Kate Ritchie stars in COPS LAC

This article is about Channel Nine’s new police drama Cops L.A.C. by eBroadcast. It begins the piece by describing the famous Australian actress Kate Richie as heading “an all-star cast”. It then goes into a brief synopsis of the premise of the show, with the requisite adjectives and superlatives that is the characteristic of a promotional blurb.

It then lists the various characters played by well-known names, before grabbing soundbites from Jo Horsburgh, the Executive Producer of the show. The quotes from Horsburgh, in particular, are more fascinating than the marketing plug of the previous paragraphs because it offers an insight into the inspiration behind the show, namely real-life Local Area Command centres in Sydney, which is where the story is set in.

It appears that the majority of the article is a straight copy of a press release or wire service since it describes the show in praising tones, though it could be possibly written by eBroadcast itself. It is understandable that eBroadcast is a television website that usually put the shows it discusses in a favourable light, much like entertainment magazines or TV guides. In a sense, it succeeds in promoting the show to its readers, who are naturally curious to know what it’s about. While it would’ve been more ‘newsworthy’ if there had been criticisms or unfavourable observations put in, that would’ve run contrary to the spirit of TV guides and other entertainment reports in stoking enthusiasm in its readers to watch the show. Objective criticism should be reserved to the TV reviewer, who will usually feature in a separate section or as a companion article to the ‘spruik piece’.

However, it has failed in fully utilizing the online medium. There is only a single photo that does not contain an embedded link to a higher-resolution version. There is a ‘Like’ Facebook button and an unrestricted comment box, but that’s about it. User interactivity can be improved by having a still gallery which invites user-submitted screenshots, or a link to the official site.

http://www.ebroadcast.com.au/enews/news/Kate-Ritchie-stars-in-COPS-LAC-010910.html

Expensive Ten cop drama pushes all the right buttons

The article is a behind-the-scenes look of the pilot episode of the new season of Rush, a police procedural currently airing on Channel Ten. The reporter is Melinda Houston, a TV critic writing for the Sydney Morning Herald.

Houston begins the article with a dramatic opening, summing up the show’s audacious action stunts with a quote from Adam Todd, the scriptwriter about the explosion sequence she was about to witness. This is one of the many quotes she uses from the various production crew members she meets, including Todd, producer Mimi Butler (the producer), production designer Sally Shepherd, and stunt director Mitch Dean, among others.

She also has found out (or researched) the inspiration behind the episode; the real-life story of a Swedish cash depot heist. Houston describes in fascinating the detail the amount of planning that goes into filming a single scene from the episode, the meticulous preparation of the stunt cars, the choreography of the extras in reaction to the explosion, right down to the timing of the stunt so that it is performed in favourable weather conditions.

Houston concludes the piece with a ‘plug-line’ for the show, but strangely has a side-story beneath which describes the editing process. The story might have been a port from the print version, which may have the editing process described in a side-bar story, but for the purposes of clarity and organization in the online version, the editing side-story should be incorporated into the main article so that is a single piece.

Also, there’s little user interaction or supplementary reading beyond a simple ‘More Related Coverage’ link at the bottom. This leads to a page that only has a review for one episode mid-season and an interview with one of the actors, Rodger Corser. Readers who want to submit a ‘review’ on that page have to sign up as a member first before logging in, which discourages casual commentary.


http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/tv-and-radio/expensive-ten-cop-drama-pushes-all-the-right-buttons-20100717-10ezp.html