The Structure of ITV News Bulletins

Abstract

This article explores the relationship between the discourse structure and the formal structure of television news by analyzing the editing patterns of a sample of bulletins broadcast on ITV 1 in August 2011. The discourse structure of the bulletins in this sample is fixed and remains constant irrespective of the subject of news items, suggesting that content is adapted to meet the needs of this structure and that the presence and order of discourse elements in a bulletin shape its formal structure.