9 Broadcast Journalism © Goodheart-Willcox Co., Inc. Permission granted to reproduce for educational use only. Explain the responsibility broadcast journalists

9 Broadcast Journalism

© Goodheart-Willcox Co., Inc. Permission granted to reproduce for educational use only.

• Explain the responsibility broadcast journalists have to the viewing public.

• Identify news programs as mainstream, non-mainstream, or tabloid.

• Recall the news elements used to judge the newsworthiness of a story.

• Recognize the different story types broadcast during a newscast.

Objectives


• Explain the elements of a package.• Identify the various abbreviations used

on a newscast script.• Recall the workflow and responsibilities

involved in a typical day in a newsroom.

Objectives


Broadcast Journalism Classes

• Students often create news program• Often modeled after real-world broadcast

newsrooms• Are career training classes


News

• TV news has awesome responsibility to public

• Audiences generally accept TV news as fact• Information

• People want to know• People should know• People need to know


Types of News

• Mainstream media• Broadcast network news• 24-hour cable

• Non-mainstream media• ESPN, MTV, PAX TV

• Tabloid media• Comedy News


“Gray News”

• Biased• Commentary• Clearly presents particular point of view• Should be announced clearly as

“commentary”


Professional News

• Presents facts only• Allows audience to form their own opinions


24-Hour Cable News Programming

• Public needs to realize:• Not all programming is news• Most programming is talk show, commentary,

and opinion

• Some programming is hard news• Viewers responsible for determining

difference between news and opinion


First Amendment

• Guarantees freedom of the press• Government may not restrict press• Corporations that own press media outlets may

restrict their own companies


Discuss the following concept: Just because you have the right to do a story does not mean you should do the story.

Discussion


Discuss aloud what each section of the Code of Ethics means.

Discussion


News Judgment

• News programs have finite time limit• Not censorship—reality• Decisions on newsworthiness of stories are

made by news director and producer• Instructors often begin term functioning as

news directors in order to model behavior they are teaching


Newsworthy Elements

• Often, but not always, hard news• Proximity• Timeliness• Prominence• Consequences• Conflict

• Often, but not always, soft news• Unusualness• Emotion• Achievement• Contrast


Give examples for each element of, often, but not always, hard news:

Proximity; timeliness; prominence; consequences; conflict

Give examples for each element of, often, but not always, hard news:

Unusualness; emotion; achievement; contrast

Discussion


Evergreen Story

• Example: Family that lost everything in tornado is helped by entire community in rebuilding and furnishing their home


Ethically Funding the News

• Salaries, overhead, facilities, and equipment are major expenses of operating news organization

• Funds to cover these expenses come from advertising revenue

• News operation must be free to do stories on anyone and anything, including advertisers


IFB

• Producer can feed breaking news directly to anchor


Types of Stories

• Reader• VO• VO-SOT

• SOT• Sound bite

• Package


Packages

• Completely edited and includes intro and outro

• 1.5-2 minutes• Extended package: 2-4 minutes• Documentary: 6-10 minutes• News package: covers hard news


Soft News Packages

• News feature package• Also called feature package or feature

• Personality feature


The Stand-up

• Not an opportunity for reporter to get “face time”

• Purpose is to establish that news team was at actual location

• Stand-up is story-telling tool• If reporter takes part in story, audience

feels as if it also participates in story


Ethical Editing

• Problem: talent speaks too much to fit into 90-second story TRT slot in program

• Solution: Edit the speech• Ethics: Edit as necessary but do not alter

content or context of message


Live Shot

• Requires technology to enable field reporter to transmit live from location

• Conversation between field reporter and studio anchor is possible

• “Live” is usually placed in graphic on screen • At conclusion of story, reporter uses

standard outro to shift attention back to studio anchor


Investigative Reporting

• Difficult and complex• Often a search for wrong-doing• May be physically or legally dangerous• Privacy, trespass, and defamation issues

abound• Executive-level approval required before

even starting• Use of hidden camera = many legal issues


Important Concept

• Reporter cannot break law in the process of getting a story without risking getting into legal jeopardy


Newscast Scripting

• Many stations use scripting software to pre-format scripts when reporters write stories

• Generally scripts are in two-column format• Patter is not scripted and is used to fill extra

seconds in the program


On-Air Appearance

• Newscaster credibility affected by:• appearance and behavior• speech (clarity/enunciation)

• Newscaster credibility = newscaster employability


Discuss on-air appearance • Why does it matter?• Should it matter?• Should intended audience be taken into

account?• What standards should your facility have?

Discussion


Typical Rundown First Draft

• Hard local news• Hard national news• Lighter news• Sports• Weather• Arts, entertainment, evergreen filler


The Newsroom Day

• Reporters come back in to begin writing and editing story to fit TRT requirement

• Producer indicates on rundown exact length each story must be

• Typically, each reporter does at least two stories per day


The Newsroom Day (Cont.)

• During afternoon, late evening anchors and staff arrive and begin planning their newscast

• Early evening newscast begins, daytime staff ends their workday and evening shift begins


Media Convergence

• Journalism–print, Internet, and broadcast are all converging

• Broadcast journalists are expected to place news content on station’s website

• Reporter must learn to write audio for TV as well as text for Web–two different skills!


What Do You Think?

• After audience views news story you broadcast, they should not have any idea of how you, the reporter, feel about the topic. If they cannot figure it out, then you have done your job well.


• High School Broadcast Journalism• www.hsbj.org

Career Page


What is a beat?A specific area (topics or geographic

location) regularly covered by a reporter.

Review Question


Why is it a good idea to always have several evergreen stories available?If something happens and the newscast is shorter than the time slot, you can go to the files and find an evergreen story to fill the hole.

Review Question


What is the purpose of the IFB?So the producer can break into the newscast

and feed breaking news directly to the anchor who will repeat every word exactly as the producer says it.

Review Question


What is the difference between a reader and a VO?A reader is literally read off the teleprompter by the anchor. The audience sees nothing but the anchor speaking. A VO has B-roll of the subject of the story on the screen and the audience hears, but does not see, the anchor tell the story.

Review Question


What does the change from VO to VO-SOT do to the story?Somewhere in the VO story the B-roll actually is edited so that the audience sees and hears a principal figure in the story begin to speak.

Review Question


What type of media are the following?CNNESPNTMZ

Review Question

MainstreamNon-mainstreamTabloid


A story that anchor reads from a teleprompter, without video or pictures is called what? A reader

Review Question


How are news packages and soft news packages alike? How are they different?Both are edited and include intro and outro. News covers hard news, soft covers interesting, but not necessary, information.

Review Question


• beat: A specific area (topics or geographic location) regularly covered by a reporter.

• evergreen: A story that is appropriate to be broadcast at any time, regardless of season or time of day.

• extended package: A 2–4 minute story that is shot and edited before a newscast and typically provides more in-depth coverage of a specific story.

Glossary


• hard news: Type of news story that contains information that viewers need to have immediately; characterized by seriousness and timeliness.

• IFB: interrupted feedback; a line of communication between the anchors and the producer in the control room. An earpiece worn by the anchor is connected to the producer’s headset, allowing the producer to speak directly to an anchor while the anchor is on the air live.

Glossary


• live shot: A news story that is introduced by an anchor and delivered through a live feed by a reporter on location.

• mainstream media: Television news programming that is expected to provide a fair and unbiased presentation of facts, without any particular viewpoint.

• news: Information people want to know, information they should know, or information they need to know.

Glossary


• news feature package: A package covering soft news stories that are connected to current events. Also called a feature package or feature.

• news package: A package that covers hard news/current events.

• non-mainstream media: Television news programming that is expected to express a particular point of view.

Glossary


• outro: The salutation at the end of a story; opposite of an intro.

• package: A story that is about 1 1/2–2 minutes in length, contains its own intro and outro, is edited, and can be inserted into a live program at any time the producer chooses.

• patter: The spontaneous on-air conversation or small talk between anchors or anchors and reporters.

Glossary


• personality feature: Type of human interest story that focuses on one person and why that person is newsworthy.

• reader: A story, written by a reporter or anchor, that does not have video to accompany the story. The anchor simply reads the text on the teleprompter aloud for the viewing audience to hear.

• rundown: The organization of stories and sequence of a newscast in written form.

Glossary


• soft news: Type of news story that contains information viewers may find interesting, but not necessarily information they need to know.

• SOT: Sound on tape; footage of a principal player connected to a story, which includes voice/audio that supports the story. Also called sound bite.

Glossary


• stand-up: Footage in a package that depicts a reporter standing in front of the camera, speaking directly to the viewers from the location of a story.

• tabloid media: Television news programming that stretches and exaggerates facts by dealing with sensational stories; generally considered more entertainment than news.

Glossary


• TRT: Total running time; industry abbreviation.

• VO: Voiceover; a type of story that incorporates B-roll video rolled-in from the control room, in addition to the script read by the anchor.

Glossary


• VO-SOT: Voiceover-sound on tape; a type of story in which the audience sees B-roll video and hears both the anchor reading from the teleprompter and footage of a comment from a principal player in the story.

Glossary

Documents

9 Broadcast Journalism © Goodheart-Willcox Co., Inc. Permission granted to reproduce for educational use only. Explain the responsibility broadcast journalists