JACK O’HARA

UNIT 27: FACTUAL MEDIA PRODUCTION

ASSIGNMENT 1

Codes & Conventions TV News

Studio news readers

Studio news readers are typically the people we think about whenever we think of the news. They
are essentially the face of the broadcast and sometimes even the channel itself. They are there to
present the news to the general public in a well-spoken manner; one that will be easily understood
and engaging for as many people as possible. Their job is to be as unbiased as possible whilst also
following through with all of the laws of journalism. News presenters do their own research on the
stories that they are planning to share that evening, as well as writing the scripts for the show, too.
Sometimes, they will also be the people conducting the interviews.

Field reporters

Field reporters do a very similar job to the studio news reader with the main difference being the
fact that they do most of their visible work outside of the studio. Instead, they do most of their work
in the field, on different sets and sometimes right in the middle of the action. Their work can span to
different places all over the world including live sporting events, outside different political or
governmental buildings and sometimes, at the most extreme, active war zones! Just like the studio
news reporters, field reporters have to do all of their own research and make their own scripts while
also being unbiased and following the laws of journalism. A lot of the time, these field reports are
recorded ahead of time and are segmented throughout the news broadcast as a way of breaking up
different stories, allowing the studio news readers to take a quick break.
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UNIT 27: FACTUAL MEDIA PRODUCTION
ASSIGNMENT 1

Links to studio

Links to another studio happens whenever the network feels as if the viewer could get bored of a
certain topic or presenter quickly. Typically, they will cut to another feed with one or more new
presenters, allowing them to have their own say on the matter. Most of the time, there will be a
slightly conflicting opinion, which means the viewer is more likely to get more invested in the topic.

Mode of address to viewer

Mode of address is whenever the artform or medium you are consuming speaks to you directly. In a
news report, this happens whenever the studio news reporter or the field reporter looks directly
into the camera when they are dealing with serious and important subject matters. A lot of news
programming does this to make the viewer feel personally addressed when it comes to these
subjects. This is done with a few specific things in mind, a few being the fact that the reader never
usually has a distinct accent, they talk directly to the camera and they will always announce a new
topic of discussion as soon as it comes along.

Interviewing
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UNIT 27: FACTUAL MEDIA PRODUCTION
ASSIGNMENT 1
News shows will often include different interviews with different experts in their fields or people
who are related to whatever topic they are talking about. An example of this would be a doctor in a
hospital ward for COVID-19 or a family member of a person who committed a crime. Interviews like
these are usually added to add more substance to the story or topic they are talking about and are
also used to break up and segment the studio presenter’s reading, meaning that they get a break
and the viewers get somebody new to listen to which will hopefully keep their attention.

Experts and witnesses

Experts and witnesses follow along very closely with interviewing. They are brought into the show to
give the viewers a new opinion to follow, often giving more insight into the story or topic they are
talking about because they have extensive experience in that topic or they were a witness to a
crime, meaning they can give their full statement. These are particularly useful as they can be more
personality based than the actual news report itself.

Report structure

Every news broadcast will have a

report structure that they follow on a
weekly basis. It is usually formatted in a pyramid structure, meaning that the most important story
of the day will be the first topic to come, followed by the second and third news stories. The cycle
will continue until the news broadcast is over. However, an anomaly to this structure is major
breaking news. If something that the news reporters deem as very important breaking news, they
will make sure that it is the next news story on the program, usually live from the scene of the topic.
An example of this would be a major death or act of violence. The codes and conventions that go
into a news report structure are piece to camera, cutaways, voice overs, interviews with experts or
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UNIT 27: FACTUAL MEDIA PRODUCTION
ASSIGNMENT 1
witnesses, vox pops with the public, graphic art and charts of data statistics along with a final
summary of the program.

Actuality footage

Actuality footage is footage that has been shot by bystanders of events. The footage is real and raw,
meaning that it can get pretty graphic at times. Actuality footage is usually sourced from outside of
the news broadcasting company which they have paid for or given the rights to use by the actual
source of the footage. This footage will always relate to the story or topic at hand and will be used
for cutaways during news report readings, field report readings or even interviews to give more
context towards whatever subject the speaker is talking about, giving the viewer a better visual aid
of the situation. An example of a use of actuality footage would be in the intro of the news program
for that night. Usually, they will have a countdown showing different shots of each of the different
topics they will show that night. More often than not, that is actuality footage. An example of
actuality footage would be news reporters talking about the effects of climate change while showing
footage of the wildfires of Australia or the melting of the polar ice caps filmed by bystanders.