interest)
Facebook ( Even tho this too is not too reliable, however, someone could put out a story on your news feed of something that has just happened in front of them, plus they could of filmed/took pictures and uploaded it along with their account of whatever it is that they've witnessed)

Television News story forms

Which are your:

READERS (“tell” stories) - A short story which the presenter reads out with no video to accompany it or any full screen graphics
OOV -VO Out of Vision, voice-overs, Type of story that incorporates b-roll video rolled-in from the control room, in addition to the script read by the anchor. The abidance hears the nat sound on the B-roll behind the anchor's voice (Phillip L. Harris, 2011. Television Production & Broadcast Journalism. Second Edition, Textbook Edition. Goodheart-Willcox P.19)

Script contain VO

SOT Sound on tape, footage of a principal player connected to a story, which include voice/audio that supports the story. Also called sound bites. (Phillip L. Harris, 2011. Television Production & Broadcast Journalism. Second Edition, Textbook Edition. Goodheart-Willcox P.197)
VO-SOT Voiceover - sound on tape; a type of story in which the audience sees B-roll video and hears both the anchor reading from the teleprompter and footage of a comment from a principal player in the story (Phillip L. Harris, 2011. Television Production & Broadcast Journalism. Second Edition, Textbook Edition. Goodheart-Willcox P.197)

Script with VO-SOT

PACKAGE A story that is about 1-2 minutes in length, contains it's own intro and outdo, is edited, and can be inserted into a live program at any time the producer chooses.
This Package has a combination of VO-SOT (Voice over, Sound on Tape)

PACKAGE A story that is about 1-2 minutes in length, contains it's own intro and outdo, is edited, and can be inserted into a live program at any time the producer chooses.

Correspondents

These subject specialists work in newsrooms and are prized for their in depth knowledge and well honed contacts.
A Correspondent is a Journalist or commentator whom is a specialist in a specific area of field, this could be fore example:

Economics
Parliamentary
Political
War
Entertainment/Red carpet
Capital Correspondent
Chief international correspondant (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/correspondents/lysedoucet/)
China Correspondent
African Correspondent

In short, you could have a correspondent for anything that could be reported/newsworthy, so long as these people are experts in the area of fields that they're reporting.

News Packages

News packages are fully formed self contained news pieces.

Unlike OOVs and OOV/SOTs the news presenter is not involved in the storytelling itself, but rather in introducing and wrapping up the story (usually introducing and saying thank you to the reporter at the end) – the reporter takes the lead on the story.

There are a variety of elements available in a news package. These include:

Interviews
Sequence / actuality
Set up
GV's/ Cut aways - General view and Cut away shots could be shots that illustrate the point that the commentary or interviews is making.
This video contains all of the above