Digital News Production (Workshop 1)

   For this workshop, we had to work in pairs and take a press release of a story and create a script out of it suitable for a televised news piece. We took the information provided in the press release and used the information on the story to create a news piece; the news piece me and my partner were given was a piece on Britain sending aid to Sierra Leone to help the country with an ebola outbreak. When visualising what the news story should be like, I imagined how I thought how I would expect BBC, ITV or Channel 4 news to show it. So there were two main rules I followed, the first one was that I had to show both sides of this story. Sometimes there are a good and bad side to a story, but with this story there was not one as it is very unlikely that there is someone who believes ebola is a good thing. So we wrote down that we were going to show how the ebola virus is affecting people in the area as well as showing how the aid will help. The other rule was how to tell the story. Instead of just showing a block of information, we felt that it had to flow well so it would be easier to understand for the audience. So we were gonna have the interviews in an order where it is going to tell a story, similar to the story telling formula state the goal, create a problem, conclusion. So first we are going to have an interview with a head person in the military/humanitarian group (Stating the goal), then an interview with locals and people who are or are related to sufferers of ebola (the problem) and then an interview with a high up official, who is Justine Greening the International Development Secretary (the conclusion).
   I am going to use this workshop as experience and a practise on how I will carry out my news production. I will likely plan the script of my news stories to be of the same structure as this one as I believe writing it out in this structure, my group and I can create a script that is up to a professional standard.

TITLE	UK ACTION PLAN TO DEFEAT EBOLA IN SIERA LEONE
REP/VO
LEAD IN	With the numbers of Ebola patients rising, the UK is leading the international drive against it in Sierra Leone. More than 40 military personnel and humanitarian staff have arrived in Freetown to spearhead the £100million operation.
SCRIPT	(OOV) The Ebola outbreak in West Africa is a crisis needing urgent international aid left, the disease could spread beyond the region bringing catastrophic consequences. (Shots of Freetown- busy town, Ebola sufferers in hosp. and towns) (OOV) But the UK is sending aid in through a £100million mission aimed to control the outbreak. The mission is based in Freetown, Sierra Leone’s capital where an infrastructure is being built, which can hold 700 beds for Ebola patients. (shots of UK military) (Interviews with head of operations, about how the help they’re going to give) (Walkie-talkie) In addition to this infrastructure being constructed the UK is also providing training every week in Freetown, for 90 health care workers in the recently created World Health Organisation training centre. (Interviews with locals about how military is going to help this crisis as well as people or relatives suffering with ebola) (OOV) The international development secretary, Justine Greening, believes that it is vital that the international community put their concerns into action. (Justine Greening interview/speech/ footage of event)
SIGN OFF	(Walkie-talkie) According to the British Government, Ebola can be defeated if 70% of cases are isolated. Will Britain’s multi-million efforts turn this statistic into reality? Only time can tell.