Writing broadcast news Jack Zibluk Professor of journalism Arkansas State University jzibuk@astate.edu

Broadcast writing MAKES the news From the movie, Broadcast News, 1987 http://movieclips.com/74V3-broadcast-news-movie-she-is-this-good/

Broadcast writing • Is short, even shorter than news print writing. About 150-180 words a minute, and three minutes is a LONG story. • Is conversational, natural and informal. • Uses present tense. • Uses contractions • Attributes sources at the beginning, not the end.

Broadcast writing • Includes phonetic pronunciations AH-ma-DEEN-a-zhahd (or “I am a dinner jacket”) or ZIB-lick • Uses. Punctuation. LIB-erally. to help pace ….. and pronunciation. • Writes out abbreviations, and some acronyms. • Rounds off numbers or spells them out.

Broadcast organization Short pieces may use modified inverted pyramid, or diamond; starts with intro paragraph and then goes to the nut graf or lead and then information in descending order of importance. • Longer pieces use ABCE: Action, start or lead. Background, or explanation Climax, turning point. End, takeout.

Radio • Still among the most ubiquitous world-wide media. • NPR’s “All Things considered” has as many 26 million listeners, as many as a top TV show. It has doubled listenership from 1999-2101. • Focuses on sound bites or clips as print does quotes. Use voiceover to explain content of bits. • Make every word count. • Talk about people • Use ambient, background sound. • Be descriptive; use word pictures • Read stories aloud; practice. Speak slowly and deliberately.

Sample scripts (note some variations in format) http://www.usanewsnetwork.com/radio.html http://www.journalism.wisc.edu/~kbculver/coursesites/j202/materials/wk9_sample_script.pdf

TV news Used on many webcasts as well as broadcasts Forms expanding on the web. Explains, relates to the pictures Reporter talks to the audience through the camera Integrates video and log/time into the script. Written in ALL CAPS to be able to tell words from directions.

Sample TV news scripts http://www.wchstv.com/newsroom/showscripts/6fri.shtml#2 http://www.cybercollege.com/fire.htm

OK, let’s try it… Write a short script on today’s presentation.