“Don’t judge a news by its front page” –––– Reflection on the final presentation

Time files and it has come to the last week of lecture which is also time for us to consolidate what we have learnt in the past four weeks’ lectures. Our final group project focused on the investigation of the media system in Hong Kong and an in-depth analysis of the news agenda setting and framing in Hong Kong with a case study of The Standard, which one of the famous free English daily newspaper in Hong Kong. We chose the Top News of The Standard as the unit of the analysis. For the in-depth analysis of the news agenda setting and framing in The Standard, we tried to identify its news coverage, the way of news reporting regarding the use of language and the choice for photographs and the stance of the news outlet with reference to the news values being put forward in the news reports through the observation of the Top News from The Standard from June 10 to June 24.

To start with, we first carried out a preliminary study on the news coverage of The Standard in the Top News session by carrying out a statistics on the news headlines of the Top News session. We divided the news headlines into five main categories which are the local news, international news, business, China and sports. From our statistics, it is concluded that The Standard mainly covers local and international news which shows that it emphasizes on the news value of proximity, prominence and currency in their news reports. This shows that The Standard not only stresses on raising the awareness of the audience about the current local issues but also arousing their attention on the ongoing processes and latest situations of the news events that happen globally.

In addition, as we observed in the news reports, we concluded that the stance of The Standard is neutral and objective as it provides the audience with the balanced arguments from both the supporting and opposing sides of the issues. It was also observed that the the use of language is descriptive, in which contributes to the objectivity of the news that there is no use of sentimental words and most of the paragraphs of the news are written in statements and direct quoting from the interviews. The result of the project impressed me a lot as the results of the desktop research firstly showed that the political stance of The Standard inclines towards the Chinese government. In fact, The Standard does not cover much news on the Chinese government and the use of language is often neutral but not in favour of the government and officials as mentioned from the online sources. This reminds me that we should always be careful of avoiding bias in our daily lives which means not only when we are reading the newspaper, but we also need to pay attention on defining what are opinions and facts before we choose to believe in a piece of information. We should not believe in opinions until it is proven to facts with a strong evidence-based support.

The example raised by the other group showing how the Time magazine framed Trump’s immigration policy with the cover photo also illustrates the point that we should not trust the news from the media blindly before applying our critical thinking in a way that we should first understand the purpose of a news outlet to present the news in a particular way and agenda. To do so, we need to understand the background and history of a news outlet by conducting research and analysis on it. There is often a old saying that “don’t judge a book by its cover”. But from today onwards, we should also not judge a news by its front page !

What are behind the everyday news stories ?

Take a glimpse at the secrets behind the news stories at the CBC news station

June 14, 2018

News broadcast is a window which connects us with the world and allows us to keep in touch with the outer world by just looking through the “window” of the news stories every day. Every day, we read news stories from the print and online news outlets; we would also view and listen to news broadcast on TV and radio. News are closely related to us on an everyday basis. Yet, are we really “familiar” with the news that we get in touch every day ? Have you ever wondered how the news stories are broadcast on TV and radio ? What are the hidden secrets and stories beneath the news stories being broadcast on the TV screens and radio ? Guided by a senior staff working at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), a tour to CBC will be introduced to you in the following. Do you want to know more about the news broadcasting industry ? Stay tuned and join our tour to one of the biggest traditional broadcasters in Canada. Let’s take a peek at the operation of the newsroom in CBC and discover the unknowns inside each news story.

Basic facts about CBC

Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) started up her first radio broadcast in 1936. After broadcasting on radio for 16 years, CBC started the TV broadcast in 1952. With the growing popularity of the Internet, CBC started the online news platform 30 years ago so as to allow more audience to reach her service.  Aspired to connect Canada coast to coast, CBC provides news broadcasting service both in English and French. CBC has also set up various news stations in Canada, in which the main station is located in Toronto. Our tour of this time will introduce you one of the news station branches of CBC which is situated in the Downtown Vancouver.

“Working together under the same roof”

Team spirit –––– The corestone in newsrooms

Our visit to CBC began at the integrated newsroom which was set up 9 years ago so as to facilitate the share of information and exchange of ideas between the journalists of various fields. “Teamwork is highly emphasized in the news broadcasting industry and thus the integrated newsroom was established to allow our journalists from the TV broadcasting news and the radio broadcast all work together under the same roof.” said the senior staff of CBC. “News broadcasting is all about team spirit. The sources of news collected from the team of the TV broadcasting news in the morning will be shared with the team of radio broadcast for in-depth news analysis on the radio shows in the afternoon session.” It is noted that team spirit is the corestone in a newsroom. No a single piece of news can be broadcast without the cooperation of different units in the newsroom.

A newsroom operates in a coordinated system. In order to maximize the working efficiency of a newsroom, the assignment desk works as a brain of the newsroom to receive news sources and assign reporters and cameramen to the spots to collect the first-handed information of the issues. “The assignment desk is the core area of the newsroom which is responsible for receiving the emergency news sources from the hotlines and emails. We also receive news sources on the social media platform these days too. We usually need to handle few hundred to a thousand emails and phone calls a day.” said the staff.

Who are behind the news stories ?

The hidden heros behind the scene

After the reporters have gathered the first-handed news sources on the spots, there are still few steps to broadcast a news on TV. Each TV broadcast news requires the cooperation of at least 5 people. First, the first-handed news sources will be organized and edited by the producer who is in charge of the content of the broadcast news. A producer needs to arrange and present different kinds of news stories in a balanced way. Sophisticated problem-solving techniques are also required for a producer as one may often need to handle with the breaking news stories and inserting them to the broadcasting news on air.

When news is being broadcast on air, despite the host is reporting the news in front of the camera, there are three crews working inside the control room of the studio. Director is the one who is responsible for the operation of the studio camera and the remote camera, which is the equipment used for the breaking news reports. The director also needs to select the suitable camera shoots which are previously recorded on the spots for the news broadcast.

Time control is important for a news broadcast on air as the time schedule is tight on TV broadcast. “The news broadcast has to end on time as other TV shows are scheduled after the news. If the news broadcast runs out of time, it has to be cut sharply so as to give time to another TV programme.” The assistant director is the timekeeper of the news broadcast who is responsible for controlling the time of the news broadcast within the time budget of 60 minutes, including the time for advertisement and weather broadcast. To facilitate the process of the broadcast, the assistant director count the time down for the host and the other crews of the team and cue them to be ready for the broadcast.  

Talking about the time control, the staff also shared a little funny secret with us. In a news broadcast, a teleprompter is used to provide the electronic script for the host. “If the news broadcast is running out of time, the assistant director will cue the host to report faster. Under the reporting desk of the host, there is a pedal which can control the speed of the teleprompter. In order to finish the broadcast punctually, the host will usually paddle down to speed up the pace of reading the script.”

“As news is ongoing and thus emergency happens at all time. Breaking news stories often interrupt the original flow of the news broadcast.” A crew called the resource man is responsible for the coordination of the reporters reporting on the spots and the hosts inside the studio.

The cameramen working inside the studio also take an important role in the news broadcast. “To ensure the picture of the broadcast news stay steady, the cameraman needs to carry a steady camera, in which a spring is installed inside the camera to stabilize the quality of the broadcast.The camera weighs around 60 to 65 pounds which is quite tired for the cameraman to carry it during the broadcast.”

The “secrets” behind the news stories

Beside introducing us the rundown for the operation of the news broadcast, the staff also told us some interesting facts about the news broadcast behind the scenes. Have you ever wondered why the heights of hosts look so similar on the TV news broadcast when they are standing together in front of the camera ? “This is not because they are of the same height. In fact, the shorter host stands on a standing block so that all the hosts look more united in height. However, the standing blocks are only suitable to be used in the close-up shoots only, but are not suitable for the wide shoots as the audience may be able to see the blocks.”  

What’s more, “being a TV news broadcaster, one may need to keep a professional image in front of the public at all times. It is not surprising that some make-up is put under the broadcasting desk for the hosts to remain professional and presentable at all times.”

At 11:30 a.m., when we were about to leave the newsroom, few journalists passed by quickly, holding the notebooks that full of handwritten notes and rushing to the conference room to discuss the latest news stories and got prepared for the TV news broadcast of the day at 6 o’clock in the evening. “Time is limited and tight for work of journalists. Some of them need to work on shift in order to follow the latest ongoing process of the news.” The effort and hard work that all the reporters and journalists paid on their jobs of news reporting and editing enables us to obtain information and understand the ongoing issues of the world from the news easily every day. Let’s pay tribute to all the journalists for their effort and don’t neglect their hard work when watching news broadcast today !

Hello everyone, I am Jamie Chan, a current year three student from the Department of Geography and Resource Management of the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Welcome to my blog ! As a geography student, not only am I enthusiastic in studying the physical landscapes, but I am also keen on learning its dynamic interactions with the human civilization. Thus, I enjoy travelling around the world to explore the socio-cultural dynamics in different places. Interaction with the local people from various places is one of the most fascinating things throughout my journeys to different places around the world which enables me to have a deeper insights to the world of diversity by listening to the stories from different local and indigenous people across the globe with different cultural and social backgrounds.

Beside listening to the stories from different people that I met in the journeys, I enjoy sharing their stories to others through photography and writing, in which I am more fascinated in telling stories and presenting the world of diversity in various perspectives of economy, politics, history and cultures through lens. Please stay tuned and cannot wait to share my experiences and stories in the Vancouver Summer Programme 2018 with all of you !