“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 be analysed. Firstly I am going to look at the item about Rioting in Northern Ireland. This is a hard news item as it has a lasting significance on the rest of the UK. This is also a hard news item because it is a story that will have further repercussions. The news item is introduced with a photo of a blazing car with a caption underneath which reads, ‘School Attacks’. The newsreader starts telling the audience that there had been more rioting in Belfast the previous night between the Nationalists and the Loyalists. Rioters had attacked the police with stones and petrol bombs, which had resulted in injuring forty- eight police officers. We are shown lots of images of blazing cars, missiles being thrown, children crying, a school and armoured vehicles. The intended effect of this is to make it emotive and tense. Images are used to punctuate the script to make it entertaining and keep the viewers interested.
The effect of having some of the script in the present tense is to make it tense and frightening. The script is also in the present tense to make it seem as if it is still happening now, as people will wonder what will happen next. Members of the public are interviewed to create a tense atmosphere for the audience and again because they are emotive. The producer chooses to interview the public rather than officials because it makes the story more emotive and entertaining. The story is more entertaining than it is serious because there were more images and the audience were not given enough information about what happened. This news item could have been more serious by giving the viewers more information and explaining terms that they would not understand for example they could have told us who the Nationalists and Loyalists were.
The next story is Mark Farnham’s trial. It is a soft news item because it is prurient news but it is fast news at the same time because it is not a story that will be in the news for very long. It has been included in this programme only for the interest of the audience. The news item is introduced with an image of Mark Farnham and a caption saying ‘Murder Trial’. Having his head bowed in the image give the reader the impression that he is full of guilt.
The newsreader starts telling the audience that a teacher was accused of battering his wife to death after finding out that he was having an affair with another teacher. Then the newsreader tells us that he admits to repeatedly hitting his wife with an iron bar but he denies murder. We are also shown images of Mark Farnham being held in handcuffs by the police. We are shown images of the couple in a pantomime, the school the couples house and finally the crown court. The intended effects of these images are to make it entertaining, as people do not want to listen for a long time without seeing any images. The images shown are not informative but are used only to punctuate the script.
Mark Farnham is referred to in the item as ‘Farnham’ rather than Mr Farnham or Mark Farnham to imply disrespect. Gillian Farnham is referred to by her first name to make the address seem more personal and to emphasise that she is a victim. However she had something to do with what happened because she had an affair with another teacher. Mr Philip Katz is a policeman who is defending Gillian at the trial. He is important because he is referred to in the item as Mr Philip Katz so he is respected as much as gillian. This news item was covered differently from the Belfast story because this news item had a clearer introduction as to what happened, the viewers were given more information. However the Murder trial story had more images, which were not important and irrelevant. This has not been presented as a serious news item.
The final story I am going to look at is the ‘and finally…’ story about the common cold. An ‘and finally…’ news story usually comes at the very end of a news programme to ‘comfort’ or ‘cheer up’ the viewers. This is really a hard news story because of the number of people that have been affected by the common cold this winter but it is presented as a soft news item to the audience. This is a fast news item because it won’t keep coming back on the news like the Northern Ireland story. This news item was introduced with a photo of a man sneezing and a caption saying ‘Common Cold’
The newsreader says that it is approaching peak season for the common cold and Nine million of us are said to have one just about now. We are shown images of people in chemist shops, people sneezing, and people from the Common Cold Centre and scientists who talked about people purchasing remedies. The images are irrelevant and are only used to punctuate the script although they are not useful to the audience. We can tell that this item is not entirely serious and it is used mainly for the interest of the audience because they know that a lot of people would are likely to catch a cold at this time of the year because it is winter.
This news item is covered differently from the Belfast and Farnham’s Murder Trial stories because the Common Cold story is only used mostly to keep the audience engaged in the programme. This story focused on a more economic issue and none of the graphics, which were used, were relevant to the story.
Having analysed the programme, The News At Ten has presented the events of the day as an entertaining programme for its audience throughout the program from the beginning to the very end. At the beginning the viewers are shown graphics, when the chiming of Big Ben and the headlines were heard at the same time. When the news was read out, each story had a lot of pictures for the audience to see was only used to punctuate the script this was all pure entertainment. Because all these images were irrelevant and not necessary so they were only used to punctuate the script.