Content Research

During the development process of this unit, I found inspiration in many different things that helped to create a holistic view of the news channel that we aimed to create. 

Our own shared and individual experiences helped sculpt the direction of our target audience and this, paired with a desire to create, meant that we had a good idea of where we were heading and what to look for along the way to help create the channel that we wanted.

We knew from the beginning that we wanted to aim for a news channel that offered a more stylised, cinematic approach to news that had a considered approach to creating a compelling visual language, layered on top of more 'traditional' news content. After discussions with staff, it was suggested that our channel was best categorised as a 'News magazine show', stylistically offering something more attuned to documentary. I began watching work that had a similar tone to what we envisioned the final product to be and started making notes of inspiration here and there to gradually begin building some foundations of the channel. 

A screenshot from VICE that helped develop our visual language (Hume, 2022)

I engage with lots of different news, and it made me think about my preferences of how news is told. I'm a lover of VOX, as I think the team behind it have got a great talent for encapsulating big ideas into rather small packages, which is what news is all about. There's a lot to be said about creating efficient news that can be easily understood by anyone that might watch it. Although differing hugely from the aesthetic sensibilities of our own channel, VOX was a good example of constructing news that doesn't alienate viewers- that is incredibly important and a quality that we'd like to hone when creating our own product. I continued researching other platforms and came across this VICE piece. The framework of this presenter-led long news piece on Vice was interesting to me as it defied the usual expectations of news, while simultaneously not fulfilling the usual expectations of a documentary - providing a brief overview, rather than an extensive investigation- instead finding a middle ground between the two. In hindsight, I now know that this is what would be considered a mini-doc and this was something that created interest within the group and gave us an angle about how we'd direct our channel. 

One of the key features that defined the style of our channel was the demographic, which we had decided would be people who consider themselves to be 'Working class'. This, as somebody who considers themselves to be working class, was something that I was passionate about. Growing up in a council estate with a huge family and a small income has certainly accounted for a lot of the traits of my identity and the foundations of my beliefs. Feeling under-represented and often undermined ultimately becomes disenfranchising and the aim of our news package as a whole was to recognise these people and let them know that they are seen. We wanted to tell the stories of people who feel  'real', without treating them as props to satiate the cycle of news. David Hesmondhalgh, a Professor of Media and Cultural Studies, has this to say on the issue:

"-the media have contributed to the immiseration and marginalisation of working-class people by failing to adequately represent the complexity, diversity, and richness of their lives and values.'

The stories themselves were also carefully curated; we believed that both pieces would resonate with our audience, who could be on the peripheries of experiencing these issues themselves. After productive conversations with other members of the group these ideas began to develop, but it sadly wasn't infallible.  It became apparent that this was a difficult audience to aim for, for many reasons; the class structure is constantly evolving and there's a huge spectrum of diversity within the parameters that now define the ‘working-class’.

A conversation with a friend uncovered some interesting points about the potentially problematic representation of working-class people. My friend, a software developer whose earnings put him in the top 10% of the UK, considers himself to be working class. His argument- that he still has to work in order to pay his bills- meant that he wasn't financially 'free', and he believes the necessity to work meant he fit within the boundaries of what it is to be working-class. He also spoke of growing up, his Dad being a labourer on a low income, and how the implications of this developed in him a belief of himself being working-class, with an ideological understanding of what it is to be working-class was generationally inherited and for him, that defined him as so, despite the development within his personal life. Despite my initial protestations, I agreed with him; creating some doubt in the idea of creating a channel that despite good intentions, was perhaps excluding of many.

“Let the ruling classes tremble at a Communistic revolution. The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win.

Workingmen of all countries unite!”  

(Marx & Engels, 1848) 

 

Because of this, I feared that some of the choices in regard to the visuals (The studio space, costume etc.) felt appropriated and contrived, rather than the feeling of authenticity that was so important for us to achieve. I began to read articles and explore this dilemma further, a dilemma that permeated through each choice that we had made when creating the channel. In this period of research, I found this article which I found to be of value (It's not peer-reviewed or written by a Professor, but interesting nonetheless) about the appropriation of those on the lower end of the socio-economic scale. You can view that article here. (Schwartz, 2018). One aspect that proved to be difficult was choosing a presenter, knowing that it was impossible to encapsulate who a working-class person is and how they should look.

I still believed that our idea had potential and-though not as broad as I'd first imagined-appeal. We set about finding appropriate content to research and continuing to develop the idea further. We settled on the idea of industrial space as an alternative to the usual expectations of studio space, which would be more in-keeping in its style, the space reminiscent of an old-world blue-collar workspace. One of the members of our group suggested Chatham Dockyard, and after looking online at the space, it seemed to satisfy the vision we'd had. It was a collision of minimalistic open space infused with its authentic, patinated, industrial style and it seemed the perfect space to break free from the banality of the clinical, polished settings from which most news is usually delivered, whilst also satisfying the vision.

A mood board I created in pre-production to guide our location research.

When it came to developing ideas for our own content, we brainstormed current issues that felt as though they would be accessible and achievable for us within our timeframe and a budget of zero. We began by looking at news resources close to home, such as the Kent Messenger, as well as regional local News from bigger providers such as the BBC. By chance, I'd had a conversation with an employee of Gillingham Street Angels (GSA) some months ago, and she'd asked me to follow them on social media. I saw them post about the 'Big Sleep Out' event online and phoned their office to enquire. During the call, I was told about the Paramount Foundation and their collaborative effort with GSA, so I got in touch with Matt, the C.E.O, after finding his information on their website. Matt agreed to an interview and I began to research relevant information to support our report on homelessness. 

I was familiar with both Shelter and Porchlight so knew that they would have relevant, up-to-date information on homelessness, as well as verified data and statistics that we could use. I also looked at Maidstone and Medway Borough Councils' websites to look at the strategies they'd put in place to support those experiencing homelessness, as well as localised figures on homelessness and rough-sleepers.

Key findings from MBC's Homeless Strategy 2019-2024

Accessing all of this information made for a more well-informed news piece and also built my own interest in the story, and reading and engaging with some content on the same subject really developed my sense of empathy for the difficulties that people in this position endure. I think that when creating work, it always makes for a better final product when you feel genuinely passionate and invested in what you're making and researching this part of the package definitely helped me to do so.

Research isn't often a chore for me, as I like working my way along different tangents and following new points of interest. A sincere curiosity for new information makes all of this exciting and rewarding, as well as helps to develop my professional practice and the processes required to create something that does the subject justice. I hope that as the course continues, I get the opportunity to keep creating and working on projects that I'm passionate about and learning more. This entire learning journey helps not only with fulfilling the end goal of submitting work but also with developing me as a person in my private life, opening my eyes to new ways of thinking, sometimes getting me to challenge my own beliefs, and also become more attuned to the experiences of others.

 

BIBLIOGRAPHY

(2022) Why The Far Right Are So Weird About Sex | Decade of Hate. VICE. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdlXkgUGLv4 (Accessed: September 29, 2022). 

Hesmondhalgh, D. (2017) “The media's failure to represent the working class: Explanations from media production and beyond,” in Media and Class: TV, Film and Digital Culture. Routledge, pp. 17–17. 

Marx, K. and Engels, F. (1848) The Communist Manifesto. Moscow, USSR: Progress Publishers.  

Schwartz, E. (2018) Class appropriation in fashion is real, and impossible to talk about, Garage. Available at: https://garage.vice.com/en_us/article/xwmxgj/class-appropriation-in-fashion (Accessed: October 30, 2022). 

274,000 people in England are homeless, with thousands more likely to lose their homes (no date) Shelter England. Available at: https://england.shelter.org.uk/media/press_release/274000_people_in_england_are_homeless_with_thousands_more_likely_to_lose_their_homes (Accessed: October 31, 2022). 

About Porchlight (2021) Centre for Progressive Policy. Available at: https://www.porchlight.org.uk/downloads/attachments/Porchlight-Annual-Review-2020-21_digital.pdf (Accessed: October 31, 2022). 

Homelessness strategy 2019-2024 - Maidstone Borough Council (no date) Maidstone Borough Council Homeless Strategy. Available at: https://maidstone.gov.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0005/164669/Homelessness-Strategy-2019-2024-Final-with-glossary.pdf (Accessed: October 31, 2022).