Introduction:
This report will critically analyse the way in which my team and I proceeded to develop our own online platform. In addition, it will also explore the way in which major news channels such as the BBC, ITV and Channel 5, choose to present their information and the audiences they target, whilst at the same time, analyse and compare them to the way in which, my team and I proceeded to develop our own Digital News project.
The Channel:Our initial idea was to create a community channel, informing locals around the area
of Kent and South East England about charity and community events that they could get involved in, such as running and cycling marathons to raise money for the Red Cross, Pink Ribbon Story etc. However, as we proceeded onto further research, we realised that our stories were more revolved around the subject of health- mainly women’s health, which I later on suggested to create a women’s health channel. Health channels, specifically women’s health channels, tend to focus mainly on nutritional and physical health, as well as maintenance and beauty issues rather than important medical topics, which concern a wider audience, such as mental health. After finalising our stories, however, it was evident that the issues presented would also affect males as much as they did females; therefore we changed our concept to a health channel, which also broadened our target audience.
Branding Development:From the start we were drawn to the idea of creating a unique look for our channel as
well as the way in which we developed our logo, promotional video, website and the overall tone of our ‘brand’. John Thornton Caldwell had once argued that, “‘Branding’ has emerged as a central concern of the television industry in the age of digital convergence” (Caldwell, 2004:305), simply stating that nowadays, with the rise of the digital era it seems like we tend to be more focused on the branding aspect of a television product/ show rather than its content. As opposing to Rogers et al who claimed that the new ‘digital era’ of television “must be considered the age of brand marketing” (Johnson, 2012), suggesting that the rise of online news and entertainment should be considered an opportunity to grow as an industry rather than be a frowned-
This report will critically analyse the way in which my team and I proceeded to develop our own online platform. In addition, it will also explore the way in which major news channels such as the BBC, ITV and Channel 5, choose to present their information and the audiences they target, whilst at the same time, analyse and compare them to the way in which, my team and I proceeded to develop our own Digital News project.
The Channel:Our initial idea was to create a community channel, informing locals around the area
of Kent and South East England about charity and community events that they could get involved in, such as running and cycling marathons to raise money for the Red Cross, Pink Ribbon Story etc. However, as we proceeded onto further research, we realised that our stories were more revolved around the subject of health- mainly women’s health, which I later on suggested to create a women’s health channel. Health channels, specifically women’s health channels, tend to focus mainly on nutritional and physical health, as well as maintenance and beauty issues rather than important medical topics, which concern a wider audience, such as mental health. After finalising our stories, however, it was evident that the issues presented would also affect males as much as they did females; therefore we changed our concept to a health channel, which also broadened our target audience.
Branding Development:From the start we were drawn to the idea of creating a unique look for our channel as
well as the way in which we developed our logo, promotional video, website and the overall tone of our ‘brand’. John Thornton Caldwell had once argued that, “‘Branding’ has emerged as a central concern of the television industry in the age of digital convergence” (Caldwell, 2004:305), simply stating that nowadays, with the rise of the digital era it seems like we tend to be more focused on the branding aspect of a television product/ show rather than its content. As opposing to Rogers et al who claimed that the new ‘digital era’ of television “must be considered the age of brand marketing” (Johnson, 2012), suggesting that the rise of online news and entertainment should be considered an opportunity to grow as an industry rather than be a frowned-
upon medium. With a similar opinion on the matter Todreas adds that, “[In the digital era] the companies that succeed will be the ones that rapidly create the strongest brands” (Todreas, 1999: 156), emphasizing that companies need to develop good branding strategies in order to be successful in this fast-paced era.
Due to the fact that we were creating a health channel, we mainly looked into colours (such as minty green) and font styles that resembled a hospital, promoting a ‘clean’ look. This can be mainly noticed by the way in which we presented our studio as we decided to set our presenter in front of a green screen and later on whiten it out, adding our logo in the background. This decision later on gave us the freedom to add at the beginning of the show, windows of the upcoming news pieces that would be later be presented, giving an insight to our audience on the way the news program would be set out. Later on we used the same method to present the first five seconds of our “live” report, giving it a more of a news-like layout.
Our visual part of our brand’s development was not the only aspect we focused on. When thinking of branding you have to also think about the people that will be presenting your news stories – in our case a studio presenter and two reporters. Finding the ideal person for each role was one of many decisions that we had to make as a group.
By using my previous contacts, I managed to get us a reporter for our “live” piece who lightened up the whole news piece for the donor drive with his bubbly persona and wouldn’t let the brief interview become a mundane conversation; always maintaining however, the seriousness of the subject and improvising the questions we had previously cued him with.
Due to the fact that we were creating a health channel, we mainly looked into colours (such as minty green) and font styles that resembled a hospital, promoting a ‘clean’ look. This can be mainly noticed by the way in which we presented our studio as we decided to set our presenter in front of a green screen and later on whiten it out, adding our logo in the background. This decision later on gave us the freedom to add at the beginning of the show, windows of the upcoming news pieces that would be later be presented, giving an insight to our audience on the way the news program would be set out. Later on we used the same method to present the first five seconds of our “live” report, giving it a more of a news-like layout.
Our visual part of our brand’s development was not the only aspect we focused on. When thinking of branding you have to also think about the people that will be presenting your news stories – in our case a studio presenter and two reporters. Finding the ideal person for each role was one of many decisions that we had to make as a group.
By using my previous contacts, I managed to get us a reporter for our “live” piece who lightened up the whole news piece for the donor drive with his bubbly persona and wouldn’t let the brief interview become a mundane conversation; always maintaining however, the seriousness of the subject and improvising the questions we had previously cued him with.
As opposed to what Dave accomplished in a short period of time, we should also note that, “the pressure to go live may keep the reporter tied to the microphone and camera instead of... confirming that extra bit of information” (Seib, 2000:x). Seib suggests that instead of focusing on the interviewee and the amount of information needed to come through, the reporter often tends to get ‘caught up’
and focus on the technical side of things, especially when the crew is messing around during the interview, making it distracting for both the reporter as well as the interviewee. Despite the fact of having a few issues with sound, we made sure that Dave was focused on the interview rather than the technical issues that were occurring, by having our producer cue him on certain points he should stir the conversation to during the interview, whilst we were trying to fix the problems.
As for our package reporter, it seemed like she wasn’t
making the interview conversational, not improvising or expanding the questions that we had set up for her or asking more. This was an annoying factor, as the interview would have gone better, without us editing the conversation as much as we had to, in order to make it sound interesting.
The tone of our studio presenter’s voice and the way in which she presented herself as well as the stories provided for her – delivering them in a very professional manner, added a slight BBC tone to our news pieces, having a great impact on our overall branding of our channel.
Audience Research:Though at the beginning, whilst we were still in the researching stage of our news stories, we mistakenly didn’t think about the level of interest of our target audience and the way in which they would respond to the stories we found. We did however have an emergency meeting about this issue, making sure that we have a ‘fresh’ perspective on issues like these, making the interest of our audience one of our main focal points in creating this health channel. Once we decided on what age group we would address our stories to, our target audience was males and females from the ages
and focus on the technical side of things, especially when the crew is messing around during the interview, making it distracting for both the reporter as well as the interviewee. Despite the fact of having a few issues with sound, we made sure that Dave was focused on the interview rather than the technical issues that were occurring, by having our producer cue him on certain points he should stir the conversation to during the interview, whilst we were trying to fix the problems.
As for our package reporter, it seemed like she wasn’t
making the interview conversational, not improvising or expanding the questions that we had set up for her or asking more. This was an annoying factor, as the interview would have gone better, without us editing the conversation as much as we had to, in order to make it sound interesting.
The tone of our studio presenter’s voice and the way in which she presented herself as well as the stories provided for her – delivering them in a very professional manner, added a slight BBC tone to our news pieces, having a great impact on our overall branding of our channel.
Audience Research:Though at the beginning, whilst we were still in the researching stage of our news stories, we mistakenly didn’t think about the level of interest of our target audience and the way in which they would respond to the stories we found. We did however have an emergency meeting about this issue, making sure that we have a ‘fresh’ perspective on issues like these, making the interest of our audience one of our main focal points in creating this health channel. Once we decided on what age group we would address our stories to, our target audience was males and females from the ages
of 20 and over, which also determined the light-hearted tone of our channel – showcasing serious topics with a light-hearted tone.
This specific episode of our channel would more than likely attract black and mixed race individuals due to the stories’ content, as the subject matter would directly impact them. In addition, I proceeded on to researching various health topics that have been presented on the news, such as a story that aired on Channel 4 recently, that showed the increasing amounts of deaths of patients that are on the waiting list, whilst searching for organ donors. This particular story struck me the most, as one of the interviewees, a mother of a daughter who was diagnosed with liver cancer at a very young age, talked about the turmoil that this disease had brought to her family. Later on, the reporter put the daughter, who’s now a cancer survivor, in the spotlight and proceeded to question her about her liver donor and the way in which he saved her life.
Quite often it seems like examples just like the one above, suggest that the emotional impact and attachment to human-interest stories, attract more audiences as subject matters like these especially health topics, don’t always receive large amounts of attention from the media, though they affect all of us on some level.
Similarly to our news package and “live” piece, the story emphasizes the importance of blood, stem cell and organ donations, emphasising the large amount of patients that are still on the waiting list searching for their ‘match’, urging people to help even by getting involved in donor drives just like the one we covered on our “live” piece. Through both our pieces and the online platform that we created (our website), our goal was to raise awareness on the lack of ethnic minority group donors. Alexander Boyd raises the subject on the importance of relevance when presenting a story, saying that “what happened yesterday is dead and buried, there has to be something new to say, some fresh angle” (Boyd et al, 2008:17). In a few words, stating that if it’s not current or relevant, then it simply cannot be considered “newsworthy”.
Platform & Genre Research:Since we were set to create an online platform in which we would showcase our news pieces, I looked into online platforms similar to our genre:
This specific episode of our channel would more than likely attract black and mixed race individuals due to the stories’ content, as the subject matter would directly impact them. In addition, I proceeded on to researching various health topics that have been presented on the news, such as a story that aired on Channel 4 recently, that showed the increasing amounts of deaths of patients that are on the waiting list, whilst searching for organ donors. This particular story struck me the most, as one of the interviewees, a mother of a daughter who was diagnosed with liver cancer at a very young age, talked about the turmoil that this disease had brought to her family. Later on, the reporter put the daughter, who’s now a cancer survivor, in the spotlight and proceeded to question her about her liver donor and the way in which he saved her life.
Quite often it seems like examples just like the one above, suggest that the emotional impact and attachment to human-interest stories, attract more audiences as subject matters like these especially health topics, don’t always receive large amounts of attention from the media, though they affect all of us on some level.
Similarly to our news package and “live” piece, the story emphasizes the importance of blood, stem cell and organ donations, emphasising the large amount of patients that are still on the waiting list searching for their ‘match’, urging people to help even by getting involved in donor drives just like the one we covered on our “live” piece. Through both our pieces and the online platform that we created (our website), our goal was to raise awareness on the lack of ethnic minority group donors. Alexander Boyd raises the subject on the importance of relevance when presenting a story, saying that “what happened yesterday is dead and buried, there has to be something new to say, some fresh angle” (Boyd et al, 2008:17). In a few words, stating that if it’s not current or relevant, then it simply cannot be considered “newsworthy”.
Platform & Genre Research:Since we were set to create an online platform in which we would showcase our news pieces, I looked into online platforms similar to our genre:
Examples of similar genres to ours:
- My Life (Mega TV) – topics: physical, mental and medical health issues.
Similarly to our style, this television show that airs on one of the biggest television channels in Greece has tried to escape from the classic style of the so-called health channels. - Health Above All (Ant1 channel) – topics: mental, sexual and medical health. Unlike the example above, this show is an online streaming television show (that has recently started being broadcast on a well-known channel also in Greece, Ant1). It was interesting to find out the way in which they present their most serious health topics with a light-hearted tone, which
- NHS (website): topics: mainly medical health, mental and sexual health.
The NHS website has been one of the most trusted websites (regarding health issues) by the British population. Through my research on this website, we incorporated the type of information that appears on the site on to our own format of our channel’s website, keeping it informative with small health facts and articles – always having medical accuracy without our audience having to double check the information we provide.
Through his book ‘Going live: Getting The News Right in a Real-time, Online World’, Philip M. Seib emphasises that, “The World Wide Web is the next major news medium” (Seib, 2000:xi). This can be understood mainly due to the fact that the Internet nowadays is one of the most fast- paced mediums ever invented especially when used in this particular industry. This effect can mostly be seen through the speed in which news travel from one end of the world to the other, especially since the rise of social networking sites eg. Facebook and Twitter.
Our main intention of creating profiles on Twitter and Facebook was mainly to promote our channel through a wider online platform. Through this method we drew attention to our target audience (yrs 20+), enticing our viewers through interactive tweets & polls that we created on future topics that can be discussed on our show and replying swiftly to direct messages about the topics discussed as well as raising awareness on ACLT’s cause.
News Story Research & Development:As part of our Digital News project, we were set to create a news package and a
“live” OB report.
During our researching process for our genre, we came across two quite related stories with a similar intake on the underlying issue of the lack of blood, organ and stem cell black and mixed race donors.
“live” OB report.
During our researching process for our genre, we came across two quite related stories with a similar intake on the underlying issue of the lack of blood, organ and stem cell black and mixed race donors.
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“Live” Report:
Was set at a donor drive at the City of Westminster College, where our reporter Dave did a short interview with one of the founders of the ACLT (African Caribbean Leukemia Trust) charity.
News Package:
A moving interview with a cancer survivor who was diagnosed in her mid-20s with multiple Myeloma- a type of blood cancer that was said to be “incurable” by her doctors. A story with an unexpected “happy ending”. However also stating that without the great help she got off ACLT and her donor, she wouldn’t be alive today.
Was set at a donor drive at the City of Westminster College, where our reporter Dave did a short interview with one of the founders of the ACLT (African Caribbean Leukemia Trust) charity.
News Package:
A moving interview with a cancer survivor who was diagnosed in her mid-20s with multiple Myeloma- a type of blood cancer that was said to be “incurable” by her doctors. A story with an unexpected “happy ending”. However also stating that without the great help she got off ACLT and her donor, she wouldn’t be alive today.
“Every time you interview someone think how you will introduce them into your film. The best way is with set-ups a shot or preferably a sequence of shots of them doing something, and preferably something exciting or at least with bold movement” (Hudson & Rowlands, 2007:204)
Due to time restrictions, however, we were unable to film an introduction sequence with Jay, which did affect the visual aspect of our interview and the way in which the story is introduced – in the first ten seconds of the interview you are unable to establish the person speaking (Jay) as her introduction shot is replaced by a number of photographs.
This was also affected by the way we slightly changed our story’s direction during the editing process, as we were advised to make it more appealing to our target audience rather than having a monotonous interview.
Due to time restrictions, however, we were unable to film an introduction sequence with Jay, which did affect the visual aspect of our interview and the way in which the story is introduced – in the first ten seconds of the interview you are unable to establish the person speaking (Jay) as her introduction shot is replaced by a number of photographs.
This was also affected by the way we slightly changed our story’s direction during the editing process, as we were advised to make it more appealing to our target audience rather than having a monotonous interview.
Folmer comments on this technique, saying that “editing distorts or at least constructs what [an interviewee] says on film” (Vignau, 2013:132).
During the pre-production stage of the development of our OB “live” report, we were invited to a presentation hosted by the ACLT charity founders, during which they briefed us on the cause they support, their back story and their missions and goals to raise awareness to this not well-known issue. It helped us greatly with fact-checking and overall knowing exactly the purpose and direction of this interview especially when writing our script, as it allowed us to expand our questions and it let us know exactly how the interview would be structured. This also later was a great opportunity, as we knew exactly how to cue our reporter, Dave, rather than being surprised with new information on the day.
Scripting & Storytelling:During the development of our script we added more conversational language to it in
order for our audience to feel as if we are talking to them, informing them about the issues we are presenting, rather than lecture them on their ‘ignorance’ towards the them. Raiteri comments on this method, by pointing out that “People are human; they expect you to sound human. And that is why the style of broadcast writing is so important. Style facilitates all those ‘humanizing’ goals of our writing” (Raiteri, 2006:2).
Critical Reflection:Although having a number of difficulties throughout the development and creative
process of our channel, they were handled with great professionalism and communication within the group, which is evident through our final product.
Overall, both our two-minute news package and “live” OB report can be described as “newsworthy” as both showcase two important current issues - the lack of black and mixed race donors and the lack of knowledge on Leukemia, that have been barely covered by the media, though they affect a huge number of people making relevant to our society today. Our branding as well as our final ‘look’ of our channel was maintained throughout the program making it fit to our genre. The “look” of our channel seems to resemble that of a professional piece, which can potentially be commissioned to a bigger establishment in the future.
During the pre-production stage of the development of our OB “live” report, we were invited to a presentation hosted by the ACLT charity founders, during which they briefed us on the cause they support, their back story and their missions and goals to raise awareness to this not well-known issue. It helped us greatly with fact-checking and overall knowing exactly the purpose and direction of this interview especially when writing our script, as it allowed us to expand our questions and it let us know exactly how the interview would be structured. This also later was a great opportunity, as we knew exactly how to cue our reporter, Dave, rather than being surprised with new information on the day.
Scripting & Storytelling:During the development of our script we added more conversational language to it in
order for our audience to feel as if we are talking to them, informing them about the issues we are presenting, rather than lecture them on their ‘ignorance’ towards the them. Raiteri comments on this method, by pointing out that “People are human; they expect you to sound human. And that is why the style of broadcast writing is so important. Style facilitates all those ‘humanizing’ goals of our writing” (Raiteri, 2006:2).
Critical Reflection:Although having a number of difficulties throughout the development and creative
process of our channel, they were handled with great professionalism and communication within the group, which is evident through our final product.
Overall, both our two-minute news package and “live” OB report can be described as “newsworthy” as both showcase two important current issues - the lack of black and mixed race donors and the lack of knowledge on Leukemia, that have been barely covered by the media, though they affect a huge number of people making relevant to our society today. Our branding as well as our final ‘look’ of our channel was maintained throughout the program making it fit to our genre. The “look” of our channel seems to resemble that of a professional piece, which can potentially be commissioned to a bigger establishment in the future.
Bibliography:
- Seib, P.M. (2000) Going live: Getting the news right in a real-time, online world. United States: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.
- Caldwell, John (2004) Encyclopedia of Television: Volume 1. New York: Horace Newcomb, Fitzroy Dearborn.
- Johnson, C. (2012) Branding television. New York: Taylor & Francis.
- Todreas, T.M. (1999) Value creation and Branding in television’s digital age. United
States: Greenwood Publishing Group. - Hudson, G. and Rowlands, S. (2007) The broadcast journalism handbook. Harlow,
England: Pearson Longman. - Vignau, C. (2013) Modernity, complex societies, and the Alphorn. United States: Lexington
Books. - Boyd, A., Stewart, P.A., Alecander, R., Alexander, R. and er, R. (2008) Broadcast
journalism: Techniques of radio and television news. 6th edn. Amsterdam: Elsevier/Focal. - Raiteri, C. (2006) Writing for broadcast news: A storytelling approach to crafting TV and
radio news reports. United States: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.
