Presentation

Analysissheetpres from rondmc

Codes and conventions of tv news broadcast

Television news broadcast is to inform us of recent happenings in the world. It is a window to the world. Without news, we would not be aware of current news stories. Television news programs are aired 24:7 because we need to know what is happening around us and to see if it will affect our day-to-day lives and it is entertainment to us.

The codes and conventions of news broadcasting consist up of six categories. Studio Newsreaders, Field Reporters, Links to Studio, Mode of Address, Contributors and Actuality Footage.

Studio newsreaders present and inform the current top news stories. They research potential news headlines; to see what they think will be a good story and then write out there own script. They have to be well-dressed, neat hair and clean-shaven, to present themselves well to welcome the audience. They have to be well spoken, with good range of grammar, and have to be confident a good at reading continuously. You would need to know how to write and edit copy, and has to understand legal and ethical issues.

Field reporters are an outside broadcaster; broadcasting from places like war happenings, live events and sport coverage. Field reporters are very important because you will get exclusive information from the actual place of the event. Without field reporters, news programs would have to get word of mouth from other programs, which is not their own material.

Links to studio is when the live studio cuts to another live studio possibly across the world to get exclusive information in that area.

Mode of address is the style in which the presenters address your audience. News presenters have some rules that they need to do. They need to look at the camera, to keep the audience interested. They need to use sentences like, Thank you for listening. They have to have articulate diction, with people that have accents; they need to be toned down. Presenters always say the top stories first to keep the audience entertained, and there is always music in the start to add importance.

Contributors are people who the programme fits in to make the story more realistic and more important. They use experts to know more about what is happening and the audience trusts them. Witnesses are someone who has seen the footage and are talking on camera about it. It’s an ongoing story. Also members of the public give a variety of opinions in a vox pop. The news use this as it fills time and the audience can relate to it.

Louis Theroux

Louis Theroux Documentary

I have recently watched the most hated family in America, documented by Louis Theroux. Louis Theroux is an interactive documentary filmmaker because he interacts with the main subjects in the film whilst he is also in the film and one of the small crewmembers is holding a handheld camera. He also does the voiceover for the film. The main subjects in the documentary are obviously, Louis Theroux because he is the filmmaker. Also there is Steve Drain who used to be in Louis Theroux shoes, and went over to interview 'the most hated family' but ended up joining them. Gramps is also a very important person in the documentary, because he is the leader of the 'most hated family'. He is the one man who they all listen to and he also made the documentary for me, just seeing how stubborn he is.

The Family is a very religious family, and has strong beliefs. They believe that this life we are in now is a test, and if you fail the test God will come back and send you to hell. One of the girls mentioned, "if I got hit by a car and died, I will have failed the test and I would go to hell". They also have strong beliefs about gay people as well, they feel that being gay is disgraceful and if you are gay, you will go to hell that is why they hold up signs protesting against being gay. They also protest against soldiers as well and go to their funerals and protest because as men surround them all the time, they believe that some of the soldiers must be gay. Some people think that they are not actually like this, and think they are just doing it for attention, but personally I think they are actually this self-centered, this stubborn and does not care about the people around them.

The crew that Louis Theroux bought with him is a small crew of about 2 to 4 people. The reason why the crew is so small is because the makers want to make it as pure and realistic as they can by adding just a handheld camera to follow the family instead of having loads of equipment. You can tell there are just a few crewmembers because they go to speak to some of the family members in rooms that can only fit a few people in.

In this documentary, Theroux uses some codes and conventions to show the audience that the footage we see in the documentary is real. Nothing really has been edited such as sounds and lighting but the documentary does only show the bad things and how horrible the family is. I think nobody can be that obstinate all the time, so I do think that the filmmakers do cut some good bits out, and Theroux did say after meeting them, "they are quite kind". Theroux does all the voiceovers to illustrate what is happening, where he is going and talks about the family. I don't think Theroux pushes the boundaries in anyway, but Gramps would probably disagree with that because Theroux was asking him questions, about some of his children that left the religion, that he already knew.

As Louis Theroux is pretty much on screen the whole time, he also performs the interviews on screen as well. He tries to seek out the facts to see what is going through the family's mind, he asks them basic questions but he only gets blunt questions back, such as, "you're going to hell", because the family has only got there minds set on one thing. And it is to pass the test of life. That is how strong headed they are.

Theroux wanted to know why the most hated family are doing what they are doing and what is causing them to do it. He wants the audience to feel all kind of emotions, I felt shocked when I was watching it, especially when he was interviewing Gramps, he shouted "you're going to eat you're babies", it is not right! Theroux wanted to see what it was like to be a part of the family. I seriously do not know how anyone can live like that and I can totally understand why four of his children dropped out of the religion, and I feel sorry for those little children who has to participate in holding up the signs, and they don't even know what it means, to be honest I think they are just dumb. I watched another interview on the Tyra Banks show with Shirley Phelps, and Shirley said "I love gay people more than anyone in this room, I love them enough to tell them that you're going to hell". I can understand why they are called 'The Most Hated Family In America'.

I would describe this documentary as very interesting but so frustrating; because I just cant get my head around why they are doing it. It was also educational but very revealing to see how stubborn the whole family is. I just think it is wrong.