Entrepreneurial Journalism Writing for the Ear Entrepreneurial Journalism

Why Writing to be Read Out Loud is Important A great deal of modern journalistic media – including material found on YouTube and in podcasts – is written in “broadcast” style We use the word ”broadcast” for lack of a better term…it simply means the type of writing you would see on radio or TV or Internet audio and video And...you may actually wind up writing for radio and TV In this era of media convergence, what starts out as a “print”-style writing assignment may end up with your on-air or writing for someone on-air

Where Did Writing for the Ear Come From? Actually, the concept is not new at all… Epic poems, storytellers, plays For centuries, information was passed by word of mouth The idea of newswriting for broadcast developed with the new technology

Broadcast Journalistic Writing Essentially Developed During WWII At first, no one knew what radio news was “supposed” to sound like Was the person delivering the news or orator or a conversational friend or someone reading a newspaper out loud? Edward R. Murrow was not the first broadcast journalist, but he codified much of the style He refined much of the style as he went along It was a personal, narrative, conversational style that brought the war into people’s living rooms

Murrow and the Development of Broadcast Journalistic Writing Murrow developed a precise, vivid form of writing… He made it so you could hear the war through his words-- “the roll of thunder down crooked streets” He wrote in such a way you could see the conflict – the flash of guns, the embers as they melted their way into the pavement He also told stories with vivid detail… About the courage of the people crammed into stinking air raid shelters The “little people in little houses” who bore the burden of being bombarded

When Television Came Along… Again, no one was sure what it was supposed to sound and look like Early television news looked like a narrator showing newsreels, which it was Early TV presenters and those who wrote for them adopted an air of showmanship But later – say, with the ascension of Walter Cronkite – the TV anchor became someone conversational and relatively informal, the intelligent next-door-neighbor or the wise uncle Television also weaved images into the presentation, sometimes over voice, sometimes as clips with sound

And the Outcome Was… Broadcast writing became a format that mimics informal speech patterns It must, therefore, be easy to read aloud and easy to pronounce It must also be economical, painting vivid pictures in a few words…remember, the words in an average television newscast would barely fill one page of a newspaper, so every word counts

What is the Difference Between Broadcast and Print Style? Let’s start with an example of a print-style story… Governor Smith and statehouse leaders started slowly Saturday toward their goal of slashing more than $10 million from the state budget, sources close to the negotiations said. State Senate Majority Leader Dan Jones, D-Springfield, said there was no agreement on a timetable but… It’s very difficult to read it out loud… Having “sources close to the negotiations said” at the end of the sentence is awkward when spoken Saying “started slowly Saturday”makes you sound like a snake And how on earth do you say, “D-Springfield”?

But Broadcast Style is Conversational… Sources close to the negotiations tell us Governor Smith and statehouse leaders kicked off the weekend by trying to cut the state budget by ten million dollars. Springfield Democrat Dan Jones, the assembly majority leader, says there’s no timetable but….

So, We’ve Just Figured Out Three Attributes of Broadcast Style… Keep in conversational Watch out for tongue twisters Put attribution – the source of the information -- first

Additional Techniques of Writing Broadcast News… Paraphrase quotes, unless it is something controversial and you feel the need to cite exact wording Get to the point quickly Write short sentences Make sure what you write is absolutely clear Watch out for “can” and “can’t” – they sound alike Don’t say “the latter option” because a listener has no way to go back and see which was the former and which was the latter Write in the present tense whenever possible

Broadcast Leads Standard hard lead: A broadcast feature lead: Governor Bob Smith is dead following an apparent heart attack early this morning. A broadcast feature lead: A company that makes solar shingles claims it can cut your utility bills in half. The headline lead: Four die in the crash of an Marine helicopter…

To Sum Up the Conventions of Broadcast Journalistic Writing… Keep in conversational Watch out for tongue twisters Put attribution – the source of the information -- first Paraphrase quotes, unless it is something controversial and you feel the need to cite exact wording Get to the point quickly Write short sentences Make sure what you write is absolutely clear Watch out for “can” and “can’t” – they sound alike Don’t say “the latter option” because a listener has no way to go back and see which was the former and which was the latter Write in the present tense whenever possible #