Thursday 23 April 2015

Channel 4 Case Study

Case Study

Channel 4 News is on at 7:00 till 7:55 in the evening. This news programme is on Monday to Friday. The show was first launched with the channel in 1982. Channel 4 News has won the International Emmy Award for News; two British Academy Television Awards. This programme is owned by Channel Four Television Corporation. The programme is produced by ITN and is presented by Jon Snow; Matt Frei; Krishnan Guru-Murthy and Cathy Newman. In the news the usually wear formal clothing such as a suit and woman in Channel 4 News wear dresses. This communicates to the audience that the News show is formal however in their Youtube channel the presenter has taken off his jacket and is acting more casually. This implies that by using Youtube, they want to capture a wider range of audiences such as the younger population. The news programme could want to use a variety of presenters so that they intrigue a wider range of audiences to watch the programme. The audience of the same group as the presenter might feel that the presenter represents them, making the audience more comfortable by being able to watch a person from the same culture as them. As Krishnan is of Asian culture, this could make the Asian audience feel more acknowledged and represented. This will bring in more views for Channel 4 News. The other presenters and reporters in the programme that we watched in class are used to go to Rome so that they can find out about what is going on. They do this so they can then share/report it with the Channel 4 audience. However one of the reporters stay in their HQ and report from there. In Channel 4 News there is more of a balance in gender and race as one of their aims is too include all culture and gender. The very first shot is the first story, in the background Jon Snow is informing the audience about the story. The opening sequence uses flashes of images, dramatic music and an introduction of the stories. This grabs the attention of the audience as they can see if they want to watch the news because they can see the stories that will be coming up during the programme. The dramatic music is used to build tension to what is going to happen in the programme. In the opening two minutes the presenter is prioritising one headline story however at the end of the two minutes they briefly talk about the other stories that will be on in the programme. In one shot the audience can see the whole of the studio however after that the camera is focused on the screen while Jon Snow is presenting next to it. The presenter is standing next to a board, this is so when he is discussing the story we have visuals to help the audience understand the news report and also to make the report more interesting. Both Journalists and technology are visible in the opening 2 minutes of the programme. A journalist is used to explain a story to the audience at the scene of what happened in Rome. Also the board with images of what the report is about is beside Jon Snow as he presents. This suggests that they want the news to be more interesting and more informative by helping people understand. This could mean that they are trying to target a younger audience. The studio colour is a political colour showing that the news is sophisticated. They could also use the colour as a trigger, meaning that when the audience looks at the colour they could think about the brand. The news programme usually has a format/layout when reporting a story. They usually briefly inform the audience on the report then they go to an interview after that there is usually a voice over. Techniques that are used in the news is voiceovers, live interviews, videos and images of the issues to help some of the audience understand some stories. Stories that are used in the news sometimes are: sport fixtures, prices of appliances, oil drops, elections and world issues such as ISIS beheadings. Links to social media are used to keep the audience interested as they can talk about the stories. Also they use videos so that the audience can see live coverage of issues that are going on around the world. The top story of Wednesday 21st April Channel 4 News is that Tesco has lost 6 and a half billion pounds. This is briefly reported right at the start then after a minute is explained in more detail. This story is reported for about 6 minutes of the programme. The other stories are: food banks have given out more than 1 million food parcels this month; interview of a women who left Damascus to Britain by a dangerous boat from North Africa; Pictures and report on the Hatton Garden Heist; Nigel Farage admits to feeling wonky for overdoing it at the start of the campaign and finally an interview with Robert Downy Junior for the premier of the Marvel News Avengers movie. The other news is reported for about 4 minutes each.  They make the headline story longer as that is what the programme is based on and the other reports are side stories. They made the headline report longer as they want to put more emphasis on it and wanted to fit in an interview with someone high up in Tesco. Channel 4 News is targeted at a more culturally diverse society in the use of a balance of presenters and reporters. The programme is also targeted at the working class and 60% male 40% female. Someone might choose to watch Channel 4 news other than different programmes because the audience feels that they are being represented with the balance that Channel 4 News has of different cultural groups. Right at the start of the programme there is a hashtag for Channel 4 News for people to comment and see other reports. The programme offers a link to talk about the news and uses technology for videos and images to make the news less boring as not many people would watch if the camera just filmed a presenter talking for the whole time. The Channel 4 Corporation and ITN owns and produces the programme while Channel 4 broadcasts it. Channel 4 runs all the other shows that are on the channel. ITN also produces news for websites and channels such as Yahoo and ITV. The programme fits Channel 4 because channel 4 aims too the working class and so does the news programme. Channel 4 also tries to be culturally diverse like the programme. OFCOM regulates the news to make it impartial and informative. OFCOM also decides how much adverts there can be on each programme. Channel 4 News has a dedicated website that has all the stories and reports on it. You can also make an account so you can watch catchup news and comment on the reports shown on the news. At the start of the programme there is a twitter feed to comment on the issues going on around the world. The twitter feed makes the audience feel more engaged so they will watch more in the future. Citizen Journalism is not used on Channel 4 News.   

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