RTV 440 -- NOT FROM OUR TEXT --take good notes

Writing the News Story
 Goals for this lesson:
 To learn the news elements and how they are applied
 To learn how to write a broadcast news lead
 To learn how to organize a news story
 To learn how to update a news story and make it relevant to the audience
 To learn what is effective communication

Writing the News Story
 Elements of News
 Timeliness
 Proximity
 Significance
 Conflict
 Prominence
 Human Interest

News Elements
 TIMELINESS
News is what happens now, what happens in the immediate present or what may happen
*What has already happened (historical and background information) is mentioned briefly in stories to provide perspective and explain “why.” This usually occurs in follow-up reports when you have had time to investigate the background.
Examples….

timeliness
 Firefighters controlling blaze at local post office late afternoon

Five o’clock newscast

Story focus = fire at post office, authorities on the scene, injury report, damage estimate

Ten o’clock newscast

Story focus = update on blaze (how long to get under control), damages, injuries, speculation of cause from authorities

News Elements
 PROXIMITY
News is what happens close to us - either geographically or emotionally - so we can identify with the event
Examples…

proximity
Stories that happen in our communities are of interest because we relate to the situation.
A good journalist must determine what is most momentous, interesting or signifcant about the story to the audience.
“The railroad crossing at Main
Street and
Jefferson Avenue was the scene of an early morning accident as a trailer truck tried to make it through descending crossing guards.…”

News Elements
 SIGNIFICANCE
News is what affects us in some way, whether financially (increase in gas prices), physically
(mad cow disease detected), emotionally
(school shooting), or in some other way that has a direct bearing on our lives.
Examples….

significance
If the story is newsworthy, the information will have direct relevance to our lives.
Information related to our personal health and financial stability is often significant.
“The Centers for
Disease Control reports that increased obesity among children is responsible for many kids having hypertension and diabetes by age 12.

News Elements
 CONFLICT
News is whatever happens between two opposing forces - whether between individuals, nations or as the result of fateful occurrences.
Examples…

conflict
 Person v. Person
 Political race for public office
 Person v. Self
 Student earns GED after dropping out of school
 Person v. Fate
 Accident victim learns to walk again
 Person v. Nature
 Family stays together despite losing home in tornado

News Elements
 PROMINENCE
News is what happens to famous people, places or things.
Examples…

prominence
Celebrities, pro athletes, rock stars, and national politicians get a lot of attention.
Charlie Sheen...
It is important for journalists to cover such famous people when they do newsworthy things.
“The President will be in town Saturday to give the commencement address at SMU. The place is jumping with
Secret Service agents and news media everywhere.”

News Elements
 HUMAN INTEREST
Ultimately, news is anything in which people are interested. If you think a story would interest a majority of your audience, it is probably newsworthy.
Examples…

human interest
Stories that highlight unique human behavior often attract our attention because they are out of the ordinary.
“These two football fans have traveled more than 8,000 miles, camped outside three stadiums and braved sub-zero temperatures to see every Denver
Bronco game this season.”

• Framing a story -- when you determine a focus, what kind of ‘frame’ are you putting around it? --conflict?
• ‘Two sides to every story’? (no -- many)
• Instead, spend more time ‘in the middle’ -instead of the extremes on the ends
• The concept is that your well-developed story can generate ‘more light’
(understanding) and ‘less heat’ (friction) h e
“
T

Writing the news story
Understanding the news elements helps us know what to emphasize when we put the story together.
Always start with the most important news element that will capture the most attention from your audience.

Writing the lead
 The LEAD - the sentence that begins the report by summarizing the essence of the story to come.
 A good lead grabs the attention of viewers and causes them to need to know more

The lead should highlight the “news” element
 The most typical lead is the summary

Writing the lead
 Summary Lead
 A summary lead emphasizes the outcome of the story so far to give viewers the most important news up front
 Highlights one or two main facts to help audience get into the story
 Hard news v. Soft news

Hard News = Used for breaking news or major stories in which the audience expects just facts

Soft News = Can be used for lighter stories or interpretive pieces when you want to emphasize the human interest and emotional aspects of a story
Let’s see how this works…

Writing the lead
 Facts:
 It is July, and sanitation workers have been negotiating for higher wages
 Workers are planning to strike if requests are not met this week
 City Council is scheduled to meet in three weeks
 What is important to viewers about this?
 If workers strike, it could be three weeks before trash is picked up
How can we write this in a onesentence intro? …

Writing the Lead
 Hard News Lead:
 This lead emphasizes the latest news in the conflict but keeps a serious tone
“Your trash pick-up could be delayed a few weeks if city sanitation workers strike as promised and city council refuses to discuss the issue for another three weeks.”

Writing the Lead
 Soft News Lead
 This lead emphasizes the bad smell of the problem with a slightly lighter tone than the hard news lead.
“We’ll soon be smelling the mounting garbage instead of the roses if
City Council doesn’t reschedule their meeting.”

Writing the Lead
 Other Lead types:
 Suspended interest
 Question
 Freak events
 Well-known expressions
 Staccato
 Metaphor
 Literary allusion
 Parody

Writing the Lead
 Suspended interest
 Delays the climax or essence of story until end of the lead.
“A Montana woman wondered why her dog kept jumping into her bed as she tried to sleep. The reason became clear when she got up to find a python in the bathroom.”

Writing the Lead
 Question
 Use this lead type sparingly. It is dangerous because if the question lacks substance, the audience will lose interest.
“Would you like
5,000 turkeys?
An Atlanta brother and sister are searching for that many to donate to the needy this
Thanksgiving. …”

Writing the Lead
 Freak Events
 Crazy occurrences are natural material for leads that introduce an unusual story
“At zero degrees, it was a chilling sight to see a Colorado couple in swimsuits at Bear Lake saying their wedding vows. It was their plan to take a
‘second plunge’ at the conclusion of the ceremony.”

Writing the Lead
 Well-known expressions
 Use sparingly as well since clichés can be trite and uninteresting

Writing the Lead
 Staccato Leads
 Sets the tone with a one-two punch that gets the story off the ground
“Rain…then sleet, snow, and wind… that is how the day began for the residents in our nation’s capital.”

Writing the Lead
 Metaphor
 Uses figures of speech that connect us to other aspects of life with which we are familiar
“Florida has been anything but the
‘Sunshine State’ for the past week.
The entire area is under a severe weather watch and flooding is expected.”

Writing the Lead
 Literary allusion
 References to fictional or historical characters to begin a story
“Will Rogers said, ‘I never met a man I didn’t like.’
Well, Will
Rogers never met…”

Writing the Lead
 Parody
 A take-off on events and sayings currently in vogue and of widespread interest
“You’ve heard ‘Let
Mikey do it?’ Well, two men are resting well tonight because
Mikey rescued them after a Copper
Mountain avalanche.
This was a first for
Mikey, a St. Bernard pup, owned by one of the men.”

Lead
Writing the story
Link to body
Body
 Once you have the lead, you must organize the rest of the information in a logical format
 INVERTED PYRAMID style was developed in the Civil War by newspaper journalists

Included the five W’s/H (who, what, when, where, why, how)
 Facts listed in descending order of importance in case entire story did not get transmitted from battlefield to news office
Broadcast style modifies the inverted pyramid…

Writing the news story Lead
 a PYRAMID (conversational) format

Concise lead with one or two W’s (who, what)
 Story follows in informal style presenting facts in descending order of importance
 Place emphasis on the event not the time to keep news fresh and appear as if just occurred

Writing the news story
 Audiences expect to hear news that is happening now
 Although news happens before the newscast, write as if just occurring
“Sanitation workers regularly scheduled will be on their routes tomorrow with regularly scheduled a retroactive pay routes tomorrow with increase of 50 cents a retroactive pay per hour. Our air will increase of 50 cents smell cleaner thanks to City Council’s to City Council’s decision last night.”

Communicating effectively
 Conversational

Don’t you know, contractions can help?


Whassssup? - It should not be street jargon
Should sound as if we are speaking to the audience, not reading
 Related


Information must be relevant
Answer the question,
“What does this have to do with me?” for audience in first two sentences
 Creative
 Important facts can become dull without lively writing
 Make sense
 Organization with logical flow and progression
 Technically correct
 Anchors, producers and others involved must be able to read the copy and understand it to deliver it properly.

Communicating effectively
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:20 to :30 for a reader or VO story

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8 lines
10 pound bag
:30 / :15 / :15 for a VSV
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Balance
Lead main point 1
Reaction and comment
Main point 2 and close
1:30 for a PKG

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Lead and main point 1
Reaction and comment
Main point 2
Reaction and comment
Main pointt 2 b and reaction and comment
Main point 3 and close

Communicating effectively
 List your main facts
 Outline the main ideas
 W W W W W H and so what?
 Conversational and grammatically correct
 You have to first know what you’re talking about
 You have to then be able to relate that story to an individual -- write to one -- third person, objective

Take-home Challenge
 Think of a “newsworthy” story from your own life (use the news elements to determine an event that could be newsworthy to you or your friends) and practice writing a hard news and soft news lead for it.
 Write the full story for a one-minute VSV news report.

Make up a person’s SB comments

TV News writing reminders
 ‘Write to the pictures’ -- start with a strong visual lead that telescopes the story to come
 Balance in story between reporter track with b-roll / sound bites / stand - up


Reporter tells Who, What, When, Where,
Why and How (only the facts)
Sound bites should mostly be ‘reaction and commentary’ from people connected to the story

TV News writing -- Chap. 1
 Television is a language
 Words, but effective visuals

Focus, information gathering, meaning, 5 W’s

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Lighting, Audio, Images, composition
Visual storytelling, NPPA
 Eyewash, wallpaper
 Clear focus, write the pictures first, shoot sequences, prove the focus visually, story focus in spot news, tell story through people, strong nat sound, build in surprises, keep sound bites short
 More...

TV News writing -- Chap. 1
 Address the larger issue, make the report memorable, writing the lead (handout)
 Provide visual proof -- butcher with his cleaver at Ft.
Worth meat market: inflation’s effects
 The close: so strong that nothing else can top it
 White space, nat sound, pacing, write to the picture, reportorial editing
 Incues and outcues -- see sample script
 Producer: prompter file -- include outcue for every
VSV