The studio is fairly small. There is a slightly raised platform that has a silver coffee table in the centre and three small separate pieces of furniture that are joined together like a jigsaw that make a long sofa. Each piece is a different colour, green, blue and pink (theme colours), a laptop is placed on one of these. The platform appears to be at an angle; however this may be due to how the camera has been angled. This might have been done to not give the impression to the targeted audience that not everything has to be in order and tidy.
The studio seems to have a ‘space’ like theme. You can see a bit of the ceiling, however as the ceiling is black with some lights on show, it is this that gives the space theme. The night sky with stars and behind the sofa on either side there are two huge screens. On one of these screens there is a Newsround logo that moves slowly from screen to screen that gives the feel that the earth is moving.
The presenter is standing in front of the raised platform slightly to the right and is not directly centre of our screens. She is standing quiet casually, holding a few pieces of paper in her hands.
She is a white woman called ‘Ellie’. Her name has probably been shortened as this wouldn’t happen on a very formal news broadcast. But as this is informal and targeted at a much younger audience it helps them relax more, communicate better and listen to her more. She is around 25-28 years old. She is dressed quiet smart and isn’t too casual. She wears a black dress above the knee, black tights, heels, beige cardigan, white vest top, hoped earrings and long beads. Her hair is loosely tied back and her make-up is simple and doesn’t appear to look too dramatic and ‘caked’ up as some women news reporters can look at times.
With Ellie dressed like this and the way she is presenting herself as a whole by the way she is standing, she is welcoming audiences to listen and learn about today’s ‘going ons’ in a fun and interesting way, and not making it seem like they have come home to feel like they are at school and have to be disciplined and in order.
This is only a ten minute programme so the pace is very fast which is very important not only to fit in all the main headlines but if it was longer the targeted audience may get bored and not be interested.
Ellie welcomes us in a polite and informal way and we get shown quick shots of two main headlines that are going to be discussed in more detail for that evening. The audience get shown a quick shot of another news reporter on location about why he is in Australia and a video clip (library footage of a random person) playing piles of money into a briefcase, while this second clip is shown the main presenter explains quickly what this story is going to be about. The themed music quietly plays in the background and when the second headline is shown the music becomes slightly louder and as it finishes the music comes to a conclusion and finishes. This is all happening very quickly, it is fluent and very fast paced with no pauses. This helps keep the audience interested because they would want to find out more and hear the whole story, like why is the news reporter in Australia?
We are now back in the studio, the music has finished and the camera has now slowly moved over and placed the presenter to the far right of out screens. On one of the main screens in the background there is library footage of Steve Irwin in action with what he is best known for before he died. Music begins to quietly play in the background again and an animated world map is shown on our screens to show where about Australia is. The news reporter on location explains briefly what has happened, showing footage of the memorial service. Interviews with children are shown about the memorial service. This is also very important to have to show children’s point of views of what has happened and how they are feeling as children’s views can be ignored on most other news broadcasts where mainly only adults are interviewed.
As this is a sad news story, they don’t focus on the emotional points they how funny footage that had happened in the service with Irwin’s daughter and his pet elephants.
This news report isn’t obviously live as time is very strict and has to be pre-recorded and edited a lot to fit in with all the other stories to last only ten minutes.
There isn’t a hand off back to the studio sentence as this mainly happens when the reporters are live but this has been pre-recorded so the camera goes straight back to the studio with the main presenter talking straight away about blog entries by the reporter in Australia about hat particular story and the viewers views on it. On one the main screens that can be seen by the camera, the web site address is shown in an animated text.
The theme tune begins practically straight away and the logo appears quickly into the centre of our screens and wipes across to present more of today’s stories.
These stories only last about 10 seconds long and are like quick ‘news flashes’. They are stories that are less important and are softer and are less important in the world, ‘Space shuttle back to earth safely, Kate Moss designs a range of clothes for Topshop and a happy end for chimpanzees who were kidnapped from a zoo and smuggled into another country were found safe and sound.’ When these short stories are quickly told there is a timer feel to the music and the presenter’s voice is said over the video clips.
The next main headline is long and a more serious tone of voice is used and the music has completely stopped. The presenter is now on the left side our screens and on one of the screens animated clips are shown of a football pitch with piles of only piling onto it. This story is told by a Sportsround reporter and library footage of Sam Allardyce is shown in action with the reporter talking over it. To help the audience understand better animation is used to explain step-by-step on what has actually happened. This is really helpful for much younger audiences and also at the bottom of the screen bullet points are shown explaining the story in an easy and short form.
Again, there isn’t a hand of back to the studio as this wasn’t a live story either. Ellie is now sitting down on the sofa pretending to read a book and as if she has been interrupted begins t talk about a book competition for press packers. Another reporter, Leezo explains the competition and comments on all the different genre of books there is. Leezo is very enthusiastic and as he explains the different genres he dresses up and performs them with different music placed for each one, e.g. comedy, romance, mystery. This can be seen funny and keeps children interested and wanting to find out more about the competition. Details are shown on screen in an animated form yet again and clips of the prizes that can be won are also shown which makes the views even more enthusiastic about the competition.
The final image of Leezo dissolves back to Ellie in the studio and now the camera is at a bird’s eye view angle. Ellie keeps eye contact with the camera as it lowers down and shows a medium shot of her.
The news broadcast is now being drawn to a close. The final stories are much softer which are important for younger audiences so they don’t worry about all the problems in the world and for the programme ending on a positive note, especially with a competition ending the programme, for most viewers their enthusiasm is focused on this leaving everyone in a positive mood.
Ellie says goodbye and the music begin, the lights are dimmed, a long shot of the studio is shown with the presenter reading through her papers in her hands and the Newsround logo wipes in to the centre of the screen.
