Chapter 8: News Production

News Production Radio news people produce their own material. News personnel can receive wire stories, write/rewrite, record and edit audio cuts and embed audio into stories using a single computer program. Newscasts are read from a computer screen, sound bites stored on hard drive.

Newscasts News people record an edit sound bites that have been received over the phone, recorded in the field, from a television audio source and Internet sources. Ethical questions: How much do we edit and mix when it comes to news? Change reality? Sound bites, other elements must be edited to fit within newscast. News format and style designed according to stations target audience.

Long-Form Programming Long-form programming? Longer than five-minute newscast, often 30-minute public-affairs programs. Usually produced by news department, PA programs required by FCC. Good for retrieving archival cuts. Production people serve more as engineers than producers for news programming.

Sound bites and nat sound (not in text) Keep sound bites to 20 seconds or less; usually edit yourself out. Best sound bites express opinion or emotion, not basic facts; write facts into your script. Must have a clean start and end. Edit out false starts, but leave in normal pauses and hesitancies. Must be clearly audible.

Sound bites and nat sound (cont.) Natural sound adds to the believability of news. Look for natural sounds in the events you cover. Natural sound should not dominate a radio (or TV) news story. Little goes a long way. You might start and end story with nat sound, perhaps bring it back in the middle. Usually better not to run it through entire story. Nat sound in background of sound bites is good if it does not overwhelm the voice.