"How does News At Ten present the events of the day?"

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Saniyya Abrahams 11 Wilson

Media Coursework.

“How does News At Ten present the events of the day?”

In this essay an analysis will be made of a news program that was shown on Thursday 10th January 2002, and the way the news programme has become a source of entertainment instead of being an informative, serious programme.

ITN produces ‘News At Ten’ but it also controls the news programmes on Channel Four and Channel Five, as well as other smaller companies. ITN is a powerful medium, as it doesn’t only broadcast in the UK it broadcasts in many other countries around the world.

The beginning of ‘News at Ten’ can be seen as pure entertainment because of the theme music, which is loud, strong and powerful. At the same time the sound of Big Ben chiming can be heard. This adds to the boldness of the music and makes it entertaining.  Graphics are shown at the same time using primary colours such as red and blue to make the viewers think that the programme they are about to watch is a serious news programme. Headlines are heard in between the loud chiming of the clock. The headlines are all about domestic issues to make the viewers interested and because they are often able to get images straight away to support such stories.  A voice-over is then heard which introduces the presenter and the camera zooms into the presenter until it is focused on his face. The presenter looks as if he is in his fifties; he is black and smartly dressed. The effects of this are that viewers will believe what the newsreader is saying.  They are relying on the newsreader to give them reliable information. The image of the presenter is important because the viewers have to believe what the newsreader is telling them so he must be credible as Neil Postman says.

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“You would first choose a cast of players, each of whom has a face that is both “likeable and “credible”…” This tells us that Neil Postman thinks if viewers are to believe what the newsreader is telling them then the newsreader has to be presentable and believable.

All these features are not really necessary for a serious news programme. Whilst the producers are trying to convey a serious and credible tone, they also want to hold the viewers’ interest by using features of entertainment programmes.

Three different news stories that appeared in the programme are going to ...

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