Analysis of the BBC news programme: Council houses may be offered for as little as two years

Content within programme:

The program begins with GVs of council housing in different areas with a voice over from the reporter. The program then cuts to a clip of the housing minister talking about the benefits of the new plans. This clip appears to have been taken from a previous interview as the housing minister sits with a background of London behind him. Perhaps this clip has been taken from an interview done from the studio on Breakfast TV. The reporter then introduces the vox pops section of the program: another GV of a street and a voice over from the reporter informing the viewer of the responses “mixed” and the location “in Newcastle”. Three vox pops from three different people then follow from a woman, and then two men. All of the vox pops are filmed with residential areas behind them, two support the new plans and one disagrees with them. After this it cuts to a shot of the reporter (who we haven’t actually seen yet until this point) he does a P2C on a council estate walking towards the camera explaining some of the exceptions to the new scheme (those already living in council housing and some with certain housing associations will not be affected). This then cuts to a shot of more GVs with reporter doing a voice over talking about the problems that homeless charities and support groups have with the new rules. This then cuts to a woman from the charity Crisis speaking about why they don’t like the new rules. This vox pop looks to be taken from an interview as it hasn’t been filmed on the street but is in an office. More GVs of council buildings then follow with a Soc said over the images.

What I liked in the programme:

I thought that the use of GVs worked well, they we’re used frequently through out the program. I think this helped to add a creative element to the program as the GVs looked as though they had been well thought out and planned.

I liked that when the reporter was doing his P2C he walked towards the camera up the street instead of standing still. This added an extra element and made his P2C more interesting.

The people who they chose for the vox pops didn’t just represent one group of people as they chose a mixture of sexes and also races. They also had varying opinions. This made the vox pops seem like they properly represented ‘the peoples’ view.

What could have been done better:

One of the people in the vox pops I thought spoke quite unclearly and I could just make out what he had said, perhaps another person who spoke a bit more clearly should have been chosen.

I felt that one of the main issues within the program was how some people may be exempt from the new rules and the question as to weather this is fair or not. The way that the only P2C in the program was raising this issue gave the impression that it was an important point. Therefore I felt it may have been better to have a vox pop/interview with a rep from a housing association rather than from a homeless charity. I felt that this element of the program was slightly confusing.