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.