Media Studies Coursework Assignment
Television News
1) In the main national news it starts off with the intro with sound and pictures but in the local news they start it off sitting behind the desk introducing the show. The national news’s stories are all big and serious all the way through but the local news starts off with maybe a couple of serious items and then moves on to more of success stories within the region. To a lot of people the local news is just as, or more important to them as the national news. This is because people like to know about where they live and what is happening in there area. In the local news they use more interviews with people at the scene, but in the national news they tend to use reporters saying about the story using phrases like ‘One man at the scene said’. Both the national and the local news use key elements in their shows, both of the news programs use one of the most important elements live coverage from the scene. Local news uses more of live coverage than the national news because it is easier to do that in a local area than on a national scale. The national news uses a lot more graphics than the local news and by using the graphics they bring the story to life. Another element that both programs use is still photographs, these are used to show people places. Interviews with people are used on both programs but in different ways, on the national news they only really use them for the headlining stories but the local news uses them for more touching stories. The presenters on the local news are more friendly people who try and talk to you personally rather than the national news where they are talking to a nation. Both of the programs end with a general round up of the headlines. The target audience for the national show is working and middle class and the target audience for the local news is really anyone in the local area because there are not many variations of the local news unlike the many channels, which broadcast national news.
