new zealand television: television news

NEW ZEALAND TELEVISION:TELEVISION NEWS

Contents: page

EARLY EVENING CHORUS Sleeping Dogs (extract) 6

PRE TELEVISION 6EARTHQUAKE Terrible Earthquake Disaster at Napier-Hastings and Surroundings (extracts)FIRE Weekly Review 325 (extract)PROTEST Cinesound Review 1489

NZBC TV NEWS SERVICE 25 years of Television: NZBC Presents (extract) 7

STYLE & CONTENT 8NEWS STORY PROCESS

1985

PLANNING & SHOOT Network New Zealand - TVNZ (extracts) ELECTRONIC NEWS GATHERING (ENG) SHOOT Network New Zealand - TVNZ (extracts) ON AIR Network New Zealand - TVNZ (extract) WHOLE BULLETIN 6:30 News (extracts)2003

PLANNING The One News Story (extracts) SHOOT The One News Story (extracts) ON AIR The One News Story (extract)

ANCHORS & AUDIENCE! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! 10LANGUAGE

BBC NZBC One Turns 40 (extract) TALKING LOUD IN A KIWI ACCENT TV3 News 25/05/2007 (extract)EVOLUTION OF NEWS MISE EN SCENE Eyewitness News 15/09/1989 (extract)COMPETITION AND WHAT AUDIENCES WANT TV3 National News 26/11/1989 (extracts)THE MOTHER OF THE NATION:

NEWSREADING 101 The One News Story (extracts) JUDY’S LAST DAY One News 23/12/2005 (extract)

ANCHORS & AUDIENCES (cont...)

TARGETED YOUTH Flipside Series 1 27/08/2002 (extracts)NO MINISTER / INTERVIEWING STYLE One Turns 40 (extract)FOREIGN CORRESPONDENTS One Turns 40 (extract)REGIONAL NEWS One Turns 40 (extract)STORMING OF THE NEWS Tatau Tatau (extract)

AWARDS AND SELF PROMOTION

BEST IN SHOW News Promo MORE THAN A NEWSREADER TV3 News Promo THEY GET THE NEWS TV3 News Promo THE RIGHT TO KNOW TV3 National News 26/11/1989 (extract)

SPECTACLE!! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! 17TRAGEDY TODAY IN WELLINGTON HARBOUR NZBC News 10/04/1968 (extracts)ONE NEWS PROMO 2008 One News PromoWAR

GULF WAR I - OPERATION DESERT STORM TV News 17/01/1991 (extract) Duration 3:29 GULF WAR II - OPERATION ENDURING FREEDOM TV3 News 20/03/2003 (extracts) BLOOD ON THE LENS One News Late Edition 07/04/2003 (extract)

THE COOTCHIE COO VIEW! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! 20ONE DAY IN APRIL One News 04/04/2008 (extract)THAT SAME DAY IN APRIL TV3 News 04/04/2008 (extract)LATER THAT MONTH TVNZ News 09/04/2008 (extract)

WEATHER! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! 22FORECAST FOR 1975 NZBC News (extract)FORECAST FOR 1985 6:30 News 09/07/1985 (extract)

USER GENERATED! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! 22INDYMEDIA indymedia.org (extract)YOUTUBE

SELF PROMOTION TV3 News 13/04/2007 (extract) CELL PHONE CONTENT One News 02/05/07 (extract) FIGHT CLUB TV3 News 04/04/2008 (extract)KIDS TV Capital E

TECHNOLOGY 25TRANSMISSION & RECEPTION

NETWORK

PRE NETWORK One Turns 40 (extract) NETWORK One Turns 40 (extract) THE NETWORK BEAMS Network New Zealand – TVNZ (extract) FRED DAGG’S GUIDE TO TV RECEPTION Television One (extract)

SATELLITES

THE COMPRESSION OF SPACE AND TIME One Turns 40 (extract) MEDIA EXCANGE The One News Story (extracts) RIGHT ORBIT, WRONG SETTING One News 14/11/2006. (extract)

DIGITAL One News 15/06/2006 (extract)

BROADBAND The History of Technology: The Future of TV (extract)

PRODUCTION TECHNOLOGY! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! 27THE TELEPHONE One Turns 40 (extract)STUDIO CAMERA (slides)

TELEPROMPTERS & ROBOTS The One News Story (extract)LOCATION NEWS CAMERA (slides)

GRAPHICS The One News Story (extract)

Total Duration: 211 minutes

NEW ZEALAND TELEVISION: TELEVISION NEWSThis DVD is a collection of extracts from television news, and programmes about television news and current affairs since the early 1960s. The DVD can be viewed in isolation, or as part of a wider study encompassing the other two On Disk New Zealand Television titles - Media Issues and Public Service and Commercial Television.Television news is a primary source of information for many people and therefore provides an essential service in a democracy, where, in order to participate you have to be informed. Just what, and also importantly, how, that information is conveyed does help set the agenda for what is deemed important in a society. Television news has changed massively since the early 1960s and this DVD gives students the opportunity to chart this change and question whether society is being well served by today’s news values. NEWS VALUES

Just what makes something news is a question Scandinavian researchers, Galtung and Ruge, addressed when they identified ‘news values’ that guide the selection of news stories. They identified nine general factors for what makes a news event news. The more factors a story met, the further likelihood that story would make news.The invaluable New Zealand media website Mediascape – The Guide to Kiwi Media, has Judy McGregor’s adapted presentation which covers Galtung and Ruge’s nine key news values: http://www.mediascape.ac.nz/cms/index.php?page=news-values

1. Frequency – the more similar the frequency of the event is to the frequency of the news 2. Threshold – an event has to reach a certain threshold before it becomes news3. Lack of ambiguity – black & white rather than shades of gray4. Meaningfulness – the more an event is linked to the cultural norms and values of an audience

the more meaningful they are5. Relevance – refers to the level of meaning implied for news audiences6. Consonance – relates to audience expectations7. Unexpectedness 8. Continuity – refers to the idea that once something has entered the cycle of news it will remain

news until it disappears from the news cycle. 9. Composition – the make-up of the news broadcast or front page that has a mix of stories and

a contrast of ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ news. Composition is linked to marketing of news.

McGregor also suggests four new news values that are interrelated and television driven and impact on all news formats:

1. Visualness – the dominant news value of our times. If there are no pictures, chances are the story wont make the news.

2. Emotion – is linked to visualness and means that unless an event or an issue is accompanied by an emotional subtext then it is less likely to be selected as news

3. Conflict – this means that if there is not an A versus B evident in an issue then it may be considered less newsworthy because notional ides of “balance” and “two sides to every story” cannot be satisfied

4. “Celebrification” of the journalist / presenter – the growth of the television technique the “piece to camera” has fostered journalists as celebrities

New Zealand Television News- 5 -

http://www.mediascape.ac.nz/cms/index.php?page=news-values

http://www.mediascape.ac.nz/cms/index.php?page=news-values

EARLY EVENING CHORUS

Sleeping Dogs (extract)Aardvark Films 1977. Duration 3:08

The opening scene to Sleeping Dogs contrasts the innocent drawing of a child with the theme music to network news and subsequent lead story. The news serves as exposition to establish the political context for the film. Although fictional, it is a fair representation of the presence of TV news in its domestic setting - an early evening chorus played in homes throughout New Zealand.

At the time Sleeping Dogs was shot, state owned television in New Zealand had the most independence from Government it had ever had, including a second channel introduced in 1975. However this relative autonomy was not to last, and perhaps this sequence foreshadowed this. The fact that State owned Television One allowed the use of its newsreader and logo in a film depicting a police state and an authoritarian Prime Minister, at the start of Robert Muldoon’s tenure, may have been seen as a little provocative.

PRE TELEVISION

Before the start of television in New Zealand in 1960, and television news in 1962, New Zealander’s saw moving images of news events at the cinema as newsreels. Until the early 1930’s newsreels were silent, apart from some live musical accompaniment, and generally made by private operators as the government tended to focus on tourist and publicity films. The establishment of the National Film Unit in 1941 changed this, although, as an information arm of the Government the output consisted of positive spin so there were few controversial stories - Royal tours featured heavily. Newspapers, on the other hand, were far more critical. NFU newsreels were packaged together as the Weekly Review, which was literally that, and shown to the public before feature films in theatres around New Zealand. They averaged five minutes long and contained around four different stories, occasionally spending the entire review on one story. A change of Government in 1949 saw the production of the Weekly Review stopped for alleged political bias. In 1952 the NFU began producing a newsreel package again, Pictorial Parade, which continued to run until the early 1970’s. By this time television news had long since usurped the information newsreels relevance.

EARTHQUAKE

Terrible Earthquake Disaster at Napier-Hastings and Surroundings (extracts)Theatre Service News / Ted Coubray 1931. Duration 0:37Ted Coubray was a NZ film pioneer who turned his hand to industrial films, features, newsreels and actualities (footage of real events). In this footage he captures the devastation of Napier that only pictures can. Further information is conveyed through the silent film convention of inter-titles. As one of the few independent filmmakers Coubray had limited resources but lots of ingenuity – he used to build his own cameras. Consider also his tenacity in this instance; in an age before helicopters, impassable roads meant he had to carry his equipment into the ruined city.

New Zealand Television News

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FIRE

Weekly Review 325 (extract)National Film Unit 1947. Duration 3:50Dramatic footage of the 1947 Ballantynes Department store fire in Christchurch captured by a National Film Unit crew who happened to be in Christchurch at the time. The over-the-top music is a convention of the era and compensates for the lack of synchronised sound (location sound recording was restricted by cumbersome equipment). The irony of smoking firefighters is everywhere – look out for the shot where a woman takes a cigarette out of the mouth of a civilian firefighter to give him a sip of tea. Weekly Review 325 (325th week) also had stories on: Wellington…homemade bowling green; Cycling…. Championships and Olympic Trials; Christchurch….Industries Fair; Aid for Great Britain…. Miss New Zealand; National Film Unit Newsflash – Christchurch Fire.

PROTEST

Cinesound Review 1489Cinesound Productions 1960. Duration 1:07At the dawn of television in New Zealand it took an Australian film crew to cover dissent in ‘Godzone.’ An Auckland rally demonstrates against an idea most New Zealanders can’t get used to - a touring All Black football team without a Maori in the side due to South Africa’s apartheid laws.

NZBC TV NEWS SERVICE

25 years of Television: NZBC Presents (extract)Television New Zealand 1985. Duration 2:52Under the New Zealand Broadcasting Service (NZBS) that ran radio and TV from 1960 to 1962, incredibly, there was no regular local news service on either medium. On television there was an overseas newsreel that was still the most popular programme. In 1962 broadcasting became an independent corporation (NZBC) and New Zealand’s own TV News service began. “TV enabled us to share what was happening throughout the country.” Royal tours still featured heavily and, “The first big local news coverage was the 1963 Royal Tour. When the queen left we made do with the comings and goings of Governors General.” Finally, Dougal Stevenson makes it clear that the amusement of its viewers was paramount, “The information function of television was very important, but undoubtedly its prime purpose was to entertain.”


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STYLE & CONTENTSpanning nearly twenty years, this section looks at television news in 1985 and 2003. It shows the technological and stylistic changes as well as the shift in emphasis and content towards visualness, conflict, emotion and celebrification of the journalist.

NEWS STORY PROCESS

1985

PLANNING & SHOOT

Network New Zealand - TVNZ (extracts)Ian Mackersey Productions 1985. Duration 6:25In Auckland, the chief reporter offers national bulletins editor some stories for the 6:30 news: Union Carbide strike; TV violence; check on a communist; roller skating; and a toss-up between the singing bus driver and Anna’s dream of peace. The rest of the extract follows the reporter covering a story on the influence of the TV show, The Dukes of Hazzard, on reckless driving. The reporter’s research includes watching footage of real accident scenes, that he may include in the final item, and gives rise to a reflection of the ethical dilemma of news values and using material that accident victims will see broadcasted. There is also interesting observational footage of the location interview.

1985 technology includes: the use of typewriters in the office; the reporter watches the archive footage on film on an editing bench; the film crew shoot on 16mm film with a magnetic strip down the side to record sound (colour reversal - no negative so cheaper and quicker to process); wooden tripod legs; the film is edited - chopped up and spliced; a voice over is added and will go to air from a telecine machine (converts the film into a electronic signal for broadcast).

ELECTRONIC NEWS GATHERING (ENG) SHOOT

Network New Zealand - TVNZ (extracts)Ian Mackersey Productions 1985. Duration 1:40In 1985, Electronic News Gathering (ENG) - a portable video camera that was to replace film, was a new and revolutionary development in television news in New Zealand. As the crew drive out to a shoot the reporter discusses with his cameraman and sound recordist his “usual style” - vox pops, gun mics etc. The video footage is then edited in a linear fashion - the editor has to physically roll through the footage to find what he/she wants and add that content (edit) to linear video tape.

ON AIR

Network New Zealand - TVNZ (extract)Ian Mackersey Productions 1985. Duration 12:30An incredibly candid and insightful look at the 6:30 news bulletin going to air; made at a time when the broadcaster was not concerned about competition (there wasn’t any). The tension is palpable, and often expressed, as technology and people attempt to coordinate for live-to-air television. Missed cues and story changes show the human element that is still part of TV news today.


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WHOLE BULLETIN 1985

6:30 News (extracts)Television New Zealand 1985. Duration 30:18 (Sound glitch at start)In 1985 the main television Network News was at 6:30 on Television One. The news bulletin, including sport and ads, was 30 minutes long, followed by regional news from Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin, returning back to network national weather. All up, national and regional news, sport, weather and advertising was one hour. This is a thirty-minute extract of that hour and is a great snapshot of 1985 television - including Cold War politics and ads, some of which show 1985 computer and video technology. The bulletin has timecode and gives the opportunity for comparative content analysis with today’s news, based on the premise of “Diet News” and the Dumbing Down section from the On Disk programme, New Zealand Television: Media Issues.

The bulletin leads with New Zealand’s most famous case of media bashing when Bob Jones assaults a TV News crew for accosting him when he was fishing. Dramatic though it is, there is still a certain amount of restraint.

2003

PLANNING

The One News Story (extracts)Television New Zealand 2003. Duration 1:15In this extract the planning meeting is quite a contrast to the low-key one carried out by just two staff in 1985. The One News meeting involves numerous people looking at stories that may make the 6 p.m. news. In both 2003, and 1985, television news’ shared news values with print media are shown as newspaper stories are looked at as possible content to pursue. In an interview with the executive producer she talks about the need to “entertain in order to inform and educate.”

SHOOT

The One News Story (extracts)Television New Zealand 2003. Duration 5:24Different story, different decade, similar process. Changes to 1985 include: young female reporter, lone crew shooting on digital video using radio mics, so no boom mic required. Reporters still use the iconic handheld mic with channel logo in a piece to camera (PTC). There are discussions on the difficulty of shooting with mixed light sources and the nerves of interviewees.

ON AIR

The One News Story (extract)Television New Zealand 2003. Duration 2:41Unlike the 1985 version, this slick and racy presentation of the news going to air is targeted at the school market and conveys information with energy. Furthermore, this emphasis on energy, deadlines and technology is an image that news organisations like to project. This is particularly so with the use of live links to reporters in the field (near the story). The news anchor has to “decide with the reporter and [news] editor, the question line [....] there are usually only two questions, so they really have to be precise and hone that subject down.” Live crosses are regular events in news bulletins because they imply that a reporter will have the best information because they are at the scene. It sometimes reaches absurd proportions when they do live crosses within the television network building.


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ANCHORS AND AUDIENCES

As the ‘face of news’ the news anchor has an important position in the ‘flagship’ programme of a network broadcaster. The main network news still attracts large audiences (averaging 644,000 viewers per night for One News in May 2008) and is an important feeder for later programming. In an industry that relies on ratings for advertising revenue, news is the great provider of both. In order to achieve high ratings the broadcasters employ the latest technology and delivery styles. News delivery moved from the formal and objective single anchor, to that of the more informal knowing friends. Dual male and female anchors share stories, express emotion, and engage in scripted banter (chit chat) telling us the bad news of the day while showing us they’re human too. Broadcaster, Brian Edwards, (who features prominently in New Zealand’s television history) has called this the “Cootchie Coo news.” Cootchie Coo is something you do to amuse a baby – is this how television news treats its audience?

McGregor’s notion of the ’Celebrification of the Journalist’ is now the norm. Being a celebrity means that, and news is only but part of their performance. Celebrity culture needs a fertile media petri dish to grow in, and cross media deals provide this. The ex head of TVNZ News and Current Affairs, Bill Ralston, says this about the celebrity phenomena:“In the 1980’s, facing competition from the newly emerging TV3, TVNZ kick-started the celebrity culture by actively promoting public interest in the lives of its stars through strategically placed stories in women’s magazines, Sunday newspapers and its own TV shows.” Ralston goes on to say, “Both TVNZ and TV3 now have focus groups and other polling research charting their presenters popularity.” (New Zealand Listener: July 26 – Aug 1, 2008). This in turn not only determines the “publicity strategy” for the presenters, but also, in the case of TVNZ, factored into the annual performance review process of these staff. In other words, the more the focus groups likes them, the more they are paid! The key question here is, what about the content? Legendary CBS news anchor Fred R. Murrow, the subject of a film that would complement a study of TV news, Good Night and Good Luck, had this to say about TV news: “We are in the same tent as the clowns and freaks – that’s show business.”

LANGUAGE

BBC NZBC

One Turns 40 (extract)Television New Zealand 2000. Duration 0:49Dougal Stevenson suggests that ‘colonial cringe’ was responsible for why NZ television news emulated the BBC’s ‘proper’ accent. Note the deft single camera work that pans from the newsreader and zooms in to a projected image of President Nixon.


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TALKING LOUD IN A KIWI ACCENT

TV3 News 25/05/2007 (extract)TV3 Network 2007. Duration 2:173 News looks at the developing Kiwi accent and links this with the change in news delivery since the first TV3 news broadcasts of 1989. The irony here is that at the end of 1986 TVNZ had already changed to a more informal two-person approach. Instead, TV3 used the tried and proven dispassionate single newsreader to give its bulletin credibility and authority; to which it received critical acclaim, but not ratings. TV3 faced receivership and struggled financially and eventually joined TVNZ eleven years later and introduced a co-anchor. TV3’s main news anchor, John Hawkesby, who is referred to later, eventually resigned over this change.

EVOLUTION OF NEWS MISE EN SCENE

1. Black & White and low tech. Reading from paper, projected slides, superimposed titles2. 1975. The new Avalon TV centre had all the bells and whistles and the newfangled chroma key

method (inserting an object from one shot into another by using a solid background colour behind the subject and treating that colour as transparent). Dougal’s still reading from paper though!

3. 1985. Beige and picture in picture (an image is superimposed onto another in the vision mix)4. Reflexive – the technology is shown5. 1989. Two news readers beat as one6. Live crosses in the field – over-shoulder shot of interview with person on a screen7. Lone newsreader, newsroom background. A popular ‘look’ showing an ‘actual’ newsroom

Future directions: Newsreaders standing in front of full screens. Graphics, graphics and more graphics.

Eyewitness News 15/09/1989 (extract)Television New Zealand 1989. Duration 2:50“Next week Eyewitness sheds its sober blue-grays for new colours and a new look.” This extract shows a montage of eyewitness news over 10 years. The look of news sets and presenters evolved over the decades as a response to technology and style. Of course, as with all mise en scene (fiction and non fiction), the use of sets, lighting, costume, camera and composition and performance all contribute to meaning. In some cases millions of dollars are spent on a set change to best represent the image of that news organisation and channel. In New Zealand the frequency of change increased with the coming of competition. In the 1990’s and today, multimillion dollar make-overs and re-branding occur to attract and keep audiences.

COMPETITION AND WHAT AUDIENCES WANTNew Zealand Television News

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TV3 National News 26/11/1989 (extracts)TV3 Network. Duration 5:17The 1989 launch of TV3 and its news service was promoted by having, “Mr. Credibility, Phillip Sherry, who returns on 3 National News.” Sherry had already spent decades in New Zealanders living rooms on the Government owned broadcaster but was put out to pasture when TVNZ changed its ‘look.’ TV3 was trying to capitalise on Sherry’s history and pedigree to attract audience. Unfortunately, a delayed start time of late November meant that TV3 missed the prime winter months to attract and consolidate audience and advertisers before the low viewing season of summer. By May 1990 it had gone into receivership. TVNZ, on the other hand, had already gone down the “American” style road and employed American consultants to change the news to a more modern (co-anchor) approach, and “new” TV3, seemed a bit old hat. Sherry emphasizes the importance of television news stating, “Well, TV3 say TV news is about people, and for people, and our job is to reflect our community and to reach into the world and bring you what you want to know, what you need to know, and what you have a right to know.” He goes on to introduce some thoughts about news from viewers:

“I’d like to see more about the achievements of all New Zealanders, not just our sports people and businesspeople.”Ex Prime Minister, Robert Muldoon says “show what people say, too much editing distorts the message and we get too much of it.”I’m glad that Phillip Sherry is coming back and I’d like to see much less political rubbish on television news.”

THE MOTHER OF THE NATION

In 1975 Jenny Goodwin became the first woman in the world to read television news. Judy Bailey followed in her footsteps and became one of New Zealand’s longest serving, and most popular newsreaders achieving the moniker of ‘mother of the nation.’ Bailey joined the NZBC as a reporter in 1971, becoming a co-presenter of the Auckland regional news programme, Top Half, from 1980. Late in 1987 she moved to co-anchor the 6 o’clock Network News with Richard Long. This proved to be a very successful pairing, although, TVNZ meddling in 1998 attempted to create a ‘dream team’ and reunite her with her old Top Half host, John Hawkesby. TVNZ underestimated the relationship its viewers had with the duo when they replaced Long with Hawkesby. The subsequent fallout and audience anger over Long’s axing meant an embarrassing, and expensive, turn around. Long was reinstated and Hawkesby had to be paid out of his contract to the tune of six million dollars. (newsreaders had become more important than the news itself?) Eventually Long was removed again and Bailey went it alone until rebranding, to address slipping market share, and a salary scandal, hastened her departure at the end of 2005. During this time, sets changed almost as frequently as news and current affairs bosses as TVNZ continued to battle with rival TV3.

NEWSREADING 101New Zealand Television News

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The One News Story (extracts)Television New Zealand 2003. Duration 1:34Judy Bailey was / is an extremely popular, competent and professional broadcaster who adapted to the roles asked of her by news bosses in their quest for viewers. Perhaps her ascent was serendipitous as her manner fitted the new direction of TV News. As the old guard were culled, and the current remodeled, there were few public signs of resistance. However, one pocket was found in the brief stand 3 News’ main anchor, John Hawkesby, made against TV3’s decision to finally join TVNZ and have dual newsreaders. In a more recent (June of 2007) international example:of newsreaders resisting lowering standards, American MSNBC newsreader, Mika Brzezinski, refused to read the lead story about the release of Paris Hilton from jail. She also screwed up the hard copy of the story and attempted to set fire to it. She instead jumped to a more appropriate ‘hard news’ lead on downsizing troop numbers in Iraq. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VdNcCcweL0

In this interview, Bailey explains her process, no doubt honed by many hours of training by ‘advisers,’ and in so doing gives an insight into Cootchie Coo news:

“Preparation is everything, I think. The best thing to do is immerse your-self in news from the very beginning. So the minute I wake up in the morning I’m listening to radio, read the paper from end to end, watch the midday bulletins and the breakfast news, so I know what news stories are around for the day and I understand all the angles that are being followed and so on (media loop – shared news values and stories). And then at two o’clock we have an editorial meeting where all our angles are discussed, so it’s really good to understand the actual flow of the bulletin as well, what stories follow each other and what links there may be between them (this is to create a narrative flow, rather than just individual items). And then really it’s a matter of reading the stuff as it comes in, aloud, and tweak it so it sounds more conversational (friends in your living room).

The most important thing in communicating through a camera is to be yourself (the personality of the anchor is as important as the news, scripted chit chat between stories further establishes this), not to be, trying to be a newsreader, or an entertainment host, or whatever, but to be yourself (newsreader = entertainment host?). And to understand your content and understand your audience and then I don’t think you can go wrong. And also enjoy it, enjoy it is really important.”

JUDY’S LAST DAYOne News 23/12/2005 (extract)Television New Zealand 2005. Duration 4:50A montage of Bailey’s history with TVNZ not only shows the changes in news sets and presentation, but also, the extent of her other charity and promotional roles as the public face of TVNZ. In one of many examples of the news becoming the news, we follow Judy out of the studio and into the corridors of TVNZ where she receives an ovation from staff.

See On Disk, New Zealand Television: Public Service & Commercial Television for more on the pay scandal

TARGETED YOUTH


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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VdNcCcweL0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VdNcCcweL0

Flipside Series 1 27/08/2002 (extracts)Television New Zealand 2002. Duration 3:28Over the years television has tried youth focused news shows and Flipside was a critically acclaimed, but relatively short lived, magazine format show that had news and current affairs. It addressed a younger demographic and fulfilled some of TVNZ’s public service charter requirements. Casual and informal in style, and even more conversational than One News, it had hosts sitting on cushions reading the news in bright and interesting sets with vibrant (funky) graphics.

NO MINISTER / INTERVIEWING STYLE

One Turns 40 (extract)Television New Zealand 2000. Duration 11:00The late 60s and early 70s saw TV journalists assert their independence rather than accept the status quo. This led to conflict with politicians who thought that because they owned TV they should control it. A shift in interviewing style from subservience to confrontation - asking questions that the interviewee did not like, found resistance with viewers, who initially found it rude, but eventually said it was what they wanted. Sean Brown recounts an astounding example of government interference in news when the Minister of Defense, after a ‘fact-finding’ trip to Vietnam, came back of the opinion that the war was being won and that the media’s reporting to the contrary was wrong. He wanted to put this side of the story on the news but was refused. He was however able to give his views on television immediately after the news.

For almost a decade journalists struggled with the confrontational style of Robert Muldoon and this extract includes the classic Simon Walker interview where he is called, “A smart aleck interviewer changing the rules of the game half way through.” The late 80s and 90s saw more media savvy politicians trained to make the most of ‘soundbites’ and a medium that changed with deregulation and competition. The Current Affairs show Holmes started in 1989 with an ambush on the American Americas cup skipper, Dennis Conner. Audiences were shocked, but as Holmes says, “By the next day there was no one in NZ who didn’t know about the Holmes programme.” He also reflects upon his influence on creating an informal style of television interviewing with an equal measure of controversy and a demand for concise answers.

FOREIGN CORRESPONDENTS

One Turns 40 (extract)Television New Zealand 2000. Duration 1:46In 1989 TVNZ sent journalists to Australia and Europe to report, “almost daily,” matters of interest to New Zealand. Liam Jeory gives an account of the dilemma when faced with two important events to cover at once - the third rugby league test, or the fall of the Berlin wall.

REGIONAL NEWS


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One Turns 40 (extract)Television New Zealand 2000. Duration 1:34Early television news / current affairs had a significant component of regional content; to a large extent attributable to a lack of national network, although they remained popular when a network was in place. Local content, especially current affairs, were places for developing skills and creative experimentation. Wellington’s successful Town and Around provided a model for the other three broadcasting regions of New Zealand. In 1989 the format of the national news followed by local current affairs changed when TVNZ’s launched the Holmes show. Competition, and desire for national ratings meant for stronger development of the national, rather than the regional identity. Audiences had become New Zealanders!

STORMING OF THE NEWS

Tatou Tatou (extract)Maori Television 2004. Duration 2:16In 1983 the news in Maori, Te Karere, first started screening in prime-time. Bi-lingual crews were able to report on both the Maori and non-Maori worlds. Te Karere’s hold on the slot was at times tenuous and on several occasions it was axed for more important mainstream fare, such as cricket. Many Maori were outraged by this, and in fact, thought Maori news should be given the same time as Pakeha news. In the early 1990’s Maori activists, led by Ken Mair, got home this point when they managed to get into the studio and hold up the news broadcast in protest

AWARDS AND SELF PROMOTION

Broadcasting is a business and part of business is getting its brand out there in the marketplace. If part of that branding is qualitative and provided by an outside body then all-the-better. In between the annual awards viewers are reminded of how good the news is by the networks own promos that feature their stars (anchors).

BEST IN SHOW

News PromoTelevision New Zealand 2000. Duration 1:08Competition means marketing, and an important part of this is the kudos associated with getting awards from independent, peer judged events like the Quantas media awards. Winning an award is worth trumpeting about to remind viewers (and advertisers) just how good a product they have, even if that market only consists of just two players. News values are reinforced in this process.

MORE THAN A NEWSREADER


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TV3 News PromoTV3 Network [200-]. Duration 0:38This promo shows TV3 news anchor, Hillary Barry, out in the field getting the story. TV3 pushes the journalistic credentials of those reading the news, rather than just newsreaders. The slow and reflective soundtrack is particularly effective at setting the serious tone and burden of responsibility of news gathering, before introducing the 3 News signature theme tune interspersed with jarring location sound. Barry is framed as a lead character experiencing and reporting tragic and uplifting events. This helps package the News with an overall narrative, rather than just a collection of stories

THEY GET THE NEWS

TV3 News Promo TV3 Network 2008. Duration These promos are shot in a typical kiwi café where TV3’s news anchors, Mike McRoberts and Hillary Barry reflect on stories they covered and how they felt about them. The catch-phrase, They don’t just present the news, he/she gets it, in this context, implies two things: Firstly, they go out and get the news, and secondly, they understand and ‘feel’ the news and is a good example of how far television news has changed when newsreaders have to be empathetic. Moody black and white footage adds a filmic seriousness to it all.

For and example of a One News Promo (see SPECTACLE)

THE RIGHT TO KNOW

TV3 National News 26/11/1989 (extract)TV3 Network. Duration 2:00Current Affairs is an extension of TV news where, ideally, journalists have more time (both for research and on air) for investigation. At the end of 1989 TV3 unleashed a Canadian, Genevieve Westcott, onto NZ screens to compete with Holmes. Like Holmes, she too was both hated and loved, although each network hoped for more of the latter to boost ratings. News and Current Affairs were/are a serious and important business, and this ‘interview’ with Westcott certainly conveys this,- addressing journalistic touchstones such as accuracy, the right to know, integrity, impartiality, and associating these words with the name Genevieve Westcott

SPECTACLE - [ An event or scene regarded in terms of its visual impact ]


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TRAGEDY TODAY IN WELLINGTON HARBOUR

NZBC News 10/04/1968 (extracts)NZBC 1968. Duration 5:12This was the coming of age event for television news in New Zealand and the NZBC received an international World Newsfilm award for it. Coverage that was made possible by having the events unfold on Wellington’s doorstep. Dougal Stevenson reads the bulletin as a commentary over dramatic pictures of the events with a deliberate and sombre tone that fits the story – although all news was read like this then. There are frequent pauses as the pictures and wind speak for themselves. Later in the extract a reporter interviews survivors.

ONE NEWS PROMO 2008

One News PromoTelevision New Zealand 2008. Duration 1:00The spectacle is well packaged in this teaser for what One News can offer its viewers. Every shot is carefully selected to represent what One News is. Naturally, its presenters / stars are promoted, but what is especially pertinent is just exactly what is considered news (news values):

Race and nationhood at Waitangi; earthquake; weather; crime scene; angry friend/relative of victim beating on the door of a police van carrying the suspect; chaotic scenes outside a courthouse; New York; police chase and ramming of fleeing vehicle; burning airliner; sport / celebrity – David Beckham; body bag; crime scene & police, political reporter on a TV screen; technology; countdown to going to air.

A cursory look at the list suggests that crime is the story. Statistics New Zealand report on crime in New Zealand 1996 – 2005 says:

“Violent crime is a matter of particular concern to the public. It accounts for less than 12 percent of all recorded offences in 2005; however, it traditionally receives the most public concern and attention in the media. Although the media attention given to

violent crime may seem out of proportion in terms of its volume contribution to overall recorded crime levels, the effect of violent crime on the victims and on the

general public’s perception of community safety contributes to its high profile.”

What the report does not go into is the influence of the media on the public perception of crime. In a complex world crime is a simple dramatic story: criminal + victim = crime / bad + good = story. Professor George Gerbner coined the term, ‘mean world syndrome,’ based on his ‘Cultivation Theory’ on the effects of media. After extensive research in the United States, he concluded that heavy viewers of television (more than four hours per day) perceived the world to be a scarier place than those who watched less. (...continued overleaf)

Perhaps blurring the distinction between fiction and nonfiction programmes through the use of similar conventions (narrative / technical / symbolic) may in fact add to this ‘mean world’ perception.


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This One News Promo uses slick drama promo conventions, except it has the added advantage of the horrific content being real! Beautiful hosts deal with a brutal world in a fast paced action packed show. Furthermore, horrific real life crime stories are being used in dramatized ‘documentaries’ that dovetail nicely into today’s recent crimes. Sports presenter Tony Vietch’s inclusion in this promo, and his subsequent downfall in July 2008, for alleged domestic violence, is a blow to the image of the network and means that this promo will never air again. Suddenly one of our knowing friends is an alleged perpetrator of the violence his show (news) deals with every day.

WAR

War is the ultimate human tragedy and a dramatic spectacle like no other. While the reasons for war are complex, war itself is simple – kill or be killed, win or lose. Context is not the issue when you are being shot at, but it should be an issue to the viewers at home. Instead, television news often simplifies and creates narratives of good versus bad as it packages the war story.

It’s been said that the Vietnam war was lost in the living rooms of America as Americans watched night after night images of horror from the conflict on the news - images that gave the impression that the war was not being won. Politicians and the military, and to a certain extent the media, have learnt from this, and war coverage has never been as unfettered. Instead, ‘embedded’ journalists report with the help of the military in what is essentially a public relations exercise. Fortunately, there are still journalists and film crew who still try to cover the ‘real’ story, some paying the ultimate price – In 2008,129 journalists had been killed in Iraq since the start of Gulf War II in 2003. This compares to 68 killed in WW II.

GULF WAR I – OPERATION DESERT STORM

TV News 17/01/1991 (extract) Duration 3:29If Vietnam was the war lost by television, Gulf War I was the war won by it. Live television of war where every bomber and missile had its own camera to capture footage of (itself) precision ‘smart’ bombs hitting their targets. The extent to which the media had up-to-date access to military footage is shown by the reference in this extract to how, “President Bush [1] was seeing that footage for the first time along with us.” What follows are examples of the strikes on strategic targets in Iraq. This was a new kind of war, a war more like a video game where real people didn’t die. It is worth noting that New Zealander, Peter Arnett, was one of the few reporters to stay in Bagdad during the war to give another side to the conflict.

GULF WAR II – OPERATION IRAQI FREEDOMTV3 News 20/03/2003 (extracts)TV3 Network 2003. Duration 10:58If Gulf War I was won by television, in America, Gulf War II was started by it. Like all sequels, Gulf War II could refer to established characters from the first war. What was different this time though was the rationale for war. While Gulf War I had the moral mandate of freeing an invaded country, Kuwait, Gulf War II had to be ‘sold’ – a case had to be put for war. (...continued opposite page)

That case was based around Iraq’s alleged stockpile of Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD’s), and what would happen if Saddam deployed them. Globally, millions protested to prevent the war, but to


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no avail, and on March 19, 2003, a ‘coalition of the willing’ launched an attack on Iraq. In America much of the selling of the war was done with the complicity of an unquestioning media, too willing to acquiesce and put forward the Administrations perspective. Such was the extent of the clouding of truth in the rhetoric of the fog of war that most Americans came to believe that there was even a connection between 9/11, Al Qaeda, and Saddam Hussein. Iraq had become the latest front on the ‘war on terror.’ Much has been written on the idea of a blanket war on the verb “terror” and the currency it has gained through repetition by a compliant media that recognises a great soundbite and catchy phrase to hook its audience.

This extract from a 90 minute 3 News Special opens with a summary of the bulletin. The war dominates but there is room in the programme for other news, including a visit from American musician Carlos Santana. He makes a pertinent comment regarding American media, which has relevance to our own, “It seems like in America everyday is Halloween. […] Every channel they sell you horror and terror and fear.” The dramatic spectacle of war ticks most of the boxes for what makes an event news:

1. Frequency – The war is 24/7 so will fit with the frequency of the news medium2. Threshold – The biggest technological war on the planet certainly reaches the size threshold3. Lack of Ambiguity – Watching this extract there is no mention of how contested the case for war was. It is now a simple case shown in the graphics of Saddam Hussein versus George W. Bush. (However, later in the bulletin there is footage of protesters outside the American embassy in Wellington)4. Meaningfulness – While NZ was not involved, our usual allies, USA, Britain and Australia were. ‘Western’ values of freedom and democracy were being extolled.5. Relevance – A war of this scale has relevance for everyone – from the price of oil through to expansion of the war, to the war on ‘terror’6. Consonance – Audience expectations are high after months of protest, weapons inspections and “sexing up” of the case for war8. Continuity – Iraq and Saddam Hussein had been in the cycle of news since the first Gulf war and before. The idea of a sequel makes for a particularly marketable event.9. Composition – The start of a war overrides every other news story to the extent that TV3 had to have a ninety minutes special to cover the war, and include some of the other events of the dayA. Visualness – Lots of powerful imagesB. Emotion – This war, like all others before it, carries with it expectations of victory and loss, although the stage managed and embedded nature of coverage will preclude too much coverage of the negativeC. Conflict – War is the ultimate binary, us against them in the most literal senseD. Celebrification of the journalist – Mike McRoberts reports live from Kuwait on the war. The huge expense of having a reporter on foreign soil means that they will make the most of that cost and feature his reports in the bulletin. When weather gets in the way and a sandstorm delays the land invasion, McRoberts has to resort to talking to any soldier he can find – including information on the toothbrush the soldier uses to clean his rifle. In his report McRoberts struggles with the jargon of military speak (decapitation strike) and weapons systems brand-names that are important to lend credibility to the coverage.

BLOOD ON THE LENS (Graphic content!)

One News Late Edition 07/04/2003 (extract)New Zealand Television News

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Television New Zealand 2003. Duration 1:19‘If it bleeds it leads’ is a phrase often associated with television news. In a visual medium pictures are everything and invariably take precedent over more ‘important’ events without footage. In this disturbing extract the PR controlled embedded bloodless war coverage disintegrates in a friendly fire incident where blood literally drips onto the lens.

THE COOTCHIE COO VIEW

ONE DAY IN APRIL

One News 04/04/2008 (extract)Television New Zealand 2008. Duration 1:55The weather now takes precedence and is used as an introduction to the news and teaser for more weather details later in the bulletin. In 1985, lone newsreader, Tom Bradley, is not even mentioned, and is a stark contrast with, “This is One News with Simon Dallow and Wendy Petrie.” Having two newsreaders means a performance. Roles assigned – who reads what, male or female? What’s particularly interesting in this performance is how the non-reading partner behaves when they are both in the frame – do they look at the reader; nod in agreement; share similar expressions; or just stare at the camera (audience) waiting for their cue?The introductory teasers for the news are a desperate bid to keep audiences. Their word play and melodrama sensationalise stories for dramatic effect.

WendyKia ora, good evening. Tonight, exclusive deal of an historic freetrade deal. Why it will soon be easier to export kiwifruit and other goods to China. (a simple e.g. of an item of trade, just in case audiences forgot what we exported. The irony of sending Chinese goosberries, kiwifruit, back to China is also lost) We go live to get information leaked to One News. (invoking the mantra of the ‘live’ cross because that means totally up to date. One News has also leveraged its sources to (leak) gain early access to information that 3 News certainly won’t have)

SimonThe for sale signs are up, but…. where are the buyers? Dramatic new figures reveal a massive downturn in house sales. (a wee bit emotive – see Wag the Dog from NZ TV: Media Issues)

WendyHis run towards the Olympics dashed. One of our most well known triathlete’s lashes out at selectors.

SimonAnd…… heeee’s having a baby. The pregnant man whose making headlines and raising eyebrows.

WendyOne News has been leaked key details of a free trade deal (Simon looks across to Wendy) New Zealand is signing with China in the coming days.

SimonWhile concerns have been expressed by human rights groups,(this implies that there is no other opposition to the deal. Economics is too hard to really analyse,and its easier to go with fait de


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complit ) the deal looks set to bring biiig economic benefits. Political editor Guyon Espiner is about to fly out to China and joins us live from Wellington. What have you found out Guyon? (so friendly and chatty)

THAT SAME DAY IN APRIL

TV3 News 04/04/2008 (extract)TV3 Network 2008. Duration 2:10This introduction to 3 News should be from April 1st not the 4th. The decision to lead the bulletin with this tabloid story acts as an in-bulletin promotion for one of TV3’s own shows – Oprah.

Mike Tonight on 3 News, a world first, an interview with a pregnant man! We find out how his wife got him in the family way.

Hilary What’s happened to six students at an Auckland Catholic school involved in alleged fight club videos

Mike An early nomination for husband of the year. The man who rescued his wife from the jaws of a crocodile

Hilary And the mysterious fireball in the southern sky caught on camera. An astronomer explains all

LATER THAT MONTHTVNZ News 09/04/2008 (extract)Television New Zealand 2008. Duration 7:44TVNZ 7’s main news is at 8 p.m. uses the same sets as Television One News, but presents a different, Charter friendly image that is more formal and thorough and corrects the trends in ‘diet news.’ Public service orientated TVNZ 7 can now take some of the pressure off One News and leave it to fight the ratings war with TV3 - with all the dumbing down that entails. New to NZ television news is the tickertape rolling captions at the bottom of the screen; headlines, stock market updates and weather gives viewers two lots of news simultaneously. News at 8 is modeled on international news channels like CNN and BBC World where multiracial newsreaders convey worldly authority - a distinct contrast to the homely One and 3 News. There is also more analysis. The story of the possible mill closure in Thames is followed by an interview with the economist on possible causes.

WEATHER


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Weather is the ultimate conversation starter and an essential piece of daily news.

FORECAST FOR 1975

NZBC News (extract)NZBC 1975. Duration 1:34Low tech but effective regional weather for Otago / Southland. Note the wooden pointer

FORECAST FOR 1975

6:30 News 09/07/1985 (extract)Television New Zealand 1985. Duration 2:31This is the weather forecast from the above, WHOLE NEWS BULLETIN 1985. Still very understated compared to the glitz and high profile personality focus of today’s weather.

USER GENERATED

The increasing availability of digital video cameras, video capable cell phones and webcams means more user generated content. Internet video sites such as Youtube contain millions of clips and often provide a source of news stories. CNN has iReport where people can upload content, some of which is curated into a weekly show to screen on CNN. The chances of material screening on the broadcaster increases if it is a scoop that has not been covered by any other network – accidents, freak weather and incidents of violence. The 1963 super 8mm Zapruder film of the assassination of President Kennedy and the 1991 footage of LA Police beating Rodney King are two of the most famous, pre digital examples. In 2007, American network NBC received a package, posted between killing sprees, from the Virginia Tech mass killer, Cho Sueng-hui. The package was a press release from a mass murderer and contained a video, photographs, and multipage statement. NBC handed the contents over to the FBI, not before copying and screening excerpts on its news bulletin to be seen on TV news and in newspapers around the world. The network received widespread condemnation for the screening, coming as it did so soon after the killings, and indeed, for screening it at all. Do audiences really need to see the ravings of a disturbed individual, chillingly, made in the middle of his carnage, and will this just encourage more press releases from the disturbed, disaffected and violent?

It is the commercial News broadcasters role as gatekeeper that limits the discourse about what is news. All is not bad though, and bearing witness to events with recorded images can be a force for good. Increasingly, other outlets such as community TV like Triangle Television and internet sites like Indymedia allow for alternative versions of what is news.

INDYMEDIAThe Independent Media Center is an example of activist news journalism and is, “A network of collectively run media outlets for the creation of radical, accurate, and passionate tellings of the truth.


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We work out of a love and inspiration for people who continue to work for a better world, despite corporate media's distortions and unwillingness to cover the efforts to free humanity.”

YOUTUBE

Increasingly broadcasters are using amateur content uploaded to video sites like Youtube as a basis for a news story.

SELF PROMOTION

TV3 News 13/04/2007 (extract)TV3 Network 2007. Duration 3:03

Hamish Tonight on 3 News. Why a Timaru mum is using Youtube to set the record straight

Hilary

Police warn a rapist on the loose, and we’ll tell you how he stood out from the crowd

Hamish

A suicide bomber proves that even people in Bagdad’s parliament aren’t safe

Hillary And a lizard love-in, a rare picture of tuataras, well, doing it?

A woman attempts to counter “the lies that have been told about her” by setting the record straight in a video posted on Youtube. Her video is the lead story on national news. An interview with a legal expert says its dangerous territory for people who are accused of something to be using the internet to clear their name as it may influence a jury and so be in contempt of court if it goes to trial.

CELL PHONE CONTENT

One News 02/05/07 (extract)Television New Zealand 2007. Duration 1:49


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Corporal punishment may be illegal in schools but in these two clips the media has found priceless student generated footage of ‘violence’ in which to provide further ‘evidence’ of the downward spiral of youth and the education system. Negative representations of youth abound in media and this item looks at Auckland’s Selwyn College. A close reading of the language in the story is typically melodramatic. It is an example of constructing a linking narrative to create a bigger story. An emotive introduction by News Anchor, Simon Dallow, is laden with adjectives and dramatic prose to make the story more compelling; to draw the audience in. “Auckland’s troubled Selwyn College (implies there is a long history of trouble, or are part of these troubles because it is a liberal school in a conservative area) is in damage control (very informal term [conversational] are they implying covering up, putting a spin on the incident) after a student brawl led to the alleged assault of a policeman and a staff member. And today, another blow, (oh no not more problems!) as a video surfaced (vague - where did this come from) of what appears to be bullying in a school classroom.”

In a pre-Cootchie Coo news age copy may have been written simply as:Police were called to Auckland’s Selwyn College after a fight involving a number of students. It is alleged, that when breaking up the fight, a policeman and staff member were assaulted.

Over the images of the video the reporters commentary says: “Is it a prank or an assault, posted on a website this video claims to be taken inside a Selwyn College classroom, described as a bitch slap.”The chairman of the schools board of trustees said it didn’t look like a serious case of bullying (which it didn’t, but given the tone of the news item the implication is that it was. Context-less footage can be easily used to bolster other arguments). To which the reporters narration continued:“But it is doing serious damage to a school (play footage a second time) that’s already reeling from (with no irony) bad press.” A montage of police and crime spectacle follows.

FIGHT CLUB

TV3 News 04/04/2008 (extract)TV3 Network 2008. Duration 1:10Less emotive than the above, but for the loaded term ‘fightclub’ and all its intertextual associations “[…] and even a gangster rap soundtrack.” To his credit, the reporter puts the story in perspective and says the posting of this kind of footage is happening at many other schools, and, “School principals say that schools aren’t getting more violent, but what’s happening now is that technology is recording these events so others are getting to see them.”

KIDS TV

On TVCapital E 2008. Duration 4:08Wellington’s Capital E OnTV Studio is a fully equipped television studio dedicated to offering all of New Zealand’s young people a hands-on experience in live-to-air television production. Young newsreaders, Fay and Adam, do a great reading the news and engaging in the dual anchor chit chat that the professionals do. Location interviews and weather complete the picture.

TECHNOLOGY

TRANSMISSION AND RECEPTION New Zealand Television News

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NETWORK

http://www.mediascape.ac.nz/cms/index.php?page=television-mapTransmission and reception literally proved to be quite an obstacle in a long, hilly and sparsely populated country.

PRE NETWORK

One Turns 40 (extract)Television New Zealand 2000. Duration 1:52Before 1969 New Zealanders watched everything as a regional group transmitted from either of the four main centres. Each region had its own news bulletins and newsreaders. When it came to watching pre-recorded and international content, like Coronation Street, each region saw it on a different day as the tape was passed around the country.

NETWORKOne Turns 40 (extract)Television New Zealand 2000. Duration 1:00This extract recounts the tale of how in pre-network days, Christchurch got to see the footage of the Wahine from the Wellington bulletin, the same day as Wellingtonians. A Christchurch cameraman drove north till he got to a TV that could receive the Wellington signal. He filmed the television and returned to Christchurch where the film was processed and screened that night. Just over a year later, network television arrived with the moon landing. All of New Zealand could watch the event at the same time, although not live, as a tape had to be flown over from the nearest satellite station in Australia.

THE NETWORK BEAMS

Network New Zealand – TVNZ (extract)Ian McKersey Productions 1985. Duration 1:11Microwave stations relay the signal up and down the country. At these same stations, seven transmitters managed to reach ¾ of the population with the two channels available in 1985. There is a graphical demonstration of transmission and how translaters are used to ‘fill in the gaps’ that the main transmitters can’t reach.

FRED DAGG’S GUIDE TO TV RECEPTION

Television One (extract) Television One 1975. Duration 1:39Fred Dagg (John Clarke) was at the height of his fame at the time and was involved with the launch of Television One in April of 1975. In this extract he gives ‘advice’ on how to receive the much awaited second channel, TV2, launched in June of that same year.

SATELLITES

THE COMPRESSION OF SPACE AND TIME


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http://www.mediascape.ac.nz/cms/index.php?page=television-map

http://www.mediascape.ac.nz/cms/index.php?page=television-map

One Turns 40 (extract)Television New Zealand 2000. Duration 2:00In 1971 New Zealand became part of the global electronic village with the opening of the Warkworth satellite station. Satellites were to fundamentally change news coverage around the world. Sean Brown reccounts the difficulties during the Vietnam war in adjusting the bulletin that contained up to date copy, with film footage that was three/four days out of date. Brown contrasts this coverage with that of the first Gulf War, which was the first war that was ‘live.’ Initially, costly Post Office charges meant the satellite was only used for special events - its first event was the Melbourne Cup.

MEDIA EXCHANGE

The One News Story (extracts)Television New Zealand 2003. Duration 2:10Since 1985 there has been round the clock access to satellites allowing for footage on demand. Satellite content is now monitored 24/7. Incoming material may be from the broadcasters own reporters based globally (*See also foreign correspondents in Anchors and Audience) or from international broadcasters, including raw footage.

RIGHT ORBIT, WRONG SETTINGS

One News 14/11/2006. (extract)Television New Zealand 2006. Duration 2:32The complexity of satellite technology sometimes means problems.

DIGITAL

One News 15/06/2006 (extract)Television New Zealand 2006. Duration 4:12This extract opens with a bout of technical problems that today are an infrequent reminder of the complexity of the technology and potential for human error. The announcement of free to air digital TV was heralded as more of an event than the change from Black & White to colour TV in 1973. Broadcasters ,TVNZ, Canwest, Maori TV and Radio New Zealand have pulled together in an agreement to share a satillite to bring digital free to air tv to New Zealand, at a cost of $75 million over the next five years. Unfortunately, unlike in the UK, Sky has not joined in, and will offer instead, yet another delivery system requiring yet another set top box. That notion of content ‘quality’ again raises its head, and in a shot reminiscent of the 1985 documentary Network – TVNZ, from the ON Disk title, New Zealand Television: Public Service & Commercial TV, it ends on the brave new world of broadcasting – aerobics.

BROADBAND

The History of Technology: The Future of TV (extract)


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Television New Zealand [2005]. Duration 1:50Now and in the future, server based systems and broadband delivery will negate physical handling of content. Progrmammes will be data files moving through cyberspace. Alluded to in the extract, as a bad joke, is the need for good ‘metadata.’ Metadata is defined as “a set of data that describes and gives information about other data,” and is essentially a filing system so files can be retrieved amongst petabytes on data (a petabyte is approximately 1000 terabytes, a terabyte is approximately 1000 gigabytes).

Cross platform profiles are important in today’s mediascape. All TV news broadcasters have watchable clips from news bulletins on their sites. They also can have supplementary and extended footage available to view. Not only is this accessible through the networks own site but it is often found on third party news web sites

PRODUCTION TECHNOLOGY

THE TELEPHONE

One Turns 40 (extract)Television New Zealand 2000. Duration 2:10Dougal Stevenson reflects on the prop on the newsreader desk, the telephone, that was designed to buy time while, “chaos ensued in the control room.” Kevin Milne continues with a description of the disasters that ocurred in getting the news on air.

STUDIO CAMERAThe invention of the television camera was, in a sense, the invention of television. The television video camera converted an image into an electronic signal that could then be transmitted. Until the invention of a videorecorder and videotape in 1951, it was not possible to record television signals – it was all live. It was however possible to playback motion picture film once it was converted by a telecine machine to an electronic signal. As technology improved, the tubes that converted the image became more sensitive and provided a higher resolution picture. Colour cameras were developed as early as the late 1940s. New Zealand started regular television transmission in 1960 with a tried and proven black and white sytsem. It wasn’t until 1973 that we converted to colour.This slideshow looks at three studio cameras and provides some technical and functional details about them.

TELEPROMPTERS AND ROBOTS

The One News Story (extract)Television New Zealand 2003. Duration 1:57


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Autocues, or telepromptors, have been around for several decades. Kevin Milne, in the above THE TELEPHONE extract, describes the often flawed hard copy (toilet paper) version. There certainly is an art to reading them without looking like your eyes are darting back and forth – some newsreaders are better at this than others.

TVNZ created a furore when they replaced their studio camera operators with robots. The young woman featured in the extract controls all three cameras from her computer.

LOCATION NEWS CAMERA

Originally, location news cameras were film cameras that shot an event. The film was then processed and edited before being put through a telecine as part of a news broadcast. ENG, which required no processing,sped this process up, until finally the Outside Broadcast (OB) capability allowed for live links back to the studio. Prior to this it was still posible to organise live coverage of planned events by using studio cameras outside, linked up to an OB van with a microwave link back to the station. Nonetheless, film ruled for location news until the mid 1980’s when video took over. This slideshow looks at two film, and two video cameras, that span forty years of news gathering.

GRAPHICS

The One News Story (extract)Television New Zealand 2003. Duration 1:11Televison news graphics has gone from physical media to digital files. Once putting a graphic (including titles) on the screen involved taping cards onto walls to be shot by a special graphics capture camera. The signal from that camera was then superimposed with the main image. In this extract a TVNZ designer shows the process of making a graphic to go with a particular story. His purpose is clear – to provide a visual hook to draw in a viewer to that particular story. He demonstrates the process in a story on cruelty to animals and chooses an image of a snarling pitbull. Given that the tone of the story and graphic was to elicit sympathy from viewers to the plight of animals, then perhaps a cute spaniel would’ve been a better choice? Since 2003 TV news has turned into a computer generated frenzy that dazzles viewers with the brilliance of 3D moving graphics.


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new zealand television: television news

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