TV News Production - Ideas Lab (28th September 2021)

 Ideas Lab

The brief for this unit is 4-5 minute news package, within groups, for our "own branded digital online news channel" (Turrell, 2021:7). 

As a starting point, we looked at the 'age range we wanted to target' (Turrell, 2021) , which was 16-35 year-olds.  Within our group, we thought about 

News broadcasters and brands, such as BBC News, Sky News, ITV News, and Channel 5 News were looked at, particularly the different styles of delivering news each news brand had. For example, ITV news often dives straight into the news story with a collection of cutaways, B-Roll, and interviews (ITV News: Army help and HGV immigration waivers considered over fuel issues, 2021), whereas, the BBC often start the story deliverance with the news anchors and then go between cutaways, interviews, and B-Roll (BBC News: Petrol supply:Army gets ready to assist as Boris reassures drivers, 2021). 

The atmosphere regarding the deliverance of the news is also important, and differs depending on the time of day and/or the brand delivering it. 

The first story that we decided upon was the pressure on the emergency services and the impact that this is having. This idea came about through one of my peers mentioning a recent local news story regarding a man who died as a result of an ambulance being sent to the wrong address (McLennan, 2021). Through discussing this news story, it was discovered that our peer's, Ethan Tombs, father is a logistics manager at a local hospital. So, we had a potential contact who we could gain access to and interview. 

The second story that we decided upon was sustainable fashion and upcycling. This story was chosen as over recent years, sustainable fashion and upcycling have been gaining increasing popularity, particularly amongst the younger generation, with a surge in sales of second hand clothing being driven by younger shoppers (Butler, 2021), which makes it relevant to our target audience of 16-35-year olds. Another point of reasoning behind the sustainable fashion story was that we wanted a more light-hearted piece within our package, not just because a more light-hearted story is often seen to be included in most news programmes and brands, but also because more hard-hitting, negative news stories can often have a negative impact on our mental health. For example, de Hoog and Verboon found that when news is perceived as being more negative, it often tended to have a negative affect on an individuals' emotional well-being (de Hoog and Verboon, 2019). Thus, having a lighter subject would allow for a lighter atmosphere to be created. 

Bibliography:

BBC News: 'BBC Breakfast - Petrol supply: Army gets ready to assist as Boris reassures drivers'  [Television Programme] BBC One 29/09/2021. At: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gm9tIoPMPDQ&t=1s&ab_channel=BBC (Accessed 29/09/2021)

Butler, S. (2021) 'Pre-loved' 'fashion moves from niche to mainstream as retailers join the fray' In: The Guardian 01/05/2021. At: https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2021/may/01/pre-loved-fashion-moves-from-niche-to-mainstream-as-retailers-join-the-fray (Accessed 01/10/2021)

de Hoog and Verboon. (2019) 'Is the news making us unhappy? The influence of daily news exposure on mental states In: British Journal of Psychology 111 (2) pp.157-173. At: https://bpspsychub.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/bjop.12389

ITV News: 'ITV News : Army help and HGV immigration waivers considered over fuel issues, 2021) [Television Programme] ITV 24/09/2021. At: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHQ118-IHpg&ab_channel=ITVNews (Accessed 29/09/2021)

McLennan, WW. (2021) 'Coronavirus: Man died of Covid after ambulance sent to wrong address' In: BBC News 28/09/2021. At: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-kent-58713381 (Accessed 01/10/2021)

Turrell, B. (2021) TV News Intro. [Kent: University for the Creative Arts 28/09/2021]. 

Turrell, B. (2021) TV News Production Handbook. Rochester: UCA Rochester. At: https://learn-eu-central-1-prod-fleet01-xythos.content.blackboardcdn.com/5d11c85256e5e/1465088?X-Blackboard-Expiration=1632927600000&X-Blackboard-Signature=NU3foMUui%2B1N2sMlFUahOs42q1ccy3S8L4RNnFvkqhc%3D&X-Blackboard-Client-Id=190919&response-cache-control=private%2C%20max-age%3D21600&response-content-disposition=inline%3B%20filename%2A%3DUTF-8%27%27NEWS%2520HANDBOOK%25202021-22.pdf&response-content-type=application%2Fpdf&X-Amz-Algorithm=AWS4-HMAC-SHA256&X-Amz-Date=20210929T090000Z&X-Amz-SignedHeaders=host&X-Amz-Expires=21600&X-Amz-Credential=AKIAZH6WM4PL5M5HI5WH%2F20210929%2Feu-central-1%2Fs3%2Faws4_request&X-Amz-Signature=fee1ca20af2befd31cd55b56ce37ac19352e0f3cd1020b1c0e0ac3450cc1a391 (Accessed 29/09/2021)