Analysis of relevant live news item
During this analysis, I will look at the ITV's Good Morning Britain live news segment "Students Open Their A-Level Results Live on GMB." It was live at 8am on the 13th August 2020 and followed students looking at their A level results, after not being able to sit exams due to coronavirus. It uses multiple different platforms to show what is happening, there are presenters in the studio, and a correspondent on location with students. This jam-packed live news piece is presented in different ways and gave me a great opportunity to take influence from it as we are also shooting ours during the pandemic. Our live news segment will interview University students in person, and cover online learning and how they feel about it. The ITV Broadcast is relevant to our Live News Broadcast as it is filmed socially distanced with students during a pandemic, just as we will. I looked at the first 4 minutes and 20 seconds of the broadcast as this was the section that was most relevant to ours new piece.
What I enjoyed:
The first thing that I really enjoyed was how easily recognisable the brand was. The piece felt coated in Itv and Good Morning Britain Logo's and colour themes and this would have made it really easy for a viewer to instantly know which channel they were watching. The astons for the correspondent were in the lower third of the frame consisted of blue and white colouring which reflected ITV as a brand. In the aston it also stated the headline for the news piece and and some statistics underneath. I thought this was good because it meant that if someone started watching halfway through they would still have an idea of what is happening. It is also good as in order to "gain audience loyalty, news have to establish a clear identity"(Boyd, 2008:138), and this is exactly what Good Morning Britain have done by plastering the frame in branding. Underneath this bar in the lower third it also states the 'ITV Weather' which is accompanied by again blue and white, hence still showing brand fluidity on screen. In the top left corner of the frame we see the 'Live' Graphic which stands out as it is in red, so a different colour to the branding which therefore makes it more obvious to the viewer so that we know that it is live. I liked this as it again made everything clear for the viewer and the 'live' graphic was eye catching, and next to the ITV logo therefore the audience are again drawn to seeing the ITV which reinforces them of the news channel that they are watching. The Good Morning Britain also features on screen with the logo appearing on either side of the lower third. This again shows brand identity and for anyone watching they will be able to quickly see which news channel they are viewing. Having graphics constantly on screen that reinforce brand identity is definitely something that will influence our work. As graphic designer, it is my role to make sure that all graphics used on screen successfully reflect TTV, therefore when creating them I will focus on colour and style to make sure that they are easily recognisable for anyone.
Another aspect that I thought worked well was how the presenters introduce the news story. They give a brief summary of what is happening, as well as some statistics and I feel that this creates a "continuous, uninterrupted flow of action that tells the story"(Graham-Holm, 2012:15) for it to follow straight into the location and also lets the viewer know some extra information on the story. As I am Producer, I am writing the script so I will make sure that I try to follow the pattern that this Live Broadcast follows with letting the presenter introduce the story with some facts and figures and a short summary and then to let it flow straight into the reporters section at the location. This will help to keep an even flow throughout the piece and will keep the audience engaged as they will not be overwhelmed with information by just the reporter on location. It will also help us with saving time as we will be filming the presenter segments in the green screen room and then linking them up with the live in the edit stage, so diving straight into questions with contributors with the Live Broadcast on shoot day will ultimately save the contributors and our group time and with "fast turnarounds times" (Boyd, 2008:249) in Television News, time is crucial. However ultimately, having the presenter introduce our Live Broadcast with some information will also help us to create a steady flow.
Finally, I enjoyed that even though the Live Broadcast was filmed during a pandemic, you don't really notice it. The correspondent does mention social distancing, however due to it being outside and nobody wearing masks it does not feel obvious and coronavirus does not hold it back. I also enjoy how it can be in person as during the pandemic most live news pieces with contributors have been shot via online interviews. Having it in person made it feel more normal, as sometimes interviewing someone online from their home can have distracting backgrounds. Therefore having it in person made it feel like a typical Live News Broadcast due to the correspondent asking contributors questions under time constraints due to the fast paced nature of news. This has influenced our Live broadcast as due to being our COVID-19 Supervisor and Producer I have been able to organise our Live Broadcast so that it will be filmed safely in person with social distancing. Due to the current coronavirus restrictions we will probably have to shoot inside which means that everyone will have to wear masks. This will reinforce the pandemic and may be distracting for a viewer if the correspondent as well as all contributors are wearing masks, however it cannot be helped and our Live Broadcast is about adapting to technologies because of the pandemic so it should not matter too much.
What I disliked:
The main aspect that I disliked as the lack of representation with the contributors, who were a group of students that were opening their exam results and the school Principle. The students parents were also stood socially distanced in the background with teachers. All contributors were white and British. I was not actively looking for representation the first time the I watched the broadcast through, nevertheless the lack of any other ethnicities did stand out to me. This made me think about how other ethnic groups may feel watching as they have not been represented at all in any of the contributors. During the Live Broadcast at the school we meet six students, the head teacher and the correspondent and all eight of them are white. I did not enjoy the lack of representations for other ethnicities as it felt that making the broadcast relatable for all viewers had not been considered and in a way this made me feel a little uncomfortable. During our News pieces, not just the package but all media that we produce across our platforms, as Producer I will really try to represent as many people as we possible as I wish to create "News that the audience can relate to" (Boyd, 2008:5).
Something else that I disliked about the Live Broadcast was the use of camera movement, during the location Live Broadcast section. It was shot handheld which is a common convention for Live News Broadcasts and is something that we will follow, however the movement feels quite shaky at times and pans feel a little rapid which could be distorting for a viewer. There are also moments where the camera zooms in on the contributor and then slightly zooms out, and then in again. I found this distracting and even disorientating at times as it took me away from the news and made me think about the camera movement. When researching, I found that "the shot should begin with the camera steady, then pan and rest at the end of movement." (Boyd, 2020:296) This made me feel a little worried that we could have the same issue as Good Morning Britain due to it being Live News and being filmed under timing constrictions, despite this I would like our camera to move smoothly so that it is not distracting for our audience. As Producer, I have scheduled an extra hour before we are due to film on the Live Broadcast shoot day so that our DoP George can have a basic idea of where he will be filming and the sort of movements that he will use in order to prevent any shaky or fast camera movements.
What has already influenced our Broadcast:
The main ways that this Live Broadcast will impact our Live Broadcast is through the use of multiple graphics on the the frame at once that reflect the brand. Watching this broadcast has inspired me to create a 'live' news sign that will stand out to the audience but also using TTV's style colours of blue, grey and yellow to make it recognisable to an audience. Using graphics in the frame will also follow a convention of News channels as "News Graphics illustrate ideas" (Orlebar, 2009:109) on screen and to make things engaging for our viewers.
Another thing that I will take from watching this Live Broadcast is the flow of it, the link between the studio presenter led segment to main body of the live at the school is very smooth due to the presenters introducing the story to the viewer. This is definitely something that we are going to do in our live broadcast as I would like it to feel very smooth so that the audience can focus entirely on the news and not be distracted by it feeling choppy or separated.
Finally, I would like our News piece to have a good and equal representation through our contributors in all of our News videos that we will produce. This is because this Live Broadcast only had white contributors and it felt very odd that there were no other ethnicities featured. This is something that I will do my best to avoid in both our Live Broadcast and News Package as I would like to represent as many people as possible.
In conclusion, this Live News Broadcast was very relevant to our Live News segment due to it featuring students and managing to interview them live during the pandemic, which is something that we wish to do. It has heavily influenced our broadcast by seeing aspects that work well that we would like to try, but also through seeings things that I would like to avoid and do differently in our Broadcast.
List of Illustrations:
Fig. 1 Emmerson, S. (2020) The Branding in the frame. [Screenshot] In possession of: the author: Kent.
Fig. 2 Emmerson, S. (2020) The presenter introductions. [Screenshot] In possession of: the author: Kent.
Fig. 3 Emmerson, S. (2020) The lack of representation. [Screenshot] In possession of: the author: Kent.
Bibliography:
Students Open Their A-Level Results Live on GMB [television news programme online] Pres. Rickitt. ITV (2020) 4 minutes 20 seconds At: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSrSUT0oEG0 (Accessed on 17.11.2020)
Boyd, A (2008) Broadcast Journalism: Techniques of Radio and Television News. [online] At: https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ucreative-ebooks/reader.action?docID=1074583 (Accessed on 24.11.2020)
Graham-Holm, N (2012) Fascination: Viewer Friendly TV Journalism. [online] At: https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ucreative-ebooks/reader.action?docID=858735 (Accessed on 24.11.2020)
Orlebar, J. (2009) Broadcast Journalism: A Critical Introduction. [online] At: https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ucreative-ebooks/reader.action?docID=362312 (Accessed on 23.11.2020)
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