Researching for the Media

Television, Radio and Journalism

Adele Emm

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2014
• ISBN:
  9781317698135
• Edition: 2
• Topic: Languages & Linguistics
• Subtopic: Journalism
• Index: Languages & Linguistics

Researching for the Media: Television, Radio and Journalism is an essential guide to researching for the media industry. It explains the role of the researcher and journalist within radio, television and journalism exploring key areas of what to expect in the job.

Researching for the Media: Television, Radio and Journalism offers advice and instruction on practical, ethical and legal issues which affect anyone working in these industries. Beginning with suggestions on how to think up ideas and how to devise treatments, through to general research methods and techniques and guidance on working on location at home and abroad, it uses real examples of good and bad practice from the industry. Written by an experienced researcher, writer and producer, Researching for the Media includes:

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• Tips on finding contributors from contestants, experts and specialists through to audiences and celebrities

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• How to find photographs, picture and film clips and the ethical and legal issues involved

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• Advice on finding and using music and copyright issues

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• How the media uses the internet and social media such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram

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• A discussion of risk assessment, codes of conduct, ethical behaviour and legal and safety issues

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• A glossary of media terms, further reading and a list of helpful websites.

Discover more at www.adeleemm.com

1

What is a researcher?

If you watch programmes such as Jeremy Kyle or one of the popular talent shows, you may spot the researcher in the background with an intense expression clutching a clipboard to her trendy chest. And it is a ‘her’, because the trendy young male researcher has been promoted to the intense, trendy young producer/director with his feet on the desk barking orders. Recognise the stereotype?

Forget it. The researcher is the kingpin gopher, the bottom rung of the production ladder but a job in its own right. A police constable may never make it to sergeant and a researcher may never make it further up the production ladder but, because of the very nature of the job, this shouldn’t matter. The same applies to a newspaper journalist. A reporter may start as the junior reporter on a local newspaper and, 30 years later, be the chief reporter on the same publication. However, with the rise of social media, the miniaturisation of technology and the contraction of budgets, several job designations have contracted so that more media professionals – whatever media they work in – have to be increasingly multi-skilled.

In radio terms, although the number of radio stations is expanding day by day, radio is, in many respects, the Cinderella of the media. Compared to television, there is a relatively small audience and the fewest number of listeners is for local radio. Because the audiences are so small, the budgets are miniscule; there is no money for pre-production and everything is required now. The result? Apart from at the BBC (and often there too), the producer on a radio programme does their own research.

As for those working in the press – the very job is research. Oh, and writing it up. I’m being flippant here …

A researcher and journalist should have two mottos:

• Give me a phone and I can find you anything.

• The impossible I can do now; a miracle takes a little longer.

I shall start by describing the personal attributes of a researcher – and remember, this includes anyone doing media research in whatever capacity.

Anyone conducting research is/has:

• well educated and informed with interests in a wide variety of subjects; a whizz at Trivial Pursuit and Articulate and who can answer lots of questions in quiz shows;

• curious, with the ability to ask pertinent questions and sound convincing even when they know nothing about the subject. By the end of the project, they are an expert. The get-out-of-jail-free is to admit to Professor Whatnot right at the beginning that they haven’t a clue about the politics of Papua New Guinea but he is the expert and …;

• a good listener with the ability to précis accurately and take good notes (those on a journalism course may have learnt shorthand to help with this);

• an excellent memory;

• hard working and indefatigable. The hours can be appalling; a 105-hour week non-stop for three weeks including weekends is not unusual in television. Yes, the European Union Social Charter limits hours to a 48-hour week but middle management and the media are so far exempt. BECTU (Broadcasting Entertainment Cinematograph and Theatre Union www.bectu.org.uk) has, at the time of writing, just conducted research into 14-hour days for members working on factual television programmes. As a journalist will remind you, the news doesn’t stop at 6pm. Council planning meetings are often scheduled for evenings and sporting events happen at the weekends. Wars and battles are won and lost overnight;

• fit, healthy, self-starter, assertive, reliable and responsible;

• excellent organisational and administrative skills;

• able to get on with and like people. All people. Rudyard Kipling’s If sums it up. If you know to what I am referring and have looked it up, you are well on the way;

• meticulous and gives attention to detail;

• good computer skills, including fast and accurate typing;

• a facility with language as television researchers often write voiceovers, links and narration. Reporters write articles and radio producers write scripts. All media are verbal in some way and, depending on the production, scripts should read like something you’d say, not a report you’d hand to your accountant. On the other hand, if you are writing for current affairs and political programmes, the script should sound like the voice of authority. The same applies for a newspaper article; if it doesn’t capture the reader’s attention in the lead paragraph, they won’t read further;

• the ability to get to the nub of an issue in as few words as possible;

• a sense of humour (for all those puns) and to survive in a fast moving industry;

• the essential social skills of drinking late into the night, partying until dawn and being back on location, in the office or radio studio bright eyed and bushy tailed at 7am.

As for what a researcher actually does, that is the million dollar question. Depending on the type of production and the size of the team, it is a pivotal position crossing many demarcation lines. Many of the jobs a TV researcher does correspond with jobs in radio and journalism.

I’ll start by summarising the stages of programme making from pre-production. Radio and Newspapers follow.

Television

Pre-production

This is the commissioning, planning and organising element of programme making up to the actual shoot. During pre-production, the set is devised and built, the costumes designed, hired or made, the contestants and actors auditioned, special effects designed and produced and the programme planned in detail, bearing in mind that, as good ideas crop up, the programme is inevitably amended.

Pre-production can take an inordinate length of time. A feature film or historical drama may be in pre-production for several years. However, the escalating use of accountants results in squeezed budgets and increasingly tight pre-production schedules.

The first person assigned to a production, often because it is his/her idea, is the producer closely followed by the researcher and the director. The production team consists of the producer, director, researcher, production assistant (PA), and, in drama, sitcoms, etc., the scriptwriter. There are other ancillary roles such as assistant (occasionally associate) producer, executive producers, line producers, etc.

The jobs of the production manager, location manager and assistant director often overlap depending on the size and requirements of the production and in some situations, the role may be taken by the researcher.

Design departments include the set/production designer, props, costume, graphics, make-up and wardrobe departments who start working during pre-production and often continue through the production stage as well.

All of the above liaise with the director.

Production

This is when the programme is recorded on location or in a studio.

Feature films expect to shoot the equivalent of 1 1/2 minutes of screen time a day; in other words, a feature film shoot usually lasts 10–16 weeks or more depending on the overall length and the budget. Television drama, on the other hand, shoots an hour’s drama over 11 days or less if possible. Soaps such as Coronation Street record three half-hour episodes a week, more when working towards the Christmas break or for a special.

In the 1990s, one quiz episode was recorded a day but now, up to four are recorded. Why? The same number of studio crew is required in one day to make four shows as is required to make one. Simple. Also, when a programme like The X Factor goes out live on ITV1, it is common for extension programmes, such as The Xtra Factor, to continue on ITV2.

Chat shows and daytime current affairs like The One Show, This Morning and Today are usually transmitted live although they will have pre-recorded inserts.

Others are recorded as live. ‘As live’ means the programme is taped in real time but pre-recorded a few hours or a day before. There are several reasons for this, a common one being that the TX (transmission) time is unsociable (a bank holiday, 3am) and costs a fortune in wages. The benefit of recording as live is that, although each take is ‘for real’, should there be any serious faults (technical or editorial), the take can be rewound and re-recorded. There is no editing on an as live programme.

A daily live programme such as This Morning or The One Show has a separate production team assigned to Monday or Tuesday and throughout the week. Effectively, once the pre-production period is over (perhaps as little as a month or less to set up pre-recorded items), the team works a rolling schedule culmi-nating in their day’s edition.

Here, pre-production merges into production. Imagine being on week 4 of a 16-episode fashion show. The first three programmes have been transmitted, episode 4 is in editing, episode 5 onwards is being shot but no-one has more than the vaguest idea of the content of programme 12 onwards. This happens. Depending on one’s attitude, it’s very stressful or an adrenaline roller coaster.

Post-production

Once filming is over, it is technically in post-production. This is when editing takes place (where the shots are put in the correct order and mistakes cut out), special effects added (sound re-recorded, mixed and dubbed) and a master edit produced.

For live programmes, there is no post-production although...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• Acknowledgements
• 1 What is a researcher?
• 2 Ideas
• 3 General research
• 4 People
• 5 Pictures, photographs and film clips
• 6 Props, sets, prizes, question setting and teleshopping
• 7 Music
• 8 Locations
• 9 Working abroad
• 10 Summary of legal issues
• Organisations and websites from all chapters
• Glossary
• Index