Broadcasting of ballot counts starts an hour before the closing of the pole and lasts until the very moment the result of the election has been confirmed. In June 2002, the automatic vote recorder was introduced at a local election, and the election r...
Broadcasting of ballot counts starts an hour before the closing of the pole and lasts until the very moment the result of the election has been confirmed. In June 2002, the automatic vote recorder was introduced at a local election, and the election results confirmed at midnight sharp. Therefore, electoral broadcast reports have to be produced fast as well as accurately. Further more, elections have to be praised as a national festival by providing various eye-catching elements through election related planning and computer graphics.
The competition among broadcasting companies are intensi fying over electoral election broadcast coverage. Each broadcast company is organizing teams for electoral broadcast projects and is investing human resources as well as other material resources. The term election broadcast is defined by many different fields: reporting accurate results of theballot counts, understanding people's interests towards any particular politician within certain election districts, and understanding the broad view to where political views are shifting to. This diversity in broadcasting vote counts results in the need for diverse presentation methods in graphics, ultimately emphasizing utilization of the graphics.
In graphics for vote counts broadcasts, consistency is what makes fast, accurate communication of information possible, and delivers the result of the vote counts to the viewers efficiently. From this point of view, the consistency in graphics is a requirement for an effective production, and an important factor in differentiating oneself from other broadcasting companies.
Broadcasting of vote counts is a genre derived from election broadcasts. Lee Hyo Sung (2002) commented on how electoral broadcasts should be truthful and be based on the accuracy of facts. Broadcasting of vote counts, which starts off with the prediction of the results after the election has been closed, has to set its priority on the accuracy of the results until the end of the broadcast.
Due to the technology equalization, it has been argued that further differentiation in technology would be very difficult. It would not be an exaggeration to say that all broadcasting companies' technical standards have been equalized due to the competitive introduction of cutting edge graphic systems. Nowadays, creativity is what counts rather than the graphic system technology. It’s about time that questions on creativity such as, 'Is the same data being represented in an original way which has never been tried out before?' or 'Did one break away from stereotypes with creative ideas?' have to be asked.
This study focuses on the utilization of graphics on broadcasting of vote counts. Present conditions were considered through case studies on graphics which are currently being used in nations and abroad. The study also analyzes graphics, used in 2008 KBS presidential broadcasting vote counts, in consistency, accuracy and creativity. The subjects of this study were divided into two groups:title sequence types and insertion types. Both groups were analyzed in consistency and accuracy. Insertion types were further subdivided into production process types and analyzed in consistency, accuracy and creativity. Furthermore, augmented reality and video walls, which rated high in creativity, are compared in 2006, 2007 and 2008 election broadcasts. Specific analysis objects consisted of 14 title sequences, 63 types of insert ions, 63 types of insertion productions, 57 types of 2006~2008 broadcasting ballot counts, for a total of 197.
Analysis results regarding consistency showed that opening billboards and bridge sequences (produced by KBS) alone had higher consistency than those produced with outsourcing com panies. Different types of insertions showed low consistency but production process of them had high consistency. Thus, consi stency regarding production process was high, but consistency re garding the overall types of production process was low.
Results for accuracy showed that bars had the highest accuracy, followed by character tables, and maps had the lowest among these three. Production process of character generators and augmented reality rated high, yet video walls rated fairly low in accuracy. The recording environment in studios such as lighting, cameras and compositing with the sets were hindering the results’ legibility and visibility, therefore resulting in low accuracy.
Study results regarding creativity showed character genera tors, video walls and augmented reality. Character generators had lower creativity than the other two since its purpose focuses more on delivering the election results fast and accurately rather than creating something new. On the other hand, because video walls and augmented reality are used to organize the results in diverse ways and creatively represent them, results showed they had higher creativity. According to analysis results on graphics used for 2006~2008 broadcasting of vote counts, the 2006 local election had high fluency with the use of visual reality studios. In the 2007 presidential election, substituting VR with the augmented reality brought higher originality. In general elections 2008, aug mented reality was utilized as vote counters, thus resulting high in fluency but low in both originality and flexibility.
After closely examining the results of the study, I have come to these conclusions. First, in order to keep consistency am ong works, when doing cooperative works with outsourcing com panies, the priority should be in letting the outsourcing companie sunder stand the consistency of the election broadcast programs. There is a need for graphic guidelines on opening billboards, bridge sequences, corner title sequences, and insertion graphics, as well as the need for art directors who can direct the election broadcast graphics. For accuracy, prior arrangements of thorough CG-templates for character generators are in need. Also, those graphics produced with character generators (which should not be aired more than 10 seconds)must maximize graphic elements' legib ility and visibility, and therefore deliver information more accurate ly. Because augmented reality can be affected by the final location of the camera, it is best to fix the position of the camera before hand. Excessive movement of the cameras to emphasize 3D graphics might hinder the process of information delivery and should be avoided. Video walls would be better used not as background, but as a composite briefing board. For creativity, character generators need to make an attempt at creative presentations that are fast and accurate. Video walls need to simplify overabundant data, while also considering proper lighting and stable camera move ments. Mixture of different uses can be considered along the production process. Consistency in video walls can be increased by using graphics produced with character generators. Utilizing both augmented reality and video walls at the same time will help augmented reality to overcome the drawbacks of video walls, which show low consistency due to lighting.
Three results can be expected if this research were to be considered during the process of production and utilization of election broadcast. First, it will be helpful in producing consistent works from specialized field of election broadcast. Second, it can enhance efficiency for accurate information delivery. It can help to find ways to utilize new graphic solutions such as VR, video walls, augmented reality, etc. Third, this study will serve as reference for election broadcast program producers in producing new ideas and utilizing them.