Conclusions
From conducting my industry research and looking a their examples of the end product that i wish to make i can draw a number of conclusions. Firstly, it is clear that the three main stations i looked at have adapted their shows depedant upon the target audience. However, despite this they still must try to reach as large an audience as possible within the local area. For this reason there is a mixture of different news stories within the bulletins rather than a specific focus e.g. politcs or sports.
By listening to all of the bulletins a number of times i believe that there is a basic outline that can be followed in order to start to create a good quality news bulletin. Below is a basic time line of what seems to be a standard bulletin that i have put together...
Intro Jingle
All the bulletins start with a short jingle including the name of the station and a description of whats coming e.g. 'news travel and weather'
Bulletin Introduction
Next is s short introduction to the news presenter, they start by giving the time, then a greeting and then introducing themselves. E.g. 'Good afternoon its 3 oclock and this is the news with ________'
Story One
The first news story is often the most shocking/important. Also, the first story is often on of the ones that include a short statement or interview from a specialist reporter or external expert such as a university professor
Stories Two, Three, and Four
The middle stories are often not as important as the first or last and although they sometimes contain outside broadcasts or specialist reporters, they are less likely to.
Story Five
The last story will often be the 2nd most important (coming after story one) and will again likely include a recording from outside of the studio
Travel
After the outside recording has concluded from story 5, the presenter will often then give the travel news. It starts with road (mainly motorway) issues and will give the name/number of the road, the direction of the problem, the cause of the problem and the estimated time of delay. The travel news will sometimes include reports on local public transport e.g. trains and busses.
Weather
The final bulk of the report will contain a very breif outline of the weather. The presenter will start by telling listeners what to expect in the next few hours e.g. 'this afternoon' or 'tonight' and will then give the weather for the following day but not much more. The only details given are the temparture, weather or not it will rain and if there is going to be any unusual weather e.g. snow or storms etc.
Outro Jingle
The bulletins end with an outro jingle similar to but not the same as the intro jingle.
As well as all of this there are some other features of the bulletins that are important to note. Firstly the pace of the bulletin is a big factor as it will determin what types of sounds and music should be included. Most bulletins are fast paced but only because they have a relativly short time slot. Most bulletins last 1 - 2 minutes. The breif clearly says my bulletin should last for 5 minutes meaning it is more likely i will adopt a slower pace such as the style of BBC Radio Merseysides bulletin. For this reason it may be that like Radio Merseyside there will be no music in the backgorund of the bulletin and less noticable sound fx. If this is the case i will have to include these elswhere in the bulletin to ensure they are still used.
