Local news on education

What- A closure of a local school
Where- Mill Hill, North West London
Who- The Mount School
When- 4/12/2013
Why- Replacing a new school for both genders who do not speak English

Familiarity- the news would be geographically and culturally located to the local residents of Mill Hill. It would also be familiar to the students of that school.

Local news on Celebrity

What- a famous ISraeli singer passed away
Where- Ichilov Hospital, Tel Aviv
When- 27/11/2013
Who- Arik Einstein
Why- suffered from the haemorrhage of a major artery

Familiarity- As this article is from the Jewish Chronicle it would be geographically and culturally located to the Jewish Community and the Israelis too

Impact- This does in a way create an effect on the Jewish and Israelis lives. A famous and popular singer that was popular in the community has passed away.

Surprise- as this is a shocking and breaking news it is regarded to be a surprise which is likely to push up the news agenda in the Jewish Chronicle.

Negativity- as it is the death of a celebrity it is classified as bad news

Local news on disaster

What- Residents have been advised to prepare to leave their homes should the flooding happen
Where- Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex
Who-
When- 3/12/2013
Why- The flooding is above 6ft which means that it is threatening for the residents that live there


Familiarity- this story would be culturally and geographically familiar to the reader who lived in those areas.

Impact- this creates a profound effect on the lives of the residents who lived in that area. It is a negative impact because of the risk of the floods which may result to them having to leave their homes

Surprise- This is un-expecting. The flooding whether was a shock announcement for the UK and so it is the same for the local residents of that area. This is therefore likely to push up the news agenda.

Negativity- this news can be classified as bad news

Local news on Politics

What- Mayor of London praises Barnett Volunteer
Where- Barnet
When- 3/12/2013
Who- Boris Johnson, Barbera Windsor and Tyrese Gymafi
Why- Praised for helping out with voluntary work for London


Familiarity- culturally and geographically familiar with the resident of Barnet.

Local News on buisness

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hereford-worcester-25197626


What- Worcester FC cancel stadium deal
Where- St Georges Lane, Worcester
Who- Club chairman, Anthony Hampson
When- 3/12/2013
Why- Scrapped stadium plans to avoid closure and make new deal to build somewhere else.




Familiarity- This news story would be culturally and geographically familiar to the resident who lives local to the city of Worcester. As this involves a football club as well, it would also be culturally familiar to the fans of that particular football club

Impact- This story in local standards would be a big impact to the fans of that football club. It has a positive impact that their football club will not face closure

Conflict- As this mentions two deals the club faces, it shows a conflict therefore between the two deals as the Football club chose a different deal.

Local news on Crime

What- three men have been jailed for handling stolen antiques worth £5 million
Where- they were prosecuted in Leeds Crown Court. Their criminal activity took part in North Yorkshire and Sussex.
When- 8th November 2013
Who- Darren Webster, Brian Eaton and Carl Rutter are the named criminals of this story
Why- They were stealing antiques worth millions of pounds

This news story has also contained the following news values:

•   Familiarity- this news story is culturally and geograpgically located to the audience of that location in the UK that had taken place 
• Impact- people would feel safer from that area as the criminals have been locked up 
• Continuity- this news is a continuing story as it is an extension of an event that had taken place between 2007-2009
• Conflict- the news story outlines a conflict between the thieves and their victims they had stolen from.

Local news on sport

What- Barnett FC lose 6-0 against Preston
Where- Deepdale Stadium
When- 9th November 2013
Who- Edgar Davis and Barnet FC
Why- claimed to be an early sending off from Barnet's side that cost them the defeat


This news story has also contained the following news values:

• Familiarity- for an audience in a local scale, this news story would be culturally and geographically familiar for not just Barnett fans but people who live in the area as they would be familiar with the team. 
• Elite people- Edgar Davis is the elite man of the article due to his past in professional football
• Negativity- the news article outlines bad news as Barnett had faced a defeat

Local news intro

Now that I have analysed examples of national news stories, I am moving onto local news stories. Again I will be analyzing in terms of the Five Ws and the News Values.

I want to look at a range of different types of stories to see if there is consistency in terms of the Five Ws and news values even when the stories are very different from each other.

I am going to look at the following types of stories;

• Sports 
• Politics 
• Crime 
• Business 
• Entertainment 
• Science 
• Disaster
• Fashion
• Art/Culture 
• Health

Local news on politics

What- a referendum on introducing electronic voting
Where- Jersey
Who- Politicians and citizens of Jersey
When- 7th November 2013
Why- to help improve democracy in a remote island.



The following news values mentioned in this article are:

• Familiarity- this news story for people who live in Jersey would be geographically and culturally located to them. 
• Personalisation- as this news story is reflected on the needs of the people of Jersey, they would feel some human interest as some would agree with this new form of democracy and others would disagree 
• Conflict- as it is a referendum, it will mark a conflict between people who would vote yes and the people who vote no 

National News on Fashion

This news story has contained the Five Ws:

What- The opening of J Crew's first major British outlet on regent street
Where- Regent Street, London
When- 4th November 2013
Who- J Crew
Why- to get more customers in order to compete in the UK market


The news story has also contained the following news values:

• Familiarity- this news story is culturally and geographically located to the audience as it is set in the capital city, London. 
• Impact- it has caused a profound effect in Londoners' lives as they have a popular foreign shop near to where they live. 
• Personalisation- this is regarded as a "Human Interest Story" because of a global popular company is now introduced in London, which could take over as one of the most popular shops in London. 

National News on Health

The news story has contained the Five Ws:

What- a celebrity has been honoured for tackling childhood obesity.
Where- UK
Who- Jamie Oliver
When- 5th November 2013
Why- To get rid of the threat of childhood obesity


The News story has also contained the following news values:

• Familiarity- this news story is geographically and culturally located to the audience as it is set in UK 
• Impact- as childhood obesity is likely to raise a concern in the country. This is likely to therefore raise concern for people in the country. 
• Elite people- this news story is about generosity from a famous chef and celebrity, Jamie Oliver 
• Personalisation- this story is likely to provoke an emotional response to this. People would feel concerned about the childhood obesity but at the same time, people would feel amazed that a celebrity chef is helping to get involved with tackling the problem. 

National news on art/culture

This news story has contained the Five Ws:

What- A pop star charged with graffiti
Where- Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Who- Justin Bieber
When- 7th November 2013
Why- Graffiti on buildings is illegal in Brazil with up to a year in jail.


This news story has also contained the following news values:

• Surprise- it is surprising to hear that a famous pop star is in trouble for an unknown criminal act in Brazil 
• Conflict- this story shows a conflict between a celebrity and the Brazilian authorities 
• Elite people- the story is about a very famous celebrity, Justin Bieber. This makes it push up the news agenda 
• Negativity- there is some bad news to this as an inspiring celebrity (to some) has committed a crime.  

National news on Disaster

Disaster news


The news story has contained the Five Ws:

What- eight people killed in a suicide bombing
Where- Damascus, Syria
Who- Eight people killed
When- 6th November 2013
Why- Due to continuing fighting and conflict in the Syrian Civil War


The news story has also contained the following news values:

• Immediacy- this is recent and breaking story 
• Amplitude- this news story mentions eight people that had been killed and fifty were injured. 
• Predictability- this news story is predictable as it covers part of the Syrian Civil War when for years there have been violence due to the war 
• Conflict- The story marks a conflict between the Syrian government, the rebels and as well the UN.
• Negativity- due to this disaster of the war this is viewed as bad news 

National News on Entertainment

This news story has contained the following Five Ws;

What- Open auditions for the new Stars Wars film
Where- UK and Ireland
Who- Star Wars film company
When- 5th November 2013
Why- They are looking for potential cast to star in the future film


This news story also contains the following news values:

• Immediacy- this is recent and breaking news 
• Familiarity- this is culturally and geographically related to British and Irish audience as this news story applies to UK and Ireland 
• Impact- this would make the public feel excited as they are given the chance to star in the film 
• Elite people- the news story has mentioned the famous actor, Mark Hamil who had starred in the previous Star Wars films.  

National News on Science

Science news

This news story has contained the Five Ws:

What- India launches spacecraft to Mars
Where- India
Who- The Mars Orbiter Mission
When- 5th November 2013
Why- Competing in a Space Race against other countries


This news story has also contained the following news values:

• Immediacy- this is recent and breaking story 
• Surprise- India is not usually known for space programmes so for India to compete in a solar mission is unusual and surprising  

National News on Business

This news story has contained the following Five Ws;

What- House prices have risen 

Where- United Kingdom 

Who- Halifax 

When- 6th November 2013 

Why- Prices have risen due to increased demand of houses 

This news story has contained the following news values:

• Immediacy- this is recent and breaking story 
• Familiarity- this story is culturally and geographically local to the British audience as this story is referred to the entire country.
• Impact- this story has a profound effect to peoples lives as houses will be more expensive to buy 
• Continuity- this story has been mentioned before so it is a continuing story 
• Personalisation- Human emotions can be frustration as it the news story says it will be more expensive to buy houses throughout the country 

National news on Crime

The Five Ws have been mentioned throughout this article through the following:

• What- a young child injured in a house shooting 
• Where- Upper Park Road, Wickford, Essex 
• Who- the story involves a five year old boy 
• When 4th November 2013 
• Why- believed to be an accident

This article has also contained news values:

• Immediacy- this is a recent and breaking story 
• Familiarity- this story is geographically and culturally close to the English audience as it is set in England 
• Impact- as it is a violent crime story it can make the audience feel threatened 
• Personalisation- as it has involved a young child as the victim of a violent crime, it can provoke people to feel sympathetic  
• Negativity- a young child was injured in gun crime 

National news on Politics

Political News

This story contains the Five Ws throughout the article:

• What- Mitchell should receive an apology over the Pleb
• Where- London 
• Who- Andrew Mitchell and the police force 
• When- Sunday 27th October 2013 at the Andrew Mar show 

Through out the article it also contains particular important news values;

• Familiarity; this story is geographically and culturally in England so it is familiar to the English audience 
• Continuity; it is an ongoing news event which is often mentioned over again in the news agenda. 
• Conflict; this story shows the arguments between Andrew Mitchell an MP and the Police force. There is a disagreement on what Mitchell has said. 
• Elite people; the elite people mentioned are Andrew Mitchell a prominent MP
• Scandal; either the police or the MP have lied 

National News on Sport

The first story I am going to look at is a sports story about the injury to Tottenham Goalkeeper, Hugo Lloris in a game against Everton at the weekend.

The story contains The Five Ws in the opening paragraphs:

• Who- Hugo Lloris the Spurs goalie 
• What- Sustained a critical head injury 
• Where- Goodison Park, Everton 
• When- Sunday 3rd November 
• Why- In a clash with Everton forward, Lukaku 

A closer look at the story shows that it contains the following News Values: 

Sport story

• Immediacy; the story based on a recent football match 
• Familiarity; the story is culturally and geographically familiar as it is two popular national football clubs playing against each other in this country
• Conflict; Tottenham medical team wanted the Goalie to come off but he wanted to continue. Conflict between medical staff and club. 
• Surprise; Tottenham allowed him to continue playing regardless to concerning injury
• Elite people; refers to famous premiership footballers, Lloris and Lukaku
• Negativity; the story strongly criticises the football club 

Analysing national news stories

I am going to look at ten different and analyse the Five Ws and news values each.  To begin with I am going to focus on national news stories before looking at local news stories to try and find out the similarities and differences across both.

I want to look at a range of different types of stories to see if there is consistency in terms of the Five Ws and news values even when the stories are very different from each other.

I am going to look at the following types of stories;

• Sports 
• Politics 
• Crime 
• Business 
• Entertainment 
• Science 
• Disaster
• Fashion
• Art/Culture 
• Health

News Values

News Values are used by journalists and news editors to help determine which news stories and images are accepted as newsworthy, and also to help them decide the running order of news stories that may appear on a television or radio news bulletin. Obviously there are a far greater number of potential news stories that could appear on a radio news bulletin than the number listeners actually hear. News values therefore become essential when deciding which news stories to broadcast.

The following list of news values has been adapted from Galtung and Ruge's study of news criteria;

• Immediacy - this refers to recent stories, stories that can be classed as "breaking". This news value is likely to push the story up the news agenda - often the first story in a bulletin will be breaking news.

• Familiarity - this refers to whether the news story is culturally or geographically close to the audience - so for listeners in the UK, this refers to stories that have taken place in this country (or affect citizens of this country) or possibly within Europe and the USA (are close cultural/political allies). Familiarity can be applied to national news and local news - a national radio station may include stories from across the country whilst a local radio news bulletin would include stories from that regional area.

• Amplitude - this is refers to the size of the event covered in the story and whether or not it involves large numbers of people. Often stories towards the beginning of a news bulletin will contain this news value as lots of people may be affected by the story. 

 

• Frequency - this refers to how often the event covered in the story happened. As a news value frequency sometimes pushes a story up the news agenda (if it is a story whose frequency is likely to provoke outrage) whilst sometimes frequency will push the story down the news agenda (as people become used to the event happening so often).

• Impact - this refers to whether or not the story has a profound effect on the public's lives  and whether the story contains elements that would make the public feel threatened. Again, a story that contains this news value is likely to appear near the top of a news bulletin because of its potential to affect large numbers of people. 

• Predictability - this news value is found in stories that the public expect to happen. Because events are expected this may push such a story down the news agenda.

• Surprise - This news value is the opposite of predictability and refers to stories that contain unusual or unexpected events. Because these stories are unusual and surprising they often find themselves higher up the news agenda. 

• Continuity - This news value is almost the opposite of immediacy- here the story has already been defined as news. If the article is part of an ongoing or long-running story. It may appear further down the news agenda than it did when it was 'breaking'.

• Conflict - This is probably the most dominant of all news values. Conflict can take a wide range forms. Many news stories report disagreements, arguments or fights between two or more people/organisation. Stories involving conflict are popular with the public as conflict is often the driving force in most narrative forms that the public will be familiar with.

•  Elite people - within certain publications and on certain radio stations, stories involving elite people such as celebrities are often found towards the top of the news agenda- this reflects our country's obsession with celebrity. Many news stories, which we wouldn't normally consider to be newsworthy, appear to make the news purely because they involve a celebrity. 

• Personalisation - stories that provoke an emotional response from the public. These are known as 'Human Interest Stories' and present real people and their problems, concerns or achievements. This news value often dominates news stories as the public are asked to sympathise with or relate to the subjects within the stories.

• Negativity - often news stories can be classified as 'bad news', containing elements that make people feel threatened or that will affect people in a negative way. These stories are usually found towards the beginning of news bulletins (almost completely dominate the whole news bulletin)

• Scandal - stories involving scandal often centre on celebrities or people in prominent positions within society, and are likely to provoke outrage within sections of the audience. 

• Balance -  Often stories are chosen largely to balance the other news stories- For example a positive heart warming story to counteract the bad news stories that may have dominated the rest of the news.

When I am analysing news stories in more detail I am going to make a note of the news values these stories contain. This is to try and determine what effect the news values have on a stories inclusion and also its position within a bulletin's running order. I will think carefully in future about the importance of news values when writing my own news stories.

The Five Ws

The Five Ws are the key elements of a news story that a viewer, listener or reader of news would expect to find within that story- therefore journalists tend to include all of the Five Ws in any story that they write. Often the five Ws appear towards the beginning of the news story which helps the reader determine whether they would be interested in the story to read on. Another reason for the inclusion of the 5 Ws towards the beginning of the story is that if the story needs to be cut for any reason editors can cut from the bottom up without fundamentally altering the meaning of the story. The Five Ws are;


Who is it about? 

What happened? 

When did it take place?

Where did it take place? 

Why did it happen? 

How did it happen? 

I have picked a news story at random (click on the link below to see the full story) to see if it includes the Five Ws. As you can see the story about Paul McCartney performing a gig in Covent Garden includes all five:

Who - Ex-Beatle Paul McCartney
What - Played an impromptu gig
When - At lunch time on Saturday
Where - In Covent Garden
Why - To help promote his new album

Who, what, when, where, why and how.

Throughout the rest of my research into news stories I will try to identify the Five Ws in each story and think about where they appear within the story. This will help me include these vital elements when I come to write the stories for my radio news bulletin.

Preliminary Task; Sound FX and Music

Below are the sound effects and the music that I have used in my jingle and in the archive clip on my preliminary task.

For my jingle I used a track called 'Chemical Abuse' from the extreme music indie rock CD and a selection of crowd noise sound effects taken from the BBC Sound Effects Library.

My archive clip consists of commentary from a number of football matches and I have again used football crowd sound effects taken from the BBC sound effects library.

Below, you can listen to the sound effects and music before I had edited and mixed them.

Preliminary task- Script

Here is the script I have written for my Preliminary Task. As you can see, it is for a sports radio station and includes clips featuring my guest. I hope to record this later in the week and I have already started choosing appropriate sound effects and music. 


Jingle: Kick FM 107.4. The UK’s No 1 Sport’s Radio Station.

Presenter: Good morning and welcome to kick FM 107.4. I’m Ian Moore. Coming up on this morning’s show we'll have the fallout from last night’s Capital Cup games and the latest news on Xavier Puerto’s move to Chelsea...but first we have today’s special guest star, former-championship striker, Mark Frost who has just signed for Premiership giants, Manchester United. How are you Mark?

Mark: I’m good thanks.

Presenter: The move to the current champions is a big step up for you, but the transfer has made the headlines because of the unusual move by your agent to put together a highlights package of your greatest moments in a bid to encourage prospective clubs to buy you. Let’s listen to a clip of your best goals.

ARCHIVE CLIP:

Commentator 1: Quick ball to Frost. Brilliant skill and good dribbling as two defenders fail to tackle him. Frost strikes it from well over forty yards. The keeper had no chance!!!! What a world class goal. You don’t see that every day in championship football.

Commentator 2: It’s a foul just outside the penalty area, we’re into injury time. Ipswich have a real chance now to secure all three points and put them top of the table on goal difference. Frost places the ball, takes two steps to his left and hits it. Oh my word! Frost has curled it straight into the top corner. Frost once again saves his team in the nick of time. Is there nothing this man can’t do?

Commentator 3: Frost tackles Leeds midfielder Smith. And he makes a sprint for it. He jinks past four defenders. He carries on sprinting, he shoots, and it’s in! Bad mistake from the midfielder but outstanding skill from Mark Frost. That goal will secure promotion for the tractor boys.



The list of sound effects needed:

• Rock indie Jingle (it is used often for sport radios)- final twenty seconds of Chemical Abuse + football crowd cheering for a goal. 
• Commentators' voices 
• Crowd cheering 

Introduction

For my AS coursework, I am going to be creating scripting, recording and editing a five minute extract from an imaginary local radio show, which will include a news bulletin. Alongside this I have to create a preliminary task which will include a jingle, a presenter introducing a guest, the guest responding and an archive clip featuring the guest.

My preliminary task will be a short extract from a sports radio station where my guest will be a fictional footballer and the archive clips will feature commentary from some of his most famous goals.