TV News Production: Organization and Structure
TV News Production Process
C) Production Process:
The process involves preparation, production, and post-production. This includes news monitoring, searching for or using outside sources, coverage, collection or logging of news, post-production, final editing, news selection, and assessment.
The TV News Team:
- Director
- Assistant Director or Editor
- Information Area Managers
- Producer
- Director
- Documentarians
A team or reporter is entrusted with the news, covering and elaborating on the information. This is then delivered to the editor to prepare the material for broadcast. If unforeseen events occur, the schema is modified. If a story of great importance is not well-prepared, it may not be aired. However, basic information might be given, even with just a talking head, and a more developed presentation will follow in subsequent broadcasts.
Models of Organization and Global Structures
D) Models of Organization and Global Structures:
1. According to Workload
- Weekday TV News: Higher volume of information due to increased societal activity and greater resource availability.
- Weekend TV News: Relatively quieter due to politicians seeking rest. Focus on customization with veteran presenters and a distinct style.
2. According to Informative Approach
- General Information News: Brief exposure of news items.
- Analytical News: Extended approach to facts, including interpretation and opinion. Longer commentary or analysis compared to the news item itself.
- In-Depth News: Studio interviews that expand on the news, creating a broader context. Sometimes includes comments and opinions from the reporter or other experts.
Pure Commentary: The news is presented, an expert is introduced, and then the program moves on. Sometimes, a brief dialogue between the presenter and expert is created.
Face-to-Face Debate Between Two Journalists: Each journalist focuses on and interprets the thread of the news, highlighting the most outstanding or analytically interesting aspects.
3. According to Structure
Newscasts often feature summaries at the beginning, intermediate headlines, short closing segments, and presenter introductions to provide context. They follow a pattern of television continuity, uniting several different news blocks. This is followed by the assembly of the news block and the newscast as a whole.
Possible Approaches:
- Select a few news items and provide thorough treatment for each.
- Select many news items and provide brief coverage for each.
- A combination of both approaches.
The most important news of the day is prioritized, receiving complete development even if it’s at the beginning of the corresponding block. Structure also influences selection criteria. Sometimes, political news dominates, but other blocks are maintained even without high-interest news, such as sports.
Global Structures:
- Inverted Pyramid: Scans blocks and news in descending order of interest.
- Rigid Formula: Similar to newspaper structure, it remains unchanged. Viewers know when one block ends and another begins.
- Joint Formula: Follows the inverted pyramid concept but aims to maintain and renew interest with elements like human interest or unique stories. There can be a degree of artificiality.
- Flexible Structure: Each program has its own unique structure.
- Briefing of Suspense: To prevent channel surfing, an interesting announcement is made, but its content is not revealed until after the commercial break. This also applies to breaking news, creating a sense of urgency as a runner delivers a newly written information sheet to the host. This structure arises from competition between channels.
However, structures are not fixed; they are open to innovation by each team’s manager, making each newscast distinct.