Chapter 13 – Writing for Radio & Television

News Reporting and Writing – 10th Edition

Criteria for Selecting Radio and Television News

• 4 criteria radio and television use to select news1. Timeliness

- most important news value in radio and T.V. - breaking stories receive top priority

2. Information- Radio and T.V. reporters are more concerned with information rather than explanation- Most stories must be told in 20-30 seconds- Stories rarely run longer than 2 minutes

Criteria for Selecting Radio and Television News

3. Audio or Visual Impact- On-the-scene audio and visual reports may make a story be ranked more prominent on radio or T.V. than it is in the

newspaper

4. People- Radio and T.V. aim to tell the news through people’s stories- Classic formula = find a problem, find a person who is

dealing with the problem, and tell us how he/she is doing- You can’t shoot video of an issue, but you can show visually what impact the issue has on people

Writing Radio and Television News• Characteristics of Radio and T.V. News Writing

- Emphasizes Immediacy- achieved in part by using the present tense as much as possible

- Has Conversational Style - “write the way you talk” is important for radio and T.V. news

writing- write so your copy sounds good- use short, simple sentences - But don’t use slang, incorrect grammar, vulgar or off- color

expressions

Writing Radio and Television News

- Is Tightly Phrased- write in a conversational style without being wordy- condense and limit your use of adjectives- make every word count- select facts carefully- make your writing easy to follow

- Is Clear - radio and T.V. news audiences only get to see/hear a story once. They can’t reread. - be clear and make your message easily understood- write simply, in short sentences- repeat names in the story rather than use pronouns because the listener can easily forget the name of the person you are talking about- avoid using a series of numbers in your speech. If you must use them, break statistics down so that they are understandable

Bad = There are 47 million smokers in the United States.Good = One of every four Americans smokes.

Story Structure

• Writing the Radio and T.V. Lead – People tend to be doing other things while listening to radio/T.V.

so when you write for them, you must attract their attention in different ways

– One way is to cue listeners to make sure they are tuned in = introduce your story with a general statement that will pique the interest of the audience. Then go into specifics.

Start General: Things are far from settled for Springfield’s teacher strike.

Then provide specifics: School officials and union representatives did not agree on a contract yesterday. They will not meet again for at least a week.

Story Structure

• Writing Lead-Ins – Lead-ins introduce a taped excerpt from a news source or from

another reporter. – Lead-ins have two functions

• Set the scene by briefly telling the “where,” the “when” and sometimes the “what”

• Identify the source or reporter • Examples:

– A grand jury has decided not to charge a Springfield teenage in the killing of his father. Jan Morrow reports the panel believes the death was an accident

– We’ll all be getting the official word this morning on how much less our dollars bought last month. The consumer price index for March is expected to show another sharp rise in retail prices. The rate of inflation was 1 percent in January and 1.2 percent in February. Here’s more on our inflation woes from Bill McKinney.

Story Structure

• Writing Wrap-Ups– After the recorded report, you may want to wrap up

the story before going on to the next item. – Wrap-up is especially important in radio copy because

there are no visuals to identify the person just heard– A wrap-up gives your story an ending and clearly

separates it from the next story– Example: If a report by Evelyn Turner was about a

meeting to settle a strike = Turner reports negotiations will resume tomorrow.

Story Structure• Writing to the Video

– Words and pictures must complement each other. Relate the words to the pictures

– At the beginning of a scene, you must tell the viewer where you are or what is happening

– Example: suppose the report concerns the continuation of a hospital workers’ strike and the opening scene shows picketers outside the hospital. You can explain the tape by saying:

Union members are still picketing Mercy Hospital today as the hospital workers’ strike enters its third week.

– Viewers now know two things that weren’t obvious on the video: who is picketing and where

– Give the report a wrap-up or strong ending:– Strikers, administrators, patients and their families agree on one sure effect

of the strike – it’s a bad time to be sick.

Preparing Radio and T.V. Copy• Your goals in preparing copy to be read by a newscaster are to make the copy easy

for the newscaster to read and easy for the audience to understand

• Format = See example of radio format on page 281 and T.V. format on page 282

• Names and Titles– Well-known names, even on first reference, are not given in full– You may say Senator Snowe of Maine– Don’t use middle initials unless they are a natural part of someone’s name

(Edward R. Murrow) or unless they are necessary to distinguish between two people with the same first and last name (George W. Bush and George H.W. Bush)

– Titles should always go in front of names– When you use titles, don’t include the first name and middle initial (Federal

Reserve Chairman Bernanke)

Preparing Radio and T.V. Copy

• Pronunciation– As a radio/T.V. writer, you must help the newscaster

pronounce the names of people/places correctly– Write out difficult names phonetically in

parentheses– Look up pronunciation guides. If you can’t find a

name pronunciation, call the person’s office and ask– For the correct pronunciation of a U.S. town, call

someone in that town (mayor etc.)– Never assume or guess pronunciation

Preparing Radio and T.V. Copy

• Abbreviations– Generally, do not use abbreviations in your copy– It is easier to read a word written out than to read its abbreviation– Don’t abbreviate the names of states, countries, months, days of

the week or military titles– You may use the abbreviations Dr., Mr., Mrs. and Ms., and a.m.

and p.m. – If an abbreviation is well-known, you may use it– When you do abbreviate, use hyphens instead of periods to

prevent the newscaster from mistaking the period in the abbreviation for the period at the end of the sentence. Examples: U-S, U-N, G-O-P, F-B-I

Preparing Radio and T.V. Copy

• Symbols and Numbers– Don’t use symbols ($ or %) in your copy because newscasters can

read a word more easily than they can interpret a symbol– As with newspapers, write out numbers one through nine. Also

write out eleven because 11 might not be early recognized as a number

– Use figures for 10 and from 12 to 999– Write out the words thousand, million and billion. Example:

3,800,000 should be three million, 800 thousand– Write out fractions = two-and-a-half million dollars– Write out decimal points = three-point-two percent– Round off big numbers = 48.3 percent should be written nearly half– Use st, nd, rd, and th after dates = August 1st, September 2nd

Preparing Radio and T.V. Copy

• Quotations and Attributions– Rarely use direct quotes and quotations marks– It is awkward to indicate to listeners which words

are being quotes, so use a paraphrase instead– If a direct quote is absolutely necessary, introduce a

quote by saying “in his words,” “he put it this way” etc.

– When you must use a quote, the attribution should always some before the quote

– If you must use a direct quote, keep it short

Preparing Radio and T.V. Copy

• Punctuation– In radio/T.V. copy, less punctuation is better– The one exception is the comma = commas help newscasters

pause at appropriate times– Sometimes three periods or a dash are used in place of a

comma– The only punctuation marks you need are the period, comma,

question mark, dash, hyphen and, rarely, quotation marks– To make copy easier to read add the hyphen to some words

even when the dictionary doesn’t use it: anti-discrimination, co-equal, non-aggression

Discussion Topic

• In groups of two, visit 2 websites… one for a local television news operation and one for a local newspaper (Los Angeles Times or Daily Breeze)

• Evaluate the websites, and present your findings to the class. – How are the sites similar? Different?– Are they covering the same stories?–Which site is more comprehensive?–More inviting to viewers? –Which site includes more links to audio/video clips?– Do you prefer the local T.V. news website or the local

newspaper website?