Ch. 19

Ch. 19: "Writing News for Radio and Television"

Hurray! Something I like doing! Yay!!!!

Time is everything in TV and Radio...more than any other news value. It's because broadcasting can break into programs with "live" reports, wheras newspapers can't really print fast enough to get breaking news out in time. They can, however, update their webpages.

Time is precious, just like Gollum and his ring from "Lord of the Rings." Therefore, stories range from 30 seconds to no more than two minutes. And even two minute packages (hereon to be referred to as "pkgs") are frowned upon in newsrooms--because they take up time.

Print journalists say that TV and Radio isn't good journalism, because it doesn't explain the whole story.

that's why I like it so much: it's challenging to figure out the most important information in a story, and then write it to be no more than 30 seconds.

The story depends on your audience as well--what's important nationally MAY need to be rewritten if it's for a rural town. Or a metropolitan city.

Also, TV/Radio stories tend to have visual or audio impact--images are half our battle. If a story has a particuarly great potential for visual impact, it'll normally be a pkg or a VO (voice over).

Instead of reading "so and so said that the roads will open soon," viewers will be able to HEAR and even SEE the interviewees reactions (interviews are called SOTs--sound over tape) Thus, people are of the upmost importance--TV/Radio personalizes the news, makes issues and concepts more realistic, and easily understandable to the common man (or woman).

So TV and Radio writing--similar, yet different.

For both, stories are more conversational. Typically, I write a story like I think it should be written, and then I read it out loud: if I can't understand the story, I rewrite it. Usually that means explaining the story to someone else. It helps a lot. (but please, you are a professional journalist still, so no slang or vulgar words).

Short and simple sentences: stick to one fact per sentence. More easily understood as: one thought per sentence.

If you can't understand the story, your audience won't either.

going back to the timely thing...present tense rocks. If it's not happening, why is it important? Sometimes you can't get past the time issue, so you'll have to clarify it.

Please don't be wordy. Or numbery for that matter. Too many numbers makes my--and your audience's--mind spin...

The book says "don't be afraid of repeating words." I say, "be afraid, be very afraid of repeating words." It gets tiring to hear "the suspect looks like this. if you've seen the suspect." Too much of the same word in 30 seconds also makes my brain hurt.

The book doesn't really separate TV from Radio writing, and as I've never done radio, I can't say how different it is. But since you're not showing a story, you're telling it all the time, I'm sure there are tiny discrepancies.

Attention grabbing leads tend to be the best-because people often watch the news, eat dinner, do homework, or talk to family or friends at the same time. And as the journalist, you want them to hear what's going on in their world.

Identify unfamilar names.

if your working on a pkg, you'll need an intro, either from an anchor, or from the reporter in the newroom. they should generate interest for the story, but not give the entire story away. There are also "tag outs"--the book refers to them as "wrap ups," but i've never encountered that. it ends the story and separates it from the next.

One of the most confusing things for me is to edit to video, or write to video. Normally, I edit to video. That way, the visual elements enhance the already written story. Sometimes stories are edited, and then written by the editor. But not usually.

When writing stories, you want your anchor to be able to read the story. So it's normally double spaced...i guess..for radio. They go into specific details with lots of numbers and exact inches, and it's confusing...because it's all computerized now.

Many TV news stations use ENPS, a news writing system. You type the stories into ENPS and it automatically times it. When it's time for the cast, the producer will dump the show into teleprompter, where ENPS will already have formatted it for newscast.

Oh yeah, in newspaper writing, we always attribute quotes. So does TV, but with things called "Supers," or character generators that come up on your tv screen with the name and title of the person being interviewed. Some stations call them "keys."

Prounciation is key. (hehhehee). If you pronounce a name or city incorrectly, people may discredit you--after all, as a journalist, you should never be wrong. Soo...you normally would put in parentheses the phonetic spelling of a particular name. Depending on your anchor, or if your TV station has closed captioning that goes through ENPS or not, you may just replace the proper spelling with the way that it sounds, in order to avoid confusion.

Don't use abbrevs. cause it takes longer for the anchor to process them, wasting precious time. just take the time to spell it out.

because tv/radio is audio-visual, try not to use direct quotes in teh stories themselves---get them on the phone, or on tape. it's much more effective storytelling to hear somebody say their opinion than to constantly say "the city offical said quote blah blah blah end quote"

I wish we did more radio broadcasting. I'm comfortable with TV, because that's what I do. But i've never done radio writing, and I'd like to have the chance.