News Conventions

Here is a list of the conventions:

- News presenters nowadays use strings of sub-sentences rather than longer complex ones.
- Introductory Headlines - The use of brief phrases introduce the top stories of the night.
- Questions can sometimes follow a story headline to arouse the interest of the audience.
- Formulaic Constructions - These introductory and concluding announcements which consist of the reporter's name, location, station, date..
- Anchors or reporters will often finish their introductions or conclusions to a story by referring to the other person/presenter by name.
- Progressive Verbs - Used to continue a description while maintaining a certain level of action-packed, here and now journalism.

Colour scheme for website

After looking at the different commercial websites each of them have a set colour scheme.

Here is BBC NEWS colour scheme which they use throughout their website and during the actual programme.

Here is Channel4 News colour scheme which is used throughout their website and during the actual programme.

Here is ITV NEWS colour scheme which is used throughout their website and during the actual programme.

Here is SKY NEWS colour scheme which they use throughout their website and during the actual programme.

























For our colour scheme we decided that we wanted a simple colour scheme but was effective in being recognised in the brand image. All the colour schemes above are simple but the colours chosen work well together and give them a brand image. We decided that we were going to have a main colour scheme of black and white, with elements of red and yellow in places. The style is simple but will hopefully be effective in appealing to the target audience.

Photos for website

On the website there will be several interactive features, most of which will be images. Here are all the images which will be placed in the website.

The image of the newspapers will introduce the story 'Today's Papers'. I changed the contrast on the image making the colours brighter. This made the image more eye catching and interesting to look as the blues and reds of the headers really stand out.

Like the previous images I changed the contrast making the arrow brighter. The picture stands out more and is eye catching as the bright red arrow appears to be coming out of the background. The image will introduce a story about the current interest rates in the economic climate.

As we decided that the Breaking News story would be on the extreme weather that the UK was facing, there needed to be images of the conditions. I decided to make a collage with all the photos above to place them under the footer on our website.







Here is the collage I made out of the photos above. I made the images smaller and cut out the unwanted sections in each of the photos. Then I softened the images and changed the contrast so that they appeared brighter. This made the images look more appealing and eye catching as the snow was whiter and brighter.

I edited the photos using an online photo editer; Picnik.

Storyboarding - website

Before I began to construct the website on Dreamweaver, I drew up a series of storyboards of what each of the pages would look like.

Here is the template which I drew up showing the set master style that would be used on all of the pages in the website. I placed the logo in the top left hand corner which will also be a link back to the main menu of the website. Underneath the logo is where the navigation bar will be placed. Placing these features at the top of the page makes them easy to locate and follow the same conventions as real news websites. The marquee will scroll across the page displaying today's breaking news. This feature was widely used in the websites that I looked at.

Here is the homepage of the website. The same master style as the template will be used throughout the site creating a constant layout. The logo will be placed at the top of the page heading the information below and also providing a link to the homepage on all the other pages in the site. There will be a key feature on breaking news which is a convention of news websites. The navigation bar will be at the top of the page so it is easy to navigate between the pages. Also a key convention of news websites is the ability to contact them via a 'Contact us' option, this will be placed at the bottom of the page.

Here is the weather page in the website. Again the same master style has been used with all the features being placed in the same position. This continuous layout creates a professional look which is needed on a news website. The marquee will scroll across the page like before displaying today's breaking news. I will place a roll over image where the weather map is. This will show today's and tomorrows weather forecasts. The contact details will be placed at the bottom of the page; a convention of real news websites.

Here is the last page in the website; the main focus on top stories. Again the same master style has been used with all the features being placed in the same position. This continuous layout creates a professional look which is needed throughout the site. Again the marquee will scroll across the page like before displaying today's breaking news. I will place the videos of PC Donna Harding's interview. After looking at different news websites the use of videos was common throughout. The contact details will be placed at the bottom of the page; a convention of real news websites.

Content - website

After looking at different websites produced by news programmes it provided us with a good idea of what we would include in our site. Here is the content we decided to include in our site.

On the Homepage
Logo
Marquee
Top Story
Breaking news feature
Weather
Image of graffiti
Image of newspapers
Video of Donna
Video of snow
Weather Alerts
Internal links
Navigation bar

On the Weather page
Same format as the previous page (logo,marquee, breaking news feature, navigation bar, internal links)
Image of weather map
Image of weather girl
Image of weather symbols
Weather Alerts

On the Top Story page
Again the same format as the previous pages creating a professional look (logo, marquee, breaking news feature, navigation bar, internal links)
All the videos of PC Donna Harding's Interview
Images of graffiti


On the News Blog page
Same format as all the other pages (logo,marquee, breaking news feature, navigation bar, internal links)
Interactive forms

Analysis of Features - website

Our Features

After looking at the features from Sky and ITV's website here is a list of the features we will place on our website:

>Roll over images

>Navigation Bar

>Internal Links

>Hot spots

>Marquee

>Contact details including an email us feature

>Top Story

>Breaking News

>Interactive form

>Animated features

>Images + Videos

Research for website

Most news channels have an online version enabling viewers to get further information on stories and be kept up to date with the latest information. I regularly use Sky News' website to keep up to date with the latest news. I like how the information is easy to access and easy to understand. The website offers a huge range of media including videos, imagery of stories and interviews.


Sky News
















The website uses a set master style of a red header with Sky News' logo on each of its pages. This gives the website a professional look. Setting this house style allows the website to continue the black and red colour scheme throughout. On the main page the navigation bar is placed just under the footer making it easy to locate and use. The navigation bar has also been placed on every page allowing easy navigation for all users.


The main feature of Sky News are stories which have just reached the center; 'Breaking News'. This is one of the channels main focus points to keep people up to date with the latest information. These featured stories are displayed on the main page of the website within a hot spot. The hot spot is on the left hand side of the page and contains a number of main stories. Each story has a video to go with it, to give the user a good source of written and imagery information.

I really like the overall layout of the website and find it easy to use. It is very interesting and has endless amounts of information to provide to users. From videos to images the website has it all. I like the set master style and will use this in my website. It gives the site a professional look and also adds to creating that brand image. With the set colour scheme chosen the user will recognise the master style used throughout the products. However there is such a thing as too much information. I feel that there is a good source of information provided by Sky but is all of it actually accessed? I will include a lot less information to ensure the user does not get over whelmed.

ITV News

The website uses a set master style of a red header with ITV's logo on each of its pages. This gives the website a professional look. Setting this house style allows the website to continue the black, yellow and grey colour scheme throughout. On the main page the navigation bar is placed at the top of the page making it easy to locate and use. There are not loads of buttons which the user has to try and navigate round the site with, just a simple 4-5 buttons. The navigation bar has also been placed on every page allowing easy navigation for all users.


The main feature of ITV NEWS are stories which have just reached the center; 'Breaking News', like Sky. This feature keeps its viewers up to date with the latest information. These featured stories are displayed on the main page of the website. The website focuses around placing stories in videos to break down the information and make it easier to understand.

Out of the two websites I like ITV's the best as although the website has a simple layout it is still very informative and professional looking.I really like how you can access all the information from the home page making it easy to navigate throughout the site. I want to produce a website which has a simple layout and can easily be used by the users. I also like the wide range of videos which have been placed on the site splitting up the information.

Weather reporter

With the extreme snowy conditions that hit the UK we decided that we would produce a script which focused around the bad weather. Here is the script we put together for the weather girl to say.


'It is not looking much better I am afraid Runi for the next few days. That fun you have all been having looks set to continue for a little while longer! The last of today's sleet is clearing the south east of England maybe turning a touch wintry up over higher ground. Elsewhere where we have had that wintry weather today watch out for icy roads and pavements particularly across southern counties; such as Sussex, Essex and Surrey. Meanwhile a dry and clearer night maybe one or two light flurries across parts of south west England. Further afield the Met Office have issued a weather warning for parts of Scotland that could see a further 30cm of heavy snow especially on higher ground. For the North West more snow is expected maybe even 5-10 cm in places, temperatures will fall well below freezing maybe down to minus 15 for parts of the highlands. Now into tomorrow morning we will see less snow but an icy wind pushing in from the South West possibly turning a touch wintry over parts of the Moors and the Welsh mountains and also for the rest of the midlands in the afternoon. As for elsewhere a much colder day due to the high pressure being pushed in with temperatures as low as minus 4. Don't travel unless you have to due to wide spread areas of black ice. For more updates on your area please check our website.... And now we will look at the week ahead. On the snow front things are set to improve. All that snow is going to melt with the North of England suffering from some cold bitter winds but overall a much dryer week. For the South I am afraid heavy rain and drizzle is forecast.'

EXTREME WEATHER!!

In the beginning of January snow hit the UK again which gave us great footage for our news programme. So today we took the camera out with us and filmed all the snow and how it had affected the south east.

Here are the shots which we got from today's filming.

As part of the news content would be on extreme weather/ travel conditions we filmed an RAC van assisting a car which would not start. We thought that we could use the clip in the title sequence.

Here is the second clip of the RAC van. We zoomed in on the van to give the viewer an up close shot. As both of the clips were quite short we decided that we would edit them together on Premier.

Here is a shot of some fields covered in snow which showed how much snow had hit the south east. The camera pans to the left then back to the right, but due to the camera not being placed on a tripod the quality was not great. The shot is quite shaky and is not very clear either so we decided that we would not use the clip.

Here is a second shot of the fields in Bexley that we filmed. The camera zooms in across the fields this time showing the surrounding scenery. As the snow was falling quite heavily the shot is not very clear. Also because the camera was not placed on the tripod the shot quality is very poor so again we decided not to use either of the long shots.

Here is another shot which we filmed on today's session. This shot was not planned but when the opportunity arose I filmed the situation straight away. When the girls saw that some men were having trouble with their van they went over to help. While this was happening I got out the camera and filmed it all. When looking back at the shot it is not great quality but we decided that we would place it on our website as mobile phone footage.