Our guest editor was South Today's Editor, Lee Desty. He commended us on many aspects of the production, including the discipline everyone maintained throughout the day - he was very impressed with the direction and attitude of the gallery and studio floor. It was good to have a different and insightful perspective, as his input and feedback was somewhat of a change from the normal feedback, and as it came from a person who produces news bulletins daily, was invaluable.
Particular points he picked up on, which I now whole-heartedly agree with, was the fact that our headlines were not engaging enough and had low impact due to their short nature. He stressed the importance to make our headlines more catchy, and reaffirmed that if our headlines are not catchy then a news bulletin loses its appeal.
Another point he picked up on was the fact that sometimes we don't remain impartial in reporting and convey far too much opinion. This is a key point, and one which is often, wrongfully, overlooked. I believe that our packages refrain from malice and libel but sometimes too much comment creeps in. The overuse of comment will only lead to more serious consequences such as contempt of court or alienating viewers.
Further points he picked up on was the length of sport in the bulletin. I acknowledge the fact that sport is an essential part of the bulletin, but I have thought for a long time now, that it is far too dominating - making up 30% of the bulletin. I feel that sometimes the news part of the bulletin acts as merely a warm-up act for the sport as far as it's importance goes.
Personally, this week, I felt like there was a distinct lack of communication between the gallery and the studio floor. This point can be best summed up by the fact that there were changes in the script at the last minute which were not mentioned to anyone on the studio floor; this meant that there was no changes in the autocue. An even more freightening point was that those in the gallery had made a decision to cut a package from the bulletin but the presenters and those on the studio floor were unaware of these changes. This simply would not fly in a televised studio news bulletin. If it wasn't for the run-throughs, the presenter would have read a link which had nothing to do with the VT that followed.
Further points of consideration:
- Audio problems
- Dominating actuality over voiceovers
- Audio overlapped: interview and voiceover
- Problems with wind
- Oddly positioned interviews (not at eye-level)
- Bizarre cutaways with no relevance to story
- Overuse of GVs
- Strap lines appeared whilst interviewee was performing tasks, not talking
Overall, I think I speak for the whole team when I say that I'm very pleased with this week's production. With the all-round improvements in content and production, and improved promotion, I would be very surprised if our traffic has not improved greatly this week.
No comments:
Post a Comment