Characteristics of Broadcast News Writing We only get

Characteristics of Broadcast News Writing We only get one opportunity to make ourselves understood. ◦ Writing school papers or for newspapers is for the eye. Writing for broadcast is for the ear. ◦ When people are reading something, they have the opportunity to go back and re-read something that wasn’t immediately clear. ◦ Broadcast audiences can’t do that.

Broadcast News Journalism – 21 JAN. 2020 WJMH Reports 2019 ◦ Everything written has to be very clear so that it’s understood after having only heard it once. ◦ Just because something looks good on the page, doesn’t m ean it will sound good when said out loud, so every script should be read aloud so that you can see how the words sound when spoken.

STORY STRUCTURE ◦ Print writers use "inverted pyramid style" ◦ Newspaper stories begin with the most important facts and continue with facts of lesser and lesser importance ◦ This makes it possible for editors to shorten stories without affecting the most important information. ◦ Sometimes newspaper stories end abruptly because an editor is

• As broadcast writers, we don’t use the inverted pyramid style • Can’t “trim from the bottom” like newspapers because viewers would definitely notice something was missing – we don’t build stories in descending order of the facts • The end of longer stories should have a "summary statement" or should leave the viewers something to think about.

• Summary statements don’t have to be our typical meaning of “summarize”; sometimes the resolution of the story isn’t known, and you’re summarizing to tell the viewer to stay with us as we follow it to the conclusion • Ex. – “stick with News 9 as we continue to learn more about this story”

Characteristics of Broadcast News (cont. ) Conversational Tone ◦ More formal than how we speak to one another, but less formal than print writing ◦ Have to think about grammar & sentence construction ◦ In a conversation you can ask each other questions about what is being said – viewers cannot ask us to repeat what we said ◦ The goal of writing for broadcast news is to tell the story to someone who knows less about what happened than you do. ◦ Don’t “try” to impress people; use common words, but use them well ◦ Using words that confuse our listener distracts them, even if just momentarily. ◦ We are battling with other distracting elements, we don’t want to fight against ourselves.

Using Contractions • Writing for broadcast includes using contractions. • You don’t want to sound stiff or like you’re talking down to the audience • Contractions are a big part of sounding conversational • When NOT to use contractions in broadcast writing • If you want to place emphasis – both words are more powerful • Some aren’t “smooth”

Using Contractions (cont. ) • Avoid ones that don’t sound right • That’ll – that will • It’ll – it will • Avoid contractions that sound like plurals • “The plan’s giving her reason for hope. ” Meaning “the plan is” but could sound like there’s more than one plan WJMH Reports Analysis

• Short, Declarative Sentences • Similar to using conversational tone • They don’t all have to be simple sentences, but we should stick to construction that makes it evident who and what we’re talking about • Meaning can easily get lost in complex sentences • Try to keep the subject and the verb as close to each other as possible • It’s better to present a few well-developed facts than lots of little bits of information that could cause the viewer to get lost

• Active Voice = Someone doing something • Passive Voice = something being done to someone or something • Very rarely does passive voice sound better than active voice • How can you tell if something sounds better than the other? (Read it aloud) • Think about this: Who is the actor? What is the action?

• Present or Future Tense • Using present tense all the time doesn’t make sense for broadcast writing • If there’s a reference to WWII in your story, you wouldn’t write as if it were currently taking place. • Use present tense as often as you can • We want to give today’s news, not yesterday’s • *Don’t use more than one tense in the same sentence!*

• Written in Today Language • The word “yesterday” isn’t allowed in the lead sentence of broadcast news stories. Why? • “Old news” • Using “today language” doesn’t mean you have to use the word “today” • “Police are continuing to investigate” (implied)

• We CAN update something that happened yesterday and may even need to say yesterday somewhere in the story – we can’t change that the event occurred yesterday – just don’t put it in the opening sentence

“Police are continuing to investigate an inc ident that happened on West Virginia Route 2. A pedestrian was hit after a car swerved off the road yesterday afternoon. ”

Dates and Days of the Week • “yesterday” and “tomorrow” if event is only one day past or one day in the future • More than one day – give the day of the week • Dates aren’t necessary unless the event happened more than a week ago or will happen more than a week from now.

Names • Use Last Names & Put Titles First • First reference – use full name • Every other reference, just last name • Unless more than one person with same name is part of the story • Unless you’re talking about a child • Titles in front of the name • “JMHS Senior Serena Smith, ” not “Serena Smith, Senior at JMHS”

Phonetic Spelling and Avoiding Foreign Names Any uncommon word should be spelled the way it sounds so it can be said correctly on air Some fairly common words should also be spelled phonetically ◦ Bass – reference to fish or to musical scaled ◦ “base drum” is ok in this instance When you’re not concerned about a chance that a word will be mispronounced, spell it correctly. Don’t count on spell check – a word may be spelled correctly, but may not be the word you want ◦ tired & tried

Avoid Abbreviations & Be Careful with Acronyms Avoid almost all abbreviations ◦ St. – can mean Saint or Street If using the title “Dr. ” spell it out – doctor Some agencies are better known by the acronyms than their actual names – in this case it’s ok to use the acronym on first reference ◦ CNN ◦ ABC ◦ CBS ◦ NBC ◦ FBI • Less name agencies – entire name should be given on first reference, then acronym can be given on second reference • When typing acronym’s out, put dashes in between each letter • C-N-N • A-B-C • C-B-S • N-B-C • F-B-I

Don’t Use Symbols Dollars, cents, percent, other such words should be spelled out No number signs (#), “at” signs (@), ampersand (&) (“and”) Even point – one-point-two million dollars Symbols could cause the reader to pause to figure out what is written

Numbers Most of the time, round off numbers ◦ “A budget of nearly two million dollars” no “ 865 thousand dollars” Writing numbers: ◦ 1 through 9 – write out the word ◦ 10 through 999 – use numerals ◦ Higher than 999 – combination of words and numerals ◦ 37, 915, 776 should be 37 million-915 thousand-776. ◦ Write phone numbers and years using all numbers

Making Corrections • Make corrections on your printed copy • Make corrections in the computer • Send the corrections to the prompter • Print out revised copies for anchors, directors, etc.

Careful with Pronouns • Can be confusing • “The police officer tackled the fleeing robber. He’s a former football player. ” – who is “he” referring to? The officer or the robber?

Attribution before Statements & Writing for the Anchor: ◦ Attribution before statements: ◦ Instead “This happened, according to …” it should be “According to…, this happened” ◦ Writing for the Anchor: ◦ Standard Pause = comma (, ) ◦ Longer Pause = ellipsis (…) ◦ Emphasize = underline

General Do’s • Be clear and concise • Make life easy for the anchor • Write like people talk. • Be careful with pronouns • Attribute

General Don’ts • Forget that you know more about stories than audience members do. • Depend on the computer to catch mistakes. • Fail to make corrections on the prompter as well as on hard copy.