Analysis of structure, branding, graphics and presentation of a News programme.

 

BBC News screenshot (2022) "Prime Minister under pressure"

The graphics in this news piece are largely used for the purpose of introduction and further contextualising the piece with brief sentences that round up the report.

The ticker features a consistent headline, with an alternating tagline below. The style of the ticker itself is a black semi-transparent bar with a simple white Arial typeface. I like this minimal approach, as often I find that some on-screen graphics are distracting and shift the focus from the important information that the viewer is supposed to be digesting. Stories that are not considered ‘breaking’ in the news hierarchy, are still given a place in the lowermost banner.

In regards to this particular news piece, I find that the graphics help to enhance the story. I think this because the entire story is formed of many different layers that are key to the overall discussion, so having the ticker provide further context means that the report itself can hone in on the 'bigger picture’. This allows time to contextualise the report and cover some of the more specific points that relate to the story to ‘set the scene’; filling in any blanks that might be too long to communicate in the same report. 

The headline of the piece reads “UK Prime Minister under pressure”. This effectively creates interest by implying a larger story without offering context. Interestingly, this same headline was used back in May in a report regarding Boris Johnson. It shows that using a generic phrase can create interest in a story, despite the differences, without giving away key points. Political stories are engaging for many, as the repercussions of political unrest are felt by many. It allows the viewer to pose their own questions and engage in the piece; why is the Prime Minister under pressure? What has happened? What could this mean going forward? All of these questions will be answered during the report, which satiates the viewer, meaning that they’re more likely to continue to engage in the channel thereafter. All of the previous was written prior to Liz Truss resigning, but the news during this period was also very interesting to see. When Truss announced that she would be public speaking in the afternoon, the news channels became energised with theories of what was going to be happening without objective confirmation. Watching this unravel in real time was interesting to me, seeing how as time moved on, information continually trickled in, slowly helping to keep the story moving forward until, finally, the resignation came. Of course, the news channels are informed by sources and have access to information everywhere, but I found it interesting to see how journalists respond so effectively to information and begin to craft a narrative on the spot.

I believe that the GFX in this story are appropriate to the story and enhance the narrative. Adopting a ticker that rolls over to further contextualise the headline “Truss says mini budget went further and faster than markets were expecting.” is effective is establishing the foundation of the story. The GFX are not overly distracting in terms of design either, with red being the only primary colour being used sparingly alongside a black and white colour scheme which directs your attention to the appropriate information on screen.

Though this particular news piece doesn’t feature a breaking news banner, I have included an example from Sky News that demonstrates the use:

(Sky 'Breaking News' 2022)

I don’t think that all GFX are so effective, however. Take this shot from Sky news, for instance. For me, the introduction of yellow into the GFX proves to be distracting, and each graphic is having to contend for my attention. It’s worth noting that the ‘Breaking News’ was animated with a shine and a cyclic roll-over, as well as the banner at the bottom continually rolling, as well as the top, left information changing intermittently. All of this proves distracting and ultimately leads to poor retention of the most important information that is being presented.

During my research, I came across an interesting paper; (Rodrigues et al., Influence of the graphical layout of television news on the viewers: An eye tracking study 2016) This study investigated the ways in which viewers engaged with Television News with and without graphics using eye-tracking technology. You can see the clear differences between the examples below.

Looking at these examples, it's clear that when graphics are introduced on screen, the focus of one area becomes diluted and the viewers' experience appears to be more erratic. That being said, the findings of the study showed that when the graphics were over-utilised, retention of information actually increased. This interestingly is because people used their hearing as the primary component to onboard the information, rather than the visuals, proving that graphics do help to viewers to retain information; but just not in the way they're intended to.

Our channel will take a minimalistic approach to GFX, opting for a low-opacity black banner with white text that presents key information, as well as a channel ident in the top right corner. This allows the identity of the channel to remain consistent in its low-key visual style and allows the viewers’ focus to remain on the story. Anything more than the key components can sometimes feel like ‘overkill’ when we’d rather let the story speak for itself.

An example of proposed GFX from the Muse pitch.

Due to the simplicity of our GFX, this could be made simply in Premiere Pro by introducing a bar with altered opacity and white text. It is a fairly undemanding process, as the design is simple. Simplicity is key when it comes to MUSE, and this GFX, when utilised effectively, will allow us to stay consistent with our channel aesthetic. 

To summarise, I believe that GFX are an effective way to communicate information for the news format when used appropriately and sparingly. Looking at the aesthetics of other news channels has helped me to develop my understanding of what I like and dislike and how I will apply them to our group channel in a way that feels cohesive to the brand and engaging to the viewer.

Bibliography:

BBC News screenshot (2022) Internet Archive. BBC News. Available at: https://archive.org/details/BBCNEWS_20221015_150000_BBC_News (Accessed: October 23, 2022). 

Hunt, J. (2022) Sky 'Breaking News', Youtube. Sky News . Available at: N/A (Accessed: October 17, 2022). 

Rodrigues, R., Veloso, A. and Mealha, O. (2016) Influence of the graphical layout of television news on the viewers: An eye tracking study, pp. 75–75. Available at: https://doi.org/23/10/2022.