ZeePedia

COMPARISON AND CONTRAST OF DIFFERENT RADIO AND TV FORMATS:TV NEWS

<< BUDGET:First Part, Second Part, Third Part, The Sponsors
CURRENT AFFAIRS – FROM RADIO TO TV:Seminars, Interviews >>
img
Introduction to Broadcasting ­ MCM 411
VU
LESSON 35
COMPARISON AND CONTRAST OF DIFFERENT RADIO AND TV FORMATS
With the change in broadcast from radio to television, there have been changes in the
program designs as well. The changes are visible in any program of similar nature produced
separately for radio and TV.
But we will examine only news and current affairs in two sessions to mark the changes.
TV NEWS
In previous chapters we have been talking about the importance of different broadcasting
products, NEWS perhaps is considered the most important of all. There are broadcasting
channels ­ both radio and TV, which now specialize in entertainment or sports etc, but still if
something extraordinary occurs anywhere in the world they prefer to stop regular programs
and broadcast the breaking news. Even if they do not disturb their regular transmission, they
run a ticker at the bottom of the screen, and the attention of the viewers is obviously turn to it.
At a radio or TV station you would usually come across people asking each other what is the
latest news, instead of asking about other entertainment articles.
Over the years news items have been categorized in many ways to channel those for proper
placement and editing before putting those on the content sheet according to their importance.
Selecting news for TV broadcast is, however, different in many ways from news selection for a
radio station.
Here we shall see various forms of news and the treatment given to those at the newsroom of
a standard TV broadcasting house.
Division of News
A newsroom faces problem of plenty as far as news is concerned. Tens of thousands of news
items from across the world continue to pour at the desk of the news editor. Sorting out these
items is a challenging task itself. Over the years practice of dealing with such a situation has
helped in putting these news in particular columns to make the task easier somewhat.
The news division is done in different manners for newspapers, radio and television.
In the following paragraphs we shall examine in a broad way the news are divided for TV
broadcast;
·
National
·
Regional
·
International
101
img
Introduction to Broadcasting ­ MCM 411
VU
National
Every TV channel, without fail is more concerned about the changes or developments taking
place at the national level and which interest general public of that country.
Generally political developments take priority over other news for they matter the most in the
public life. Scandals and scams of mega nature always remain high on the news agenda. The
inter-state, or inter-provincial matters, central government policies, budgets, import/export
regulations, interest rate on banks' borrowing and lending also draw lot of attention of the
newsroom.
Some local developments at big cities along with sports news, particular of games a country
excels in, also catch the limelight. Similarly national events and melas (shows) are not
supposed to be overlooked by the editors at the newsroom.
Regional
In recent years channels have developed a special interest in airing news from the regions
which have emerged so prominently for economic and political reasons. Like North America,
European union, ASEAN, Middle east, Central Asia and for us, the South Asia.
Now, if two similar developments take place in North American region and South Asian region,
channels in this part of the world will give preference to report in this region. The same
behavior in news reporting by channels belonging to other regions has also been markedly
noticed. In fact, channels these days struggle to get regional news to fill this column.
International
So much activities go on across the globe that a channel in its formal newsreel can't afford to
overlook reporting those developments like the events at the United Nations or a G-8
countries meeting, a WTO stormy session to settle terms for the global trade ­ concern of all,
breaking out of war between two countries or a peace treaty signed on a long dispute between
to sovereign states. Hijacking or crashing of a passenger plane or any subversive acts
involving countries also feature prominently in short-listing news for the coming hour!
Second Method
News are sorted out also according to another method of placing those under well defined
heads.
Some of the heads are as follow:
Politics
Finance
102
img
Introduction to Broadcasting ­ MCM 411
VU
Crime
Development (schemes)
Health
Tourism
Education
Women & children
Entertainment (showbiz)
Sports
Weather
Placement on Newsreel
Toughest of all is the selection and placement of news on newsreel. A news editor is said to
grow faster than others only for the nature of job he/ she has to perform in the selection and
placement of news in various news bulletin.
A newsreel of, say, ten minutes can accommodate about 35 to 40 news items. Number of
available items is 2000 or more!!!
Since its not one man show, a team of news editor, assistant editors and sub editors continue
to sort the incoming news and shortlist for the bulletins at different hours.
The most practiced way of placing the news item in the main bulletin is to judge their
importance above the consideration of local, national or regional bias and at the same time
not compromising on the matter of proximity. The whole list is formed this way.
It is obvious that every bulletin leaves much to be desired.
Footage
At times selection of news is also preferred because of the availability of footage against a
news item of ordinary importance whose footage is not at hand.
Sometimes a news is broadcast mainly because the footage available is interesting, as of
football matches or some accident etc.
Policies
TV channels also have certain policies - what to report and how much, and what not to report
­ just in line with the personal, commercial or national interests. This also causes a different
attitude in the selection and placement of news.
Embarrassment
Things are not always as simple as put here. Since TV is a strong medium, many wish to be
reported in newsreels. All can't be accommodated. It puts the newsroom in a very awkward
situation.
103
Table of Contents:
  1. BROADCASTING:Historical Facts about Radio, Wireless and Radio
  2. CLASSIFICATION OF PROGRAMS:NEWS, Language, Sensationalizing
  3. CURRENT AFFAIRS:Talk Shows, Discussions, Seminars, Live Shows
  4. OUTDOOR BROADCASTING I:VIP Movement, Suddenly Assigned Events
  5. OUTDOOR BROADCASTING II:Pakistan Day March Past, General Elections
  6. CURTAIN RAISER:Political, Financial, Sports, Academics
  7. RADIO FEATURE:Personality Features, Features on Events
  8. MUSICAL PROGRAMS:Classical Music, Light and Film Music, Folk Music
  9. RADIO DOCUMENTARY:Narrative, Dramatized, Imagination, Close to places
  10. DISC JOCKEY:Women in Focus, Daily/ Weekly Division, Making Titles
  11. VOICE IN BROADCASTING:Speech, Accent, Loudness, Stress
  12. NOISE:Physical, Medium itself, Problem at sender’s end, Semantics
  13. STUDIO:Drama Studio, Studios for Talk Shows/ Discussions, Music Studios,
  14. RADIO DRAMA I:Stage Dramas, Early Radio Dramas, Ethics, Classification
  15. RADIO DRAMA II:Selection of director, The Playwrights, Script, Voices
  16. ADVERTISEMENT – INCOME GENERATION:Similarities, More Analysis
  17. ADVERTISERS’ APPROACH:Dramatized, Dialogue based, News
  18. FM – A NEW GENERATION IN BROADCASTING:Low Cost, The Difference
  19. MICROPHONE TO TRANSMITTER:Amplifiers, Modulator, Transmitter
  20. WRITING SCRIPT FOR RADIO BROADCAST:NEWS Script, Interviews
  21. INTERACTIVE BROADCASTING:On-line, E-mails, Interview, Views in News
  22. REVISION:CURRENT AFFAIRS, RADIO FEATURE, MUSICAL PROGRAMS
  23. HISTORY OF TELEVISION:Early History, The Black & White Images, Color Television
  24. PAKISTAN TELEVISION (PTV):The Excitement, Timing, Live Broadcast
  25. BROADCASTING LAWS:Laws in the 19th century, Press Council of Pakistan
  26. REPLICAS OF RADIO BROADCAST:The Staff, News Reading, Programming
  27. NEW SCRIPT WRITING AND DIRECTION TECHNIQUES:TV Script
  28. SETS:Permanent Sets, Hot & Cover Sets, Special Sets, Economical
  29. CAMERA SHOTS – THE VISUAL LANGUAGE:Angle Shots, Movement shots
  30. LIGHTS IN VISUAL BROADCASTING:Light Temperature, Light and Distance
  31. INTERIOR AND EXTERIOR:NEWS and Interviews, Dramas and Music
  32. BROADCASTING AND MEDIA IMPERIALISM:The truth in the debate
  33. ENVIRONMENT OF TV BROADCAST:Optical Illusions, POV, Depth of Field
  34. BUDGET:First Part, Second Part, Third Part, The Sponsors
  35. COMPARISON AND CONTRAST OF DIFFERENT RADIO AND TV FORMATS:TV NEWS
  36. CURRENT AFFAIRS – FROM RADIO TO TV:Seminars, Interviews
  37. PRE-PRODUCTION:Brain Storming, Scripting a new program, Approval
  38. PRODUCTION & POST-PRODUCTION:Booking Shifts, Rehearsals
  39. TV ADVERTISEMENTS – MONEY WITH ENTERTAINMENT:Early Phase, Getting Spots
  40. ENIGMA OF MORE CHANNELS:The Investment, Fresh Ideas, Closure of channels
  41. ANCHORPERSON:Appearance and Confidence, Job Opportunities
  42. COMPARISON BETWEEN RADIO AND TV BROADCAST:The Difference, Script
  43. TERRESTRIAL TO SATELLITE TO CABLE TV:Cable Network, CD Channels
  44. CAREER IN BROADCASTING:Production, Direction, Lighting Director, Script Writer
  45. REVISION (LESSON 23 TO 44):Broadcasting Laws, PEMRA, Budget