Analysis of a relevant news package with a clear explanation of the contextual influence it has had on the rationale for our own news package
Analysis of a relevant news package with a clear explanation of the contextual influence it has had on the rationale for our own news package
As discussed with the group we have suggested creating our own news channel which reports on the upcoming events and news of the TV industry or more specifically Maidstone TV studios. Therefore, our own news package will be based around what is changing/ happening in the TV industry.
For this analysis I decided to look at a news package which discussed the film industry evolving from its ‘old form’ to something more contemporary, with the use of AI to produce better quality images on varying screen sizes. There is also a discussion about the effect Covid played on the industry and how cinemas have subsequently been affected by the increasing demand for online streaming services.
This particular report is from Fox Business News. I decided to use this report as this channel is an American channel owned by the Fox News Media Division of Fox Corporation. Fox has a reputation of being extremely biased and right wing so I decided it would be interesting to see how this subsidiary channel was portrayed. In an editorial review by AllSides it was concluded that Fox Business had a lean right rating based on the lean right bias indicators found e.g., some sensationalism and stories framing President Joe Biden negatively (Allsides, 2021). Therefore, this channel does not fall too far from the beliefs of Fox news. As this is the business channel there is a greater focus on business, markets, and financial stories in comparison to Fox News.
The news package begins with a channel indent which identifies the channel and the segment being ‘Barron’s Big Interview’. This is then cut to a picture in picture (PIP) of a reporter framed in a mid-shot, doing a piece to camera, addressing the camera directly speaking clearly and fluently. He introduced the story while accompanied by supporting imagery. The presenter then introduces the interviewee and ‘expert’ Robert Gelfond, CEO of IMAX. Experts are often used to provide more information on a story and appear trustworthy to the audience. There is a cut to the interviewee in mid shot, looking conventionally off camera towards the presenter/interviewer. After there are alternating shots between the presenter and interviewee in PIP shots, both framed in mid-shots with accompanying relevant imagery. After a few of these the shot type returns to two and single shots in studio. Later in the broadcast a graphic is used in the form of a graph showing the decrease in value of IMAX shares (ties into the business and financial aspect of the channel) the use of graphics is very conventional of TV news.
The presenter has a serious tone about him and is concentrated on the facts and figures of the news story. This is reflected in the questions asked e.g., about share prices, success of IMAX cinemas, IMAX buying companies who have amazing features, asking to ‘remind’ the name of the successful company, etc. These questions also lends the channel to the business ‘genre’.
I think the target audience for this particular news channel would be male, with an age range between 30-60 who are classified as an ABC1 demographic (Ipsos mediaTC, 2009). This means the channel is tailored to the upper and middle classes, people who are in positions of authority and are wealthier than the average worker/earner. I think this is the case as there is often lots of financial talk e.g., about shares which this demographic of people would be able to afford. The use of graphics to depict graphs is also tailored to the interests of this group.
Galtung and Ruge proposed their 12-news values theory in 1965. They created a list of factors which make news stories newsworthy, these include; frequency, threshold, unambiguity, meaningfulness, consonance, unexpectedness, continuity, composition, elite nations, elite people and something negative. Some scholars have found that cultural proximity and sensibility are the main factors affecting news value, and local news needs, and cultural matching are also important factors in determining news value (Fu, 2020). Based off this theory I think this story is deemed newsworthy as they have used the CEO of Imax as an elite person. The choice to bring on the CEO of IMAX as an expert was interesting as he is the owner of a large corporation rather than someone who works first hand with the new equipment who would perhaps be considered as more of an expert over the man holding the purse strings. Someone who works with the new technology/in industry speaking on these issues is something I feel is missing. This type of content is newsworthy as it interests people who work in the industry as well as anyone who has an interest in or consumes TV and film. This story is not the most obvious story the channel would cover but as the interview lead to discussions about the decrease in percentage of IMAX share prices which lends the interview to the ‘Business’ aspect of the title.
An influential approach to analysing TV news uses the critical framework. This is the more influential approach. Within this news is seen as implicated in dominant social and ideological structures, it tends to represent the interests of the more powerful groups within society (Creeber, 2008). This is relevant when analysing Fox Business News as the usual content of business, markets, and financial stories all favour the interest of socially powerful groups and their intended ABC1 audience.
As mentioned prior, Fox Business leans more to the right politically. People with right-wing beliefs are often characterised by having a strong desire for group-based dominance and hierarchy and often see social groups arranged along a superiority-inferiority dimension (Obaidi, 2020). This mindset is evident within the package as they chose to feature the CEO who is at the top of the hierarchy within a conglomerate which reinforces the idolisation of power and inferiority of the rich.
I do not particularly like this style of broadcasting as I think it is quite boring, I also do not like how b-roll is shown in a picture-in-picture as I felt it was very distracting with too many elements being present in the frame. Therefore, i would not show b-roll in this way and I would probably not choose a story that is very fact heavy as I felt that the content was hard to understand as someone who is not familiar with business news. This being said, Fox Business news has a specific target audience who would be familiar with these terms which is why this style of broadcasting works for them, as it speaks to their intended audience. Personally, I think a human interest story would have made this more interesting as the facts are quite overbearing and human interest stories are easy to understand and digest as an audience. I think some of the content is similar to what I am making as both revolve around changes to the TV and film industry which is discussed with a professional. However, I would omit the use of many facts and figures as like I said previously they are overbearing and quite boring.
References
Allsides. “Fox Business Media Bias Rating.” AllSides, 7 June 2021, www.allsides.com/news-source/fox-business-media-bias. Accessed 2 Oct. 2022.
Creeber, G. The Television Genre Book. 2nd ed. London, Bfi, 2008, pp. 104–122. Accessed 2 Oct. 2022
“Imax CEO Says Film Industry Has Evolved from Its “Old Normal.”” Www.youtube.com, 24 Sept. 2022, www.youtube.com/watch?v=eecYTJoHaKE. Accessed 2 Oct. 2022.
Ipsos MediaTC. Social Grade a Classification Tool Bite Sized Thought Piece. 2009. Accessed 2 Oct. 2022.
Obaidi, M. “What Are the Psychological Characteristics of People Holding Far-Right Beliefs? - C-REX - Center for Research on Extremism.” Www.sv.uio.no, 7 Sept. 2020, www.sv.uio.no/c-rex/english/groups/compendium/what-are-the-psychological-characteristics-of-people-holding-far-right-beliefs.html. Accessed 2 Oct. 2022.
Fu, P. News Values in Centralised State and Democratic State Top Ten International News Items Selected from Associated Press and Xinhua Research Project Submitted for an MA Degree in Global Journalism & PR. Aug. 2020, www.academia.edu/44271849/News_Values_in_centralised_state_and_democratic_state_Top_ten_international_news_items_selected_from_Associated_Press_and_Xinhua_Research_Project_submitted_for_an_MA_Degree_in_Global_Journalism_and_PR?auto=citations&from=cover_page. Accessed 2 Oct. 2022.
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