Search Guide: Researching TV News in the NISV Archive

Mary-Joy van der Deure, Utrecht University

Introduction

This search guide provides an overview of the types of news available in the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision’s (NISV) television collection. TV news is a frequent subject of analysis for researchers. From discourse to framing analyses, the TV news collection available through the Media Suite contains valuable information for many types of research.

A search guide, such as this one, is made by researchers in collaboration with archival experts and is intended for researchers and journalists. It provides context to archival data by highlighting historic broadcasting context and metadata conventions. The information in this document is based on the research project Re-Frame , in which a close analysis of the news broadcasts in the NISV collection has been carried out, while working in collaboration with archival experts. This search guide has been created to share the knowledge gained in this process. It provides an overview of TV News in the collection as well as the way these programmes have been archived. This includes specific changes in the metadata conventions over the years, so-called ‘ metadata fractures ’. This datasheet will thus be beneficial for developing search queries and retrieving specific objects from the collection.

For basic information on how to navigate the search environment of the Media Suite, set up user projects , and other tutorials, see the learn environment.

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Jasmijn van Gorp and Mari Wigham for their feedback on earlier versions of this search guide.

General information about the collections

The most important characteristic of the NISV is that the archive is tasked with the preservation of programmes from the Dutch public service broadcaster NPO. While it does preserve a selection of commercial content each year, this is very limited compared to the NPO broadcasts in the collection.

Within the NPO, there are several broadcasting associations as well as two ‘ statutory broadcasters ’. Broadcasting associations must have a sufficient number of members in order to be allowed to broadcast. These members are ordinary members of the public who choose to join the association. The statutory broadcasters, the NOS and the NTR , do not have any members but have, by law, the respective tasks of providing news, events and sports (NOS) and programming regarding information, education and culture (NTR). Precursors to the NOS were the Nederlandse Televisie Stichting (NTS), established in 1951, which merged with the Nederlandse Radio Unie (NRU) in 1996 into the NOS. In 1994, the Nederlandse Programma Stichting refracted from the NOS, and eventually merged with Teleac and RVU into the NTR in 2010. If you are looking for news within the NISV television collection, it is important to be acquainted with these broadcasters.

When searching for TV news, it is also important to consider that, not only the format and broadcasting schedule will have changed over the years, but that programme names, schedules and duration will also have individual exceptions, depending on the surrounding programming, holidays, or breaking news.

Category 1: NOS Journaal

  • NOS Journaal

    • The most frequently broadcast source of news within the NPO is the NOS Journaal , a news programme with a duration ranging from 5 minutes to 30 minutes. It follows a classic news bulletin format, with an anchor presenting different news items. The items themself can consist of photographs narrated by the anchor, video footage with a scripted voice-over or interviews with regular people, experts, or news correspondents.

    • The precursor of the NOS Journaal was the NTS Journaal, aired from 5 January 1956 up until 1969.

    • The NOS Journaal is aired throughout the entire day. While the exact times have fluctuated over the years, the morning programmes are broadcast every half-hour. In between these newly recorded bulletins, repeats are also aired on the channel NPO 1 and NPO 2. It is important to be aware that repeats are, as a general rule, not archived by NISV. The programme is scheduled at a lower frequency later in the day, with the longest and most in-depth programme airing around 8 p.m.

    • Over the years, the programme title in the archive has changed. Since halfway through 2018, items are labelled “NOS Journaal” while earlier items are simply called ‘Journaal’. Older broadcasts, by both the NTS as the NOS, can be found under the same name but generally consist of only (selected) single items without programme context. This can often be recognised by the text in the description, e.g. ‘Hiervan zijn de hieronder vermelde items in het archief opgenomen’. Additionally, the time of the broadcast is sometimes mentioned in the programme title, such as ‘JOURNAAL; Journaal (2016): 13 uur Journaal’, or in the season title, such as ‘NOS Journaal; 13:00 uur NOS Journaal NPO 1 (2018): NOS Journaal’, while with other broadcasts, this time is only mentioned as part of the textual description in the metadata.


Figure 1. The broadcast time of the episode is only mentioned in the textual description of the video.

  • Journaal met gebarentolk (news broadcasts with sign language) The Journaal met gebarentolk is a repeat of the regular NOS Journaal with the addition of a sign language interpreter to cater to the deaf and hard of hearing community. In the archive, it is predominantly present in the years 2007-2018 under the name ‘ NOS Journaal met gebarentolk’ , with or without the mention of the NOS in the title. In the years outside of this period (and after 2000) individual programmes are not present in the collection but can be found in the ‘Weekly recordings’ where the entire daily programming has been archived for two weeks each year. After 2021, the title has changed to ‘NOS Journaal met gebarentaal’.

  • Extra NOS Journaal Besides the regular NOS Journaal the ‘ Extra NOS Journaal ’ are broadcasts that are either longer than the regular programme or are aired outside of the regular schedule because of breaking news stories. In some instances, other news stories are also present, but the breaking news in question is discussed more in-depth than usual. In other cases, the entire episode is centred around the breaking news item. For this subcategory too, the name differs over the years, with some broadcasts titled ‘Extra NOS Journaal’ while others are simply archived under the regular ‘Journaal’ title.

  • Journaal / NOS op 3 Another NOS subcategory is the Journaal op 3 or NOS op 3 . While this short news programme is now completely online, it used to be aired on NPO 3 with multiple broadcasts each night. The format consisted of a news anchor quickly discussing the most important items of the day, followed by a short clip showing video footage or interviews. In the year 2011 the programme was renamed NOS op 3. The format has been adjusted frequently over the years, with broadcasts ranging from 10 minutes to only 1 minute, with the latter consisting purely of an anchor listing the most important stories to camera. While some archived programmes have the specific name in the title, both these programmes are also often archived under the regular title “NOS Journaal” or ‘Journaal,’ with the distinguishing details present in the description metadata.

Figure 2 . Here, the 30 second NOS op 3 update is archived under the regular title ‘Journaal’.

  • Jaaroverzicht Since 1956, the NTS and the NOS have been airing an overview of the news at the end of the year. This can be found when searching for the ‘ Jaaroverzicht ’. This overview is also aired with sign language .


Figure 3 . The yearly news overview of 1958 can also be found in the archive. Back then, this was still produced by the NTS.

Category 2: Nieuwsuur

  • Another important source of news is the current affairs programme Nieuwsuur . This is a co-production of the NOS and NTR, and previously the NPS. The programme centres around the most important news stories of the day and provides more background information through in-depth reports and interviews with experts, politicians and other important players in the day’s news stories.

  • The scheduling of the programme has been changed in recent years. From its start in 2010 up until 2019, it was aired between 10pm and 10.50pm on Mondays to Fridays on NPO2. On Saturdays and Sundays, a 30-minute version of the programme was aired between 10pm. and 10.30pm. Since 2019, the programme has aired around 9.30pm. every day of the week and lasts around 30 minutes.

  • Nieuwsuur not only provides background stories to the news, but also includes a news segment similar to the regular NOS Journaal. This is usually in the first half of the episode, is presented by a regular NOS news anchor and follows the same format as the regular news.

Figure 4 . The Nieuwsuur format contains a news segment half-way through the episode, with a news anchor listing several news stories in the same format as the regular NOS Journaal.

Category 3: Jeugdjournaal

  • The Jeugdjournaal is a format specifically developed for children between 9 and 12 years old. It follows a similar structure to the regular NOS Journaal, with a news anchor and voiced-over reports, but adjusts both the topics and the manner of presentation to suit this age demographic. The programme has been airing since 1981, but from the programmes in these early years, only the individual news items are archived.

  • The programme is aired at 8.45am and 7pm. on Mondays to Fridays and at 7pm on Saturdays and Sundays. As the format has existed for so long, many scheduling changes have taken place. For more information, see this page . The name has remained the same over the years, and the programme can therefore be found under ‘Jeugdjournaal’.

  • The programme also airs with sign language for the deaf and hard of hearing community. These programmes are titled: ‘ Jeugdjournaal met gebarentolk ’. Sometimes, the title specifies if it is the morning or evening broadcast, or even the time the programme aired.

  • Similar to the regular NOS Journaal, the programme presents a news overview at the end of the year under the name ‘ Jaaroverzicht Jeugdjournaal ’.

  • The NTR programme ‘ Schooltv-weekjournaal ’ deserves a special mention. This programme aired from 1981 to 2014 and provided background stories to the regular news, also tailored to children in the 9 to 12 age category. The programme was specifically developed to be shown during class in primary education.

Category 4: International News Exchange

  • While not an NOS or NTR programme, or even a Dutch production, an important part of the NISV news collection is the ‘ International News Exchange ’. This collection consists of news items, without programming context or narration, that are distributed by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). They are intended to be incorporated in different news broadcasts throughout Europe. In the archive, a lot of iconic news footage can be found in this collection. Most International News Exchange material is present from 1953 onwards and is titled ‘Internationale nieuwsuitwisseling’.

This search guide has summarised the news programmes present in the NISV television collection as well as their most common titles in the archive. While it does remain important to be aware of data fractures in the metadata, and changing broadcast schedules over the years, this search guide has provided an overview of the most important information for users interested in Dutch televised news.