Teaching television news in citizenship

Key Stage 3

The sample unit of work for Key Stage 3 consists of four lessons. To begin with students analyse the style of different news programmes; they then go on to plan a news feature using a particular programme style; finally they create their own news feature.

Television news - Key Stage 3 lesson plans (PDF, 73kb)

Key Stage 4

The sample unit of work for Key Stage 4 consists of two lessons. Ideally students will have done some work on television news previously. If not, you can start by adapting and using the unit of work for Key Stage 3. In this unit of work, students will examine to what extent news programmes are able to maintain impartiality.

Television news - Key Stage 4 lesson plans (PDF, 76kb)

• Worksheet 1: Research guidelines (PDF, 52kb)
• Worksheet 2: Breaking news (PDF, 55kb)
• Worksheet 3: Create a poster (PDF, 48kb)
• Worksheet 4: News stories (PDF, 53kb)

Background

For the majority of people in this country, television is the main source of news. The history of TV news is linked with the history of PSB. See What is public service broadcasting?

The Broadcasting Act of 1990 states that the broadcaster must observe 'due impartiality' in conveying political issues. Until recently, broadcasting was regulated by the Broadcasting Standards Commission, the Broadcasting Complaints Commission and the Independent Television Commission. It was the job of these bodies to monitor broadcasts, including television news, and ensure they were: in good taste; reflected a variety of interests and opinions; were politically impartial. Since 2003, the job has been done by OFCOM. See What is Ofcom's role?

How the news is made

Television news producers get their news from:

• News agencies
• Press releases
• Press conferences
• The programme's correspondents
• Public relations agents
• The internet
• Institutions such as the monarchy, trade unions, NHS, Parliament, spin doctors, trials, newspapers, official leaks etc.

There are four specialist and International TV news agencies: Reuters TV; APTN (Associated Press Television News, formed from a merger in 1998 of Associated Press TV and Worldwide Television News WTN); BBC News and ITN (owned by a consortium which included Carlton, the Daily Mail, Granada, Reuters, United Business Media.) These organisations sell their news stories to news producers. Each agency has its own reporters, photographers, and broadcast crews, and distributes both news footage which needs editing and complete news reports that are ready for transmission.

News producers, when they get their news, have to make decisions about which stories to include in the news programme; they must select and prioritise the stories; this is called the news agenda. If a story does not fit into their news agenda it will not be reported.

Decisions are influenced by ratings and audience figures - the channels compete with each other to attract the biggest audience and in order to do so must appear authoritative and trustworthy, as well as interesting and informative. News stories tend to be divided into two broad categories, 'hard news' and 'soft news'. Hard news includes politics, foreign affairs, home/national affairs, economy and disasters. Soft news is entertainment, sport and human-interest stories. A news producer tries to achieve a balance between these in a news programme.

A news programme lasts a specific length of time so can cover only a selection of all the possible news stories in a day. In television news, a story is given more prominence if there is visual footage available (the visual imperative). A story tends to get media attention if it involves conflict (the war in Iraq); community hardship and danger (eg flooding in Britain); the unusual (the tsunami in SE Asia, Hurricane Katrina); scandal (Michael Jackson's trial); a flamboyant or controversial individual (Kilroy-Silk). In special circumstances the news is allowed to overrun: the Tsunami on Boxing Day 2004; the announcement of the marriage of Charles and Camilla Parker-Bowles.

Producers of a programme, such as The Six O'Clock News or News at Ten, prepare it in advance. At the beginning of the day, they have to identify the key news stories and hold an editorial conference where they construct a draft running order. They can add new developments and unexpected events during the day, as necessary.

They then assign news stories and brief reporters and researchers. The producer meets the editors through the course of the day to discuss stories, decide on the running order and the length of time to be given to each story.

Each main news story could involve:

• A crew being sent out to gather the news;
• Organisation of graphics and studio;
• Editors and sub-editors writing up the story;
• Library researchers finding footage to help illustrate the story;
• Tape editors who produce a 'package' of items from that day's recordings and footage.
• News presenters prepare and rehearse the scripts.

The usual pattern is that during the course of the day the delivery and processing of stories takes place; the running order is decided upon; sub-editors write final scripts; the programme is rehearsed and a final selection made; the script is typed up on autocue and video images are cued up. The live transmission is then ready. However, the planned news programme can be subject to change at any time, depending on what happens during the day, so the final running order may be quite different from the one planned at the beginning of the day.

Live transmission is controlled by the programme editor and the studio director who may lengthen or shorten items during transmission. The crew includes:

• The vision mixer who deals with all the visual sources (studio, outside broadcast, adverts and videotapes);
• The vision engineer who oversees lighting, autocue and cameras;
• The sound mixer;
• The production assistant who checks the time and ensures the programme does not run over time.

For more information about the News programmes of each of the channels go to TVArk and click on 'News' in the list of 'Genres'.