Yesterday at University we had the pleasure of a guest lecture from Ian Anderson, recently the editor of the BBC 10 o'clock news. It was a very interesting couple of hours in which Ian analysed some news packages we had prepared earlier in the week. This seemed a terrifying prospect when we were told this and we put a lot of work into trying to make sure our package was perfect!!
All in all it went pretty well for our whole class, we got some good comments but I think the most useful thing for me was the improvement tips he gave us as a group.
There were a lot of tips on how to improve so I have just explained the one I found particularly useful. I found Ian's tips on the importance of a Piece to Camera (PTC) and how it can be used to turn a standard story towards the angle you are aiming for, most useful. For example, we did our package about University of Winchester students graduating and the possible problems they may have finding a job due to the current economic climate. Our PTC was pretty short and we didn't use it well enough to emphasise the angle of our story, and Ian recommended that we aim for longer PTC's, around 20-30 seconds long, to improve this.
I also found it very interesting to look into his career as a journalist and his rise from The Reading Evening Post, where he started, to eventually being the editor of the BBC 10 o'clock news.
I didn't take any photo's on the day so if you would like to see some of Ian looking around the TV studio at the University of Winchester and talking to students please see my friend's blog who did take some photos: http://mattcliff.blogspot.com/2009/10/university-of-winchester-welcomes-ian.html
Showing posts with label Tabloid Journalism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tabloid Journalism. Show all posts
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Friday, October 2, 2009
The Ridiculous Side to The Sun...
My last post was about The Sun's power in UK's politics with regards to who is to become the next Prime Minister of Great Britain, but today the same newspaper demonstrated and reminded me of the sort of journalism that it is regularly capable of.
For those of you with today's copy head to page 45 where the headline reads "Are we Gaydees?". Here The Sun is talking about Little Britain's David Walliams and friends posing for a photo after watching fellow Little Britain star Matt Lucas' new theatre play. The main point of this story is that the newspaper's "gay-o-meter" is detecting how homosexual these two are along with celebrity friends Mika, Graham Norton and Sir Ian Mckellen.
A little more info than just five lines about the theatre play might have been useful too!
This just adds to my surprise that the power it has over the race to Number Ten, I shouldn't really be surprised that this type of story is in The Sun, but perhaps I should stick to The Times!
For those of you without a copy of The Sun, check out the story here: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/showbiz/bizarre/2664529/Picture-that-nearly-broke-The-Suns-gay-o-meter-Matt-Lucas-and-his-mates.html
For those of you with today's copy head to page 45 where the headline reads "Are we Gaydees?". Here The Sun is talking about Little Britain's David Walliams and friends posing for a photo after watching fellow Little Britain star Matt Lucas' new theatre play. The main point of this story is that the newspaper's "gay-o-meter" is detecting how homosexual these two are along with celebrity friends Mika, Graham Norton and Sir Ian Mckellen.
A little more info than just five lines about the theatre play might have been useful too!
This just adds to my surprise that the power it has over the race to Number Ten, I shouldn't really be surprised that this type of story is in The Sun, but perhaps I should stick to The Times!
For those of you without a copy of The Sun, check out the story here: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/showbiz/bizarre/2664529/Picture-that-nearly-broke-The-Suns-gay-o-meter-Matt-Lucas-and-his-mates.html
Thursday, October 1, 2009
The Power of the Sun...
In today's lecture we were discussing today's newspapers and in particular The Sun's decision to attack the Labour government. I was aware of The Sun's power in the race to Number Ten, however I do find it strange that it is a tabloid that holds this power.
As our we discussed in the lecture, The Sun doesn't necessarily support the Conservatives instead of Labour but it does attack Labour and the performance of the Labour government over the last twelve years. So through negativity towards Labour it sways viewers towards the Conservatives.
The reason The Sun holds has this influence on the political battle in the UK is because many of the newspaper's readers aren't particularly interested in politics and therefore perhaps don't have a particular allegiance to one political party and therefore come general election day will vote the way of The Sun.
But what surprises me most is that it's the tabloid that holds the power, not the broadsheets like The Times or The Guardian, that's what interests me. I realise that most broadsheet readers read that particular paper due to their political allegiance and therefore are unlikely to be swayed by the newspaper but for a tabloid, mostly renowned for it's page three nudity, to become a key player in who becomes the Prime Minister of Great Britain is an interesting fact nonetheless.
Yesterday's article in The Sun:
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/2663087/Voters-Reds-blew-it-for-us-too.html
As our we discussed in the lecture, The Sun doesn't necessarily support the Conservatives instead of Labour but it does attack Labour and the performance of the Labour government over the last twelve years. So through negativity towards Labour it sways viewers towards the Conservatives.
The reason The Sun holds has this influence on the political battle in the UK is because many of the newspaper's readers aren't particularly interested in politics and therefore perhaps don't have a particular allegiance to one political party and therefore come general election day will vote the way of The Sun.
But what surprises me most is that it's the tabloid that holds the power, not the broadsheets like The Times or The Guardian, that's what interests me. I realise that most broadsheet readers read that particular paper due to their political allegiance and therefore are unlikely to be swayed by the newspaper but for a tabloid, mostly renowned for it's page three nudity, to become a key player in who becomes the Prime Minister of Great Britain is an interesting fact nonetheless.
Yesterday's article in The Sun:
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/2663087/Voters-Reds-blew-it-for-us-too.html
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