In our first meeting, after discussing our brand name and aim, we started to discuss what our logo would look like.
We started by looking at our brand name 'Student Yak'.
To get the message across that the brand is for Students, we thought a graduation hat would be a good symbol to use. Then to add the rest of the title in the logo, we thought we could have a Yak as the main symbol.
Our original idea was to have a Yak head and a graduation hat on top of it's head.
Here is the first sketch of the kind of logo we wanted:
Ida then had the idea that one of her friends is a graphic designer and she could possibly create the logo for us.
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In our second meeting we decided that if we had a good idea of what we want the logo to look like, it would make the graphic designers good a lot less complicated and hard.
One of the main things we wanted this logo to be is memorable - like the McDonalds logo, or the Nike logo, etc. We also didn't want any words, we just wanted an image, so people would know the logo without having to see the actual name.
This is the second sketch of the logo which is more the sort of the thing we want the logo to look like:
Josh then went on his laptop and created a stand in logo made from clip art images:
We all really liked this logo and agreed that we wanted this sort of design to be our logo. Ida suggested having a minimalistic look to it, and showed us some of the graphic designers work and we all agreed that would be a good idea.
During our second meeting, we decided that we would start on our 25 word pitch just so we can easily justify and sum up our brand idea. We also discussed that it would be useful to have the pitch on our website so the public can understand us and our aim easily and quickly.
The pitch:
Student Yak aims to find entertaining news and views from all corners of the internet and bring it to you. Made by students for students.
We all contributed towards the wording of this, and not only is it 25 words exactly, but it also defines our brand really well.
As our target audience is aimed at students, we thought it would be a good idea to create some social media accounts while also making our website mobile friendly.
I decided to do some research on how people usually get their news - whether its from the TV or some a device.
According to a Digital News Report in 2013, here are my findings: (http://www.digitalnewsreport.org/survey/2013/executive-summary-and-key-findings-2013/)
Compared to the results in 2012, the use of tablets has doubled. In the UK, the access to news through a device has risen from 8% to 16%, and in Denmark the access to news through a device has risen from 13% to 25%.
The computer is still the primary device for accessing the news digitally, but there is an underlying trend on the growth of access from devices.
85% of computer users say they access the news on that device weekly, but only 63% use smartphones, 60% use tablets, 54% use smart TVs and 17% use e-reader. Across all the countries that took this survey, an average 49% said they also read a newspaper at least once a week. 81% also then watch TV for the news.
It is quite clear that 18-44 year olds are more likely to use the internet to access their news, and the over 45 year olds are likely to use the TV. This split is defined more by the age of the public than any other factor. This then reflects the habits of those who have grown up with the internet rather than adapting to it.
When asked what media they used when accessing the news on the go, 48% said they use their mobile phone, while 34% use printed newspapers and 6% use tablets. This shows that people are more likely to look to their phone when getting the news which also then suggests that online news is used more than others.
It is very clear, from this question, that under 45s in the UK use social media as a way to find the news, whereas the over 45s that use social media is a lower number. This is probably due to the fact that the under 45s have grown with the adapting online websites, whereas the over 45s are less reluctant to stop using the traditional ways of finding news.
This survey has helped a lot with deciding on how we want our main media for our news show to be, and how to adapt our work to suit our target audience. Josh has made our website mobile friendly, which will help towards our audience getting the news without having to go on the computer to find it.
Something that Josh showed us as inspiration to our news package is a series - with only two episodes - called Topical Waffle.
This short series is presented on YouTube, and it was formed by the writers of 'The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon'.
When we watched these two videos, the main points we loved about it were:
The humour
The fast pace
The silliness
We all agreed that we wanted our video to have the same pace and the same humour quality, however we would have to make some changes.
Instead of spitting out short news stories here and there, we need to stick to one or two stories. Having a variety of multiple news stories within the video keeps the audience entertained and engaged - we won't be able to share multiple news stories so we will have to make sure we keep our story fairly short.
Some of the gags they have are really funny, like when they turn the audiences attention to the camera man, or the other 'presenters' they have on the show. Also they make fun of celebrities and films and others, which is something we probably won't be able to do, but we will be able to add our own humour to the stories.
Not only do they make jokes, at the same time they talk about the actual news like the president election - this shows us that they want to put across the stories but they want to make it humorous so the audience will stay engaged.
Even though we find some of the small gags funny, we need to make sure we don't copy their style and keep our own original content and ideas very prominent. We want to keep the pace of our video fast and quick, similar to this video, as we think students will be more engaged and interested.
Overall, these videos have influenced us greatly with our own ideas, but we will still keep our own ideas and humour clear.
Due to our brand being aimed at the internet world, I decided to look into the different types of news channels or organisations that you might find online.
Auto-Tune the News/Songify the News
In 2009, the Gregory Brothers created a news show on their YouTube channel 'schmoyoho'. This news show, although it may not be a very serious one, informs the audience of the recent news that has been going on around the world.
The Gregory Brothers are an American musical group that specialise in 'Country & Soul, Folk & Roll' music. The band was formed in 2007 and their first EP came out in 2009.
They used their musical talent within their news show, by making everything into a funny song. The recorded voices of politicians, news anchors and more were digitally adjusted to create a melody in order to make it look like they are singing.
The show was re-branded in 2011, and is now known as 'Songify the News'.
The group didn't really get noticed until the summer of 2010 when they released the Bed Intruder Song.
Even though these videos are entertaining and funny, they still have the information of recent news so the audience will be educated while enjoying the video they are watching.
This is something we want to achieve with our video - educating people while also being humorous. We won't be using music to share the information, although we will use references and possibly clips from other viral videos.
The Young Turks (TYT)
This is an American political commentary web series that was created by journalists Cenk Uygur, Ben Mankiewicz and Dave Koller. The show is mainly focused on political commentary but is also provides different opinions on the topics being discussed. The show was originally a radio program that premiered in 2002, then in 2005 the web series was launched on YouTube.
The style of this show is quite relaxed and fairly informal, although there are a few formal qualities. It almost feels like the host is having a conversation with the audience, sharing their own thoughts and opinions on the matter. The structure of the show flows nicely, and it almost feels like their isn't a script to help them - this might be somewhat true, but the script is probably very basic.
The location looks like a proper set and the hosts are usually sat at a table.
We're going to have a set as our green screen background, and we also want to make ours seem like we're talking with the audience - we want it to be relatable. Interacting with the audience is something we want in our show, and this show also has that element to it through discussion.
We could involve that in our show, by having segments that may lead to a conversation with the audience.
TV News Shows
As the media preference has changed, many TV shows on the TV have started a YouTube channel to show a few snippets of their show that would've been on TV. This is a good thing to have as people might not have time to watch the news on TV, which means they can go on YouTube and watch the videos whenever they like.
We'll do something similar with our website - we'll have one long video and then split it up into different videos to show our different packages. That way the audience don't have to watch the whole video again when they might only want to see a certain part.
With this research I will take some of the features that they have in these shows and adapt them to make them fit in with ours. They will help us when we are developing our script and the design of our set.
Our brand, we agreed isn't just based on one niche genre. Instead it's a mix of different genres that all revolve around the media.
We had a long discussion about what topics we wanted to explore and eventually finalised the list of categories that will be featured on both the video and the website:
Celebrity Yak
This will have a range of different new based around well-known celebrities to entertain the audience and keep them up to date with the celeb world.
TV/Film Yak
This will include new film releases, TV updates and news and even events that students can go to like an open outdoor cinema.
(Un)Social Yak
This is where all the social media news will be, and I'm sure it will be a popular one.
Super Serious Yak
This category is for the news that should be taken seriously.
We will make sure the look of this category is clearly different to the others, so it stands out and it's clear that the tone is different.
Viral Yak
Viral Videos and YouTube videos have become very popular in the past few years, and this category is dedicated to them.
Tech Yak
With so many updates to the iPhones and new phones releasing and so many students being aware of all of this, we thought it made sense to have category based on that.
We will be interactive within this category and ask what people think of the new phones and the updates.
Some of these categories will be featured in the video - one or two might be the main story and the others will only have small mentions. We want to do this so the audience will be engaged in the video.
The News genre is quite a varied one, especially in this time period. When news first started, it was on one channel only [the BBC] and it was a special occasion for family members to sit around the TV and find out what is going on in the world.
1960s
A television news broadcast was at a disadvantage because of the lack of portable equipment, meaning there was no comparison between newspaper journalism and live, on-the-scene reporting of radio.
During the Kennedy assassination [President John F. Kennedy was assassinated as he rode in a car through downtown Dallas], the TV news grew quickly and "changed TV news coverage forever."
The TV news executives had to figure out a way to get live any sort of image, "live video, film, still photos", from the scene to the network studios so it could be shown to the nation. This would've been hard as Satellites weren't around to send videos around the world in present.
1970s
More females started working in TV news as co-anchors and such. Also more people from different ethnic backgrounds started working in TV news. For some local stations, they started having news "teams" presenting instead of one man "behind a simple desk".
When colour TV was developed, a lot of money was spent on anchor desks, music, logo designs and promotion. The focus of TV news shifted to tell and bring the audience information that they wanted to see, rather than what they needed to know.
News stations decided that their anchor teams needed to be friendly and funny, which led to an era known as "happy talk". They found that having 'banter' between the team members was critical in developing a relationship with the viewers.
Also throughout the decade, videotape started to replace film which made getting images on air, easier.
1980s
Newscasts stopped becoming dependent on the day's events for their content, instead they started doing a variety of different reports, also known as "franchises".
Computers made an appearance to newsrooms, making everything from finding old stories to important phone numbers easier.
1990s
Logos were re-design to something bigger and bolder to attack the attention of the viewers watching. These channels started to show other programs so they weren't just known as a TV news channel.
With the internet starting to be a part of people's home, the organisations developed their first email systems along with their websites. They did this so they can communicate with the public through a new media.
2000s
During this time, there were two very important events that had happened and changed the way the news was aired. One was the 2000 presidential election and the other was the 9/11 terrorist attack.
The anchors had to report the bad news while trying to provide some reassurance to the audience. The newsrooms also heard about the rumours of the terrorist event and had to decide whether to share the report with what they knew or wait to get the facts.
The website development had allowed video stories to be be posted easily, which also created its own problems. Organisations had to choose whether they put the stories on the internet straight away to compete with other organisations or to hold it off until their on-air broadcasts had gone live.
2010s
This decade has brought many changes through the technology of news, so it's become harder to determine what viewers want from a TV newscast. There are so many choices as to where people get their news, that the old habit of sitting down to watch the news at 6pm is slowly becoming non-existent.
TV newsrooms are making their priority to share information across a variety of platforms. Social media has become very important when reaching different audiences, and electronic devices are keeping people up to date with the news on the go.
While reading this information through I learnt that the way news is being viewed has changed quite drastically overtime. One of the main differences between then and now is that the internet is a bigger factor through the websites and social media sites
Info from:
https://www.thebalance.com/a-look-at-tv-news-history-over-the-past-50-years-2315217
As a starting point, the three things we all agreed on were:
Humorous content
We don't want to focus on the boring and sad news, and we want people to enjoy watching the content so they come back for more.
Not kid humour, but teenage/young adult humour.
Brand aimed at Students
We are students ourselves, so we know what they would want to see.
There aren't many student news websites and the ones that are online look boring and uninteresting.
Interactive with the audience
We want them to be involved with the brand and make decisions on what content they want to see.
Connected to the brand.
In order to keep our content humorous and entertaining we need to:
Tell up to date and recent stories.
Show a variety of different stories that people would like to see.
Make the comments and/or stories relatable for the audience.
Keeping the brand aimed at students won't be too hard for us, as we are students ourselves. However we will have to ask other students we know - or maybe do a questionnaire - about what they want to see or what catches their attention.
This will help us boost the audience number and also we might attract students with mixed interests.
It will also keep us in the loop of what other students want to see, rather than just doing what we want to do.
Then to interactive with the audience we can:
Create different social media accounts and send messages out to our followers.
Do a Q&A at the end of our videos, or even through our social media accounts.
Ask them, regularly, what they want to see and encourage them to contact us whenever they want and for whatever reason.
Josh had previously, in one of his personal projects, created the name "Student Yak" and said that we could use that for the brand name. We all really liked the name and thought it would go well with our aim and purpose.
With the name already confirmed, we started to plan and discuss what stories we would possibly want to tell.
To start off the second year we were given our first unit: Digital News.
Within this unit we were given the task to make our own branded news company through a website or YouTube, with content to suit our audience.
My group:
We were given the chance to choose our teams of 3/4, here are my team members (excluding myself):
Nisserin Bessioua
Josh Jones
Ida Frank
I have worked with Nisserin on a few other projects and I worked with Josh on the Faversham workshop, but I have yet to work with Ida. I'm sure our team will work well today, due to our equal amount of interest in the project, and we will be able to communicate well.
Our roles:
Me: Director & Scriptwriter
Nisserin: Camera Operator
Josh: Editor/Graphics & Presenter
Ida: Sound Operator
We discussed as a group what role we would all like to take on. I said that I wouldn't mind being the director as I did have some experience with other unit's and I'd quite like to work on that skill. Also I wanted to be the scriptwriter as that is one of my main interests. We did agree, however, that I would write a basic script and then everyone could pitch in with other suggestions so we all have some contribution to what is being said.
I am excited to see where our ideas take us, and what our final outcome will look like. I'm also looking forward to working with my team members as I think we all have similar ideas.
