Broadcast News Writing
RTV 440 -- NOT FROM OUR TEXT --take good notes
Writing the News Story
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Goals for this lesson:
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Review news elements and how they are applied
How to write a broadcast news lead
How to organize a news story
To learn how to collect all the relevant facts
related to a TV news story and put the most
important facts into a conversational, wellorganized, report
Writing the News Story
as noted previously
 Elements
of News
 Timeliness
 Proximity
 Significance
 Conflict
 Prominence
 Human
Interest
What’s in a story?
 Facts
 Who,
What, When, Where, Why, How
 Describe the details that connect with
the viewer
 Creatively draw images and
descriptions – paint the picture that
allows the viewer to ‘be there’
 Story focus – ‘ commitment’
Civic Journalism videos...
• 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)
“
T
h
Writing the news story
Understanding the news elements helps
us know what to emphasize when we
put the story together.
Start with the most important news
element that will capture the most
attention from your audience.
--timeliness, proximity, etc.
Writing the lead
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The LEAD - the sentence that begins the
report by summarizing the essence of the
story to come.
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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
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Summary Lead
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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
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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
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Facts:
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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?
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If workers strike, it could be three weeks before
trash is picked up
How can we write this in a one-sentence intro? …
Writing the Lead
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Hard News Lead:
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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
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Soft News Lead
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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 spring roses if
the Commerce
City Council
doesn’t
reschedule its
meeting.”
Writing the Lead
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Other Lead types: (handout)
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Suspended interest
Question
Freak events
Well-known expressions
Staccato
Metaphor
Literary allusion
Parody
Writing the Lead
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Suspended
interest
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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
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Question
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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
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Freak Events
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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
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Well-known
expressions
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Use sparingly as
well since clichés
can be trite and
uninteresting
There’s gold in
them thar hills
Writing the Lead
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Staccato Leads
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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
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Metaphor
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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
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Literary allusion
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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
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Parody
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A take-off on
events and
sayings currently
in vogue and of
widespread
interest
Wendy’s restaurants
used to ask ‘Where’s
the Beef?’ Well,
food inspectors are
also asking that, as
they investigate
claims that Taco Bell
taco meat is 30%
filler material …
Lead
Writing the story
Link to body
Body
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Once you have the lead, you must
organize the rest of the information in a
logical format
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INVERTED PYRAMID style was developed in
the Civil War by newspaper journalists
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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
Body
 Broadcast
style often follows
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,
driven by what has the best video for TV
 Place emphasis on the event not the time
to keep news fresh and appear as if just
occurred
Writing the news story
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Audiences expect to
hear news that is
happening now
 Although news
happens before the
newscast, write as if
just occurring
“Sanitation workers
will be on their
“Sanitation workers
regularly scheduled
are on their regularly
routes tomorrow with
scheduled routes
a retroactive pay
today with a
increase of 50 cents
retroactive pay
per hour. Our air will
increase of 50 cents
smell cleaner thanks
per hour. The air
to City Council’s
smells cleaner thanks
decision last night.”
to City Council’s
decision last night.”
Communicating effectively
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Conversational
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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
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Information must be
relevant
Answer the question,
“What does this have to
do with me?” for
audience in first two
sentences
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Creative
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Make sense
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Important facts can
become dull without lively
writing
Organization with logical
flow and progression
Technically correct
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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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:30 / :15 / :20 for a VSV
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8 lines single column – read aloud
10 pound bag
Balance
Lead main point 1, support
Reaction and comment
Main point 2, support 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 point 2 b and reaction and comment
Main point 3 and close
Communicating effectively
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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
 Never first person
Take-home Challenge
Think of a “newsworthy” story from your own
life – focus: ‘the time I almost died’ (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, along with one other
 Write the full story for a one-minute VSV
news report.
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Make up a person’s SB comments
Bring to class Wednesday
Comparison
 That
would be based on facts you know
and are experienced with
 Some stories require research top
gather facts
 The Norris Community Reunion
 The next School Board or City Council
meeting
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
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TV News writing
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Television is a language
Words, but effective visuals
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Focus, information gathering, meaning, 5 W’s
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
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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 pictures,
reportorial editing
Incues and outcues -- see sample scripts
Some issues about good writing, some about
production, like padding, cues, etc.
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