Digital News Production: Comparing the News Research - ITV News

Following from my research of BBC News at Six, I will now be looking at ITV News...

The News Stories
Main story, Critically ill nurse story: Similar to BBC News, it reports with an update of her condition. However, it goes further in depth, with reports from the hospital, her perspective from previous interviews and with a different reporting technique. The reporting consists of...

• Introducing the story in-studio.
• Reporter OOV with images of the nurse.
• OOV continues with hospital report placed on screen with GFX.
• Then accamponied by footage of her at the Pride of Britain Awards and footage of her preparing for her travels.
• Archived footage of an interview with her on Lorraine.
• OOV with GXF of human skeleton with the side effects being pointed out on screen.
• C/A to MCU interview with medical scientist in a lab.
• V/O with image on-screen of the nurse.
• Interview between in-studio presenter and on-location live reporter outside of the hospital.

This greatly differs from the reporting style in which BBC News reported the story. While BBC had a reporter live on-location briefly update us, ITV have made this their main story and used a dramatically different way of telling it, yet with the same content.

The murder of Georgia Williams story: The content of this story is nearly exactly the same as BBCs, due to it also being from the point of view of the victim's parents and them blaming the police. The reporting consists of...

• Introducing the story in-studio.
• Reporter OOV with image of the victim.
• C/A to MCU clip of interview with the victim's mother and father.
• OOV with footage of a police line and tent in the woods, police officers investigating and an image of the murderer.
• C/A to reporter PTC on-location walking along a trail in the woods.
• GFX presentation of murderers previous convictions on-screen.
• C/A to MS interview with mother and father.
• MCU interview with previous victim in a studio.
• MCU interview with member of police.
• OOV with image of victim.

Due to the story not being ITV's main focus, it's slightly more fast paced, making it feel less emotional. However there's a lot of similarities as the interview with the parents and the police is held in the same location as BBC, they both used GFX presentations of the murderer's previous crimes and the interviewees were the same. This piece felt stronger than BBCs report due to the footage of the crime scene and the reporter being on-location.

Divorce settlement story: Similar to BBC, the story is focusing on the positivity that the women feel after the settlement. However, it's less personal due to there being no one on one interview and being more focused on the overall topic. The reporting consists of...

• Introducing the story in-studio.
• OOV with GX of a ripped document with money either side.
• Continues with footage of the divorcees outside of the courthouse.
• Footage of one of the divorcees making a statement to the press.
• Back to OOV with the divorcees talking to reporters and GFX stating the settlement information in the style of a paper document.
• Reporter PTC outside of the courthouse.
• C/A MCU interview with divorce lawyer in office.
• V/O with footage of the divorcees and their lawyer.

This clearly of slightly less importance in the news line up than it is for BBC. However although it's a shorter report, ITV manage to fit a lot of the same reporting techniques in that time without making it feel rushed.

Tunisia survivor story: The story of a British survivor of the Tunisia attack who returns to the hotel where it took place to thank those who helped him and his wife survive. He recalls the attack from his point of view. The reporting consists of...

• Introducing the story in-studio.
• Reporter OOV with footage of survivor hugging a member of the hotel staff, GVs of the hotel and footage of him walking around the hotel with the reporter.
• A walking MS interview with them both in shot.
• OOV with archived mobile phone footage of the attack
• WS of the reporter and survivor talking in the hotel corridor where they ran during the attack.
• OOV with CU of broken door handle from taking cover and footage from inside the room.
• MS in same locaiton, survivor telling reporter of the event.
• OOV with archived footage of the survivor and his wife while she lays in hospital, to recent footage of him hugging a doctor when returning and thanking him, a banner in the hospital for the survivor and footage of him giving the hospital a donation certificate.
• MS interview clip in office with survivor, reporter and doctor.
• C/A to V/O with footage of a gravestone in Tunisia.
• Footage of the survivor as he recites a poem over the gravestone.
• OOV with survivor on-location and CU of flowers.

As a finishing story this feels quite heavy, however it's uplifting due to it being a story of survivors. The story gives an emotional but warm end to the programme, with a very large and strong variety of reporting techniques.

Presenters
As apposed to BBC News, there are two presenters, one female and one male. Also differing, is that they're introduced by a V/O instead of introducing themselves. Similar to BBC, they're sat in studio behind a desk, appearing very professional and serious due to the stories they're reporting.

Fig. 1. Mary Nightingale & Stephen Armstrong (2015)

'Coming Up'
The programme begins with the 'critically ill' nurse story accompanied by an image of the nurse when healthy. It then shows an image of the victim of 'the murder of Georgia Williams' story along with a clip of an interview with the mother, then onto footage of the divorcees in the 'divorce settlement' story. Lastly footage of two men hugging from the 'Tunisia survivor' story.

The structure of the 'coming up' doesn't greatly differ in structure to that of BBC's, however the main story is distinctly different.


Soundtrack
Similar to BBC News, the music is intense and plays in the same way, with it rising between news stories in the 'coming up' portion of the programme. However it comes across as slightly less serious.


Brand
Lasting longer than the BBC opening titles, ITV News' intro consists of footage of Big Ben, a child in school, an army troop, a busy road, surgeons and a bustling construction site, accompanied by GFX. While still keeping it short, it feels more visually stimulating than the brief BBC introduction.

While ITV's brand colours can often vary, ITV News sticks to a simplistic blue and white title, along with a blue and white set, this compares greatly with BBC news selective colourings on and off set.

Fig. 2. ITV News Titles (2015)

News Comparison
Due to reporting techniques and the final story both appearing to be stronger and more captivating, ITV seems to me to be a stronger channel for reporting. However, they both had very similar stories and ways of approaching their topics, as well as similar brand and soundtrack technique. In comparison they're very similar, but the differences in news reporting are highly noticeable.

Similarities to Our Channel

• Our opening titles will be GXF based and fast paced, similar to ITV News.
• We will use very selective brand colours.
• We will take a more upbeat approach to our ending, quite similar to ITV.
• Our reporting techniques are very similar (a studio piece, OOVs with both images, new footage and archived footage, presenter PTC and interviews).

Differences to Our Channel

• We will have one presenter for our news package instead of two.
• Our presenters will be more relaxed and casual.
• Our studio piece will involve a presenter in front of a green screen rather than behind a desk.

I think between BBC News and ITV News, our digital news package and OB will relate more to ITV due to feeling ever so slightly more casual as well as fast paced. However due to us being a channel that reports more human interest style news, they will still differ a lot.



Illustrations List:

Figure 1. Mary Nightingale & Stephen Armstrong (2015) [Video Screenshot] At: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SrxNvwF0riU (Accessed on 14.10.15)

Figure 2. ITV News Titles (2015) [Poster] At: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITV_News_at_Ten (Accessed on 14.10.15)