Most news is predictable

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James Simpson                                      Media coursework 11GJ        

Media Coursework

Most news is predictable e.g. we know when the G8 summit is, and we know that the Olympics is on every 4 years. But when the unpredictable occurs such as a terrorist attack, it poses difficulties for news companies because they have to organize themselves in a very short time, in order to inform the public as swiftly as possible.

Channel 4 news is a very respectable news company because it’s very professional with how it handles news and the way it presents it self. Do you think so??

On the 7th of July a terrorist attack on London took place, Channel 4 news quotes “700 injured, 37 dead” it even disrupted the most powerful nations at the G8 summit. I am going to review and analyze the way channel 4 news covered the major news story.

The worst nightmare of a news company is going “live” on TV, when a major news story breaks the reason behind this is that there is barely any organization, they have to get the lines written for the telescripter, they have to get the camera crew and reporters at the scene/s at quick as they can and anything could go wrong.

To begin with the program jumps on the screen with an ambulance and a patient that looks to be burnt is being treated, there senior news presenter John snow has his voice playing over the video, he says “37 dead, 700 injured. In the bombing across central London (video footage of the underground taken by a mobile phone is then played) tube passengers rescued on foot from the tunnels, above ground a bus destroyed by one of the blasts”

The introduction has video footage of the above ground and some of the underground with John snow giving us a brief insight of what’s happened.

Then, there theme tune and intro movie comes on, its filled with a montage of pictures from the London attacks, and in the background it has the world map witch means that they don’t just cover what happens in the UK, they have stories from across the globe. When that finishes an interview with an eye witness appears on screen, “what I saw was a large flash that ignited the carriage, within seconds there was smoke and dust, it was like being in Hell” The last quote “It was like being in Hell” is very powerful and shows to us how traumatic the event was for this man.

Now Footage straight from the G8 summit comes on, it’s Tony Blair he makes a statement, here’s a quote from what he said “we all know what there trying to do, there trying to use the slaughter of innocent people to frighten us out of doing the thing we want to do, trying to stop us going about our business and they should not and must not succeed”.

Now, with John snow standing to the right of the screen and the picture of the destroyed bus in the background with words in capital letters written ATTACK ON LONDON. With papers in his hands he quotes “London's worst attack since the Second World War, the entire capital cities transport system, tubes, busses, roads and railways paralyzed as at no time in history. A shocking toll of dead and injured” At the moment what John snow is doing is he’s informing us on what’s happened in London (reporting), while this is going on video footage of Tony Blair in G8 comes on, like the video at the beginning. Also we see video of Usama Bin Laden walking over a rocky surface with his cane, at the same time John snow says “we are keeping an open mined on Usama Bin Laden and Al-Qaeda”. Still he speaks and now there is footage of ambulances and people walking back home on foot.

A map of central London comes onscreen, he is now doing a voice over telling us where and when the suspected bombs went off.

The first bomb went of in Liverpool street at 8:51am, 5 minutes later in between Kings cross and Russel square another goes off at 8:56am (reported 21 dead at that moment in time), the third occurs at Edgward road at 9:17am (reported 7 dead at that moment in time) and finally at Tavistock another detonates at 9:47am (2 people dead).

Next John snow informs us about the death and injured count at each hospital involved in this catastrophe, First up is the Royal London hospital witch bore the grunt of the injured with 208 patients treated and 6 in critical condition (as he says this the words appear on screen), second is the st Mary’s hospital with 36 casualties and 6 deaths, Thirdly were informed that the University College hospital is coping with 58 casualties and 9 in serious conditions and lastly the Royal Free hospital has 57 casualties and 9 admitted.

Strangely now though John snow comes up with a total injured count of 700, how did he get that some I don’t know but it’s because none of the hospitals can give out the proper number of patients they are looking after and most definitely the number will rise.

Now video footage of Ken Livingstone (Mayor of London) giving a statement quoting “whatever you do, however many you kill, you will fail”. It then cuts back to John snow in the studio, he introduces a reporter Alex Thomson before he passes over to him though he says “this report contains distressing scenes” this is because it is a live show and they are not organized enough and do not have the time to edit it, so they have to stick with what they got.

Join now!

It is now passed over to the reporter, we see ambulances, footage of people queuing in the underground filmed on a mobile phone and sent in by email to channel 4 news and that is the only video footage they have of the underground, this is because police have restricted the access down there due to the danger levels, dust smoke and to keep a clear path for the emergency services. While Alex Thomson gives his report a man that has been badly burned and is being giving CPR by a paramedic, if this were a normal event, that scene ...

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