Analyse, review and comment of North West Tonight, 6.30pm.

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Ruth Greig

Mrs Cole

Media Assignment

Analyse, review and comment of North West Tonight, 6.30pm.

        Television news has grown over the last forty years and news programmes are now among the most popular television programmes. Newspaper sales are decreasing and people are getting most of their news from the television. This may be because people feel they can trust the TV more as there as pictures to back up the stories and build up a relationship with presenters and feel they can trust what they say to be true.

The BBC was first established on October 18th 1922 by John Reith. It broadcasts a wide selection of programmes including, soaps, documentaries, cartoons and news broadcasts. North West Tonight is a regional news programme from the BBC providing local news for people in the North West of England. It attracts more viewers than its rival services and has won national awards. The people at North West Tonight believe that their success is thanks to their knowledge of the events that really matter to the people in the region.    

        There are reporters and studios in Greater Manchester, Lancashire, Merseyside and Cheshire. The main studio, however, is in the heart of Manchester. It takes a lot of work to create the final North West Tonight programme, including help from camera crews, floor managers, directors and sound and lighting experts.

The main part of the programme is filmed in the studio using mainly eye level camera angles on the newsreader.  At the start of the programme, there is a high angle shot of the studio, followed by a still, eye level shot of the presenter, Gordon Burns. An eye level shot is fairly neutral and so helps the viewer to concentrate on what the presenter is saying rather than what he is doing.

During the weather forecast, the presenter is standing next to a large screen and so a long shot is needed. A Colour Separation Overlay (CSO) is used for the weather forecast. This is when the presenter stands in front of a solid colour screen and a generated image is produced for what we see on the television. For the CSO to give the desired effect there needs to be a considerable amount of lighting to ensure an even colour screen. We can see this in the North West Tonight studio as there are several overhead lights as well as the main studio lights.

A long shot is also used for the sport news as the presenter is also standing, next to a screen. During many of the outside reports, there are other camera techniques used including tracking shots, pans, hand held shots and zoom lenses. Each shot creates a different effect and guides the audiences’ judgement about the person or object in the shot. During one report, there are a considerable amount of hand held camera shots. We can see this because there is a jerky effect. This is used in the second report about a boy receiving the George Cross. Using this camera technique allows the cameraman to move in and out of scenes and further into the action.

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The presenters use an autocue which they read their lines from. They do, however, also hold a script in their hands in case there is a technological difficulty and the autocue does not function. The outside reporters do not hold a script or use autocue, they must instead memorise their lines.

At the start of the programme there are opening title graphics played. There are shots of people doing everyday things such as walking the dog whilst the title music is played. The fact that everyday tasks are shown creates the idea that the programme is part of your ...

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