AS Media Studies

Broadcasting

Create the opening sequence for a new current affairs programme to be screened on Channel 4 at 6.30pm aimed at the 16–21 age demographic.

Print

Create the front pages for two new middle-market blacktop newspapers, each with a different gender bias.

E-media

Create three web pages of an internet site dealing with current affairs aimed at women under the age of 30.

You have to choose two out of these three options. You might choose the broadcasting option and the web page option as they can be directly related but for a different audience.

Codes and Conventions

Current affairs programme are like documentaries, but more varied in format often involving opinion, comment and discussion.

• There is a presenter or reporter
• Facts and figures are important — this means statistics. Use them if you can as it gives credibility to a programme.
• What broadcasters like to call real people are often involved — this means people like you and your family and friends who have a point of view about an issue, or who have experienced something that the programme is about — been offered drugs outside school for example.
• Undercover reporting is a useful tool, and a convention of this genre
• In terms of filming: the piece to camera (PTC) is a convention of this genre, and the close up is used for emotional effect.
• Another code that can be used is the hand held camera.
• Murky locations and low natural lighting are preferred to studio set ups — this increases the sense of realism.
• LThe opening sequence can be a dramatic introduction to the topic enticing the viewer into the programme with some visceral filming which might include suggested violence or crime.

This genre of current affairs is interpreted slightly differently on each channel. C4 has a faster pace to its programmes and looks at different issues to the BBC. Make sure you know which channel your programme is aimed at.

Preproduction and Research

Look at the opening sequences of as many programmes as you can. This new TV programme is aimed at your age group, aged 16–21, so it must be attractive to you. It will probably need an attractive presenter figure — male or female — and an interesting topic — you choose the topic. Some current affairs programmes go in for undercover reporting. It could be exciting to make the opening of one of these type of programmes.

It is very difficult to actually film ‘real’ violence or a ‘real’ crime taking place. You cannot use drama unless you call it — on screen — a reconstruction and this is permissible. You could stage a crime, label it a reconstruction and then the programme will discuss why these type of crimes take place with people who have been affected by them — say muggings.

An opening sequence is usually under 2 minutes in length and certainly no more than 2 minutes 30 seconds. Make a list of the ingredients that you will need.

For a current affairs programme about a new date rape drug that has hit the clubs and pubs in your area you will need:

• Presenter in a location such as a high street
• People talking about the new drug aimed at teenagers
• Two people who say they have been offered the drug
• Shots of a leafy street where the teenagers say they were offered the drugs in broad daylight.
• Graphics with opening titles and topic of the week — this is usually done in editing.

Research

Write done what you intend this programme to do overall, and how it will do it, and then what you intend your opening sequence to do and how you are going to do it.

• Draw a storyboard
• For the website you will need to study how current affairs websites tell the stories for a target audience — usually by content and topic. So your web pages might feature stories that are of interest to women under 30 — what are these likely to be — the topic of fashion for example is likely to interest more women than men. Current affairs does deal in stories about fashion which have a newsy edge — the launch of a major clothes line is less likely than a story about size zero models.

• In this picture a size 0 model is being interviewed in a TV studio — which one is the model?

Production

• You will need to write a script for your presenter to say as a PTC — this is a piece to camera. It means the presenter has to write down what to say, learn it and then deliver the lines directly to the camera. This is a convention of current affairs programmes
• Set up locations and interviewees. What are they going to say?
• Remember to shoot in a quiet place and not next to a main road, otherwise you will not be able to hear what your interviewees say. Put the mic very close to their mouths to get the best sound
• Get several different shot sizes of the area and the location as cutaways.
• Use Big Close Ups of the interviewees, as this is the media language that is often used in current affairs programmes.
• Take digital still pictures for the website
• Arrange a shooting schedule that leaves you plenty of time to edit
• You will need to put opening titles on at the edit. Choose a font and style suitable for the genre and target audience.