Theories of Human –Media interaction Agenda Setting Theory

Meaning of Media

Mass communication occurs when a small number of people send messages to a large anonymous and heterogeneous audience through the use of specialized communication media. Otherwise the mass communication represents the creation and sending of a homogeneous message to a large heterogeneous audience through the media.  The units of analysis for mass communication are messages, the medium and the audience. The mass communication theories are   which explain the relationship between media and society.

Agenda setting theory

Agenda setting theory propounded by Maxwell Mc combs and Donald Shaw in the year 1970s. According to agenda setting theory, mass media set the agenda for public opinion by highlighting certain issues. The agenda setting theory telling people not what to think, but what to think of. 

Media focuses on the characters of issues how people should think about.
Agenda setting theory used in political ad, campaigns, business news, PR (public relation) etc.The main effects of the news media are to be agenda setting.  It is usually referred as a function of mass media and not a theory.  The basic ideas of the theory can be to the work of Walter Lippman a prominent American Journalist.

 Walter Lippmann

Walter Lippmann (1889-1974) was the most influential American journalist of the 20th century. the influence his writings had, especially his newspaper column “Today and Tomorrow,” on the American public for over 60 years and including his access to and involvement with many of the presidents, politicians, and power brokers he covered from World War I through Vietnam.  Born into one of the German-Jewish "our crowd" families of New York City,  In the 1920s, Lippmann became editorial director of the New York World, then a major daily newspaper with a Democratic orientation. Lippmann wrote books on philosophy, politics, foreign policy and economics. Among his varied roles, Lippmann was the original and most prescient analyst of the modern media  Lippmann was the first to bring the phrase "cold war" to common currency in his 1947 book by the same name. Lippmann saw the purpose of journalism as "intelligence work". Within this role, journalists are a link between policymakers and the public. A journalist seeks facts from policymakers which he then transmits to citizens who form a public opinion. Though a journalist himself, he did not assume that news and truth are synonymous.  He argued that distorted information was inherent in the human mind Lippmann was an informal adviser to several presidents. he won the annual Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting citing "his 1961 interview with Soviet Premier Khrushchev. Lippmann retired from his syndicated column in 1967, and died in 1974. He  has been honored by the United States Postal Service with a 6¢ Great Americans series postage stamp. Lippmann proposed that people did not respond directly to the events in the real world but lived in a pseudo environment, media furnishing the pseudo environment.

The media agenda setting function is a three process

• Media agenda: issues discussed in the media
• Public agenda: issues discussed and personally relevant to the public
• Policy agenda: Issues that policy makers consider important

Agenda setting is believed to occur because the press must be selective in reporting the news. News outlets act as gatekeepers of information and make choices about what to report and what not

The main concept associated with the agenda setting theory is gate keeping,  Priming and framing

Gate keeping controls over the selection of content discussed in the media. It is especially editors media itself is a gatekeeper. News media decides ‘what’ events to admit through media ‘gates’ on ground of ‘newsworthiness’.For e.g.: News Comes from various sources, editors choose what should appear and what should not that’s why they are called as gatekeepers.

Priming: Activity of the media in proposing the values and standards by which objects of the media attention can be judged. Media’s content will provide a lot of time and space to certain issues, making it more vivid.To say in simple words, Media is giving utmost importance to a news so that it gives people the impression that is the most important information. This is done everyday the particular news is carried as a heading or covered everyday for months. Headlines, Special news features, discussions, expert opinions are used. Media primes a news by repeating the news and giving it more importance E.g. Nuclear deal., Kudankuam, Mullaiperiyar issue.

Framing:Framing is a process of selective control

1. Way in which news content is typically shaped and contextualized within same frame of reference.
2. Audience adopts the frames of reference and to see the world in a similar way. It is how people attach importance to a news and perceive it context within which an issue is viewed.

Framing talks about how people attach importance to certain news for e.g. in case of attack, defeat, win and loss, how the media frames the news such that people perceive it in a different way.
We can take India and Pakistan war; same happening is framed in different ways in both the countries. So depending on which media you view your perception will differ.

Advantage /Positive Effects

Media plays a more vital role.

It gives us serious topics detrimental to politicians and other public figures.

It gives us information that is going on its our local communities and across the globe.

It gives a chance to know more about our loved ones.

 It give a way to well being of our freedom and to gather general information.

Negative Side

The information are getting is biased

It does not allow for us to select what we feel is important.

A case: A German Journalist: The European Media Writing Pro-US Stories Under CIA Pressure

Post Categories: Afghanistan RT | Wednesday, October 22, 2014, 13:10 Beijing

German journalist and editor Udo Ulfkotte says he was forced to publish the works of intelligence agents under his own name, adding that noncompliance ran the risk of being fired.

“I ended up publishing articles under my own name written by agents of the CIA and other intelligence services, especially the German secret service,” Ulfkotte told Russia Insider. “One day the BND (German foreign intelligence agency) came to my office at the Frankfurter Allgemeine in Frankfurt. They wanted me to write an article about Libya and Colonel Muammar Gaddafi…They gave me all this secret information and they just wanted me to sign the article with my name,” Ulfkotte told RT.

“That article was how Gaddafi tried to secretly build a poison gas factory. It was a story that was printed worldwide two days later.”

Ulfkotte reveals all this and more in his book ‘Bought Journalists,’ where he mentions that he feels ashamed for what he has done in the past.

“It is not right what I have done in the past. To manipulate people, to make propaganda. And it is not right what my colleagues do and have done in the past because they are bribed to betray people not only in Germany, but all over Europe,” he told RT. “I was a journalist for 25 years and I was educated to lie, to betray, and not to tell the truth to the public.”

 “I was bribed by the Americans not to report  exactly the truth…I was invited by the German Marshall Fund of the United States to travel to the US. They paid for all my expenses and put me in contact with Americans they’d like me to meet,” he said.

“I became an honorary citizen of the state of Oklahoma in the US just because I wrote pro-American. I was supported by the CIA. I have helped them in several situations and I feel ashamed for that too.”Many other journalists are involved in the same practice, Ulfkotte added.

“Most of the journalists you see in foreign countries, they claim to be journalists and they might be. But many of them, like me in the past, are so-called ‘non-official cover.’ It means you work for an intelligence agency, you help them if they want you to. But they will never say they know you.”

The journalists selected for such jobs usually come from big media organizations. The relationship with the secret service starts as a friendship.

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NEW MEDIA

Features of New Media/ Differences Between New And Old Media / Key characteristics  

 

The phrase new media was first used in the 1960’s. New media are digital form such as chip, CD converted from analogue media(film, cosset). Their fundamental characteristics are free and unlimited access to data and its copying without losing quality and interactivity. The means of transmission  by cable, satellite and radio have immensely increased the capacity to transmit by applying communication technology.

According to McQuail, the ‘Internet’ should definitely be considered a new medium. The Internet is associated with new media, in contrast to traditional media.  It is used for production and broadcasting of news, but also for processing exchange and storing of information. The internet and other new media can used for both private and public communication and their functioning does not have to be professional or organized in a bureaucratic way as is the cast with traditional mass media.  The internet is the only truly free and autonomous medium which allows anyone to articulate their needs and express their objections.

Uniqueness: Some media forms are now distributed across different type of transmission channel reducing the original uniqueness of form and experience in use.

Convergence: The increasing convergence of different media by use of technology.  Globalizing tendencies are raised and reducing the distinctiveness of any particular national variant of media content and institution. The continuing treads towards integration of national and global media corporations, have led to the housing of different media under the same roof, encouraging convergence by another route.

New Media as a medium: Not only concerned with the production and distribution of messages but equally concerned with processing, exchange and storage. As much an institution of private as of public communication and regulated or not regulated accordingly. Their operation is not typically professional or bureaucratically organized to the same degree as mass media.

Authors: There are increased opportunities through Internet Desktop Publishing, Blogging etc. The traditional publication function of gate keeping, editorial intervention and validation of authorship will not be affected here.

Publishers: Opportunities for self expression are celebrated by the new media. The role as a publisher became easy and sophisticated function through social net work sites even it has become more ambiguous

Interactivity: Traditional media was essentially one directional while the new media are interactive. The interactivity possible through various tools such as comments box or mailing , chatting etc

Social Presence: Sociability experienced by the user, the sense of personal contact with others that can be engendered by using this new medium Example:skype

Media richness: the extent to which media can bridge different frames of reference, reduce ambiguity, provide more cues, involve more senses and more personal.

Autonomy: The degree to which a user feels in control of content and use. The technologies shift power from elite group to a greater proportion of media user’s content. Anyone can produce content through new media.

Playfulness: It is one of the main characteristics of new media of its uses for entertainment and enjoyment as against utility and instrumentality.

Privacy: associated with use of medium and its typical or chosen content

Personalization : The degree to which content and uses are person and with their uniqueness

Categories of New Media

Interpersonal communication media: Content   is private and perishable and the relationship established and reinforced may be more important than information conveyed. For example email, comment box

Interactive play media Play: These are mainly computer based and video games plus virtual reality devices. For ex:Video games

Information Search media : This is wide category besides the content the mobile  telephone is also increasingly a channel for information retrieved. Example WWW-World wide web

Collective participatory media- The categories includes especially the uses of the internet for sharing and exchanging information, ideas, and experience and developing active personal relationship.  For ex: Face book and social websites.

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CHARACTERISTICS OF TELEVISION AS A MEDIUM

AUDIO VISUAL   MEDIUM

While radio has sound, television content includes both sound and visuals. This audio visual character of television makes it a magic medium which allows us to watch the world from our drawing rooms. This powerful visual nature helps television to create vivid impressions in our minds which in turn leads to emotional involvement. The audio visual quality also makes television images more memorable.

DOMESTIC MEDIUM

To watch television, we need not leave your drawing room. No need of going to the movie theater or buying tickets. We can watch television in the comfort of our home with our family. This is why television is generally regarded as a domestic medium. It provides entertainment and information right inside our homes and has become an integral part of our everyday lives. It can actually pattern our daily activities. Even our family makes it a point to watch their favorite serial at a particular time and adjust dinner timings accordingly. This domestic nature of television influences the content also. We have noticed that a newspaper report has an impersonal tone, whereas the television anchor addresses us directly.  The domestic nature of television makes it an intimate medium. This makes the viewers experience a sense of closeness to the Television.

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LIVE MEDIUM.

The important characteristic of television is that it is capable of being a live medium. This is because the live nature of television allows it to transmit visuals and information almost instantly. The visuals of an earthquake in Indonesia can reach our television set in almost no time. This capacity of the medium makes it ideal for transmitting live visuals of news and sports events. If we are watching a cricket match in a television channel, we can almost instantly see the wicket hit by our favourite player. On the  Television allows you to witness events which happen thousands of miles away.

MASS MEDIUM

All of us know that there are a large number of people who cannot read or write.

Such people may not be able to read a newspaper, but they can watch television.

Anyone with a television receiver can access the information shown on television.

This makes it an ideal medium to transmit messages to a large audience. In a country like ours, with a huge illiterate population, this characteristic of television

Makes it an ideal instrument for transmitting social messages. Television also has a

very wide output, range and reach. It is truly a mass medium.

A TRANSITORY MEDIUM.

Television programmes are not easy to be recorded by viewers. It may be practically impossible to record every programme which appears on your television. Therefore, television is generally identified as a transitory medium.

 EXPENSIVE MEDIUM

There is need to large amount of machinery and expertise needed to run a television station. We can write articles and stories and draw our own pictures. All we need will be paper, pen, drawing instruments and time. However, a television programme can never be made this. However, a television programme can never be made this easily. It requires lots of money, machinery and experienced people. Broadcast media in general and television in particular involves complex technology and organization. We will need crores of rupees to start a television station.

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Television Interviews.

Conduct your interview in an organized, timely manner. During the interview:

As a TV News and Current Affairs journalist, we will do three types of interviews.

1. Interviews for stories – sound bites for packages or news clips

2. Face to Face interviews

3. 2 way- interviews as a correspondent to a presenter

Before going into these categories, here are some common fundamentals.

Before the interview

• Choose a focus for the interview. What’s the story?

• Choose the interview carefully. Look for a real person, not just a spokesperson. You want the person most closely involved, whatever their position as it is easier for the audience to relate to someone who has direct knowledge or experience of a subject. These people will also give fuller, more personal responses.

• Resist as much as possible conditions set by the interviewee such as providing questions in writing in advance, not editing the interview and letting him/her listen back to the interview and retract anything he/she does not like.

• Discourage anonymous contributors. Unless being identified would jeopardize their personal safety or be against the law.

• Research the interviewee. Before you go out and while interviewing. This will make you confident and focused.

• Prepare yourself. Write a few key words to remind you of the subjects you want to cover.

• Prepare the interviewee. Explain what the interview is for. If all you need is a short sound bite you don’t need to record a long properly structured interview. However don’t leave until you have a sound bite which captures the essence of the what the interviewee is saying, is no longer than 20 seconds and self-contained.

• Check location. Think about the visual and audio backdrop

• Assess risks to yourself and the interviewee. 

• Research, research, research. Then research some more. The only way to come up with good questions is to know everything there is to know about your subject.
•  Contact the person you wish to interview. Ask when a good time would be to do the interview. Be polite! Say "please" and "thank you." Try to set up the interview in person. If this isn't possible, then set up a phone interview.
•  Read over your research and brainstorm a list of 15 questions. The more specific your questions are, the better! And never ask questions that can be answered with a simple yes or no. Make your interviewee talk!
• Be sure to write all your questions down in a notebook, then practice asking them with a partner. Become very familiar with your questions before you go into the interview.
• Come prepared with:

• A pencil
• A notebook
• A list of good questions
• A recording device (always ask permission before recording an interview)

During the interview

• Have an outline in your head or on paper.

• Put questions clearly, concisely and pertinently

• Check for jargon

• Listen to the interviewee and react. Use body language when you want to interrupt.

• Make sure your questions are specific. Asking a very general question invites the interviewee to ramble on so instead of “what’s the government doing wrong?” ask which government policy would you change first if you came to power?”

One of the hardest skills for a young reporter to master is interviewing. It takes preparation and persistence to conduct a good interview. Follow these steps and learn how to interview like a pro!

fore recording an interview)

 Be on time! Arrive at your interview with plenty of time to spare. If you’ve never been to the place where your interview is taking place, go early and scout it out. There is nothing more unprofessional than a reporter who is late.

You can also use the time you are waiting to make notes about the surroundings. You won’t remember details later, so write them down.

• Be courteous to your subject.
• Always take time to ask for an explanation about things you don't understand.
• Don’t be afraid of uncomfortable silences and pauses.
• Let the interview take its natural course.
• Look the person in the eye when asking questions.
• Always listen carefully to the answers. Each answer could lead to more questions or include an answer to a question you haven’t asked yet. Don't ask a question that has already been answered. Your subject will know you weren't listening and be insulted.
• Don't read through your questions one right after another like you can't wait to be finished. Conduct your interview like a conversation. One question should lead naturally into another. If you are LISTENING to the answers this will come naturally!
• Also, take notes on what the person looked like, what the person was wearing, where he or she sat. If the interview is in an office, make notes of what is on the walls and on the desk. The objects people surround themselves with hold important clues to their personalities. Ask about any object that interests you. You’ll find some good stories!  

Even if you are recording an interview, take notes. Don't try to write every word said. It will show down the interview. Just take down the highlights.

After the interview, while the details are still fresh in your mind, write everything down you can remember about the person you interviewed. Don’t forget to make note of the sounds in the background. Take not of what was happening around you. Write it all down as soon as possible.

At home, expand your notes by following up on things you learned in your interview with more research!

Review your research and your interview notes. Circle or highlight quotations that you think will be good for your article.

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The 'Grammar' of Television and Film

Television and film use certain common conventions often referred to as the 'grammar' of these audiovisual media. This list includes some of the most important conventions for conveying meaning through particular camera and editing techniques (as well as some of the specialized vocabulary of film production).

Conventions aren't rules: expert practitioners break them for deliberate effect, which is one of the rare occasions that we become aware of what the convention is.

Long shot (LS). Shot which shows all or most of a fairly large subject (for example, a person) and usually much of the surroundings. Extreme Long Shot (ELS) - see establishing shot: In this type of shot the camera is at its furthest distance from the subject, emphasising the background. Medium Long Shot (MLS): In the case of a standing actor, the lower frame line cuts off his feet and ankles. Some documentaries with social themes favour keeping people in the longer shots, keeping social circumstances rather than the individual as the focus of attention.

Establishing shot. Opening shot or sequence, frequently an exterior 'General View' as an Extreme Long Shot (ELS). Used to set the scene.

Medium shots. Medium Shot or Mid-Shot (MS). In such a shot the subject or actor and its setting occupy roughly equal areas in the frame. In the case of the standing actor, the lower frame passes through the waist. There is space for hand gestures to be seen. Medium Close Shot (MCS): The setting can still be seen. The lower frame line passes through the chest of the actor. Medium shots are frequently used for the tight presentation of two actors (the two shot), or with dexterity three (the three shot).

Close-up (CU). A picture which shows a fairly small part of the scene, such as a character's face, in great detail so that it fills the screen. It abstracts the subject from a context. MCU (Medium Close-Up): head and shoulders. BCU (Big Close-Up): forehead to chin. Close-ups focus attention on a person's feelings or reactions, and are sometimes used in interviews to show people in a state of emotional excitement, grief or joy. In interviews, the use of BCUs may emphasise the interviewee's tension and suggest lying or guilt. BCUs are rarely used for important public figures; MCUs are preferred, the camera providing a sense of distance. Note that in western cultures the space within about 24 inches (60 cm) is generally felt to be private space, and BCUs may be invasive. 

Angle  of shot. The direction and height from which the camera takes the scene. The convention is that in 'factual' programmes subjects should be shot from eye-level only. In a high angle the camera looks down at a character, making the viewer feel more powerful than him or her, or suggesting an air of detachment. A low angle shot places camera below the character, exaggerating his or her importance. An overhead shot is one made from a position directly above the action. 

View point. The apparent distance and angle from which the camera views and records the subject. Not to be confused with point-of-view shots or subjective camera shots. 

Point-of-view shot (POV). A shot made from a camera position close to the line of sight of a performer who is to be watching the action shown in the point-of-view shot.

Two -shot. A shot of two people together. 

Selective  focus. Rendering only part of the action field in sharp focus through the use of a shallow depth of field. A shift of focus from foreground to background or vice versa is called rack focus. 

Soft  focus. An effect in which the sharpness of an image, or part of it, is reduced by the use of an optical device. 

Wide- angle shot. A shot of a broad field of action taken with a wide-angle lens. 

Tilted  shot. When the camera is tilted on its axis so that normally vertical lines appear slanted to the left or right, ordinary expectations are frustrated. Such shots are often used in mystery and suspense films to create a sense of unease in the viewer. 

 Camera Techniques:Movements

Zoom. In zooming in the camera does not move; the lens is focussed down from a long-shot to a close-up whilst the picture is still being shown. The subject is magnified, and attention is concentrated on details previously invisible as the shot tightens (contrast tracking). It may be used to surprise the viewer.

Zooming out reveals more of the scene (perhaps where a character is, or to whom he or she is speaking) as the shot widens.

Zooming in rapidly brings not only the subject but also the background hurtling towards the viewer, which can be disconcerting. Zooming in and then out creates an ugly 'yo-yo' effect. 

Following  pan. The camera swivels in the same base position to follow a moving subject. A space is left in front of the subject: the pan 'leads' rather than 'trails'. A pan usually begins and ends with a few seconds of still picture to give greater impact. The speed of a pan across a subject creates a particular mood as well as establishing the viewer's relationship with the subject. 

Surveying pan. The camera slowly searches the scene: may build to a climax or anticlimax. 

Tilt. A vertical movement of the camera - up or down- while the camera mounting stays fixed. 

Crab. The camera moves (crabs) right or left. 

Tracking (dollying). Tracking involves the camera itself being moved smoothly towards or away from the subject (contrast with zooming). Tracking in draws the viewer into a closer, more intense relationship with the subject; moving away tends to create emotional distance. Tracking back tends to divert attention to the edges of the screen. The speed of tracking may affect the viewer's mood. Rapid tracking  is exciting; tracking back relaxes interest. In a dramatic narrative we may sometimes be drawn forward towards a subject against our will. Camera movement parallel to a moving subject permits speed without drawing attention to the camera itself. 

Hand-held camera.  A hand-held camera can produce a jerky, bouncy, unsteady image which may create a sense of immediacy or chaos. Its use is a form of subjective treatment. 

Process shot. A shot made of action in front of a rear projection screen having on it still or moving images as a background.

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Narrative style of Television Programme.

Subjective treatment.

  The camera treatment is called 'subjective' when the viewer is treated as a participant  e.g. when the camera is addressed directly or when it imitates the viewpoint or movement of a character. We may be shown not only what a character sees, but how he or she sees it. A temporary 'first-person' use of camera as the character can be effective in conveying unusual states of mind or powerful experiences, such as dreaming, remembering, or moving very fast. If overused, it can draw too much attention to the camera. Moving the camera (or zooming) is a subjective camera effect, especially if the movement is not gradual or smooth. 

Objective treatment. 

The 'objective point of view' involves treating the viewer as an observer. A major example is the 'privileged point of view' which involves watching from omniscient vantage points. By Keeping the camera even as the subject moves towards or away from it is an objective camera effect. 

Talk to camera. The sight of a person looking ('full face') and talking directly at the camera establishes their authority or 'expert' status with the audience. Only certain people are normally allowed to do this, such as announcers, presenters, newsreaders, weather forecasters, interviewers, anchor-persons, and, on special occasions (e.g. ministerial broadcasts), key public figures. The words of 'ordinary' people are normally mediated by an interviewer. In a play or film talking to camera clearly breaks out of naturalistic conventions (the speaker may seem like an obtrusive narrator). A short sequence of this kind in a 'factual' programme is called a 'piece to camera'.

Parallel development/parallel editing/cross-cutting. An intercut sequence of shots in which the camera shifts back and forth between one scene and another. Two distinct but related events seem to be happening at approximately the same time. A chase is a good example. Each scene serves as a cutaway for the other. Adds tension and excitement to dramatic action. 

'Invisible editing'. This is the omniscient style of the realist feature films developed in Hollywood. The vast majority of narrative films are now edited in this way. The cuts are intended to be unobtrusive except for special dramatic shots. It supports rather than dominates the narrative: the story and the behaviour of its characters are the centre of attention. The technique gives the impression that the edits are always required are motivated by the events in the 'reality' that the camera is recording rather than the result of a desire to tell a story in a particular way. The 'seamlessness' convinces us of its 'realism', but its devices include: 

•  the use of matched cuts (rather than jump cuts);
• motivated cuts;
• changes of shot through camera movement;
•  long takes;
• the use of the sound bridge;
• parallel development.

The editing isn't really 'invisible', but the conventions have become so familiar to visual literates that they no longer consciously notice them.

Montage/montage editing. In its broadest meaning, the process of cutting up film and editing it into the screened sequence. However, it may also be used to mean intellectual montage - the justaposition of short shots to represent action or ideas - or (especially in Hollywood), simply cutting between shots to condense a series of events. Intellectual montage is used to consciously convey subjective messages through the juxtaposition of shots which are related in composition or movement, through repetition of images, through cutting rhythm, detail or metaphor. Montage editing, unlike invisible editing, uses conspicuous techniques which may include: use of close- ups, relatively frequent cuts, dissolves, superimposition, fades and jump cuts. Such editing should suggest a particular meaning. 

Narration of Television story-Covering a programme

                                Every item that is broadcast must be thoroughly  researched and investigated primarily made a synopsis, it include shooting scripts, the time schedule, appointments with various persons in the city or outstation . Also the footage provided by the reporters on the spot is the main ingredient  of the report. It has to be trimmed or edited  for length weeding out repetitions or irrelevant material, and then matched with the spoken word.  Inside the studio, a variety of special effects is available, and could be used for great effect in the presentations of the news capsules. These are slow motion, freeze, frames speedup, rotating and burst. Each one has a specific function in the narration and presentations if the story.  

It is up to the anchorman to choose what  he wants for maximum  effects .  The anchor man has to be aware of the kind of impact each  shot will make on the viewer,  and  never give in to  the temptation of over emphasizing  an item or a story.    Everything that is broadcast has to be edited exalt  the fire, flood, accidents house collapse or building crash.

      
  A good editor would talked honest care to ensure that few cuts he executed do not leave jerks and disorients the viewers from the main story.  The editor uses a cut away shot to maintain continuity in the narration and the flow of the story. The cut away shots were shots before or after the main incidents. Thus cut away are the most important shots in television news .

Tone. The mood or atmosphere of a programme (e.g. ironic, comic, nostalgic, romantic). 

   

Formats and other features

Shot. A single run of the camera or the piece of film resulting from such a run.

Scene. A dramatic unit composed of a single or several shots. A scene usually takes place in a continuous time period, in the same setting, and involves the same characters.

Sequence. A dramatic unit composed of several scenes, all linked together by their emotional and narrative momentum.

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Editing Techniques-Television Production

SHOT - A continuous, non-stop running of the camera.

Editing the video tape is done electronically or digitally. It is digital camera has been used for shooting or if the video scope shots have been transferred to a hards disc the editing will be done digitally.

Editing Techniques: The best way to learn editing is to have the experience of editing quality footage.  The best way to learn how to shoot video is to edit bad footage.   The process should be repeated on simple projects so the student masters both talents.

There is a language to film or video just as there is to spoken or written languages. The human mind demands that shots be presented in a logical sequence. However, the human mind of the viewer does not analyze the sequence for time. 

JUMP CUTS:Jump cuts result when two sequential shots do not make logical sense. For example, one shot shows a person standing and the next shot show the same person seated or in a different location. Except on MTV, you will never see a jump cut in a commercial film or video except for some unique artistic effect. When the mind tries to make sense of a jump cut, the viewers' train of thought is disrupted and the illusion of reality is destroyed. 
          Jump cut.  Rapid switch  from one scene to another which may be used deliberately to make a dramatic point.  Sometimes boldly used to begin or end action.  Alternatively, it may be result of poor pictorial continuity, perhaps from deleting a section. 

Eliminating Jump Cuts :The goal of any editor is to produce a video without any jump cuts. To achieve this goal, the videographer must have shot footage that provides the editor with a series of shots he can work with. The best technique to learn how to shoot for postproduction is to learn how to edit in the camera. Once you master this skill, there is little need for low budget postproduction. Several cinematic techniques are used in all films to make the material flow logically and to solve the jump cut problem. 

Cutaway Shots: Separate two shots with a shot of something completely different. During a church wedding service, a person is walking down the isle. If the camera is stopped when they are partway down the isle and then restarted as they reach the front, the result will be a jump cut. Solve the jump cut by taking a cutaway shot of a stained glass window, people in the pews, flowers or other decoration.   The mind assumes that the person moved the whole way down the isle while the viewer was watching the other shot.

Reaction Shots :Similar to the cutaway shot but contains a subject that relates to the sequence of shots. In the above example, a shot of people watching the person walking down the isle would be a reaction shot.

Walk In/Out Transitions :The jump cuts result when the same subject is in different positions in two adjoining shots. Avoided the jump cut by allowing the subject to walk out of the first shot. Then they can appear in the next shot in a slightly different place. If the space or time separating the two shots is larger, start the camera before the subject enters the shot to allow them to walk in to the field of view.

Cut-on-Action :The ultimate transition is to have matching shots where the action is continuous between two shots. Cut the shot at a point in the action and begin the next shot on the same action. Then the movement will appear to flow across the transition. Accomplish the cut-on-action by having the person repeat the action for the two shots. A close up shot of the person entering a door followed by a wide shot taken from the rear of the room. If the subject is performing a repetitive action, you can take a close up of one cycle of the action followed by a wide shot from a different angle. A person shooting baskets, diving into a pool, hammering a nail or even eating dinner are candidates for cut-on-actions.

Dissolve :The editor's mantra is "If you can't solve it, dissolve it!" The dissolve allows a transition between two shots that involves extremes in time and place. For example, a shot of Lincoln leaving Springfield would dissolve into a shot of his arrival at the capital in Washington. Unfortunately, it takes three VCRs and an edit-controller or a computer editing system to achieve this effect.

Cut. Sudden change of shot from  one viewpoint or location to another. On television cuts occur on average about every 7 or 8 seconds. Cutting may:

• change the scene; compress time; vary the point of view; or
• build up an image or idea.

There is always a reason for a cut, and you should ask yourself what the reason is. Less sudden transitions are achieved with the fade, dissolve, and wipe

Matched cut. In a 'matched cut' a familiar relationship between the shots may make the change seem smooth:

• continuity of direction;completed action;a similar centre of attention in the frame; a one-step change of shot size (e.g. long to medium);
• a change of angle (conventionally at least 30 degrees).

*The cut is usually made on an action .for example, a person begins to turn towards a door in one shot; the next shot, taken from the doorway, catches him completing the turn. Because the viewer's eye is absorbed by the action he is unlikely to notice the movement of the cut itself.

Motivated cut.  Cut made just at the point where what has occurred makes the viewer immediately want to see something which is not currently. A typical feature is the shot/reverse shot technique (cuts coinciding with changes of speaker). Editing and camera work appear to be determined by the action. It is intimately associated with the 'privileged point of view'.

Cutting rate. Frequent cuts may be used as deliberate interruptions to shock, surprise or emphasize.

Cutting rhythm. A cutting rhythm may be progressively shortened to increase tension. Cutting rhythm may create an exciting, lyrical or staccato effect in the viewer.

Cross-cut. A cut from one line of action to another. Also applied as an adjectuve to sequences which use such cuts.

Cutaway/cutaway shot (CA). A bridging, intercut shot between two shots of the same subject. It represents a secondary activity occurring at the same time as the main action. It may be preceded by a definite look or glance out of frame by a participant, or it may show something of which those in the preceding shot are unaware. (See narrative style: parallel development) It may be used to avoid the technical ugliness of a 'jump cut' where there would be uncomfortable jumps in time, place or viewpoint. It is often used to shortcut the passing of time.

Reaction shot. Any shot, usually a cutaway, in which a participant reacts to action which has just occurred.

Insert/insert shot. A bridging close-up shot inserted into the larger context, offering an essential detail of the scene (or a reshooting of the action with a different shot size or angle.)

Fade, dissolve (mix). Both fades and dissolves are gradual transitions between shots. In a fade the picture gradually appears from (fades in) or disappears to (fades out) a blank screen. A slow fade-in is a quiet introduction to a scene; a slow fade-out is a peaceful ending. Time lapses are often suggested by a slow fade-out and fade-in. A dissolve (or mix) involves fading out one picture while fading up another on top of it. The impression is of an image merging into and then becoming another. A slow mix usually suggests differences in time and place. Defocus or ripple dissolves are sometimes used to indicate flashbacks in time.

Superimpositions. Two of more images placed directly over each other (e.g. and eye and a camera lens to create a visual metaphor).

Wipe. An optical effect marking a transition between two shots. It appears to supplant an image by wiping it off the screen (as a line or in some complex pattern, such as by appearing to turn a page). The wipe is a technique which draws attention to itself and acts as a clear marker of change.

Inset. An inset is a special visual effect whereby a reduced shot is superimposed on the main shot. Often used to reveal a close-up detail of the main shot.

Split screen. The division of the screen into parts which can show the viewer several images at the same time (sometimes the same action from slightly different perspectives, sometimes similar actions at different times). This can convey the excitement and frenzy of certain activities, but it can also overload the viewer.

Stock shot. Footage already available and used for another purpose than the one for which it was originally filmed.

Invisible editing: See narrative style: continuity editing.

Manipulating Time

Screen time: a period of time represented by events within a film (e.g. a day, a week).

Subjective time. The time experienced or felt by a character in a film, as revealed through camera movement and editing. (e.g. when a frightened person's flight from danger is prolonged).

Compressed  time. The compression of time between sequences or scenes, and within scenes. This is the most frequent manipulation of time in films: it is achieved with cuts or dissolves. In a dramatic narrative, if climbing a staircase is not a significant part of the plot, a shot of a character starting up the stairs may then cut to him entering a room. The logic of the situation and our past experience of medium tells us that the room is somewhere at the top of the stairs. Long journeys can be compressed into seconds. Time may also be compressed between cutaways in parallel editing. More subtle compression can occur after reaction shots or close-ups have intervened. The use of dissolves was once a cue for the passage of a relatively long period of time.

Long take. A single shot  (or take, or run of the camera) which lasts for a relatively lengthy period of time. The long take has an 'authentic' feel since it is not inherently dramatic.

Simultaneous  time. Events in different places can be presented as occurring at the same moment, by parallel editing or cross-cutting, by multiple images or split-screen. The conventional clue to indicate that events or shots are taking place at the same time is that there is no progression of shots: shots are either inserted into the main action or alternated with each other until the strands are somehow united.

Slow  motion. Action which takes place on the screen at a slower rate than the rate at which the action took place before the camera. This is used: a) to make a fast action visible; b) to make a familiar action strange; c) to emphasise a dramatic moment. It can have a lyric and romantic quality or it can amplify violence.

Accelerated motion (undercranking) . This is used: a) to make a slow action visible; b) to make a familiar action funny; c) to increase the thrill of speed.

Reverse motion. Reproducing action backwards, for comic, magical or explanatory effect.

Replay. An action sequence repeated, often in slow motion, commonly featured in the filming of sport to review a significant event.

Freeze-frame. This gives the image the appearance of a still photograph. Clearly not a naturalistic device.

Flashback. A break in the chronology of a narrative in which events from the past are disclosed to the viewer. Formerly indicated conventionally with defocus or ripple dissolves.

Flashforward. Much less common than the flashback. Not normally associated with a particular character. Associated with objective treatments.

Extended or expanded time/overlapping action. The expansion of time can be accomplished by intercutting a series of shots, or by filming the action from different angles and editing them together. Part of an action may be repeated from another viewpoint, e.g. a character is shown from the inside of a building opening a door and the next shot, from the outside, shows him opening it again. Used nakedly this device disrupts the audience's sense of real time. The technique may be used unobtrusively to stretch time, perhaps to exaggerate, for dramatic effect, the time taken to walk down a corridor. Sometimes combined with slow motion.

Ambiguous time. Within the context of a well-defined time-scheme sequences may occur which are ambiguous in time. This is most frequently comunicated through dissolves and superimpositions.

Universal time. This is deliberately created to suggest universal relevance. Ideas rather than examples are emphasised. Context may be disrupted by frequent cuts and by the extensive use of close-ups and other shots which do not reveal a specific background.

The cameraman uses several shots to narrate his story visually.  Among these are the long shot, the mid-long shot, the medium shot, close up and very close shot.

The zoom lens that the cameraman uses enables him to take either a long shot or a very close shot without moving the camera, but only by manipulating the lens.  The zoom lens are rarely used in TV news coverage.  They are not as communication as the other shots are, and are useful only for focusing on man’s face or figures or on documents.  They are also difficult to edit because the process is time-consuming.

The pan shot moves horizontally on a fixed axis instead of just the lens.  The camera moves to the left or the right as required for a pan shot.

The tilt shot covers the scene up or down.  The pan shot and the tilt shot are used while shooting conferences, meetings or rallies.  They are used generally when the news value of a picture is most important. not its quality. They are generally avoided since they cause problems in editing, ,as in the case of the zoom shot.  As newscasts are bound by deadlines, the editor cannot spend too much time in editing zooms, pans and tilts, without causing visual jumps.

Editing the videotape is done electronically or digitally.  If a digital camera has been used for the shooting, or if the videoscope shots have been transferred to a hard disc, the editing will be done digitally, i.e. non-linear, not electronically.  Only videotape shots are edited electronically.

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