Monday 22 November 2010

On Newsround.

As part of my Television lecture, I have to analyse a news programme. To invoke nostalgic memories of watching kids TV, I chose perpetual kids favourite, Newsround. As I write this, there's about an hour to go until the next bulletin, so navigating on the Newsround website, I found a bulletin from this morning.

The first thing I noticed when I watched the bulletin was the time in the top left hand corner. 8.31. I assume they broadcast it at this time because children will be getting ready to go to school, and if this is the last piece of telly they watch, it will be fresh in their minds, and they will be ready to discuss the issues raised in the programme.

As the programme is part of the BBC, the standard is of high quality, though there was a noticeable cut when the newsreader changed from one story to another. The two minute bulletin contained one main story (on the mine collapse in New Zealand), a preview of a special report broadcast later in the day (about kids growing up in a war zone), and a light hearted story at the end (about a Chihuahua joining the Japanese police force as a sniffer dog).

The show was similar in style to 'adult' news, which I suppose makes the transition for children who are going from one news programme to another easier. It included headlines, and a sign off from the presenter at the end of the show. The two stories lasted for about 20 seconds each, and the presenter talked over both of them from the studio. The main substance of the programme was a preview of the war report, which was over half the length of the programme itself.

In conclusion, Newsround hadn't changed much from when I remember watching it. The show doesn't patronise it's audience, unlike many other children's shows, and for this reason I think that it is respected by viewers and within the industry.

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