Bias in the News

Bias through Omission:
This means that some parts of what we are hearing or watching on the news will be left out to try and change our opinion to theirs. This is common when we hear stories about terrorist groups. We only hear about them causing terror or killing, but there might be a deeper meaning to this that we don't know about because the media are only reporting their side of the story and getting us to believe what they want. An example of this would be -

Bias through Placement Order:
Placement of the stories is important because what the reader or viewer believes will be the most important story will usually be on the front page of a news paper or a magazine, or first when we are watching the news. This gives the impression that the story must be the most important as it is the first thing we see.
Bias through Headlines:
Bias through headlines works as they are what draw our attention to the story. They are seen as the most important stories of the day. They can however be misleading depending on the article or story you read or hear. They can turn us against somebody or even make us give them support even though sometimes we know the stories are not necessarily true.
Bias through Photos:
Photos can be used to sway our opinion on somebody too, using angles that make somebody or something bad, ugly, sick or evil are used a lot in the media. They are typically used when a celebrity is in the news for something bad, such as drugs or alcohol. An example of this would be the Britney Spears story when she shaved her head just before a massive breakdown.

Bias through Names and Titles:
Using derogatory names or titles can cause the audience to have a bad opinion on somebody, such as 'ex drug abuser' or 'served time in jail'. These can often cause us to believe that the person is bad and not somebody you would want to meet, whereas they might have actually been wrongly accused. However, names and titles used with praise to make somebody seem better than they are are also used in the media a lot to sway our opinion. Both of these are often used around political debates and elections. An example of this would be Robert Downey Jr. Now he has quit drugs, he is known as a former drug addict.

Bias through Choice of Words:
Certain word choices can cause the audience to have a different opinion on something. Praising it will often give us a different opinion on something, praising it will often give us the view that this thing is good and will help us, whereas something that is talked down on will give us the opinion that it is bad for us and something that we as the audience will not like. This can also be used near political debates and elections by opposing parties to try and get our support.

Documentary Pre-Production Paperwork

Documentary - 3MW

Documentary Mini-Task

A documentary is a film that is made of inform the audience of a topic or to help the audience to understand an issue that is faced every day.

The key features of an Expository Documentary are that it has a disembodied and authoritative voice-over which directly addresses the audience, the voice-over will talk about what is happening in the accompanying images on screen. Facts are arguments will be provided by the voice-over. An example of an Expository Documentary is a documentary called "Aftermath". It is about someones battle with the aftermath of their father committing suicide.


Some key features of an Observational Documentary are unobtrusive construction and depictions (it presents a slice of life). The filmmaker/director is hidden from the audience, it is more centered on what is not contained, e.g. commentary and interviews etc. It makes the audience decide what to think or decode from the text. An example of this would be a documentary called "Born Schizophrenic: Jani and Bodhi's Journey". Throughout this documentary, there are scenes where it is showing us how Jani and Bodhi live their lives with Schizophrenia.

Some of the key features of an Interactive Documentary are that the filmmaker's presence is evident. There is an interaction between interviewees, the presenter and the audience. Manipulation of the text through editing is more evident. These documentaries are sometimes criticized for misrepresentation or manipulation, but they are defended by the filmmakers due to the projected image being more important than the fine details. An example of an interactive documentary would be "Louis Theroux By Reason of Insanity". This documentary is based around people who have committed violent crimes, but have been put into a mental hospital instead of prison by reason of insanity.

The key features of a Reflexive Documentary are the filmmaker attempts to expose the conventions of the documentary to the audience. The construction of the documentary posts are exposed and experimented with, and the documentary will consist of shots that capture everyday life, but these will be used as bricks which can make vastly different or experimental films. An example of this would be a documentary called "A Hundred Orgasms a Day". This documentary is based around 3 women who are tormented every day with the constant need to have an orgasm. It is known as Persistent Sexual Arousal Syndrome.

The key features of a Performative Documentary are that is represents the world indirectly and emphasises more on the presentation rather than the content. There can be a use of re-enactments, exaggerated camera positions and soundtracks. These help to submerge the audience into the diegesis. This type of documentary aims to present the subject matter in a subjective, expressive, stylised, evocative and visceral manner. I think that a documentary that fits in to this would be "Fagbug". This documentary is based around a woman who's car was vandalised with the words "ur gay" and "fag" written on it in red spray paint. The reason I think this fits into the Performative Documentary features is because at the beginning there is a news story that is shown about the incident. 

I personally like Interactive Documentaries the most as I find them more interesting and I feel like they keep me the most involved.

Introduction to the News

Throughout the Behind TV News, we see quite a few different people who work for the news company behind the scenes, and in front of the camera to make the news run smoothly.
First off, there is the Reporter. The reporter works on location for the news team to get the story they are looking for to go on the news. Reporters mostly work on pre-recorded stories that they can use as and when they are needed. However, reporters also work on live broadcasts on location that will be televised whilst they are being filmed.
Next is the presenter. The presenter works in the studio in front of the camera bringing the news story to the people who watch the news before the actual footage with the reporter is shown. The presenter presents us with what the story is about by giving us a short brief of the story and then going into a more detailed version later on in the show. Whilst watching Behind TV News, one of the presenters said something along the lines of "you have to be presentable and friendly because you are basically intruding on someones house." I feel like this is true because if you are presenting the news to someone, you are in their home every morning, you need to be friendly and presentable so that you don't turn them away and make the viewing rates go down.
The director works inside the studio, inside the control center to make sure that everything goes smoothly. The director will work to make sure that the presenters know what is going on and can hear them and the producers as to what they need to say and do throughout the whole run of the news.
The producer works alone with the director to make sure that the presenters know what is going on. The presenter also works creatively to construct decisions such as what stories will make it into the broadcast.
The camera operator works on location and in the studio behind the camera to get the shots that are needed for the stories. Whilst in the studio, the camera operator will be behind the cameras there. There will be several camera operators in studio, one behind each camera that is working on filming the presenters. On location there will probably only be one camera operator on location with the presenter working to get the good clean shots they need whilst there. Sometimes when filming on location, things can go wrong with certain aspects of filming which may not be anyone's fault and that's the problem with filming on location at times.
The editors will work behind the scenes to make sure everything goes flawlessly during the filming of the news, they will be working constantly for the entire duration of the news to make sure everything goes perfectly.
The craft editor will focus on post production work. They will work on the bits that need to be done to the news after it has been filmed or recorded, they will work on things like storing the footage that was used in case it is needed again (for example, shots of people walking through the street).

I have watched an episode of the news to see what it actually consists of.
During the opening sequence, the ITV logo appears on screen and expands to show two of the presenters standing in front of the camera and discussing the headlines for the morning. They do not introduce themselves but their names appear on the screen.
The top news stories were:
-The welfare cuts that George Osborne is introducing. It is the story of how the cuts will be introduced slower than planned.

-Cold calling charities could be brought up to MP's to explain why they are aggressively cold calling old and vulnerable people.
-Andy Murray's final day at Wimbledon.

-James Bond is being turned into a musical.
These stories are in the order I have already put them in. They start with the serious stories, such as welfare cuts and cold calling charities, and try to end on a lighter story, such as James Bond being turned into a musical.
The presenters are well dressed and look smart as well as casual. They start by introducing themselves in a happy and calm manor, however this changes when they start with the first serious story about George Osborne. Their tone goes from being happy and calm to very serious. The presenters are Susanna Reid, Ben Shephard, Charlotte Hawkins and Sean Fletcher.
News readers have to be able to multi-task. Whilst they are on screen they are being talked to, reading off of a screen, and are talking themselves to the camera. If they are asked to do something such as read slower or read faster, they have to react quickly to do that.
The order of stories is very important. The order starts with the most important stories, and ends with the happy, simple stories.

TO DO

1. TV advert analysis UNFINISHED
2. Introduction to the news post UNFINISHED
3. Documentary mini-task MISSING
4. Documentary pre-production paperwork MISSING
5. Documentary TO BE UPLOADED

3 Minute Wonder - Proposal

For my 3 Minute Wonder, I am going to focus on Mental Health Issues. I would like to mostly focus on Schizophrenia and Depression.

I’m going to have three people in my documentary talking about Schizophrenia and Depression, including myself. I am going to split it up between the three people, which are me, Max, and Charles.

I am going to discuss Schizophrenia, Charles is going to discuss Depression, and Max is going to discuss both. Each person is going to have one minute of the 3 minutes to talk about the chosen topic or topics.

I would like to have a few questions to ask and have the answer from each of the people one after the other. By doing this, I think I will be able to keep the audience interested.

Questions for documentary

1)     Do you suffer from Mental Health Issues? If so what?

2)     How do you cope with it?

3)     How do Mental Health Issues affect your everyday life?

4)     How common do you think Mental Health Issues are?

5)     Do you think many people know how common Mental Health Issues are?

6)     How do you think people react to Mental Health Issues?