Form: Local and National News
by
B. DeVore and M. Matilla

The Question

Are the production values for local and national news in the United Kingdom Higher or Lower than local and national news in the United States?

Methods/Results: Television

Local and national news programs were watched in the U.K. for a week (seven days seven programs of each). The technical methods of each were observed and the number of "technical problems" in both the Channel 4 southeast local news and the BBC national news. "Technical Problems" defined as any unintended flaw or delay in the broadcast (i.e. delay or failure of link to correspondent, boom microphone in shot). No United States news programs were viewed. Conclusions of comparisons are based on previous experience of watching local and national news programs in the U.S.

On Channel 4’s local news during a viewing of one week four technical problems occurred for these reasons:

Twice the correspondent link was delayed and there was a delay in the program

Once the link just did not work at all and they did not go to the correspondent at all.

Once the newscaster looked into the wrong camera and then switched.

Two major differences between the local news in Philadelphia and local southeast England coverage on Channel 4 are the sets and the introduction of the programs. The Channel 4 news introduction to the show using computer imaging is obviously much newer than the introduction for the most popular local news program in Philadelphia (Channel 6 news). Channel 6 in Philadelphia has kept the same song and introduction format for years to give the viewers a sense of familiarity with the program. This same tendency is reflected in the sets of both programs. The Channel 4 set is very new and reflects a society in a fast computer age. Much like Channel 6’s introduction the set has remained the same for years.

On BBC nine O’clock national news three technical problems occurred. All three problems were delays linking to correspondents. News programs that are broadcast to the entire United Kingdom (BBC) or the United States (ABC, NBC and CBS) seem very similar to each other. Just from memory alone it seems that there are less technical problems in the United States. That is one of the things that would need to be researched further to come to a conclusive answer.

Conclusions

After studying the differences in production value of English and American news programs it seems apparent that the production values of the local news programs in the Untied Kingdom are higher than that of the United States. It also seems as though the production values of English national news are lower than the U.S.. Further, to find a more conclusive and definite answer to this would be a more prolonged recording of how many technical errors happen over the period of perhaps one year. After comparing a year’s worth of research about both sets of production for many more news programs, production values a more definitive conclusion could be drawn.