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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
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Introduction
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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
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Introduction
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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.
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