Conventions Of A News Package

News Package

A news package is a self contained news report. Most news packages have a simple structure that open the show with a news anchor reading an introductory of the news that will be shown in that news report. The introduction leads up to the pre-recorded story which shows why a news package is the longest type of storytelling package found on television newscasts. New Packages often have a structure as listed below containing:

- Studio Centre

- Footage outside with graphics

- Voice Over with Facts

- Simple Interviews

- Charts and Figures

In all news packages they contain conventions and there are 6 main conventions that can be used however not all these conventions will be used in just one newsw package.These 6 different conventions are; Field Reporters, Links to Studio, Mode of Address to Viewer, Interviewing Experts and Witnesses, Report Structure and Actuality Footage.
Underneath I will briefly explain what each of the 6 conventions are.
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Field Reporters

A field reporter is a reporter/correspondent that reports the news on location. So a field reporter is an analyst or a sideline reporter, they usually provide additional coverage. A field reporter mainly just compliments the main reporter. A field reporter can be used in different ways and depending on what the storyline is there costumes may be different. The others variables I will look are;

-Levels of involvement in story

-Choice of Presenter (Gender, ethnicity, background)

-Graphics

Links To Studio

Another convention that is used in many News Packages is the Links to Studio, this is where you can see the News reporter saying things like now we will go live to... this shows the correspondence from one person to another. The links can be through a voice over and so on. The things I will be looking at when it come to this convention is how they use it for example;

-Live or Pre-recorded

-Location

-Camera Language

-No package

Mode of Address to Viewer

A reporters mode of address can vary depending on the type of news being reported for example if they are presenting facts they will have a very serious. There are genially typical News Reporters as the viewers would not want to listen to someone young because they do not come across as very intelligent.  I will be looking at the following things as well and how they are used;

-Tone of Voice

-Accent

-Language Complexity 

-Fact Provider vs Analysing Expert

Interviewing Experts and Witnesses

Most news reports also contain interviews whether they are with an expert who speaks about a specific topic. An interview could just be towards someone who may of seen what happened for an example a witness. The interviews seen in news reports can be in a variety of locations and these locations tend to link with the reason for the interview. The things I will look at here involving interviewing are;

-Camera Techniques

- Location

-Status of Interviewee

-Graphics

-Questions Included

-Expert-Knowlegde of the topic

-Witness(Vox Pop)

Report Structure 

A convention that is displayed throughout a lot of different news packages is their report structure. All news packages have different report structures but most of them follow the same structure being the sign in and context is first which is followed up by the introduction to the storyline. The things I will look at regarding the report structure are;

-Sign in and Context

-Archive Footage

-Interviews and vox pops

-Fact communication

-On location an where

-Pieces to camera

-Sign out Broadcast

-Cutaways and noddies

Actuality Footage

Actuality footage is meant by the type of archive footage used for example where is it come from. Actuality is normally used within news reports when the news reporter is reporting a specific story that they did not get a chance to go on location so the news package would use archive footage from someone's phone etc. When looking at the archive i will be looking at;

-Source

-Reason for using it

-Amount Used

-Contextualisation 

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News Package Example 1:

  This news package is about a tornado that hit somewhere in America and shows what everything looks like after with the news reporter giving facts and opinions if the event.

The first thing that is seen in this news package is an interview and the interview is with a witness and someone who was physically damaged by the event (tornado). This interview is more like a box pop as it is very short and simple and does not use any camera techniques apart from making sure she the interviewee is the only person seen on the camera.  The filming of the box pop/interview is on location of the actual event and this is to help relate back to the story as it would not make sense to get a witness to come into the studio and answer questions because the reactions would not be the same. 

The status of the interviewee is middle class/working class as she is just an ordinary female that happened to of been affected from the tornado. The graphics are very simple and just correspond to the box pop as the graphics just contain the logo of the news package and it also has the interviewee's name and who they are so in this case the lady 'Jammie' is a resident. As this interview is almost like a box pop as it is very short and straight to the point you do not hear the questions being said as it just wastes time and is not needed.

There is also many other short forms of interviews/vox pops and it is the interview with an expert that is very important in this news report as the interview with the expert on the guns helps to justify the topic and him being an expert in that area he gives all the facts and also his opinions. As this interview is with an expert its setting and location is different the location seems to be his office as a president and he is also dressed very smart which makes the viewers trust and believe what he is saying.

The next thing we can also see is how much the correspondent/Field Reporters are physically involved. In this specific news package we can see that the correspondent is very involved as he is looking at the damage of the area. As we see him touching the damaged car and speaking about it. Through the time of him being physically involved we as the viewers see him presenting facts and as he is very involved with presenting the topic his costume is very informal and is more so for comfy than looking smart. The gender and ethnicity of the correspondent are the typical choice of presenter as he is a middle aged male  and seems to be American however he does not have a strong regional accent which is why he is more so a typical choice of presenter. The graphics stay the same with the logo still be on screen and the name changing to the correspondents name.

You can also see the Links to the studio within this news report as the main news reporter is mainly doing a voice over on the situation. The main news reporter is not actually seen he is mainly doing a voice over of the different topics and introduces the interviewee's in. Most of the footage shown seems to be live footage as for example the beginning topic it was the news reporter going down to the location and presenting a story based on what he saw. As some stuff is not live for example the filming of the different affects of the tornado as you can see some of the camera language and cutaways are very nice and affective.

This news package also has use of archive footage of things that were filmed a very long time ago as the colouring is in black and white. The archive footage is there to help support the point of the topic and the topic being about dustbin men and how before (history) things were different and how a lot of people went and protested. They use archive footage as they could not film something or re-enact it as it would not have the same affect.

My next example of a news package has a slightly different layout to the first news package that I showed you as this news package has more of a report structure due to the first thing the viewers seeing is a studio set up with the news anchor reporting the news. So following through with the report structure of this news anchor it shows your 'sign in and context' however this news report conveys a slightly different structure as it goes straight to the correspondent for more news on the story then it follows up with the interviews and box pops.

The mode of address in this particular news package is very serious as the news anchor is presenting facts and is reviewing what happened. This news report also proves that their is a typical news anchor which is a middle age male who have no regional accent. It also adds to the language complexity as in this news report the language is not that complex and it has a wider target audience. 

Conventions Of A News Package

Conventions

Underneath is a video made by myself, Raees and Sam as we explore the different conventions needed in a news package outlining the four different sub genres being;

Studio News Readers and Anchors

Mode of Address to Viewer

Interviewing Experts and Witnesses

Report Structure

We tried to outline as many points as we could showing the viewer how we done which was wrong and how it should be done. All points we did not cover in the video I will then go on to discuss in more detail.

Studio News Readers or Anchors

News Readers or Anchors for news packages generally are white middle age and are from the middle class. All News Readers and Anchors have specific requirements and these are;

Costume: Most males would be wearing suits and most females would be wearing something this helps to create a smart look making the news readers/anchors look intelligent. For females they are not allowed to wear a lot of make up or jewellery as they need to look plain so it does not throw the viewers of and jewellery comes across as very distracting. Wearing make up can make a female look unintelligent especially if wearing a lot which will question the viewers and might not believe you when presenting the news. So a news readers costume helps with the audiences belief on the news and they trust it.

Framing: As a news reader their body language needs to be side on and not directly towards the camera as this can make them seem intimidating. The framing helps the audiences belief in the news beings serious.

Choice of presenter: The choice of presenter links to the typical news reader I spoke about, the choice of presenter generally needs to be middle age and look clever because as an audience if someone young(teenager) was to present the news the viewers would probably not believe the news because someone young will not know as much as someone else who has been living for longer. Also teenagers do not get taken seriously so they would not fit into the choice of presenter for such a serious news package.

Body Language: The body language links back to the framing as well it is important that the news reader or anchor does not have poor body language because they could come across again as not very intelligent and it could almost make them seem like they don't want to be there especially if they are not sitting up straight.  

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Mode Of Address to Viewer

Tone of Voice: For the news reader and anchor to be taken seriously their voices need to have a serious tone as they are presenting serious cases. If they're presenting the news and laughing the audience will not believe them and think they are just taking everything as a joke.

Accent: As a news anchor and reader it is very important that they do not have a regional accent because this can throw the viewers of because they will not understand what they are saying. For example in my news package video I was presenting the news as a news reader and typically I would not be the right choice of presenter as I have a very strong regional accent.

Language: The language the news anchor and reader would be using would be formal terminology but not big words that everyone will understand because news packages are for everyone those from the working class and middle class. They would not use slang because this again will question the viewers about if the news can be trusted.

Eye Contact: It is important that the news reader and anchor look directly into the camera from a side angle to connect with the audience creating a meaning this helps the audience trust the news reader and anchor. If they do not look into the camera the seriousness of the situation gets lots which can be seen in our video where I am presenting something but not looking into the camera.

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Interviewing Experts and Witnesses

Camera Techniques: The camera techniques will generally be very simple so they can just focus on getting all the information from the witness there would sometimes be close up shots of the witnesses to see their reactions to the situation.

Location: When interviewing the location is very important for example most of the times when news packages interview experts they are normally in their office because this helps them to look smart and people for sure will defiantly them. 

Status of interviewee: The interviewee would most normally being someone who is just normal and happened to of seen what happened so they give their opinions. 

Graphics: Graphics help to tie in with certain situations for example if some footage is beings shown and you see the graphics 'Live' it all mosts helps the viewers to believe the news.

Questioning technique: In most news packages when you see the interviews you do not normally see the interviewer asking the questions normally it is just edited to the answer. They do this to just show the most important parts of the interview because they don't want it to be too long plus the questions are not needed.

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Report Structure

Order of start of show (use of graphics, music, images): A report structure normally starts of with an opening sequence whether it is a montage of what will be spoken about in the show or a sequence of graphics relating to the news package. There is usually music at the start of every news package before it goes to the studio and this is to show the audience that the programme is serious and this is explored through the use of music choice. Within the opening sequence there maybe images included.

Links to o.b/on location reports: The links from the studio to on location is normally presented through the news reader saying ''and now we will go to...'' like what was seen in my example of a news package where I say we will go over to ''Mohammed'' who has more on the story.